Near my home in Austin, Texas, there is a great, old refurbished motel that I recommend to people when they come to visit our fair city. It not only is right on the famed Congress Avenue but also has a keep-it-real attitude that is expressed right on its iconic marquee: “No additives, no preservatives, corporate-free […]
Texas
Posted inArts & Culture
Eyes that light up a womb
I’m a 35-year-old guy who’s doing online dating and who’s against having kids for moral reasons. Don’t get me wrong; I love kids. I just don’t think we need any more people on this crowded, violent planet. I’m wondering whether I should make the “no kids” thing clear in my profile. I know this can […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Where there’s a will there’s a way
Tickets are still available for the rescheduled Willie Nelson concert taking place on Tuesday night, Aug. 12, at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS. We’re ecstatic Willie’s back in town. The incomparable Nelson continues to create as if there’s a fountain of youth inside his soul. Who else can boast a successful 60-year career with almost 300 albums, […]
Posted inOpinion
Rick Perry’s bespectacled mess
He’s back. And, this time, he has eyeglasses. Yes, Rick “Oops” Perry, is back, pitching himself for another presidential run. What fun! Who can forget the Texas governor’s nationally televised pratfall during a 2011 presidential debate, when he couldn’t remember the third federal agency he intended to ax? Well, he later sniffed on “Fox & […]
Posted inMusic
Rosie Flores
A frequent visitor to Springfield since her appearance at The Alley in the early days of the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival, Rosie Flores never makes it back soon enough. The “Rockabilly Filly” is making a quick trip this week up from Austin, Texas, through Tennessee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Mich., Indianapolis and Virginia – Illinois, that […]
Posted inMusic
Moot Davis
PHOTO COURTESY HIGHWAY KIND RECORDS With 22 show dates in 23 days, Moot Davis is on the move. Leaving his home state of New Jersey on Jan. 20, the country-crooner, singer-songwriter travels cross country playing duo dates with his guitarist Bill Corvino. Then by February, Davis hooks up with the rest of the band in […]
Posted inNews
Power plant giveaway wins pollution pass
Coffeen Power Station in Montgomery County, south of Springfield, is one of the five power plants obtained by Dynegy subsidiary Illinois Power Holdings earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Dynegy One of Illinois’ largest energy companies has given away five power plants, following a decision by state regulators to give the new owners a temporary […]
Posted inOpinion
This year’s election circus
Election days can be dizzying – like trying to absorb a three-ring circus with all three acts going at once. In last week’s elections, the national media focused tightly on the center ring, where two gubernatorial contests and one mayoral race were spotlighted. The most interesting of these to me was the dazzling, out-of-nowhere, high-wire […]
Posted inMusic
Rosie blooms
Few other Americana artists spent a lifetime as creative, consistent and challenging as Rosie Flores. From her early days with the Los Angeles cow-punk, rockabilly scene to a current life-defining record, her work from constant live performer to recent record producer follows the music muse. I first met her in June of 1999 at the […]
Posted inOpinion
The new border-industrial complex
“Good fences make good neighbors,” goes the old adage. But the neighborly adage definitely did not contemplate the 700-mile, 20-foot-high, drone-patrolled, electronically monitored fence of steel and razor wire that our government has erected across our nation’s border with Mexico, from the tip of Texas to California’s Pacific Coast. This thing is not a fence, […]
Posted inOpinion
Let us commence toward the common good
Ironically, June is both the month of the summer solstice and of America’s biggest annual blizzard. I don’t mean a weather event blowing in from the Arctic, but a merciless storm of words blowing from commencement speakers at high school and college graduation events. This year, I was one of the blowhards, the chief speechifyer […]
Posted inMusic
ZZ Tripp
Springfield’s ZZ Tripp with Brad Alan (as Billy Gibbons on guitar), Dan Kress (as Dusty Hill on bass) and Tom Summerlin (as Frank Beard on drums) gives ZZ Top a tremendous tribute treatment. With songs “structured like their studio work, but with some of ZZ Top’s signature live elements added in,” the trio spans “over […]
