Central Iowa’s sizzling summer slate of music, theater, art, film and outdoor fun. Enjoy greater Des Moines’ most comprehensive events guide. Take this wind-chill factor and shove it! Say “sayonara” to your snow boots. It’s time to dig out your dancing shoes and enjoy May, June, July and August. Summer in the city has never [...]
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Take time this month to soak in the sun and the fashion When we think of fast fashion, we think of inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends and fads. And when we think of the word promenade, our minds immediately travel to the East Village Promenade, the holiday [...]
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A new coach, a new league, a new stadium and a new home office. In the U.S., soccer begins again each spring, when everything renews itself. This year, however, is so full of new beginnings for the Des Moines Menace that lilacs might expect to bloom in new colors, shapes and fragrances. This is not [...]
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The city of Des Moines has paid Mark Evans $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit he filed after hitting a 6-inch-high, unmarked curb the city built across what most bikers believed to be the bike path on MLK Parkway at 16th Street. The accident, around noon on April 16 of 2017, left Evans with injuries [...]
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Presidential candidate delves into rural issues, immigration. Onica Ulveling of Carroll stumped a stumping White House aspirant. If but for a moment. The 41-year-old pharmacist, a mother of two, asked Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke — who frames his candidacy as something of an urgent generational answer to questions he expects to get in 30 [...]
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“Shazam!” is very much a family film — like blending up elements of “Goonies” and “Gremlins,” served over a heaping bowl of “Big.” When you’re a kid, all you want to be is grown-up. And when you’re grown up, all you want to be is a superhero. No? Well, you might after exiting the latest [...]
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Grammy winner talks about her journey, which has involved breast cancer, cannabis, LGBT issues and Twitter. Melissa Etheridge’s album debut in 1988 showcased her raspy, bluesy voice, and the female rocker’s unique sound paid off. During the last 30 years, she has sold 35 million albums, including five that went platinum and three multiplatinum recordings. [...]
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The most popular order is the Gaucho Experience. Al Punto is the first Argentine restaurant in central Iowa in a couple decades. It’s close to being the most thoroughly Argentine steakhouse experience one can find in North America. Housed in a venue that was most recently Saison but most famously Mustard’s, it features table cloths [...]
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Dave Baker is working on the first of five photography books highlighting Iowa. There is nothing to do in Iowa. You have likely heard it before. But Dave Baker wouldn’t accept it. “In 2009, I was having a discussion with a college friend who was complaining that there was nothing to do in Iowa,” Baker [...]
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You heard it here first. Frankly, the joy of being a grandpa caught me by surprise. Listen, I’ve raised three kids, I know what children are all about. And, by the way, where is the gold watch for that job? After bleeding and suffering for each, giving them the best years of my life, all [...]
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I’m a sucker for happy news. There never is enough of it. Often it seems as if discouraging news overshadows anything uplifting or encouraging. But there was an amazing good-news moment Sunday. It came during the commencement ceremony in Atlanta at the historically black Morehouse College, a school whose most notable graduate is the Rev. [...]
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“Once you’re here, you’re family.” Take a drive north on Merle Hay Road through Johnston, and you’ll find old buildings mixed with new. A new Fareway and a Casey’s sit alongside staples such as Van Dees and Greenbriar. Another 26-year institution is Lynn’s on Merle Hay. The sign outside says, “Ice Cold Beer,” but don’t [...]
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Rapper inspires, empowers through his music videos. As a youth, Will Keeps sang in his church choir on Chicago’s South Side. He emulated Michael Jackson and desired a career as a hip-hop artist. However, tragedy struck early on. Keeps was molested at age 7. At age 15, he was brutally beaten by gang members and [...]
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Artifacts are still buried under the city-built levee including light posts and the tunnel of love. One of the most talked about places in Des Moines lore comes from the north side of town in the Oak Park Neighborhood off of Sixth Avenue on Corning Avenue. A small island that was once a Zoological garden [...]
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Molly Wood replicates still-life paintings of the masters by raising her plants indoors and lighting her photos exclusively with natural light. Olson-Larsen Galleries is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an exhibition that includes 70 pieces by 55 artists from its four decades in town. Memorial photo montages are also included for nostalgia. The show is [...]
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Linda Lewis’ sculptures reveal what a person thinks. Four years before Linda Lewis was set to take early retirement from her teaching career, she enrolled in a figurative clay art workshop. She minored in art in college, but teaching paid the bills; art didn’t. At the workshop, she wanted to make objects other than bowls [...]
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CEO of EMC Insurance Company shares his perspective on Des Moines and the insurance industry. Bruce Kelley is the longtime CEO of EMC Insurance Company, a 108-year-old business in downtown Des Moines that employs 2,400 people, 1,400 of them in Des Moines. We asked him to lunch, and he suggested Bubba, a downtown café in [...]
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