The Interloper: Cia Mambo holds up surprisingly well

Posted inFood & Drink

The Interloper: Cia Mambo holds up surprisingly well

Intern

Musseling in on downtown. With so many restaurants biting the dust (Ernesto's, Kayo's, etc.) you might think the dining scene here is tanking, but there are several stepping in for the casualties. Gone but not forgotten is Hans, the downtown pastry-shop-turned-fine-dining restaurant. In its place is Ciao Mambo, a fast-paced, lively pasta and pizza eatery.

The Bend Ciao Mambo is the fourth in installment in the growing franchise offered by the Whitefish, Mont. company CM Brands. The other locations are in Whitefish and Missoula, Mont. and Hayden, Idaho.
Ciao Mambo is one of the only downtown franchises, this isn't to say we don't have our fair share of chains and franchises. Just take a trip down Third Street; it looks like any other American city with its fast food drive thrus, Applebee's and Outback Steak Houses. But downtown has been the territory of local restaurateurs and diners who usually eschew the consistent, but mass-produced meals, that most chains or franchises offer. Now, these local spots will have to compete directly with a franchise's deep pockets and proven model.

Posted inMusic

Sound Check: The Peaks Prevail

Mike Bookey

It's almost impossible to pick out the highlight of any multi-day music festival, but at 4 Peaks last weekend, the pinnacle came precisely at the moment that Matt Butler climbed atop a specially designed pickup truck rooftop platform in the center of the crowd on Saturday night.

Conducting his Everyone Orchestra (consisting of damn near every musician on the festival lineup) Butler ordered two stages (separated by a good 100 feet) of musicians through sweeping, soaring jams that descended down low for spaced-out segue ways giving birth to explosive dance-your-ass-off moments for the crowd of some 1,500 revelers who made their way through the festival gates.

Posted inMusic

String Sisters: The female acoustic powerhouse that is the Sweet Harlots

Mike Bookey

Fiddler in the greens.I hadn't exactly heard The Sweet Harlots when I arrived at a classically cozy house near Harmon Park. I'd heard of the duo, and I'd heard music by each of the members of the group, but it isn't until Laurel Brauns begins strumming her guitar and Julie Southwell commences massaging melodies out of her violin in the living room of the aforementioned house that I fully taste the Sweet Harlots.

The two names of this duo should be familiar to anyone with an ear on the local music scene. Brauns is a singer-songwriter who toured through Bend over the past few years before moving here last fall and releasing her indie-rock influenced folk record Closed for the Season. Southwell, of course, is the seasoned and classically trained violinist who has played with a range of local acts including Moon Mountain Ramblers, Blackstrap and David Bowers. The two met while cross-country skiing this past winter and their friendship soon descended from the mountains to Southwell's home for the practice sessions out of which the somewhat peculiarly named Sweet Harlots were born.
"It was always a dream of mine to have an all-girl band and call it The Sweet Harlots. People don't use the word 'harlot,' in everyday conversation…there's definitely some irony to it," says Brauns.

Posted inMusic

Brooks & Dunn vs. Alice Cooper: Who’s older? Who’s more drunk? Who should you see this week?

Mike Bookey

If you’ve got this much blood on your clothes, laundry probably isn’t your biggest problem.This week, two longstanding, albeit utterly different, popular music acts will arrive in Central Oregon to either get your fist pumping or your cowboy boot covered toes tapping. There's Brooks & Dunn, the popular country icons of the Coors Light genre, then there's Alice Cooper the original androgynous vampire, who now at 60 years old, isn't all that scary anymore. Here's how they look head to head - so pick your act and stick beside 'em.
Alice Cooper: Known for his pre-goth heavy rock.
Brooks & Dunn: Known for their Wal-Mart Country at the Honky Tonk.

Alice Cooper: Hit songs include: "Schools Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen."
Brooks & Dunn: Hit songs include: "Boot Scootin' Boogie," "My Maria," "Hard Workin' Man."

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the week of 7/30-8/7

Mike Bookey

The Gourds, Wayne Newcome
saturday 2
There are a few bands that Bend can't seem to get enough of and The
Gourds are one of them. The alt-country rockers from Austin, Tex. are
playing a special Bend show for all of us who can't get over the
mountains for the Pickathon festival. All of you who think that you
haven't heard the Gourds, think again. They're the band that cleverly
transformed Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" from hip-hop anthem to rootsy
Americana jingle to the pleasure of many downloaders who thought they
were listening to Phish. 9pm/doors, 10pm/show Saturday, August 2.
Domino Room. 51 NW Greenwood Ave. $15/advanced, $18/door.
 Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo
wednesday-sunday 30-3
Do you like to have fun for approximately four days in a location with other people who like to have fun during the same prescribed time frame at the same location? Well then, my fellow Deschutes County resident, it's time to head up to Redmond for the county fair! Don't forget to take your children to the wholesomely fun activities including, but not limited to, Alice Cooper. What says family fun more than a 60-year-old man slathered in leather and vampire makeup? Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, 3800 SW Airport Way, Redmond. 548-2711.

Posted inNews

Living Art: On the street with Bend’s best unsung artist

Intern

We met at the Westside Tavern last December, a stool between us and Ferris Bueller's Day Off on the TV. Pointing to the screen he sighed, "The downturn of society…" I, however, considered John Travolta a sign of the Apocalypse, underscored by his contribution to Hairspray. Two beers and all of Francisco's money later, now seated side by side, we both agreed that the tipping point of America was Ronald Reagan.

Francisco Christich: the name of a friar or cult leader. Or an artist, nine-ball guru, father and friend. Francisco, the most modest human being I met in my nine months in Central Oregon. A song; the antidote to gloating galleries and braggart collectors, trust-fund artist managers - We both knew we'd spend much time together after that night at the Westside. Yet neither could have guessed how rotten it would end.
His entry to Bend was apt. It was a choice between here or Sante Fe;
"When the car broke down that kind of made the solution clear." That
was 30 years ago. Francisco will be 62 in September and shows every
second on this Earth. A scar under his gray hay hair from a car crash
20 years since (of windshields he offers, "They're hard - they win, you
lose."), ashy marks like cuffs around his wrists ("Some pigmentosis…"
he explains, then jokes, "Actually I got those storming the cliffs of
Normandy.") and a silky white beard Santa would wear if evicted from
the North Pole. An American mutt, Francisco's father was Mexican and
Slavic while his mother was Native American and French, "As far as I
know." Raised in East LA, it was his mother who sat him down at an
easel when he was four and told him to paint.

Posted inOpinion

Sheriff Blanton’s Secret List

Intern

Doesn’t share, gets booted. There could be as many as 6,671 Deschutes County citizens walking around legally with concealed handguns. Or maybe there are only 6,156. We have no way of knowing, because the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office gave us the first number and the Oregon State Police gave the second.

We also have no way of knowing who those 6,671, or 6,156, people are because Sheriff Larry Blanton won't release the county's list of holders of concealed-carry permits, even though that information is a public record.

Newspapers in other parts of the state, including The Oregonian, have gotten such lists from other sheriffs. But when we asked Blanton for the Deschutes County list he politely but firmly told us no, claiming such information is exempt from disclosure under the state's public records law.

Why do we want to know? Well, in the first place, that question is beside the point - the point is that we have a right to know, which is clearly spelled out in the law. And that right belongs not just to reporters, but to everybody. As the law states: "Every person has a right to inspect any public record of a public body in this state, except as otherwise expressly provided" under the statute.

Posted inOpinion

Reuse, Recycle, Rebrand: A proud tradition of reinvention, pot shortages and more

Intern

Name changes have a long and storied history in this country of great re-inventors. Take Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. who became Snoop Dogg or John Osbourne who morphed into Ozzy Osbourne thanks to heavy metal and heavy sedatives. Then there's the transformation of Marion Morrison to film icon John Wayne. And don't forget another film legend who was born Jennifer Massoli but is known to the world as Jenna Jameson.
Institutions aren't immune to the image reinvention either. Before Nissan built the Titan it was good ol Datsun maker of cars with names that had funny numbers and Z's. Before the world got Googled it almost got BackRub'ed. (Co-founders Larry Brin and Serge Page changed the name in 1998 - two years after founding the Internet startup.)
So we probably shouldn't be surprised when a local company announces it's going to change its name. (Who's up for a corporate rebranding retreat?) But Upfront was surprised to see several of them in our Inbox this past week. Maybe it's the recession or that we're slipping into the Dog Days of summer, but nobody seems satisfied with their name. Getting things started was Ochoco Health Systems, a network that includes Prineville's community clinic as well as the community clinics in Bend and Madras. It jumped into the rebranding Black Box and emerged stealthily as Mosaic Medical.

Posted inOpinion

His Cold Dead Hands

Intern

I recently read your article on your opposition to the Second Amendment and wanting to have all those who have concealed permits disclosed and published.

Several years ago one of my family members was assaulted while attending an event out in rural Deschutes County.

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