Tonight: Torch Tuesday hosts out-of-town talent
Double A from Madison, WI Torch Tuesday at Bar None continues to expand tonight, presenting three artists from Madison WI. Check out video from DB Cooper, Double A and Michael Medall below and come out later on for the most consistent hip-hop party in town. Double A.htmtableborders, .htmtableborders td, .htmtableborders th {border : 1px dashed…
Faulty deductions
It’s tax time, and the hunt for deductions is on. Back in 2009, I griped about the folly of the federal tax subsidy to home owners in my column, “Just extra money.” The deduction for home mortgage interest favors families spending more money on more house, because the more they pay in interest, the more…
Pedestrian design
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that a company that runs stores called Country Markets built a new one in the middle of Springfield that sits on the street like a roadside vegetable stand. In March, Steve Patterson, a St. Louis architect who blogged about the project at UrbanDesignSTL, criticized the indifference the new store…
From Buck to Beck: Dwight Yoakam at PCCC tonight
A country star playing the Prairie Capital Convention Center? STOP THE PRESSES! Sarcasm aside, Dwight Yoakam – who performs at the PCCC this very evening – isn’t anyone’s idea of a typical country star. A unique and versatile artist, Yoakam has spent decades crossing stylistic lines, drawing as deeply from the Bakersfield sound pioneered…
Music tonight: Gentle vs. Brutal
Springfield music fans bemoaning a lack of variety in local concert offerings can go ahead and bite their tongues on this particular evening as a former Bon Iver collaborator and a balls-out thrash metal show each prepare to take downtown stages. Field Report The Hoogland Center for the Arts, via Bedrock 66, is playing host…
A nurse by any other name
I recently made a case (“Nurse, Nurse!”) for the liberalization of the State of Illinois rules that restrict what nurse practitioners can do. A lot of people don’t know exactly what a nurse practitioner is, thanks to the unfortunate title he or she bears. A nurse practitioner by any other name would be better described.…
Movies: Midnight Road Trip for Gore Snobs
Why simply trudge to the local multiplex like a good little horror movie consumer to see the slick new remake of camp gore classic Evil Dead when the original is being given a rare theatrical screening just up the road? Champaign’s ever-scrappy Art Theater Co-Op is doing its best to steal some of the new…
Abused wife freed from prison after 26 years
When the Springfield-based Illinois Innocence Project hosts its annual fundraising banquet this weekend, they’ll have a fresh victory to celebrate. Peggy Jo Jackson of Shelbyville was released from prison in Lincoln last week after serving nearly 26 years for a murder her brother admitted to committing. Gov. Pat Quinn approved Jackson’s clemency petition on March…
Amy Benton
Blessed with a lovely voice, a sweet smile, a creative streak and enough gumption to take on the music business world, Taylorville native Amy Benton lives her dream. Between consistent shows in central Illinois (she’s booked next weekend at the Office and Boondocks), our enterprising singer-songwriter makes steady trips to Nashville, Tenn., pitching songs to…
Wrongly convicted man wins settlement 26 years later
After more than 26 years of fighting, Randy Steidl is ready to put the past behind him. The Paris, Ill., man spent 17 years on Illinois’ death row for a double murder he didn’t commit, but last week Steidl finally got some closure. His lawsuit against those who allegedly conspired to frame him and another…
poetrypoem #11
poetrypoem #11 my brother once got booted froma ninth grade english class for his reply to a reprimand “oh butcher spare yon tender calf” sure a poetic quote but archy and mehitabel must not have been included inthat teacher’s accepted canon wat the hell wat the hell 2013 Jacqueline Jackson
Moving drama
UIS Theatre presents six performances of the 1933 play Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets April 5-7 and 11-13 in the Studio Theatre. Originally produced in 1935 by the revolutionary theatre company known as the Group Theatre, Awake and Sing startled audiences with a story that hit close to home – ordinary Americans struggling to…
Empty chairs
The nation laughed when Clint Eastwood debated an empty chair at the Republicans’ national convention, but it wasn’t funny in Illinois. More and more of the seats on Illinois’ town councils and school boards, its sewage and water districts and road commissions – that cumbersome, clanking apparatus that is democratic self-government in Illinois – have…
The book of baseball books
501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die, by Ron Kaplan. University of Nebraska Press, $24.95. “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This…
Upping the ante
Jennifer Watkins, the erstwhile Ashland resident who won’t let her five-year-old daughter visit with the child’s paternal grandparents, may soon become a felon. Whether criminal charges will make a difference in the visitation battle isn’t clear. Cass County Circuit Court Judge Robert Hardwick, Jr. last week issued an arrest warrant for Watkins when she didn’t…
Debt piles up behind bars
An Illinois prisoner can accrue tens of thousands of dollars in child support debt while incarcerated because of Illinois child support laws. This, according to Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, is counterproductive and needs to change. “It just seems like a system that is very harsh and inevitably leads to greater harm to family life,” she…
Will school controversies bring voters to the polls?
Tuesday, April 9, is Election Day and, if past trends hold true, only a small percentage of voters will head to the polls to select new representatives to guide Springfield’s beleaguered education system. In 2009, a comparable consolidated election registered a dismal 18 percent voter turnout across the entire county. Worse yet, fewer than 4,500…
THE KIND SIDE
Actor Quinton Aaron, who portrayed Michael “Big Mike” Oher in the hit film The Blind Side, also starring Sandra Bullock, will be at Quaker Steak and Lube, 1121 W. Lincolnshire Blvd., on Saturday, April 6, from 6-8 p.m. to promote anti-bullying. Bullied as a child and admitting that he also bullied others, Aaron founded The…
No fooling April
If last Monday someone tried to pull an April Fool’s joke on me by talking about the quality and variety of upcoming live music this month, I think I’d wholeheartedly felt foolish and fell for the whole shebang. But really there are some amazing shows headed our way in the next few weeks. First…
SPRINGFIELD MARATHON
Running has become a pretty big deal in Springfield, and now it’s about to get bigger. Bill Stokes of Springfield, a longtime volunteer for the Springfield Road Runners Club, is organizing a marathon race (26.2 miles) to be held here in October, rounding out the city’s race offerings. Stokes says he started planning the Springfield…
Letters to the Editor 4/4/13
IN THE KNOW ON SNOW Dave and Jerry do residential snow removal in Springfield. We have one snow blower, and although we started at 4 a.m. on Monday, we had to limit our clients to those we could get to and get done in about an hour, so we had to turn down many calls.…
Buddhist teacher
Arjia Rinpoche returns to Springfield to expand on his well-received presentation here last year about escaping from Tibet, chronicled in his book, Surviving the Dragon. The Buddhist teacher will speak from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. about his life. His evening talk from 7 to 9 p.m. will focus on the subject of karma. A…
Will you flash mob me?
I’m going to propose to my girlfriend, and it seems there’s this trend of doing crazy, elaborate things to ask a girl to marry you. I can’t compete with guys like the New York City dude I just read about who threw down $45,000 to pop the question. But even if friends help me out…
Where your state pension sits now
As it turns out, the Illinois House Democrats didn’t need the Republicans to put 30 votes on a significant pension reform bill. There’s been worry for at least two years that the Democrats would have to rely heavily on the Republicans to get anything out of the chamber and that may be even 30 Republican…
Small town charm
The Elkhart Historical Society is offering springtime activities throughout April in the small town of Elkhart, just 20 miles north of Springfield off I-55. Popular wildflower hikes are Saturday, April 6, 13 and 20. The 90-minute hike begins at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Walkers will depart from the Birdsong Books…
Host’s trite execution
Author Stephenie Meyer does the same to Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers with The Host as what she did to the vampire myth in Twilight – namely dumb it down with a sappy teen romance to the point where it’s nearly impossible to take any of it seriously. Which is frustrating because beneath…
Corporate kangaroo courts supplant our Seventh Amendment rights
Being wronged by a corporation is painful enough, but just try getting your day in court. Most Americans don’t realize it, but our Seventh Amendment right to a fair jury trial against corporate wrongdoers has quietly been stripped from us. Instead, we are now shunted into a stacked-deck game called “Binding Mandatory Arbitration.” Proponents of…
Frontier, FedEx and Gary
My FedEx delivery guy’s name is Gary. I hadn’t known his name until a couple days after the blizzard that dumped 18 inches of snow on central Illinois last week. In fact, I hadn’t even realized he was my regular FedEx delivery guy or that I even had a regular delivery person. But Gary has…
Feds want document back
The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency has balked at a demand from the National Archives to return a page torn from a ship’s log so that the damaged document can be restored to its original condition. The page in question memorializes a trip by Abraham Lincoln on the U.S.S. Malvern shortly before he was assassinated. The…
Breakers an unexpectedly sobering look at today’s youth
The first surprise of the 2013 film year, Harmony Korine’s 2012 Spring Breakers is a bold look at today’s younger generation, portraying them as a group who has no firm connection with reality, content to exist in a hedonistic lifestyle in which all of their needs are met without taking any responsibility for any of…
Photo contest winners: Images of Illinois
Digital cameras that are affordable and easy-to-use, including those cameras and image-sharing apps in our smartphones, have sparked a photo craze. Who could have predicted that so many Americans would have a camera in hand today Prairie Art Alliance might have. Often ahead of others in town with innovative programs highlighting what’s popular in contemporary…
Requiem for a Punk Rocker
L-R: Dave Baker, Jeff Williams and Brian Tober, ca. 1980s (photo courtesy Bill Tober) Known to many as a devoted family man and passionate educator, Dave Baker was also renowned for his antic personality and love for all things punk. When he passed away suddenly last week from natural causes, the Springfield-area music scene lost…
