It’s time for a mea culpa. Once in a great while we here at LV make a mistake. In our June issue (which just hit the stands), we made such an error, running the wrong ad for The Mill. So, first a public apology, but second, we thought you should know that its a great […]
May 2009
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Police, Department of Pointless Harassment
As detailed here in the Daily Iowan, long time Iowa City Artist Virginia Visker was arrested a week ago on drug charges. She was in jail for nearly a week in Manchester, Iowa due to overcrowding at the jail, but was finally released a couple days ago. You may not think you know Virginia, but […]
Posted inAstrology, Community/News
Dr. Star's Astrology Forecast: May 2009
FOR EVERYONE: Bittersweet change. Permanent, irreversible change will come to all of us this month. Events will partly force us and partly allow us to break out of an old, limiting situation and into a new one with much greater promise. Some will have to abandon old expectations for new ones. But the changes will […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Screening Evil
One morning in April, I went to take my dog outside before I had to leave for work. I stepped onto our porch on Iowa Avenue and saw a young skinny man standing still on the sidewalk across the street. A woman with a video camera stood at a distance from him. Moments later, the […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Miracles of God: Album Review
Miracles of God O’ What a Wonderful Day/No Refunds www.myspace.com/miraclesofgod Iowa City’s Miracles of God have waited long enough in obscurity. After years of playing dusty power-pop, the indie underground has finally caught up. A glut of new fuzzed-out pop purveyors like Times New Viking and Vivian Girls sing about the saccharine love and bitter […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Scheusch: Album Review
Scheusch Scheusch www.myspace.com/scheusch Consider now, the guitar-drum duo, of which persuasion is Scheusch. If you leave out the bass player, you only split the door two ways. You don’t have to load a heavy bass cabinet, and you don’t need to deal with the guy who always gets basil when you send him out to […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
The White Tornado: Album Review
The White Tornado Seek Shelter www.white2rnado.com The White Tornado is keyboardist Bill Peterson, who’s been playing shows around Iowa City for some time. Seek Shelter, his debut record, showcases his facility with the piano and organ, not to mention his puckish sense of humor. Stylistically he’s not stuck in any one genre for long, but two […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Eco Ridin'
As of 2009, there is only one Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) in the state of Iowa, and it is located in our very own Iowa City. The League of American Bicyclists named the Broken Spoke as a bronze level BFB last March. According to the League, which has 300,000 members, only 47 total businesses in the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking Movies: Copping Out
Jody Hill’s Observe and Report is one weird movie. I’m pretty sure this dark comedy is meant to provoke reflection: The title suggests that the movie is holding the mirror up to our reality. In a sense, it is; the worst parts of the movie are the most interesting, and the best parts are pretty bad. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Closing Arguments
Superintendent Lane Plugge’s office on Dubuque Street is in the three-story brick building that used to be Henry Sabin Elementary School. The elementary school closed in 1979. Now it’s the Iowa City Community School District’s administration building, and site of increasingly fractious school board meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Plugge […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: Pop Summit
Springtime is here, and I’m ready to rock: in this case, at the Experience Music Project’s Pop Conference, held last month in Seattle. It’s one of my favorite places to be, for a variety of reasons. The event attracts a diverse mix of music-obsessed scholars, journalists, critics, musicians, and other misfits—a strange brew that injects […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Morel Me, Please
A walk in the woods in the heartland’s early spring is intrinsically rewarding, but while you are enjoying those first few sunny days after a nourishing spring rain, why not look for things that can feed your belly as well as your soul? The woodlands of the upper Midwest are teeming with gourmet goodies in […]
