Get your popcorn ready! CITYVIEW takes a look at the drive-in movie theaters of central Iowa — then and now. I moved to Des Moines in 2007. I was 21 and going through an addiction to the old grindhouse films of the 1970s and 1980s. The Tarantino/Rodriguez “Grindhouse” double feature had just been in theaters, [...]
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Learn the questions to ask about elective plastic surgery before you decide if it is right for you. The face of plastic surgery has become younger, more familiar and more masculine. Procedures aren’t only for models or the rich and famous. It’s everyday people,moms and even businessmen who are now under the knife. “There’s definitely [...]
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Summer’s slate of outdoor live music has no shortage of music festival offerings, all within driving distance of Des Moines. Woodstock. This summer marks the 50-year anniversary of 1969’smother-of-all music festivals. Hosted on a 600-acre dairy farmin upstate New York, the event somehow caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle and attracted upwards of 400,000 [...]
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Titan Tire is a deadbeat. The company or its affiliates own those 38 acres at 16th Street and MLK Jr. Parkway on the edge of downtown, land where the soil is dangerous and the buildings are dilapidated. Demanding the site be cleaned up, the federal government has been suing them for nearly 25 years, winning [...]
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Democratic candidate contends senator’s military background hamstrings independence. Republicans forcefully pushed back on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Eddie Mauro’s contention that Iowans deserve a “different kind of courage” than Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, showed in the military — a hierarchical environment Mauro suggests restricts independent thinking and forces veterans to “fall in line,” an experience [...]
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Turns out, it’s not that hard to get into college. “Booksmarts” follows the high school BFFs Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein), who’ve stayed out of trouble for their entire academic career so that they could get into the best colleges. But when Amy and Molly discover that all their hard-partying peers got into [...]
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Probably just what suburban diners want. Pad Thai is much more than a restaurant named for a famous dish. One of the world’s most famous inventions, Pad Thai is also a government-created cause. In the 1940s, Thailand suffered a rice shortage due to war and floods. Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram encouraged his people to eat [...]
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When Frank Perez hears footsteps, the 76-year-old can still shift into another gear. Thump, thump, thump. “I heard these footsteps,” says 76-year old Frank Perez, as he remembers his best competitive moment at the Iowa Senior Games. Perez led after making the turn in the 200-meter dash. But behind him… Thump, thump, thump. “When I [...]
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The stuff of good dreams. Traveling with my mom was, for most of my life, the stuff of one of those late-night dreams we all have at one time or another — and not those good dreams. Rather the dreams where you forget to go to an important test at school. Or you are falling [...]
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Theater legend Jeanne Hopson takes her final bow. The adage goes that it’s the “-” connecting a person’s birth and death that counts. Jeanne Marie (Ferris) Hopson’s “dash” was a super microchip filled with enough achievements and contributions to fill several lives. Her passing leaves a vibrant legacy in its wake. A Des Moines native [...]
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One of the most contentious issues in the Iowa Legislature this year involved the way the state’s judges are chosen. That process was established 57 years ago when voters amended the Iowa Constitution. It’s worth noting that Republicans held solid majorities then in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate. In the years that followed — [...]
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Giant taproom breathes life into former Dahl’s grocery store. Two Ankeny businessmen, Shawn McNeeley and Jeff Heng, have taken on a mistress, which Shawn’s wife is OK with. But this mistress is something everyone can enjoy — Mistress Brewing. Mistress Brewing’s first location in Ankeny opened in 2016 with a mere 2,400 square feet. With [...]
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Original music influenced by Buddy Holly As a child, Jason Buns listened to his dad playing Buddy Holly songson his guitar. Jason didn’t understand the importance of who BuddyHolly was until later, when his dad explained the history. “My dad went to the Surf Ballroom for Buddy Holly’s final concertbefore his plane crash,” says Jason. [...]
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Keith Miller is a distinguished professor of law at Drake. He teaches torts, products liability, gaming law, and workers compensation. With big changes in gaming law coming to Iowa in late August and bigger changes probably by winter, we asked him to lunch to talk about gaming and other things. He chose Maxie’s, an old-fashioned [...]
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3 generations of speedsters are tough to beat. Nearly 8 billion people live on planet Earth. West Des Moines soap box racer Kara Darr finished ahead of all but three of them at last year’s All-American Soap Box Derby World Championships held in Akron. She competed in the Rally Masters Division. Wrenching, wheeling, tinkering, strategizing, [...]
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Multi-genre group plays Brenton Skating Plaza on June 25. Lake Street Dive lead singer Rachael Price says their music doesn’t fit a specific genre, and people frequently inquire about what type of music they play. “We say our influences are mostly core influences, such as the Beatles, Paul Simon, David Bowie or anything from Motown. [...]
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Sydney Moore’s love of fostering animals leads to a trio of adopted dogs. When Sydney Moore’s coworker suggested she foster dogs, her top priority wasn’t to just provide a temporary home for stray or neglected pets — it was to cuddle. “I selfishly wanted to play with the puppies,” she says. Moore had no intention [...]
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