Behind schedule
If you’re still waiting for evening bus service to start in Springfield, you might want to invest in a sturdy pair of shoes. With the help of U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Barack Obama, the Springfield Mass Transit District was awarded a $375,000 grant last year to keep about four bus routes running past 10…
The things to come
“There is so much more coming it is breathtaking,” an almost always reliable source said recently when asked about the recent flood of news stories about alleged corruption within Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. That source wasn’t the only one making this prediction. Plenty of others are saying that the Chicago Tribune is sitting on a…
A lesser risk
The North Chicago Veterans Affairs Medical Center lies less than a mile from the headquarters for 52 military processing centers nationwide. There, at the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command, recruits take their final oath of enlistment before becoming soldiers. The short trip up Green Bay Road from the VA hospital to MEPCOM served as the…
Tripping on the road
In a few weeks, I’ll be one of you — and I’m worried. Since the fall of 2003, when I took this job, I’ve been commuting between St. Louis and Springfield. It was supposed to be a temporary thing, this living in two places — weekdays in the Land of Lincoln, weekends in the Show-Me…
Time to start the fall garden
As you taste your first garden-fresh tomato of the season, thoughts of planting your next vegetable garden may be the furthest thing from your mind. However, now is the time to extend your supply of fresh vegetables by planting a fall garden. A late-season garden can include frost-tolerant and hardy vegetables that don’t grow well…
All thanks to Mr. Ice Cream
Blood orange and burnt caramel, crème fraîche and Meyer lemon, brandy-macerated peach. These were the ice cream flavors I had come to hear about over the phone with my friend, the former pastry chef-turned-restaurant critic (and my former editor). He’d rattle them off nonchalantly, as if I knew what he was talking about, and surely…
Phoenix Rising
It all started with the cheese balls. The vendor who supplied gourmet snack mixes to Phoenix Center’s Marketplace — the resale boutique meant to be an ongoing fundraiser for the AIDS service organization — left a phone message for treasurer John Kerstein asking why his credit-card company had canceled payment. Kerstein returned the vendor’s call,…
Letters to the Editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. THINGS ARE TURNING AROUND Much of what Rod Helle says in his commentary “Caging the beast”…
It%uFFFDs bigger than hip-hop
When it comes to putting out music that makes a statement, rap has ebbed and flowed. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, hip-hop’s mantra was “black power,” and its uniform was a (Malcolm) X baseball cap and Africa medallion. The Stop the Violence Movement’s “Self Destruction” and West Coast Rap All Stars’ “We’re All…
Why Democrats lose
Friends, it’s time to take up a collection so we can seek a cure for a tragic disease. The disease is PTS — political timidity syndrome — and it’s epidemic among congressional Democrats. The latest to show the telltale symptoms of this heartbreaking scourge is Hillary Clinton. The New York senator and Democratic contender for…
Familiarity breeds contempt
The plot for Anthony and Joe Russo’s You, Me and Dupree is as old as the hills, or at least as old as the movies themselves. A comedic take on an intruder who turns a tranquil household into a domestic hell, the film offers few surprises — it’s a premise that has been done to death.…
Missing Reeve
Is it possible to breathe new life into a story as overused as Superman? Apparently the makers of Superman Returns couldn’t answer that question, either. The problems lie in the shallow source material. Superman is the most basic and ultimately the blandest of all comic-book heroes. Even his nickname is ridiculously generic. Batman relates to…
American life in poetry
our country today has to do with the smallest and briefest of pleasures. Here Marie Howe of New York captures a magical moment: sitting in the shelter of a leafy tree with the rain falling all around. The Copper Beech Immense, entirely itself, it wore that yard like a dress, with limbs low enough for…
Among the Midwest’s best
My first experience with the Ozarks-based group Big Smith came during our Wednesday-night songwriter circle. I was praising singer/songwriter Mark Bilyeu’s CD, First One Free, when one of the circle members became almost uncontrollably excited. He started stuttering about Big Smith’s being the best band ever and claiming that Bilyeu was a member. I knew…
Finding real cuisine in the Gateway City
I was telling a friend about some of the restaurants and ethnic and specialty food shops we’ve discovered in St. Louis, and she sniffed: “St. Louis is nothing compared to Chicago.” “And Chicago is nothing compared to New York,” I shot back. “Get over it!” My chauvinist friend, a native Chicagoan, was correct in one sense.…
Delighting in happy accidents
When the terminally adorable Canadian quartet Shapes and Sizes signed to indie-rock über-cutie Sufjan Stevens’s record label, Asthmatic Kitty, the sudden surfeit of sweetness must have been overwhelming. Surely molars crumbled in its wake; blood turned to syrup; insulin waved the white flag. Only an army of tap-dancing Japanese toddlers, baby spider monkeys in matching…
VINYL STATIC
CD EXCHANGE: With R. Kelly busy basking in the glow of his mesmerizing car wreck of a miniseries, Trapped in the Closet, the R&B world has hit a bit of a drought when it comes to male singers. However, this week an album emerged that may have fans of the soulful sire saying, “TP who?”…
Rum means more fun
Nine months of the year, I’m a wine drinker, with an occasional foray into Bourbon-Nightcap Land. But when sultry breezes, late sunsets, and humidity come to town, my beverage choices veer from the cerebral to the coquettish. Summer sipping is all about cocktails, and in my opinion that means rum. Sure, I know the school…
The power of positive polka
Tell the truth. You read the headline and already you’re seeing goofily dressed guys and gals slugging steins of beer and dancing to accordion atrocities, aren’t you? “Most people write polka off as a joke,” says Carl Finch, the founder of Brave Combo of Denton, Texas, “but when it’s approached from a nonjudgmental position it’s…
“Major” change
The Salvation Army is serious about getting its new shelter and community center off the ground. For one, the agency brought in Majors Barbara and Paul Logan to replace Captains Deon and Michelle Oliver. What’s more, the Logans are relocating from Milwaukee, a city more than five times the size of Springfield. But the Logans…
Showcase
I like American music, and not just the Violent Femmes’ tune, either. This weekend, Taste of Downtown’s American Music Show presents a tiny slice of our vast music scene to entertain the masses. Vinyl Static wants to help you like American music, too — or at least enjoy the out-of-town roots rockers who will be…
For mature audiences only
Onstage this week is a two-performance bill of short plays titled Danger: Adult Content, featuring a group of local actors performing 10 short pieces by contemporary American playwrights. This ADHD Productions show, designated for “mature audiences only,” is directed by Jason Goodreau and performed by Goodreau, Hillary Gorrell, Jeff Nevins, Carrie Risdon, Patrick Russell, Grace Smith,…
Yo-ho-ho and a lot of dumb
There’s a good movie somewhere in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — at least I think so. Hack about 45 minutes out of this bloated testament to excess and you’d have sleek entertainment bolstered by one of the most impressively mounted productions in recent memory. Unfortunately, what director Gore Verbinski foists upon his audience…
travelpoem #3
travelpoem #3 (lifted from a 1979 journal) I don’t despise these people in fact I’ve developed quite an admiration for one perky little old ex-schoolteacher who kissed the blarney stone twice they’re all enjoying their holiday they’ve saved their pennies I’m just glad I got off the touristy track and did what I’ve done but…
Brushetta, the right way
I embarrassed my husband at a restaurant recently. It wasn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. After the server described the appetizer special, I interrupted him before he could move on to the entrees. “You know,” I said nicely (I’m always nice when I do this), “It’s actually pronounced brusketta, not…
CAP CITIES
A MOVE UPSTAIRS An era has ended. You wouldn’t realize it unless you frequent the Sangamon County Courthouse (and, let’s face it, we hope you don’t). Even then, you might not notice if you park in the county garage, because you wouldn’t need to get your parking pass stamped. But if your business takes you…
Testing an illusory world
Lady & Bird is the intriguing, if slight, side project of Keren Ann Zeidel and Bardi Johannsson. Zeidel, an Israel-born Frenchwoman who now shuttles between Paris and New York, has two domestic solo releases under her belt: her English-language debut, Not Going Anywhere (2004), and Nolita, its half-French, half-English follow-up (2005). American critics slobbered mightily over…
King Sandler
Click continues Adam Sandler’s reign as the king of movie comedy, a position he inherited from Jim Carrey. Being the contemporary Jerry Lewis does have its drawbacks. As long as he sticks to the accepted Sandler formula, box-office gold is a virtual guarantee. Watch out if he tries something more substantial, though. The response from…
Time to come clean
Do citizens of this state have a right to know whether their governor and his administration are under criminal investigation? According to the governor, the answer is no. Around the same time as this year’s campaign season moved into full swing, the governor’s state press operation stopped answering questions about whether the office had received…
The gap men
One way to fix the achievement gap between black and white children in Springfield schools might be to reintroduce a little bit of segregation to the classroom, say three prominent area educators. The three men — Jim Forstall, Gordon Smith, and Allan Woodson — are proposing that District 186 offer special instruction just for black…
american life in poetry
Visiting a familiar and once dear place after a long absence can knock the words right out of us, and in this poem, Keith Althaus of Massachusetts observes this happening to someone else. I like the way he suggests, at the end, that it may take days before that silence heals over. Homecoming We drove…
Letters to the Editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. CAN’T SUPPORT KIDS? DON’T HAVE ’EM I feel absolutely no sympathy for parents who cannot meet…
An evening in the garden
As summer gets into full swing in central Illinois, some things are inevitable: lack of rainfall, the unsightly destruction caused by Japanese beetles, and, on the plus side, fresh vegetables and beautiful floral garden displays. One of the area’s favorites is the demonstration garden cultivated by the master gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension,…
