You can’t turn on the TV, switch on a computer or exist within shouting distance of electricity without being electronically smacked by sirens, flashing lights and urgent-speaking media-types narrating a new controversy involving unseemly acts or heroic deeds of a police officer somewhere. But this story is not about any particular one of those outputs. [...]
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They are contradictions on a bun, simultaneously the scourge of nutritionists and the piece de resistance for low carbohydrate and paleo dieters — without the bun. Although they have been around for at least 800 years, hamburgers celebrated their 100th birthday in the last decade. Despite being the most popular meal of the American masses, [...]
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Sales of ammunition and guns have increased after the coronavirus spread to central Iowa. The owners of RR Gun Sales in Mitchellville began experiencing an uptick in sales in mid-March, both via phone and in person. At the time, owners were on hold on the phone with wholesalers inquiring about product and when it would [...]
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Four well-known Des Moines men — all in their 80s or beyond — died within days of one another last month. All were interesting men who led interesting lives. Owen Newlin and Tom Urban were sons of men who built Pioneer Hi-Bred into one of the great agricultural companies of the world, and each son [...]
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Many white Iowans involved in urgent conversations on race in the Hawkeye State digest observations and challenges to institutions — business, political or educational — as insults to them personally, an attack on their whiteness, a reflex that stalls and complicates change, says Stacey Walker, one of Iowa’s ascendant young political leaders. Walker, 32, an [...]
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When it comes to non-stop action, “The Raid” does not disappoint. From the first frame of the ticking watch, it is clear that as long as this film may have been, it seems so much longer. With a color scheme that matches the hazy shades of winter, writer/director Gareth Evans creates some of the most [...]
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St. Kilda is an old town south of Melbourne, Australia, that is quite famous for its restaurant scene, beach and sunsets. The new restaurant named for it in Valley Junction represents a gorgeous restoration of an old historic building in Valley Junction that was most recently a dance studio and most famously a car dealership. [...]
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As she pulled and pushed and worked the lawnmower through the rougher-than-usual grass, Johanna Hayes felt her chest tighten and her heart race. She should have been hot, but instead she felt a cold sweat. “I must be really out of shape,” she scolded herself as she stopped to rest. But by any objective measure, [...]
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Would it help your pandemic doldrums if someone told you that you are special? Of course, that “someone” may be a complete lunatic. Fine. But why not pay your money and take a chance? I’ve generally been good with the fallout from the coronavirus — picking up groceries from masked teenagers; Zoom conversations with family [...]
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There has never been anything like the current pandemic’s influence on the live performing arts. Local and regional disasters have stopped theater before, but nothing has had such an insidious and pervasive impact in bringing this multi-billion dollar creative industry to a screeching halt. This pandemic has affected the youngest in local community theater classes [...]
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Red Wanting Blue, a heartland indie rock and roll band, returns to Wooly’s for a concert on Aug. 19. CITYVIEW recently caught up with lead singer and guitarist, Scott Terry. The band formed 20 years ago in Ohio, where their midwestern roots developed. Terry says that, as a college student, they were eager to play [...]
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“This is the worst Christmas ever,” Kyle Peterson remembers thinking. The crushed 7-year-old awoke to find next to no presents waiting for him. “There were like two GI Joe guys under the tree for me,” he says. “My sister had a bunch of presents, but I’m like, ‘This is all?…I was bad this year. I [...]
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Jeff Bruning is a partner in Full Court Press, a gang of friends and entrepreneurs who open restaurants from conception to sizzle and serve. We asked him to lunch recently, and he chose Lucky Horse Beer & Burgers, the 15th restaurant in the group’s repertoire, not counting a couple they have closed or sold. Lucky [...]
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Renee Watkins of Des Moines has spent most of her life creating art. As a child, her grandfather taught her different techniques as they painted together. Her grandpa, also a boxer, jingle writer and yachtsman, painted landscapes and boats in San Diego. One tip she learned was that mistakes aren’t serious. “He always made it [...]
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Fans of Green Day music can take a holiday and attend American Dookie: A Tribute to Green Day. American Dookie’s lead singer and guitarist Johnny B. Lentz talked to CITYVIEW prior to their upcoming concert at Wooly’s on Aug. 28. The band consists of three members, including Lentz, Travis Luchtenburg, bass and backup singer, and [...]
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Many of you YouTube junkies have likely stumbled across a shot of the 1980s video documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” where a bunch of teens are tailgating outside of a Judas Priest concert in Landover, Maryland, in 1986. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and get on your phone, laptop or smart TV, [...]
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Walking into The Station on Ingersoll created a feeling of nostalgia, not for the previous bar, Zimm’s, but for the one from decades before that — the Duck Blind. The history of just two bars in the past 50 years was one reason the new owners, T.J. Rushing and Alex Mason, purchased The Station in [...]
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