After spending the past five years leveling up in Minneapolis, Matt Allen is rolling for initiative. “The Rolling Initiative Tour is my first ever me-headlining, like, I’m-the-guy tour,” said Allen, a hip-hop artist hailing from Minnesota who performs as Nur-D, a month before his debut tour kicked off. Back in 2019, Allen toured with fellow […]
Isaac Hamlet
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Widow7 — ‘Our New Doomsday’
There were a handful of years when I had a strange fixation on the post-grunge band Breaking Benjamin. Strange only because my general taste would grow to bend toward alternative and folk music, though a selection of Breaking Benjamin songs have never gone out of rotation for me. I’d never quite pinned down what drew […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Cedar Rapids Opera celebrates Juneteenth with new, kid-friendly show mixing Mozart and Charlie Parker
Since its early days, the Cedar Rapids Opera has sought to add original works to their repertoire. “I started the company 25 years ago,” said Dr. Daniel Kleinknecht, the opera’s founder, who still serves as artistic director. “It was an idea I had, kind of because in the ’80s, ’90s, so many of my friends […]
Posted inRecreation
From sled hockey to RAGBRAI, Adaptive Sports Iowa wants to give all athletes a team
Wheelchair tennis is kind of like traditional tennis, but with wheelchairs. That sounds obvious, but the two sports are remarkably similar. The only adaptation is wheelchair players get two bounces instead of one. “Maneuvering your chair around and taking the figure eights and stuff on the court is really what I’ve learned, how to hit […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Tips for growing a more natural lawn (that you can still play on!)
“In environmental circles, lawns often times get a bad rap,” observed Fred Meyer, director of Backyard Abundance. The Iowa City-based nonprofit, founded in 2006, is dedicated to helping individuals connect with and appreciate nature. Grass lawns offer little environmental benefit, reduce biodiversity and don’t do anything for local pollinators. That’s made traditional lawns a contested […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa-born author Paul Kix to discuss the 10 weeks in Birmingham that changed America, chasing WWII ghosts in Des Moines
The biggest challenge Paul Kix faced writing his first book: spies aim to leave nothing behind. “I was chasing a ghost,” the author and journalist said regarding The Saboteur, his 2018 nonfiction text. “The point of the [WWII French] Resistance was, you will never have a paper trail … That’s why I had to go […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
‘Pokémon’ voice actor Sarah Natochenny discusses 17 years as Ash Ketchum ahead of Des Moines Con 2023
Ash Ketchum has been to at least eight different regions in the world of Pokémon since his adventures began, but June marks the first time Sarah Natochenny — Ash’s English voice actor of the past 17 years — will be in Des Moines. It’s a visit she inadvertently prepared for two decades ago. “I wrote […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jeff Stagg — ‘Basement Views’
Jeff Stagg · Quiet Day Within 10 seconds of hitting play on Jeff Stagg’s Basement Views I had to double check that I hadn’t hit play on a Todd Snider album. While Stagg is more lyrically agnostic than Snider, thematic overlaps make it clear they have at least some of the same thoughts in […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Where Rivers Go to Die’ by Dilman Dila
Whatever else you take away from this review, it should be noted that Where Rivers Go to Die is primarily a collection of horror stories. Deftly created horror, sure, but unsettling — along the lines of the more mild episodes of The Twilight Zone, at its lightest. At its most frightful, expect tales akin to […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Set and staged in Iowa City, Riverside’s two-woman play ‘The Roommate’ explores the desire to burn it all down and start over
Though the play takes place in Iowa City, and was written by an alumnus of the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, this marks the first time The Roommate has been staged in Iowa City, according to Adam Knight. “I knew the story [before moving here], I knew it took place in this quiet, Midwestern town, […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Nature photographer Anand Varma brings bees, birds, bats and parasites into focus for National Geographic
Honeybee populations have been declining for more than a decade. To keep one of nature’s most prolific pollinators alive and busy, the USDA has been mixing mite-resistant bees and bees kept by commercial beekeepers. “To say it like that makes it sound like we’re manipulating and exploiting bees, and the truth is we’ve been doing […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: River Glen, ‘Drugs That Choke the Vein’
River Glen Breitbach’s latest album, As Above, So Below is a 17-track release that loosely mirrors the cycle of life and required him to assemble 150 Iowa musical artists to complete. The sixth song on the album, “Drugs That Choke the Vein,” led the Dubuque-born musician to make a music video that required a more […]
