It’s one of life’s great truisms. Something very unique is cherished by a few, becomes a cult classic, and then, as more people find out about it, becomes more of a classic trashed.
A Tarnished Treasure?
Posted inOpinion
Letter of the Week: What Do We Have To Lose On Health Care?
This week's letter comes from Elsan Zimmerly who makes a compelling case for rethinking health care, a topic that's gotten a lot of attention and not enough intelligent discussion recently. Thanks for your well written and researched letter Elsan. You can pick up your winner's prize, a bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia, anytime this week.
What do Congressional opponents of a public health care option have in common? My guess is they didn't go to kindergarten – they never learned to share. They have something they value and covet but won't share. Sounds selfish. Send them all back to kindergarten.
Okay, health care is a serious subject. What is stunning in this whole debate is that not only Congress enjoys government-subsidized health care, many of the already insured are government employees who also have the same plan as Congress. Yes, the federal government is the largest employer in the US. The largest employer by far. Total the remaining top ten employers and the feds are still #1.
Posted inCulture
Wilkommen to Cabaret!: Cat Call Productions brings Berlin to the Tower
“We have no hassles in here. Here, life is beautiful!” intones the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club in Cat Call Productions' inaugural showing of Cabaret.
Posted inOutside
Do Something Oxymoronic: Have some serious fun at a work party
What are you doing this weekend? If you've got random plans to do nothing, I've got an incredibly convincing argument for you to consider a Work Party. Sure, you could enjoy a Staycation eating jumbo shrimp, drinking dry martinis and watching reality TV. I am hopelessly optimistic that you will find a Work Party to be an oddly appropriate way to spend your time. Work Parties are serious fun. Not to mention that they're wonderful opportunities to give back to the trails you love.
Posted inOutside
Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home… The truth on Lady Beetles
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
All except one, and that's Little Anne
For she has crept under the warming pan.
In Medieval England, farmers would set fire to old hop vines after the harvest in order to clear the fields for the next planting.
Posted inCulture
Wearing a Wire: Matt Damon takes true story gold to the next level in The Informant!
Expectations are understandably high for The Informant! since Warner Brothers has spent a fortune placing pop-up ads and television spots virtually everywhere. It has been extraordinarily difficult over the last month to avoid the nerdy image of Matt Damon in the title role of Mark Whitacre.
But the finished product stands up to the scrutiny. I'd read it's like A Beautiful Mind meets The Insider. And that's not bad, of course. Director Steven Soderbergh's prodigious and excellent body of work cuts him plenty of slack. Michael Clayton, Syriana, and Oceans 11 and 13 alone would command our respect, but he's also responsible for Traffic, Erin Brockovich, and Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Posted inCulture
Body Parts and Dialogue Chunks: Teenage girl power gore dies early in Jennifer’s Body
The first line of Jennifer's Body is, “Hell is a teenage girl.” Let me rephrase: “Hell is enduring a teenage girl/demonic possession movie written by Diablo Cody.”
The film features the same producers as Juno, but brings into the fold director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) and it seems this group is slapping themselves on the back for how clever they think they are. Suffocating from Cody's overly wordy and relentlessly self-conscious narrative, this flick is an exercise in extreme futility. It's OK if one character talks like a wiseacre (as in Juno) but when every character has essentially the same smart-aleck voice, it rings untrue and loses its punch. Real people do not talk this way… ever.
Posted inNews
Zappa Plays Zappa coming to town… and Deer Tick plays tonight
I’ll admit that I’m not a Frank Zappa enthusiast, but I’m aware of a bucketful of folks here in Bend that worship at the alter of perhaps the only man to have earned the title of “rock and roll composer.” And they’re in luck because there’s some Zappa music coming to town.
Posted inFood & Drink
A Return to Redmond: Chloe's new location is back where it began
Just months after leaving Redmond and settling in at a new location in the FivePine complex in Sisters, Chloe New American Cuisine got an offer in its old hometown it couldn't refuse. A space opened up in the Sleep Inn conference center, formerly occupied by Canyons.
Posted inFood & Drink
A Return to Redmond: Chloe's new location is back where it began
Just months after leaving Redmond and settling in at a new location in the FivePine complex in Sisters, Chloe New American Cuisine got an offer in its old hometown it couldn't refuse. A space opened up in the Sleep Inn conference center, formerly occupied by Canyons.