There was plenty to do on Saturday night with Tentareign's big rock show at the Tower, music at both martini bars and the Silver Moon, but still, there was a big crowd at the Tulen Center. And where the big crowds go, so does Sound Check (for the most part) which is why we found ourselves among a horde of well-meaning folks at the benefit show for Britt Leis and Lia Koehn, the Bend couple who was attacked while traveling through Ecuador.
Trying Out This Whole Charity Fad
Posted inMusic
This Week in Rap: Cramming big hip-hop names into a single week
Insert ego-stroking self reference. The phenomenon of the multi-platinum, mega-famous rap star is somewhat
of a dying trend, but you wouldn't know it by what's on the marquee at
Midtown for next week. The venue is host to not just one large-scale
rap show, but two in a row. It's former G-Unit member Young Buck
headlining a "Hip-hop Comedy Jam" on Tuesday night, then three members
of the storied rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony taking to the stage on
Thursday night.
We've spilled a good amount of ink in the past couple
of months about the influx in indie hip-hop making its way through
town, we haven't done the same for the big-name, commercial acts like
Young Buck and the Bone Thugs guys. This is largely because mainstream
hip-hop acts don't stop off in town too often. But this isn't to say
there isn't a want for these sort of tours. Hell, even if we're not all
that urban, we can still get all crunked up when we find it necessary.
Posted inCulture
Our Picks for the Week of 11/26-12/4
Thanksgiving Eve!
wednesday 26
This isn't a specific event, per say, but rather recognition of a widely celebrated yet hardly mentioned holiday called Thanksgiving Eve. Every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, revelers from in and out of town flood the bars with the knowledge that they have the following day off (even if it means some semi-stressful family get-togethers).
Posted inNews
One Way or Another: After losing election, Barram wins council appointment
In what may be one of its last official actions, the lame duck city
council named a fellow "progressive" to fill a vacancy created when
councilor and former Mayor Bill Friedman died earlier this month after
complications from back surgery.
On a "party line" vote councilors
took Jodie Barram over Don Leonard and Robin Vora. The three candidates
had been culled from a list of more than a dozen applicants for the
open spot. It's one of five positions that has been or will have to be
filled between November and January through election or appointment as
part of an unprecedented turnover on the city council.
Posted inNews
A One-Way Trip?: Bend’s transit supporters weigh next move in the face of cuts
Chase Hovan is the kind of bus rider who drives Annis Henson crazy.
An 18-year old COCC student who is learning to play piano and studying music production, Hovan uses the bus to get to and from his classes almost everyday. Standing at a bus stop outside the local Ace Hardware store on Third Street, Hovan has a snowboarder-style hoodie pulled up against the morning chill. A shock of red hair sticks out from underneath his ball cap; he could probably pass for boarding star Shaun White - or at least as his brother.
Asked what he thought of the fledgling bus system, Hovan was quick to speak for its necessity.
"It's awesome," he said. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't have it."
But when asked if he voted to preserve the bus with a local property tax increase just a few weeks ago, Hovan conceded that he had not.
Posted inOpinion
Glass Slipper: A Reprieve for BAT
Bend Area Transit hit some rough terrain in its early going - the worst pothole being its purchase of eight lemon buses from a slick used-bus salesman in California.
It was a costly mistake, and it happened because BAT officials didn't exercise due diligence.
Posted inOpinion
eHarmony comes out of the closet: Sarah Palin’s turkey take, Obama’s mythology, more
Re-Nailin' Palin
Who you callin' turkey?Even though we've devoted a lot of Upfront and WTF
space to Alaska's most endearing governor Sarah Palin and we're pretty
sure that 75 percent of readers would like nothing more to never hear
her name again, we couldn't resist. Short of Palin actually dressing up
in a stars and stripes bikini and shooting a moose with a rifle while
waving to the Russians, Palin's recent "Thanksgiving Turkey Massacre"
video, which has become a staple of YouTube e-mail forwards says it all.
Some
background: As part of her duties as governor of the great state of
Alaska, Mrs. Palin must pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. Unfortunately,
the rest of the turkeys at the Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside of
Wasilla, were not as lucky.
The scene: While Palin talks about
her VP run and her appreciation for "good Americans who are just
desiring of their government to kinda get outta the way and allow them
to grow and progress and allow their businesses to grow and progress,"
a turkey is stuffed into a killing cone where its throat is slit and
it's bled out into a trough. While Palin answers a question about
budget cuts, another unfortunate fowl is crammed down the cone.
Posted inOpinion
UGB is a Recipe for Sprawl
This week's letter comes from former city councilor John Schubert who
asks a question that's been on a lot of people's minds lately: "What's
with the massive urban growth boundary expansion proposal?"
An
advocate of smart growth and alternative transportation planning,
Schubert questions whether the city's past subsidies to the building
community have led to the current fiscal crisis in Bend. Thanks for the
letter, John. You can claim your prize for this week's winning letter
at the Source headquarters, 704 NW Georgia.
I recently I flew from Frankfurt, Germany to Moscow and marveled at how
clearly the land use patterns unfolded below me. Compact town led to
open agricultural land led to forest land, and then the pattern
repeated, over and over, mile after mile. No rural sprawl as in
Deschutes County; no fuzzy boundary between city and farmland as in
Bend; no homes in the forest. Later in the trip I remarked on my flight
observations to a German acquaintance I met. I asked why he thought
this was so. Without a second hesitation, he said, "It is most
certainly because to do anything else is incredibly wasteful of
government money and natural resources."
Posted inOpinion
Don’t Dismiss 2030
Thank you for sending a reporter to our recent Town Hall event. We would like to add some clarity that would give your readers a more detailed picture of the purpose of Bend 2030 and of the highlights of the evening event.
The Bend 2030 Board is designed to be a public/private partnership that will foster support for and oversee implementation of the Bend 2030 Action Plans. Bend 2030 is a legal 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. We work with the City of Bend, a Lead Partner, but Bend 2030 is independent from the City of Bend.
Posted inOpinion
Imperialism 101
In preparing a nation for war, imperial war leaders have to create a
visible and highly charged emotional sense of injustice and
righteousness to secure national cohesion. Their challenge is to
overcome the natural human opposition to early death and the
destruction of civilian life.
The need to invent a cause for war
is especially important with imperialist countries, because their
national territory is not under threat. There is no visible occupation
army oppressing the people in their everyday life nor does the "enemy"
disrupt normal life.
The task of imperial rulers is to fabricate
a world in which the enemy to be attacked is portrayed as an "invader"
or "aggressor." Since all US imperial wars are fought overseas - far
from any immediate threats, attacks or invasions - US imperial rulers
have the special task of making the reasons for war immediate, dramatic
and self-righteously defensive.