“Into the Storm” Lives Up to its Title
Without question, Steven Quale’s Into the Storm makes its intentions known from the first as the opening scene features four teenagers being killed by a rogue tornado while trapped in a car. More a thrill ride than a movie, time-wasting elements like character development and narrative complexity are blown to the wayside as the intent…
Torch Tuesday Open Mic Tonight!
Torch Tuesday master of ceremonies Uncanny. Photo: Picture Perfect Photography Do you have the skills to pay the bills? Do you drop science as part of your daily routine? Is spitting bars as natural to you as drawing breath? Okay, do you at least know what the phrase “spitting bars” means? If you answered yes…
Down at Downhome
Looming plays the Downhome Music Festival Saturday evening Aug. 2. You simply cannot understand the great joy that I and others of my age feel about the wonderful collection of warm weather, downtown music festivals now available for public consumption. We fondly remember, while shaking our heads, the heady years of Lincolnfest-ering, when that misguided…
Editor’s Note 7/31/14
At a luncheon this week the first graduates of the Sangamon CEO program described the businesses they created, the people they met and the life lessons they learned. The high school students spent a big chunk of the past school year visiting businesses, hearing presentations by business leaders and launching their own businesses for CEO…
Speed kills meaning
Curses, foiled again• After a camera was found secretly recording in the women’s locker room at a fitness gym in Seekonk, Mass., police examined the video and named a club member as their suspect because it shows the man setting up the hidden camera. (Associated Press) • A burglar who stole two cash registers and…
Board member’s dogs attack
The vet bill for Bella Abzug, left, came to $700 after the pooch was bitten by dogs owned by a member of the Sangamon County citizens advisory board on animal control. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRISTINE GROVES A member of the Sangamon County citizens advisory board on animal control has been repeatedly caught allowing unaltered dogs…
When Lindbergh delivered airmail to Springfield
One of the 29,000 souvenir envelopes printed up for the inauguration of Springfield’s air mail service in 1926. This envelope was flown on the test trip on April 10 and bears the signatures of William H. Conkling, postmaster, and Charles Lindbergh, pilot.. Before he was Lucky Lindy, America’s aviation hero, Springfield knew Charles Lindbergh as…
Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters
Born in 2001 from an epiphany reached by J Bird (drums, lead vocals) after watching the 1996 Tom Hanks’ film That Thing You Do!, and raised with the consciousness to please a crowd, especially of the female persuasion, this Jacksonville-based band is on top of its game. Winners by far in Illinois Times 2013 Best…
Will a new era restrain nationalism?
Eras of history are generally recognized only long after they start. But it might be that our world has just walked into a new era this last month as five rising nations formed The New Development Bank in Brazil. If so, this could represent either a fortuitous or an ominous portent for the future. What…
vermontpoem #37
a tiny lavender blossomfive petals fringed leafon the path to the shorea moment of happiness
No man’s land
PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON This unpaved parking area adjacent to Foursquare Church is actually inside Bunn Park. Kirk Jefferis has a fantastic buying opportunity for anyone interested in the tranquility inherent in owning a building adjacent to a public park. The Foursquare Church on South 13th Street next to Bunn Park is in excellent condition,…
Creation stories
Read up on your creation stories. Genesis, The Musical premiers Aug. 1 at Playhouse on the Square in Jacksonville. There are nine performances through Aug. 10. Written by playwrights Ken Bradbury of Arenzville and Roger Wainwright of Chatham, the musical is a rapid-fire synopsis of the first book of the Bible. Bradbury directs a 10-member…
Downhome Fest is all about the music
Micah Walk will perform with his new band at the Downhome Music, Beer and Arts Festival on Friday night. PHOTO COURTESY OF MICAH WALK “Our idea was to gather up all these smaller, original bands and give them a chance to get up on the big stages, make some money and get their name out…
Huge hoopla
PHOTO COURTESY JOAN JETTS FACEBOOK PAGE Decatur holds its annual downtown family street festival Aug. 1-3. If you’re not familiar with the Decatur Celebration – It’s huge! Everyone is certain to find something that will excite them. There’s a carnival; family night is Thursday, July 31, 4-11p.m. There’s a wine garden, food and art vendors,…
Wheel of a deal
PHOTO BY ED G2S VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG Powerlight Abe Lincoln Supercruise and Car Show Spectacular begins Friday, Aug 1 with a car parade from Ace Hardware on Wabash Ave. to Quaker Steak and Lube on MacArthur. Afterwards, The Dark Knight and Back to the Future will be showing at the Route 66 Twin Drive In, in addition…
Frerichs needs to up his game
Back in January, state Sen. Michael Frerichs formally kicked off his campaign for Illinois state treasurer and posted a video online touting the fact that he’d ended “free, lifetime health care for state legislators.” Actually, Frerichs had voted against that bill in the General Assembly. Frerichs’ campaign had to pull the video and replace it…
GETTING BIBLICAL
Any doubt that all the feel-good advisory referendums on the fall ballot are more about the governor’s race than anything else were laid to rest this week when Gov. Pat Quinn, who is trailing Bruce Rauner by double digits in the polls and can’t seem to move the meter, issued an atta-boy to himself this…
Cheat exhaustion
My girlfriend and I are mostly happy together, but we have this ongoing fight where she accuses me of wanting to cheat whenever I so much as glance at a woman she perceives to be my “type” (any woman roughly her age and ethnicity). Even flipping through a magazine that shows a woman in an…
New ensemble
Springfield has a new professional choral ensemble. Meet the Gloriana Chamber Choir at their inaugural concert on Sunday, Aug. 3 at First Presbyterian Church. “Long Live Fair Oriana: A Concert of English Choral Music from the Lifetimes of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II” will feature Benjamin Britten’s choral dances from Gloriana and madrigals from the…
Gathering nuts
ILLUSTRATION BY HECTOR CASANOVA/MCT In “Squabbling over the inheritance” (June 12), I lamented the fact that the Illinois State Historical Library, which has collected and preserved materials on the state’s political, social and religious history since 1889, has been starved of resources in its new role as an adjunct to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential museum,…
Letters to the Editor 7/31/14
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. PHOTO AND RENDERING COURTESY OF MASSIE MASSIE AND ASSOCIATES This image is the same view west down Jackson Street at the YWCA building and Illinois Executive Mansion as seen…
Can a $7 billion penalty be a good deal?
Media outlets across the country trumpeted the stunning news with headlines like this: “Citigroup Punished.” At last, went the storyline, the Justice Department brought down the hammer on one of the greed-headed Wall Street giants that are guilty of massive mortgage frauds that crashed our economy six years ago. While millions of ordinary Americans lost…
Guardians: Star Wars for a new generation
Chris Pratt stars as Peter Quill/Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. PHOTO COURTESY MARVEL STUDIOS It’s been a dismal summer at the movies not only where the quality of films is concerned but also in regards to how much fun viewers have been having. Sure, 22 Jump Street was funny and X-Men: Days of…
STOPPING SUMMER SLIDE
As Springfield kids return to school in August, many will be playing catch-up on their studies after a couple of months out of the classroom. But the Family Service Center has been working all summer to prevent the “summer slide,” the phenomenon in which kids forget what they learned the previous school year and have…
More recipes for my visiting veg-heads
These tuiles will be a welcome treat for olive and cookie lovers of all ages PHOTO BY DAVID HINE It’s been a wonderful few days with my visiting veg-heads, oldest daughter Anne and grandson Robbie. Their visit is half over, and already I’m thinking about how much I’ll miss them. Truthfully, I haven’t done as…
