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March 20, 2013 by justin in Belly Up To...

Regress into a night of play at Brecks

Bar staff and patrons care about their health at Brecks. For example: “We drink so our livers have a job to do — we don’t want the little guy getting lazy,” is one of the bar’s recent Facebook status posts. How thoughtful they are of one of the human body’s

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Sound Stage

Band Bombshell Birthday

Local music blog Band Bombshell celebrated its one-year anniversary at Vaudeville Mews last Thursday with a show that featured three local acts: Gloom Balloon, Dustin Smith and The Sunday Silos and Volcano Boys. I’ll admit: I don’t get everything that Patrick Tape Fleming and Chris Ford do. When the former

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March 20, 2013 by justin in On The Tube

Murder? Madness? Maybe

‘Phil Spector’ tries to humanize the notorious music producer “Phil Spector” (Sunday, 8 p.m., HBO) has a startling premise: that the freaky music producer might be a human being. Against the backdrop of his 2007 trial for murder, writer-director David Mamet tries to figure out what makes Spector tick. The

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Geek Chic

Cable-cutters use Roku 3

Twenty-one years ago, Bruce Springsteen’s “Human Touch” album featured the song “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On).” If Bruce had saved this song for 2013, the title would be somewhere closer to “1,557 Channels (and Nothin’ On).” Even worse, all those wasted channels cost cable and satellite subscriptions far more than

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Featured Story, Political Mercury

If schools don’t regulate cyberbullying, who will?

Oh, for the 1970s — were it not for those wildly ridiculous pants. Those of us in older generations remember a time when K-12 educators were asked to teach reading and writing and arithmetic, with a field trip to the zoo or some such place thrown in maybe once or

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Good Bad Ugly

The good Students of Des Moines’ first ever professional improvisational comedy school, Anything Improv, will graduate on March 24 at 5 p.m. at the Gas Lamp, but the ceremony is sure to be more colorful than the Gettysburg Address often recited by valedictorians at high school graduations. The graduates will

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Your Money

Paid for by taxpayers in… Des Moines Public Schools

Amount: $1,255 To: 21st Century Rehab For: Workman’s compensation insurance payment for Robbie Joiner.   Amount: $3,846.48 To: Acme Tools For: The purchase of items such as power anchors, a hand-held leaf blower and a weed eater.   Amount: $39 To: Anderson-Erickson Farms Inc. For: Purchase of ice cream for

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March 20, 2013 by justin in The Sound

Wellman’s road to success

When Roman generals returned home from military victories, they were welcomed back to Rome with great parades. But in the midst of the triumph, the conquering heroes were accompanied in their chariots by slaves, who would whisper in the generals’ ears the caveat that all glory is fleeting. Max Wellman’s

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Film Review

Agit-Flop

“No” 2 stars Rated R 110 mins. Drama Starring: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers Gael Garcia Bernal’s television adman-turned-political-commercial-creator Rene Saavedra is such an ethically ambiguous and passive protagonist that “No” falls flat as a piece of wannabe agitprop cinema. Director Pablo Larrain continues his ongoing study of

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March 20, 2013 by justin in Sound Check

CD Reviews

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ‘Specter at the Feast’ Abstract Dragon This is barely the same band as the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that released 2005 high water mark, “Howl.” Gone is dummer Nick Jago — enter Leah Shapiro — and the band is also clearly still deeply affected by the

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