Not only do Central Oregon musicians just generally kick ass, but they also tend to be nice and open to the idea of letting you hear their music — even if you’re not ready to track ’em down at a show or buy their album. In that spirit, here are two tracks apiece from Coyo and Shireen Amini, the local artists whose lastest CD releases we reviewed in this week’s Sound Check. Read on for the goods.
Sound Check MP3s: Coyo and Shireen Amini
Posted inNews
In the Land of the Angry Republicans: Talking with the new Deschutes Democratic Chairman
Jim Thomassen was elected in November to chair the Deschutes County Democratic Party. A graduate of the University of Oregon, he was a professional economist for state government before working in marketing in the high-tech field. He and his wife moved to Bend in 2004. This is an edited transcript of a conversation with him by Source Senior Writer H. Bruce Miller.
Posted inOpinion
The Snow Screw-Up
For a town that gets a good amount of snow on a pretty predictable basis, Bend is singularly inept at dealing with the stuff. If you live on a side street, in most winters you stand a better chance of seeing a polar bear going past your house than a plow.
Posted inNews
The Hook Has Landed
Steve Novick, the Portland progressive activist who's fighting Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, has beaten his rival to the punch by launching the first TV ad of the campaign - and it's a real grabber.
Posted inNews
Not an Honor Roll Performance
Rep. Chuck Burley of Bend has been making noises like a moderate since he was narrowly elected to the state legislature two years ago, but according to SEIU Local 503 he's voted like a Republican, at least on four issues the public employees' union rated the lawmakers on.
Posted inNews
Hawks Singing in Harmony
The day before the New Hampshire primary resurrected John McCain's faltering hope of winning the Republican presidential nomination, Oregon Democratic Party Chair Meredith Wood Smith challenged Gordon Smith to drop his support for the Senate's most prominent Iraq war hawk.
Posted inFood & Drink
Get Your Yumm
Café Yumm! has it down. Once a typical college town eatery, it has now turned into a viable franchise supporting six thriving locations with a business plan to include 50 more in the next five years. Founders Mary Ann and Mark Beauchamp have been able to blend their crunchy aesthetic of serving rice and beans in a variety of combinations with a modern, PC atmosphere appealing to everyone from the latent hippy to the blatant yuppie.
From its user-friendly, aesthetically-pleasing website, to underwriting Eugene’s public radio station, to creating food that infuses the Deep South with the Far East, Café Yumm’s concept comes close to what most say is impossible – pleasing all of the people all of the time. It’s the Starbucks of beans and rice.
Posted inFood & Drink
Get Your Yumm
Café Yumm! has it down. Once a typical college town eatery, it has now turned into a viable franchise supporting six thriving locations with a business plan to include 50 more in the next five years. Founders Mary Ann and Mark Beauchamp have been able to blend their crunchy aesthetic of serving rice and beans in a variety of combinations with a modern, PC atmosphere appealing to everyone from the latent hippy to the blatant yuppie.
From its user-friendly, aesthetically-pleasing website, to underwriting Eugene's public radio station, to creating food that infuses the Deep South with the Far East, Café Yumm's concept comes close to what most say is impossible - pleasing all of the people all of the time. It's the Starbucks of beans and rice.
Posted inMusic
Make You Shake Your Head “No” Music: Back Door Slam and Smokin’ Trainwreck
It's unfortunate we have to start things off on a negative note here, but there's something wrong with the blues in 2008.
This isn't at all to say that there was something wrong with the blues acts Sound Check saw on Monday night. No sir-ee. In our estimation, though, there is indeed something wrong with the blues at large.
Yes sir-ee.
Call it diluted…faded…cliché. Call it co-opted by an insufficiently downtrodden, minimally grizzled generation of young Americans. In any case, when Sound Check goes to listen to some modern blues music, we tend not to expect much beyond run-of-the-mill electric guitar wailing and recycled vocal style.
Posted inOutside
Quit Yer Bitchin!
Although the angry hordes of beanie-topped ski bums, ski junkies, and ski snobs were bitching (even more than they normally do) a month or so ago about the somewhat late arriving snow this season, the snow has arrived. With one dump after another coating the mountains and foothills, there's not too much else to crow about.
Well, there's always something to bitch about - wind, lift lines, irreverent Sno-Park etiquette, and my favorite: too much snow - but now there's an excuse for the boarders and skiers of all variety to step down from the "Snow's Never Good Enough" soapbox and get out in the snow.
And if these complainers are so skilled that they require the most "epic" of conditions, then it's high time they come out for some good ol' fashioned competition. Whether you're a downhill shredder, a boarder with some sick steez, or a Lycra-clad Nordic buff, there's some fierce competition at your fingertips this weekend in Central Oregon.