Black Friday was a pretty good day for local retailers, at least if you believe the story on the front page of this morning's Bulletin.
Taking a Rosy View of Black Friday
Posted inNews
Random Wanderings Through Jersey
The Eye wandered East to our New Jersey birthplace to spend Thanksgiving with relatives and came back with a few random observations:
Posted inMusic
Blues, Buckets, Repeat: Making sense of Bend’s love for Hillstomp
Prepare to be stomped…again.You can overstay your welcome here in Bend. And I'm not talking about
your ski bum cousin who slept on your couch for three months last
winter. Rather, I'm referring to out-of-town bands that reappear in
town over and over, eventually losing their appeal after that new band
smell wears off. We've seen it with reggae bands from Eugene and jam
bands from the Bay area.
But there are a few bands that we don't mind
letting lounge around the figurative couch that is our music scene.
Perfect example: Portland's gritty blues rock duo Hillstomp. By this
publication's count, the band's show at the Domino Room on Saturday is
its fourth appearance in the last year. One might expect the numbers to
dwindle with each show, but that isn't the case - these guys are
gathering larger crowds each time they cross over the Cascades.
Posted inNews
Turncoat Joe Gave $5,000 to Gordo
It was no secret that Joe Lieberman supported John McCain. But it came as a surprise Wednesday when campaign finance reports revealed that he also gave money to Gordon Smith.
Posted inNews
Another Present for Bend Developers
The Bend Urban Area Planning Commission is wrapping up a little early Christmas present for the local builder/developer lobby.
Posted inOutside
The BCS Revolt
The snowball that is coaches and other big-wigs calling for a Division I college football playoff is getting bigger by the week, and the Big 12 Conference this season is making a case for a playoff all by itself.
This after a weekend that saw then No.
Posted inOutside
CBC is coming! Christmas means one thing: Time to count some birds
Cal Elshoff of Bend and Mt. Chickadee of the forest looking each other in the eye. Before you go any further, pick up your indelible pen and mark the
dates of December 14 through January 5, 2009 and write "CBC." Those are
the dates for the 109th Christmas Bird Count, from which
ornithologists, biologists, land managers, habitat scientists and
millions of birders throughout the country glean data and great fun
regarding birds. Can't beat that, no matter what.
During this time,
tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the New World of the
Americas – North, South and points in-between – will take part in a
family birding tradition that has no end of joy and scientific value.
Posted inOutside
Black Friday: Only 27 shopping says ’til Christmas!
The object of my affection.Months ago, I said I'd write about Stuff again. So, just in time for your holiday shopping, here is my Top Ten list of outdoor gear. It's not a list of the ten essentials recommended for survival nor the hottest, coolest, most unaffordable equipment. It's just a random collection of some of my ol' faves and a few things on my wishlist, David Letterman style:
Posted inCulture
Gears of War 2: Grinding through another shooter sequel
War! What is it good for?When the Xbox 360 was put into the hands of gamers, the one title that
was to ride its wave was Halo 3. That was true for the most part, but
another shooter has made a lot of gamers happy, the original Gears of
War, which was released back in the fall of 2006. The game sold more
than five million copies and garnered a huge following. The fact that
so many gamers continue to play the original Gears online despite a lot
of competition from newer games in the same genre says a lot about the
game's strengths.
Posted inCulture
Vampire Love: Twilight is another case of book’s better, but still not bad
Besides bloodlust, we have great hearing and a keen fashion sense. "Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone I loved. Noble even. That ought to count for something."
Thus begins the new movie, Twilight, inspired by the first of four books about a young girl and her vampire boyfriend by Stephanie Meyers, and in the hands of virtually every young girl aged 11 to 20 in America right now. Four novels, seventeen million copies - get the picture?
I have to admit, I didn't read the book and went in cold. And I was mesmerized. The story involves a sixteen-year-old high school student, Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart), who leaves her single mom in Arizona to go and live with her policeman dad in Forks, Washington. It's a gorgeous setting for this film: grey, perpetually foggy, green, mossy, mysterious, and, most importantly for vampires, sunless.