This past Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day in the Quad Cities, which boasts the only bi-state St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States. The occasion saw hundreds of people dressed in green and imbibing drinks throughout the day. As a veteran bartender, I know that the madness of St. Patrick’s calms by roughly 6 […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘On Fire for God’ by Josiah Hesse
Opening with visceral imagery of crying, flailing children on the floor of a church, Josiah Hesse’s On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right (Pantheon Books) sets itself up to be an emotional and unflinching interrogation of evangelical Iowa. The book follows a religious childhood using gorgeous, descriptive language […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Andre Perry hopes Stop/Time celebrates the ‘spirit of innovation’ Iowa City artists and festival-goers embrace
I first met Perry standing in front of the bar at The Mill (R.I.P.). He was memorable for his manner: he pays attention, asks probing questions, looks you in the eye and seems to actually care about what you say. At the time he had a band, The LonelyHearts, and was working on an MFA in […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Des Moines screenwriter Joshua Johnson on how a Hitchcock spoof he penned 10 years ago became Jason Biggs’ directorial debut
As a kid, it’s easy to see Iowa as lacking in spectacle. But I’d wager we Iowa kids have the best imaginations because of it. With fewer shiny distractions, creatives are able to devote themselves to a craft. Joshua Johnson, raised in West Des Moines, is one of those former kids. His childhood love for […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Free Art Studio finds a new space for their weekly ‘bad art’ workshops in Iowa City
The Free Art Studio, an Iowa City organization that strives to make art accessible for all, held their first workshop in their new home, the Ned Ashton House, on March 8. The studio was previously housed in Iowa City’s Wright House of Fashion. With help from a variety of community members, Lauren Simmering and Penelope […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: Wheatus at Wooly’s, POLYACHi Fest at Gabe’s and more
Established 2001 | Always free! This weekend might see you anywhere from cautious to stoked, with both Friday the 13th and St. Patrick’s Day festivities coming up. Though we can’t say definitively what luck you’ll have, here are some events in our reader regions we’d put good odds on delivering a memorable time. In Iowa […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
237 Collective to mark its new nonprofit status with a cozy night of poetry and storytelling in Cedar Rapids
“We began as a local art gallery and supply shop and quickly realized there was a gap to fill in Cedar Rapids around community connection,” Long-Williams said. Eventually, “we began exploring what it would look like for 237 to be a nonprofit, and after two years, have officially made the transition.”
Posted inArts & Entertainment
With 10 years of electric shows under their utility belts, Jinnouchi Power is making music in ‘dialogue’ with their Des Moines fans
Patrick MacCready was a music-curious kid, but he didn’t take well to traditional music education. “I grew up in Pella and got guitar lessons from a local shop. I found it too scary, and I actually had a falling out with an instructor in the school band because the instruction part was too scary for […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jinnouchi Power — ‘Home’
It can be difficult finding a sturdy, writerly hook for the idea of “home.” What new things can be said about finding your place in this world? Well, as it turns out, there’s still plenty that you can *sing* about home.
Posted inCommunity/News
After flipping vinyl to pay for film school, Isaac Smith now operates a store of his own: Zig Zog’s Records in North Liberty
The vinyl collector bug bit Isaac Smith hard after he asked his parents for a turntable on his 13th birthday. After acquiring a few thousand records since that pivotal moment in 2015, the Bettendorf native recently opened a record store of his own in North Liberty. Zig Zog’s Records is the realization of a pipe […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Athlete and lawyer Paul Robeson was a renowned singer of spirituals, Broadway hits and patriotic tunes. By 1950, the U.S. government flagged him as a radical.
On the evening of Feb. 4, 1932, an eager crowd gathered at the Hoyt Sherman Place auditorium for a recital of spirituals by a man whose bass-baritone voice was already legendary. Paul Robeson was an all-American football player, Columbia-educated lawyer, and star of both a hit musical and a West End Shakespeare production. A Des […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Ballet Des Moines’ ‘Nothing Holds Still’ featured veiled dancers, intricate partner work, the Belin Quartet and a painting danced onto the canvas
Ballet Des Moines offered an evening of world premieres with their latest performance, Nothing Holds Still. The program featured works by three choreographers, each exploring themes of time, transformation and stillness through their own unique perspective. In all, music and movement communicate diverse emotions without any need for words. The program opened with a depiction […]
