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Cover Story: Villisca


Nearly a century later, the worst massacre in Iowa history remains in the public consciousness

by Erin Randolph

Murder came to Villisca in 1912, and in many ways, it never left. Nearly a century after Iowa's most gruesome set of homicides, the small, southwest-Iowa town still sits haunted by the unsolved death of eight of its residents who were bludgeoned to death with an axe after they had gone to bed - unaware of the danger that awaited them that fateful night in June. >> more

 
Jon Gaskell: What comes around, comes around


Homeland tomfoolery

This is nothing new: big government waste; paying for our sins; young men and women dying; being angry about it; getting more and more used to it. It happens everyday. A bus blows up. A helicopter goes down. We're told our persistence is necessary. We're told to be scared. We're told it will all be OK. >> more

Civic Skinny: Sleeping school giant to awaken?


Is any press good press?

Thanks to well-known rabble-rouser/watchdog Nan Stillians, something finally happened in the lackluster Des Moines School Board race last week. Stillians stirred up a minor controversy by circulating an e-mail with comments attributed to candidate Ginny Strong that Strong says are false (a move that could get Stillians in extremely hot water). In response, Stillians attacked a number of others for not doing research to uncover facts and refused to provide any proof her own e-mail was accurate. So is the dust-up enough to get voters interested in the upcoming election? Unfortunately, a top Polk County official in the know said, Stilliansgate is actually just another example that activism is dead in this town. "Real activists rise up and try to take control of overbearing governments," this individual told Cityview. >> more

Food Dude : Café Di Scala


By Jim Duncan
CVFDude@aol.com

In greater Des Moines, restaurant buzz broadcasts on two frequencies. As one corporate chain after another opens its first Des Moines area outlet store, the high modulation of full orchestral branding power dominates the western third of the metro. East of far west, buzz plays on more familiar ranges, where Italian baritones sing their own tune. For 40 years after World War II, Des Moines restaurants of distinctive personality were almost always Calabrese. In the 1990s, chef-owned restaurants with a California emphasis on fresh-and-local ingredients stole the thunder. But buzz is as trendy as the people who hum to it, so it's about to shift again. >> more

Scene Scribe : Asleep at the Wheel's swingin' 'sentimental journey'

By Michael Swanger
michael@dmcityview.com

The roots of western swing music may be steeped in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas thanks to founding fathers like Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, but the genre's leading modern-day purveyors Asleep at the Wheel are sure to fill "Iowa's finest dance floor" when they play Lake Robbins Ballroom (2642 150th St.) in Woodward on Saturday. >>more

City Sounds : Postmodern Prophet

By Michael Swanger
michael@dmcityview.com

This is the age when modern miracles are born

Inventive. Eclectic. Chic. Chuck Prophet's music, informed by the past and devised by the media age, is the soundtrack to a junk culture with a massive case of attention deficit disorder. It samples a variety of influences, including Hammond B3 soul, psychedelic rock, alt-country, melodic pop, old-school funk, dramatic blues and mild hip-hop, as it twists and turns into a sonic concoction that is as sardonic as it is adventurous. >>more

Rant & Rave:



You think you know something we don't know? Think we suck? Think other people suck? Think you can lead us to the promise land, or do you just want to spout off some serious lip? Then grab that thing in your hand (No, the thing in your other hand) and double-click right here. After we check to make sure you aren't wanted by the authorities and that you have your facts as close to straight as possible, we'll post it right here. Then other people sitting in their cubicles -- just like you -- can bask in your wisdom.

Oh, and if you're really funny, or enlightened or wonderfully horrible, we'll print what you've laid down in next week's issue of Cityview. So go ahead, what are you waiting for? >>more

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