Page 2990 – The Source

Reality Bites: Housing market collapse leaves Bend’s big projects in limbo

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008August 21, 2024

The Old Mill area’s Mercato is one of several mixed-use projects that has ground to a halt amid the housing and credit crises. Stephen Trono had grand plans for his new project, The Mercato, when he unveiled it back in the heady housing-boom days of mid 2006.

Five buildings soaring as tall as 74 feet, with brick facades and top-of-the-line interiors. A bustling ground-floor mixture of restaurants, bistros, food shops and kitchen stores. Offices on the middle floors for lawyers and architects, engineers and designers. And, capping it all off, a series of top-drawer condos, complete with million-dollar pricetags and sweeping views of the mountains beyond and the Old Mill District below.

That's still the dream, Trono says.

But here in the muddy days of
2008, with the housing market in the tank and the banks running scared
from speculative real estate deals, Trono says his land - the former
site of the Brooks-Scanlon Mill's hulking red crane shed - is likely to
remain just what it is for another year: A flattened field of weedy
gravel, waiting for better days.

Culture

Hop Heads: Bend’s inaugural COHO brewfest goes off with a bang

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008July 13, 2023

Tyler West, brewer at Silver Moon, fills out a score sheet. Now that’s what we call homework. You probably have an opinion about homebrew. You've likely tasted some funky brown stuff your neighbor made that one time, or that your college boyfriend tried to woo you with once shortly before you split. Or maybe you're still one of those who think this sort of thing happens in bathtubs in rural Missouri, or some other far away back wood.
But I have tasted the fruits of some damn fine homebrewers and am prepared to say that, in Bend at least, it isn't just for bathtubs anymore. And if you haven't been exposed to this "little weekend hobby" - which is how my husband put it so many hundreds of dollars ago - you're not likely to stay uninitiated in this town.
That's because homebrewing has officially grown up around here. The throngs of Central Oregon hop heads proved that two weeks ago with the first APA/BJCP certified homebrew competition in the region. That little bit of alphabet soup just means national homebrew organizations sanctioned the event and nationally certified judges helped run the show.

Outside

Why is it so blasted cold this spring? Volcanoes could be behind this endless winter

Jim AndersonApril 30, 2008August 11, 2024

A major weather modifier, erupting volcanoes. I've lived here for over 50 years and can't remember a spring as cold as this one, and like me, you have probably been asking, "why?" If "global warming" is to be believed – which seems irrefutable – why isn't this phenomenon warming up Central Oregon? The reason may be what is happening in other places, such as erupting volcanoes.

In the not too distance past, exploding volcanoes had considerable impact on what happens to the weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Take the year 1816 for example. In New England, it was known as "The Year There Was No Summer," the "Poverty Year" and "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death." Moreover, it wasn't just New England, the entire Northern Hemisphere suffered. In Ireland people starved to death because potato crops failed, while the resulting famine caused cholera to spread across northern Europe bringing widespread death and horror.

Outside

Pole Pedal Party: Gearing up for the annual spring celebration and Smith Rock routes

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008August 16, 2023

PPP
Katy Van Dis Riding the LightningIt is about time to start (if you haven't already) thinking about, talking about, and gearing up for the Pole Pedal Paddle, Bend's famous multi-sport race. The first time I came to Bend in 1998 was to compete in the PPP. With the exception of the run, most of the events were new to me. I was just learning how to skate ski, had ridden a road bike just a handful of times, and had never been in a kayak. I spent the week before the race rounding up gear from my wife Molly's garage. I was able to get her family's 1967 Peugot road bike to fit my lanky frame and spent a couple days before the race attempting to learn how to paddle a white water kayak. I will never forget the excitement of that first race when the gun fired and I raced up the hill to click into some borrowed alpine skis.

Culture

Tee It High Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds

Shawn WallbaumApril 30, 2008August 16, 2023

crush or be crushed. As a kid I remember my grandfather spending all day playing golf. I never understood why anybody would want to hit a little ball from hole to hole. But when the original PlayStation released Hot Shots Golf about 10 years ago, I gave it a swing, and it turned out to be great fun.

Hot Shots Golf is back in the console realm once again with Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. With revamped single player content and improved online play, Out of Bounds brings the series' signature style to the PlayStation 3 quite well.

Culture

Did You Say Placenta or Polenta?: And other questions for your Baby Mama

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008May 16, 2024

Careful, they will suck your eyes out.Baby Mama is like a mini "Saturday Night Live" reunion, including a droll turn by Steve Martin at his best. The comedic lineup also stars former SNL head writer, turned mega star Tina Fey and current cast member Amy Poehler, playing off one another here as a 37-year-old wannabe mom and her foil, the trashy surrogate mother. The stand-in motherhood topic is always a hot one, as evidenced by its recent place on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

In the movie, Fey plays Kate, a single, successful businesswoman experiencing a sudden storm of maternal instincts. Since she is unable to conceive naturally, she resorts to using an agency for finding a surrogate mother to have her baby. As a well-meaning, type-A personality, she obsesses about everything to do with motherhood/babyhood, causing her to install over-the-top safety measures and devices in her home, while imposing strict dietary rules, creating some amusing consequences. Poehler plays the karaoke-crooning surrogate mother, Angie, who wolfs down Twinkies while constantly feuding with her dirtball boyfriend, Carl (excellently rendered by Dax Shepard). And although Angie takes a while to crank up the humor, by the time she arrives at the hospital, even her attendees can't keep straight faces.

Culture

Rolling out the Clichés: Deception isn’t all that deceiving

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008August 16, 2023

it’s not you wolverine, it’s me. The most deceptive thing about this cliché-ridden film is the fact that it's masquerading as a legit thriller, with the filmmakers expecting us to fall for even the most played-out film conventions. Deception? How about tricking people into paying to watch this bomb…that's deception.

From the get-go Wyatt (Hugh Jackman) and Jonathan (Ewan McGregor) relationship feels staged. The "chance" late-night get-to-know-you antics and smoking pot are laced with excessive laughter and scream "phony." People don’t laugh that much with people they have just met, even if they're smoking killer weed. It's just not in our DNA, sorry.

Food & Drink

Spring Cleaning: April industry roundup

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008October 14, 2023

patio time at the new Super b.Spring has sprung in the food and restaurant industry, even though our schizo Central Oregon weather is hardly cooperating. 12 O’clock Tart (www.12oclocktart.com) has started their Bend lunchtime delivery service featuring fresh, seasonally changing items. No prepackaged soggy sandwiches here. Choose from Peppered Crusted Pork Loin, Spiced Sockeye Salmon, French Nicoise Salad or homemade desserts.

Food & Drink

Spring Cleaning: April industry roundup

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008April 8, 2024

patio time at the new Super b.Spring has sprung in the food and restaurant industry, even though our schizo Central Oregon weather is hardly cooperating. 12 O'clock Tart (www.12oclocktart.com) has started their Bend lunchtime delivery service featuring fresh, seasonally changing items. No prepackaged soggy sandwiches here. Choose from Peppered Crusted Pork Loin, Spiced Sockeye Salmon, French Nicoise Salad or homemade desserts.

Food & Drink

Sum It Up: Dipping into the Dim Sum at Double Happiness

Eric FlowersApril 30, 2008December 14, 2023

Eat a peach. When I was in college in Berkeley, I would emerge from the Ashby Street BART station and head directly for the baau stand. A minuscule woman would open the doors on her little wooden trailer and produce three to five types of baaus – warm, doughy and bursting with flavor. Although this was not my first encounter with dim sum, the experience sealed the deal. Since then, I’ve loved the Chinese breakfast food.
There are a few places in Bend that offer some dim sum items, but Double Happiness is the only place that does it as it is done in urban Chinatowns and the greater Canton Regions of China. Settled into their new Eastside location for over a year now, DH still offers the best dim sum this side of the Cascades.
It all happens on Sundays starting at noon. Diners receive two menus – the usual book form with all the combos and Americanized dishes, as well as a laminated photo of nine dishes denoted with the letters A-I.

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