Posted September 04, 2024in Feature 1
The leaves are changing, and temperatures are falling. But that doesn’t mean central Iowa stops being the place to see beautiful art galleries, watch jaw-dropping theatrical performances, hear live music from the area’s and world’s best musicians, cheer on the best up-and-coming young talents and experience community, cultural and food
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Posted September 04, 2024in Feature 2
Iowa is divided into 99 parts, called counties. If 99 seems like a lot, it’s not compared to Texas with 254 or Georgia with 257. Even in our own neighborhood, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois all have more. Why 99? About 183 years ago, sentiment dictated minimum and maximum sizes so
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Posted September 04, 2024in Business Feature
Ashley Laudick spent the beginning of her career working for the same employer day in and day out. As a full-time speech and language pathologist, she got bored. She did not like being in the same place all the time. So, Laudick made a much-needed change and started working for
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Posted September 04, 2024in Civic Skinny
The Des Moines City Council’s proposed ban on camping within city limits, which criminalizes encampments of the city’s homeless, has raised the ire of some citizens and has been delayed and amended several times. To recap, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could ban people from sleeping
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Posted September 04, 2024in Political Mercury
A modern political Mason-Dixon line appears to be taking form north of Mason City and south of Albert Lea — somewhere around the Minnesota-Iowa border. The crash of cultures is no accident. And now, the increasing divide will be exposed (and expanded, most likely) under a national spotlight in which
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Posted September 04, 2024in Film Review
“Jackpot!” is an American action-comedy directed by Paul Feig and written by Rob Yescombe. With an intriguing premise set in a not-so-distant dystopian future, the movie had the potential to be both a thrilling and hilarious ride — like a hybrid take of “The Running Man” and “The Purge.” However,
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Posted September 04, 2024in Food Dude
When the millennium was new, Tony Lemmo opened his first café in the Metro Market. That brilliant incubator of food businesses was doomed by its limitations — mainly that it could only be open on weekends. Lemmo saw the writing on the wall and started looking for a more permanent
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Posted September 04, 2024in Des Moines Forgotten
In my July column, I mentioned that I went on the walking architecture tour downtown. I wrote about the first and only “death by elevator” event in Iowa history, which I learned about while on the tour when it was by Fourth Street and Court Avenue. About 45 minutes earlier,
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Posted September 04, 2024in Joe's Neighborhood
Well, here I am in a big box store, and it’s happened again. The start is simple enough. My wife goes one direction to get granddaughter clothes, and I go to the men’s department to buy my own clothes. And, yes, this is a relatively new experience for me —
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Posted September 04, 2024in Center Stage
As the month begins, the final Broadway chords of the North American Tour of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” continue to reverberate from its signature two-week run at Des Moines Performing Arts (DMPA). This heralds a most appealing 2024-2025 Willis Broadway Series that includes such gems as “Back to the Future:
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