Twelve years ago, we set out with our young children to spend a weekend at Clear Lake, anticipating camping, swimming, canoeing and building sand castles. When we arrived, the lake was closed due to high bacterial rates that could cause illness should the water be ingested. Our young kids were
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Posted April 29, 2015in Duffy
Sometimes all a band needs is a linchpin. When drummer Pat Curtis joined the Monday Mourners a little over a year ago, he realized that he walked into a band that was sitting on a pile of great songs. “I didn’t really know these songs,” he admitted. “But I felt
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Posted April 29, 2015in News of the Weird
It seemed like a good idea when the town of Celoron, New York, agreed in 2009 to pay for a bronze statue honoring the village’s only celebrity. Lucille Ball had spent her childhood years there, and even today, everyone “Loves Lucy.” The result was apparently a monstrosity, described in news
Read More →Iowa City native Tim Johnston has received very well-deserved rave reviews for his first adult novel, “Descent.” This page-turning thriller with its deeply developed characters and intense situations is one of the smartest, most engrossing reads I’ve come across in months. Grant and Angela Courtland, from Wisconsin, have treated their
Read More →Paid on April 15 Amount: $5,483.40 To: Accelerated Rehabilitation Centers (Illinois) For: Capitated services in the month of March Amount: $957.20 To: Accountemps For: Compensation for a temporary employee Amount: $15.99 To: ACME Tools (North Dakota) For: Steelie Dash Ball replacement Amount: $590 To: Contractor Solutions For: Two road plates
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Posted April 29, 2015in Center Stage
Even as the U.S. tour of “The Lion King” is finishing its run in Cincinnati, it’ll start setting up in Des Moines. The show travels with “a dupe,” as Ken Davis puts it — a backup. As production stage manager, Davis takes pride in the jaw-dropping math of “Lion King.”
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Posted April 29, 2015in Tech Talk
One of the scariest things about being an adult is making large purchases. With every high-ticket item — be it houses, cars, refrigerators, washers or dryers — every buy reminds you that as an adult you need to be a responsible decision maker. Still, for those who can’t commit to mortgages
Read More →Prettygirlhatemachine “Real is a Joke” Independent Do not let anybody tell you that there is not good hip hop coming out of Des Moines. Now, as it turns out, some of the very best of it came out this past week, courtesy of Prettygirlhatemachine. “Real is a Joke” is funky,
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Posted April 29, 2015in Political Mercury
The expansive, seemingly borderless roam of Northern Minnesota is the setting for “Heart of Wilderness,” an independent film that explores a claustrophobic blue-collar marriage strained by broken promises, deception and sheer isolation. Travis Wallien, a grit of a man, finds himself on the wrong, but winning, end of a drug
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