flicks 3-31-05
The technology has been around since 1947, but common public use didn’t begin until the 1980s. Now it has taken another two decades for Hollywood to offer a thriller based on the cell phone. Cellular is a crackerjack action film, and its plot could not have existed without this gadget. And they say there is nothing…
backstage pass 3-31-05
Missouri-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson has been writing plays since the off-off-Broadway movement began in New York in the 1960s. His first plays were produced at Café Cino and the still-in-operation LaMamma Theater. A few of Wilson’s plays made it to Broadway, and one, Fifth of July, will be seen here, in the University…
Class acts
The lone contested race for the Springfield School Board features two North Side residents with professional backgrounds in science and records of community service. Both vow to work as advocates for the most troubled schools in District 186. Even the candidates, Erin Conley and Brad Mills, admit that there isn’t much to distinguish them. “There’s…
common sense 3-31-05
Excuse me while I throw up. I’m nauseated by the disgusting treatment that the Bush administration gives to the troops it publicly professes to love. We’ve learned about the Pentagon’s failure to provide body and vehicle armor, plus the administration’s shameful policy to keep America’s wounded soldiers out of the public eye and its efforts…
appetite 3-31-05
When spring rolls around, Chef Michael Higgins thinks of crocuses, but not the kind sprouting up in our yards, adding a purple haze to the landscape. Rather, Higgins’ mind is on the flower that produces saffron, the most precious and expensive spice in the world. During a demonstration at Greenview Nursery’s annual spring garden show,…
Jacqueline Jackson 3-31-05
lovepoem # 2 contemplating getting up I designated today as toenail cutting day such a boring chore that even though it takes just a few minutes you need to celebrate it but now I can’t find the clippers so the event will have to be postponed glad I didn’t advertise it when my mom was…
now playing 3-31-05
Eva Hunter got her first taste of the stage as a singing sibling in the Hunter Sisters when she was in her early teens. The native of Athens, Ill., has worked as a solo act for several years now, producing four original CDs in the last five years. Hunter’s road has not been paved with…
books 3-31-05
Though it has been more than 10 years since my husband moved to the Midwest from Boston, his amazement at the prairie remains fresh. Driving to Chicago, he’ll point out the window and exclaim, “Look at that!” Expecting a buffalo, or something similarly unique, I see only empty space. But to him, the uncluttered landscape…
AWOL Abe
The unthinkable has happened: Abraham Lincoln, or rather the life-size fiberglass rendition thereof, has been kidnapped. WFMB Sports Radio (AM 1450) broke the news Monday morning during Sam Madonia’s talk show. Madonia “met” Abe during the Illinois-Arizona basketball nail-biter, which he had watched on Saturday night on Pasfield House’s 90-inch projection TV screen. Abe —…
Precious medals
Joe Wilkins’ record of military service should make any veteran proud. During his 1967 tour of duty in Southeast Asia, Wilkins served as an intelligence officer, collecting and evaluating counterinsurgency information, determining targets for the bomber pilots. In January and February 1967, Wilkins took flights on small planes to observe battlefield situations and help direct…
music notes 3-31-05
Not every band out of Nashville is country, and making the point is Thornton, a two-man group that performs sexually ambiguous rock material that falls somewhere between cabaret and gospel. The group is described as “experimental,” but the music is too melodic and listenable for that misleading term. Micah Walk, a local singer/songwriter with a…
sound patrol 3-31-05
You don’t intend to watch American Idol, really you don’t, but like millions of your lumpen brethren, you find yourself prostrate on the couch every week, gawking at the televised trainwreck. Simon, Paula, and Randy make their predictable assessments, but it’s the viewers who decide, by way of telephone and text messaging, the outcome of…
movie review
Sin City is a scorcher. Try to imagine Pulp Fiction on adrenaline, and you might have an image of this throwback to the antiheroes of a few decades back, mixed with the dark, moody visuals of a 1940s film noir. It’s good to see a hard-boiled crime saga that never compromises just to comfort more…
Year of the gun
By now, you’ve probably read or heard stories about all of the gun-related bills pending in the Illinois General Assembly. A large number of gun-control bills is not particularly surprising. Most that end up on the legislative calendar are introduced year after year by allies of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. What’s striking this year…
Matters of life and death
“No one’s death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humaneness.” — Hermann Broch, novelist (1886-1951) I have been wondering about the impression Terri Schiavo’s life and death will leave on those of us touched by her parents’…
letters 3-31-05
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 FIRST AIMEE, THEN WHAT? I read Karen High’s letter [March 10] about…
Friends in high places
For a farmer’s son from the tiny southern Illinois town of Cobden, Charles Joseph Wilkins’ success in academics, business, and politics is phenomenal. He has built a prestigious and lucrative career comprising all three fields. At Sangamon State University, which became the University of Illinois at Springfield, Wilkins divided his time between teaching business-management courses…
The fine print
Springfield voters decide Tuesday whether to abolish the city’s 170-year-old health department and entrust its employees, property, and services to the Sangamon County Department of Public Health. The Sangamon County Board has promised if the merger is accepted, there will be no decreases in jobs, salaries or services — a promise that proponents say makes…
