Can a guy who routinely takes 250-pound linebackers head on somehow be terrified by a roller coaster? Answer: yes.

Oregon superstar LaMichael James didn't seem to enjoy Space Mountain, the classic Disneyland ride, all that much. I mean, just look at that face. Straight terror.

One of the bonuses of making the Rose Bowl is a day at Disneyland...until you get the shit scared out of you, of course. But what's up with LaMike's fellow running back, Kenyon Barner, tweeting his teammate's trembling mug? You gotta keep that under raps.

But hey, I'm not blaming LaMichael. I went on that ride a few years ago and was equally freaked out.

As we mentioned in this week's paper, there are some great live shows happening around town for New Year's Eve. One of those shows is Larry and His Flask's show at the Old Stone Church, featuring a seriously cool slate of opening acts.

The show is selling fast, but Rise Up Presents is giving away ticket on their Facebook page. All you have to do is go to their page and leave a comment with your favorite song of 2011 on the Rise Up Facebook page and you'll be entered to win.

Winners will be announced on Friday by Rise Up.

In what's become an annual tradition of sorts, the Oregon Ducks' football team/fashion squad unveiled the futuristic uniforms they'll don for their Rose Bowl matchup against Wisconsin on January 2.

Take a look! Anyone else find that helmet eerily similar to that of Darth Vadar? 

Laurel Brauns, the indie-folk singer-songwriter who was long a mainstay in Bend's music scene, may have since moved to Portland to further explore her music career, but she hasn't forgotten about us here in Central Oregon.

In fact, she was around just a few weeks ago to shoot this music video, directed by Far From Earth Films' Tim Cash, for her song "Kaleidoscope Eyes." You'll recognize some of the locations, for sure.

Laurel Brauns "Kaleidoscope Eyes" Music Video from FAR from EARTH Films on Vimeo.

UPDATED at 6:04pm with more details.

We've learned more about the house fire that decimated an abandoned home on Colorado Avenue near downtown Bend.

The Bend Fire Department says that the house on the property was fully involved when they arrived shortly after 11:30pm today and that two other structures on the property also caught fire.

Neighboring businesses lost their powerlines, but the 16 firefighters who arrived on the scene were able to keep the fire from spreading to other buildings, according to a press release. There were also no reports of injuries.

Are you a Batman nerd who's been waiting impatiently for another look -- anything! -- about the upcoming Dark Knight Rises, the latest in the series of Christopher Nolan-directed films?

Well, today's your lucky day. And this film looks crazier than Nolan's previous efforts. It even has football, too!

So us Batman nerds are going to need to watch this about 17,000 times to keep entertained before the movie actually comes out in the summer of 2012.

Last night's Oregon State vs. Howard game wasn't televised, so one of the best basketball plays of the week has gone largely unnoticed...until a video of the acrobatic alley-oop went viral this morning.

The play comes from early on in the Beavers' 93-72 rout of Howard when Jared Cunningham went skyward to reverse slam this long-distance alley-oop.

It's definitely worthy of being named Dunk of the Week...which is apparently something we're doing here on the Bent Blog now.

I just got this new track from Mosley Wotta called "Front Porch" and you're free to download it below.

This song has an excellent hip-hop-meets-blues-feel to it and is definitely head-bob worthy and is from the forthcoming Amalgam X EP, which Mosley Wotta himself just told me will be available for sale at his New Year's Eve performance at McMenamins.

"Front Porch" features some weird voices in there, but all of the vocals were performed by MoWo over the top of a super-solid beat from former Person People cohort A-Bomb.

MoWo also said that he is working on a full-length album and plans to release that sometime this spring. Having just been featured on OPB's Oregon Art Beat, things are looking good for ol' MoWo.

Front Porch by MOsleyWOtta

If you picked up The Bulletin yesterday morning, you saw the front-page story with the headline: Disquiet at Phil's Trail: 'Creepy' man reported.

The story went on to mention a widely circulated Facebook post (we received it, too) about a guy with a European accent who was talking to women, and in some cases, following them on the trail and trying to continue the conversation. The sheriff's department was looking into it, the story said, and it went on to quote people up at Phil's Trail who were all like, "Huh, that's weird."

That is front page news, apparently.

BUT...this morning, the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office sent out a press release that essentially said, "Don't worry, this guy's not that creepy after all."

Here's part of that statement:

The regional rock music business isn't as glamorous or cash-loaded as some might think. In fact, a lot of times, shows here in Bend are put on by promoters and acts making a personal sacrifice in order to bring us the live music so many of us crave.

That's why the news we received today that the Midtown Ballroom was robbed this weekend really pissed us off.

The theft occurred sometime after Floater's set on Friday night and before their sound check for their encore performance the following evening. Stolen were $4,000 worth of microphones and other equipment belonging to Sonic Solutions and two electric-acoustic guitars owned by Floater.

Midtown management is offering an $800 reward for the return of the audio gear and another $800 for the guitars.

If you're the person or persons who did this, you are a jerk (or jerks). You should really return this stuff because you're not stealing from massively huge rock stars. These people have families that depend on this gear. Give it back.