In 1959, a year before Bono was born, U-2 was the name for a classified, unmanned plane that flew past the Iron Curtain and across the restricted airspace in the Soviet Union. Concerned about sending pilots into hostile air space, the US Air Force launched a program—code name “Red Wagon”—to send “unmanned aerial vehicle”—or, what […]
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Posted inCulture
1001 Reasons to Dance
Eugene Ballet performs “Scheherazade”
Don’t even try to pronounce it. “Scheherazade,” has almost as many consonants as core dancers (24 to be exact—performers that is). And the ballet retelling of the prologue of 1001 Arabian Nights is equally elaborate with a score by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a haram of some fourteen rhinestone-adorned dancers, a golden slave and a murderous vengeful […]
Posted inMusic
Death Songs
The Devil Makes Three jumps genre but keeps tradition
At the Pickathon Music Festival last August, The Devil Makes Three—a three-piece jug band-ragtime-hybrid band—had a crowd of sunburned festivalgoers dancing with boots a-fire on top of tree stumps and bails of hay in the deep woods of the forested Pendarvis farm southeast of Portland. Granted, part of the charm of the performance was from […]
Posted inMusic
Oregon Anthems
Portland folk band The Weather Machine’s music is roped to its rustic roots
From the majestic coastline of Cannon Beach to the refreshing spray of Silver Falls and even the far-reaching 360-degree views from Pilot Butte, Portland-based pop folk band The Weather Machine visited all 185 Oregon State parks in making the music video for its ode to the Beaver State ,”Back O’er Oregon.” For Oregon native Slater […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Aged Beauty
10 Barrel’s outstanding new beer is pure gold
The latest creation from 10 Barrel Brewing Co., a beer called 16 barrels, is not actually a new beer. In fact, it is over one year old. Intended to be a one-off, a version of this beer was made last year for a St. Valentine’s Day dinner. But the maestros at 10 Barrel loved it […]
Posted inCulture
Borderlands Performance
Splicing comedy and literary reading, Sherman Alexie speaks in Bend
Literary readings haven’t been traditionally funny. Thought of less as light entertainment, and more as “high culture,” authors have a stigma of stuffiness to contend with. Like opera or the ballet, literary presentations aren’t expected laugh-heavy—after all, learning isn’t fun—they’re meant to expand minds, especially presentations from a highly respected, culturally aware, and decorated author […]
Posted inNews
No Float Summer?
River issues may take the air out of tubing
Lazily floating down the Deschutes, past the Old Mill and, after a short portage, into Drake Park near downtown Bend, has for years been a Central Oregon summertime ritual. But this year that casual cool down may be interrupted. City councilor Victor Chudowsky worries that the leaking Newport Avenue dam will mean a shallower river […]
Posted inNews
East Side Rising
Two Juicy Scoops of Economic Growth
It is as cliché as a John Hughes film that every town has its two sides—the right and wrong side of the tracks, the greasers and the socios, the post code envy. But with more advanced city planning and increasing city densities, it is just as likely in the 21st century that gentrification… …and economic […]
Posted inOutside
Go East, Young Bendite
The snow may be scarce, but trails east of town are prime
Snow scarcity: Global warming or just a weather trend? Either way, the severe lack of snow—we’re inching further toward record lows—has shut down traditional winter. But, if Mother Nature won’t give us white stuff, she’s kindly offering the next best thing—warm days, clear skies and cold nights. The desert trails have rarely been more inviting. […]
Posted inCulture
Welcome Back Fellini
The Great Beauty brings back traditional Italian cinema
The Great Beauty takes a while to take on a structure—and, with true Fellini dreaminess, rarely holds onto a cohesive storyline. The film opens with a seemingly unrelated scene—a lyrical and sun-dappled scene as Japanese tourists explore one of Rome’s hillside chapels, before one man drops dead from a heart attack—and then jumps to a […]