Sleater-Kinney “No Cities to Love” Sub Pop The fact that we are now living in 2015 and there are still people in the world who don’t know about Sleater-Kinney makes me sad. Now, after a nearly eight-year break, the Olympia, Washington, trio is back from a new location (they live
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Posted January 14, 2015in Sound Check
Posted January 14, 2015in The Sound
Still Reeling
Reel Big Fish is one of those bands that you look at and think, “Man, have they really been at it for that long?” On one hand, it feels like the California ska act has always been there, doing their thing. On the other, it seems strange to actually say
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Posted January 14, 2015in Political Mercury
Duffy Inspired by Colleagues’ Courageous Cartoons
Veteran Iowa cartoonist Brian Duffy — whose creative works are digested by readers regularly in this newspaper — says corporate control and an ethos of commercialism have largely watered down American newspaper cartoons to the point where they offer only glimmers of what his peers at a now high-profile French satirical
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Posted January 14, 2015in Film Review
“Selma” Captivates
The new year is just two weeks old, and it has already been kind enough to give us the first must-see film of the year. “Selma” is the story of one of the pivotal moments in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s: the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-led march
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Posted January 14, 2015in Duffy
Posted January 14, 2015in Civic Skinny
Vilsack Wants Iowa Dems to Shape Up — But Why?
Tom Vilsack is stepping back into Iowa politics. He has asked a couple of big hitters — Tim and Toni Urban and Fred and Charlotte Hubbell — to gather some other big contributors at the Urban house this Friday evening to “explore how to position the party for better results
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Posted January 14, 2015in Book Review
‘The Resurrection of Tess Blessing’
“The Resurrection of Tess Blessing” is a poignant, heart-tugging and often hilarious new novel from award-winning Wisconsin author Lesley Kagen. Tess Blessing is facing many of the normal challenges of middle age, including sullen, teen-aged children with hair-trigger emotions and a husband going through his own mid-life crisis. She also
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Posted January 14, 2015in Tech Talk
Don’t Call it a Virtual Comeback
Recounting the trove of unsuccessful entertainment mediums plays like a bad joke. Spectacular failures start with eight track, move quickly to betamax, skip a decade to laserdisc, followed 15 years later by HD DVD. In all of these cases, an alternative platform (i.e. audio cassette, VHS, DVD and Blu-ray) took
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Posted January 14, 2015in Rap Sheet
Two of a Kind?
Screech’s lack of common sense has got him in trouble once again — only this time, it’s for real. Dustin Diamond, 37, was arrested on Dec. 26, 2014, on a slew of misdemeanors, including second-degree recklessly endangering safety, carrying a concealed weapon, disorderly conduct and use of a dangerous weapon.
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Posted January 14, 2015in Sound Circuit
Helping Our Own
Cancer, I don’t mind saying in plain language, is a son of a bitch. There is not a person on the planet who hasn’t been touched by the blighted disease at some point or another in his or her life, and none of us would wish it on our biggest
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