Dorm Ditties: Head for the Hills on breaking the freshman band curse

Posted inMusic

Dorm Ditties: Head for the Hills on breaking the freshman band curse

Mike Bookey

There was probably at least one band that formed in your freshman dorm, if, that is, you ever had the pleasure of living in the strangely scented and often concrete confines of a freshman dorm. And that band probably didn't make it through that first year of collegiate life. Inner-band turmoil, conflicting class schedules or maybe "artistic differences" brought these bands to an end all too often.

But Fort Collins' Head for the Hills is an exception to the freshman dorm band curse. What was once a group of musicians that coincidentally wound up housed on the same floor of a Colorado State University dormatory, is now one of the brightest young acts on the acoustic music landscape. A strange sidenote: in 2003 a friend of mine lived in this dorm with Head for the Hills and told me all about them. I promptly forgot about them - until I noticed their name listed as the winners of the Northwest String Summit band competition in 2007. Clearly, they'd broken the curse, and maybe that's because they started as an almost reluctant bluegrass outfit.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week 7/9-7/16

Mike Bookey

Suzanne Burns/Matt Love Book Release Party
thursday 9
Flip back into the culture section and check out a review of Source contributor Suzanne Burns's new short story collection, Misfits and Other Heroes. Also appearing at this reading is Matt Love, author of Super Sunday in Newport: Notes From My First Year in Town. 7pm Thursday, Jul 9. Between the Covers, 645 NW Delaware Ave. 385-4766.
The Pimps of Joytime
friday 10
Just by hearing their name, you know when you head down for The Pimps of Joytime show, you're going to have a good time. This Brooklyn-based foursome blends funk, soul and indie rock, creating beats that have you grooving in a throwback sorta way. If you missed them in February, here's your chance to catch the funky four before they head back east. 8pm The Summit Saloon & Stage, 125 NW Oregon Ave. Free.

Posted inNews

In The Toilet: Hoodoo’s day fees, revenge of the septic and more

Eric Flowers

No Harm, No Fee

Following what Forest Service staff described as complaints and confusion, the agency quietly decided this week to eliminate a new day use fee at concession run campgrounds on the Deschutes Forest, a supervisor confirmed last week in an interview with the Source.
Ronda Bishop, special use coordinator for concessionaires and resorts on the forest, said that the agency informed Hoodoo Recreation that a newly instituted day fee that amounted to half of the camping fee (roughly $5-6) would have to be temporarily rescinded because of complaints about the policy that was instituted this past spring without public input. Bishop said the Forest Service initially signed off on the fee in order to help Hoodoo cover the maintenance cost at the campgrounds where day visitors use toilets and trash facilities but traditionally have paid no fee for those privileges. The impact of those users adds up for the concessionaire.

Posted inNews

Ground Down: Despite value, urban caves prove hard to protect

Eric Flowers

Perhaps only in the obscure world of cave exploration could a relatively cave rich area like Bend find its foremost expert in the form of a pizza delivery driver. But that's what seems to be the case, at least as it relates to the Horse system and local caver Matt Skeels, who has dedicated a huge amount of his free time to exploring and inventorying the network of lava caves that stretches from the flank of Newberry Caldera to the industrial area on Redmond's east side.

The caves are no secret, most people who have been around Central Oregon for a few years have either heard of, or poked around in some of the Horse system lava caves. But lately they've been getting a little more attention - at least from cavers like Skeels who are keenly aware that urbanization can quickly degrade cave habitat for bats and other - sometimes rare - creatures. Yet, in some ways the growth can be a mixed blessing for cavers and conservationists who know that with increase exposure will come more opportunities for preservation, but also more risk of degradation.

Posted inOpinion

Wyden’s “Health Care Reform” Turkey

Intern

For many years, the relationship between organized labor and Ron Wyden has looked like a match made in heaven. Lately, though, labor has been doing everything short of throwing the kitchen knives at Oregon's senior senator.

The reason is Wyden's health care plan, which he's calling the "Healthy Americans Act." Unions, such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), think Wyden's plan would squander the opportunity to enact meaningful reform of our pathetic health care system.
We agree.
On a website it's put up (stopwydenshealthtax.com), AFSCME calls Wyden's idea a "health tax." That's a rhetorical gimmick, sort of like conservatives calling the estate tax "the death tax." But while Wyden's plan wouldn't literally tax health, it would tax health care benefits. And that – especially in a time of falling wages and rising layoffs – is not the way to go.

Posted inOpinion

Up In Smoke: Satan’s houseguests, Palin’s plans, and more celebrity deathwatch

Intern

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from Black Butte, urinating on ashes, trying to make a puddle that resembles Jacko, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.

Hell Is Getting Crowded
In yet another sign that Satan will have to expand Hades soon, Robert McNamara died on Monday at age 93. The "whiz kid" who JFK invited to destroy a generation of Americans, McNamara oversaw the Vietnam War for both JFK and LBJ, later writing in his autobiography that it was all a mistake. Thanks, Bob. Oh, it gets better - McNamara's resume is guaranteed to impress Beelzebub: Analyzing the efficiency of U.S. firebombing missions in World War II (for which McNamara received rank of Lieutenant Colonel); afterward he joined Ford (his sole qualification being that he read an article on the company in Life magazine - no lie) where he killed the Edsel, tried to terminate the Lincoln line, and championed the forgettable Ford Falcon sedan. As Secretary of Defense from 1961-1968, McNamara increased our "limited warfare" capabilities by drafting teenagers to defend a country they didn't know anything about, under the guise of preventing "the steady erosion of the Free World through limited wars." Seriously, if you want to both understand and be fully baffled by this man, rent "The Fog of War." Dick Cheney may attend McNamara's funeral; if not, no one will.

Posted inOpinion

Economics Versus Deschutes County’s Land-Use Planning

Intern

Except for only very few readers, here's a sentence that will prompt yawns: On Wednesday July 15, the Deschutes County Commission plans to hold a public meeting on a proposed amendment to the County's land-use code allowing commercial wedding events on parcels designated for Exclusive Farm Use. Yawns all around, perhaps, but we three economists think that on this issue, the County is doing neither the right thing nor the thing right. And we think these two wrongs matter.

Some context helps. The Deschutes County Commissioners are nearing the end of the period for public comment on their update of the County's comprehensive, land-use plan. Coincidentally, they're nearing the end of their deliberations on the commercial wedding-events matter. What bothers us about both the big thing-the update of the comprehensive plan-and the deceptively little thing-the amendment to allow more commercial enterprises on EFU land-is that the County's land-use planning proceeds as if economics isn't relevant. In the March 12 meeting of Deschutes County's Planning Commission, for example, Planning Commissioner Chris Brown, addressing the commercial wedding-events issue, argued that economics has no bearing on land-use issues. Incredible.

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