What do you get when you mix a beer-loving populace with an anemic public transportation system and an underfunded and understaffed police department? A disconcertingly high rate of booze-related traffic deaths. “We have a traffic crash problem in the City of Bend, to put it bluntly,” Police Chief Jeff Sale said at the September 18 City […]
Section Feature
Posted inNews
Lipstick on a Pig
The OLCC wants to modernize with beer and wine sales. Critics just want them gone.
In a deceptively simple administrative change, Oregon residents may soon be able to buy a cold six-pack along with their favorite bottle of booze. Last week, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) approved a policy change to commingle beer and booze, which traditionally have been housed in separate retail outlets—one private, the later managed by […]
Posted inNews
What the Heck is a Pinckney?
COCC’s lost theater program and forgotten venue
The stadium rows of smurf-blue folding seats in the Pinckney Center for Performing Arts are looking neglected. Half of Central Oregon Community College’s theater seats are folded up, and costumes from some bygone production are draped across others. One lonely wooden chair sits center stage. One of Bend’s few midsize venues, the space is acoustical […]
Posted inOutside
Surfin’ USA
After years of effort, local surfboard shaper Conway Bixby has made it
Conway Bixby makes surfboards. It sounds like a dream job and it is, says Bixby, a 31-year-old Oregon native. Shaping, as the practice is called, recently became a full-time job for the Bend resident who spent this summer often cranking out one board a week to fill custom orders. Working at home on his own […]
Posted inCulture
Still the Greatest
Another Muhammad Ali documentary, and still not enough!
According to Sports Illustrated, there wasn’t any 20th century figure on whom more ink was expended than Muhammad Ali, the repeat heavyweight champion boxer and one of the most important civil rights heroes of the '60s. In more recent years, that fascination with Ali seems to have turned to another medium—and one which truly showcases […]
Posted inMusic
In Love with Language
English major Tory Ford turns honest literature into song
Thirty-five-year old San Francisco singer Tory Ford isn’t sure whether the songwriting she takes on with her band Upstairs Downstairs would impress her old English professors. Clearly, though, the firm grasp of poetic dialogue in the songs she comes up with would at least make some of their heads turn. Take the lyrics for “Parkas […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Hostile Takeover
Supervillain Sandwiches delivers downtown with a Bang! Pow! Boom!
We might not live in Gotham City, but Bend’s downtown is now occupied by a slew of Supervillains in the form of sandwiches. Supervillain Sandwiches, a new lunch spot and deli, took over for local favorite big, bready, East-Coast-style New York City Sub Shop last Tuesday, across Bond Street from Deschutes Brewery. The atmosphere is […]
Posted inCulture
Art for All
Base Camp Studio looks to provide an open door to creative expression
Two weeks ago on First Friday, artists happily painted at Brooks Street Plaza well into the night. Darlene Becker remembers the thumping music at nearby Dojo, and the passing crowds who, at 2:30 am, asked about her work and that of her two nearby comrades, each intently working on their own five-by-six-foot canvas. After Becker’s […]
Posted inNews
Washington is a Window into Our Future
A state-to-state comparison
Last year, Washington state voters approved same-sex marriage, legalized marijuana and ended the state’s decades-long liquor-sale monopoly. While such changes may seem like some fantasyland for progressives, rife with dancing unicorns and hookah-puffing caterpillars, in fact, the legislative changes really are more mainstream than radical. As part of a swelling trend, Washington joined 13 other […]
Posted inOpinion
One Day At A Time
MONDAY 2 Get some eye wash ready—because what follows is a headline that could blind you for life: “Kris Jenner Has a Sex Tape.” Yeeeeaughhh! Our eyes! OUR EYES! (Splash, splash.) Unfortunately, it’s true: In a teaser for an upcoming episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians—which only a true, self-loathing masochist would ever watch—the […]
