After playing together for more than 12 years, NEEDTOBREATHE needed to get back to its roots. The South Carolina band experienced some growing pains recently during the making of its fifth album, “Rivers In the Wasteland,” which debuted No. 1 on iTunes and No. 3 on the Billboard 200. “During
Read More →Tony Bennett has been hailed as the best interpreter of the Great American Songbook after the legendary Frank Sinatra. Following a rough period in the 1960s and ’70s, Bennett has surged back to become a popular and artistic success. He’ll be appearing on June 7 at the Des Moines Civic
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June 04, 2014 by justin
in Food Dude
I recently participated in a “restaurant nomenclature” project for a food association. Among the distinctions discussed was that between a “bar and grill” and similar things such as a pub, gastropub or microbrewery. We argued about history, geography and beers but decided that a bar and grill needs to be
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June 04, 2014 by justin
in Joe's Neighborhood
Omaha Beach. Utah Beach. Sword Beach. Juno Beach. Gold Beach. Seventy years ago, on June 6, 1944, thousands upon thousands of American soldiers came to Europe for the first time, up these “beaches” into Normandy. And over the next few months, thousands followed behind them for the push into Germany.
Read More →Imagine the pitch. Out in Hollywood: the band Queen meets the movie “The Matrix,” and the loser ends up being Orwell’s Big Brother. If that sounds like a bit much, well, so does “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Freddie Mercury was nothing if not over the top, and his surviving bandmates Brian May
Read More →April (Italia Ricci) is an ambitious young reporter proving her mettle at a Boston newspaper. She has an eye on the publication’s gorgeous, sensitive, super-cool arts-and-entertainment writer (Richard Brancatisano), and he seems to like her, too. Given her talent and charm, it looks like April has it made. But then
Read More →Gigadollars and cents In April, Anton Purisima filed a claim in Federal District Court in New York City that the Lowering The Bar blog calculated was for the largest monetary demand ever made in a lawsuit, “$2,000 decillion” (or 2 followed by 36 zeroes, which, of course, is many times
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June 04, 2014 by justin
in Cover Story
In many ways, PrideFest — the capital city’s annual celebration of LGBT unity — is all of us. Drawing in an estimated 10,000-12,000 people annually, PrideFest is a vital, living, breathing thing. It pulses with the lifeblood of a community and embraces each and every one of its children with
Read More →Patresa Hartman is so good, it’s nearly impossible to convince yourself that she hasn’t been doing this her whole life. “I call last summer ‘my internship,’ where I booked my first actual gigs,” she said, sitting in Royal Mile sipping a beer. “Before that, I’d just done open mics.” Everything
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