quick takes 11-11-04
EAT BRUNCH, HELP A CRITTER Animal lovers who support efforts to enforce the state’s humane laws are invited to a brunch at Knights of Columbus Council 346 on Sunday, Nov. 14. Proceeds from the brunch, which will be served between 8 a.m. and noon at the K of C facility at 2200 Meadowlark Rd., support…
backstage pass 11-11-04
Springfield Theatre Centre opens its production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman this week on the main stage of the Hoogland Center for the Arts. Don Russell, Loretta Hess, Mac Warren, and Rob Decroix, respectively, star in the roles of beleaguered Brooklyn salesman Willy Loman, his wife, and his two sons. The casting of…
The fall guy
It’s understandable if Republicans feel a little panicky right now. Their party’s U.S. Senate candidate, Alan Keyes, was wiped out in the biggest Senate landslide in Illinois history. And they were stunned when longtime congressman Phil Crane, of the 8th Congressional District,lost his seat to a Democrat. These two striking events have some Republicans calling…
God on their side
If God is indeed up there — on a throne, in the clouds — then what He’s watching is a wildly unbalanced game of Red Rover. The exuberant kids have all run to one side. The quiet kids, who used to have a pretty good team, are drifting away one by one. And the cool…
For many veterans, the sacrifices never ended
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work — I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place…
music notes 11-11-04
• Here’s a chance to watch someone sing for someone else’s supper: Gary Burt, the Prairie Crooner, romps through the Sinatra catalog to help raise funds for the Episcopal Food Pantry. Burt, a southern Illinois native, began to take crooning seriously after his retirement. Now he has a Nashville-recorded CD and a film documentary about…
people’s poetry 11-11-04
Literary Organs Not all canaries sing when first brought home. Each morning over coffee my wife plays a tape for Kimo, hoping he will learn. Roulades and trills spill from the speaker as a trained bird from another time and place, singing above a Hammond organ’s drone, counterpoints a tired La Paloma. Confused at first…
common sense 11-11-04
The U.S. Air Force is in rapture over its new baby, the F/A-22 Raptor. Taxpayers, however, can be forgiven for being less than enraptured by the recent birth of this fighter jet. It’s the most expensive warplane in history, it’s not needed, and there are serious doubts about whether it’ll even work. Conceived 23 years…
Architecture matters
Since graduating from Springfield High School in the late 1960s, John Norquist has enjoyed national renown as a politician, author, and advocate for historic preservation. The former mayor of Milwaukee returned to his hometown last Friday as a featured speaker at the American Institute of Architects’ annual conference. Norquist, 55, gave an hourlong lecture on…
movie review
Film Express true to classic’s visual appeal and poignant story Since its publication in 1985, Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express has become an acknowledged classic of children’s literature, a Yuletide tale about faith and hope made unique not only because of the poignancy of the tale but the author’s distinctive illustrations as well. The…
Democracy decorated or plain
Mila Dvoretskaya-Lemme went to the polls on Election Day and came away underwhelmed by the choices. Never mind the candidates; there were no crullers, no crumpets, no soda pop, and no lemonade. Mila comes from Kazakhstan, where democracy is wrapped in a colorful ritual that includes flowers, music, kids, and bake sales. The festivities lure…
now playing 11-11-04
Is it better to burn out than to fade away? Neil Young said so in his 1979 ode to the rock & roll myth, “My, My Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue).” In keeping with the example laid down by the author of the Rust Never Sleeps concept, you burn out by keeping busy, being…
Turning over a new leaf
It’s not every day that a new ethnic restaurant covers as much ground as Banana Leaf Asian Cuisine and Noodles does. The eatery, which opened in the Town and Country Shopping Center in early October, features a wide variety of Asian food: Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Korean, and Singaporean. The menu gives the national…
letters 11-11-04
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 WHY I DON’T SHOP AT WAL-MART I read Jeff Davis’ letter about…
sound patrol 11-11-04
Various Artists The Late Great Daniel Johnston Discovered Covered (Gammon) History will prove you poor enlightened blue-staters right someday, but that’s cold comfort now, when Christian nutjobs and reckless neocons have hijacked your country. Instead of flouncing off to Canada, heed the wisdom of Daniel Johnston: “Do yourself a favor, become your own savior/Don’t let…
Knoepfle 11-11-04
now and winter coming on rain all day today heavy downpours bad day for street people and this on all hallows too what happened yesterday well there was a bad flight had us sucking in our bellies but the pilot corrected his engine and we survived perhaps like the nation pray god we come along…
High stakes
If the state opts to wager on more casinos as a way to dig itself out of debt, some say it’s Illinois schools that will lose. During the six-day legislative veto session that began this week, Senate President Emil Jones plans to introduce a controversial bill that would expand the number of state gaming licenses.…
Lifelines
At Dwight Correctional Center, the maximum-security women’s prison just 125 miles up the road to Chicago, inmates can earn about $15 a month to buy shampoo, detergent, tobacco products, and personal items such as extra underwear to supplement the three pairs they’re issued. But for Julie Rea-Harper, the most important item sold at the commissary…
letters 11-4-04
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 NOBODY FORCED TO SHOP AT WAL-MART Move over, Halliburton — another bad…
quick takes 11-4-04
ALMOST MISSING ABDUL Can’t say we spend much time monitoring talk radio, but a drive-by of new WMAY (970 AM) personality Pamela Furr made us almost run off the road in our haste to change the station. Furr, former star of Nashville radio and proprietor of a company providing chitchat for Southern-gospel stations, must not…
people’s poetry
For the Love of a Rose Garden Yellow maple-leaves cart-wheeled Pursued by shadows of autumn light across the sloping lawns. And there! Red iridescence swayed. Following an inflamed heart My eyes found Jantzen Girl, a single blossom, Among the rosehips of Fragrant Memory, Carefree Beauty, and Pleasure Floribunda. Gently, Holding his arm She found…
now playing 11-4-04
Making plans for a night on the town this weekend? How about checking out a new hip-hop group “borrowing” music from someone else’s record and complaining about paying for artistic property? Then we can sit and wonder if it’s the death of the genre. Don’t worry, that parasite of pop was never really alive. No,…
A search for answers
More than seven months after the fatal explosion at Formosa Plastics Corp. in Illiopolis, federal investigators have finally gained access to the long-restricted area of the chemical plant where the incident occurred. Carrying a respirator, U.S. Chemical Safety Board member Lisa Long entered the site with a team of four other investigators for the first…
Pieces of Abe
The familiar rows of T-hangars at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, which for decades provided the first hint of the airport to travelers approaching from Springfield, have been dismantled. The vintage structures, dating from the 1940s, are being recycled for the benefit of other aviation businesses, including a Missouri-based missionary-pilot training school. The hangars are rows…
Losing bet
If they’re not outright poor as a class, young adults in this country are at least very, very broke. The average collegian graduates with more than $20,000 in debt, headed for a job market where real hourly wages have not kept pace with either inflation or the cost of living. Young adults are broke in…
Rising son
State Sen. Barack Obama made history on Tuesday by becoming just the fifth African American to win a seat in the U.S. Senate and the third since Reconstruction. Obama “spanked” Republican opponent Alan Keyes, as he promised he would weeks ago, by garnering more than 70 percent of the vote in what was the most…
movie review
The Incredibles actually lives up to its title Halfway through The Incredibles, Pixar’s latest animated epic, my 4-year-old assistant Nathan declared: “This is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen in my whole life!” My other assistant, Nathan’s 7-year-old brother Alex, concurred at the end of the film, stating emphatically that he had just seen “the…
Knoepfle 11-4-04
notebook poem #5 and now november what was decided has been decided pray for the dead © John Knoepfle 2004
The difference between homelessness and the homeless
It didn’t take long in the homeless shelter for me to realize I am among exceptionally gifted people. Funny. Smart. Kind. Troubled, too. But many seem no more troubled than a lot of other people I know. I went in thinking this would be a good place to learn and cameout thinking it would be…
sound patrol 11-4-04
Augie March Strange Bird (spinART) Don the bard mantle at your peril, rockdudes. Before you break out the thesaurus, think of the sick-making excesses of Rush. Think of Lou Reed’s recent Edgar Allan Poe travesty. Think of Rick Whatshisname’s excruciatingly stupid line about how he needs some chick “like Leda needs her swan” (that swan…
Rugrat Rembrandts embrace art early at Springfield Art Association
Some social anthropologists suggest that the impressions made on the life of a young child through the age of 5 “set the table” for how the young person relates to the rest of the world for the rest of his or her life. Thanks to the Springfield Art Association and teacher Kathy Harvey, a growing…
music notes 11-4-04
• If you wanted to pick a pair of choirs, you couldn’t do any better than the Vienna Boys Choir and the African Children’s Choir. Now give them back-to-back shows in central Illinois and go look for a blue moon. The Europeans sing in harmony starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, at Illinois College’s…
Now you see it, now you don’t
Frank McNeil has a tangible reminder of how long he has been on city council: it’s his youngest child, his son Kofi. “When I was sworn in, I could carry him in my arms,” McNeil says. “Now he’s 280 pounds and 21 years old.” McNeil was elected to represent Ward 3 way back in 1987,…
To serve and collect
John Harris, the former Springfield Police Department chief whose tenure was marred by a scandal that has so far cost the city a million dollars, is now demanding severance pay. In a letter sent to city administrators several weeks ago, Harris requested approximately $30,000, citing a clause in his contract entitling him to 90 days’…
From bad to worse
The Springfield Housing Authority still has not determined how to implement drastic funding cuts to the area’s Section 8 program despite assurances that a plan would be announced this week. For the time being, SHA has backed away from its plan to plug the funding gap by seeking reimbursements from Section 8 landlords dating back…
The first George W.
First initial, last name. More than six feet tall. In his early 20s he made a name for himself in battle, but accounts of his heroism would later be questioned. Well-born, he nevertheless increased his fortune mightily by marrying an extremely wealthy widow. If we were doing a crossword puzzle, you might be counting on…
common sense 11-4-04
At last, the Golden Age of television is upon us again! But, alas, this is not the golden age of TV quality — but literally the age of TV gold, when advertisers have become the programming. Leading the way is the Disney’s ABC television network, which has now opened its expanse of our public airwaves…
The mighty pumpkin: from polenta to pie
Autumn means cooler temperatures, falling leaves, and carved pumpkins on front porches. For local chefs, this time of year also means an abundance of round orange produce that gets the creative juices flowing. Chef Michael Higgins of Maldaner’s uses pumpkin in a variety of interesting dishes, such as pasta mixed with chanterelle mushrooms, boar, and…
