“Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” (Friday, 8:30 p.m., PBS) tells the unlikely story of a poor African American sharecropper’s daughter who dedicates herself to changing the world and, against all odds, does. Walker immersed herself in the civil rights and women’s liberation struggles of the 1960s and wrote about them
Read More →Aesthetic Perfection “’Til Death” Metropolis Emo-pop is still a thing. Don’t write angry letters to the editors: I assure you, they haven’t messed up and accidentally re-run a review from 2003. Nope, it’s 2014, and here’s Aesthetic Perfection (a.k.a. Daniel Graves), clinging to the idea that all you have to
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Posted February 05, 2014in Film Review
“Labor Day” 1 star Rated PG-13 111 minutes Drama Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith There’s almost a movie — one with serious incest issues — hiding somewhere in writer/director Jason Reitman’s bleary attempted adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel. The story revolves around Frank (Josh Brolin), an ex-con who
Read More →‘TOMB RAIDER: DEFINITIVE EDITION’ (M) ****1/2 Electronic Arts PlayStation 4 Lara Croft just got a whole lot better looking — not that she really needed it. Not only was the “Tomb Raider” reboot one of the most visually impressive games on Xbox 360 and PS3 when it released on those
Read More →Amount: $260.58 To: William L. Laidlaw Jr. For: Payment for services repairing residents’ mailboxes on Jan. 3, 13 and 14 for a total of six labor hours at $43.43 per hour. Amount: $116 To: Lee’s Standard For: Cost to wash the police cars for the month of December.
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Posted February 05, 2014in Civic Skinny
How much money do big hitters give to state candidates in a year? Last year — not an election year for statewide candidates — Jim Cownie gave $89,850, Bill Knapp gave $78,900 and Bruce Rastetter gave $71,150.32, according to newly released figures from the Iowa Campaign and Ethics Commission. This
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Posted February 05, 2014in Belly Up To...
Fans of the late comedian John Belushi, college students and adults who love to revel in those college glory days, have found their haven at the new Delta House on East Euclid Avenue where the beloved neighborhood bar Scooter and Bab’s once ruled. A couple years ago, owners of Scooter
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Fay Jones Random House 9/10/13 $26 256 pp. Paul Harding’s moving second novel takes place in the same fictional Massachusetts town, Enon, as his debut novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Tinkers.” He also writes of the same family: Charlie Crosby, the first-person narrator of “Enon,”
Read More →The Jan. 16 Cityview, “Corruption and Greed,” featured unscrupulous people around the country. How about a focus on the billionaire Koch Brothers-funded group, Americans for Prosperity, and its massive negative ad campaign targeting Senate Candidate Bruce Braley here in Iowa? The Koch’s dirty tricks campaign is using misleading and exaggerated
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Posted February 05, 2014in Cover Story
No offense, Des Moines, but, in general, we’re ignorant of our own history. The capital city, much more so than many other cities of comparable size, is almost devoid of markers denoting its own past. There are no statues in our parks or markers along our streets or waterfronts. Aside
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