Doing the Thing Right: Spike Lee scores with epic saga

Posted inCulture

Doing the Thing Right: Spike Lee scores with epic saga

Mike Bookey

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

Mike Bookey

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.

Posted inMusic

Festival Season Will Never Die!

The Source Staff

Step into the barn at the Outback Music Festival.There's a good chance you already packed up all your summer music
festival gear…the folding chairs, the tent, the bug spray and even the
sequined cape and matching mask. You sealed all of these away for next
summer, when you'll reemerge from your winter cocoon come Memorial Day
Weekend just in time to head up to Sasquatch.
But head out to the
garage and start digging because the people who brought you the Coyote
Festival earlier this summer have made it their mission to extend
summer at least one more weekend for the Outback Music Festival. Held
in the same Summer Lake (near Paisley, Ore.) location of the Coyote
Fest, this event is slated to kick off on Friday and run until Sunday.
Organizers say the ticket fee covers your camping as well as access to
the hot springs located on site - not a bad deal at all, especially
when it means an extra week of summer (or at least summer mentality).

Posted inMusic

Weekend Rally: Getting our Bend Roots stuck and trying to dance with Taj

Elise Jones

The Dirty Words Display the Ultimate Rock Star Stance.With Oktoberfest raging downtown on Oregon Avenue, wiener dogs
racing about and beers sliding down many a throat, a Floater show at
Midtown and Alaska's Paper Scissors indie jamming at the Silver Moon,
Sound Check sketched out a nice plan to hit it all on Saturday. But the
first stop was the Bend Roots Revival, where we'd poked our collective
head in on Friday night for the tail end of the Person People throwdown
and also returned later for the Grateful Dead covers by Rising Tide.

Saturday's
Bend Roots lineup was complete with all the local all-stars, and we got
started early with a show by Anastacia and her new band that showcased
the songwriting ability of one of Central Oregon's finest female
performers. Next we took in some Brit-flavored indie rock from the
young men of Space Hoax and chased that down with a rousing set by the
raging rock and roll sounds of The Dirty Words.

Posted inMusic

Omaha’s Finest: Neva Dinova’s friendly exchange

The Source Staff

And Your mother said you’d never go anywhere without cleaning your room.After 12 minutes of conversation broken up by three dropped calls, I
realize that I've learned almost nothing remarkable about Omaha's
latest Saddle Creek Records phenom, Neva Dinova. Lead singer Jake
Bellows has jokingly (hopefully) claimed that the band puts ruffies
into the drinks of its naysayers and also asserted that he isn't all
that concerned with keeping up with new music before our communication
breakdown. Oh, and he's also stopped in mid sentence to chat to his
band mates about a moto-cross race track that the guys are driving past
somewhere outside of Tulsa.

The connection drops again and Bellows
calls back, this time on a different phone with much clearer reception
and with a strikingly different demeanor. He jumps immediately into
discussion about his folky, slightly alt-country sound that the band
has dubbed as "rural textures" and the fact that now, after 15 years in
existence, Neva Dinova has a well received record out on one of rock
music's more esteemed labels. Bellows suddenly isn't the asshole I'd
pegged him as.
"We never sit down and say 'let's make a song
that's influenced by this certain thing," Bellow says of his band's
tough-to-categorize take on indie folk rock.

Posted inMusic

Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Come Up With a Shorter Album Title: Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend

Mike Bookey

Slightly Stoopid: With a name like that, they need balls like this. And also Dark sunglasses, apparently. Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend for round two this year and according
to Ryan "Rymo" Moran, the band is planning on another great show and
looking forward to partying down in Bend again. With the July release
of their latest album Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet
Stoopid, the Southern California group is prepared to release a slew of
new reggae-punk songs sure to get Stoopidheads moving.

It's been 12
years since the band's founders Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald
released their first album, Slightly Stoopid, with the help of
Sublime's Brad Nowell. At that time, Doughty and McDonald were just a
couple of 17-year-old skateboarders who liked to get stoned and play
some good music. Not much has changed, other than the fact Slightly
Stoopid now plays to crowds that can number in the thousands.

Posted inOutside

Living in Elephant Country: When mammoths ruled the earth

Jim Anderson

Where’s Big Bird?They were BIG, very big, stood about 12 feet to the top of their wooly head, about as long as a school bus and weighed around six tons. As long as you didn't bother them, they probably wouldn't bother you, if you got one mad, however, you were in a heap of trouble – but I'll bet they tasted good.
I saw a tooth and part of a tusk of one years back when I took a bunch of budding paleontologists on an OMSI fossil-collecting trip up the Columbia River near Arlington. One of the young men, an up-and-coming geologist (now retired), found it in sand and gravel deposited by the Missoula Floods. That tooth was massive, big as a football! Yes, by Jove, you have it: the Wooly Mammoth.
These magnificent early elephants roamed all over this country as the snow and glaciers of the last Ice Age melted, building up sprawling lakes around Millican, Christmas Valley, Fort Rock and Great Basin. Dire wolves and saber-toothed tigers feed on mammoths and ground sloths while cranes and herons that stood twice as big as present day species scavenged leftovers and man was living in his cave training wolf puppies to help him kill mammoths and sloths.

Posted inOutside

Shoulder Season: Plenty of post summer and pre-winter fun to be had

Pam Stevenson

It’s a dog’s worldNow that autumn has arrived, Oktoberfest has come and gone and the days are (alas!) getting noticeably shorter, "Shoulder Season" is just about here. For those who have been reading this column lately, you'll catch my double entendre. Life in a sling can crimp your outdoor style unless you're creative. Likewise, the in-between season can present a motivational challenge when the roads are too icy to ride but there's not enough snow yet to ski. No telling what this year has in store for us, but last year I hiked through 6 inches of snow on the Green Lakes Trail on October 6th and skied into Todd Lake on October 20th. The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a warmer and wetter October than normal for us, and lots of snow in mid-November. No matter, Shoulder Season is an ideal time to take a break from your normal sports and do something a little different.

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