Over in Portland and the Valley, Gordon Smith's TV ads portray him as a friendly, mild-mannered, bipartisan sort with a strong tinge of green. On the other side of the Cascades, the spin is a little different.
Smith vs. Merkley: Punch and Counterpunch
Posted inNews
Things Smell Different Here?
Oregon, our clean, green state, is actually a leading importer of other places' garbage - and there could be a lot more of it on the way.
Posted inNews
Cascade Festival of Music Cancels Season
After a run of 26 years, the Cascade Festival of Music has folded.
Posted inNews
Honoring Eight Years of Solid Waste
As the George W. Bush presidency lurches and staggers to its conclusion, the good people of San Francisco have come up with an ingenious idea for paying tribute to Bush's … uh, special achievements.
Posted inOpinion
Keep On Peddling Good Copy
Hi Eric & Staff
I enjoyed your article (tSW 6-19). You guys did a great job.
Posted inCulture
Creative Consciousness, PoetHouse Art: The little upstairs gallery you should know by now
Fresh art and a beer garden: just what Bend needs.Sean Anderson looks happily stressed. He moves around the gallery at PoetHouse Art checking on the sound equipment, the event staff, the guests and, through it all, his two young daughters. PoetHouse Art - a spot you've probably walked below and didn't even realize - is throwing a benefit for Rise Up, a non-profit that provides education and outreach to the poor in places like India, Nicaragua and China on this recent Thursday night, featuring local artists and musicians in their one-room studio and gallery.
PoetHouse Art began as an idea in the back of Anderson's mind as he and his wife attended a First Friday art walk in January and happened to stop in at the TBD Advertising on Bond Street and noticed the vacant loft space. Anderson, a graphic artist, says he had an idea for a combined gallery and studio art space, but had never come across an opportunity to do anything with it. After meeting with some friends who also expressed interest in a joint art studio/gallery, the group put in an offer to TBD for the space. According to Anderson, the space had been vacant for about a year and TBD had turned down requests from other businesses in the hopes that they could fill it with a more creative enterprise.
The room, with its open ceiling and exposed rafters, consists of a row of individual studios separated by a heavy-duty floor-to-ceiling canvas drop cloth. No two studios look alike. While one studio contains rows of brightly colored paintings, the next contains an array of old newspapers and pieces of wire while another has the floor covered with blankets and pillows because that particular artist prefers to work from the floor.
Posted inOutside
A Bee in My Bonnet: Wrangling up a nest of hot hornets
Jim Anderson, fearless beekeeper. Father's Day has come and gone, but the joy that comes from the celebration goes on and on – like the book my wife, Sue, gave me, Robbing the Bees by Holley Bishop.
This marvelous and well-written treatise is not only a biography of how honey sweetened the lives of generations of people in the Old World for thousands of years, as well as a discussion of bee-keeping today; it's also a darn good "bee-manual."
Whether you're a beekeeper, someone who loves honey, or appreciate a good book, you'll enjoy having Robbing the Bees in your library and sharing it with friends and family. Which opens the door to my latest adventure with bees…
"Jim," the voice on the other end of my telephone said in an excited voice, "this is Jan Baker in Bend. I have a big swarm of bees in my apple tree, do you want them?"
Posted inOutside
Shifting Into Summer ‘Tude: Brush up on your bike etiquette, build trails, and more
What's With All The MTB 'Tude?
Many longtime local mountain bike riders are scratching their heads wondering what's behind the current rise in blatant bad attitude on trails. You know, fast riders scowling as they bear down on you at mach speed, riders not warning you when wanting to pass or passing, riders screaming at you to get out of their way, riders not yielding the right-of-way on hills, etc.
There are probably all sorts of reasons for the growth in "'tude" but many more reasons for putting an end to it. We have a tremendous resource in the local trail system, so why ruin the good vibe with "'tude." Smile and enjoy being out there, greet fellow riders and keep the fun in the local mountain biking scene.
Posted inCulture
Old Snakes Die Hard!: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Don't mess with Snake's eye patch – or else!Generally, this time of year when kids are out of school, people are taking trips and enjoying the summer weather while video games take a back seat. But with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, those same kids may become firmly planted back in front of the TV. Metal Gear makes a gamer's heart jump and is synonymous with stealth action and cinematic storytelling. But with this latest installment, can the game support the weight of a reputation as one of the greatest narratives in gaming history? MGS4 is perhaps the first PlayStation 3 exclusive title to really get gamers fired up.
While titles like Uncharted Waters and GT Prologue got some attention, they didn't have nearly the impact of this baby. MGS4 takes place in 2014, half a decade after the "big shell incident" of Metal Gear Solid 2. It starts off in the Middle East with relatively lengthy cinematics mixed with brief moments of game play. These set the scene and give you an idea of the basic controls for crawling and moving to objectives. You will spend the next 20-odd hours chasing down Liquid Snake and dispensing of several bosses. Apart from the character-related plot, the story in MGS4 focuses on the proliferation of Private Military Companies and the rapid adoption (and control through) nanotechnology. Snake looks older than the last time you saw him, which seems to mainly play into the storyline and have little effect on game play. Apart from the occasional sore-back animation, Snake is as agile as he's ever been.
Posted inCulture
Missed it by That Much: Get Smart should have stuck to its classic roots
Who gave the Rock a gun?Get Smart attempts a big-screen adaptation of a small-screen show, trying hard to stay somewhat reverent to the original. The film was the brainchild of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks, (credited as consultants) but this remake somehow lost the duo's slapstick wit and brainy innuendoes. In fact, the entire movie smacks of lackluster performances and tedious plot-fillers. What was once wacky spy stuff alongside the goofiness of Mad magazine, is now an almost risk-free and gutless remake.
The opening music wanders in schmaltz land until the credits arrive at the credits with the familiar multiple doors closing shut to the sound of the original TV theme song. The simplistic plot is that KAOS (the evil organization) wants to wreak havoc on the planet by bombing select cities starting with Los Angeles. CONTROL (the good guys) has to stop them.
Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, takes on the Don Adams role in a weirdly subtle performance. Carell is a really good choice, but whereas Don Adams had this kind of pestering suave bravado, Carell comes off as more of a wimp with surprises. The original 86, due to his boasting and know-it-all attitude, brought everything on himself and he got what he deserved. In 2008, we get a pathetic 86 begging you to feel sorry for him-it's just not right. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway is extremely sexy, replacing Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. And that's no small feat. Who didn't have a crush on Feldon's 99? Max's rapport with 99, however, is only sometimes bearable.