Don’t Just Re-Live History, Learn From It

Posted inOpinion

Don’t Block Bike Lanes

Intern

On Sunday morning May 24th 2008, I decided to go for a leisurely bike ride. With me were two young children who rode their bikes following close behind.
The route I chose would take me south on Mt. Washington past the Skyline sports park. As we approached the area near the softball fields, which were located to my right, I noticed a very common sight. However, on this morning what I witnessed was more disturbing than usual. We were forced to move from the bike lane into traffic because there were vehicles parked illegally in the bike lane ahead. Luckily, we were able to stop and navigate this detour without serious incident. We then continued on our way southbound. Some time later, we were returning home in the opposite direction. We also encountered more illegally parked vehicles directly in our path. Once again, we were forced to detour into the traffic lane to avoid these cars. I would estimate that between both southbound and northbound bike lanes, there were approximately 20 vehicles in violation of clearly posted No Parking signs.
My complaint is two-fold. First of all, you don't have to like or dislike what I choose to do for recreation. However, it is not acceptable for someone else's behavior to create an unsafe environment for me to enjoy my form of recreation. I highly doubt that parking a large number of vehicles on the softball fields would be allowed. Especially if I were to totally disregard the posted signs stating that it was illegal.

Posted inOpinion

Animal cruelty at Mt. B is no joke

Intern

As a resident of Bend and a loyal skier at your mountain (I was a season pass holder from 1999-2006 and I still ski primarily at Mt. Bachelor), I find the promotion of animal cruelty in your 2008 pond skimming "championship" video clip to be outrageous (not to mention insipid given the lack of creativity of the participant you chose to highlight).

Posted inMusic

Liner Notes: Word to the 23rd

The Source Staff

Spoken word or tamborine? Which is it, Al?Spoken word is hard to pull off. Sometimes this genre, or subgenre, if you will, brings to mind beret-intensive poetry slams where ideological rhetoric tends to trump skill. There are some heavy spoken word elements at play with Alfred Howard and the K23 Orchestra, but it's not the sort of aforementioned dimly lit coffee house nonsense.
 
AHK23 is a San Diego-based four-piece band that serves as the anchor for the vocal avalanche that is Alfred Howard. For the most part, AHK23's sound is marked by a laundry-line tight funk assault that rises in tempo along with Howard's pristinely clear speaking/rapping/singing voice.
Some might consider the band a jazzy hip-hop act in the spirit of the Roots, but what Howard is doing isn't always hip-hop, because half the time he's more singing than rapping and at other times his flow is more like he's reading from a leather-bound collection of contemporary poetry than hyping the crowd in the true spirit of hip-hop. Those who need a local barometer, one could compare some of Howard's riffs to what Bend's own Jason Graham does when out doing his solo stuff. Where Howard and Graham differ is in the improvisational orchestra department.

Posted inCulture

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Bend kids meet new friends through the Hello Neighbor program

Mike Bookey

photographs from caldera’s hello neighbor project grace the source weekly headquarters.When was the last time you talked with your neighbors? Maybe they're your best friends, or perhaps more likely, you've never even really gotten to know them beyond a simple wave. Somehow, we seem more likely to seek out friends on MySpace than we are to take the time to understand the individuals who make up our community.
 
Caldera, a non-profit organization that mentors students in Central Oregon and Portland schools through artistic programs, has brought to town the Hello Neighbor program, a project meant to encourage kids to get out and meet the people in their neighborhoods.
The murals are hanging from the Boys and Girls Club on Wall Street, on the side of the Merenda restaurant, the Des Chutes Historical Museum, and of course, on the brick façade of the Source's Bond Street headquarters. The photos are hard to miss, given their seven feet by five feet size, and it's likely you've already seen a few at the aforementioned locations.

Posted inOutside

Running the gauntlet: The intersection of owls, cars and evolution

Jim Anderson

CASUALTIES to nature and man.Every day you see them dead on the highway, animals that tried to run the gauntlet and lost - cats, dogs, squirrels, mice, mule deer, elk, pronghorn, hawks, owls, eagles, and other forms of life, both domestic and wild.
There isn't much anyone can do about it either; it is the price all Life pays for the "Advance of Civilization." Even at more than $4 a gallon for fuel, we continue to drive our motor vehicles on our wonderful, paved roads. We have to. Oh sure, I suppose we could slow down a little, but that's not the American Lifestyle. We are a "Now!" "Get it Done!" generation; driving slower just doesn't fit into our way of life.
The above photo of the dead owl and gopher demonstrates a situation on our highway that is almost impossible to avoid. Great horned owls are birds of the night. That owl would have spent the day snoozing in the shade of a nice, cool juniper; when the sun dropped below the snow-capped peaks of the Cascades he'd wake up, open those magnificent, huge eyes and look for food. First things first.

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