David Bowie “Blackstar” Columbia At 69, now does not seem like the time for David Bowie to be mixing things up. The world knows what Bowie is, and most everyone is perfectly happy with it, because it is amazing. However, “Blackstar” flips the script completely, as Bowie offers up his
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Posted January 06, 2016in Sound Check
Posted January 06, 2016in Sound Notes
The music world said one final goodbye in 2015 when Motorhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister died from cancer on Dec. 28 — four days after his 70th birthday. Kilmister gave the music world one of the most defining, recognizable voices in all of rock. Motorhead released 23 studio albums in its
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Posted January 06, 2016in Duffy
Posted January 06, 2016in Tech Talk
Halve heating bills with smart houses
If you’ve lived in Iowa for at least one winter, you’re probably well-trained on what the end of the calendar means: Persistent frigid temperatures are coming with mountains of snow. After a day or two of complaining, most Iowans accept this seasonal norm and go about their wintery lives —
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Posted January 06, 2016in Your Money
Paid for by taxpayers in…
Paid on Dec. 21, 2015 Amount: $2,165 To: Damon Brown For: Choreographer Amount: $1,280.01 To: The Graphic Edge For: Supplies Amount: $2,263.88 To: Higgins Plaza Service For: Repairs Amount: $2,426.38 To: Amazon.com Corporate Credit For: Supplies Amount: $285.19 To: Imaging Technologies For: Copier charges Amount: $3,272.06 To: Rivar’s Costume Show
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Posted January 06, 2016in Food Dude
New Yorker story
When Jay Wang opened Wasabi Chi in 2011, he said he wanted to bring New York-style sushi to Des Moines. I asked him last week what that means. “I think it’s more accurately called East Coast-West Coast sushi. In New York and California, the best sushi is based around fresh
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Posted January 06, 2016in On The Tube
Blue year
“Shades of Blue” Thursday, Jan. 7 (NBC) Series Debut: A gritty cop drama pitting Jennifer Lopez against Ray Liotta? Sounds like a forgotten ’90s flick you’d run across on TNT at 3 a.m., but “Shades of Blue” is more like “The Shield” with bigger hair: NYPD detective Harlee Santos (Lopez),
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Posted January 06, 2016in Political Mercury
Bernie: Inside the campaign of an iconoclast
Bernie Sanders rolled his Navy-suit-covered forearm and extended it. The Democratic presidential candidate paused, looked at the right arm and summoned a searing childhood memory. Members of Sanders’ family — on his Polish immigrant father’s side — died in the Holocaust. “In the neighborhood I grew up in, there were
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Posted January 06, 2016in Belly Up To...
Drink Up Sports Bar wants to change the game
A bit of nostalgia and a lot of hometown love has become the start for Drink Up Sports Bar and the Urbandale community. Will Wynkoop and Mellissa Murphy opened Drink Up on Nov. 6, in hopes of restoring the image of that part of town. Their hopes for the bar
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Posted January 06, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Julius Brooks, the world and the horn
It was unexpected to be sure. The plunk of the piano wound its way back through the narrow hallway to the furthest alcove in the back room and drifted above the chile rellenos and the enchiladas and the taco salad. Distant. Muted. Fading in and out, but certainly there. A
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