August 05, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Des Moines Forgotten
Many of you YouTube junkies have likely stumbled across a shot of the 1980s video documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” where a bunch of teens are tailgating outside of a Judas Priest concert in Landover, Maryland, in 1986. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and get on your
Read More →The Covid-19 pandemic persists. Be safe. Be considerate. Be compassionate. – John Busbee for The Culture Buzz Quote of the Week “In the blackest of your moments, wait with no fear.” -Sufi mystic and poet Jalal-ud-Din Rumi (1207-1273) Cultural nuggets – “Art of Our Time” benefit art sale
Read More →
August 04, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
I’m giving away my age — or maybe some indication of the amount of stuff tucked away in my cranium. One of the useless tidbits stored there was a comment Ricky Ricardo supposedly made on the “I Love Lucy” show 60 years ago: “Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
Read More →The Covid-19 pandemic persists. Be safe. Be considerate. Be compassionate. – John Busbee for The Culture Buzz Quote of the Week “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” –Maya Angelou Cultural nuggets – “Art of Our Time” benefit art sale attracts regional
Read More →
July 27, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
Even before coronavirus hit American colleges and universities, even before their budgets imploded because of the pandemic, questions were being asked nationally about how these institutions spend their money. Some high-profile decisions by University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld have put the focus on this issue in our state. The
Read More →
July 21, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
The death of Congressman John Lewis last Friday night accomplished what police officers with their billy clubs and white mobs with their fists and pipes never were able to achieve: Silencing his voice. For 60 years, Lewis expressed his opinions — on segregation, on voting rights, on economic inequality —
Read More →The Covid-19 pandemic persists. Find ways to culturally and creatively continue explore. Please be safe and wise if you have to venture into public areas. Respect how you can protect others. – John Busbee for The Culture Buzz Quote of the Week “We have art so that we shall
Read More →
July 14, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
Give an extra tug on your seatbelt. The next couple of months will be rough ones. The new school year starts in a few weeks. Not surprisingly, with the coronavirus still sickening and killing people in Iowa, what normally is a time of much excitement has become a time of
Read More →
July 07, 2020 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
The sun was drooping close to the tree line as the day wound down in southern Pennsylvania eight years ago. A retired U.S. Army officer, now a historian, led a group of business people from across the nation — I was one of them — onto the hallowed ground there
Read More →
How many friends do you have?
How many friends do you have? Thousands? If you are on Facebook, you may have close to 5,000 friends and tens of thousands of more “friends” via Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or various other social media connections. Are you really connected? Can you really call these social media friends, “friends?” How
Read More →