Everyone has his contradictions. Bob Waldmire, for example, is an unreconstructed hippie, as green as Ralph Nader. “Small is beautiful. Slow is beautiful. Old is beautiful,” the itinerant artist intones. Let a hot Mustang drive by, though, and Waldmire’s eyes light up. It’s a reflex that goes back 40 years. Before he embraced and helped […]
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts & Culture
Movie reviews
Dancing with wolves, Japanese-style A disillusioned Civil War veteran sets out to a foreign land where he encounters an ancient culture. Its values of honor, loyalty and courage prove a revelation. Though sheltered by the tribe’s leader, he meets with resistance from others. He eventually joins this culture and marries a young widow. Though it […]
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Knoepfle 12-4-03
back of the pharmacy talk of the miners here the farmers ex-school teachers telephone linemen the road grader the druggist kicking it around on a snow driven morning december complaints old as the first pain anyone thought about in a cave they worry about one another and there is survival in this beyond the need […]
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Miner turns curator to share coal’s story
You could say William Stone has coal in his veins. After more than three decades working for Mr. Peabody’s coal company and more than a decade in retirement, Stone opened a museum devoted to — what else? — Illinois solid black gold. Located off of the Taylorville town square, the Christian County Coal Mine Museum […]
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H.C. Latham came to the prairies of Illinois, and saw opportunity
Springfield’s West Side Christian Church, home to a large and thriving community of faithful worshipers, has been located on Cider Mill Lane since 1996. The capacious multi-wing facility stands like a lone sentinel at its new address, surrounded by greensward and asphalt, without a close neighbor to call its own. That is a stark contrast […]
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Angels in America lands on the small screen
Something pretty rare takes place on television this weekend when a landmark American play makes it to the small screen, thanks to HBO’s adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. This two-part ‘morality play’ about life, death, survival and faith, arrived on Broadway ten years ago (its premiere productions took place in Los Angeles and […]
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For swashbuckling adventures, what’s old is new again
The success this year of Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World have made period adventures fashionable again. This should breathe new life into some classics from the past. • Alexander Nevsky (1938). The great Russian director Sergei Eisenstein is so lauded as a silent film artist his […]
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Tips for selecting and protecting a fresh Christmas tree
A freshly cut Christmas tree can be a beautiful sight. With proper selection and care you can safely enjoy a fresh tree throughout the holidays. Before you leave home, measure the height and width of the available space where the tree will be placed. Make sure that you don’t choose a tree bigger than the […]
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Bards of the Sangamo
For Want of Better Dreams For want of better dreams the plainest things elude our closest scrutiny — take flight. DaVinci, though his notes were erudite, slighted the kite that might have led to wings. Nor did he windsurf, though a sail that swings upon a board seems simple — in the light of hindsight. […]
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Movie review
Billy Bob Thornton is Willie, an ex-con whose annual scam is to get hired as a department store Santa along with his dwarfish buddy, Marcus (Tony Cox). Their goal: Rip off the place on Christmas Eve and score a take that’s big enough to last the whole year. This Christmas, the plan goes awry. Willie’s […]
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Knoepfle 11-27-03
gift of john wesley powell water in the zuni world polychromatic white and brown these fantastic birds and here grazing below the familiar pronghorns where zuni have a middle world the world below them empty this pot holds all creation all the world the zuni knew its air earth fire and yes that dream of […]
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A call to conserve what remains of Illinois natural habitats
When the everyday grind gets to be too much, some of us fantasize a bucolic life, picturing ourselves tucked into a little country place full of birds and sunshine. The irony of this particular fantasy is that birds, could they daydream, might be having the same flights of fancy. In the past couple of centuries, […]
