Grimm’s phony tales
Fairy tales can come true — just ask Will (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger) Grimm. Terry Gilliam’s fictional rendering of the famed brothers presents them as traveling con artists who set up phony hauntings and then offer their services as ghostbusters. In reality, the brothers were collectors of folklore who are often credited with…
Craven more
Why would Wes Craven, who has been called the “king of horror,” fail so miserably with the werewolf film Cursed (2005)? Perhaps his reputation is a little overstated. Craven achieved greater box-office success than Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), John Carpenter (Halloween), and George Romero (Dawn of the Dead), but unlike his rivals he…
Barack and a hard place
When U.S. Sen. Barack Obama filled the tank of his flexible-fuel sport-utility vehicle with E85 at a Decatur gas station last week, farmers, ethanol producers, and even oil companies made money. Plus, the senator saved himself $10.92. Obama, who was holding a series of town-hall meetings in downstate Illinois to talk about education, health care,…
What we need from Jim Edgar
Here’s an idea: Instead of reluctantly agreeing to run for governor as a means of rescuing the Republican Party and then trying to survive four years without damaging his good reputation, how about if Jim Edgar gets back into politics with enthusiasm, determined to make life better in Illinois? Edgar is the one potential gubernatorial…
Robert Lloyd says hello
According to the group’s Web site, St. Louis-based Field of Grey wants “to bring the rock back to radio and make people think about the world surrounding them with their thought-provoking lyrics.” Working toward those lofty goals, the band has been busting its collective butt, playing gigs all over the place and preparing for upcoming…
Witnessing miracles
In June, a 16-member team from West Side Christian Church delivered medical supplies to the Christian Dominican Medical Mission, a clinic in the Dominican Republic run by missionaries Gary and Cindy Klein. The Kleins and their children live in Mucha Agua, a village of about 800, roughly the size of Illiopolis. About 70 percent of…
Badge of honor
Mike Callahan was sitting inside a giant piece of fruit on a carnival ride called the Berry-Go-Round when he heard somebody yell, “There’s the narc!” Looking around, he recognized a crack-cocaine-dealing gangster — a man then awaiting sentencing on a drug charge, thanks to Callahan’s undercover work. As a master sergeant with the Illinois State…
Spring Patch
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Get out of your gardening funk
By now, most of our gardens have started to look a little worn, flowers have started to fade away, and plants are looking tired from lack of rain. In some gardens, weeds have taken over. It’s time for a burst of energy — and what better way to get fired up about your garden than…
Quicktakes
Green Day targets overpassVolunteers with Springfield Green are expected to converge on the Fifth and Sixth street overpass at Stanford Avenue on from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, in the city-sponsored group’s first “Clean & Green Day.” Volunteers will remove debris and brush, pull weeds, and mow the grass. The overpass was…
Churning the GOP
Jim Oberweis’ three statewide campaigns have provided ample evidence of his propensity for making outrageous claims designed to focus media attention on himself. The first time he ran statewide, Oberweis compared anti-abortion activists to the Taliban, provoking howls of protest. The second time, he vastly overstated the illegal-immigration problem, to still more criticism. Last week,…
Rescued from obscurity
Flamin’ Groovies Shake Some Action (DBK Works) Was there ever a phrase more redolent of rock than “shake some action”? In the annals of horndog eloquence, it’s up there with “Who put the bomp in the bompalompalomp?” and “Tutti frutti oh rootie” — pure Dionysian nonsense, the urgent articulation of the inarticulate speech of the…
Jacqueline Jackson
lakepoem # 6 a stiff north wind whips wild waves into a lather under an intense blue sky no easy swim today the eye on the sky morning forecast right after garrison keillor’s daily poem assures us summer will return tomorrow but the incessantly singing red-eyed vireo has given up on the season and an…
Filling in the gaps
This morning, a group brought together by Mayor Tim Davlin’s Office of Education Liaison and the Springfield Urban League will meet for the second time this summer to discuss barriers to African-American student achievement and success in Springfield. The group, which comprises community leaders and District 186 staffers, students, and parents, will address the disproportionately…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: Where can I find green-friendly office products and back-to-school supplies? — Taylor Howe, San Francisco, Calif. Environmentally friendly school and office products have been available for decades from specialty suppliers, but in recent years many recycled kinds of papers, pens, pencils, toner cartridges, binders, folders, and desk accessories have become ubiquitous in…
March on Washington!
Sam Adams — the man, not the beer — knew a bit about agitating, organizing, and fighting for democratic values and liberty. Adams was the founder of the Sons of Liberty and the organizer of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Even after the colonists had defeated King George III and established our fledgling democracy,…
Letters to the editor
Letters policy We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity. Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com WHAT GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT? U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and Beni Kitching think…
American Life in Poetry
In this fascinating poem by California poet Jane Hirshfield, the speaker discovers that through paying attention to an event she has become part of it; indeed, she has become inseparable from the event and its implications. This is more than an act of empathy. It speaks, in my reading of it, to the perception of…
