Jody Denton's showplace downtown restaurant, Merenda, has folded, but it's being reborn as "900 Wall." Can it survive in its new incarnation?
Merenda Is Dead — Long Live 900 Wall
Posted inNews
Willy Week Scores Again as The Big O Fumbles
Newsweek magazine has a piece this week lauding Nigel Jaquiss, the investigative reporter for Willamette Week who broke the sex scandal story about Portland Mayor Sam Adams - and also raking The Oregonian over the coals for dropping the ball on this and other tough stories.
Posted inNews
Tweak Bird was here….and it was dark
A few members of the Blender crew were out at the Summit Stage and Saloon last night to catch Tweak Bird and Kandi Coated. Alas, it was dark and not optimal video taping conditions, but you can get a taste of the sound purveyed by Tweak Bird – a quirkily heavy duo consisting of two brothers based in Los Angeles.
Posted inOpinion
A Walk in the Park
This week's letter of the week comes from Thomas Ware who contemplates the fate of a recently felled tree. We're not sure if this falls into the philosophy or poetry category, but we liked it. Thanks for the letter Thomas. You can pick up your winner's spoils, a freshly ground bag of Strictly Organic coffee, at our office, 704 NW Georgia.
We live in a unique place, and we who live here are a unique bunch of people; hell, even our homeless, so prevalent in today's news, are well-groomed avid bicyclists. Ain't no mall walkers around here, and not because we don't have "malls." We used to, now they're parking lots, because nobody walked in them anyway (which is why they're now parking lots!).
Posted inOpinion
American Mythology
The letdown after Christmas is a natural time to think about some questionable American customs and thought processes, and perhaps to see the fallacies therein. The following comparison list might be helpful in sorting things out.
Myth: Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and has flying reindeer. Reality: Santa is a fantasy so he owns no flying reindeer.
Myth: Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Reality: Christmas is a most stressful season and often a very disappointing time of year.
Posted inOpinion
Do The Math
I thank Ken Czepelka (Jan. 29 issue) for responding to my Jan. 22 letter, "The Solution." I don't personally argue with Ken on what he presented, but it's in conflict with Robert Bryce's 2008 book, "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence." Bryce deals extensively with the "solar" issue. In Chapter 16, "Solar, the 1 percent solution," he provides an analysis by Raymond James and Associates that solar power in residential applications costs $0.37 per Kilowatt-hour, nearly four times conventional sources! Simmons and Company International estimated that even a growth rate of 25 percent a year of solar power capacity would only provide about 1 percent of global electricity demand by year 2020 at a cost of $0.22-$0.84 per Kilowatt-hour. By 2030, the Energy Information Administration estimates that solar power will provide about five billion Kilowatt-hours of electricity to American consumers per year, a mere fraction (0.0015) of the 3,351 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity the agency expects from coal. It's true that the Sun is an unlimited source of power, but cloud cover is also unlimited and is a "killer drawback" according to Bryce, along with a lack of "high-density electrical storage." "Solar power can never be relied upon to provide large quantities of base load power."
Posted inOpinion
Stocking Stuffer
I have in my possession a document that ensured this Pittsburgh Steelers' victory in Super Bowl XLIII as of Christmas Day 2008. (As you are aware this was before the play-offs).
The story is: As a Christmas tradition, our family always put little anonymous gifts in each others' stockings, these we call ''gifts from Santa.''
This year (like most people) we had very little money, and my wife commented to me that our sons were upset that they had nothing to put in my (I'm the dad) stocking. So as not to disappoint them, Christmas morning when we all emptied out our stockings, in Dad's stocking was a document from none other than Santa Claus himself! This document stated that ''Dad's Christmas wish will come true. The Pittsburgh Steelers will be Super Champs for the 2008/2009 season!''
Posted inOutside
Mid-Winter Stoke: A Postcard from Disney World
Dear Readers,
Greetings from sunny Orlando, Florida!
Driving away from the airport through a dead flat sea of urban sprawl on a jam-packed highway tossing quarters into tollbooth baskets, I thought about how much I missed Bend already. I'm here with Meg and Dave Chun to spend four days at Surf Expo, the biggest trade show for the surf industry, selling Kialoa stand-up paddles. Working in the surf biz is a pretty good gig, but even so, you sometimes have to pay your dues. Here, in the land of amusement parks, it's all about escaping reality. My love of surfing is all about connecting to the ocean, oneness with the water, the sun and the moon (what else would you expect from a Pisces?). Ironically, we couldn't be farther from that inside the cavernous, windowless Orange County Convention Center surrounded by thumping music, aisles of stickers and wax flotsam, and a flotilla of surfboards. But, some mid-winter stoke is a very good thing and I thought I'd send some along to the surfers in the crowd.
Posted inOpinion
Stalemates and Check Mate A city council showdown, Daschle dashed, and more!
The City Standoff
Heads or tails. Upfront has been entertained by the new Bend city council's standoff start to the new year. As of Monday councilors remained evenly divided over whom to tap for the seat recently vacated by Chris Telfer, who departed in early January for the state legislature. By law councilors have until Feb. 7 to select Telfer's replacement. That person will serve out the two years remaining on Telfer's term. But several councilors who spoke with Upfront about the stand-off said they didn't foresee any compromise before the deadline, which would force the city to settle the question with a special election (estimated cost $13,000) or with the flip of a coin - a relatively rare but well established political tie-breaker. One councilor who spoke with Upfront on Monday said he thought the council would go with the later method to avoid a costly and politically divisive special election.