We are now living in the bizarro timeline and food is just going to get more expensive, so all of us should be thinking about brushing up our gardening know-how. I started gardening in 2020 and I am still an amateur, but I can tell you a lot about how to start and nurture a […]
Recreation
Posted inCommunity/News
Touchscreens and touching grass go hand in hand for the City Nature Challenge, a crowdsourced survey of local wildlife
Event: Johnson County’s City Nature Challenge, April 25-28 What do you see when you walk out your door? This isn’t a mindfulness exercise; scientists want to know. Johnson County residents will join folks in more than 600 cities and counties in the worldwide City Nature Challenge this April. It will be the community’s third time […]
Posted inRecreation
Spikes happen upside-down in Sepak Takraw, a popular sport among Des Moines immigrant communities
Last summer in Linnan Park, I came across a group of people volleying a hard yellow plastic ball to one another across a net. Instead of bumping and spiking the ball with their arms, they were mostly using their feet. From a bench some distance away, I could hear the crack of the ball as […]
Posted inCommunity/News
With City Park Pool closed for the summer, it’ll take some creativity to stay cool in Iowa City
Fashion photos by Karla Monroe, featuring Natalie Lawrence and Lexi Wells at the Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center pool in Iowa City. The last time Iowa Citians didn’t have an outdoor public pool for the summer, Harry Truman was president. The pool that served Iowa City swimmers and poolside-loungers since 1949 closed for the […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Des Moines locals fight to save Birdland Pool and prove the North Side isn’t ‘a path of least resistance’
Generations of Des Moines residents have flocked to their neighborhood swimming pools for fun and to find relief from the heat, especially during potentially deadly heat waves. For almost 90 years, destinations have included the historic Birdland Pool at 300 Holcomb Ave in Highland Park, which opened to the general public on May 31, 1936. The […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
As xBk expands, Tobi Parks is doubling down on her mission to uplift local talent
When Tobi Parks opened a 250-capacity music venue in Des Moines’ Drake neighborhood in 2019, she was enacting her plan B. “I think it always goes back to this idea: I was a musician [and] when I first started it was always like, yeah, you can be a musician but always have a plan B, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Bumper Crops: There’s good food, beer and pinball to be found inside this Quad Cities super-venue
Not doing things is pretty much my favorite thing to do, but I recently set aside a Saturday afternoon to hop in a car with a couple buds, Ryan and Doug, and make a pin-grimage to East Moline to check out Midwest Ale Works. By the time we arrived, Ryan and I were in the […]
Posted inRecreation
Bumper Crops: Ames is for pinball lovers
Valentine’s Day is here, and when I think of Valentine’s Day, I think of love. When I think of love, I think of pinball. The two aren’t that different, really. Both require good timing and the right amount of physical interaction: play too gently and your chances of scoring go down; play too hard and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Caitlin Clark will play on the Carver court again for an Indiana Fever preseason game in May
The Indiana Fever announced on Thursday the team will play a preseason game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Caitlin Clark and her teammates will face the Brazilian National Team in the game schedule for May 4. “We couldn’t be more excited to play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and we know Iowa fans will deliver an unforgettable homecoming for […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Peak Iowa: Drink deep from the Devil’s Punchbowl at Wildcat Den State Park
Wildcat Den State Park is located just a few miles from the Mississippi River between Davenport and Muscatine. The modern history of the park starts in the year 1848, when a settler by the name of Benjamin Nye — who established Muscatine County’s first store and post office a decade earlier — built the Pine […]
Posted inCommunity/News
RAGBRAI riders will follow a 400-mile path across northern Iowa this summer
RAGBRAI LII will take cyclists across northern Iowa in July, from southeastern Sioux County to the banks of the Mississippi in Clayton County. This year’s route, and the overnight town riders will be stopping in, was announced at the RAGBRAI Route Announcement Party in Waukee on Saturday. “This will be our second shortest route and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Peak Iowa: Caitlyn Jenner’s alma mater in Lamoni
What do Mormon pioneers and Caitlyn Jenner have in common? Besides a tendency towards backwards beliefs and manslaughter, they share a deep connection to the southwestern Iowa city of Lamoni (pop. 1,974). Though she grew up in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, Jenner was recruited to Lamoni’s Graceland University, a small, private religious school, in 1969 — […]
