Familiar “Daddy’s Home 2” Still Effective
There’s nothing new in Daddy’s Home 2, something that works to its advantage and detriment. The comedic dynamic between stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, the former doing his patented overgrown child routine, the later his tough guy struggling with his emotions shtick, is still in place as is the conflict between the blended family…
Cops win residency fight
Click here to download a copy of the arbitrators’ decision. Freshly arrived in our mailbox this morning is a copy of arbitrators’ decision in labor negotiations between the union representing city police officers and the city. And it appears to be a defeat for Mayor Jim Langfelder. The city has known for weeks that it…
Stair climbing duo
It is noon. Terry Purcell of Springfield and John (Oz) Osborn of Rochester stand at the bottom of the stairs of a 14-story building, ready to race to the top – for the 10th time in the past hour. At 12:01:20 they arrive at the top. One minute and 20 seconds to climb 14 stories?…
Business as usual
In 2015, in a rare lucid moment (see “A place for business to live,” Aug. 6, 2015), I suggested that Mayor Jim Langfelder’s just unveiled economic development commission include not only the usual businesspeople and pols but labor economists, urbanists, tech-heads and an historian or two, the last to remind aldermen of all the economic…
Why does Amazon get corporate welfare?
No one has imagined corporate domination more expansively nor pushed it harder or further than Jeffery Preston Bezos, and his Amazon stands today as the most advanced and the most ambitious model of a future under oligarchic control, including control of markets, work, information, consumerism, media and beyond. He doesn’t merely see himself remaking commerce…
‘It’s hard to see a path’ for Ives’ success
Until recently, state Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) had been passing separate nominating petitions for both her re-election to the Illinois House and a possible primary bid for governor against incumbent Republican Bruce Rauner. The ultra-conservative firebrand now says she has stopped passing re-election petitions. But if a recent poll is any indication, Rep. Ives might…
Letters to the Editor
FOXES GUARDING HENHOUSE In light of the recent complaints or accusations against some people in the Illinois legislature, I was shocked to learn that the so-called Illinois Legislative Ethics Commission is composed of eight lawmakers themselves. The worst yet, the same commission or the same eight lawmakers have the final approval over the appointment of…
Editor’s note 11/9/17
Mayor Jim Langfelder and some members of the city council who oppose the welcoming cities resolution are overthinking the issue. (See commentary, “Mayor trumpets anti-hate measure,” by Bruce Rushton, p. 11.) They, like most lawmakers, know to be wary of fine print and hidden agendas, particularly if they aren’t the ones who hid them. If…
If you want to change things
One of the gifts of living in a representative democracy is that voting is only one of the rights it confers. For ordinary people who want to make change – who in some way want to alter their neighborhood or town or state or even the nation – the promise exists that by dint of…
A story within a story
Don’t miss Brooklyn The Musical, a story within a story about a troupe of street performers, five homeless musicians known as the City Weeds, who perform theater pieces via a makeshift stage on a street corner located underneath the Brooklyn bridge. During Brooklyn the Musical, the City Weeds perform a play about a young Parisian…
Protecting bees
On Wednesday, Nov. 15, attend a presentation by natural history and conservation photographer Clay Bolt that features images and stories about the rusty-patched bumble bee and other native North American bees. In 2013, Bolt set out on a mission to photograph some of the more than 4,000 species of native bees that live in North…
Romancing the grindstone
I’m a 32-year-old woman with a really intense job that I love. I work long hours every week, and I often work weekends, too – by choice. I don’t want kids but I’d love to have a relationship. I just worry that guys will want more of me time-wise and energy-wise than I can give…
Sluggish market for high-end houses
Is there a doctor in the house? Not as many in the Springfield area, thanks to the state of Illinois’ budget woes. Uncertainty over the state’s fiscal situation, fueled by Illinois’ record-setting budget battle and huge backlog of unpaid bills, is having a noticeable impact on the sale of high-end homes in the area. These…
Greek blues come to Springfield
Vocalist Pavlos Vasileiou has been performing in Athens, Greece, as leader of the band Rebitiki Istoria for 35 years. Practitioners of the musical genre known as rebetika, Vasileiou and company were joined about a decade ago by violinist and bouzouki player Yona Stamatis, who also happens to be a professor of ethnomusicology at University of…
Mayor trumpets anti-hate measure
Where elected officials live has a lot to do with what they say. In California, the mayor of Salinas, along with the United Farm Workers and immigrant groups, opposed a welcoming city resolution that passed the city council last summer. The mayor and other critics said they opposed the measure because a welcoming city resolution,…
The little museum that could
It was July 13, 1864, when Wilmer Dickerson of Jacksonville came across a chilling sight while marching through Georgia. After nearly three years as a Union soldier, Dickerson had been through several battles, but the most disturbing thing he’d seen during the Civil War was a skeleton hanging from a tree, he wrote in a…
Killer gets 38 years
Tears flowed on both sides of the courtroom well this week as a man convicted of killing a man with Springfield roots was sent to prison more than four years after the fact. Sangamon County Associate Judge Rudolph Braud on Monday sentenced Oscar Brown to 38 years for gunning down Charles Rice on Jan. 30,…
November on the move
Here we go into a nearly mid-November run with sad news, good gigs and contest results. For me personally, early-to-mid November is filled with memories of loved ones lost, including a grandmother, father, brother-in-law and best music-playing pal. Now we add the name of John Brillhart, a good, caring and longtime friend, an excellent singer-songwriter…
Band Spotlight | Girl Billy
Back in 2013, when Corey Wagar (vocals) and Tori Allen (fiddle, vocals) first got together, their fire burned for success in the music business. Soon GirlBilly came to be and was on the rise, creating a new take of country-pop music that takes a classic, swinging Texas fiddler and tosses that sound with a New…
nevada vist 2017 #1
nevada vist 2017 #1 my daughter and son-in-law havea small homestead, a ranchette,with several bee hives, a bunch of chickens, one pigeon who won’t leave but keeps laying eggs in hopeand two nanny-goats eagerly waiting to be bred by a handsomestud buck he is eager too they meet at a fence corner and nuzzle but…
What on earth is a Dutch Baby?
Recently I spent a week visiting a good friend and her husband, who happens to be Dutch. One morning he asked if we’d like Dutch pancakes for breakfast. “Ooh, like a Dutch Baby?” I asked. “Um, no,” he replied with a confused look on his face. “Dutch pancakes. We call them Pannenkoeken. What on earth…
Avoid the mess that is Suburbicon
I have come to realize what many of my friends and relatives have known for years – I’m not the smartest guy in the world. Over the course of my lifetime, more than a few truly stupid things have come out of my mouth, and I’m sure there have been more than a few times…
