The Blender

Last night, The Nature of Words - Bend's annual literary celebration - announced the authors for the 2009 event. At the top of the list is a Source favorite in Sherman Alexie, the author of Smoke Signals as well as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a hilarious tale of a boy on a Northwest Indian reservation that made waves in Central Oregon when Crook County schools decided to ban the book from their curriculum.

Well, no, not actually. But the space that previously housed the once-popular Club 97 is opening soon as The Underground.

OMG, RTL!

First it was seeing local singer songwriter Reed Thomas Lawrence's name on the lineup for the Rothbury Festival up in Michigan alongside the likes of Bob Dylan, the Dead, String Cheese Incident, The Black Crowes, Broken Social Scene and more, now we click over to MySpace Music and see RTL listed next to Kanye West on the videos page.
The page has the video for Lawrence's song "Music" which was shot here in Bend by Rage Productions and features some quintessentially Bend moments including but not limited to cruiser bikes and a backyard barbecue accompanied by a reggae-ish, summery groove.

After a few months trying to find a way to make the event happen, the folks at the 4 Peaks Music Festival announced today that there will be no third installment of the festival.

Organizers announced this spring that a full-scale outdoor camping festival was off, but hopes were alive for an in-town event in July — but those plans, too, are now scrapped.

There is music a plenty throughout Bend tonight, including the First Friday Crescendo, a musical talk on the monthly art walk, capped with a show by Moon Mountain Ramblers. But as if that’s not enough, there’s also a youthful battle of the bands and a large-scale rap show.