My Gypsy Road: Krasninski and Rudolph make for a quirky couple in Away We Go

Posted inCulture

My Gypsy Road: Krasninski and Rudolph make for a quirky couple in Away We Go

Intern

if halpert went all cousin eddie. The problem after viewing the new Sam Mendes film Away We Go is that all those adjectives leap to mind - "quirky," "offbeat," "oddball" - that have been used for films like Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, and Sunshine Cleaning.

But this movie is all three of those adjectives and more. And as good as those other movies were, Away We Go treats a well-established cinema cliché (the road movie) with freshness and originality fueled by some great performances and an inventive script from Dave Eggers and Velenda Vida, the married literary powerhouse duo. What's particularly novel about this movie is the depiction of the adolescent uncertainties of an adult couple in their 30s. They are out to answer the question they ponder in the first fifteen minutes, "Are we fuck ups?"
John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) are relatively new faces on the big screen as Burt and Verona, an unmarried and pregnant couple trying to find a place to call home. They flee their home in Denver after Burt's parents, played brilliantly by Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara, announce they are moving to Europe for two years - just a month before their first grandchild arrives.

Posted inCulture

Gear Heads Unite!: Sequel has morphing mechanical robot aliens going turbo

Intern

Busting out another Blockbuster.I can't recall any other big-budget movie based on action figures, but Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen again showcases the nuts and bolts of machines (mainly cars and airplanes) morphing themselves into humongous metallic beasts. What were once just toys for kids and flimsy animated cartoons, have, yes, transformed, into big-boy-toys in the hands of multi-millionaires Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. And with the funds to deliver high tech goods, they go all gear-head-turbo with this newest Transformers installment.

Beginning with a pseudo tribute to 2001: A Space Odyssey, our Transformers history lesson tells us that they have been on the planet since 17,000 BC. It quickly zooms ahead to a convoluted fight scene between the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, against the evil Decepticons, in which either side can change into behemoth gear-grinding monstrosities.

Posted inFood & Drink

Little Bites: New Beginnings: Pubs and Coffee

Mike Bookey

Pour us a pint, Brother Jon.

Those in the Galveston Avenue neighborhood – referred to as the “Parrilla District” by at least one Source staffer – got another watering hole option this week with the opening of Brother Jon’s Public House.
Operating out of what was the short-lived Mahkanas on Galveston, Brother Jon’s is a venture by Downtowner partner Stephen Barnette and fellow Deschutes pub alum John Machell (along with wife Kristen). Barnette calls Brother Jon’s a “neighborhood pub” with a clean atmosphere, a full bar with choices of microbrews as well as the seemingly obligatory $2 PBR tall can. The menu is pub fare with nothing exceeding the $10 line, underlining the pub’s focus on affordability. Having opened just Monday, Barnette says he’s already noticed a come-one-come-all ethos to his pub.
“Yesterday a couple guys from down the street came by with a guitar and banjo and played out on the back patio. And we’re fine with that sort of thing,” said Barnette, adding that they also have cable sports packages.

Posted inFood & Drink

The MJ

Intern

Following Michael Jackson’s recent death, even NPR is starting to sound like an ’80s pop station as “Beat It” or “Man in the Mirror” seemingly haunts the background of every other interview. As a child of the ’80s, my first introduction to star hysteria was Thriller; I would practice moonwalking and other jerky crotch-grabbing dance moves with my childhood girlfriends while donning legwarmers and a side ponytail.
The man needs a cocktail in honor of all he’s done, but which Michael do you base the drink on? Is it the African-American Wonder Boy, the White King of Pop, the Soul-Searching Humanitarian, the Amusement Park Pedophile or the Looks-Like-an-Alien Philanthropist? Or do you just base it on one of his song titles, like just create some vile concoction that figuratively screams “I’m Bad” when you taste it?

Posted inFood & Drink

Wining and Dining in Style: Portello offers a taste of the continent in Northwest Crossing

Alice Finer

A little of this, a little of that all in Northwest Crossing.I had been meaning to pay a visit to Portello Winecafe since it reopened in January after a plumbing disaster forced a brief closure, but I don’t get out to Northwest Crossing much, and it kind of just fell off my radar. But last weekend, since I was heading out there anyway to watch a friend compete in the NWX Criterium, a bike race being held at the second annual Hullabaloo festival (a.k.a., “The Whitest Block Party on Earth”), I figured it was the perfect opportunity. Granted, it is completely unfair to stage a review during a restaurant’s busiest day of the year, but a couple of the tables on the patio have a perfect view of the racecourse, and my compulsive kill-two-birds-with-one-stone instinct made it impossible to resist.

In the end, besides an understandable amount of backup in the kitchen, there was nothing to forgive. Our server was attentive and cheerful, considering the circumstances, and kept us amply plied with wine until our food arrived. We succeeded in getting that plumb table outside, a lovely spot for a glass on a warm summer evening. But had weather not been permitting, the interior is equally attractive. The space is airy with high ceilings adorned with exposed heating ducts, walls made of brick taken from a 100-year-old Portland building and bar tables constructed with wood from Willamette Valley cherry barrels. Racks of wine and revolving art exhibits add to the Euro-industrial feel.

Posted inFood & Drink

Wining and Dining in Style: Portello offers a taste of the continent in Northwest Crossing

Alice Finer

A little of this, a little of that all in Northwest Crossing.I had been meaning to pay a visit to Portello Winecafe since it reopened in January after a plumbing disaster forced a brief closure, but I don't get out to Northwest Crossing much, and it kind of just fell off my radar. But last weekend, since I was heading out there anyway to watch a friend compete in the NWX Criterium, a bike race being held at the second annual Hullabaloo festival (a.k.a., "The Whitest Block Party on Earth"), I figured it was the perfect opportunity. Granted, it is completely unfair to stage a review during a restaurant's busiest day of the year, but a couple of the tables on the patio have a perfect view of the racecourse, and my compulsive kill-two-birds-with-one-stone instinct made it impossible to resist.

In the end, besides an understandable amount of backup in the kitchen, there was nothing to forgive. Our server was attentive and cheerful, considering the circumstances, and kept us amply plied with wine until our food arrived. We succeeded in getting that plumb table outside, a lovely spot for a glass on a warm summer evening. But had weather not been permitting, the interior is equally attractive. The space is airy with high ceilings adorned with exposed heating ducts, walls made of brick taken from a 100-year-old Portland building and bar tables constructed with wood from Willamette Valley cherry barrels. Racks of wine and revolving art exhibits add to the Euro-industrial feel.

Posted inMusic

Bend to LA and Back: Local Franchot Tone shows off his Culver City Dub Collective

Mike Bookey

When Culver City Dub Collective heads onto what should be (hopefully) a sunshine-covered Les Schwab Amphitheater stage on Sunday, it will be a homecoming of sorts. This is confusing, obviously, given the band's explicitly Southern California name, but not once you realize that the dude on guitar is Franchot Tone.

That name probably sounds familiar to local music fans who know him as not only Reed Thomas Lawrence's collaborator and producer but also as a composer for Rage Films. Tone has a second life of sorts, however, down in Los Angeles where he's deeply immersed in the music industry and also captains Culver City Dub Collective, a reggae-infused jammy rock outfit, along with Adam Topol, best known for his work as Jack Johnson's drummer.
Tone, who lives in Bend with his wife and kids, is a busy guy, to put it mildly, but he's found time to place CCDC near the top of his priority list. Although the band is only able to tour in moderation given the other musical engagements if its members, CCDC has found time to, for example, open a tour last summer for Jack Johnson which put them in front of crowds numbering 20,000 or more. But this week, the band is on its own headlining jaunt, playing smaller venues in mountain towns, which is why when I catch up with Tone, he's eating at a taco truck in Twin Falls, Idaho. He and the rest of the band are there for the start of a weeklong tour that drops them in Bend on Sunday - something Tone is more than pumped about.

Posted inMusic

Stars, Stripes and Playlists: Listen to these songs or else you hate America

Mike Bookey

Illustration by Kristi SimmonsI assume I wasn't the only student who in the winter of 1991 sang along, sitting cross-legged on standard gray public school carpet, to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," belting out the "Proud to be an American…" chorus along with my third-grade classmates. Iraq had invaded Kuwait and President Bush The First, looking sternly through his Dwight Schrute-esque glasses said, "This aggression will not stand," and so I pinned a yellow ribbon on my backpack with no idea where exactly Kuwait could be found on a map, and belted along with Mr. Greenwood. And I liked that song, too.

With the Fourth of July this weekend, we're not only celebrating our right to ignite incendiary devices (Thank you, Bend City Council), but it's an annual chance to unleash upon collective ear of your neighborhood barbecue your favorite patriotic, nationalistic and/or songs that merely include "America" in the title, including but not limited to the aforemenionted Greenwood hit. If you need some help compiling your play list, here are a few pointers. Again, many of these cuts have little or no connection to the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the celebration thereof, but who cares, right? A real song about the Fourth of July would largely be centered on hot dogs, sun burns and paid vacation, so let's not get too carried away people.

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