“Chef” Undone by Favreau’s Ego
There’s nothing wrong with Jon Favreau’s Chef that an objective set of eyes and a judicious editor couldn’t fix. Far too long as well as self-indulgent, this movie is obviously a passion project for the filmmaker who leaves no creative hat unworn as he writes, stars, directs and produces this slight entertainment. He also called…
MacFarlane Shoots a Million Blanks in “Die”
In my mind, I’ve always thought of Seth MacFarlane as the Emperor with New Clothes of comedians. While millions have embraced his Family Guy television show and hailed him as a comic genius, all I see is an overgrown class clown who’s somehow survived being beaten up by bullies and made it big in Hollywood. …
Big Data meets Big Ag
From time to time I have noted the baleful effects on the Illinois countryside of factory-style grain production systems that require fewer and fewer farmers. The day is approaching when raising corn or soybeans won’t need farmers at all. From the May 24 Economist, a look at how things are going down on the farm.…
A house divided?
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum would be split off from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency under legislation supported by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other state leaders. “This museum is the crown jewel of history in Illinois,” said Steven Beckett, chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Advisory Board. “It…
Pension lawsuit takes step forward…carefully
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit over Illinois’ pension reform law won’t get a decision on the defendants’ arguments just yet, thanks to an informal ruling today by a Sangamon County judge who said he wants to do the case by the book so it doesn’t get sent back to him later. Sangamon County circuit judge John…
Hidden costs of health care
In Give and take, I noted that the cost of non-wage benefits can be a brake on business hiring and depress wages, and that in recent years the cost of total compensation for U.S. workers has risen as a share of national income but wages have declined, as employers trim wage outlays to cover rising…
Moms’ Night Out a misguided adventure
While a movie may be pitched to a particular audience, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those who fall outside that demographic can’t enjoy or be touched by it. Obviously, I am not a young girl between the ages of 7-12, yet I found Frozen to be a charming film that was far more entertaining than…
Letters to the Editor 5/22/14
WHO’S WHO?I am trying to identify the organization or reason this photo was snapped in Springfield in 1923. Only the date is on the back. I think I have identified it as being a convention of the Knights of Lithuania as I have another later group photo (much less dramatic) with the same badges that…
Tok
Coming to rock Springfield for the first time, brothers Bryan and Matt Basler make a “power-duo” unlike any other. Voted the best rock band in St. Louis for 2013 by readers of the Riverfront Times, the awesome twosome has opened for the likes of Wesley Willis, The Detroit Cobras and Earl Greyhound. They’ve released several…
Downsizing government by ‘smart streamlining’
Illinois has more local units of government than any other state in the U.S., but consolidating some of those units could make the government more efficient. That was the message at a May 20 forum in Springfield, bringing together the Chicago-based Better Government Association and the Citizens Efficiency Commission for Sangamon County. The two reform…
Civil War experience
Local poet Mark Flotow is the featured presenter this Memorial Day weekend, May 24, at 2 p.m. during the Poets in the Parlor series. This reading showcases Flotow’s researched series of poems about the Civil War experience at the soldier, spouse and civilian level. The Sesquicentennial Civil War Series of poems includes an installation piece…
Regional theater offers summer options galore
Get happy feet with Footloose at New Salem’s Theatre in the Park in June. As ever, area theater companies are putting their best feet forward this summer, offering a large variety of productions, running the gamut from Disney to Mel Brooks, from historical drama to operetta, from horror to comedy, from epics to miniatures. Rest…
Stuck in Illinois . . .
I’m packin’ up darlin’, down the road I go…a black top road running to a gravel road then a sand top road and I’ll be gone–“You Don’t have To Go” as performed by Jerry Lee Lewis The pollsters of the Gallup organization asked people around the country whether they would move away from their home…
What parents need to know about schools
Teacher Appreciation Day, field day, spring concerts, sports competitions and awards ceremonies, plays, debates, school applications and testing, testing, testing. They are all part of that familiar end-of-school-year rhythm, which has started for most and will play out through the school year’s end, and the hopeful promotion of our babies to their next level in…
Clock ticking for school funding reform
Sen. Andy Manar, chief sponsor of school aid formula reform About a year’s worth of work by Illinois senators to piece together a more equitable school funding formula in Illinois could either pass or come to a swift halt any day. Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, co-chaired the Education Funding Advisory Committee, which held hearings…
Exciting summer events
PHOTO COURTESY CHAD MITCHELL PHOTOGRAPHY Assumption Fest6-11 p.m. Thursday, June 26; 5 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Friday, June 27; 11 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Saturday, June 28 Here’s a festival that’s been going on and growing for more than 80 years. Originally called Assumption Homecoming, Assumption Fest continues to expand. This year there’s a new large carnival, more…
Madigan: Include small business in tax credit
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan wants to extend a special tax credit currently available to certain large Illinois businesses to smaller companies too. Madigan spoke in front of the House Revenue and Finance Committee May 14, when he presented House Bill 3890. The bill proposes that the Economic Development For a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit…
Illinois almost out of time to get $500 million
If state lawmakers don’t act soon, Illinois could miss out on hundreds of jobs and $500 million in federal dollars to establish a state health insurance marketplace. As end of the spring legislative session approaches on May 31, the Illinois General Assembly is running out of time to implement a pillar of the federal insurance…
Flamboyant song and dance
There will be six performances of La Cage aux Folles at the Hoogland Center for the Arts May 23-25, 30-31 and June 1. The hilarious Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is about flamboyant couple Albin (aka ZaZa on stage) and Georges, a French Riviera drag nightclub manager, who finds out his son, Jean-Michel, is marrying the…
FOREIGN EXCHANGE SEEKING FAMILIES
Local families have a chance to host international students for the upcoming school year. Ayusa International, a nonprofit foreign exchange program that offers high school student cultural exchanges, is looking for Illinois families interested in hosting students for the 2014-2015 school year. Ayusa is specifically looking for families in the Springfield and Taylorville areas. Ayusa’s…
Discover Bentonville, Ark., where art is the number one attraction
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, is a series of pavilions nesttled in a pond. If you had the chance to build a world-class art museum, Bentonville, a city of 38,000 in northwest Arkansas, wouldn’t be the first location you’d consider. But when you visit Crystal Bridges Museum of…
Exploring French Colonial Ste. Genevieve
The Bolduc House, circa 1792. It was a weekend getaway for me as I decided to make my way down to southwestern Illinois and southeastern Missouri to get a little French history lesson. I didn’t know what to expect as I started driving south toward my destinations along and near the Mississippi River. My stops…
Alcohol or stress?
A former top-ranking Springfield police officer seeking disability benefits has sued the city’s police pension board. Daryle “Doug” Williamson says he can’t work because he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, which developed due to exposure to gruesome crime scenes during his 23-year career as a cop, which included a three-year stint as deputy chief in…
immortality poem #2
I wonder if it ever crossed tenniel’s mind when he was having fun with caterpillars smoking hookahs a neck stretched up to the tree tops a lizard flying out a chimney a cat vanished except for its grin that he would achieve immortality not for his great political cartoons so popular in punch but through…
Find Carl Sandburg at his Galesburg home
The Carl Sandburg birthplace. PhotoS BY KEITH LADAGE You read his poems in school and you have heard his name all of your life. If you are curious like I was about this man who composed folk songs and wrote poems, books about Lincoln and children’s stories for his three daughters, along with a book…
RAPTURE RALLY
Interested in the apocalypse? Enthralled by the end times? Or maybe just interested in what some Christians believe about the end of the world as we know it? An estimated 400 people are coming to Springfield in early June to talk about the rapture prophesied in the Bible. Springfield First Baptist Church is hosting the…
Horseradish Festival
The International Horseradish Festival is June 6-8 in Collinsville. Some folks say Small Town America is dying. And in some cases, that’s true. But other small towns, such Homer, Illinois, have found ways to celebrate their uniqueness. For Homer, it’s their SodaFest featuring Homer Soda Company’s incredible variety of vintage and artisanal sodas. Chatham has…
Get the scoop
Join Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site Saturday, May 24, for an old-fashioned ice cream social. Springfield Municipal Band will perform and the original First Street cemetery entrance restoration will be explained. Another exciting part of the gathering will be an introduction by the Lincoln Monument Association of its new historic tree tour. The tour allows…
Decoration Day revisited
Motel Mirrors play Donnie’s Homespun, Friday, May 23. Why, hello Memorial Day weekend! How in the world did you get here so fast? Bookended by Labor Day weekend in the fall, this three-day run, for some American workers (others are working harder than usual), is considered by most folks as the start of the summer…
Iles House receives Lincoln’s Courting Couch for one year
Underfanger Moving and Storage brings the Lincoln Courting Couch into its temporary home. Photo BY ERIKA HOLST The horsehair-covered sofa long known in central Illinois as Lincoln’s Courting Couch has been loaned for the 2014 season to the Iles House, 628 S. Seventh St. (corner of Seventh and Cook streets). It is on display in…
Let’s go to the races
Kids race in the Sizzling Mile, a one-mile race around the Sacred Heart-Griffin track in Springfield. Photo courtesy of HardyBreed.com. When life gets busy, staying fit often takes a back seat. But there’s an easy way to stay committed to your workout: sign up for a race. Simply wanting to be in shape will only…
The power of organizing
Hard work, we’re told, always pays off. Sure it does – ask a farmworker, a roofer or a home health aide. In our economy, those doing the hardest work get the worst pay, the weakest job protections, the least respect and zero say in the way things work. Such laborers are the downest and outest…
Butt out
Sangamon County Circuit Clerk Tony Libri has banned sagging pants in his office. “No sagging pants policy,” reads an electronic message on a flat-screen television above the counter where people pay traffic fines and child-support bills and otherwise conduct court business. “Any attire that exposes your undergarments will not be permitted. Pull up your pants…
An eclectic museum collection in Carthage
The Kibbe Museum PhotoS BY KEITH LADAGE Head west, young man or woman! About 100 miles northwest of Springfield there is an interesting museum, the Kibbe Hancock Museum, with the motto, “Where Local History Comes Alive.” The Kibbe Hancock Heritage Museum is located in Carthage, across the street from the historic jail where Joseph Smith,…
No free rides: taxi vs. ride-share
Every year, we get at least one “corporate fight” in Springfield. Two or more corporations or industries will duke it out over some proposed law change or another. The cable TV industry, for instance, tried a while back to convince the General Assembly to tax satellite TV users. When I first started doing this job…
Visit the home of Lincoln’s folks
A replica of the Thomas Lincoln log cabin, eight miles south of Charleston. Abraham Lincoln’s legacy is found not just in Springfield but throughout central Illinois, where he practiced law and traveled to many locations, including Coles County. While he was in Coles County, Lincoln was able to occasionally stop by and visit his father,…
