Great Expectations: Driving Miss Daisy succeeds at Tower Theatre

Posted inCulture

Great Expectations: Driving Miss Daisy succeeds at Tower Theatre

Mike Bookey

It's only the second performance by the cast of Driving Miss Daisy, but
it seems like the 100th. Cast members Michael Learned, Willis Burks II
and Dirk Blocker are seasoned acting veterans and it shows. As the show
ends and the lights on the stage go out, the nearly full theater for
Sunday's matinee performance is immediately on its feet and the
applause echoes off the walls of the Tower Theatre. The three actors
take their bows and exit stage left. With several local theater
companies in Bend putting out quality productions on a regular basis,
the cast of Driving Miss Daisy had some high standards to live up to.
After all, this wasn't a community theater performance where you expect
a few mistakes here and there. These were professional actors and the
audience wanted a production akin to those in New York, Los Angeles or,
at the very least, Portland and Seattle. Thankfully, this play lived up
to all the expectations.

Posted inOutside

A Bad Rap: Follow a few rules in rattlesnake country

Jim Anderson

Whoa there, that’s a western rattlesnake.Among the magnificent variety of reptiles you may meet up with as
you're wandering around the Northwest is the much maligned, greatly
feared and infamous Great Basin Rattlesnake, a subspecies of the
Western Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis (spp).
Contrary to popular
opinion, rattlesnakes are not "poisonous," they are venomous, and as
such, they do pose a threat to humankind. However, the idea of
"impending doom" to humans has been exaggerated to the point of
absurdity. If you are in rattlesnake country, you should use the same
amount of caution when you drive your vehicle through a construction
project or school zone.
If you traveled any distance in a motor
vehicle to visit the land of rattlesnakes, you have experienced a
greater threat to your safety and welfare than meeting up with a snake.
Motor vehicle accidents have killed and maimed – and are still killing
and maiming – thousands of times more people than all the rattlesnake
deaths in the US ever since we began keeping records about such things.

Posted inOutside

On the Comeback Trail: Another bike/car crash, talking Lance and more

Pam Stevenson

Local olympian Barb Buchan with legendary cycling coach Eddie B. IS IT SAFE TO RIDE
YOUR BIKE IN BEND?
Last week, I told my story of
being hit by a car while riding my bike. I don't have the data to
statistically prove an epidemic, but it sure seems like one. Naturally,
I've now heard all sorts of other stories and just this past week there
were two new serious incidents in which cyclists were struck by cars. A
lot of the feedback to my article, and others, rants about the Bend
Police Department letting the automobile drivers off the hook.
Ironically, an off-duty police officer was one of the victims this
week, so we'll see if striking close to home has any impact.
Sadly,
Bend is becoming a scary place to ride and I'd love to see our city
make a real effort to become more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly. I'm
jealous when I visit other cities that seem to care so much more about
this. In Ketchum this summer, I was impressed by their bike paths. When
I lived in Boulder and Palo Alto, I rode the dedicated bike paths all
the time. Even little things can make a difference. Can someone tell me
why the bike path up to Summit High, one of our rare segments of bike
path, does not have a curb cut to allow access? What excuse is there
for the lack of a pedestrian crosswalk across Galveston at the south
end of Drake Park? That crossing is officially considered part of the
River Trail. I'm hoping that we've reached the critical mass of
tragedies that makes this issue a priority.

Posted inCulture

Cold Dark Ride: Transsiberian veers off the tracks

Mike Bookey

I’ve listened to preachers, I’ve listened to fools. Opening with an intriguing and deftly shot scene, Transsiberian
promises a film that will look good, even if it goes sour. And sadly,
sour it goes. Nevertheless, there's something compelling about this
snow-driven trek

A do-gooder American couple (not without their
own problems), Roy and Jessie (Woody Harrelson/Emily Mortimer), depart
for a charity trip, traveling from China to Russia via the historic
Trans-Siberian train. They meet up with a suspicious couple, Carlos and
Abby (Eduardo Noriega/Kate Mara) whose motives immediately become
questionable. After a few misguided episodes, Russian narcotics officer
Grinko (Ben Kingsley) joins in the dreary ride.
What was really
lacking as the movie progressed was a sense of urgency. The time it
took setting up the characters could have been well spent giving us
more clues, or deception around the characters’ real agendas. The
tables get turned a couple of times, but nothing that psychologically
intimidates or fools us. On the whole, the train stops in loophole city
way too often.

Posted inCulture

True Romance: Choke finds an unexpected vein of sweetness in the creator of Fight Club.

Mike Bookey

Shakespeare in love. Clark Gregg did it. I wouldn't recommend trying, but he did it. This is Chuck Palahniuk we're talking about, after all.

The creator of Fight Club.

The nihilist.
The gross-out artist.
The
guy who famously or infamously or anecdotally inspired multiple people
to drop over in a dead faint at readings of a story about heinous
masturbation-inspired mishaps.
That grotesque, pathetic, twisted guy.
But
Clark Gregg did it. He took Palahniuk's Choke as screenwriter and
director and found another vein. Buried beneath the blasphemy and the
bodily fluids and the self-loathing was a story about redemption.
About recovery.
About love.
Clark
Gregg turned Chuck Palahniuk into a romantic. Or maybe he just pulled
back the covers to expose the romantic that was already there. It's
certainly not easy to see at first in the tale of Victor Mancini (Sam
Rockwell), who's messed up in so many ways that it's hard to know where
to begin. He attends 12-step meetings for sex addiction with his best
friend and compulsive masturbator Denny (Brad William Henke), but
pretty much only so he can pick up women. He visits with his ailing
mother Ida (Anjelica Huston), but her dementia has reached the point
where she doesn't even recognize him. And while he has a job at a
colonial theme park, he supplements his income by shoving food down his
throat at restaurants, finding someone to save his life, and becoming
the beneficiary of his newfound saviors' sense of connection.

Posted inFood & Drink

Happy Hour: Astro Lounge

Alice Finer

What’s the ideal menu for a seven-year-old’s birthday? How about hush
puppies and pigs in blankets? Pizza and chips and dip? Sounds perfect,
though when the party’s for the seventh anniversary of Astro
Lounge-Bend’s one-shop answer to Northwest Portland or Williamsburg,
Brooklyn-you can bet that those old favorites come with an attitude and
a formidable playlist. Astro Lounge, once largely a waiting room for
its neighboring restaurant Marz, is all grown up, independent, and
serving one of the best happy hour deals in town.

Posted inFood & Drink

Happy Hour: Astro Lounge

Alice Finer

What's the ideal menu for a seven-year-old's birthday? How about hush
puppies and pigs in blankets? Pizza and chips and dip? Sounds perfect,
though when the party's for the seventh anniversary of Astro
Lounge-Bend's one-shop answer to Northwest Portland or Williamsburg,
Brooklyn-you can bet that those old favorites come with an attitude and
a formidable playlist. Astro Lounge, once largely a waiting room for
its neighboring restaurant Marz, is all grown up, independent, and
serving one of the best happy hour deals in town.

Posted inFood & Drink

Island Hopping: Bend’s Hawaiian dining expands with Aloha

Mike Bookey

The full meal deal at Aloha.There may not be enough inexpensive meals downtown for some people’s
taste, but that’s not a problem in eastside “Costco Hub.” The corner of
Hwy 20 and 27th Street has a bevy of low-priced options, some worth
checking out and some worth skipping. Since February one of those
worthy spots has been Aloha Café.

Sandwiched between Super Cuts and
China Doll in the Crossroads Plaza strip mall, Aloha Café greets you
with neon hula girls and surfboards hanging from the wall. The menu is
posted overhead and the ordering is done at the counter. The food comes
up almost instantly and is brought out to your table. This is no-frills
eats that will fill you up and not break the bank.
The choices
are beef, chicken and pork with sides of white or brown rice, yakisoba
noodles, coleslaw, chips and potato-macaroni salad. There are a variety
of “mix-plates” with a number of meats and sides and even Da Big Kahuna
($11.75), a sample of everything that’s enough to share.

Posted inFood & Drink

Island Hopping: Bend’s Hawaiian dining expands with Aloha

Mike Bookey

The full meal deal at Aloha.There may not be enough inexpensive meals downtown for some people's
taste, but that’s not a problem in eastside "Costco Hub." The corner of
Hwy 20 and 27th Street has a bevy of low-priced options, some worth
checking out and some worth skipping. Since February one of those
worthy spots has been Aloha Café.

Sandwiched between Super Cuts and
China Doll in the Crossroads Plaza strip mall, Aloha Café greets you
with neon hula girls and surfboards hanging from the wall. The menu is
posted overhead and the ordering is done at the counter. The food comes
up almost instantly and is brought out to your table. This is no-frills
eats that will fill you up and not break the bank.
The choices
are beef, chicken and pork with sides of white or brown rice, yakisoba
noodles, coleslaw, chips and potato-macaroni salad. There are a variety
of "mix-plates" with a number of meats and sides and even Da Big Kahuna
($11.75), a sample of everything that’s enough to share.

Posted inMusic

Sequels Don’t Always Suck: The Stage Names-Okkervil River

Mike Bookey

Austin-based Okkervil River's release The Stage Names, a beautifully crafted album discussing the obsession with celebrity and populated with "mid-level bands," washed-up porn stars, and poets jumping off bridges, was on several Best Of lists for 2007.
The Stand Ins is the sequel to that album-further expanding on the idea of life for those slightly outside of the spotlight. Is the idea of fame, a public face, and the emptiness of acclaim enough to fill two albums full of songs? Well, when the songs are written by Will Sheff, yes.

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