A year in (food) review
At the health club recently, I heard a woman complaining about the lack of good restaurants and chefs in Springfield. But as we talked, I started suggesting some of my favorites and some of the city’s finer restaurants: Bentoh’s, Maldaner’s, Sebastian’s, Soirée, Café Brio. The woman hadn’t dined at any of them. I encouraged her,…
Privilege to give
They say it’s better to give than to receive. I went to last week’s Christmas food-and-gift giveaway at the Salvation Army to find out why — and what I discovered is that even for those with the least ability to help, the desire to give is never absent. Lubenia went to the giveaway to collect…
common sense 12-30-04
If you’re an aspiring performer who wants to be on the screen, Chicago might be your kind of town. In fact, virtually everyone in the Windy City will soon be seen — by various police authorities. In a leap into the abyss of the surveillance society, Chicago authorities are installing a web of spy cameras…
movie review
Bird’s-eye view of high flyer There’s no denying that Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator is a flawed film. It plays fast and loose with the chronology of the historic events it so loving re-creates, proves difficult to become engaged with initially because it drops us into the middle of a whirlwind of activity, and at times…
sound patrol 12-30-04
Bettye Swann Bettye Swann Honest Jon’s/Astralwerks You’ve probably never heard of Bettye Swann, which is sad for many reasons; on the bright side, though, it means you’re in for a treat. Thanks to the UK label Honest Jon’s, which specializes in resurrecting neglected treasures from soul’s golden age, 22 revelatory tracks from Swann’s too-brief career…
letters 12-30-04
Letters policy We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity. Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com CHOOSE WISELY, AND DOORS WILL OPEN Deirdre Fulton uses the term “anti-choice”…
Come alive in ’05
Come January, Irene Salz predicts, she will see many new faces. So will Sara Lopinski and Carmine Gaulding. All three women help people in Springfield live healthier lifestyles through diet and exercise, and the start of a new year, they say, is a popular time to make changes. Most of us set New Year’s resolutions…
music notes 12-30-04
n On New Year’s Eve, Café Kanichi-Wa (1117 S. Grand Ave. E) presents, exclusively for your entertainment pleasure, a wild and ferocious battle of the bands pitting Springfield Shaky against Perfunctory This Band for a fight to the finish from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Audience members are asked to drink to their chosen point of inebriation…
From the mouths of knaves
When it comes to funny, puzzling, and downright goofy comments, Illinois is the land of plenty. Partly that’s because Illinois is also a land of political hot air, increasing the chance that some politician will speak without thinking. Most of these folks don’t make a career of it. They are mere amateurs of oddball oratory,…
Knoepfle 12-30-04
Readers, it is a good time for saying goodbye. I have enjoyed being here these many months, but I have so many other things I want to do and who knows the time may be short for doing them. So I leave you with lines from Chinkapin Oak about First Night in 1995. — John…
now playing 12-30-04
How many times have I heard it — hell, how many times have I said it? — “Springfield sucks.” The notion keeps creeping, seeping into my brain, trying to poison it with the truth, that the Springfield music scene isn’t what it could be — and may never be. Some things you can do something…
He stood for the best in journalism
My first memory of Bob Reid is the poverty series. In the early 1970s, Reid was managing editor at the Southern Illinoisan newspaper in Carbondale, and I was a staff reporter. The publisher had apparently asked for something special so that they could sell extra ads, and Bob had said, “I’ll give you something special.”…
This year
Whew, what a year. This year, Illinois sent a rock star named Barack to the U.S. Senate. The nation gave steady-as-a-rock (and twice-as-smart) George W. another four years in the White House. And a leading British tabloid wondered on its front page: How could 59 million Americans “be so dumb”? We’re still not sure. Perhaps…
In the pink
Dave Piper kept a knapsack packed with pajamas, toiletries, and a rosary by his bedside. He lived each day on edge, anxious, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. When the phone rang, his hopes would inevitably soar, then plummet — until Piper finally received the call that would save his life. A recovering alcoholic…
quick takes 12-30-04
ALL THE BRITT THAT FITS State Journal-Register cartoonist Chris Britt, who could single-handedly fills the daily’s letters page with the amount of hate mail he enkindles, apparently gets a better reception outside Springpatch. One of his simpler panels, featuring U.S. Defense Secretary/silver-tongued devil Donald Rumsfeld looking lonely under the mistletoe — appeared last Sunday in…
The village people
It takes a village — and maybe a village idiot or two — to produce the editorial content of this newspaper every week. Our little community of Illinois Times includes residents who are always hanging around, visitors who drop by occasionally, and tourists who show up because they’ve heard this is a great place to…
