Movie Review – View From the Top, Boat Trip
View From the Top That Donna Jensen (Gwyneth Paltrow), you’ve got to admit, she sure knows how to aim high. She longs to see the world and thinks that the only way to do it is to become a stewardess. Of course, anything would be an improvement after growing up in a trailer in Arizona…
The other election
Springfield District 186 has won awards. But it also has ten schools on the state’s Early Warning List–schools with more than half the students failing to meet state standards two years in a row. It routinely wins grants for reading, technology, science, and math. Yet most of its black students perform below state standards, while…
More than eggs
Sure, there are plenty of places in town that can serve up a fine breakfast of two eggs over easy or maybe a glazed doughnut or three. But if you want to make that first meal of the day a treat, there are a few interesting options with atmospheres to match the food. They might…
Bards of the Sangamo 3-27-03
Looking at an Open Closet Door Sitting in her sweater, in a purple crochet coin purse, my grandmother’s rosary rests. Inside the pocket, tiny pearl blessings, counted on, worn by years of faithful fingers. –Nicole Mackey Local poets were writing about contemporary events in the Sangamo Journal as early as the 1830s. People’s Poetry…
Paranoid pop
“Chechnya! Afghanistan! Palestine! Southern Lebanon! The Golan Heights! And now Iraq, too? And now Iraq, too? It’s too much for people. Shame on you! Enough, enough, enough!” Are those angry words from a political speech or a TV interview? Are they perhaps from an impassioned op-ed piece criticizing U.S. foreign policy? In fact, they’re the…
Now Playing 3-27-03
All aboard, as we take a ride on the Springfield entertainment express. All stops along the way are filled with unbridled excitement and undeniable thrills. Kick off the week with Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys at the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival’s third anniversary party Thursday, March 27, at the Underground City Tavern in the…
“Kandahar”
Strange things happen in this world, and the fact that the film Kandahar, by the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, found a substantial international audience after it was released in late 2001 is a small but genuinely strange byproduct of recent history. A few years ago Kandahar would have been a footnote on the movie-release calendar,…
Fiery food
There are diehard enthusiasts who won’t give up the taste of grilled food, even in the dead of winter. But for most people, only warmer temperatures bring out the backyard barbecue. Geoff Bland is one of the diehards. He fires up his gas grill three or four times a week, all year long. “I love…
Unequal time
Over the last month, local news has bristled with nasty swipes at any and all who publicly opposed the war with Iraq. There’s a sad, wide gulf between the two groups who have followed the event most closely, who track every bootstep and weep for each life lost on the battlefield. Despite reporters’ shorthand, nobody…
War stories
“War is Hell,” according to William Tecumseh Sherman. Ovbiously, he knew what he was talking about. Watching the invasion of Iraq on television, writer John Jermaine wondered about the naivete of the young soldiers under fire. What did they expect before they entered battle? He decided to visit with three older veterans of foreign wars…
Look before you leap
Taking early retirement is good if it means drawing a comfortable salary while no longer working for it. But for many state employees, early retirement means looking for another job or standing in line at the unemployment office. “A lady who took early retirement about four months ago came to see me,” says State Senator…
Movie Review – Holes, Bulletproof Monk
Holes For adults with children who are either past or awaiting tweenhood, Louis Sacher’s novel Holes is probably unfamiliar. But for tweens it’s revered, a story with irresistible, high-interest hooks (an ancient curse, lost treasure, an intriguing mystery, and a happy ending) and a resonate message (put-upon kids find justice and redemption among cruel adults…
Husch-hush investigation
It was the kind of lawsuit that seemed almost hopeless. The Winchester ammunitions plant in East Alton had laid off about a quarter of its salaried employees, and a group of these workers banded together to sue, claiming age discrimination. A similar case, filed by a single worker, had already resulted in a $850,000 judgment…
Now Playing 4-24-03
Rack ’em up, Ringo, it’s time for another crack at the Springfield music scene. Friday is a busy night for hard-working local bands. Live Wire electrifies the sound waves at Fat Cat’s Jailhouse (125 Mayden) and Out of the Woods camps out downtown at American Legion Post 32. Imagine That, a longtime town favorite, conjures…
Money for Nothing
On January 13 Governor Rod Blagojevich announced that the state was in danger of spending $5 billion more than it takes in this year. The next day a report appeared criticizing the state for having put hundreds of millions of dollars a year into feel-good economic development programs that aren’t paying off. Taxpayers, it made…
Backstage Pass
A touring company of the drama The Miracle Worker makes a stop at UIS’s Sangamon Auditorium for one performance Saturday, April 25 (call 206-6160). The four-month, 40-city national tour comes from the Montana Repertory Theatre in Missoula. William Gibson originally wrote The Miracle Worker as a 1957 television play. It went on to win a…
Bards of the Sangamo 4-24-03
New Governor The new Governor seems a stumble. Even his own grumble. Few words are forthcoming Things not exactly humming. What can he do Before there’s a big taa-do? Look South! Look South! Says a local mouth. I do agree. This advice we give for free. Two men, choose one, both very fine Down amongst…
Your Turn… 4-24-03
A patriot acts . . . To the editor. I just finished perusing the April 17-23 copy of the Illinois Times and found not one positive word about what our brave troops accomplished in Iraq. Considering what they have just done, I found it shameful that your paper ignored them. The only words in your…
