Girl Star Power: The Secret Life of Bees

Posted inCulture

Girl Star Power: The Secret Life of Bees

Rachel Purcell

The Queen BeeCasting can be everything. A well-chosen cast can make the fairly unimaginative adaptation of a well-loved novel into something worth seeing. Writer/director Gina Prince Bythewood (Love and Basketball)did well by the characters from Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling novel The Secret Life of Bees, though at the expense of plot development.
A waif-ish and often disheveled Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) plays the emotionally fragile and love-starved Lily Owens. At four years old Lily was responsible for her mother's death, "And that's all I know about myself," fourteen-year old Lily narrates in the opening scene. Accompanied by housekeeper Rosaleen (played by Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls), Lily runs away from her harsh and emotionally abusive father (Paul Bettany, sans British accent). The two travel to Tiburon, South Carolina where they are taken in by the beekeeping Boatwright sisters.
It is August Boatwright (Oscar winner Queen Laitfah, Chicago), the ubiquitous and wise head of the family that decides to take in Lily and Rosaleen against the wishes of her sister June (Alicia Keys, Smokin Aces).

Posted inCulture

Integrity First: Stone breaks out the kid gloves for W.

Mike Bookey

Over the falls in a barrelAt first I thought I was watching a trick movie. This is no scathing statement on the evils of the Bush administration, nor does it take a feel-good, pro-Bush stance. W. paints an unflattering yet surprisingly sympathetic picture of George W. Bush. This is perhaps even more surprising given the man at the helm of the film, Oliver Stone. Where's the conspiracy theory? Where's the self-righteous anger? I get the distinct impression he doesn't want to kick a dead horse when it's down.
Stone has said that while George W. Bush was completely unfit to be president, he also learned that he's not such a bad guy. And so it goes in this saga of W (Josh Brolin). We get to see the fraternity days and his penchant of calling everyone by nick names, his years of heavy drinking and carousing, his stammering courtship of Laura Bush (Elizabeth Banks), his relationship with his pastor (a big and beefy Stacy Keach) and his subsequent switch from booze to born again. But the main crux of the movie is his relationship with "Poppy," aka Bush senior (James Cromwell), and his inability to please him. It's the age-old Oedipal story. After dodging all responsibility. Bush still wants to please his dad, and finds God in the process. In essence, he spends the rest of the movie trying to please both of his fathers: the biological and the heavenly one.

Posted inFood & Drink

Bring a Bib

Mike Bookey

Double the BunThere’s nothing like a good Italian delicatessen. With an array of products from the old country and a deli case stuffed with cheese wheels and lengths of salamis of every size, delis serve up atmosphere, neighborhood camaraderie and customer service that’s as alluring as the food.
Rick Adamo and Tom Coleman felt there was a void in Bend’s dining options, specifically a lack of a good Italian delicatessen. Being motivated entrepreneurs, they jumped on the opportunity and Tony’s Delicatessen was born.
Prior to starting Tony’s, Adamo and Coleman shared an office at the Bend Athletic Club and a dream: they wanted to own a restaurant of their own. Adamo was the club’s food and beverage director and Coleman was director of the managerial staff. They calculated that they had 55-plus years of restaurant business experience between them and both grew up in the food industry.
Since opening three months ago, Tony’s grinders have earned a well-deserved reputation as big, messy and delicious. The “Mario’s Meatballs” is a crusty bun loaded with juicy meatballs and Tony’s soon-to-be-famous marinara sauce. “Tony’s Cheese Steak” is a drippy delight of thin strips of lean choice steak grilled with sweet bell peppers and onions stuffed into a hoagie roll and topped with melted provolone. These are the kind of sandwiches that require three or four napkins and are worth every goopy stain.

Posted inFood & Drink

Bring a Bib

Mike Bookey

Double the BunThere's nothing like a good Italian delicatessen. With an array of products from the old country and a deli case stuffed with cheese wheels and lengths of salamis of every size, delis serve up atmosphere, neighborhood camaraderie and customer service that's as alluring as the food.
Rick Adamo and Tom Coleman felt there was a void in Bend's dining options, specifically a lack of a good Italian delicatessen. Being motivated entrepreneurs, they jumped on the opportunity and Tony's Delicatessen was born.
Prior to starting Tony's, Adamo and Coleman shared an office at the Bend Athletic Club and a dream: they wanted to own a restaurant of their own. Adamo was the club's food and beverage director and Coleman was director of the managerial staff. They calculated that they had 55-plus years of restaurant business experience between them and both grew up in the food industry.
Since opening three months ago, Tony's grinders have earned a well-deserved reputation as big, messy and delicious. The "Mario's Meatballs" is a crusty bun loaded with juicy meatballs and Tony's soon-to-be-famous marinara sauce. "Tony's Cheese Steak" is a drippy delight of thin strips of lean choice steak grilled with sweet bell peppers and onions stuffed into a hoagie roll and topped with melted provolone. These are the kind of sandwiches that require three or four napkins and are worth every goopy stain.

Posted inMusic

Out of Town

Mike Bookey

portland
friday 24
Umphrey's McGee
Indiana's famous anything-goes jam band is known for their exciting concerts and mix of pop-rock, jazz, prog-metal and classical. Touted as the heirs to Phish's throne (which, with the reunion of Phish, now makes UM lowly princes of jam bandom we suppose) and with the June release of Jimmy Stewart 2007, the band is on tour with a slew of new songs to mix in with fan favorites.

Posted inMusic

Ray LaMontagne: Gossip in the Grain

Mike Bookey

Ray LaMontagne:
Gossip in the Grain
Ray LaMontagne got his groove back. His new album, Gossip in The Grain, is by no means breaking new ground, but with soul singers leaning on a wall of horns in the upbeat opener "You are the Best Thing," Ray sets a mood much more akin to his debut Trouble than to the beautiful bleakness of 2006's Till the Sun Turns Black.

Posted inMusic

Corner of Political Avenue and Music Street

Mike Bookey

There are some folks we ardently believe music and politics should be separated by some sort of church-and-state dividing line. These are people who cut their ties with the Dixie Chicks when they went anti-Bush and dumped their Pearl Jam CD collections when Eddie Vedder wrote "Bushleaguer."
But cutting a line between music and politics is tough, seeing as how the relationship originated long before rock and roll. It seems the reality is that the intersection of music and politics is a busy street corner, full of fender benders and jaywalkers - especially in the weeks leading up to a presidential election.
The local music community is jumping right into the intersection of Music Street and Political Avenue on Wednesday the 29th at the Silver Moon with the Bend installment of "Singin' About a Revolution," an event presented by former Bendite Cris Kelly, which is also taking place in Portland and Ashland. Kelly is a musician who plays in the Ashland-based band One Horse Shy and says politics has certainly played a role in his musical career.

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