The Blender

It’s somewhat of a strange holiday (or probably not actually a holiday exactly) but Saturday (4/17) is Record Store Day. Across the country, record stores will celebrate the spirit of independent music with events and concerts inside and outside of their shops.

This event isn't on 4/20, the stoney-est day of the year, but it's close enough.
On April 23, the Hooker Creek Events Center on the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond will serve as host to the Hemp is Earth Medicine Tour, a concert and rally supporting The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, a measure that would regulate and tax marijuana.

I just got final word from the folks at Combined Communications about the bands selected for the Last Band Standing competition, which gets underway next week. More than 100 bands entered and here are the 38 that were selected to compete for the ridiculously crazy awesome grand prize: a 15-passenger van, a Gibson guitar, a recording contract and plenty other goodies.

 
There have been local talent shows and artist showcases in Bend before, but nothing like Last Band Standing, sponsored by Clear 101.7.

No matter which way you boil it down, 111 days is a long time.
But that’s precisely how long Avatar was in theaters here in Bend.

This week, I have a feature in the paper about Larry and His Flask, the punk-gone-acoustic sextet that’s been out touring the country in support of Celtic rockers Dropkick Murphys, but now have returned home.
Now, they’re home and settling in to the 92.

And you thought that was a misleading headline, didn’t you? But here is proof that on Easter Sunday at Silver Moon Brewing Co., Jesus and the Easter Bunny took the battle for rights to the holiday to the bicycles.

Tonight, Duke University, a basketball powerhouse since the early 1960s is playing for its fourth national championship against the lowly, slightly dorky-looking and dorky-acting men of Butler University. You may very well be one of the millions of people who inexplicably cheer for Duke each season, and if so, this is for you.