The circuit breaker
Up until the afternoon of Nov. 18, it looked like Commonwealth Edison had it made in the shade. House Speaker Michael Madigan had signed off on what was thought to be the final draft of ComEd’s bill to help it purchase Decatur-based Illinois Power Co. Everyone was all smiles, including the Citizens Utility Board. CUB…
Grace about town
For the past few weeks the house has been filled with the chaos of construction: clouds of dust, floor littered with debris, no room to set anything anywhere. Powdered sugar dust, that is. Sticky floors, candy scattered hither and yon. We’ve been busy, Mom, my niece Mercedes and I, creating the perfect gingerbread house. A…
Knoepfle 11-27-03
gift of john wesley powell water in the zuni world polychromatic white and brown these fantastic birds and here grazing below the familiar pronghorns where zuni have a middle world the world below them empty this pot holds all creation all the world the zuni knew its air earth fire and yes that dream of…
Springfield’s Park is back home to promote new CD release
So you want to be in a rock & roll band? Plan on spending lots of time in a van traversing the continent. Park, Springfield’s up-and-coming modern rock group, has logged about 60,000 miles in the last year, playing some 100-plus shows in 34 states, in an attempt to spark interest in their music. The…
A call to conserve what remains of Illinois natural habitats
When the everyday grind gets to be too much, some of us fantasize a bucolic life, picturing ourselves tucked into a little country place full of birds and sunshine. The irony of this particular fantasy is that birds, could they daydream, might be having the same flights of fancy. In the past couple of centuries,…
Do something environmental: Buy a real tree this year
If you haven’t already started a Christmas tradition of purchasing a real tree, this is the year to begin. Real evergreen trees are renewable resources, making them a more ecologically sound choice than artificial trees. And an artificial tree can’t match a real evergreen for beauty, warmth, and fragrance. But what type of tree should…
Keeping it real
Wally Hartshorn still remembers his first reaction when a friend suggested they organize a group to explore paranormal claims and fringe science. “I thought it would be a lot of work,” Hartshorn recalls. David Bloomberg, who had floated the idea, laughed. “How much work can it be? A couple meetings, put out a newsletter -…
Gourmet to go
Chef and caterer Dave Linn won’t be eating traditional turkey and trimmings this Thanksgiving. It’s not because he dislikes the bird. It’s just that after preparing approximately 50 complete turkey dinners for customers — each featuring a 12-pound roasted bird with all the trimmings, he’s looking forward to a nice pot roast prepared by his…
“Bill Miller’s daughter”
I was standing at a downtown street corner in Springfield, shivering in the cold January air, as I waited for the bus. I blew on my hands, trying to keep them warm. Suddenly I was aware of two older ladies who were standing across the street from me, engaged in an earnest debate. Scraps of…
Lend a hand
Illinois Times invites area non-profit organizations to describe your special needs this holiday season. To participate, send us a description of your organization and a summary of your holiday wish list. Fax the information to 217-753-3958 or e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com This feature appears weekly through the end of the year. Prior “Lend a hand” columns are…
Now Playing 11-27-03
Here are a few things more to add to your giving thanks list as you gather around the table on Thursday. Thank you for an increase in live music clubs, a more active and vibrant downtown, a large selection of area musicians and bands in varying degrees of music categories and talents, and a growing…
Hot topic
The forest on the west bank is a sort of wildlife sanctuary, said to be home to deer and red fox, a nesting ground for the black-crowned night-heron. The east bank is another world, dominated by metal monstrosities, lorded over by a pair of smokestacks emitting billowing plumes. Between them lies a narrow finger of…
One more detail
There were more questions than answers when the City Council subcommittee taking public comment on a proposed citizen police review board held its final meeting Monday night. While the Council is generally supportive of the concept, the subcommittee is still pondering nuts-and-bolts details: how many members the Police Community Review Commission needs, whether a law-enforcement…
Hello, Kitty!
Outside, it’s a gray Sunday afternoon in November, and you are a cat in a box. Since you came into this world eight months ago, you have known only your mother and five brothers and sisters who share the back of an abandoned garage on Pasfield Street. About three weeks ago, Mom departed and never…
Movie review
Billy Bob Thornton is Willie, an ex-con whose annual scam is to get hired as a department store Santa along with his dwarfish buddy, Marcus (Tony Cox). Their goal: Rip off the place on Christmas Eve and score a take that’s big enough to last the whole year. This Christmas, the plan goes awry. Willie’s…
Seafood feast
The New England Lobster House may be a long way from the East Coast, but it’s been proving for more than 20 years that tasty seafood does exist in central Illinois. Owner Cathy Sims Norgaard says customers, especially out-of-towners, are always surprised at the quality of the restaurant’s seafood selections. “I’ve had people from Maryland,…
Bards of the Sangamo
Oh My Father The little child I am remembers harsh cold, bleak February which wore him thin as torn shoe soles in snow, walked to the rim of winters spring polished as bright as March. I shuck off dawn at dusk, divulge indiscreet December, cold without snow or holly, fat disappointments, rained on eager years…
A call to action
At the eighth annual Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, held on a dreary, rainy Tuesday morning at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Dirksen Parkway, Mayor Tim Davlin joked about people arriving in “canoes” and “pontoons.” He could have mentioned another boat, counting the number of SUVs in the parking lot. Minutes earlier, a Catholic priest waiting to…
Movie Review
Despite a promising premise that would have done Rod Serling proud (a likeable heroine caught in a nightmare that forces her to question reality), Gothika plunges headlong into the ridiculous, turning what could have been a taut, atmospheric thriller into a joke. Halle Berry portrays psychiatrist Miranda Gray, who blacks out after a horrific automobile…
Gotta dance
I love to dance. Since my return to Springfield I’ve been out a few times, but only to one place — The Station House, the gay dance bar downtown where the music is great and you can dance for a while without being crowded out by an overabundance of attractive and very unavailable (to me,…
Your Turn . . . 11-20-03
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 One has to wonder I really enjoyed your excellent article on Mike…
Decatur celebrates the Emancipator
Abraham Lincoln, as a strapping young man earning his keep, split many a rail near Decatur, working for Macon County landowners such as Sheriff William Warnick. One day, Lincoln fell through the ice while walking on the frozen Sangamon River, and he was forced to nurse his frostbitten feet at the sheriff’s home. As he…
The burger king and queen of Mattoon
Gene and Betty Hoots bought a successful ice-cream stand in Mattoon in the early 1950s. A few years later, the young couple decided to expand the business by adding hamburgers, french fries and other items to the menu. So they fixed up a two-car garage behind the Frigid Queen, adding a grill and a counter…
Now Playing 11-20-03
Shake a leg, folks, the Springfield nightlife is up and running. You’d better get a move on if you’re going to catch it. Frank Trompeter, Springfield’s popular saxophonist, leader of funk/pop/dance band elevator shoe, and man behind the curtain of the Innovators New Music Series, is striving to bring you the finest in avant-garde improvisational…
Lend a hand
Illinois Times invites area non-profit organizations to tell our readers what your special needs are this holiday season. To participate, send us a description of your organization and a summary of your holiday wish list. Fax the information to 217-753-3958 or e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com This feature will appear weekly through the end of this calendar year.…
Knoepfle 11-20-03
becoming a riddle in time I have gone to silver a sunny stream chilled in an arctic wind © John Knoepfle 2003
In Lincoln’s Shadow
On Oct. 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln bent his tall frame over a piece of parchment and inked his signature, reviving, after decades, George Washington’s national thanksgiving celebration and making it an official holiday. President George W. Bush has continued the tradition — there’s already an e-proclamation on his Web site. But as I stock…
Here’s Proof why this play is so popular
Springfield gets one last chance to see the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play Proof before it hits the big screen in a version starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The local production, directed by Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, not only demonstrates why the play’s won such widespread acclaim, but it also boasts a remarkable performance by Carly Shank. Anybody…
The devil’s in the details
Bob Markovic knows things are about to change at Springfield Police Department. As president of the Policemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association Unit No. 5 — the union that represents patrol officers and sergeants — Markovic is aware that City Council is set to pass an ordinance establishing a civilian panel to review complaints against SPD…
Three gems and a bad Wedding
Why do so many good films slip by under the radar when bad films become huge hits? This peculiarity has plagued Hollywood since its inception, and these four releases from 2002 prove that things are business as usual. • Punch-Drunk Love. This is the Adam Sandler movie that Adam Sandler fans hate. Can there be…
Georg captured a time when soda salesmen went door-to-door
Herbert Georg, one of the finest photographers Springfield has ever known, began his career in his father’s studio, which had been established in Springfield around the turn of the last century. In 1923, Georg launched his own studio and began building a sterling reputation based on the diversity of his subjects, the high and uncompromising…
