Features, March 2010 – Sure, an open mic is like a box of chocolates, but Monday night at the Mill is my favorite lime cream-centered, caramel pecan toffee of a weekly free music night in Iowa City.
Since 1981, Open Mic with J. Knight has been an Iowa City institution, a place where up-and-coming talent shares [...]
The ability to chug a whole bottle of PBR in one mighty draught only impresses your peers for so long. What was formerly an athletic display of swilling prowess becomes something sad, a little desperate. It is a sign of the need to grow up, difficult as that can be to accept. So how is [...]
When considering the alcoholic beverage of choice for the evening here in Iowa City, only the hardcore eco-warriors factor in environmental sustainability. The hardcore are not surprised that wine shipped to the Midwest creates a smaller carbon footprint when it comes from Napa Valley than when it comes from Bordeaux. Nor are they surprised [...]
Popping into the Mill for some happy hour relief is a familiar experience. Push through the battered wooden saloon doors and life slows appreciably. The cars outside continue to hustle up and down Burlington Street, but that has little bearing upon the glacial pace of activities for those inside.
The first pitch just let fly at [...]
On the lookout for real monsters this Halloween? Lace up your boots and join the search for Iowa’s cryptozoological legends.
Phantom Kangaroos
Vagrant kangaroos are nothing new, having been spotted in a good portion of the eastern United States and pockets of California for over a century. But in the late 1990s there [...]
Chuy Renteria is a b-boy. Sporting a cherry track jacket trimmed in white, caramel hair slicked into a pony-tail, the 24-year-old stands alone in an empty pedestrian mall. At 8:30 p.m. on a football Friday, he begins to stretch, reaching for the brick pavement beneath his Nike sneakers.
Charlie Bui arrives casually, boom-box and laptop at [...]
As Summer is just heating up, it is also speeding towards its conclusion. There are just under three months until fall returns, and with it, the school year, cold, and responsibility. If you have a yen for a summer adventure without the long drive and hefty expense of a big city visit, perhaps it would [...]
Driving to Fort Dodge is not what I had in mind on a Wednesday, but when Vicki Price e-mailed saying she and her husband, blues guitar slinger Joe Price would be happy to take time out of their busy touring schedule to chat, how could I resist?
I only met this inductee of the Iowa Blues [...]
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 [...]
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 United [...]
