The history of Hermosa Beach-based punk godfathers Pennywise reads like an especially well-tailored script for an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music.” Assembled in 1988 by a crew of fast-talking surf-punks deeply embedded in the SoCal hardcore scene, Pennywise released its first album, 1991’s Pennywise, to minor, but groundbreaking chart success. The departure from the […]
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Posted inMusic
Chasing Midnight Moonlight
Peter Rowan continues exploring a genre he helped define
Familiarity with Peter Rowan might entail being a fan of the 1973 New Riders of the Purple sage hit (and we use that term loosely) “Panama Red.” Rowan, a guitarist and mandolin player from Boston, wrote it after working with everyone in bluegrass from Bill Monroe to David Grisman and Jerry Garcia. His accomplishments in […]
Posted inNews
Treading Water
Lack of research stalling Mirror Pond solution
A s a kid growing up in Washington, D.C., David Blair remembers his mother taking him down to the banks of the Potomac River and watching the kayakers go by. His mother wasn’t necessarily an advocate of outdoor recreation, and Blair said that she might not have even known what all those people were doing […]
Posted inNews
An Uninterupted River Runs Through It
The current state of river obstructions on the Deschutes River as it flows through Bend
The Deschutes River Trail offers nearly uninterrupted access for hikers and bikers along the banks of the river in six stretches ranging from one to four miles through the heart of Bend. But for those who want to play and recreate IN/ON the water rather than beside it, there are four non-navigable, man-made obstructions standing […]
Posted inCulture
Love in the City of Lights
Le Week-End is a commitment worth making
After the first 15 minutes of Le Week-End, I couldn’t stand the film’s two lead characters, Nick and Meg Burrows. He was drowsy and a bit oafish, while she was sour and prickly to the point of being unlikeable. Luckily, a few moments later I realized I was not supposed to like them since they […]
Posted inMusic
The Band that Almost Wasn’t
Durham pop group Bombadil doubled down during adversity
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go for chamber folk band Bombadil. With bassist Daniel Michalak sidelined by a neural condition rendering his hands pretty much useless, pianist Stuart Robinson in medical school, and guitarist Bryan Rahija getting his graduate degree, the Appalachian pop band was all but kaput a mere two LPs into […]
Posted inMusic
My Cup of Tea
Willy Tea Taylor, the country soul of America
Is there anything more American than baseball? The smell of the grass, the smack of a worn leather glove, the crack of a wooden bat, the rolling of a cold beer down your throat. Willy Tea Taylor is a poet and songwriter who, better than just about anyone, captures baseball, heartache, death and rodeo, wrapping […]
Posted inOutside
What the Fish Are Eating
It is feeding time for salmon and trout
Peter Bowers is the high-energy and disarmingly friendly owner of The Patient Angler, a popular fly fishing shop along Bend’s Third St. The store is tidy and small, barely the length of a standard river fishing boat. But within the small space is both a wealth of knowledge and enough fishing flies to reel in […]
Posted inOutside
Two Heads Are NOT Better Than One
Yeah…this is a story about a two headed snake
It was way back in the ’60s, while I was working for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry as the staff naturalist that I had the opportunity to see—up-close-and in-my-hand—a real honest-to-goodness living, two-headed animal; that NW Garter snake pictured above. It is not Photoshopped! I cannot recall the young man’s name who brought […]
Posted inCulture
The Singularity Is Near
Behold Transcendence, a movie about Johnny Depp’s disembodied head
“Within thirty years,” wrote computer scientist, mathematics professor, and science fiction author Vernor Vinge, “we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.” Vinge wrote those words in 1993, and while the human era isn’t over quite yet, the idea of the singularity—the point when artificial […]