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Hobbs & Shaw a surprisingly fun romp
Surprisingly, there’s more than meets the eye in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the first of what’s sure to be many spin-offs from the testosterone-fueled franchise. To be sure, there are plenty of car chases and enough things blown up real good to satisfy F & F fans, but there’s a sense of…
Not so fast
Tomorrow’s grand finale party at Club Station House, Springfield’s oldest gay bar, has been canceled. Ryan Bandy, the bar owner, says that developers who want to erect a hotel on the site have asked to postpone a July 31 date to close on the property sale. Bandy said that Allen Williams, a representative of the…
It’s Code Red time at ALPLM
Joe Crain, fired in June as meteorologist for WICS television, has been hired by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as director of public programming. ALPLM spokesman Chris Wills said that Crain will start on Monday. Wills initially told Illinois Times that the position was new, then sent an email stating that the job…
Goodbye, green card
For the first time in nearly two hours, I heard a voice, over a loudspeaker, speak English.“Would Mr. Rushton please report to security?” There was no Spanish accent. I did not respond. Minutes earlier, I’d put my dad on a plane headed to the United States after a week together in Zihuatanejo. He’d insisted, before…
Sterigenics reopening causes consternation
“Sterigenics should be completely shut down until we determine it can operate safely,” gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker tweeted last October. A month after taking office, Pritzker made good on the first part of that campaign promise. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued a “seal order” which closed the company’s doors. Sterigenics sterilizes medical instruments at…
Letters to the Editor
LOVE IT OR LEAVE ITWhen President Trump said, “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” he was not referring to migrants on the southern border. He was referring to four duly and fairly elected senators of the United States. Three of these senators…
Can Durbin multiply Rebuild Illinois funds?
It was the governor’s first legislative session. And he didn’t disappoint. Gov. J.B. Pritzker rolled the dice and ran the tables in Springfield. His $45 billion Rebuild Illinois legislation is historic. The Illinois General Assembly swooned, as Pritzker lined up not only suburban Republicans, but also 12 of 16 conservative west-central Illinois Republicans. Of these…
Springfield’s first horseshoe festival
The Faith Coalition for the Common Good and the Springfield Park District came up with an idea that, quite frankly, we are surprised no one thought of before – a horseshoe festival. This is the first of its kind right here in the birthplace of that one-of-a-kind sandwich. A full day of a variety of…
Heartsaver course
Springfield Firefighters Local 37 has been serving the citizens and visitors of Springfield since 1918. It is a highly trained career fire department that, in addition to a myriad of fire and safety services and training operations, also provides intermediate level emergency care. With that in mind, Local 37 is offering a Heartsaver CPR training…
World War II comes to life at the ALPLM
The doors of the landing craft open, and the beach of Normandy looms ahead. Shells explode in the water and as the sound of machine gun fire beats a merciless tattoo through the hazy air. You round the corner, and suddenly World War II comes to life before your eyes through the words and objects…
Kenny’s Bonnie
I found Kenny’s Bonnie living in an assisted living facility. It has been more than 70 years since she sat on the beach in Florida in her sunglasses and white shirt, Kenny’s hands on her shoulders behind her. She is 93 years old now; her dark curly hair has turned white; her eyesight is failing.…
Behind enemy lines
His picture is in a case along the back wall in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum’s new exhibition on World War II. He is handsome in his pilot’s helmet and cheerful, confident smile, and so very, very young – only 21 when the photo was taken. A picture of his P-51 Mustang fighter plane is…
The end of thoughtful, not rigid, ideology
Arriving home on the evening of July 17, I was saddened by the news that retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens had died at the age of 99. Having spent the past few months reading The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years, I felt that not only had I lost…
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thoroughly Modern Millie is The Muni at its best, filling the stage with spectacle and the night with song and laughter. It’s (mostly) a charming and hilarious story of misguided lovers struggling to find themselves and each other in the big city. Directors and choreographers Morgan Kaplan and Andrew Maynerich lead a talented cast and the…
Is the first slave freed by Lincoln under a parking lot?
Twenty-two years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he won an Illinois State Supreme Court case that freed Nance Legins-Costley. Legins-Costley was an indentured servant in the eyes of the law, but, by all rights, she was a slave. She’d never been free. Neither she nor anyone else ever signed paperwork giving up her…
Illinois to share in $700 million settlement with Equifax
Illinois residents could be eligible for up to $20,000 in compensation for damages they suffered as a result of a massive data breach at the credit-reporting bureau Equifax under terms of a proposed global settlement announced Monday. Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced the settlement in a news release, saying the state of Illinois would also…
Tarantino can’t get out of his own way with Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino is our most seductive filmmaker. His ability to frame and execute a scene with a crisp sense of vitality, his sharp-edged writing and the way in which he elicits primal performances from his cast have all become hallmarks of his work, elements that appeal to the many fans who are devotees to the…
Downhome plus
As we spend the last weekend of July cooling off from the recent heat wave (go figure), the Downhome Music Festival looms ahead with bits and pieces of other hip and dyn-a-mite goings on flitting about. Let’s go see what we can see, shall we? First, let’s really cool down with a thought toward New…
Live Wire
Originally formed by band mates Denny Lucas (guitars, keys, vocals) and Mike “Mouse” Bearup (guitars, vocals) in 1992 with Brian Smith, the latest members of the group, Bill Ward (bass, vocals), Mandy Rose (vocals) and Kevin Klickna (drums, percussion) join in to play a range of popular hits with a full light and sound system…
How you’ll be making eggs from now on
Just as a pilot trains in a flight simulator before taking off in a 737, before I ever performed a dental procedure in the mouth of a living person I had rehearsed the operation numerous times over a two-year training period on plastic models, extracted human teeth and jawbones of butchered pigs. Even with all…
archival find—family letter #14
my nephew in college 1980 informsgrandparents he’s writing a manual for his former h.s. band leader to emphasize to parents that despite budget cuts and the “back-to-basics” drive that music, arts, are not mere frivolity; I quote a portion: “The difficult idea to get across is how important aesthetic experience is for high school kids.…
