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December 18, 2012 by justin in Uncategorized

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Featured Story, Food Dude

Zeitgeist of 2012 — new is old

The year 2012 brought the water dragon. For Iowa that meant far more dragon breath than water. The hottest, driest summer in decades resulted in a 4 percent drop in major agricultural production. Iowa wine growers, though, reported bumper crops. Restaurant news was similarly ambivalent. Many of the best new

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Belly Up To..., Uncategorized

Newer, “higher-end” Cabaret opens in Ankeny

Most night-lifers are familiar with Cabaret in the West Glen Town Center well enough to have an opinion on whether it’s their kind of night club or not. The West Des Moines club is buzzing with youthful energy, contemporary music, pool on the patio and shots all around on any

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Good Bad Ugly

The good The Des Moines Social Club announced a donation of $350,000 from Kum and Go in support of the capital campaign to secure the downtown firehouse as a permanent home for the non-profit arts institution. “Unlike any other initiative today, this project boldly changes the landscape of the arts

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Recent Posts, Sound Notes

Sound Notes Pick o’ The Week

The world is a slightly less groovy place now that jazz legend Dave Brubeck shuffled off this mortal coil on Dec. 5. Whether you stick to standards like “Take Five” and “The Duke,” or you choose to go deeper into this catalogue, I’d encourage everyone to hop on iTunes or

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Recent Posts, Sound Check

CD Reviews

Parabelle ‘Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even’  Independent  Parabelle isn’t really what you’d call a Tool knock-off — that becomes more apparent the deeper you get into the album. But there are clear similarities in melody and vocalization that serve to make lead singer Kevin Matisyn a kind

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Your Money

Paid for by taxpayers in… City of Des Moines

  Amount: $123.26 To: ADT Security Services (Pittsburgh, Penn.) For: Quarterly payment for monthly monitoring services at the Neighbrohood Based Service Delivery Office at 607 Forest Ave., from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28, 2013.   Amount: $166 To: Capital Decorating Inc.  For: Payment for services repairing the motorized shades at

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Sore Thumbs

‘PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE’ (T) ***  Sony Computer Entertainment  PlayStation 3  A lot of people are going to dismiss “PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale” as a “Smash Bros.” rip-off, and not without reason. Nintendo rounded up all of its proprietary characters for a silly, no-holds-barred smackdown, and now Sony has done

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Book Review, Recent Posts

‘Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead’

Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Barb Palar Gotham Books  June 19, 2012  $26  287 pp. I was first “introduced” to Brene Brown through a TED lecture on YouTube a few years ago. I heard an interview with her recently on the radio, and she is captivating as well as

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December 12, 2012 by justin in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts

Seven yellow jerseys

Here’s the way I see it. There are seven yellow jerseys to give away, one for each year that Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France victories because of alledged doping. Amazingly enough, the International Cycling Union has no one to step up on the podium and receive

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