DES MOINES, Iowa — Running into a combination of bureaucratic inertia, big-money special interest influence and ignorant state legislators is enough to make anyone want a stiff drink. Iowa’s micro-distillers must be sorely tempted to grab a bottle off their production lines as they push for minor changes in the
Read More →‘TITANFALL’ (M) ****1/2 Electronic Arts Xbox One “Titanfall” — the much anticipated, exclusively multiplayer, first-person shooter for our newest generation of consoles — splits your time between combat on foot and combat in the snug womb of a massive mech suit, capable of untold destruction. But this game doesn’t coast
Read More →Filmmaker Jesper Just is a Københavner now living in New York’s East Village. The five films in his Des Moines Art Center exhibition “Jesper Just: This Is a Landscape of Desire,” were sho t in Denmark, Paris, Detroit and California. Like all travelers with cameras, he shoots what intrigues him.
Read More →Let’s get the obvious out of the way: “Les Misérables” will pack a wallop the likes of which has never before hit Des Moines community theater. A big number like “One Day More,” the Act I closer, will put roughly 45 players onstage, calling Paris to the barricades. The cast,
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March 19, 2014 by justin
in Cover Story
Iowans may be witnessing the final days of judgment for Bob Vander Plaats and his Family Leader. The past few years have not been good for Vander Plaats, who is now wandering the political desert, searching to make himself, once again, politically relevant. How are the mighty fallen – Samuel
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March 19, 2014 by justin
in Food Dude
These days caterers who cook in other people’s houses are called “nomadic chefs.” That’s either a cheap appropriation of those words or a redundancy. Historically all nomads moved about in order to either eat or to feed their flocks. Since modern warfare began, a new class of nomads has traveled
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March 19, 2014 by justin
in Belly Up To...
It may not be as pump priming as Panama City, and it’s certainly colder than Cancun, but Spring Break means things are heating up at Beer Bucket and Burgers on Des Moines’ northeast side. Whether students are back home from school looking to take their minds off of the fact
Read More →Just 21 years old, Max Jury has a world-weary air about him. He’s too genuine to come off as jaded, yet when he does things like refer to his former college classmates as “those kids” (as in “I’ve seen how great these kids are at music”), you don’t think of
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March 19, 2014 by justin
in Film Review
“300: Rise of an Empire” 3 stars Rated R 102 minutes Action Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey “300: Rise of an Empire,” of the sword-and-sandal hybrid war franchise based on Frank Miller’s (“Sin City”) graphic novel, fumbles through this superfluous sequel to “300” (2006). Huge sheets of splaying
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