Porcupines on a pedestal: They don't throw their quills, so settle down, people

Posted inOutside

Porcupines on a pedestal: They don't throw their quills, so settle down, people

Jim Anderson

In our part of the country, where trees are thought of as a cash crop, porcupines are not thought of as heroes, or worthy of being placed on a pedestal. I can recall back in the '50s when there were signs nailed to trees and poles all over the forest around Bend stating: “PLEASE KILL PORCUPINES” and porcupine poison stations were common in the forest. Government agencies and private timber companies still pay people to trap, shoot and otherwise make life miserable for Poor Old Porcy (I've replaced the usual “k” with the “c” so we don't start blaming the porcupine for the swine flu, and besides pigs don't have quills.)
In spite of the way most humans look at and treat porcupines, a baby porcy born at the High Desert Museum last summer made her first public appearance last week at an elementary school in Virginia, and was even featured in The Washington Post.

Posted inCulture

Pucker Up: Disney's The Princess and The Frog brings hand-drawn animation back to life

Anne Pick

There is a void in the world of children's film, a land cluttered with CGI squirrels, superheroes and flyaway houses that leaves today's kids missing something. That void comes from a lack of hand-drawn animated Disney musicals. Sure, most kids have seen The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast on DVD, if their parents were lucky enough to buy copies before they went back into the fabled Disney Vault, but it's not the same on the small screen. Now, a decade since their last dance with a princess comes the story of The Princess and the Frog.
Taking place in New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog features Disney's first African-American princess, Tiana, who has worked around the clock her whole life to open her own restaurant. After a small disaster at a masquerade ball, she dons a princess gown (tiara included) and while wishing on a star meets Prince Naveen in his mucus-y reptile form.

Posted inFood & Drink

Come for the Food, Stay for the Atmosphere: Round Up a Good Time at El Rodeo

Alice Finer

The first time I visited El Rodeo it was on a whim. Running errands on Business 97 and completely dejected having failed to accomplish anything on my list, I was tired, hungry and desperate for shelter from strip mall world. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted El Rodeo. Though a pretty standard-looking Mexican restaurant from the outside, I sensed a certain cheerfulness about it that drew me in. My instincts couldn't have been better. Immediately upon entering the sunny terra cotta tiled foyer and walking up to the host station, I was greeted by the friendliest smile I had seen all day, and it was a genuine one at that. In fact, every staff member I came in contact with from the hostess to the bartenders and servers in their tan satin guayabera shirts replicated that smile, and my day of frustrations quickly melted away.

Posted inFood & Drink

Come for the Food, Stay for the Atmosphere: Round Up a Good Time at El Rodeo

Alice Finer

The first time I visited El Rodeo it was on a whim. Running errands on Business 97 and completely dejected having failed to accomplish anything on my list, I was tired, hungry and desperate for shelter from strip mall world. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted El Rodeo. Though a pretty standard-looking Mexican restaurant from the outside, I sensed a certain cheerfulness about it that drew me in. My instincts couldn't have been better. Immediately upon entering the sunny terra cotta tiled foyer and walking up to the host station, I was greeted by the friendliest smile I had seen all day, and it was a genuine one at that. In fact, every staff member I came in contact with from the hostess to the bartenders and servers in their tan satin guayabera shirts replicated that smile, and my day of frustrations quickly melted away.

Posted inFood & Drink

Little Bites: What's Brewing In Downtown Bend

Eric Flowers

It's been what seems like a couple of years since Santiago Casanueva first started pushing yerba maté brews to Bendites and he's won a fair number of converts to his leafy coffee alternative that has long been popular in places like Brazil. Now Casanueva is back in downtown Bend just a few paces from his former digs at St. Clair Place. The Top Leaf Maté bar is now serving at the increasingly hip Tin Pan alley, between Lone Pine Coffee and Thump. It's going to take some sales pitch to get Bendites off coffee as good as Lone Pine and Thump, but if anybody can wean you off the bean, it's Casanueava. Bonus web points to anyone who logs online and checks out Casanueava's DIY “webformercial” that ran under the provocative headline, Bend Oregon What Is Yerba Maté. Extra bonus points and a bag of good old fashioned coffee to anyone who can spot and identify the Source staffer featured in the video. E-mail your best guess to editor@tsweekly.com and put off maté for another week.

Posted inMusic

On Their Own Island: The Dirty Words might head to indie-rock-friendly Portland but first they're making an epic music video

Mike Bookey

Oh, the music video. The revered opportunity for rock stars to be actors and actors to hang with rock stars. It's a chance for a band to get the faces behind their music out to the people and for fans to see a different side of their act.
Or, perhaps it was those things before shows like Jersey Shore and similar nonsense took over MTV. But the music video still exists and local band The Dirty Words, arguably our only vetted non-high-school indie rock act in Bend, is making one. But they're not really going to be in it.
The band has put a call out across the web for submissions from fans and anyone else who wants to be in a music video, asking them to record themselves “performing” the band's song “Damn Jacket.” They are not asking for high production value, actually they don't want that at all. Rather, the band is asking for distinctively DIY videos from webcams, cell phones and built-in laptops.

Posted inMusic

Recordings you need to hear that you may have missed: Louis Jordan and his Tympany 5

Source Weekly

Louis Jordan and his Tympany 5
Go Blow Your Horn
Released 1957

You might think you've been having fun, but if you haven't heard a good dose of Louis Jordan lately, you're a bore. Louis Jordan is the connection between the Big Band era of the '40s and the rise of R&B. At one point in the mid-'40s, Louis Jordan's recordings held the #1 spot on the black music charts for almost a year. Go Blow Your Horn reflects the upbeat feeling of pop culture of the '50s and puts you on the street corner in the jumping jive world of this incredible sax player.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 12/16 – 12/24: The Shoemaker Brothers, Bill Keale, A Christmas Carol and more

Source Weekly

RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza
wednesday 16
Remember that show Mystery Science Theater 3000 where that dude and the two robots would sit through old movies for the mere purpose of mocking them? Yes, it was awesome. Well now the stars of that show are joined by parody master Weird Al Yankovic as they rip apart old-timey Christmas movies. This is the first of an intensely holiday-oriented Picks page, just so you know. 8pm Wednesday, Dec 16. Old Mill Stadium 16, 680 SW Powerhouse Dr.
Bill Keale, A Holiday Concert
friday 18
Quick, shout out the first word that comes to mind when we say, “Christmas.” Did you say, “Hawaiian music?” So did we! At this show, local island music master Bill Keale is joined by his brother Mike, along with Kim Breedlove, and Crystal Lum of the Hokulea Dancers to get you into the holiday mood – island style. 7pm. Old Stone Church, 157 NW Franklin Ave.

Posted inNews

Running Dry: The Rainbow Market is the last spot to buy alcohol before the Warm Springs reservation, but the OLCC wants to change that.

Mike Bookey

A woman sets a case of beer on the counter of the store, but waves the customer behind her to take a turn at the register.
“I'm not done,” she says, smiling.
She returns to a wall of coolers, one of which, like something out of television advertisement, is filled from floor to ceiling exclusively with familiar red-and-white Budweiser iconography – the original Budweiser, that is – and grabs more beer. Outside, the Friday evening traffic buzzes past on Highway 26, riding along the Deschutes River, but the store's parking lot is largely vacant.

Posted inOpinion

The Farm Bureau Gets Down in the Muck

Source Weekly

Everybody loves the family farm. According to the conventional wisdom it's the bedrock of American values, the repository of the sturdy virtues of hard work and thrift, the beating heart of the heartland.
So who could possibly have any problem with an organization called Friends of Family Farmers whose aim is to help family farms survive and thrive?
Apparently, of all people, the Oregon Farm Bureau does.
Kendra Kimbirauskas, an organizer of FOFF and owner, with her husband, of a small farm outside Portland, came to Central Oregon this fall to hold a couple of meetings with area farmers to build support for a statewide initiative that would help small farms by improving their access to a labor supply and processing facilities, among other things.

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