Brickhouse and Broken Top Make Wine Spectator List Bend may be best known for beer, but at least two local establishments are making a name for themselves in the wine world. Broken Top Club Restaurant and Brickhouse on Minnesota are both named in Wine Spectator’s August issue, which hits newsstands on July 19. The issue […]
Bend Oregon News
Meet J. Livingston
When local Bend Velo bike shop owner Eric Power began his business in 2009, he knew he wanted to focus his shop on promoting commuter-style riding. I travel to Portland quite a bit and I was thinking about biking more as a mode of transportation, as opposed to racing or mountain biking,” Power said. We […]
Giant Country
I don’t remember much detail about Roald Dahl’s 1982 children’s book “The BFG,” but I remember how it made me feel. I know that after I put that book down, the world seemed like a much larger place: a world filled with mysteries I would never understand or even discover. For moments throughout “The BFG” […]
A Balancing Act for Pine Ridge Elementary Students
What most of us have difficulty learning on two wheels, students at Pine Ridge Elementary are mastering on one. Wheel walks, figure 8s, kosh-koshs, and 180 hop spins; these kids have some serious unicycling skills. In 2009, a group of students approached PE Teacher Carisa Thomason, asking to show off their unicycling skills in class. […]
Drink Weed Every Day
With limited quantities of edibles now on sale to the Oregon recreational marijuana fancier, curious dispensary visitors are finding themselves exposed to a wealth of THC-infused candy, chocolate, cookies, and every other snack-y foodstuff under the sun. Even more of a surprise to some: there are now two locally-brewed and bottled cannabis-infused beverages to choose […]
Upgraded by Hope
Bend’s thriving mountain biking community just got a shot of adrenaline. As of June, the internationally established mountain bike components manufacturer, Hope Technology, has opened its U.S. assembly division in our backyard. The company designs, manufactures, and tests nearly every part of a mountain bike and accepts custom orders from avid cross-country riders as well […]
Side Notes 7/6-7/13
Drones and Wildfires Don’t Mix Recreational drone enthusiasts looking to get an aerial shot of a blazing wildfire should stay far, far away, according to Oregon officials who point out that operating an unmanned aerial vehicle in a Temporary Flight Restriction zone—such as in an active wildfire area—is punishable under state and federal law. In […]
Behind the Mask
Writing a story about Buckethead is like trying to do an expose on the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. People know Buckethead exists and that he has a real name, but he hasn’t done an interview in a decade and doesn't talk to many people in general. I knew a phone or Skype interview would […]
Latinos Rising
Locals shouldn’t be surprised by recently released U.S. census data showing consistently growing Latino populations in Bend, Deschutes County, and Oregon. After all, Spanish-speaking peoples settled this region in the-mid 1800s, long before other European cultures. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Latino population in Deschutes County increased by 18.6 percent between 2010 and […]
Murder Party 2016
You had one job, “The Purge: Election Year,” just one. You either needed to be a schlocky gorefest that painted America as a candy-colored nightmare of xenophobia and fear or a smartly satirical look at the worst case scenario of Trump’s America. You failed at both, “Purge,” and I hope you feel bad about it. […]

