When you name a place Alpenglow in a ski town, you better be able to back it up. For mountain dwellers, the very utterance of the word conjures a Zen oneness with nature and feelings of peace and serenity. After a tough day when you look up toward the horizon and see that reddish glow cast on snow-covered peaks at sunset, you are reminded that life in the shadow of the Cascades isn't too shabby. The Alpenglow Café, fortunately, does the term justice. Serving only house-made breads, locally smoked meats, dairy from area farms and fresh foods – absolutely nothing canned or frozen – Alpenglow has the whole oneness-with-nature locavore thing down. In fact, their mission statement offers a $1,000 reward to anyone who can find a can opener on the premises (“no fair bringing in your own!”).
Feel the Love: Alpenglow Café casts a warm light
Feel the Love: Alpenglow Café casts a warm light
When you name a place Alpenglow in a ski town, you better be able to back it up. For mountain dwellers, the very utterance of the word conjures a Zen oneness with nature and feelings of peace and serenity. After a tough day when you look up toward the horizon and see that reddish glow cast on snow-covered peaks at sunset, you are reminded that life in the shadow of the Cascades isn't too shabby. The Alpenglow Café, fortunately, does the term justice. Serving only house-made breads, locally smoked meats, dairy from area farms and fresh foods – absolutely nothing canned or frozen – Alpenglow has the whole oneness-with-nature locavore thing down. In fact, their mission statement offers a $1,000 reward to anyone who can find a can opener on the premises (“no fair bringing in your own!”).
The Gift of Kottke: The guitar legend on recording, collaborations and Brett Favre
Going to see guitarist/songwriter Leo Kottke perform live is a lot like walking downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing all of the brightly wrapped presents under the tree – you'll receive several gifts you expected, some flat-out surprises and a few more that make everyone in the room glance at each other with beaming smiles.
Kottke, whose personal life is as ambiguous as his chord phrasings, doesn't give many interviews, but he talked to the Source via e-mail about his long career and his recent exposure to a younger audience.
Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
No, it's not a covers record. Nor is it a greatest hits collection. In fact, you may not know Yo La Tengo yet. Well, here's the quick rundown. The Hoboken trio has been twisting the alt-rock genre since 1984 and are heralded by critics and underground rock fans for their ability to create often catchy yet strangely unpredictable songs.
Popular Songs, their 14th studio album, is a fine representation of the group's skill in penning songs with incredible depth. “Here to Fall” opens the record as a perfect example of said depth. From quiet beginnings, the song builds a complex layer of dreamscape melody packed with a bunch of interesting instrumentation. By contrast, the super-catchy “Nothing to Hide” is one of those tracks that in my ideal world would be played all over mainstream radio. “When It's Dark” is a wonderfully easygoing acoustic-based tune that a Wilco fan might dig. Completing their overtly dynamic range is “If It's True” which uses Hammond organ as a backbone and clean string section to deliver a tight thoughtful pop song.
Spare Change?: Local non-profits cut back as donors tighten their purse strings
On the final day of business at the Working Wonders Children's Museum, Jason Friedman watched his two sons intensely engaged in their tactile experiences. The 15-month-old, Levi, squeezed the mysterious substance “moon sand” into a ball, then crushed it gleefully. Five-year-old Maxwell ran around dressed up like a firefighter, role playing with other kids in costumes.
“All this realistic setting is very healthy for brain development,” Friedman said. “The kids can learn to be builders, veterinarians, chefs. It's hard to recreate that at home.”
With Working Wonders closed, parents now have to find other places for their children to play. And there's nothing else quite like the museum here: a hands-on environment where kids could immerse themselves in “exhibits” such as grocery stores, veterinarian offices or foreign countries.
The Greening of Bend
President Obama would be proud of Bend for the vision it has shown on issues like the original cash for clunker program with our junk busses, massive debt being incurred at Juniper Ridge for no benefit to the public, bailouts for BAT, gross overspending on employee health care, new taxes on water and sewer during a severe economic downturn, and urban growth expansion designed for the big money in town. Let's examine these issues in greater detail.
CITY COUNCIL
The “Bully Blockers” rode into town on their black stallions early this year to facilitate those with money and influence. Following a coup to fill a vacant position with an old crony who possesses serious conflicts of interest, another councilor called the back-door deal “crap” giving us a second faction of “Crappers.” A third Councilor rolled over in support of the bullies which demonstrates that “when money talks, ideology walks,” creating a 3rd faction of “Floppers.” The only things that they seem to agree on are higher fees for utilities and massive debt at Juniper Ridge.
From The Meddle East: Phony heroes, justice delayed but not
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a place called Narnia, where a lion rules, this evil witch is everywhere, yet Viggo Mortensen is nowhere to be found, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
Liar Liar
Richard Strandlof has led quite a life: At the Pentagon on 9-11 when it was attacked, surviving again when a bomb went off in Iraq (four of his fellow Marines weren't so lucky), living with a metal plate in his head and starting a charity to help other injured vets. Except none of it happened; Strandlof now faces charges of “stolen valor” (akin to Cheney but Iraq-status-justice) – including up to a year in prison and $100,000 fine. On 9-11, he was actually in a San Jose, CA, homeless shelter, and never served in the military; still he formed the Colorado Veterans Alliance, and appeared with at least one politician hoping to benefit from Strandlof's heroism. “Hopefully the people that I hurt can in some way gain closure from that, and I myself don't know what I can do, short of leaving them alone and not being in their lives, to make that happen,” somewhat-apologized Strandlof. Didn't disgraced Samurais fall on their swords? Give this guy a dull butter knife, or 10 minutes in a locked room with real Marines.
Poll Was Full Of Poop
Seldom have I read a more tragic story than the extinction of the passenger pigeon, flocks that stretched as far as the eye could see, one tier above another, taking an entire day to pass overhead.
In just 200 years, Europeans arrived in America and decimated 5 billion birds for cheap meat, feathers, target practice and fun. Sometimes they would bring down several birds at a time, merely because they could. The passenger pigeon died out in the wild in Ohio about 1900. The last survivor died (of loneliness I'm sure) in captivity in 1914.
Strange How The Leftwing Mind Works
After 15-plus years of denigrating conservative Christians, and the idea that Christian morality should be taught in the schools, and opposing Christian religious symbolism on any public land, bible clubs on campus, removing God, and the Bible, from the schools, and replacing it with [teaching of] evolution, abortion rights claiming that the fetus was nothing but “blob” or a “parasite,” sex “education,” and more, now the leftwing wants these same “faith-based” organizations to help them promote universal healthcare on moral grounds, or to assist in fighting the violence that is increasing in the education system.
And there is again the rewriting of American history by claiming that the GOP is “racist.” The usual example of such is by using the switching of parties by Strom Thurmond in 1964 basing that claim on the “fact” that the Democratic Party added an anti-segregation plank to its platform. Of course, they have to ignore that it was the Democrats that used violence, hangings, poll taxes, etc. to prevent Blacks from voting for Republicans, and that the GOP had anti-slavery, and anti-segregation, planks in its platform since 1854.
Cat Licenses Aren't The Answer
In response to H. Bruce Miller's recent article on outdoor cats [Posted on the Wandering Eye Blog, 9/24] I have a few questions. Mr. Miller seems to believe that the sole reason for the disappearance of birds from his neighborhood is due to the increased housecat population created by a new housing development nearby. Mr. Miller, do you think it could be the new development itself, and subsequent loss of habitat that could be the reason for the bird decline? In fact, in numerous studies done on the topic the number one cause of bird population decline is loss of habitat. Mr. Miller's solution to the problem of outdoor cats is to require that they be licensed the same as dogs. Who will be responsible for enforcing this? With an estimated 45,000 cats in Deschutes County, will we hire hundreds more animal control officers? Then what? When the “bird-killing” cats in question are hauled to the Humane Society, will the Humane Society be responsible for processing them, housing them and euthanizing them when their owners don't show up to claim them? I'm pretty sure they have their hands full as it is!