Letters to the editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. YOU MADE ME LOOK FOOLISH Congratulations to Dusty Rhodes on her recent column “A taste of…
Reaching beyond his inner geek
Destroyer leader Daniel Bejar is the perfect pinup boy for a small but insanely devoted faction of rock critics, music bloggers, grad-school dropouts, and die-hard potheads. Self-referential and unapologetically literate, Bejar’s lyrics bring out our inner geeks, inspiring record reviews-cum-dissertations larded with academic hokum. Before you can say “Jacques Derrida” or even load up the…
Woody’s process
Match Point has given Woody Allen his widest mainstream recognition in years. He is considered a national treasure despite his enigmatic image. Even his public life is the source of confusion. A few months ago, Jenny Olive of KISS (99.7 FM) joked that Allen had married his stepdaughter. Actually he married the adopted daughter of…
Spooky spooks
Poor ol’ Porter Goss. He’s our nation’s chief spook, but he’s got no sense of timing. Goss, head of the CIA, published a piece on Feb. 10 expressing outrage that Bush-administration secrets were being leaked to the media by anonymous sources. In particular, he was tapping the fact that Bush’s secret and illegal program of…
Party with heart
During a recent appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, comedian Dave Chappelle admitted that he wasn’t having much fun with his hit Comedy Central program. But before the blues got him down, Chappelle shot a film that demonstrates exactly why he’s one of comedy’s most gifted entertainers. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party depicts the comedian at the…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: Do government “Energy Star” ratings for major appliances take into account their “cradle-to-grave” impacts, or are they just concerned with energy efficiency? — Fred von Mechow, by e-mail The Energy Star program, set up back in 1992, is designed to help consumers determine the energy efficiency of various appliances, home electronics, office…
Something doesn’t add up
The investigation into possible misconduct by two Springfield Police major case detectives includes allegations that one of the officers provided a phony document to probation officers in another state. At the same time, local defense attorneys have filed court pleadings complaining that felony investigations handled by the two officers are missing “vital reports.” Detective Paul…
American Life in Poetry
The poet, novelist and biographer Robert Morgan, who was raised in North Carolina, has written many intriguing poems that teach his readers about southern folklore. Here’s just one example. Holy Cussing When the most intense revivals swept the mountains just a century ago, participants described the shouts and barks in unknown tongues, the jerks of…
Who would have thought?
It would have been almost unthinkable several months ago that if Gov. Rod Blagojevich had a Democratic challenger, he would emerge from the primary stronger than when he went in. The scandals are never-ending, his poll numbers suck, the discontent with his tenure is wide and deep, even among many in his own party. He…
The most purposeful shot
Harry Jacobs watched from his window as the February snow drifted in his neighbor’s driveway, most of it under the basketball backboard bolted to the roof over the garage door. He watched an easy hour’s worth before he remembered that it was clinic day. “Best call the taxi,” he thought, “get there a little early…
Jacqueline Jackson
countrysidepoem #1 joy comes unexpected today with friends I found myself burning a prairie already bush-hogged the stalks lying broken to prevent fire leaping to tree height fanned by a fitful wind the flames were spectacle enough in their staggered advance across the field behind them a scorched surface a pancake griddle with smoking hummocks…
Saving the last dance
In East St. Louis, at the now-shuttered Club Monastery, a dance, aptly called “the Mono” — an abbreviation of its birthplace’s name — was born in the late 1990s, though one could argue that the spirit of the Mono in East Boogie predates the young adults who reportedly made it up. Completing the Mono involves the…
Cartoons and clashing cultures at the Daily Illini
I wouldn’t have published the cartoons, but I wouldn’t have suspended the Daily Illini editors who did. And I wouldn’t have participated in violent protests over the cartoons. Neither would have Muhammad. Fellowship of Reconciliation, the peace group, tells a story from the Hadith (sayings and doings of the Prophet Muhammad) that Muhammad was with his…
Viva Last Vegas
“We’re a modern take on a classic-rock band,” says Adam Arling, guitarist and founding member of the Last Vegas, a young Chicago-based group raised on a diet of Cheap Trick, early Aerosmith, and the Stooges. “There’s not much like this in Chicago, but it’s always good to stick out, I guess.” What’s the significance of…
Requiem for a tweaker
Thomas O’Dell was a mess — and in deep trouble. One of his tennis shoes had come off as he ran through a cornfield, desperate to get away from the Moultrie County sheriff’s deputy who had pulled him over at 3 a.m. He hadn’t stopped to retrieve it, so here he was, nearly four hours…
A Kink in the pink
Ray Davies Other People’s Lives (V2) Of all the aging veterans of the ’60s British Invasion, Ray Davies has held up the best. Sure, Mick has harder abs and Sir Paul a fatter wallet, but the former Kinks frontman has something far more important: his dignity. He doesn’t need to strut around in hip-huggers or…
Here and there
He was not from here; he was from there. New places made him apprehensive, but it seemed friendly here. The sign outside the building read “Welcome to the Medical Center Parking Ramp.” He’d never been welcomed to a parking ramp before — a comforting start. The parking ramp was full. He joined the circling cars,…
Singer-songwriter soirée
The Cabin Concert series opens its spring season with a program called “Illinois Songwriters Special.” Ann Bova and Joe Bohlen, hosts of the bluegrass/acoustic concerts, have booked four folk-oriented Illinois singer/songwriters as a preseries bonus show. The performances are held in the couple’s home, a cabin (hence the name) out in the wilds north of…
A taste of his own medicine
I got an e-mail recently from an unlikely source. A roiling tale of police shenanigans ranging from political incorrectness to official misconduct, it might’ve been the beginning of a good little news story if it were accurate. But it’s not easy to get within spitting distance of reality when two of the three players involved…
Choice art
New York art doesn’t pop up in Springfield too often, but thanks to a biannual fundraiser hosted by Planned Parenthood Springfield, locals get a chance to see and buy a range of works from a renowned Big Apple gallery. PPS’s Art Auction is a large affair boasting 200 framed-and-matted art works, courtesy of New York…
Dead the violence
Bullets flying. Mothers crying. Brothers dying in the capital city. A second effort aimed at squelching the outbreak of what are believed to be gang-related shootings in Springfield will take place this evening in Municipal Building West. Earlier this month, hundreds of residents showed up at the Capitol on a bitterly cold night to support…
Talking head
Springfield is not a particularly large city — the sixth-biggest, ranked by population, in Illinois. There is one local television station and one daily newspaper. The mayor earns nearly $105,000 a year, or nearly $1 for every man, woman and child who lives within the city limits. Some members of the City Council are asking…
Crashing weddings
Some wedding pictures aren’t worth remembering, but people swarm down on them like locusts. Something about the subject strikes a chord with people. Wedding Crashers took off into the box-office stratosphere, far beyond the realm of most comedies, and it isn’t that good. I was hard pressed to find a moment that was remotely funny.…
The need for speed
Sometimes the sheer force of an actor’s personality or ability can compel an audience to sit through a film they might otherwise walk out on. Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep — they got it. Paul Walker, Ryan Phillippe, Van Heflin and Kim Basinger — dull as dishwater. Of course, Anthony Hopkins…
Punching Judy
The Ron Gidwitz campaign had a stark warning for Judy Baar Topinka last week: “If you think this ad is tough, just wait.” Gidwitz, who is running for governor as a Republican, aired the first negative ad of the campaign last week, then dismissed Topinka’s rebuttals as mere whining and vowed that he would ignore any…
Letters to the editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. WE DIDN’T STRAY FROM THE RULES As the preschool site manager located at St. Cabrini School…
A kiss is still a kiss
Don’t call Diana Son’s 1998 play Stop Kiss a political piece. It’s a love story. The first time Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson, assistant professor of theater at Illinois College, read the last scene of Stop Kiss, she gasped. Since that moment three years ago, she has wanted to direct the play. This Friday, she gets her chance…
Jacqueline Jackson
kinquotepoem #7 over the phone my brother said gratuitously what a loser but that president is building houses this one is bombing them © Jacqueline Jackson 2006
Leader of the pachyderms
With her short red tresses, sturdy build, raspy voice and forthright manner, Judy Baar Topinka could easily be mistaken for a favorite aunt who happily dishes to her nephews about the birds and the bees. Like that same aunt, Topinka doesn’t let anything, be it lunch or smokes, go to waste. Don’t let her forget…
The horse slaughterer
I hope you haven’t just eaten, because we need to talk about horsemeat. It’s not widely known, but there are three horse-slaughter factories in the United States — two in Texas, one in Illinois. Each year, some 90,000 horses are trucked to these facilities, where they are killed (some die an agonizing death), chopped and…
