“Goes” Beneath its Stars
Rob Reiner’s And So It Goes is the sort of movie that, when someone asks you how it was, you’re likely to say, “It was OK.” Not god-awful and certainly not good, it’s the sort of film that you forget by the time you’ve walked to your car in the parking lot after the final credits roll. …
“You had to be there”: A column of sour grapes
Jessica Knight and Brandon Carnes of Looming Perhaps contrary to accepted wisdom, a lot actually happens in Springfield during any given week. In “You had to be there,” a new recurring feature on the Faingold at Large blog, I will take on the role of reader’s surrogate as I report on musical, theatrical, artistic, or…
Flunking the test
I have railed in print about our national health care “system” that spends more and gets less for it than more advanced nations do because it buys not good health but “health care services.” I specifically complained about cardiovascular screening tests offered to the general population but screening for breast cancer also is overdone, as SJ-R…
“Hercules” a Compelling New Look at Weathered Demigod
Color me “surprised” in regards to Brett Ratner’s Hercules, an unexpectedly thrilling, smart and at times moving new take on everyone’s favorite demigod. It goes without saying that they got off on the right foot by casting Dwayne Johnson in the title role but what’s most surprising is the intelligence found in the adaptation of…
Supreme Court reinstates lawsuit over state retiree health benefits
Lawsuits against the State of Illinois over retiree health benefits can proceed, thanks to an Illinois Supreme Court decision today which reversed a Sangamon County judge’s ruling.The decision reinstates four lawsuits against Illinois’ Central Management Services agency. The lawsuits claimed changes in certain retirees’ health benefits packages were unconstitutional. In July 2012, a new law took…
Eternal contemporary question
This is Kevin Stein. Who is Kevin Stein? He is the Illinois Poet Laureate, and has been since 2003. Stein teaches English at Bradley University. So why I am telling you about Kevin Stein? Because The New York Times today has an article (“Is Poetry Dead? Not if 45 Official Laureates Are Any Indication,” Jennifer Schuessle, July…
What, for?
Language wonks might recall my January column about the rise in American English of the all-purpose preposition, “All for one – and “for” for all.” I spotted another instance of this curious usage while driving last weekend in the blessed precincts of Chicago’s suburbs, where a municipal street sign admonished drivers to “Yield for pedestrians.”…
Until next time
The black tent was the closest shelter. I was worried about my phone and purse contents. Folks were crowded under the Myers Building overhang. It was really starting to pour. The sky was dark. Two people under the black tent trying to paint the pavement welcomed me. Ah, lucky me I thought, nice folks. Scanning…
Scrap heap
This week came sad confirmation of my complaint from 2010 that the State of Illinois’ stewardship of its major buildings amounts to slow-motion vandalism. Crain’s columnist Greg Hinz dropped by the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago, and found duct-taped carpet, corroding metal, leaking ceilings. The ex-gov himself calls it a scrap-heap. Concludes Hinz, “If…
Braff’s Cloying Approach Makes “Wish” One to Avoid
A vanity project if there ever was one, Zach Braff’s Wish You Were Here is far too calculated to take seriously and suffers from a sense of earnestness that’s so overbearing that the film ends up pushing us away rather than drawing us in. All of the blame rests on Braff’s shoulders as he not…
Hope on the Horizon for Dismal Summer Movie Season
There’s a great deal of handwringing going on in Hollywood at the moment and it’s your fault. Yep, the bean-counters in Tinsel Town are worried and wondering why you’re not spending more of your hard-earned money to see the summer movies they’ve produced. Attendance is down nearly 20% from last year while ticket sales are…
Staff writer Bruce Rushton talks with WFMB radio host Sam Madonia and Steve Brown
Staff writer Bruce Rushton talks with WFMB radio host Sam Madonia and Steve Brown, speaker for House speaker Michael Madigan, about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and other topics.
Johannson and Intriguing Speculative Science Propel “Lucy”
What with Marvel Films dragging its feet where making a Black Widow feature is concerned, French filmmaker Luc Besson has taken matters into his own hands and given us Lucy, a star vehicle whose sole purpose is to let Scarlett Johansson shine. To that end, the movie succeeds handsomely as the actress gets to kick…
Death before dawn
Bill Martin, N&W public relations director, looks over the gutted bunkhouse interior. PHOTO Courtesy Decatur Herald & Review The early morning hours of July 19, 1974, were like any other in the Norfolk and Western railroad yard in Decatur. The forecast was typical for July – hot, sunny, and with a gentle breeze blowing from…
Are we doomed to polarization?
We Americans are trapped in a political dilemma. We all like representative democracy, but we don’t much like the way it’s performing. The reason for this dissatisfaction is clear. Polls in recent years detail a polarized nation, divided both ideologically and politically. This is, as the Pew Research Center put it recently, “a defining feature…
specificity poem #1
specificity poem #1 grandchild cressie not yet 3 busy with pencil and paper – her mom heard her say “grass”– thought this worth a look since pictures so far were circles and scribbles nothing really specific sure enough a short row of little lines at the bottom seemed grasslike above was an oblong a line…
Dismal Sex Tape
Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz in Sex Tape. In watching Jake Kasdan’s dismal Sex Tape, I was under the impression that many of its key players were having a series of days like this during its making – uninspired, flat, dull and not at all funny. The movie is a lackluster effort where lead actor…
Seeing green
Saturday and Sunday, July 26-27, tour the first green, passive house in Sangamon County featured in the 2014 GreenBuilt Home Tour. While 17 of the 18 award-winning houses on the tour are located in Chicago, this downstate home is a must see for central Illinois homebuilders and those interested in all the latest innovations in…
Editor’s Note 7/24/14
It has now been 100 days since more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by a group called Boko Haram. The occasion was marked by a meeting of the girls’ parents with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, arranged by girlpower activist Malala Yousafzai, and by Springfield church and community members meeting around a peace pole on…
Immigrants behaving badly
The house came ready-made but the yard didn’t. Thus it was that, in addition to the picket fence and the rose trellis, my parents decided to plant a tree in the front yard. They did this because houses are supposed to have trees in the front yard, but as I look back the gesture also…
Wave the flag
Despite a revolving door of members, Black Flag still has it going on after all these years. PHOTO BY RICHIE FALZONE After nearly 40 years, Black Flag is still a whole lot of fun. With just one original member, the legendary hardcore punk band from California is, in at least one respect, a shadow of…
Tales from the cryptic
My boyfriend of two years got an early birthday present from his sister and her husband: a really expensive, second-row ticket for a major sporting event next year. The trouble is, it falls on my 30th birthday (a Saturday). He knows I usually don’t care about my birthday, and I confess that I also judge…
Dysfunction on display
It was difficult to discern during a meeting of the Illinois Historic Preservation board last week that Eileen Mackevich, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, is in charge of the institution. The meeting of the IHPA board, which oversees the ALPLM, began with a brief discussion of plans for an ad…
Ending with a bang
A memorial music show for Ben Underwood takes place, Fri., July 25 at Bar None. As we wind down July, the events pile up. Here’s a mere partial listing of the many wondrous happenings for this week in the Springfield area. On Friday, Bar None hosts a memorial music night for the late musician Ben…
Troubled man contacts judge
A Springfield man is being evaluated for mental issues after he went to the home of Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Leslie Graves and otherwise made unwanted contact with the judge. Graves had presided over a driving under the influence case of Tyler Dixon, 30, until April of last year, when the judge recused herself…
Snooze, you lose
Curses, foiled againAfter a 17-year-old baby sitter reported a home invasion and robbery, police in Ferndale, Wash., wound up arresting the sitter, her 16-year-old boyfriend and another male suspect because the child being watched contradicted the sitter’s story. The sitter said two armed black men broke in, but 4-year-old Abby Dean declared the robbers were…
FINGER LICKIN’ GOOD
We can’t write a better intro than contained in the press release sent out by the good folks who put on the annual Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath, so here goes: “For a lot of people, the assumption is Asian carp probably tastes a lot like the same letters – c, a, r, p –…
Marina V
From Russia with love comes the irrepressible Marina V (short for Verenikina) dashing across the U.S. with her “C Minor to Shining Sea” summer tour in full swing. Some years ago, the Russian-born singer-songwriter landed in Springfield, then graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville, before taking off for Los Angeles and the life of a…
Vegetarian dishes for summer visitors
Chilled curried carrot soup PHOTO BY JOSEPH COPLEY By the time you read this, they’ll be here, my oldest daughter, Anne, and 3 1/2-year-old grandson Robbie. Since Robbie came into our lives, we’ve visited back and forth frequently. But for the last 11 months for a variety of reasons both legitimate and unavoidable, planned visits…
History is calling
Most of us celebrated July Fourth by barbecuing and setting off some fireworks. Some of us might have paused for a moment to reflect on that thing Jefferson wrote about 238 years ago: The Declaration of Independence. “We the People” are faced – right now – with another of those “when in the course of…
Letters to the Editor 7/24/14
FEMALE PRIEST SHOULDN’T STAY I was really interested in the article on the woman Catholic priest that was in the most recent issue of Illinois Times (“Woman priest defies Catholic diocese,” July 17, Patrick Yeagle). When I got done reading it, I thought, “good for you!” Then I started to really think about it. If…
Forging a new path
An artist’s rendering of how a revamped pedestrian-friendly Jackson Street might appear, from Fifth Street looking west, with the Executive Mansion grounds on the left. MASSIE MASSIE AND ASSOCIATES In the 1820s, when Springfield was still changing from a sleepy frontier settlement to a bustling metropolis, a small creek ran through what is now the…
Group gardens
University of Illinois Extension will host Roots to Rooftop Tour: Community Gardens, Urban Agriculture and a Rooftop Garden on Sunday, July 27. Extension educator Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant says that “each site will have a knowledgeable host who can talk about a number of topics, including different types of gardening, composting, beekeeping, permaculture, and more.” Sites include genHkids…
Block party
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPRINGFIELD ART ASSOCIATION Springfield Art Association rolls out its colorful festival Paint the Street in downtown Springfield Saturday, July 26. Anyone can purchase a six-foot by six-foot square to fill with their imagination using paint. SAA supplies the washable tempera and brushes. Register to paint a block at Washington and Fifth and…
Public’s thoughts on Rauner’s economic plan
“This morning,” 1,063 respondents were told the evening of July 17 during a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll, “Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner released an economic plan for Illinois.” “That plan calls for a freeze on property taxes and rolling back the 2010 tax increase. It also implements a new tax on services such…
Creative camerawork
PHOTO BY JAMES HAWKER There’s a new gallery in town! 1227 is located at 1227 S. Pasfield Ave., behind The Pharmacy. Five local photographers Lou Fremgen, Tom Handy, James Hawker, Greg Laun and John Record, a group known as Next Friday, having met the last Friday of the month for the past year to discuss…
