The most junior member of Central Oregon's league of microbreweries, Three Creeks has quickly made Sisters an important stop on the beer-drinkers' tour. The accompanying brewpub, an oasis in the high desert emerging from the trees as you enter town from the east on Highway 20, almost instantly became a local favorite. While there are plenty of places in Sisters to find a good meal, Three Creeks is the most versatile. It's perfect for a family meal on the restaurant side of the massive barn-style building, or on the bar side, a burger and football, a few pints and a game of pool or dinner and live music on a Saturday night. My visits have run the gamut – a quick beer on the way home from Hoodoo, bar snacks and baseball in the afternoon, the full dining experience – and in all scenarios Three Creeks fared well. It's the kind of place that seems to effortlessly suit your mood, whatever it may be.
It Came, It Brewed, It Conquered: Three Creeks puts Sisters on the microbrewery map
Cork gets a makeover and Five Spice nears opening
Look for changes in the downtown dining scene in the next few weeks as Five Spice puts the finishing touches on its menu and prepares for a scheduled Dec. 3 opening on Wall Street in the former home of the short-lived Merenda spin-off, Deep.
Down the street, downtown stalwart Cork has unveiled a makeover with a new menu and a revised look.
Cork gets a makeover and Five Spice nears opening
Look for changes in the downtown dining scene in the next few weeks as Five Spice puts the finishing touches on its menu and prepares for a scheduled Dec. 3 opening on Wall Street in the former home of the short-lived Merenda spin-off, Deep.
Down the street, downtown stalwart Cork has unveiled a makeover with a new menu and a revised look.
The Neon Warrior: Why Brad Jones could play a rave, your birthday party or with Justin Timberlake
On the cover of his soon-to-be released album, No Strings, Brad Jones wears black sunglasses and his emergency orange baseball cap cocked about 50 degrees off center. It's also worth noting that his shoelaces are the same DayGlo tone of his hat.
And another thing: Brad Jones is 38 years old.
But 38 isn't too old to reinvent oneself, either with an admittedly goofy stage clothing style or musically, as Jones has done with his 14-track disc of electro-pop-meets-dance-party-meets-high-tops cuts which he recorded largely on his own. It's a highly accessibly club-friendly album that might surprise some who know Jones as the keyboardist for local jam band The Mostest. As he acknowledges, there's nothing like No Strings being made in Bend, but that might not make it, or Jones as a performer, any easier to classify.
Another Gathering of the Locals: Homegrown Music
Yes, it is now almost winter and starting to snow, the mountain is open, there's a frozen turkey in my freezer, but I'm still intermittently suffering from a Bend Roots Revival hangover. It comes and goes, but there are times when I stop and look back on that last week of September and realize that, damn, there's a lot of good music here.
This week there's an indoor local music gathering called the Homegrown Music Showcase to revive some of that Roots spirit with a lineup that will, once again, remind you of the talent we have here in town. The show, which benefits the Ronald McDonald House here in Bend, is largely on the lighter side – sorry metal, punk and hip-hop acts – but is nonetheless diverse.
Bend’s 2nd Street Theater is Closing its Curtain for Good
I just got word that, after nine years as a main player in Central Oregon's theatrical world, 2nd Street Theater will be closing for good following the upcoming run of Harvey.
From our angle, things seemed to be going well with the 2nd Street, with the theater recently wrapping up a month-long run of Evil Dead: The Musical, which featured several packed houses (and plenty of stage blood, too) in October.
Our Picks for 11/18 – 11/26: Moon Mountain Ramblers, Too Slim and the Taildraggers, The Ascetic Junkies, GWAR, Renegade Rollergirls
Moon Mountain Ramblers
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It seems that most recent Moon Mountain Ramlers shows are connected with some sort of holiday extravaganza… their Labor Day weekend festival, the recent Halloween Hoedown, and of course their New Year's Eve show next month. But sometimes it's nice to just see a normal Ramblers show in a normal packed bar. Not too much to ask, right? $7. 9pm. Silver Moon Brewing Co., 24 NW Greenwood Ave.
Too Slim and the Taildraggers
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This Seattle-based rock quartet is fronted by Tim “Too Slim” Langford and offers a tear-down-the-house mix of blues, rock, country and much more. Check out the band's new record, Free Your Mind. $13/adv, $15/door. 8pm. The Annex, 51 NW Greenwood Ave.
The Next Flu: Swine flu is in retreat – but will we be ready for the next attack?
Nobody knew where it came from – or even what it really was. It struck swiftly, and with devastating force.
People who were apparently healthy could develop symptoms and die within hours. Entire small villages were wiped out. In Philadelphia, it killed nearly 300 people on a single October day. Before it was over, the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 had claimed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million lives worldwide – more than the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th century.
Jeff Merkley's Cozy Silicon Valley Party
It was just an intimate, friendly little gathering on the Google campus in Silicon Valley.
The host was the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The star attraction was Joel Benenson, President Obama's pollster. Also featured were seven Democratic senators, including Oregon's own Jeff Merkley.
It was billed as a “National Innovation Conference.” Attendees at the two-day event got to listen to panel discussions whose participants included the senators as well as executives from high-powered firms such as Microsoft and assorted venture capitalists.
In The Red: Our awesome deficit, Iraq hush money and terror on trial
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from Great Wall Chinese Buffet, hoping to see Presidents Obama and Hu, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
President Obama is in China for a critical lovefest with President Hu, hoping our allowance doesn't get cut off. Touring the Forbidden City, where all of our debt is hidden from the eyes of the 1.35 billion Chinese who aren't eating all that well, nor concerned about hunting ghosts. In the hall of “Supreme Harmony” Obama then begged Hu for more money – err harmony – to underwrite our health care, multiple wars, bailouts, unemployment extensions, and a new initiative code-named “Year of the Rat.” Another sign of how out of touch Americans are (hey, it's football season and “Law & Order” is on next… ) a recent CNN poll showed 71% view China as “an economic threat” while 51% view it as a “military threat.” Ain't that sweet? Kind of like the roommate who is two months late with rent, hasn't paid a utility bill since moving in, but sits with his/her bong each day watching the cable TV you're paying for viewing you as an “economic threat.” Because, should you ask him/her to finally pay-up, his/her next bag of nugs and beer might not miraculously appear. FYI: China owns $763.5 billion of our $1.886 trillion total debt, which is about what we'll spend on our awesome military this year, should China say, “Hey, dude, about the rent… “