In The Eye's past trips to Hawaii, when other tourists asked us where we were from and we replied, "Bend, Oregon," the response would be something along the lines of: "Oh, I hear that's a real nice place."
They’re Not Laughing With Us, They’re Laughing at Us
Posted inCulture
You Make Me Feel There Are Songs to be Sung: My Way – A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra
It was a night of gin martinis and evening gloves at the Tower Theatre, an homage to Ol'
Blue Eyes that all ages will fall for. My Way: A Musical Tribute to
Frank Sinatra, produced by Innovation Theatre Works under the artistic
direction of Chris Rennolds and Brad Hills, is a journey to a time
where elegance ruled, men loved dames, dames loved mink stoles, and the
world, at least for the duration of a song, believed in the fable of
perfect love.
An ensemble cast, led by Broadway veteran Daniel
Guzman, croons through a medley of fifty-eight standards intermixed
with Sinatra tidbits delivered with the affability of a vintage
nightclub act. Guzman, a haberdasher's dream endowed with an engaging
sense of "cool" and a lush voice that refuses to lose its masculine
edge, is the highlight of My Way from the time the curtain opens on his
iconic, tuxedoed silhouette to the magnetic way he commands such
classic songs as That's Life and New York, New York. Guzman's reverence
and dedication to the material never drops to the level of
impersonation. My Way is Guzman's heartfelt and charismatic tribute. He
acknowledges there can only ever be one Chairman of the Boardยธ but
effortlessly manages to transfix the audience from his very first note.
Posted inNews
Appetite For Deception Video! Welcome to the Jungle!
The Blender has a thing for tribute bands, which is why we were at Boondocks last night to check out Appetite for Deception, a Portland-based band that is – somewhat surprisingly – pretty dead-on in their depiction of Guns N’ Roses.
Posted inNews
Steve Larsen: A Tragic Wakeup Call
When a 39-year-old man dies suddenly of a heart attack, it's shocking. When the man is a former professional bike racer and top-ranked endurance athlete, the shock is almost overwhelming. This kind of thing just shouldn’t happen, we think.
Posted inNews
Who’s Got Your Back? Bend Surgeons Do
Got an aching back? If you live in Bend, you're more than twice as likely to have surgery for it as the average American is.
Posted inOpinion
A Helping Hand For Horses
We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who donated items to the silent auction at Brasada for "Equestrians Helping Equestrians."
A special thank you and note of appreciation to Sharon Morris-Reade and Kathy Gentry for their labor of love.
Posted inOpinion
Where Are We Going?
I miss the days of hitchhiking – of being able to feel safe enough to pick up hitchhikers, as well as knowing that it was alright to stick out your thumb and get a ride. I miss what that all "represented.
Posted inOpinion
A Culture Prepped for Hate Crimes
The recent killings of an abortion doctor in Kansas and a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
Posted inOutside
Celebratory Destruction?
How do you celebrate when your city wins a major professional title? By destroying a small part of it, of course!
And that's exactly what Lakers fans did in downtown Los Angeles Sunday night after Kobe and company dismissed the Magic in the fifth game of the NBA Finals. Store fronts were smashed, leading to some looting - what says "Congratulations Lakers" more than an armful of stolen Nikes? There was also, of course, the obligatory middle-of-the-street bonfire. Come on now, an impromptu bonfire? That's so '94 Vancouver Canucks. You'd think Laker fans could at least employ some originality in their destructive assholery.
Also, for a franchise with 15 NBA titles under its belt, you'd think these fans would be accustomed to winning and wouldn't be so surprised by Sunday's championship that they'd suddenly find it necessary to toss a garbage can through a cop's windshield. But then again, these are Lakers fans, the majority of which don't even watch a game until the playoffs, at which point they dig out that Derek Fisher jersey, flip on TNT and notice that at some point during the season that they ignored in favor of standing in line at nightclubs that the team acquired Adam Morrison. If you don't know how to be a fan, chances are you won't know how to react should the bandwagon you've boarded roll all the way to a championship.
Posted inOutside
A New Fungus Among Us?: A somewhat shocking discovery in Sisters
Habitat of (what could be) a new species of "mushroom" and close up of "fruiting bodies."With all this unseasonable rain we have been experiencing throughout Central Oregon, I thought it would be advantageous to go out in search of mushrooms. I understand it is during damp periods like these that mushroom fruiting bodies come to the surface, and being a person who enjoys a fresh mushroom from time to time, well, I thought, you can never tell…
I was driving slowly on the road from Sisters High School to town watching intently for mushrooms along the way, when suddenly I was excited, (and almost shocked) to see what I thought were a small group of inky caps, but what they really turned out to be is a new species, perhaps one of the most electrifying experiences I've ever had in my years of searching for new edible forms of mushrooms.
Now, I know the deadly Amanitas; some of the amanitas are so colorful you can't miss them, while others are quite common looking, but can still kill you dead, or give you a terrible stomachache. For that reason, I'm very jumpy about what mushrooms I consider "safe," or "unsafe" for consumption. Unless I see someone still walking around an hour or so after eating a wild mushroom, I stick to the ones I find in the grocery store, but sometimes I even look at them a little sideways…