Now playing 7-29-04
Feeling lost and confused, cast adrift in a sea of fests, fairs, fries, and other assorted outdoor music events? Pull yourself together, friend. You’ll need your wits about you to navigate the many out-of-doors musical experiences that lie dead ahead. First comes the Divernon Homecoming, with Strange Brew, Lost Boys, and Hot Property on Thursday,…
Springfield puts on a show for the Hoovers
With all the hyperbolic and near-hysterical rhetoric flying around Springfield like so much chaff at a threshing party (“Is Springfield ready?”), one might be excused for thinking that never before has this city found itself at the center of national attention for even so much as a day. It is true that Springfield is now…
Folding their tent
A truce has been declared between the Inn at 835 and nearby residents wary of the elegant bed & breakfast’s expansion plans. With no objection from the Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association, the inn’s owners recently received almost complete approval from both the Historic Sites Commission and the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission to build a…
Closing the gap
When the federal district court issued its Springfield consent decree in 1974, it aimed at the achievement gap but missed. Because racially segregated schools were unequal, integration was proposed as a remedy. Busing was the blunt instrument employed to equal things up, and it helped. School buildings were integrated and resources were improved, but the…
Comeback
Undercover narcotics officers from the Springfield Police Department got a bit of a surprise this week when a suspected drug house they were investigating turned out to be selling something other than the usual crack cocaine. With Mayor Tim Davlin along to observe, officers served a search warrant on a house at #3 Manor Court…
Grace about town 7-29-04
Last weekend, I ran in my first (and perhaps my last) seven-mile race. It was the Bix 7 in Davenport, Iowa. This was the 30th year for the race, which is held at the same time as the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. My New Boyfriend (MNB) signed up for the race and asked me to…
movie reviews
Here’s a vote for the new and improved Candidate Remakes are a tricky proposition, particularly when the original is highly regarded. In that sense, director Jonathan Demme has performed a cinematic miracle: His revamped version of the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate is a superb and well-thought-out political thriller, superior to the creaky original in…
Knoepfle 7-29-04
sandalwood poem #12 mouth is a good place for keeping the tongue hidden mockingbirds they don’t dance in a ring like mushrooms a presence wraps us around why should it echo anything but silence © John Knoepfle 1978, 2004
letters 7-29-04
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 BUS SCHEDULE IS ATROCIOUS I’m listening to Illinois Times on the radio…
Backstage pass 7-29-04
It’s always good news when a theater introduces a new show, especially during the summertime when a typical line-up consists of the tried-and-true. And it looks like Theatre in the Park’s decision to stage a little-known show like The Spitfire Grill has not deterred audiences from making the short trek to New Salem. The Spitfire…
quick takes 7-29-04
INVASION OF THE POD PEOPLE Last week, Illinois Times published a letter to the editor from Dena R. Scott of Champaign. She praised President George W. Bush’s record on the economy and noted, among other things, that the president “has outlined a six-point plan to create even more job opportunities for America’s workers.” On Monday,…
Minds online
In this age of computer technology, it’s not surprising that university students are demanding that schools make more courses available by way of the Internet. What is surprising, however, are the specific courses they demand. After all, when was the last time you heard a kid say, “When I grow up, I want to be…
George loves parks
See George. See George in our national parks. George knows that parks are popular. George likes to go to parks and have the media take his picture. See George run for president. In his 2000 presidential run, George W. dressed up in khakis and held a photo op in a national park, where he decried…
Unplugged
Springfield teens are a nomadic lot, though not by choice. It seems that each time they settle into a new funky abode, where they’re free to let their fraying jeans hang low and spike their hair to the high heavens, some outside force comes along to shoo them away. Jerry Roof, a 17-year-old senior at…
Manning adds studio space, launches anti-Kerry series
Springfield artist Michael Manning says that most of his friends are liberals, and so he expects that his newest project will “drive them crazy.” Manning, who served two tours of duty with the Marines in Vietnam, has started a series of 15 posters featuring U.S. Sen. John Kerry. The posters are, to put it mildly,…
Fifteen minutes
Finding a replacement for Jack Ryan has turned into an “opportunist playground,” a top Republican official grouses. Each time somebody floats his or her own name and then “withdraws,” the media paints it as yet another disaster for the state party, the clearly annoyed official complains. Case in point: the decision last week by state…
The best of the Taste
“How can black beans be so delicious?” a young woman asked Ryan Flynn at Saturday’s fifth annual Taste of Downtown. Flynn and chef Eric Lehnen spent 10 hours dishing up pan after pan of fried black-bean cakes at the Augie’s Front Burner tent. The unique, tasty cakes were just one of more than 70 items…
When size does matter
Recently a fellow gardener proudly showed me her six-pound zucchini. Though impressive, this mammoth green monster is better suited to the compost pile than to the kitchen. “Big and green” are words best used to describe a watermelon, not a zucchini. Unfortunately, many gardeners wait too long to harvest summer squash. For the best quality…
