letters 9-16-04
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 WHAT AREN’T THEY HIDING? In response to Dusty Rhodes’ “What are they…
Common sense 9-16-04
Did you take full and proper notice of the political coming-out of President George W. Bush’s twin daughters? Jenna and Barbara Bush, the 22-year-old twins, have long been kept away from the political glare, but they’re now adults who have just graduated from college, and both have been brought into the limelight by the Bush…
Best of Springfield Arts & Entertainment
BEST ACTOR Gus Gordon Channel 20’s popular weather prognosticator Gus Gordon was active in the theater long before he began tracking storms — he started back in the ’80s, during high school in Cincinnati. His first appearance in a Springfield Municipal Opera production came in 1991, a year after he joined WICS-TV. Gordon doesn’t have…
Best of Springfield 2004
QUICKIE HISTORY In the mid-1980s, Illinois Times asked readers to pick their favorite restaurants and entertainment venues for an annual special section we called “Food & Fun.” In the late ’80s, we expanded the number of categories celebrating the capital city, and the “Best of Springfield” was born. BY THE NUMBERS This year, we received…
Best of Springfield People & Places
BEST SPRINGFIELDIAN Carolyn Oxtoby Downtown Springfield has come a long way, baby. Just a decade ago, folks had little incentive to venture downtown. Hardly anyone lived there, let alone came to shop or simply stroll along the streets. Today, it is a different story. Old buildings have been restored to their former glory, many with…
Grace about town 9-16-04
When I was a kid, I suddenly realized that every other kid listened to music — everybody had a favorite song, a favorite group he or she listened to. My head was always buried in books, and I’d tuned the world out. But in my quest to figure out how to fit in with other…
Best of Springfield Food & Drink
BEST BAKERY Panera Bread 3101 W. White Oaks Dr., 217-726-5070; 3019 S. Dirksen Parkway, 217-529-6200 It’s hard to dispute the popularity of Panera Bread. Nearly any time of day, a line of people can be found waiting with anticipation to order freshly baked bagels, brownies, loaves of sourdough, and sandwiches. Everything on the menu is…
The road home
Nobody who knew Tom Teague can believe he’s dead. It happened last Saturday, on his 61st birthday, as he napped. At this point, though, his departure is merely physical. Spiritually, Tom had so much momentum going that his presence will linger for some time. His writing — straightforward, spare, and efficient — has fed Illinois…
now playing 9-16-04
How much wood could a woodbox box if a woodbox could box wood? Hell, who cares? But it makes for a goofy intro for the Woodbox Gang, one of my favorite bands in the world as we know it. The gangsters hail from southern Illinois and have made camp in the Carbondale area for several…
movie review
Take a nostaligia trip to the World of Tomorrow Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan (Jude Law) is a daredevil pilot who finds himself caught up in a globetrotting adventure with the ever-resourceful Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a newspaper reporter who will do anything to get a story and win Joe’s heart. After a devastating attack on…
Best of Springfield Goods & Services
BEST AUTO MECHANICS Dave Floyd and Eric Floyd Floyd Imports, 1026 Adlai Stevenson Dr., 217-585-1214 Dave Floyd went from high school straight to working on cars at Howard Hembrough Volkswagen in 1974. A year and a half later, brother Eric followed him into the trade. In 1994, Dave and Eric started Floyd Imports. Ten years…
Knoepfle 9-16-04
sandalwood poem #19 ravens in the blue ridge the james running east for tidewater I thought west then a man backtracking his wonder charlestown below the hawks nest the kanawha softened in a gauze of mist and the valley that broad ohio of my dreaming you were there even before I came my campfire in…
“NO MEAT, NO VOTES”
The cloud of fear and uncertainty that gripped the United States during the years of World War II began to lift with the defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945, but Americans felt the war’s aftershocks for a long time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in April of that year took from many Americans the…
sound patrol 9-16-04
Ricky FantéRewind (Virgin) Ricky Fanté makes soul music, nothing “neo” about it: just sweet, buttery, Stax-sounding soul that’s wholesome as a plate of hotcakes. No hip-hop flourishes, no Pro-Tools preening, no freaky dancehall textures, no pottymouth innuendoes for this 26-year-old ex-Marine. Rewind is truth in advertising, a trip back in time to when nice girls…
Best of Springfield Sports & Recreation
BEST BINGO HALL Caritas Hall 909 E. Converse St., 217-523-3021 There may come a day when the governor docks a boat on Lake Springfield and loads it with slot machines and roulette wheels to help balance the state budget. Until then, bingo will continue to serve as the city’s most prevalent form of legalized gambling.…
Route 66 Film Festival
Springfield’s showcase of independent film has expanded in its third year, and the current crop is a vast improvement over last year’s entries. Though the lineup includes dramas, documentaries, animation, and even a pair of silent films, comedy is king this year. The festival is now divided into six sessions to accommodate the increased number…
music notes 9-16-04
• A hearty congratulations to Sharon Graf, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois at Springfield, on capturing first prize at the Illinois State Old-Time Fiddle Championship, held Sept. 5 at Rockome Gardens near Arcola. In an old-fashioned fiddle-off, Graf defeated her 2003 nemesis, David Smith of Aurora, and about 30 other participants…
At Robbie’s, everything about lunch was perfect
Like many things in downtown Springfield, Robbie’s has a Lincoln connection. Located on the Old State Capitol Plaza, the restaurant is housed in a building that began life in 1855 as a dry-goods store owned by Mary Todd Lincoln’s brother-in-law. Through the years, the building has seen several changes — it was even a dress…
Even when it bites, reality can be entertaining
Many documentaries focus on social issues, rather than politics, although peripherally they are political. Social documentaries sometimes strike closer to home, making their subjects much more identifiable to many filmgoers. • Capturing the Friedmans (2003). The Friedmans were a seemingly typical Long Island family until their lives were shattered one night in 1988 when police…
