The Commercial Underground: Real rockers.The Commercial Underground is about as much of a rock band as you're likely to find in these parts.
The Last Rockers: The Commercial Underground is about as much of a rock band as you’ll find
Posted inMusic
Party on Bend, Party On: GWAR, a snowboarding movie, metal and Jackass antics all in one sitting
You should see these guys on a snowboard.In today's Ritalin-filled youth culture, it seems that the under 25 crowd can be hard to please. We're hard to shock, hard to motivate and hard to entertain with an attention span that seems to get increasingly shorter every year. The economic downturn isn't exactly helping the entertainment scene either. This could be why more and more promoters are pulling out all the stops to try to get people in the door for shows. Case in point: this week, Midtown hosting a joint movie premier and metal show complete with major product giveaways and a TV personality to host it all.
Youthful Bend snowboarding and metal enthusiasts start the night off with Toxic Holocaust, move on to Kingdom of Sorrow, view Mack Dawg's Down With People, get tossed snowboarding gear then end the night spattered in (fake) bodily fluids and blood from their GWAR "experience" all while being entertained by Jackass's "Danger" Ehren McGehee.
Posted inMusic
Playing in the Band: Keller Williams has an all-star band and a grip on the shrinking jam band scene
Oh Keller (third from left) you're so funny.A lot of people originally went to see Keller Williams expressly
because the musician didn't have a band behind him. But now, after more
than a decade of touring, people are rushing to see him because he does
have a band playing with him - rather than the loops and
multi-instrumentational wizardry that's built his reputation.
Williams,
who's not a single-name diva by any means yet is often referred to by
fans on a first-name basis, unveiled the WMDS a couple years back, but
has since moved away from the timely acronym (after learning there was
another band going by that moniker) opting rather to dish out all the
members of the band, calling it Keller Williams with Moseley, Droll and
Sipe. That might sound like a law firm to some, but for devoted live
music fans, it's much more than a list of names - it's a venerated
who's who of improvisational musicians. Keith Moseley played base in
the String Cheese Incident, Gibb Droll is as genius of a guitar player
as there is on the touring circuit and Jeff Sipe is the percussive
powerhouse that once anchored the cult jam band Aquarium Rescue Unit
and toured with Leftover Salmon.
Posted inNews
Random Wanderings on the Morning After
The most surprising thing about this election to The Eye is how blue Deschutes County turned out to be.
Posted inNews
Election Night Mix Tape
Election Day is a strangely stressful time for some yet perhaps a relieving moment for others who would just as soon put their hand in a waffle iron rather than watch another nasty TV attack ad. Depending on your views, tomorrow night is either going to be a time to pour a celebratory glass of champagne or an emotion-numbing goblet of bourbon to prepare you for the next few years of the political landscape.
Posted inCulture
Meet Joe the Painter: Joe Kimmel takes post modern retro
It’s possibly one of the last few sunny Sundays this fall, but Joe
Kimmel is inside, working hard in his studio. Thirteen wood panels lean
up against the concrete walls of Kimmel’s space, many of them still in
progress.
"I definitely have to look at it as coming to the office," says Kimmel,
"whether it’s to make progress or just check in." It is obvious through
our conversation that while it may be artwork, it is what Kimmel lives
and breathes.
Posted inNews
Straightening Out Our Screwed-Up Elections
Isn't it great to live in a state that has vote-by-mail? You have time to read up on the issues and the candidates and give them some careful thought. You can vote from the comfort of your own home, as the cliché goes - a real godsend for elderly folks and the disabled.
Posted inNews
Random Pre-Election Day Wanderings
Randomly wandering thoughts as we near the conclusion of Campaign 2008:
Posted inNews
Sprawl or Intelligent Urban Design?: Bend’s Planning Commission Finally Approves Expanded UGB
Obviously Bend can’t expand the UGB fast enought to keep up with this kind of demand.By all accounts, the 16 months it took for the Bend Urban Area Planning Commission to define and approve a new urban growth boundary for the city seemed like a lifetime, but judging by the raucous applause erupting from the more than 50 people sitting in on the October 28 hearing, many local property owners seemed to approve the plan.
Critics however, are questioning whether the proposed boundary map is anything more than a blueprint for sprawl and a giveaway to builders and developers.
The commission voted 5-1 (Commissioner Nathan Hovekamp cast the only "nay" vote and Commissioner Steve Miller did not attend the hearing) in favor of expanding Bend’s UGB by 8,943 gross acres. The majority of new growth would occur on land bordering the city’s western, northern and eastern edges, with a small portion on Bend’s south side.
Posted inNews
Bachelor’s Pay More, Deliver Less Strategy
The Eye doesn't agree with Bulletin Editor John Costa about very many things, but one thing Costa says has always made a lot of sense to us: You can't offer less and charge more and expect to get more customers.