In reference to your Upfront article last week, the column entitled "World Gone Wild," I can't believe what a callous and demeaning statement Ric E. James made about "the world going to hell in a handbasket thanks to a bunch of bums who didn't pay their mortgages.
Grow a Heart
Posted inOpinion
Freaked Out
Frankly, it scares the heck out of me that someone like Sarah Palin, who desires to be Raptured, has a possibility of being in control of our "Football," that briefcase that is always within the immediate reach of the president and contains our nuclear launch codes in case of nuclear war.
The idea of the Rapture negates any usefulness of the concept of MAD, Mutual Assured Destruction, as a deterrent to nuclear war, she actually wants the destruction to come about, she wants Rapture to happen.
Posted inNews
Inside Bill Sizemore’s Brain
Plenty of celebrities have their own fan sites on the Web, but damn few have their own ANTI-fan sites. And now Bill Sizemore has joined that distinguished company.
Posted inNews
Crunch Time for Transit: Citizens Step to the Plate to Pinch Hit for BAT
Getting out the voteIt’s 9:24 a.m. and Bend Area Transit (BAT) bus number three buzzes along its route through the city’s south side, picking up passengers headed for destinations as diverse as its individual riders, when Annis Henson, seated in the second row, starts speaking out about voter registration and the November election.
Henson grips a clipboard snapped shut on brochures, voter registration forms and a pen. Everyone on the bus swings to attention at the sound of her voice.
"If you haven’t registered to vote yet, I can help you do that this morning," Henson says. "If you’re 17 years old on or before October 14 and you turn 18 by November 3 you can register to vote in the state of Oregon." She answers a bus rider’s question about registering if someone just moved here from out of state. She passes him the clipboard and he begins filling out a voter registration form. At Henson’s count that’s 70 people she’s now registered.
Henson is a member of Citizens for Bend Area Transit (C-BAT), a group of volunteers working to spread the word about a ballot proposal that would create a transit district for Bend and transfer BAT’s operating expenses from the city budget to a permanent property tax increase - 39.3 cents per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value, or about $48 a year for a home assessed at $287,000.
Posted inNews
The Bailout: Smith’s Risky Move
Locked in a tight race with Jeff Merkley, Gordon Smith made a gutsy - and risky - move yesterday in voting for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill in the Senate.
Posted inNews
You Get Tubed: The best of Bend’s YouTube submissions
As promised, here are the videos featured in the "You Get Tubed" story from this week’s special film issue.
Posted inOpinion
Don’t Forget the Hunters
Thank you for the "Wild Things" issue. I'd like to put in a word for another much-maligned predator: Me.
Like the coyote, I hunt too, and I'm fighting a bad public image. People accuse me of being unethical. They say I kill for sport. They embrace nature and try to prevent me from having a place in it. But I'm every bit as necessary to a healthy ecosystem as the coyote and the eagle, and not even in a very different way.
I am, by virtue of what I do, a conservationist. My activity helps to keep in balance that crucial relationship between predator and prey. Skeptics should note that in places where hunting is not allowed (National parks being a prime example) wildlife populations are out of balance. Coyotes, wolves, bears, and cats are doing their part, but it's not enough. Something is missing. There's an unfilled niche.
Society wants to believe that four legged predators can fill that gap, but there's a problem. Animals are unreliable. They tend to wander. They hunt where they want, not where they're needed. They kill what they can catch, not always what's most expendable. They never have nor ever will be able to fill the wildlife management role that man has occupied for eons.
Posted inCulture
Make A Joyful Bosom Affair: One woman’s birthday gift is another’s force majeure
“A woman needs a man,” by Kristin ProvostLenora James was in a pickle. This last May, the Bend woman forgot to
send a birthday gift to a friend celebrating her "Happy Boobday."
James, inspired by the breast theme, applied paint to her breasts and
imprinted them on a blank canvas
She soon realized this was a
perfect fund-raising project to fight breast cancer. Members of James'
family had struggled with the disease, and she had just helped a close
friend cope with the Easter Sunday death of her mother. James soon
contacted the Sara Fisher Project (the breast cancer education and
assistance powerhouse based in Bend) and the Joyful Bosom Affair was
born.
The original goal of the Affair was simple: get women to
paint their breasts, press them onto a canvas and incorporate the
imprints into a painting. The paintings would then be displayed and
sold at the First Friday Art Walk on October 3 as well as the Bend Fall
Festival with the proceeds going to the Sara Fisher project.
Posted inCulture
Doing the Thing Right: Spike Lee scores with epic saga
Is that a head you got there?You gotta hand it to Spike Lee. He's willing to take risks. With
Miracle at St Anna, the risk is a larger-than-life mainstream war movie
that tries to hold onto his visionary/radical/art-house/civil rights
themes
From the first scene of an ex-Buffalo soldier watching The
Longest Day with John Wayne on TV, to a final scene of extremely
questionable merit, this is an epic saga of redemption cloaked in a war
story mystery. While working at the post office, Hector Negron (Laz
Alonso) shoots a man he recognizes from his past. Subsequently, the
head of an extremely rare statue is found in his closet. His story is
then told in flashback form, following the trials of the Buffalo
soldiers' of the 92nd Infantry Division. A big oafish soldier, Train
(Omar Benson Miller), carries around (for good luck) the aforementioned
statue head he found in some ruins. The soldiers, under the command of
Staff Sergeant Stamps (Derek Luke), travel out of radio contact to an
Italian village and hole up with an Italian family. The impending
arrival of German troops adds tension and the plot gets almost too big
to handle, but even when it meandered I liked it. The use of clips that
could've easily hit the editing floor captures the kind of idiotic
small talk that might prevail when doom waits around every corner.
Posted inCulture
A Wild Ride: Eagle Eye delivers adrenalized action
Run shia, run.Even if you normally pick up a double Americano on the way to the
movies, I would advise against it if your destination is Eagle Eye. You
may find yourself on your back with electric paddles on your chest and
a medic screaming, "Clear!" This movie is one all-out-Space
Mountain-on-acid-thrill ride where you won't need any supplements to
boost your heart rate.
Even veteran high octane cinema junkies may be
surprised at Director D.J. Caruso's ability to bury your head against
the headrest and put a cinematic G force on you that may cause your
date to scream.
After US forces bomb a Middle Eastern terrorist
target - despite computer warnings there is barely 50% probability we
have the correct target - we jump to Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) - a card
shark and copy shop employee whose prospects are dim. After an earlier
collaboration with Caruso in Disturbia and a major role in the last
Indiana Jones movie, LaBeouf moves into the action hero mold alongside
actors like Matt Damon and Daniel Craig. And LaBeouf handles the role
with both believability and style.