I'll cut to the chase here: I've been listening to essentially one band for the past two days and that band is called Pickwick. They are a bunch of nerdy-looking Seattle indie rockers who have, seemingly impossibly, decided to play soul music.

And the soul music they play is incredible. More incredible, perhaps, is the fact that they're playing a free show tonight at McMenamins Old St. Francis School.

Here's a video of the band playing "Hacienda Motel" in the studios at KEXP. If this song doesn't make you want to dance...I hate to break it to you, but you're probably a huge jerk. Sorry. But you are. Everybody thinks so. The show is at 7pm and it's freaking free!

If you still want to dance after this relatively early show, get your bad self to the Silver Moon where another Seattle band will be there to get you moving. Polyrhthmics, a horn-equipped Afrofunk band will be in the house with their world-spanning sound. That show is at 9pm.

While the BendFilm festival remains a painful nine months in the future, BendFilm is giving Bend a much-needed shot of indie cinema in venues throughout the area this winter and spring.

The series kicks off on January 26 with a screening of the documentary, Becoming Chaz, a film that documents Chaz Bono's journey through his transgender reassignment. The film is co-presented by COCC and the Human Dignity Coalition and tickets are $10. The screening is at 6:30pm in the Hitchcock Auditorium.

Here's a look:

Then on Sunday, January 29, BendFilm brings My So Called Enemy, a documentary about Palestinian and Israeli girls who become friends, to the Sisters Movie House. That kicks off at 1pm. Tickets are $12 at the door or at bendfilm.org. The director will be available for a Skype Q&A following the screening.

You'd think that there would be a post-New Year lull in the events happening around town this weekend, but that's hardly the case. There's actually a crap ton of stuff to do. So maybe you should get out there and do it.

For starters, tonight is the first First Friday of 2012 and there's plenty of cool exhibits for you to check out. Here's a comprehensive list of the gallery showings going on around the city, but I recommend you do it old school and just wander around downtown and the Old Mill District, popping in and out of shops until you see something you like.

And did you know that we have professional basketball in this state and that our team is really quite good this year? Yes, the Blazers have been through a shitstorm of injuries over the past couple of years, but as last night's dismantling of the Lakers proved, the Blazers are looking great. They play the Phoenix Suns tonight and then take on the Cleveland Cavs on Sunday night. Tonight's game is on ESPN at 7:30...in case you want to pop into a bar during the art walk and check it out.

Tomorrow, after you hit up the outdoor recreational activities winter has brought our way, make your way to the Cascade Indoor Sports Center where the Lava City Roller Dolls are going to kick the living crap out of each other...not really, but it's going to be feisty. Here are all the details on that all-ages bout between the Moulin Rouge and the Guage Rage.

I had a blast of a time chatting with Vancouver-area one-man rock band Tony Smiley for the feature we ran this week about his insane mastery of the loop pedals and am still wondering how the hell he makes the sounds he does.

Tonight, Smiley plays a free show (and it's all ages, kids) at McMenamins Old St. Francis School. Things get started around 7pm and if you're even moderately curious about how one man plays excellently crafted rock songs all on his lonesome with no prerecorded sounds, you'd be doing yourself a favor by checking this out.

And here's something a little funkier in the event you feel like dancing tonight.

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.