Here comes the neighborhood
Back in 2011 I chastised Springfield officials for the city’s failure to take steps necessary to slow the rot that has been spreading through east side housing for years. Having damned officials then, it is only fair that I praise them now. The manager of the city’s building department recently announced that 63 dilapidated buildings…
Between The Cracks: Soap Scum at Black Sheep Cafe (Wednesday)
Once again, Faingold at Large proudly presents “Between the Cracks” – the recurring feature designed to shine a light onto Springfield-area bands, and all in their own words, to boot. Join us, won’t you? There’s gold between them thar cracks! Today’s BTC flashlight shines on charmingly monikered native Springfield rockers Soap Scum. Website: http://blacksheepspringfield.com/bands/current-bands/soap-scum/ Personnel:…
Today: Musician, Heal Thyself!
Bruce Williams In just a few hours, the Second Annual Healing Arts Festival will kick off at the Douglas Park Band Shell (400 N MacArthur). Organized by Bruce Williams (NIL8, Tom Irwin and the Raouligans), the music begins at 5 PM with Tater Tot. At 6PM, Maryl Walters will speak on the subject of “prayer…
Notes to well-being
Good music soothes the soul. Music will be a key component of the Healing Arts Festival Saturday, Aug. 17, at Douglas Park. Organized by local dynamo Bruce Williams and Dr. Paul Mach, DN, of Holistic Healthcare Alliance, natural healing and well-being are the focus of this event. Featured musical acts are Tater Tot at 5…
Millers only half a movie
There’s a good idea rattling around in Rawson Thurber’s We’re the Millers. Unfortunately, it’s a premise that only makes for about half a movie and it’s an ironic state of affairs what with four credited writers. Yeah, there are a few laughs along the way – a couple of them of the “very big” variety…
Vintage equipment workings
The Half Century of Progress celebrates 50 years of farming. This year the Earthquake will be featured. This massive tractor sports a 12V Detroit engine and stands a whopping 18 feet wide and 14 feet high. Darius Harms, chairman of the Half Century of Progress said, “Come feel the Earthquake in Rantoul.” Besides Earthquake, the…
foodie poem #5
a friend lately led a class to chinasaw many wonders took tons of pixone sight was not so palatable at thezoo you could purchase a live chickenor even an entire cow and feed it tothe lions you could buy just a haunchof meat if you were squeamish orwatch a movie of a tiger tearing intoa…
Mr. Lincoln’s curtains
Zero lot lines, a full spectrum of beige plastic siding and street names like Prairie View (where topsoil is shipped to Indiana farms) dot the landscape where I live. My world is, in fact, the antithesis to anything even remotely familiar to that famously enshrined home on South Eighth Street in Springfield, so eloquently preserved…
Looking good
Since beginning to write this column in 2006, I’ve kept a file of potential topics. Some I’ve jotted down on the back of a paper napkin or sent as a voicemail or text message to myself before entering them into a computer file folder. Some are so complex that it’s difficult to fit them into…
News Quirks 8/15/13
Curses, foiled again• Michigan’s Ingham County District Court ordered a 28-year-old man convicted of fraud to be fingerprinted at his own expense. He paid the $16 cost with a credit card that had been reported stolen, according to Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth, and was taken into custody. (Associated Press)• Anthony J. Thomas, 33, walked into a…
Wuss it good for her?
I’ve been on three dates with a gorgeous, funny, kind and successful woman. Two weeks ago, we met for drinks with a group of my friends, and a guy in our crowd who’s in the habit of saying crass things showed up. He ended up insulting her by making a rude, totally vulgar sexual remark…
Forget student loans – make higher ed free
Well, finally! Hard-right congressional leaders and the Obama White House have agreed that interest rates on student loans should not double to nearly 7 percent, as they let happen early in July. Instead, college students will be billed at a rate that will steadily rise higher than 8 percent. This is progress? Temporarily, yes, because…
Illinois addresses sex abuse in youth prisons
Following a federal report showing high rates of sex abuse in Illinois’ youth prisons, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice is moving to eliminate the problem. In June, the federal Department of Justice released a report on levels of sexual victimization in juvenile detention facilities nationwide. Based on surveys of detained youth, the report placed…
Letters to the Editor 8/15/13
HOPE BREEDS HOPEThank you so much for such a positive article (“Extreme school makeover: A church organizes an outpouring of generosity called Sharefest,” Patrick Yeagle, Aug. 8). Hope and generosity breed hope and generosity. I am sure you understand that with a steady diet of crime and war, people become desperate for some good news.…
Muddled Elysium
In 2009, writer/director Neill Blomkamp got the film world’s attention with District 9, a powerful sci-fi allegory that examined the vagaries of Apartheid that plagued his native South Africa. Inventive, uncompromising and a reminder that the best futuristic fiction deals with issues of today, the movie ended up scoring an Academy Award nomination for Best…
More than vegetables
An idea that is a good one never quite goes away. Instead it rides the waves of interest, research and possibilities – it grows and melds with the times. Such is the idea of community gardens and urban agriculture. The aspirations for food production within an urban setting have always gone beyond the desire for…
Lanes on Lawrence?
The City of Springfield is considering widening two accident-prone intersections and adding turn lanes, but nearby residents may put up a fight. In April, the city submitted a pair of grant applications to the Illinois Department of Transportation, asking for $1.2 million to study options for making the intersections of Lawrence Avenue at MacArthur Boulevard…
Do by learning
The other day the Springfield School District 186 board took a break from discussions about finding a new superintendent – which it is not in a hurry to do – and heard a few things about something they ought to be in a hurry to do. Capital Area Career Center director Bob Klingborg informed the…
Pants on fire
A Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy lied on the witness stand in a 2010 drug case but was never charged with a crime and is still on patrol. During the 2010 hearing, Deputy Travis Koester testified under oath that he received a tip via Crime Stoppers that led him to investigate and arrest Gregory Roberts, who…
Epsom
What’s an Epsom? Dare we ask this Springfield-based experimental and adventurous trio consisting of Scott Faingold (vocalizations, lyrics), Steven Sgro (noises, guitars) and Tim Harte (drums, drums, drums)? The band began in May of 2012 when the former drummer of NIL8 and local roustabout, Gary “Walnuts” Swaggerty communicated to Faingold these fateful words: “We need…
Fair and Un-fair 2
With the 2013 Illinois State Fair still in progress and plenty of hip and happening stuff going on around town, it’s time for the second installment of Now Playing: Fair and Un-Fair. I could expose you to the silly nonsense of using the word “fair” in various other contexts, but that wouldn’t be fair or…
Did Lisa lie?
“Ask her,” Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan told a Sun-Times reporter last week. The journalist wanted to know why Madigan’s daughter Lisa would consider running for governor knowing that the father had no plans to step down as Speaker. So I tried to ask her. But I didn’t get very far. Attorney General Lisa Madigan,…
Telling tales
Enjoy the spoken word and song during Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s Once Upon A Prairie storytelling program at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site, Aug. 17. Internationally acclaimed storyteller, author, historian and naturalist, Brian “Fox” Ellis will share Civil War stories in Representative Hall, where Abraham Lincoln once worked. Ellis will recite poems by…
Going slow on sweet gums
There was much excitement at the Rushton household last year when the prospect of getting something for nothing – well, almost nothing – arrived courtesy of the city of Springfield. For the low, low price of $250, the city offered to take out one of the two sweet gum trees that arch over our front…
Neanderthal night at Oak Ridge Cemetery
A stranger visiting Oak Ridge Cemetery on a recent Sunday might have wondered what a tribe of 50 were doing at the Tanner Mausoleum – surely no burial, too much noise, drumming, laughter! Edging close he’d see, and surely stay – but here’s what he’d witness: A group of Neanderthals garbed in skins of sabre-toothed…
