Music from Looming: “Output”
Ahead of tomorrow’s cover story about Springfield band Looming, click on the link below to check out this exclusive performance video – a composite of footage shot both in their practice space and at this summer’s SOHO Festival. The song is called “Output” and it will appear on their upcoming album “Nailbiter” to be released…
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Video: Meet Looming
This week’s IT cover story will introduce our readers to Looming, the dynamic young Springfield band that is spearheading the lively Southtown punk scene. Before the issue hits the stands. check out this exclusive mini-documentary where we pay a visit to the band in their practice space to discuss their upcoming debut LP “Nailbiter” (No…
Getting approval
“No more property tax hikes without taxpayer approval,” preached brother Rauner last year. He pays property taxes in a lot of states, so maybe he forgot that in Illinois most property tax hikes are subject to taxpayer approval directly (usually through bond referenda) or indirectly. This state also has a mechanism, admittedly little used, by…
Here comes your band
The public is invited to enjoy an evening of live music by a traditional concert band during this week’s Springfield Municipal Band Concert at Douglas Park. The concerts, which occur at the band shell every Tuesday through August 4, have been a Springfield tradition since the band was founded via referendum in 1936. The band…
The Scene from WUIS 6-11-15
It is time to listen to this week’s version of THE SCENE. The lovely Allison Lacher, an art professor, artist, curator, etc. etc. joins Scott Faingold and Rachel for this edition. The DEMO project has an art opening for a new exhibit on Friday night. The third Dumb Fest, a music fest organized by Black…
Say \’Opa\’ (oops!)
Here’s a fun, tasty way to spend your Saturday: Eating, drinking and dancing at the Opa Greek Food and Pastry Festival. From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at St. Anthony’s Hellenic Orthodox Church, 1600 S. Glenwood Ave., in Springfield, you can enjoy Greek music, taste authentic chicken, gyros, shish kabobs, spinach pie, Greek salad, baklava,…
Two Sides of McCarthy on Display in “Spy”
What makes Melissa McCarthy’s such an effective comedienne is her two-pronged attack where getting laughs are concerned. One the one hand, she can be the sweet, not-so-confident bumbler who never met a social situation she couldn’t botch, whose good intentions fail to hide the fact that she’s the sort of woman who’ll always be a…
Voter reform
ILLUSTRATION BY Rick Nease/TNS As a nation we are split into two camps along familiar populist/progressive lines, with one believing that government doesn’t work because the people running our governments don’t understand the voters and the other believing that government doesn’t work because voters don’t understand government. Members of the General Assembly in the latter…
The real scandal in Denny Hastert’s life
Washington’s establishment of politicos, lobbyists and media sparklies are shocked – shocked to their very core! – by the scandalous sexual revelations about Dennis Hastert. The portly Republican, who’d been Speaker of the House a decade ago, was an affable, non-descript Midwesterner who was popular with his fellow lawmakers. A former high school wrestling coach…
Statehouse misunderstandings
After five months, you’d think that the warring parties at the Illinois Statehouse would have learned something about each other. Instead, last week’s bitter and divisive House overtime session showed that they still fundamentally misunderstand one another. What follows are some questions I’m hearing and my own responses. Republicans: Why would the House Democrats propose…
Letters to the Editor 6/11/15
PHOTO BY ANTHONY SOUFFLE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS TOURISM KILLER Is killing tourism in this state a good businessman’s action? Any state you name with low taxes has a huge tourism business. Rauner is constantly doing things that hurt tourism in this state. Not all of us can become millionaires investing state employees’ retirement money in out-of-state nursing…
Editor’s note 6/11/15
People who don’t follow Statehouse debates closely, which is probably most people, likely didn’t realize that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s property tax freeze, voted down in the House this week, actually went far beyond freezing property taxes. The proposed legislation included provisions for local governments to bypass prevailing wage requirements and to limit collective bargaining rights…
At long last, a ban on transfat
Editor’s note: University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Fred Kummerow, now 100, first reported a link between dietary transfats and heart disease in 1957. Trained in lipid biochemistry, Kummerow later determined the mechanisms by which transfats contributed to atherosclerosis in patients with heart disease. In 2009, he petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban…
Fairytale fun
Once Upon a Time in the 100 Acre Wood Families are invited to join Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Christopher Robin, Roo, Kanga, Rabbit and other friends on a “whimsical adventure set deep in a magical forest.” This children’s ballet features a cast of more than 60 Springfield Youth Performance Group members and highlights multiple styles of…
The Muni does Monty Python
PHOTO BY MATT FRANKLIN COURTESY THE MUNI This June, The Muni, Springfield’s long-running community theater under the stars, presents a fun, farcical take on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Spamalot is the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of the 1975 classic British comedy film Monty Python & the Holy…
Owe, baby, baby
My girlfriend always cries that she’s “broke.” I just ended up buying her groceries and paying to have her car fixed, and then I discovered by accident that she’d recently paid hundreds of dollars for hair extensions, beauty products and a facial. She isn’t the first girlfriend I’ve had who prioritizes beauty stuff over necessities.…
Law enFARCEment
CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT The Springfield Park District police department doesn’t sound like a tight ship or a fun place to work. Consider a memo titled “Rumors” that former Capt. Jonathan Davis wrote to his officers in January 2014. “Recently, it has been brought to my attention that there are many rumors floating around the…
Frank’s fixer-upper
Code enforcers knew that this home on Sangamon Avenue, placarded in 2007, had code violations but no enforcement action was taken for nearly five years after City Clerk Frank Lesko bought it in 2009. Photo by Bruce Rushton. For more than a decade, a vacant home crumbled on Sangamon Avenue across the street from St.…
Charity for all
St. John’s Breadline, circa 1930. Photos courtesy catholic charities In the midst of the Great Depression, George Eisenberg underscored the spirit of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Springfield. It was 1935 when Eisenberg, en route home to Chicago, saw a line of men standing outside St. John’s Hospital from his train seat during a…
For-profit school under fire for business practices
A for-profit college with a branch in Springfield is taking criticism for alleged deceptive practices. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is calling for stronger oversight of ITT Technical Institute and other for-profit schools by the federal government, citing the collapse of a school system that left students with no diplomas and a mountain of debt. Durbin…
Major oil pipeline planned near Springfield
Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT Construction could start soon on a major pipeline passing through Illinois, but the project faces negotiations with landowners and opposition from environmentalists. The pipeline, which would connect the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, would run southwest of Springfield, passing Jacksonville, Litchfield and other nearby cities.…
Business as usual for entertaining Entourage
PHOTO BY CLAUDETTE BARIUS Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara, Adrian Grenier and Kevin Dillon in Entourage. Where Doug Ellin’s film adaptation of Entourage is concerned, it’s more of the same for Vincent Chase and his three faithful cohorts as they continue their Hollywood misadventures. And as well-done as the HBO series was during its eight-year run,…
June doings
The Randy Dandies Burlesque Troupe from St. Louis entertains at Homespun Republic on Sat., June 12. Here we go on a romp through the early summertime music adventures. Outdoors, indoors, coming home, homecomings, fundraisers, hell-raisers, queens of color, queens of burlesque, old guys, new tricks and much more all happening in the next several days.…
A day at the races
As a child, I always wanted to go see the monster trucks. As an adult, I still wanted to. Who cares about high culture when there’s raw, roaring power destroying stuff? I got my wish this weekend. Next time, I’ll stay for the whole thing.
F5
F5 Here’s one F5 central Illinois can be happy about seeing again, as the extremely popular band of some years ago rekindles the magic to bring back the sounds that filled dance floors at bars, festivals, fairs and all kinds of other venues. From December of 1996 to December of 2008, the pop/rock/rap/Top 40/hip-hop group…
Summer lunches for kids, part two
PHOTO BY PETER GLATZ Pizza muffins “There’s never anything to eat in this house!” The above comment was made by all three of my kids at various points, and it never failed to irritate and befuddle me. Nothing to eat? Seriously? We had a pantry full of food, as well as multiple refrigerators and freezers.…
storypoem # 22
storypoem # 22 it’s hard to write a poem a weekand keep them what is called a poem what’s the definition of apoem anyway john knoepfle ourlocal guru talks till he runs out ofsteam sometimes just drizzles offwhat I often do is tell stories orembroider whatever it is I’mthinking about here is a bit Icame…
Digital follies
Curses, foiled againPolice in Virginia Beach, Va., identified Dominyk Antonio Alfonseca, 23, as their bank-robbery suspect after he posted video on social media showing the teller stuffing money into a bag and a picture of a note asking for $150,000 (but adding “please”). Alfonseca insisted that posting the video proves it wasn’t robbery. “I don’t…
