The good Des Moines Metro Opera received a $25,000 grant from DuPont Pioneer last week to support its continued work of “educating and inspiring nearly 40,000 Iowans annually through its educational and outreach programs.” According to a press release, much of the DuPont Pioneer’s annual fund contribution will be put to
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Posted July 17, 2013in Good Bad Ugly
Posted July 17, 2013in Your Money
Paid for by taxpayers in…Polk County
Amount: $3,140 To: Jim John’s Inc. For: The cost to have 33 Porta-potties at various parks and cemeteries in Des Moines. Amount: $1,264.99 To: TMC Auto Body For: Claim settlement paid after Robert Heles of Des Moines had stopped his vehicle to let a police officer with K-9 cross
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Posted July 17, 2013in Sound Notes
Maximum Ames Records has announced the lineup for this year’s Maximum Ames Music Fest, taking place Sept. 26-29. Headliners for the event include seminal English rockers The Zombies, alt-punk groundbreakers The Meat Puppets, Murder By Death, The Hood Internet and Iowa music legends Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey. For more
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Posted July 17, 2013in Locker Room
ACRODUNK inspires and entertains
Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s… unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Basketball season may be over but that doesn’t mean it’s time to put the rock into storage. Now is the time to practice, practice, practice in the off-season to get better than
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Posted July 17, 2013in Book Review
‘Red Moon’ is a fresh look at werewolf plight
Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Julie Goodrich Grand Central Publishing May 7, 2013 $25.99 533 Pages Benjamin Percy won me in about 10 pages with “The Wilding,” so naturally when I heard he wrote a book about werewolves, I was giddy. Cheesy or not, I love me
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Posted July 17, 2013in Film Review
Ghost Story
“The Conjuring” 3 stars R 112 minutes Horror Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor Since carving his name as a modern-horror director to be reckoned with, James Wan (“Saw” – 2006) has been moving steadily toward a less literal, more haunting, approach to the genre. “Insidious” (2010) evinced a
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Posted July 17, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
Parade 101
In the basement of the old Catholic elementary school in Iowa City, we all lined up with our vendor trays attached by straps across the back of our necks. Ranging in ages from 10 to 13, we were loaded down with homecoming mums. After a quick lecture from Sister Timothy
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Posted July 17, 2013in On The Tube
Dancing fools
“Breaking Pointe” chronicles bad behavior in a real ballet troupe The CW, home of teen soaps like “Gossip Girl,” goes in a different direction with “Breaking Pointe” (Monday, 8 p.m.). Beginning its second season, the docuseries peeks behind the scenes of Salt Lake City’s Ballet West, where dancers dedicate
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Posted July 17, 2013in Art News
Phyllida Barlow’s golden years
Des Moines Art Center’s (DMAC) new exhibition “Phyllida Barlow: Scree” represents one of the happier stories about life after “retirement.” From the late 1960s until 2009, she was a professor at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. Barlow produced many drawings and sculptures during those years, but she
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Posted July 10, 2013in Sound Check
The White Elephant “The White Elephant” Independent Taking a page from Weezer’s playbook, The White Elephant has opted to self-title both of its albums thus far. Call this one “The White Album” (2011’s debut was black) or “The Fly Album” or whatever you wish, but don’t forget to call it
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