now playing 2-3-05
“Write because you have to, because you have no other alternative. Otherwise, it’s just absurd ego-masturbation and a slap in the face to sweet mother dignity.” Ñ Otep Well, let’s start with that and see where it goes. It’s a quote from a poet named Otep (scramble those letters, boys) who also happens to front a…
Trouble at DNR
Red Burchyett is getting his wheelchair and his job back. That’s good news for Burchyett, who was laid off several weeks ago from his mechanic’s job at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Ten years ago, the state bought him a customized wheelchair that helped him do his job by raising him to a standing…
quick takes 2-3-05
RECYCLING PROGRAM EXPANDED Springfield’s curbside recycling program has expanded to include magazines and wide-mouth plastic containers. F+W Resources and Lake Area Recycling agreed to accept the new materials last week after negotiations with the city. The two companies already process more than 500 tons of recyclable materials each week, including such items as newspapers, aluminum…
sound patrol 2-3-05
Marianne Faithfull has led a larger-than-life life, neatly divisible into iconic phases: aristocratic ingenue, folk/pop princess, Stones consort, street junkie, comeback queen. In the beginning she sang like a convent girl, a gorgeous teen with a gorgeous soprano, as sharp and bright as an icicle. In the famous words of Stones impresario Andrew Loog Oldham,…
Jacqueline Jackson 2-3-05
grandchildpoem #1 rachel’s glazed eyes don’t stray from the screen when grandma bounces in from two-hundred miles away she doesn’t recognize grandma as a fairy godmother © Jacqueline Jackson 2005
Wing and a prayer
In waging war, cherish the spirit of the peacemaker, that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace; for as our Lord says: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.’” Ñ Excerpt of letter from St. Augustine, included in “On Just…
When pigskins fly, it’s time to pig out
Sure, we can all admit that football is the primary focus of Super Bowl Sunday. But there are actually some of us who don’t know — or care about — the difference between a tight end and a touchdown. Even for those of us who actually understand the basic rules of the game, this big…
common sense 2-3-05
Credit-card giants such as Citibank, Chase Manhattan, and MBNA fill our mailboxes with little love letters, wooing us to accept their cards. But — as in so many love affairs — once you’ve signed up, the companies suddenly show an ugly, grasping, selfish side. They actually seem to enjoy penalizing their customers. For example, I…
movie reviews
One man who made a difference Intent on a program of rapid ethnic cleansing, Hutu militias in Rwanda slaughtered 800,000 members of the Tutsi tribe and moderate Hutus during 100 blood-soaked days in 1994. Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu, would have been free to flee the country but would not do so: Wife Tatiana is Tutsi,…
Bush fighter
When Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, perhaps President George W. Bush’s most corporately compromised judicial nominee, appeared early in 2003 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the most devastating line of questioning she faced did not come from one of the big-name inquisitors on a committee that includes a Kennedy, a Biden, and a Leahy.…
Shelter resources
M.E.R.C.Y. Communities has won a three-year federal grant worth $240,000 to establish eight units of permanent housing for Springfield’s homeless. The funding comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which last week issued $1.4 billion in grants to more than 4,000 homeless programs across the country. That’s the largest allocation of competitive grant…
letters 2-5-04
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 WHAT’S WRONG WITH KANSAS? I am writing in response to your “Reporter…
Three strikes
This week’s meeting of Springfield City Council had the air of a lopsided baseball game. Aldermen threw a series of breaking curve balls, and the mayor went down swinging on a 3-0 count. First, the 4.5 percent rate hike requested by City Water, Light and Power failed 4-6. That request — the first of several…
An unlikely canvas
It’s the darnedest thing: Landscape painter Marina Mangubi paints on two-by-four boards. That’s right, lumber. Her curious miniature panoramic scenes of rural Ohio and Oregon, as well as the French Riviera are on view in the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Illinois at Springfield — and they are certainly worth a look. Mangubi,…
A new “front porch”
The new $2.5 million park about to be built as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum complex may include not just an amphitheater for music but also a gazebo for wedding ceremonies and Victorian-era gardens to honor Mary Todd Lincoln. Richard Norton Smith floated some of these ideas for the park, which…
music notes 2-3-05
¥ What’s this — Springfield is discovering Mardi Gras? Well, sort of. Bars along the Fifth Street Strip have banded loosely with the distributor of the world’s top-selling beer to give us “Pardi Gras” the night of Saturday, Feb. 5. That’s all the information you get. ¥ Remember that Oteil and the Peacemakers are in…
backstage pass 2-3-05
Many area theaters take the opportunity to present new and innovative works during the winter months, something I noted in my last column. The latest example of this trend is Born with a Veil, a work by local playwright Kari Catton Anderson that is being given a workshop production in the third-floor Club Room of…
Final chapter
Imagine for a moment that you can’t breathe. You have asthma, but it’s been more than a year since your last real attack, so you’ve left your inhaler at home. You’re at the police academy, running a drill, learning all about discipline, integrity, teamwork, brotherhood in blue, yadda yadda, and, sure enough, when you suddenly…
Paper chase
Lee Enterprises Inc., a once-obscure media company based in the Quad Cities, is poised to become a major force in shaping Illinois news coverage when it completes the acquisition of St. Louis-based Pulitzer Inc. The Davenport, Iowa-based company on Sunday announced a $1.46 billion deal to buy Pulitzer, which owns more than 100 weekly newspapers…
earth talk 2-3-05
Dear “Earth Talk”: I have asthma as a result of exposure to the fiberglass insulation in our home. How can I find insulation that won’t make me sick? — Cynthia Bacon, Orlando, Fla. Fiberglass, a common home insulator that became popular after the dangers of asbestos became more widely known, is itself now associated with…
What has happened to our country?
With each passing day, the Bush administration gives us new reasons to be ashamed. But nothing these people have done has damaged America as much as the torture and murder of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. With Alberto Gonzales as the attorney general of the United States, what until now has been treated…
