Off The Deep End: Surrealistic masterpiece creates the ultimate existential dilemma

Posted inCulture

Off The Deep End: Surrealistic masterpiece creates the ultimate existential dilemma

Mike Bookey

Been waitin' for the bus all day. Knowing writer Charlie Kaufman's (Being John Malkovich/Adaptation) warped sense of humor, I figured the misspelling of Schenectady, New York was a setup for a cool in-joke. Turns out "synecdoche" is a real word, which according to Webster's means, "a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as society for high society).

And Synecdoche New York is set in Schenectady. This movie is a surreal mess, mesmerizing in its complexities, perfectly depicting depressing beauty with stunning diatribes of madness, loneliness and despair. It's also a hilariously dark comedy.
Directing for the first time, Kaufman delivers what seems a straightforward story, but after a few minutes things start to twist. The first few hints involve the misinterpretation and mispronunciation of words. Kaufman then begins to fill the screen with images and ideas at a rapid pace. Soon we figure out that it's not going to do us any good to try and make sense of this journey. Just sit back and enjoy the circus.

Posted inFood & Drink

The Real McCoy: Going large at the Cowboy Dinner Tree

Mike Bookey

Nuthin’ fancy at the Cowboy Dinner TreeSilver Lake, Oregon is a place where the word cowboy means a job, not a style of dress. And for bonafide cowboy cuisine, the Cowboy Dinner Tree is The Real McCoy. The legendary, albeit out of the way, steakhouse is set off of one of Oregon’s Scenic Byways in the heart of the Oregon Outback.

It’s rugged country for sure. But it’s also a place where you can drive for many miles undisturbed in your thoughts as you reflect on the hearty souls who decided to take up ranching in this land of sagebrush, mountain lions and ferocious winds. The desolate landscape is surprisingly refreshing, and I enjoy its uncomplicated terrain in the same way I appreciate the simple, authentic food at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.
No Morton’s of Chicago is this. For $23.50 you get either a steak or chicken dinner. Sound mundane? Just wait. The steak is an aged top sirloin that is portioned into a true Cowboy Cut of 26 to 30 ounces. Twelve to 24 hours before it is served, the steak gets a special dry rub. What has now become your dinner steak is cooked over an outdoor barbeque to medium rare once you’re seated.

Posted inFood & Drink

The Real McCoy: Going large at the Cowboy Dinner Tree

Mike Bookey

Nuthin' fancy at the Cowboy Dinner TreeSilver Lake, Oregon is a place where the word cowboy means a job, not a style of dress. And for bonafide cowboy cuisine, the Cowboy Dinner Tree is The Real McCoy. The legendary, albeit out of the way, steakhouse is set off of one of Oregon's Scenic Byways in the heart of the Oregon Outback.

It's rugged country for sure. But it's also a place where you can drive for many miles undisturbed in your thoughts as you reflect on the hearty souls who decided to take up ranching in this land of sagebrush, mountain lions and ferocious winds. The desolate landscape is surprisingly refreshing, and I enjoy its uncomplicated terrain in the same way I appreciate the simple, authentic food at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.
No Morton's of Chicago is this. For $23.50 you get either a steak or chicken dinner. Sound mundane? Just wait. The steak is an aged top sirloin that is portioned into a true Cowboy Cut of 26 to 30 ounces. Twelve to 24 hours before it is served, the steak gets a special dry rub. What has now become your dinner steak is cooked over an outdoor barbeque to medium rare once you're seated.

Posted inMusic

Yeah, We Called it

The Source Staff

Empty Space Orchestra: Pre-snow shovel jam.Not trying to brag or boast (or eat French toast), but Sound Check's prediction for what was to go down last Saturday night was pretty much dead on. Yup, nailed it!

As forecasted on the Our Picks page last week, we said that folks would start up the night at the Silver Moon for the gutted version of Larry and His Flask, and so they did. Music fans rocked the moon as the increasingly wacky yet acoustic members of LAHF tossed their bodies around the room. The band then offered up praise for Hillstomp, the Portland gritty blues duo playing across the street at the Domino Room and instructed its fans to head over to that show as they wrapped up their own set.

Posted inMusic

Taking the Music to the People: When Brad Tisdel isn’t helping others enjoy music, he’s playing

The Source Staff

Relax, Mr. Tisdel. You've earned it.Editor's Note: This profile was originally slated to run in our Local
Heroes issue, but was inadvertently omitted. Better late than never, eh?
The
fact that Sisters has about 10 times as much musical energy as a
typical American town of its size is not an accident. While some of
this is due in part to the vein of creativity that seems to run through
the center of the cowboy town, a good deal of recognition also should
be handed to Brad Tisdel.

Posted inMusic

Liner Notes: Feeling Grouchy?

The Source Staff

GROUCH: OUT TO STEAL YOUR CHRISTMAS.At the rate that hip-hop shows - both indie acts as well as
bling-and-boast rappers-are stomping through town as of late, it seems
we need a whole space dedicated to hip-hop music in this paper. While
we don't exactly have real estate reserved for that purpose quite yet,
we will give you a de facto column with this update on the Grouch and
Eligh show coming up at the Domino Room on Monday night.

Posted inMusic

Leif James 2.0: He’s back with a new band, a no-booze policy and a disdain for fake cowboys

The Source Staff

New band, new hat, same duct-taped guitar.The last time I formally interviewed Leif James, it was a strangely
warm spring day in 2007. The article was about James' career as a
street performer and the quick rise to local notoriety of his then
band, Poor Bastard's Romance. After the interview he propped up in the
breezeway connecting Wall and Brooks streets and began strumming for
some extra beer money.

Last week, on the day after Thanksgiving, it
was a different Leif James sitting at a café table lining Bond Street.
First off, James is now married with his first child on the way.
Secondly, his Poor Bastard Romance days are long behind him, the band
having broken up in 2007, and now he's either playing his acoustic rock
songs solo or as a locally grown act he's dubbed Leif James and the
Struggle. And there's no longer any strumming for beer money.

Posted inOpinion

Congratulations, Jodie – and let’s set the record straight.

Eric Flowers

As I have already told Jodie Barram, I am happy for her and I think she will do a good job in filling Bill Friedman's council position. I have worked on the Bend Planning Commission with Jodie for many years, and have found that she takes a cautious and reasoned approach to her decisions. I look forward to working with her in some capacity with the City in the future.

However, I want to address some "misrepresentations" of my positions in Eric Flowers' article "One Way or Another: After losing election, Barram wins council appointment." First, while I do disagree with the current vision of Juniper Ridge, I have never said that I want to dismantle the City's Juniper Ridge Economic Development Plan. I believe there should be more industrial land and less research park. It will be the industrial land that will help create family wage jobs for all segments of the population. I have stated publicly that it is time to let the Juniper Ridge Management Committee do its task of guiding the future of Juniper Ridge. I wouldn't stand in the way of that process.

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