While spending a few days on the Oregon coast, The Wandering Eye's eye happened to light upon a brochure left in our hotel room. Since the weather was too windy and rainy to venture forth to the beach and we had gotten bored with the book we'd brought along, we flipped through it and came across this passage:
Coastal Real Estate’s at Low Tide Too
Posted inNews
Steve Kimock Video…from last night
Some of you may have been fortunate enough to catch Steve Kimock Crazy Engine last night at the Domino Room — and there were plenty of folks there — saw one of the music industry’s most skilled guitarists shred the place down along with an incredibly funky band. Here’s a video of the band playing "Something’s Goin’ Down.
Posted inNews
It Aint Over TIll It’s Over
Despite what you may have heard, the winter season is still going strong. This past week’s consistent dumps have made Bachelor a pillowy playground again.
Posted inNews
Brandi Carlile, Live at the Tower
Rocking the Tower, June 10.While we all sit waiting for some big news about the summer live music schedule here in Bend, there was a shimmer of light this week as it was announced that Brandi Carlile was booked for the Tower Theatre on June 10.
Posted inNews
Brits Get Uptight Over Oregon Comparison
The Brits - some of them, anyway - have their panties in a bunch over a comparison between their tight little island and Oregon.
Posted inOpinion
Just Give Us: The Facts Ma’m
Finally, after 6 long and weary years of wasteful spending and failed strategy at Juniper Ridge, a top City official, David Ditz, states that Bend "might be ready to start thinking about selling Jr and getting out of the project altogether." (Bulletin 3/4/2009) What took so long?
I would like to highlight ten documented assertions that support immediate shut-down of the project as constant propaganda about new jobs, mythical hi-tech tenants, and a phantom university that has never materialized.
New Jobs
Juniper Ridge has created zero new jobs in the past 5 years.
Les Schwab was touted by the city as a 350-person employer in 2006-7, but they have recently downsized to approximately 290. Therefore, an argument could be advanced that Jr has created negative 60 new jobs (60) in 5 years at a cost exceeding $500,000.00 per lost job. (Including debt, land value & state incentives)
Hi Tech Companies
There are zero new hi-tech / scientific research companies currently located at / or contracted for siting at Jr. Continual City banter about all kinds of mystery shoppers has not met the checkbook test.
New University
There has been zero documented progress toward a new university at JR. As a matter of fact, the state recently disclosed that they are hundreds of millions in arrears for badly needed repairs at existing schools, and that 4 failing state colleges may be folded into U of O due to financial duress. Likewise, OSU Cascades has underperformed vs. expectations.
Posted inFood & Drink
Easter Brunch
In case the giant bins of M&M’s and jellybeans in the grocery store and the overabundance of fish dishes on local restaurant menus weren’t a giveaway, Easter is just around the corner. That means that many of us will do two things April 12 that we probably won’t do for another 12 months, go to church and eat something called “brunch.”
While often paired with the religious holiday, brunch is thankfully a secular affair. Even better it’s usually served with a heaping of bacon and a side of booze (well, champagne at least).
According to an informal survey we did this past week, you won’t find many traditional fixed-price or fixed-menu brunches around town this Easter, although both McMenamins and Seasons are offering the full experience. But we confirmed that many of your favorite breakfast spots will be offering some specialty menu items and taking reservations (to some degree) on Easter Sunday. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights.
Posted inOpinion
The Wilderness Protectors
Thoreau didn't say, "In wilderness is the preservation of the world;" what he really said was, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." Either way, though, the point is true: For the survival of our souls and our sanity, we need places where we can get away from the roar and rush, the clash and clamor of our "civilized" world.
On Monday, President Obama signed into law a piece of legislation that will protect one of those precious wild places - the Badlands wilderness area, about 15 miles east of Bend.
The signature was the final victory in a political battle that had gone on literally for decades, since the federal Bureau of Land Management first proposed that the 30,000-acre swath of high desert was special enough to deserve protection from the assaults of development, mining, grazing, and the howl of the infernal combustion engine. That victory was the result of the patient labor of dozens of people both in Congress and outside of it, notably Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and the Oregon Natural Desert Association.
Posted inOpinion
So Long Rick: GM hits the wall, killing sprees, the Middle Ages, and more!
Editor's note: Mike McMenaminuses has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from your uncle's backyard, hoping to fix the leak that his RV's roof has sprung, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
HOPIATE
This must be the disappointment diehard Republicans and Evangelicals felt after Bush seized power. Democrats allowed to live; "Faith-based Initiatives" as effective as, well, the Bush Administration; those pesky scientists allowed to squawk about fallacies like global warming and teen pregnancy, despite the duct-tape over their mouths and millions for abstinence programs. Yet extraordinary renditions and environmental massacre were still all the rage. How's your hope? Or, as my man Hank aptly termed, is Obama's "Hopium" still hittin'? Extraordinary renditions continue, Republicans are still alive and cranky as ever, and the morass we all thought would ebb with Obama is sucking like a college freshman at her first kegger. His first 100 days hardly half over, let us take a deep breath and consider the trillions now promised, the thousands of more troops being sent abroad, and that monkey on our backs that's itching for another fix. Hopiate, indeed…
Posted inOutside
A Silent Slaughter: Slamming the door on our subsidized predator
Doing what they do.There's en email going around that shows the image of a house cat
emblazoned on the nose of private jet. I've received that cat e-mail
three times a week over the last few months, and every time I look at
it, I'm reminded that outdoor cats kill birds, and the killing is so
severe at my place that I have stopped feeding birds.
I have
neighbors on three (or more) sides of me that allow their cats to run
loose constantly. If they're not at my place killing quail and juncos,
they're somewhere else killing birds, cottontails, lizards, mice and
more birds. To make it even worse, there's a black cat and buff one
that join the other two and get into a catfight about every other
night, under my birdfeeder. That's four cats skulking around my place
killing birds; think of what that means on a statewide basis.