letters 6-10-04
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 FOR THE RECORD I was pleased to read Carolyn Harmon’s commentary on…
Tuscany offers quality Italian in a casual setting
I had two thoughts after dining at Tuscany: “Why haven’t I been here before?” and “I’ll be back.” The inside of the restaurant resembles an Italian patio, mostly because of painting done by local artist Dana Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer has made the walls look like old crumbling stone and painted a blue ceiling with clouds to…
Polishing a jewel
The grassroots effort to renovate the two-acre area playground at Washington Park is in full swing. With nearly half the $450,000 needed for the project raised in just six months, planners predict new equipment for spinning, sliding, and climbing will be installed as soon as next spring. “It’s amazing the support we’ve gotten from the…
Burch masters the timeless quality of classic country
Paul Burch is one of the craftiest composers alive. A bona fide difference exists between songwriters and composers, and Burch falls squarely into the latter group. Beyond good lyrics with three-chord fare, Burch’s melodies are ripe with subtle nuances and textured intricacy. Tremolo guitar enhances the mood of desolation, muted bass lines demonstrate a man…
quick takes 6-10-04
TRASH TALKIN’ Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin mostly listened, asked questions, and jotted notes during three recent hour-long, closed-door meetings with community leaders on how to improve the city’s beleaguered trash removal system. After more than a year of such brainstorming, Davlin remains tight-lipped about possible remedies. “It’s still too early to give any specifics,” says…
The not-so-secret gardens
When we aren’t in our own gardens, we gardeners love to share ideas and frustrations and get new ideas for our own back yards. University of Illinois Extension master gardeners and other groups have created unique experiences across central Illinois by hosting tours of area gardens. Macon County Master Gardeners will host “An Array of…
Grace About Town 6-10-04
This is your last opportunity to see Grace Talk #1 (8 p.m. Saturday, June 12, at Stella Blue). Grace Talk #2 debuts at the end of July, but if you wait for that, you’ll leave the show saying, “Gee, I wonder what she talked about in Grace Talk #1. Too bad I missed it.” I’d…
Robert Lanphier lights up Springfield
In 1915, the city of San Francisco, which had been nearly destroyed nine years earlier by a calamitous earthquake and resultant fire, threw a comeback party for itself called the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Officially it was a World’s Fair marking the opening of the Panama Canal and commemorating the “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean…
Killing our kids
On a Friday morning late last fall, a young mother ran screaming from her trailer home in San Jose. In her arms, she held the lifeless body of her 11-month-old son. One witness said the child’s face was blue; others, including relatives of the child, said the infant was covered in burns and recalled that…
Room for pork
Among Rod Blagojevich’s first acts as governor was to freeze the controversial pork-barrel spending that flowed so freely during George Ryan’s administration. Blagojevich trimmed pork funding in half, and assembled a review board to examine each of the thousands of taxpayer-funded pet projects requested by state lawmakers. Only projects benefiting education, health care, public safety,…
Movie Review
It only seems like 80 days Halfway through Around the World in 80 Days, a poor man, locked up for a petty crime, cries out, “Please, let me go! I’m bored!” That’s pretty much what I was thinking as I sat in the theater, wondering, “Are we there yet?” This Disneyfied version of Jules Verne’s…
Weather report
One afternoon a sudden squall line sneaked up on us while we were working in the field. You know that feeling — goosebumps on the back of your neck, and you look up cautiously, expecting to see the dark stalker two strides behind. Within seconds, lightning crackled over the timber a half-mile distant and we…
Now Playing 6-10-04
Deep in the heartland of America is a sleepy little town that teems with nightlife on an unimaginable scale. This tiny but mighty source of monumental musical moments lives in constant denial of the true caliber of its entertainment world. Trained workers, in a valiant attempt to enlighten the ignorant public, struggle night and day…
Knoepfle 6-10-04
sandalwood poem #5 the two of us here and solitary our hopes of dreaming a landscape in ribbons the night a cold cruelty the long crossing and the waiting brakemans lantern omnipresent but not a sign for us the wind rocking it four engined diesel south bound for amarillo © John Knoepfle 1978, 2004
Elephant talk
On Saturday, Unity for Our Community will hold a discussion about the elephant — the one that everyone pretends not to notice, even though it’s standing in the middle of the living room. It’s easier to just ignore elephants like this one, because noticing it means you have to talk about how it got there…
Sound Patrol 6-10-04
Sam PhillipsA Boot and a Shoe (Nonesuch) “When no one is listening, I have so much to say,” Sam Phillips sings on “How to Quit,” the opening track of her new CD, A Boot and a Shoe. It’s a bit of an exaggeration — some of us have been listening to her obsessively for 16…
