We’re still waiting for the mass exodus of businesses that conservatives predicted in the wake of voter approval of Measures 66 and 67 to happen. Meanwhile, a couple of developments this week suggest that Oregon isn’t really such a horrible place to locate a business after all.
The Latest News from Tax Hell
Posted inMusic
She & Him: Volume Two
She & Him
Volume Two
Merge Records
I guess what I find most enjoyable (and yes, I've seen the commercial promoting the “fabric of our lives”) about She & Him is how refreshing the duo's sound is in an age of tiresome indie-kids trying to crank out the already-been-done jams of Pavement. Young movers and shakers will still label what She & Him do as indie-folk/pop, but this nostalgic project is more aimed at resurfacing early AM radio than using it as a building block for something trendy. Volume Two (not shockingly, the follow up to 2008's Volume One) is a collection of 13 songs that convincingly show that actress/songwriter Zooey Deschanel's (She) voice is full, confident and nearly as bold as country giants Loretta or Emmylou. The producing and impeccable arranging of M. Ward's (Him) gives nearly every song the chance to lift off, closing the gap between the soulful sounds of Motown and the twang of Nashville.
Posted inCulture
High and High Minded: Doug Benson loves pot jokes, but he's also probably smarter than you
Doug Benson has made a career out of lampooning celebrities, talking about movies and making people laugh in the process. Oh, and he's also done just fine for himself by getting super-duper stoned, then telling jokes, or even making a movie about it.
But sometimes Benson isn't necessarily funny, like when he chats on the phone from his home in L.A. in the days before one of his many cross-continental weekend comedy tours. Rather, he's damn smart, pumping out one piece of cultural, political or social commentary after another. There are laughs during a 20-minute discussion with Benson, but these moments of hilarity are outweighed by the “holy-shit-he's-got-a-point” sort of instances the comic creates when he, for example, unleashes a deft critique of reality television in which he argues, quite convincingly, that American Idol is TV's most worthwhile reality program. And don't get him started on Celebrity Apprentice.
Posted inCulture
Our Picks for 4/7 – 4/15: Larry and His Flask, Tony Smiley, Floater, Doug Benson, Riders for the Cure and more
Larry and His Flask
thursday 8
It's been a few weeks since this hillbilly jamboree of a band set off across the country to accompany Dropkick Murphys on their St. Patrick Day's tour, but now LAHF is back for this sure-to-be-insane show. Hit the Sound section for a feature on the band and their recent tour. 8pm. Silver Moon Brewing Co., 24 NW Greenwood Ave. $5.
The RTL Project, Cloaked Characters, Mosley Wotta, DJ Hit N Runn
thursday 8
It might seem like an odd pairing: the often-poppy, sometimes-bluesy Reed Thomas Lawrence and a collection of Bend's finest hip-hop acts. But this will work, and you're going to be able to dance to whatever sounds you hear, that much is sure. $5. 8pm. The Summit Saloon & Stage, 125 NW Greenwood Ave.
Posted inNews
Running on Empty: Decaying streets are a symptom of Oregon's ailing cities
WKRP and Johnny Fever had the Turkey Drop, WLUP had Disco Demolition Night at Chicago's Comiskey Park.
In Bend, local alternative rock station 92.7 has the Pothole Giveaway, an ongoing spring promo that encourages listeners to call in and nominate Bend's best potholes. Callers qualify for ticket giveaways and will have a pothole named in their honor later this spring.
While it may not go down as one of the more celebrated radio promo gimmicks of all time, it's one that Central Oregon commuters can relate to after a winter of traveling on our region's deteriorating roadways.
Posted inOpinion
New Resorts and Good Old Boys
Keith Cyrus is chairman of the Deschutes County Planning Commission. There's no problem with that. He also has a golf course subdivision that he wants to turn into a destination resort – no problem with that either.
But when Keith Cyrus, the chairman of the planning commission, uses his position to push the agenda of Keith Cyrus, the would-be resort developer, that's a problem. A big one.
Cyrus, whose family has farmed in Central Oregon for nearly a century, has been trying for years to convert his Aspen Lakes subdivision near Sisters into a destination resort. To accomplish that, he needs to have it included in the county's map of areas designated for such purposes.
Posted inOpinion
Back To Work: Tiger's return, Iraq burns and Geithner takes on China
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from Augusta watching Tiger (really a craps game in Brooklyn) on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
Get a Job!
For the first time in three years, the economy in March added (yes, added) 162,000 jobs. These numbers are deceptive though. The 9.7 percent unemployment rate is “unacceptably high” to Treasury Secretary Tim “Don't Quote Me” Geithner, with 150,000 new jobs required each month to merely cover new entries into the workforce. Even as the census hires tens of thousands to invade our homes and gather sexy data, 25 million Americans have given up trying to find work or are “under employed” (meaning they moved to a beautiful tourist town for “lifestyle”) thus sit outside the Westside Tavern all day, drinking PBR while waving at others passing by.
Posted inOpinion
A Badlands Birthday: New wilderness has set the stage for more good things
The winds of change are blowing through the Oregon Badlands Wilderness, the newest addition to the fully protected wild lands of Oregon. It's been just over a year since the Wilderness Act took effect, protecting forever this high desert jewel of 30,000 acres, so near to, but yet so far from, the metropolitan area of Bend.
The center of the Badlands Wilderness is located about 14 miles from the center of Bend, but the contrast is startling, once you head out on the trails, or off trail, to some of the unusual volcanic formations and lava flows that prolifically stud the landscape. As you hike farther from the trailheads that surround the Badlands on the north, south and east sides, solitude, serenity and silence offer a respite from the noise of the small city we Bendites call home. Out here in the wilderness, surrounded by thousand-year-old juniper trees, you can hear and see the feathered and four-footed inhabitants that call the Badlands home.
Posted inOpinion
Fashion It Ain't
Dear Source,
I could not disagree more with your dos and don'ts about biking fashion in your latest issue. In fact, I have long thought bicyclers to be the most fashion-challenged group of people on the planet. Why is it (by and large) they feel the need to look like some kind of bug from outer space? Seriously, I laugh (and cringe) every time I pass one of these day-glowed atrocities. I mean, come on people, you're out for a ride, some exercise. You don't need to look like you're on the final stage of the Tour de France. All you need is a T-shirt, a pair of shorts and some shoes, sandals even. Helmets make sense, even if they are ugly, and that's about it. Face it, you look ridiculous and it's not necessary.
Posted inNews
Hear Larry and His Flask Live on 92.7 FM Today
This week, I have a feature in the paper about Larry and His Flask, the punk-gone-acoustic sextet that’s been out touring the country in support of Celtic rockers Dropkick Murphys, but now have returned home.
Now, they’re home and settling in to the 92.
