Here at ad HOC : Words + Ideas worldwide HQ in downtown Bend, we're celebrating after finding out that the Giant Loop Saddlebag is in the February 2009 issue of Dirt Rider Magazine — and the Giant Loop Saddlebag is "Product of the Week" on the Dirt Rider website. I do work like this for clients all the time, but it's a special kick being my own venture that's getting the publicity this time around.
Here's what Dirt Rider says: "Take the insult out of 'you've got saddlebags,' and carry your stuff easier, too, over the rear of the seat!"
My partner Dave Wachs and I didn't know the review was already arriving in subscribers' mailboxes until a local rider scanned the magazine page and posted it on the Bend Dualsport forum.
Since launching the Giant Loop in September 2008 (just a coule months ago!), we've sold saddlebags to customers riding in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Costa Rica and Tanzania. This is an international community!
We are truly blessed. Ride while you can!
-hoc
Friday, December 19, 2008
Giant Loop Saddlebag in Dirt Rider Magazine + "Product of the Week" on Website
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
ONDA: Steens Mtn. Recreation Plan Comment Period
From Oregon Natural Desert Association. -hoc
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PLEASE COMMENT NOW
On the Steens Mountain Comprehensive Recreation Plan
Comment Period Ends December 31st
The BLM is seeking public comments on recreational opportunities and facilities and activities that occur or should occur on the Steens Mountain.
Some issues that are being considered include:
- Dispersed Recreation (hiking, camping, horseback riding, hunting, fishing, other)
- Developed Recreation Sites (campgrounds, picnic grounds)
- Steens Mountain Back Country Byway/Overlooks/Facilities
- Winter Recreation (snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling)
- Trails/Trailheads
- Off-Highway Vehicle Management
- River Use
1) That BLM's analysis of transportation planning on Steens Mountain should include both motorized and non-motorized travel and should include a comprehensive, up-to-date inventory of routes within the Steens.
2) The BLM should analyze wilderness and roadless values present on Steens Mountain and how BLM's transportation planning decision can protect those values by closing obsolete, redundant and resource-damaging routes.
The Full Language of the plan can be accessed here.
To make comments online on the Steens CRP click here.
To make comments in writing click here.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Fully Briefed: Designer Men's Underwear
Keep it local. Keep it real. Make it fun.
Spice up the man in your life's underwear drawer this holiday season with something more than old-school boxers or briefs in white. Based in Bend, Fully Briefed has assembled the finest collection of great fitting, high performance, designer underwear known to man.
Fully Briefed searched the nether regions throughout the globe, investigating undergarments worldwide to find brands like Baskit, C-in2, Cocksox, Danial Webster, DT, Dirty Fukker, Elite, Gia, Gigo, Go Softwear, JM, Joe Snyder, Justus Boyz, N2N, Otter, Rufskin and WildmanT. Profile-enhancing, fun and sexy styles. No big mystery really. It’s all about feeling great and looking your best.
People of all shapes and sizes can enjoy shopping at Fully Briefed. Sexy, comfy briefs, bikinis, trunks, low rise, boxers, jocks, thongs and enhancers aren’t just for those with swimsuit-model-perfect physiques. You'll find options ranging from xx-small to x-large, and the FB phunderwear engineers have tested and measured every pair of undies in the shop to create the most detailed and complete sizing information in the known universe. Shop with confidence, knowing it’s Fully Guaranteed to Fit.
Green, sustainable men's underwear options shouldn't be as rare as a Sasquatch sighting. FB shoppers will find fabrics like bamboo, tencel, lyocell, hemp, organic cotton and other alternatives to industrially produced cotton, which is one of the most chemical-dependent, water-consuming fiber crops. Call them wild, but the FB boyz think that a healthy planet is the ultimate bottom line, and they want to do their small part to leave behind a better world for their children and grandchildren to discover, explore and enjoy.
What's in your drawers? Get Fully Briefed!
-hoc
credits: Research, branding, logo, web design and content by Harold Olaf Cecil (Ad HOC) and Carlos Perez (Perez design). Website development and programming by Woody Beverly and Justin Clapick (Bend Web Solutions).
Thursday, December 4, 2008
ONDA Gift Membership = 2009 Wild Desert Calendar
Keep it local. Keep it real. Make it count. This from Oregon Natural Desert Association. ONDA calendars are also for sale at Thump Coffee. -hoc
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december @ thump
DECEMBER SPECIAL HOURS:
12/24 Close at 3:00pm
12/25 & 12/26 CLOSED
CUPPING: No Cupping in December. Join us in 2009 for more adventures in coffee tasting.
featured coffee: Kenya Gaturiri Reserve, direct trade
(Stumptown's first East African Direct Trade coffee)
from Stumptown:
Location: Karatina de Nyeri
Elevation: 1700-1800 meters
Varietal: SL34, SL28 Region: Africa
Flavors: Sweet sugar browning aromatics introduce dark fruit flavors of raspberry, huckleberry and black currant which compliment the coffee's stout body and honeyed finish.
Notes: The members of the Gaturiri washing station within the Barichu Cooperative are the proud producers of our first ever East African Direct Trade coffee! To be able to guarantee such a phenomenal price to the association members of Gaturiri, under the Barichu Cooperative umbrella, is the first step towards transparent coffee business in Kenya. Stumptown worked on the ground directly with growers and washing station managers in the Central Kenyan Highlands. This grand cru lot, from the peak of the harvest, represents the finest quality coffee produced at Gaturiri this past harvest.
ART: Mosaics from Bear Creek Elementary Students with Donna Lutzky
Retired art educator and mosaic artist Donna Lutzky collaborated with Mimi Graves’ fifth-grade class at Bear Creek Creek Elementary to create the vibrant mosaics on display at thump this month. The mosaics incorporate bits of broken cups, bowls and plates from the coffeehouse, and they will be available for purchases to raise funds for the school’s otherwise un-funded art programs.
Lutzky introduced “some simple design elements to the students and then discussed what a mosaic is,” she says. The students used 6-inch tiles as their bases and individual pieces of "tesserae," including actual pieces of broken dishes from thump, to create their designs, she explains.
Graves describes Lutzky as a “gifted teacher, who is generously volunteering one to two days a week at Bear Creek.” Graves says that Lutzky’s donated work allows Bear Creek students an opportunity at a school that has “no funding for art or artist in residence opportunities.”
Lutzky, who will also show her own works here this month, writes in her artist’s statement: “My passion for patterns, textures, color and form naturally led me to the exploration of mosaics. I abandoned the traditional mosaic technique I learned in college and use a more free-form style, a ‘spontaneous’ intuitive search for the right pieces, resulting in accidental encounters. I have to ‘think’ in mosaics to create with the aesthetic traits of the materials I possess. Pique assiete (using pieces of broken china or shards) is a style I also incorporate into my own pieces.”
“All of art creation says something about its creator, and I hope my use of broken pieces shows the beauty and new wholeness of RECONSTRUCTED BROKENNESS!”
Because Graves recognizes the importance and value of arts education, she also annually orchestrates the Evening Art Gala in May, where all Bear Creek students have the opportunity to showcase their artwork for the public to appreciate and to purchase. For more information on the Evening Art Gala, contact Mimi Graves at 383-6120.
This is the second year Thump has showcased the artwork of local young artists from Bear Creek Elementary School during December. Thump owner, Hazel Chapple, was a teacher at Bear Creek, and she hopes “to offer ongoing opportunities for young artists to publicly show their work and take pride in their artistic accomplishments,” she says.
thumpology: Coffee Producer from El Salvador Aida Batlle & Stumptown Owner Duane Sorenson
On November 18, Hazel, Kent and Finley zipped over to Portland and back for an evening "Meet the Producers" event, hosted by Stumptown. The guest of honor, Aida Batlle, is a rarity in the coffee producing industry — a woman(!) managing not one, but three, of her family's coffee farms. We tasted her award winning coffees and a traditional tea made from dried coffee cherries. Sweet, earthy and potent with caffeine!Aida is known for her meticulous farming and harvesting practices, as well as the generous wages she pays her workers. In her presentation, Aida described the farming methods she uses including skilled tree pruning and transitioning her farms to certified organic practices. She also described how she is experimenting with fertilizing the soil by digging compost holes amongst the coffee trees.
In a conversation with Stumptown owner, Duane Sorenson, Hazel asked how he found Aida and other coffee producers with whom he establishes Direct Trade relationships. He shared that it's through word of mouth, asking lots of people throughout a given country, "Who has the best coffee?". Duane explained that it takes anywhere from 16 months to 3 years to transition to a Direct Trade relationship between Stumptown and a given coffee producer. Time is needed to build relationships, and insure transparency — making sure that money paid to a farmer or co-op makes it to the worker; that standards in coffee quality, farming and harvesting are consistently high; and that workers and the land are well cared for.
Duane lamented that only about 1% of the producers he or Aleco Chigounis approach are able to sell them coffee. Many farmers are already under 10 - 20 year contracts - being paid minimum prices for outstanding coffees. Some of the farmers have to break these contracts to grow more profitable crops, such as bananas. When reflecting on this, it saddens us to think what happens to the coffee trees that had been so carefully maintained for possibly generations, as the land and resources are now needed for a different crop like bananas.
For the coffee producers who are able to earn generous prices for their coffees by working with roasters like Stumptown, we are honored to do our part by serving their coffees, such as Finca Kilimanjaro and Finca el Injerto, at thump. Each sip is the result of great effort put forth by every hand that touched the bean: Duane and Aleco who established the relationship, the coffee producer who is the steward of the land and the local community, the farm worker who laboriously and skillfully tends the land, harvests and processes the coffees, the roaster who artfully roasts the bean, and the barista who carefully prepares your drink! Drink up in honor of them all!
Grind In The Flavor
Buy a Baratza conical burr grinder at thump and the first bag of beans is on us! Coffeehouse-quality Baratza burr grinders uniformly grind your coffee without changing its roast, and they consistently deliver the proper particle size, from very fine espresso to coarse French press. You’ll get a better tasting cup with these specially priced commercial-grade conical burr grinders. Learn more.Thump Coffee
Rise Up Holiday Party
Another in the "keep it local, keep it real" series: local artists/activists Rise Up! - hoc
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You are Invited to a Rise Up Holiday Party this Sat. Dec 6th, 7pm at the Poet House, 55 NW Minnesota (above the wine shop near Thump). $5 donation. Eats by Sparrow Bakery. Drinks by Townshends Teahouse.
Music by: Bend High Dynamics, Empty Space Orchestra, Mirf the Bing, MuD, Mosley
(Eggnog) Wotta.
Be a Conscious Consumer. Come pick up Rise Up Clothing for your holiday shopping. (Below wholesale prices on many items.) All the proceeds will go to support our mission to empower and connect local and global communities to RISE UP against apathy, poverty and social injustice through education, engaging the arts and grassroots activism.
Jackalope Grill: 3rd Anniversary, Women Tasting Wine, '09 Cooking Classes, Open Christmas
Tim & Kathy Garling Celebrate Three Years of Jackalope Grill
From Kathy Garling: December 1 was our third anniversary. On that day in 2005, Tim and I purchased the Jackalope Grill, and like any great birth this was not an easy one! We signed papers for the restaurant at the restaurant and started prepping for the evening minutes later. That evening at 5 o'clock the restaurant opened for business as usual. It was a funny and surreal experience.
I can clearly remember the servers and kitchen staff looking at us and you could almost see them wondering, "who on earth are these people and what are they doing here?" I have to admit somewhere in the back of our minds we were wondering the same thing too. After leaving the safe, small and familiar surroundings of Alta, Utah for 16 years we were now in Bend.
Thankfully, not only was it the scariest decision we ever had to make, but it was also the wisest. We have been met with such warmth and been truly embraced by this community. Words cannot express our gratitude. Here's to more great years to come!
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Join us for Christmas
We will be open Christmas Day, December 25, serving dinner from 4-7pm. Leave the cooking - and cleaning - to us and enjoy a real holiday break.
CLOSED December 26 January 1
MEMO: The Party's at The Jackalope
There's still time to reserve our private dining room - or the whole restaurant - for your holiday party. Get more details here, or call Kathy at 318-8435.
2009 Cooking Classes
Tim will be teaching cooking classes in January, February and March. Space is limited, so reserve your spot now! " . . . Although [the cooking classes] are very educational, I suspect he uses the classes (10 people at most) for just having fun and making sure the group has a great time with good food and wine! He is a walking encyclopedia of food too!" — Julia Gray, host, "Cooking With Gusto!"
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Women Tasting Wine: Sparkling Wines
Mon., Dec. 15, 4-6pm
From Diane Sienko and Mary Robertson:
"November's seminar certainly put us in a Thanksgiving mood! Chef Tim's upscale Thanksgiving menu was paired nicely with wines selected by Byron Scott of Cathedral Ridge Winery in Hood River, Oregon.
With the holidays fast approaching, December's seminar will feature "Sparkling Wines". Dennis Sienko of Bend Wine Cellar will guide us through sparkling wines aimed at every price range and every occasion."
Cost is $45. For reservations, please contact Diane Sienko at Bend Wine Cellars (388-7564), or go to Women Tasting Wine.
Click here to see last month's Women Tasting Wine menu.
Nashelle & Friends "Peas & Love" Holiday Trunk Show
Graphic design colleague Casey Crisler (who not only played volleyball for the Ducks, but was also a three-time Academic All-Region recipient!) just sent me the flyer below for the Nashelle & Friends event, which features some of Central Oregon's best home-grown designers. Keep it local. Keep it real. -hoc
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NASHELLE and FRIENDSI N V I T E Y O U T O T H E 1st A N N U A L
PEAS & LOVE*
H O L I D A Y T R U N K S H O W
WHEN? Next Wednesday, December 10th, 4-8:30 pm
WHAT? another fun, fabulous Holiday Sample Sale complete with tasty snacks & sips, and live DJ music to boot! Now, you all know our Holiday Trunk show isn't new, so you might be wondering what the "1st Annual" thing is all about... but the "Peas & Love" part IS new. Read on for details - we think you'll agree that it shouldn't be a one-time-event!
*PLEASE BRING AN ITEM OR TWO (OR MORE!) OF NON-PERISHABLE FOOD; YOU'LL NOT ONLY BE HELPING TO FEED LOCAL FAMILIES IN NEED, BUT WE'LL GIVE YOU AN EXTRA DISCOUNT JUST FOR BEING NICE! A SINGLE CAN WON'T DO IT, BUT TOGETHER WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
WHERE? at the Nashelle Studio, 61511 American Ln. #5, Bend (off Reed Market Rd.)
WHO? a handful of local businesswomen and designers including: Nashelle, Maya Moon Handbags, Urban Showroom Tees, Treefort, Vanilla, Habit, Frankie & Me, and more!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS - SPREAD THE LOVE
www.nashelle.com
Tumbleweed Bead Co. Holiday Happy Hour
Another Central Oregon option for holiday gifts: Tumbleweed Bead Co. based in Sunriver. Jewelry designer Jessica Russell just sent me a little heads up about the upcoming sale on her website. December 9-11, enter coupon code holidayhappyhour and enjoy 25% off everything. You may know Jessica as one of the original baristas at Thump Coffee - and you may also recognize on the Tumbleweed site the work of photographer, Steven Chaprnka, and models Meredith (pictured here) and Chiho looking fabulous in Tumbleweed designs - also all thumpistas past and present. Keep it local. Keep it real. -hoc
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Vima Lupwa Homes Holiday Cards
And another from Malerie Pratt, founder of Vima Lupwa Homes. -hoc
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All proceeds from these "Happy Holidays" cards will be used to improve the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children at the Vima Lupwa Home in Luanshya, Zambia. One of the children at the home, Mwape, is featured on the front of the card, displaying a joyful smile, as a reflection of her new hope found at the home. Several of the other children can be seen on the back of the card enjoying family life at the home, which is now celebrating its two year anniversary.
Cards are available at Douglas Fine Jewelry, Allyson's Kitchen, Strictly Organic Coffee, Vanilla Urban Threads, and Kiwanis’ See’s Candy Sales [two locations: 3rd St. Safeway parking lot and FORUM parking lot near Costco] – Bend Senior High School and Summit High School Honor Society students will also be selling our cards – all cards sold in sets of 10 for $15.
Vima Lupwa Kids Art = Gratis Earrings
And here's another holiday fundraiser from Steven Douglas or Douglas Fine Jewelry. -hoc
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The original art is the result of art projects involving the children of the Vima Lupwa orphanage and the surrounding community of Luanshya, Zambia. Priced from $75 to $125, 100 percent of the purchase price will go to support the children in the Vima Lupwa orphanage in Zambia.
Vima Lupwa Homes, a 501c non-profit, seeks to give a hand up to some of the most at risk children in Zambia, Africa. Along with our Zambian partners Vima Lupwa provides a secure family like setting, good nutrition and education for children that would otherwise be living without hope. Our goal is to break and reverse the cycle of poverty one child at a time.
Alyce Hatch Ornaments Fundraiser
Just got this from Stephanie Mays, formerly of Bend Living. If you're buying gifts this holiday season they might as well be local — and even better if they're helping a cash-strapped charity or favorite nonprofit. Keep it close to home and make it count! -hoc
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Greetings of the season everyone:
I just learned that this is the LAST YEAR for Alyce Hatch ornaments. The clay ornaments are handmade by the organization's board members and look like gingerbread designs. Each year has had a different motif. As Bend has grown and the volunteer pool has become smaller, the organization's board just doesn't have the time and resources to continue with the project. What a shame...we've been buying them since Crosby was in pre-school, but the board has been hand-making them for the past 15 years. They are a great gift, and the money raised goes to support the Center's programs in Bend and elsewhere in Central Oregon. The Alyce Hatch Center is known for its programs that work with at-risk or developmentally delayed children (from ages 1-5) and their families.
To get an ornament, contact Jolene Cap: phone is 541-317-1952 and email is jolenecap@q.com. The ornaments are $7 each. There are also some left from last year if you want one.
Thanks,
Stephanie
