Jordan Weber first began meditating when he was a junior in high school, with visions of professional basketball in his future. He read the book Sacred Hoops by long-time NBA player and coach Phil Jackson, which in turn led him to seminal Western practice text Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. “I was extremely lucky to find […]
Genevieve Trainor
Genevieve Trainor lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Passions include heavy music, hoppy beer, and hidden rooms.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: Anthony Worden, ”Til I Die’
Iowa City experimental pop maven Anthony Worden is concerned about the lack of concern for COVID-19 conditions in eastern Iowa. “I understand that people need to be out there and continue with a semblance of life but to disregard the seriousness of this thing is a little reprehensible in my opinion,” he said in an […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: Gloom Balloon, ‘Libras Don’t Like To Be Alone (Except Logan)’
Des Moines prog pop outfit Gloom Balloon dropped a new album last month, So Bergman Uses Bach to Get His Point Across, I Feel Like I Have Chosen Rock but at What a Cost, and it’s everything you’d hope for from Patrick Tape Fleming — sweet and sincere; silly and sardonic; and lush as fuck. […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Matthew Grimm — ‘Dumpster-Fire Days’
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been holding a lot inside the last several months. I spent most of June crying every day, but I can’t remember the last time I cried since. I’ve been angry and numb and unwilling to hope. Unwilling to feel. Dumpster-Fire Days, the new album from former Iowa Citian […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Marking Time’ by Cindy Hadish
I remember with joy the first DCI (Drum Corps International) tournament that I attended. It was a DCI East Championship, I believe, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, sometime in the mi-1990s. I admired from afar, a huge fan of participating in marching band but, as a clarinetist, having no inroad to the drums, color guard or brass […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
NCSML’s Mysterious Caravan offers a new way to explore Czech and Slovak history: a tabletop role playing game
When Sarah Henderson first started at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library as its associate director of Lifelong Learning, one of her first initiatives was to form a Youth Advisory Council. She believes strongly in the museum’s goal to reach out to patrons of all ages, and, she says, “It’s hard to plan […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Acting power-couple Scot and Marcia Hughes to star in drive-in play from Mirrorbox Theatre
Given the speed with which new theater companies crop up in Eastern Iowa, Scot and Marcia Hughes can perhaps be forgiven for not having shared their talents with absolutely all of them. But the number missing from their resumes is remarkably small. “Since moving here,” Scot said in an email (the couple arrived in Cedar […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Form follows function: Creating new theater works in COVID-times
The theater community in eastern Iowa is antsy. In the five months since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered stages across the country, theater artists here — a region that boasts multiple professional theaters, countless community theaters and new eager startups laying claim to their own vibe at a rate of at least one or two a […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fixtures, equipment from The Mill listed for auction
When The Mill announced its closure two months ago, the Iowa City community that the restaurant and music venue had served for nearly 60 years (48 at its current Burlington Street location) was aghast. Everyone knew that there would be institutional casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic, but “it couldn’t happen here” seemed like the prevailing […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre brings the story of Iowa hero Kate Shelley to life
In July of 1881, the 17-year-old Irish immigrant Kate Shelley heard the sounds of a crash — a locomotive with a crew of four had plunged into Honey Creek, a tributary of the Des Moines River in Boone County. Knowing that a passenger train was due to travel the same route that night, Shelley ran […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A house divided: Old Creamery Theatre faces public scrutiny in the wake of staff firings
Conversations around the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter have been difficult to untangle from one another in our communities lately, at both the macro and micro levels. Emotions are running high on both, and any time or energy spent on one can seem like it is taking focus from the other. And the considerations […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Photographer Barry Phipps
Iowa City multimedia artist Barry Phipps has released his most recent book of photographs, Driving a Table Down (University of Iowa Press). It’s a visual travelogue told over 18 days and 108 pages, detailing a trip taken with his mother from Iowa to Florida, to visit (and deliver the titular furniture to) family. In Zak […]
