Summertime means road trips. And with Airbnb and Craigslist opening up more informal rental options, the quality of kitchen is far from regulated. Yes, let’s face it: Vacation rentals have worse utensils than your first college apartment. Packing these 11 items—all which (more or less) fit in your glove compartment—will ensure culinary happiness while on […]
Section Feature
Posted inCulture
Not Mother’s Motorcycle Rally
. . .Oh, actually it is!
Wellesley College is consistently ranked the No. 1 college in the country, an all-women's school with powerful graduates like Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton. Perhaps not as well known, but equally influential in the world of two wheels, is Linda Dugeau, Wellesley Class of 1938 and the founder of the Motor Maids. Unlike their West […]
Posted inNews
Hold the Line
Is a middle school the Urban Growth Boundary’s Trojan horse?
On Monday afternoon, as rafters bumped into each other floating down the stretch of river adjacent to the Park & Rec building, a dimly lit conference room inside the building was equally crowded. For the first time in a year, the so-called UGB Remand Task Force was meeting publicly and discussing what, if any, progress […]
Posted inCulture
Punch Drunk Love
Much Ado About Nothing is better than liquid lunch
In the first season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” in an episode called “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date,” Buffy—a 5-foot-nothing cheerleader/superhero tasked with killing the world’s scourge of vampires without chipping her nail polish—skips out of her school library to fight a horde of martial arts proficient monsters. Before she exits she […]
Posted inMusic
Musical Ashram
Fanciful and serious, Y La Bamba blends cultures
The singer for Portland’s abstract folk band Y La Bamba, Luz Elena Mendoza, opens her song with a reference to a trip to India that Mendoza took a decade ago, one that initiated an unintended spiritual journey that even today haunts the statuesque Mexican-American and native Oregonian. Her cool voice is heavy with the weight […]
Posted inCulture
Bend’s Pearl District
Old Iron Works: Industrial turned artsy
Last month I found myself sipping on deliciously tart hard cider from the local Red Tank cider mill huddled under a cloth umbrella in the early evening drizzle. As two-man-band If BEARS were BEES played next to the blazing fire, I watched the steam rise from Dump City Dumpling’s wooden baskets of treats across the […]
Posted inNews
Up in the Air
Bend looks to Airbnb for tax revenue
It’s a contentious issue—whether or not a 2 percent room tax increase should be added to November ballots. The bed tax is paid by tourists—not locals—and, if approved, would change the rate from 9 to 11 percent. The tax would help fund the arts, emergency services and Bend’s tourism reach. Last week, after months of […]
Posted inOutside
No Pain, No Gain
Central Oregon forests are out of whack. Setting things straight, though, won’t be fun.
Kevin Larkin, Bend-Fort Rock District ranger, is asking community members for patience, understanding and that they “maintain the long view.” Last week, while addressing a comfortable City Club luncheon inside a St. Charles meeting hall, Larkin spoke honestly and earnestly about an uncomfortable subject: Larkin, and others who presented at the midweek event, explained how […]
Posted inMusic
Home Sweet Home
Singer, fiddler Carrie Rodriguez returns to Austin
Austin, Texas: Live Music Capital of the World. At least that’s what Austin’s City Hall claims. Fiddle player and singer Carrie Rodriguez—who grew up there and moved back a couple of years ago after a stint in Brooklyn—agrees; it’s a special place. “I think in Brooklyn it’s virtually impossible to make a living out of […]
Posted inMusic
Harvesting Fruit Borne of Harsh Times
Iconic folk singer John Prine
Sometimes it takes a messy life to make meaningful music. It would be hard to argue that folk singer John Prine doesn’t fit that bill. Though not one to suffer any of the self-inflicted and unnecessary difficulties typically associated with musicians—oh, say, the cliché alcohol or drug addiction—Prine has instead navigated the kind of trials […]
