endings poem # 14 when something catches my breathon the car radio – WILL these days – a brandenburg for instance or brahmsvariations on a theme by haydn (that seventh bell-like variation is the one where if I weren’t driving I’d close my eyes) sometimes I pull off into a deserted alley to await the […]
Illinois Times
Posted inArts & Culture
Plodding pace nearly derails War
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America From the very start, the Marvel movies have had a certain swagger. That’s not to say that Jon Favreau’s Iron Man had an arrogant air about it, but rather a sense of confidence in its storytelling abilities that was prevalent in all of the company’s subsequent entries. This was […]
Posted inMusic
May music is here
Mr. Opporknockity returns to action at The Curve Inn on Friday evening. The lovely month of May, often praised in song and poetry with good reason, brings us all the promise of a fruitful season of lovely live music to come in the summer months ahead. The Alamo in Chatham (popularly known as the “Chalamo”) […]
Posted inMusic
April music showers
Kris Bell Band with Owen & Dooley Presents perform at 6 p.m., at the Curve Inn, Sunday, April 10. As we stroll along the boulevard of winter-spring balancing acts, music matters move along no matter whether the weather is this or that. Along with the continuous supply of local bands at different bars, some new […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Summer camp fun
PHOTO COURTESY CAMP ONDESSONK’s FACEBOOK PAGE Enjoy a full week of summer camp condensed into one fun evening during Camp Ondessonk’s Saturday Spectacular on Saturday, April 9, from 3:30 to 9 p.m., at St. Agnes School in Springfield. Some of Camp Ondessonk’s very own staff will supervise children ages 6-14 during the drop-off event which […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The voice of the heartland
PHOTO BY ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/TNS See one of the most highly regarded songwriters of a generation Sunday, April 10, when John Mellencamp performs with special guest Carlene Carter in support of Mellencamp’s 2014 record, Plain Spoken. Mellencamp’s accolades are numerous and span his more than 35-year-long career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Make a difference
If you or your organization is involved in charity work, you won’t want to miss this two-day conference led by Bob Lupton, author of Toxic Charity and Charity Detox. The conference is designed to teach leadership teams how to make sure their resources are helping to foster systematic change, as opposed to creating dependency and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Doris more than it appears
Sally Field as Doris in Hello, My Name is Doris. The most surprising thing about Michael Showalter’s Hello, My Name is Doris is how thematically dense it proves to be. The comedy about one woman’s misguided attraction towards a much younger man also touches upon issues of abandonment, loneliness, loss of identity and, ultimately, self-awareness. […]
Posted inOpinion
Who are our rescuers? Us!
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE Six years after the Supreme Court’s malignant Citizens United ruling, nearly every American plainly sees how our nation’s historic, political ethic of citizen equality – “one person one vote” – has been buried in a roaring avalanche of corrupt, corporate money and voter suppression. There’s no need to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Director’s pace, cast’s strength save Allegiant
Having salvaged the Divergent series with his fine work on Insurgent, director Robert Schwentke pulls off a similar stunt with Allegiant, the first part of the third entry in Veronica Roth’s dystopia trilogy. Though no one will ever argue that there’s anything remotely original about the story of the author’s heroine Tris and her continued […]
Posted inOpinion
Record spending in campaign against McCann
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS “He was a god in that district,” a high-level Rauner guy told me about state Sen. Sam McCann’s poll numbers from before this year’s Republican primary campaign began. Benchmark polling taken months ago showed McCann (R-Plainview) had a voter approval rating of about 70 percent. Sen. McCann “really was everywhere” in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for public service
Grace Beahm/postandcourier.com See a presentation by Mitch Pugh – a Riverton native, UIS alumnus, editor of Charleston, South Carolina’s The Post and Courier and 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for public service – during an ECCE Speaker Series program on Thursday, March 24. Pugh was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his role in editing a five-part series […]
