Whenever a new website pops up and becomes super popular, eventually everyone asks the same question: How does this site make money? Usually sites first make it online with minor personal investments followed by private investors, but all investors want a return, and more likely than not that means advertisements.
Read More →Creator Steve Franks has made a success out of “Psych,” the comedy-drama about a private investigator who fakes psychic powers but now faces the challenge of freshening things up after seven seasons. Franks goes for broke with “Psych: The Musical,” a two-hour, over-the-top Broadway-style episode (Sunday, 8 p.m., USA). That’s
Read More →Something in the Air Is the signature smell of Texas A and M University more “Italian lemon, bergamot and iced pineapple” (that open into “a body of vivid florals, raw nutmeg and cinnamon”) or more “bat feces” and “chilifest stink?” The two commentaries were contrasted in a November Wall Street
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December 11, 2013 by justin
in Joe's Neighborhood
Holiday shopping requires a certain level of maturity that I just don’t possess. Let’s take Black Friday. I’ve tried it. My sister-in-law had everything all mapped out for us the year we headed out in the early morning to stand in line at the Target store at Merle Hay Mall.
Read More →Ever been to an Iowa Cubs game and seen, between innings, the kids and parents throwing themselves into “YMCA”? Whole families, doing the Village People? Ever thought about that — how the song is an anthem for gay hookups? The performance costumes, back in ’78, were stereotypes of men’s sexual
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Shirley Shiffler Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 11/5/13 $25 450 pp. When I was in high school, my brother gave me a copy of “The Princess Bride.” One of my favorite gifts ever, I was enchanted. When the movie came out a few years later, I
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December 11, 2013 by justin
in Political Mercury
Is Tyler Olson running a gubernatorial campaign or life-synching his way through a Hall and Oates song? “Leave me alone, I’m a family man…” (Of course, vote for me, before extending the politeness of privacy.) The leading edge of Olson’s image campaign is an unabashed self-fashioning as The Family Man.
Read More →The Des Moines Choral Society is hosting its annual “Christmas With the Choral Society” on Saturday, Dec. 14 at St. Ambrose Cathedral downtown. For more information, or to purchase tickets (which range from $7 for students to $20 for preferred seating), head over to www.dmchoral.org. Jazz vocalist Max Wellman is
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December 11, 2013 by justin
in Belly Up To...
It’s a toss up, like an astronomer choosing a favorite star in the night sky or — perhaps more fitting a comparison — like a parent choosing a favorite child, it’s difficult to decide which is more enjoyable: balls or wiener; wiener or balls? If wiener is your forte, Des
Read More →Har-di-Har ‘Hard Parent/Thick Child’ Independent Har-di-Har (Cedar Falls couple Andrew and Julie Thoreen) is a fairly joyous experience. The duo’s particular brand of experimental, folky dream pop (or dream poppy folk, take your pick) is one of the more unique sounds you’ll hear locally, and with good reason. Between the
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