Seeing double: an all new Dubln Pub
I’m a creature of habit – the waitstaff at Town and Country’s Dublin Pub see me so often they know what I’ll order right down to the request that we move past the iceberg straight to the Romaine. And please don’t forget the hot sauce. A couple of weeks ago this locally owned restaurant doubled…
Spiffing up the Marriott …
The Courtyard Marriott is just a few weeks away from completing a top to bottom renovation … and they want the world to know what’s coming. The westside hotel is at 3462 Freedom Drive — and soon every guest room, the lobby and Starbuck’s coffee shop will be ready for their close up. They promise…
Listen to the new music … online, urban
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m addicted to public radio news … and when I’m not listening to that I’m typically shuffling CDs in my car. I’ve never been inclined to dial up radio on my computer — but something crossed my desk earlier this week that made me think I just…
Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day Three
Tip #3- Unplug it! Living in a dorm introduced me to the wonderful world of power strips/surge protectors. I wasn’t concerned with saving my electronics from power outages as much as I was delighted by the opportunity to plug a million things into one old, tiny outlet. Since I moved away from home, I’ve lived…
Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day Two
Happy Groundhog Day, readers! Here’s an appropriately-themed card. Welcome back to Tips & Tricks Week! (Does that sound dirty? I don’t mean for it to imply prostitutes and dollar bills in g-strings. Maybe I need a new title.) On day two, let’s talk about home energy audits. While green building has become more and more…
Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day One
I’ll admit that I’m not perfect. The point of this blog is not to preach at you to hug a tree or save a penguin. I like to think that I’m a non-judging environmentalist. I enjoy saving the earth/whales/redwoods/whatever, but I understand that we’re all busy with our own lives and sometimes it’s hard to…
TURN OUT TO TUNE IN
Access 4, Springfield’s public access TV channel, has been blank since December, but it’s not dead yet. In fact, a handful of the channel’s producers are working double time to get shows back on the air. As you’d expect, getting a TV channel on air takes money, so the Access 4 producers are holding a…
Suddenly, Hynes is a contender
With the primary election just around the corner, just about everybody I know has asked me who I think will win the various races. I try to avoid making win/loss predictions, and this campaign season is a prime example for why everybody should just sit back and wait to see what the voters do. For…
Reining in the gods of the Fed
Here’s a story that reads like the script of an old B-grade monster movie — and it would be comic, were it not so serious. The monster is named “The Fed,” a hydra-headed creature with enormous and destructive power, which it exercises from within the misty confines of a marble cavern that is unapproachable by…
Teaching idiots
This town has been the theater for the careers of many a self-made man and woman (and nearly as many unmade ones) but the self-taught person is rare among us. Not so a century and more ago. In Illinois’s glorious past, when men were men and women wished they lived in Ohio, schoolteachers were as…
Fasting for Obama’s broken promise
Last week, 150 people from across the country completed an 11-day fast to bring attention to the Obama Administration’s broken promise to shut down Guantanamo within one year. The promise was made on the first day of his presidency, Jan. 22, 2009. I’m afraid it will stand historically as a sad symbol of hopeful intentions…
A pictorial history of the ‘city of the dead’
One hundred fifty years ago this year, Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery was dedicated by former mayor James Conkling as a “city of the dead.” A new book by former city historian Edward Russo and current city historian Curtis Mann outlines and illustrates the history of our famous graveyard, which is the nation’s most visited cemetery…
Bottle Rockets get fired up
During the mid-90s The Bottle Rockets ruled the roost as a thought-provoking, hard rocking, Midwestern, alt-country band in the middle of a roots rock revolution centered in St. Louis. Later in the decade and the first years of the new century, things calmed down a bit for the whole genre and the band. After an…
Green Links 1/28: Straight from the Horse’s …
I’ve been crazy busy lately, so I haven’t had time to post. I’m working on a longer piece about wildlife tracking and restoration in the Emiquon Preserve (about 1.5 hours northwest of Springfield, off State Road 97 near the Dirksen Mounds.) It’s been fun, but I’m glad my little city girl car could make the…
Behind the scenes at Shen Yun, a controversial practice: Falun Gong
Promotional flyers for Shen Yun — a multimillion-dollar stage production set for Feb. 9 at Sangamon Auditorium — are lavish, four-color photo montages of elaborately costumed dancers, whirling banners and glowing quotes from reviewers. But way down at the bottom of the back page, in tiny type, is the name of one of the show’s…
Coldshot
Direct from the metro-east St. Louis area, Coldshot makes its Springfield debut playing for the Goulden Motorsports Fundraiser, a private party open to the public. Not one to mess around with subtle songs and obscure artists, the band consists of well-seasoned players Jeff Shanks (drums), Rod Whittom (lead vocals), Bill Boyd (guitar, keyboards), Brian Schifferdecker…
Tackling childhood obesity
The cheesy drum track lays down a bouncy rhythm as the usually-reserved doctors and nurses dance awkwardly, mime snacking, hug themselves and shake their bodies. Believe it or not, they’re learning how to combat childhood obesity. “When I eat my veggies, my heart says ‘Thank you!’ ” sings Dr. Linda Carson, leading the group in…
great autos’ chant from the endless pavement musical
rockin’ rollin’ down the pavementrockin’ rollin’ down the pavementlisten to the great computermobilelisten to the great computermobilecan’t — stop — gotta — go —can’t — stop — gotta — go —can’t stop, gotta go, can’t stop, gotta go,can’t stop, gotta go, can’t stop, gotta go,stop go, stop go, stop go, stop go,stop go, stop go,…
Get fit – without going to prison!
Exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. You get sweaty, you get tired and many of us feel we have to go to the gym to get a real workout. But there are plenty of exercises that don’t require a lot of time, space or equipment. Lately, I’ve been doing the Prison Workout (here), a…
More cooking classes and more Julia Child
I was afraid this would happen. When I wrote about local cooking classes earlier this month, I tried to find everything available. But I had a nagging feeling that there were more. And there were. I’ve since discovered two more cooking class opportunities, and a third that’s just been announced. I definitely should have known…
Rockin’ folk
WUIS Bedrock 66 Series presents the Missouri-based rock band featuring Brian Henneman (guitar, vocals), Mark Ortmann (drums), John Horton (guitar) and Keith Voegele. These songwriter musicians’ sound has been likened to Woody Guthrie’s folk style in spirit, smarts and satire, rocking stories out about the average Joe. Considered to be the godfathers of the 90s…
Legion will have you wishing for the end
Another week at the movies, another film depicting the end of the world. This week’s offering, the abominable Legion, will have you wishing for the end of days. That would at least prevent other films like it from ever being made again. Writer/director Scott Stewart starts off well, introducing us to a diverse group of…
Food flicks
Friday night see two documentaries, Baking Bread, about a Korean-American family who invites an Iranian friend to prepare a final meal for their dying father; and Fresh, a film focused on the production and distribution of healthy food that is good for people and good for the planet. A panel discussion follows with Marty and…
Brady optimistic about GOP’s chances
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady addresses a small band of followers in a cozy, dimly lit Irish pub in Plainfield, Ill. Despite the Sunday drizzle, about 20 people have gathered, clad in sweaters and khakis and the kind of expensive coats you see in catalogs catering to the faux-outdoorsman. They listen attentively as Brady, who…
BLUE GRASS PRODIGY
Almost every young musician dreams of making it big, of taking the stage in front of thousands of cheering fans to pour out their heart through song. For Sarah Jarosz, an 18-year-old bluegrass prodigy from just outside Austin, Texas, that dream has become real. A whiz on the mandolin, young Sarah wrote her first hit,…
Fantastic friendship
Based on the true story of the friendship between Cline and her devoted fan, Louis Seger, this production takes its name from Cline’s signature on her letters to Louis. Lori Ann Mitts stars as the legendary singer while Sandra Fritz plays Louise. Musical support provided by Doug Hahn, Gary Davis, Mary Myers and Robb Stark…
Letters to the Editor 01/28/2010
FOREIGN FILM SERIESThank you for the great coverage of Molly Schlich’s foreign film series [see “Reel foreign,” Jan. 14]. I was delighted by all the pages given to the series. There has never been better publicity. The series is so fortunate to have your support. Molly works very hard to put together an interesting program of…
Japanese drama
The Japanese drama Still Walking tugs at the heart-strings as it studies the emotional and relational dynamics of three generations of a family assembling back home on the 15th anniversary of the oldest son’s death. Springfield Art Association in cooperation with Kerasotes Showplace Theaters presents this independent foreign film, second in the series of seven…
Extraordinary Measures, a genuine story of hope
Based on the book The Cure by Geeta Anand, Extraordinary Measures is an earnest account of how one family attempts to cope with every parent’s worst nightmare. John and Eileen Crowley’s children, Megan and Patrick, were diagnosed with Pompe disease when they were fifteen and nine months old, respectively. At the time, there was no…
A spectacle of Chinese history and culture
Five thousand years of Chinese performing arts and culture will take the stage Feb. 9 at Sangamon Auditorium in a multimillion-dollar touring production called Shen Yun (“divine character”) that usually plays in much larger venues such as Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center. “It’s unusual for Shen Yun to play in a community…
Illuminati gears up for first Automotive X PRIZE event
It’s a race against time for Illuminati Motor Works, who in less than three months will introduce Seven to the world. The Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, a $10 million competition that seeks to produce a new generation of fast, inexpensive, super “green” cars, recently announced that the first in a series of scored on-track…
