Posted May 04, 2016in Belly Up To...
Flash back to 2009. It’s fourth and goal. The Iowa Hawkeye football team is down four points with two seconds left. The team has won 11 straight games going back to the previous season, but its unbeaten streak is on the line as they line up for one
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Posted May 04, 2016in On The Tube
Ali Wong delivers a “Baby Cobra”; “Grace & Frankie” return for Round 2. “Ali Wong: Baby Cobra” Friday, May 6 (Netflix) Stand-Up Special: Ali Wong is one of the funniest comedians you’ve probably never heard of — and she’s definitely the most pregnant one you’ve ever seen in her
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Posted May 04, 2016in Tech Talk
Nearly every industry offers a good that comes with a stigma. Setting aside pornography, if you buy a $100,000 sports car, you’re compensating for something. If you go to the theater alone, you’re a sad, lonely guy. Smoke cigarettes and you’re a selfish, uneducated fool. This list could
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Posted May 04, 2016in Center Stage
“What Matt and Trey do is an amazing thing,” exclaims Daxton Bloomquist, referring to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of “The Book of Mormon,” the uproarious musical about Mormons seeking converts in Africa. Bloomquist has been with the show for three years, but the subject still makes him
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Posted May 04, 2016in Political Mercury
Hillary Clinton covered a wide swath of issues — many dealing specifically with rural economic development, opportunities for Iowa small towns — in a 23-minute interview with Political Mercury on a summer Sunday afternoon in Carroll leading up to Iowa caucuses. Clinton, who logged more than a million miles of
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Posted May 04, 2016in Book Review
Chris Bohjalian’s new novel, “The Guest Room,” tells the story of Richard and Kristin Chapman, a 40-year-old couple living a life to which others would aspire. Their lovely suburban New York home is well appointed and comfortable. She is a popular and respected teacher in the local high school, and
Read More →Joshua Sinclair “Love Hate” Independent The tagline on Joshua Sinclair’s promotional material reads, “Writing breakup songs since 1998.” It is a statement to be believed, because if you close your eyes and listen to “Love Hate” in a void, that is probably the year you would guess it was from.
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Posted May 04, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
We’ve been doing a lot of sinning lately, don’t you think? Sure, most are lazy sins, like poisoning our water and hating immigrants and trying to take health care from women. It’s easy when there are no faces. The sins get a little more complicated when we are about to
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Posted May 04, 2016in Sound Circuit
Last year, Dan Tedesco released a self-titled album that featured songs recorded on an iPad from his home studio. Taking a decidedly new-tech approach to lo-fi music, the album was critically lauded and overwhelmingly received by fans. Tying in with the album, Tedesco made a music video for
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Posted May 04, 2016in Civic Skinny
Not much has been happening of late in Chris Godfrey’s lawsuit against Gov. Terry Branstad and five other state officials named in the retaliation, defamation, extortion and discrimination proceeding. But that doesn’t mean the state officials’ lawyers haven’t been busy — busy billing, at least. The LaMarca Law Group,
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