Concrete fun
One-of-the-largest street festivals in our area, the Decatur Celebration has something for everyone Aug 3-5. It’s free and it’s downtown. Headliners include Billy Ocean, Spin Doctors, Color Me Badd, Love & Theft, American Idol finalist Casey James, Big Daddy Weave, LeCrae, The Trammps featuring Earl Young, Mitch Ryder and Michael “Supe” Granda of The Ozark…
Home run
The musical comedy Damn Yankees plays for seven performances over two weekends from Aug. 3-12 at Theatre in the Park in Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site. Based on Douglass Wallop’s novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, the musical was a Broadway hit. The tale tells how Joe Boyd sells his soul to…
Statehouse Dems dominate the dollar race
The House and Senate Democratic leaders have once again dominated the quarterly fundraising race. The Democrats are currently sitting on almost three times the amount of cash as the Republicans. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s three committees raised a combined $591,000 in the quarter that ended June 30. Madigan had over $3.5 million cash on hand.…
Shocking development
A woman who was Tased a year ago by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy has sued the county in federal court. Tamara Skube, 32, says that Deputy Travis Koester used excessive force when he twice Tased her after she questioned his right to search her purse. After Tasing Skube, Koester arrested her on suspicion of…
Sister, a film with heart
In independent film circles, director Lynn Shelton made a bit of a splash in 2009 with Humpday, an offbeat comedy about two heterosexual male friends who face the prospect of having sex with each other after agreeing to participate in an “art film” project. Shot quickly and mostly improvised, the movie appealed to film festival…
Why and how to have family meals
“I would put the emphasis on just looking at where your family is now and seeing what you can do to improve.” That remark by Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a University of Minnesota professor who has conducted groundbreaking studies about healthy eating and the positive effects of family meals, is a clear message that moving towards…
downtownpoem #4
we need a sonnet song somethingspecial to memorialize sachi oursplendid flower shop 7th & adamsrun so graciously by yosh truly agolden place its name her belovedmother but filled with such demandssuch caring about blooms aboutpersons peggy in back snipping stemsdesigning fragile beauty the proprietorpencil in hair juggling orders maybea moment for chat or soup demisharing…
Criminal injustice
The feds want Bill Cellini to get at least six and a half years in a steel box when he is sentenced in October in Chicago. His lawyers have argued that the feds seem to forget that Cellini was not convicted of all the crimes they charged him with, only two minor ones. Whatever they…
Hot Bag O’ Donuts
There are many bands playing original music in the area, but few are more original in character and sound than Hot Bag O’ Donuts. The band describes themselves as “a classic wave combo” with others portraying the music as, “wave jazz, cornFusion, and acid lounge,” all very alternative classifications to begin with, easily avoiding common…
Coroner candidates prepare for election
After more than a year on the job, Cinda Edwards says that she has fixed the mess left in the Sangamon County coroner’s office by her predecessor Susan Boone, who was forced out of office amid scandal. But Jerry Curry, the Democratic challenger for the post, says that he will give voters a choice between…
Banning tanning for teens
Correction – Aug. 2: Dr. Laura Shea was previously misidentified below as a pshycologist. Dr. Shea is a psychiatrist at SIU School of Medicine. Correction – Aug. 3: The CDC statistics listed below were previously identified as skin cancer rates. They are actually statistics for melanoma, a specific type of skin cancer. Clocking in at…
Kicking it
Back in the day, when spade soles were the rage and all Florsheims were made in America, there were plenty of places to get shoes fixed in the capital city. Springfield had 21 cobbler’s shops in 1957, when Vern’s Shoe Service started business at 314 West Laurel, taking over space that had been the province…
Love me tinder
I met a woman, and we hit it off like wildfire. It seemed everything she said and did was perfect. In six months, we were engaged. She and her four kids moved in with me and my two kids. Shortly afterward, it turned sour. We parent quite differently. Her kids are bad-mannered, curse at her,…
The power of 37 words
It takes a lot to make Olympians like Candace Parker, Jordyn Wieber and Lolo Jones: talent, dedication, effective coaches, a bit of luck. But for female athletes representing the United States in London this summer, it also took the courage of women like Kathy Wagoner. In 1972, Kathy wanted to play sports at Missouri Western…
Unwatchable Watch a dog of cosmic proportions
There are some things that you think you’re absolutely sure of only to have that certainty cast in doubt. For example, I was certain that the Adam Sandler comedy That’s My Boy was hands down going to be the worst film of 2012. After seeing The Watch, I’m not so sure. This is the sort…
Letters to the Editor 08/02/12
GRAVEL PITS GAMBLEI personally believe the question of whether to build Hunter Lake or use six local gravel pits/aquifers is an easy one. After reading the recent report prepared for CWLP it leaves no doubt that if Springfield uses the pits it will negatively affect the wells/water supplies of Chatham, New Berlin, Riverton, Dawson and…
Festival fun
This first weekend of August 2012 qualifies as one of those wonderful and infrequent times where there are just too many good things to do. The Decatur Celebration, now celebrating its 26th year of providing one of the largest and most interesting family street festivals in America, keeps rolling along. With good entertainment at varying…
FISCAL FIGHTERS
Members of a Springfield activist group held a sit-in this week at U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson’s office to protest tax breaks that they say benefit only the very wealthy. While Johnson’s current district doesn’t include Springfield, a new district redrawn last year will do just that. Action Now Springfield traveled to the Republican congressman’s office…
Protecting insiders from our First Amendment
Ah, it’s August – time for another quadrennial flowering of America’s glorious democratic process, otherwise known as the presidential nominating conventions! This grand testimonial of our citizens’ rights and liberties will begin with the Republicans in Tampa, Fla. Flags are being mounted, majestic music is arranged, uplifting speeches are being scripted – and, as has…
Ad-lib acting
The Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company performs two shows at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Aug. 3-4. What is a Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company, what do they do and why see them? For those who missed their 2006 Springfield performance, they are an improv group, formed in Detroit in 1995, who take audience suggestions to…
Fine feathers
The Illinois Audubon Hummingbird Festival will be held at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site on Saturday, Aug. 4. Mary Hedrick of the Sangamon Audubon chapter will capture, band and release birds to record migration data. The public is invited to watch and come and go during the three hours. The public is also invited…
