Cooler than you.There's no doubt Joe Strummer was a cool guy. I wouldn't have wanted to be in The Clash with him, but I would've definitely enjoyed sitting around the campfire telling stories with him, which is exactly how this outstanding documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, is woven together.
I was shocked and saddened when I heard he died. I thought he was on the comeback trail but sadly, he succumbed quickly and without warning to a cognitive heart condition and was-poof!-gone.
Clash Around the Campfire: The Future is Unwritten gives a glimpse of a punk icon
From Sociopaths to Special Effects: My 2008 Academy Awards predictions
can’t you hear me knockin’?It was a year of exceptional films and acting performances in 2007,
possibly the most competitive Oscar field ever. Three Best Picture
nominees are based on major novels. Cinematography and special effects
soar to new levels. Both veteran and novice actors roll out an uncanny
breadth of talent and emotion. So, at the end of Sunday night's 2008
Academy Awards, who will be left clutching those coveted gold
figurines? Here's my roundup of the Best Picture nominees, as well as
some biased predictions of who will win other awards.
A Spoonful of…Sherry?: Exploring Grandma’s Drink
I’ve recently spent some time watching Mary Poppins with my 2-year-old
daughter, which got me thinking about sherry. Mr. Banks, as you might
recall, has a penchant for the sweet libation and I thought I’d give it
a try. I’ve drawn on such inspirations before, sipping rum during a
read of Treasure Island and curling up with a bottle of Jameson to
Angela’s Ashes. As a sherry novice, I was initially unsure if the drink
was an appropriate subject for a wine column.
This isn’t grocery
store cooking wine, or as a local bartender fondly recalled, the cheap
butane-like fino stolen from his parent’s liquor cabinet.
A Spoonful of…Sherry?: Exploring Grandma’s Drink
I've recently spent some time watching Mary Poppins with my 2-year-old
daughter, which got me thinking about sherry. Mr. Banks, as you might
recall, has a penchant for the sweet libation and I thought I'd give it
a try. I've drawn on such inspirations before, sipping rum during a
read of Treasure Island and curling up with a bottle of Jameson to
Angela's Ashes. As a sherry novice, I was initially unsure if the drink
was an appropriate subject for a wine column.
This isn't grocery
store cooking wine, or as a local bartender fondly recalled, the cheap
butane-like fino stolen from his parent's liquor cabinet.
Blacksmith is Back: Finding comfort in fine dining
A glimpse of the New Look Blacksmith.After a total remodel in which a new illuminated alabaster bar greets
diners, Executive Chef and co-owner Gavin McMichael has updated the
Blacksmith’s menu, honed the service and revamped the interior to bring
a fresh mix of modern and rustic touches to the Blacksmith’s solid “new
ranch comfort food” foundation.
The menu is a bevy of seemingly
lowbrow dishes like cheese steak, pot pie, corn dogs and meatloaf. Once
the dishes arrive it is evident that the play on words is the only
lowbrow thing about this meal. The Blacksmith Cheese Steak is a
melt-in-your-mouth combination of beef tenderloin strips on a crispy
crostini, caramelized pearl onions, wild mushrooms, leeks and a creamy
potato sauce infused with truffle essence all topped with shaved Tumalo
Farms Pond Hopper cheese – not exactly the greasy deli sandwich popular
on the other coast.
Blacksmith is Back: Finding comfort in fine dining
A glimpse of the New Look Blacksmith.After a total remodel in which a new illuminated alabaster bar greets
diners, Executive Chef and co-owner Gavin McMichael has updated the
Blacksmith's menu, honed the service and revamped the interior to bring
a fresh mix of modern and rustic touches to the Blacksmith's solid "new
ranch comfort food" foundation.
The menu is a bevy of seemingly
lowbrow dishes like cheese steak, pot pie, corn dogs and meatloaf. Once
the dishes arrive it is evident that the play on words is the only
lowbrow thing about this meal. The Blacksmith Cheese Steak is a
melt-in-your-mouth combination of beef tenderloin strips on a crispy
crostini, caramelized pearl onions, wild mushrooms, leeks and a creamy
potato sauce infused with truffle essence all topped with shaved Tumalo
Farms Pond Hopper cheese - not exactly the greasy deli sandwich popular
on the other coast.
Whose Playground? As Bend grows, forest recreation users vie for a place in the snow
It's early afternoon on a bluebird Saturday, and the locals and tourists are out in force at the Virginia Meissner Sno-Park off Century Drive. Joseph Rodriguez is just coming off the trails, a pair of skinny skis in his hand.
Double Bay Area Goodness
With three appearances in Bend within the last year, Hot Buttered Rum
is in danger of being mistakenly added to our roster of bluegrass bands
- and we wouldn't complain if they did join our team. The San Francisco
acoustic-that-sounds-electric band is teaming with fellow Bay-Area
roots musicians The Waybacks for a co-headlining tour. Since our
municipality has showed respect for both acts, it makes sense that the
tour is making a stop at the Domino Room.
Pinback Au Naturale
Smith (left) and Crow (right), deep within the realm of sickly soul.Pinback is a band of human beings. We suspected as much, but we had to see it to believe it.
The members of the San Diego-based band have a reputation for superhumanly intelligent melody and prolificacy, and their sound on studio recordings is a strangely precise exercise in dense, viscerally ethereal, rock-bred think-pop.
Blues to the Bone: Hillstomp reminds us why we dig the blues
They've got the bluesman strut down nicely.Henry Kammerer of Portland's gritty blues duo Hillstomp is trying to
explain why and how he and his bandmate John Johnson play the blues and
after hitting some dead ends: He remembers a quote from Keith Richards.
In an impressively accurate impression of the Stones axe man's
swaggering, drunken-sounding British accent, Kammerer mumbles a few
lines about blues being embedded in our collective bone marrow.
After some digging I was able to find the precise text of Richards' quote:
Blues
is one of the most fascinating forms of music I know, and I listen to a
lot of styles…It's in our bones. 'Cause probably we all come from
Africa. We just went north and turned white. But if you cut anybody
open, bones are white and blood is red, man. It's kind of deep, you
know? And I think maybe it speaks to us in that way. Ancient bone
marrow responding to the source.

