PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’m a single woman in my 40s. It’s been ages since I’ve seriously dated anyone. People tell me that I seem “closed off.” I don’t want to be, but I worry that I’ll get into another relationship that ends badly. I don’t want to die alone but I just […]
springfield
Posted inArts & Culture
Shellin’ out family fun
A busy weekend lies ahead for Springfield’s very own Prospect League collegiate baseball team. The Springfield Sliders play in Lisle on Thursday, travel to Quincy on Friday, and then swing back to the capital city for Saturday’s 6:35 p.m. start time against the Quincy Gems. Saturday’s promotion is Educators Night, sponsored by Horace Mann. Springfield […]
Posted inArts & Culture
transition poem #5
transition poem #5 my dad came from country schoolsmall for his age shy insecure hetold me of that first day walking up to the huge doors of the city schoolhe felt everyone was looking at himhe was wearing clumpy shoes like thegirl of the limberlost in the continuedstory he was following in the daily news […]
Posted inMusic
June jams
Bones Jugs play Bar None on Thursday, June 16, at 8 p.m. PHOTO BY SNK PHOTOGRAPHY Welcome to mid-June in central Illinois. The weather is heating up along with the music scene, save for the occasional thundershower that washes out a performance. Here comes the Sangamon County Fair with plenty of hot, modern country in […]
Posted inOpinion
Failing on his mandate
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Near the top of any list of Illinois government’s many problems is that House Speaker Michael Madigan has made a decades-long game out of messing with the minds and the agendas of our governors. If there’s one constant since 1983, it’s Speaker Madigan’s jiu-jitsu moves against whoever happens to be governor. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Award-winning Jewish films
For the third year in a row, The Jewish Federation of Springfield, alongside a handful of community supporters, presents its annual film series. The series kicks off on Thursday, June 2, with a showing of The Green Prince documentary. The German film with American subtitles recounts the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
33 years of female friendship
Last year The Dixie Swim Club, an unforgettable comedy about five women whose friendships began 33 years ago on their college swim team, enjoyed a successful run at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. Shortly after the show’s close, its director, Susan Jeffers, fell ill and passed away. According to current The Dixie Swim Club […]
Posted inArts & Culture
You’re the none for me
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon You’ll probably think I’m messing with you, but I swear I’m not. I am a man who has no desire to have sex. I was married, but after my wife got pregnant with our second (planned) child, we never had sex again. I just had – and have – […]
Posted inMusic
SOHO and so much more
Good Times and Company play SOHO Music Festival, 3 p.m. Sat., June 4 on the Main Stage. This week, music brings the SOHO Music Festival to downtown. There are also a few other big-time happenings, a bunch of cool regular stuff and a grievous occasion. We are so sad to tell of the passing of […]
Posted inMusic
Mark Mills & the Lifesavers
After years of playing music in cover bands (including the crazy-popular rockabilly group Meerkat Mobsters), Mark Mills decided to do it “his way” and proceeded to knock out a collection of classy, original songs fit for an Americana king. Recorded during the winter of 2015-16 in Nashville under the tutelage of producer Spike Jones and […]
Posted inOpinion
Meet Glencore, rapacious global lord
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE The beatings of American workers (wage slashing, axed benefits, union busting, mass firings, offshored factories and brutish abuse of worker rights) have been increasing in frequency, intensity and scope – mostly ordered by CEOs in the posh, faraway headquarters of multi-tentacled global empires. Let’s meet one of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
lincoln statues poem #4
lincoln statues poem #4 most of you are aware of thenumerous depictions in thisarea of our most famous sonthe volkmans even wrote abooklet with numbered photoswell there’s a new statue justdedicated in an impressive eventout on the university groundsconcealed beneath a blue veil tillthe ceremony’s proper momentthe sculptor stood modestly byduring the speeches portrayedis the young […]
