The I & I by Teller Bank$ The album opener to The I & I by Teller Bank$ finds the Des Moines-based rapper reflecting on the practical value of processing his trauma through his art. In “Friends,” he comments on the market forces which encourage work that perpetuates negative stereotypes: “I had to swing my […]
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Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review and Q&A: Allegra Hernandez — ‘Gift Exchange’
Musician, guitarist and educator Allegra Hernandez returned to Des Moines in 2018 after their stint at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota was cut short when the school closed. That time afforded them a solid basis in music theory and performances at Twin Cities venues like the venerable 7th Street Entry. Hernandez […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘It was always about building it, destroying it, rebuilding, destroying’: The Cult’s new musical era brings them through Des Moines
On a magical summer evening in 1986, after a fiery performance by the Cult, the sun refused to set. The band’s shows radiated a mystical quality that could realign heavenly bodies, though this anomaly of nature occurred because Finland’s Provinssirock Festival took place north of the Arctic Circle. “You have this strange situation where it […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Hockeyland’, a new documentary from the makers of ‘Saving Brinton’, hits theaters this month
It’s been 17 years since Minnesota-born filmmakers Tommy Haines, JT Haines and Andrew Sherburne founded their independent production company, Northland Films, with a focus on nonfiction storytelling. In that time, they’ve produced, directed and released six film projects — all while Sherburne was busy founding and expanding Iowa City’s nonprofit cinema FilmScene. Their best-known documentary […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review and Q&A: Tom Montgomery Fate — ‘The Long Way Home’
To be born in the Midwest is to become acutely aware of the term “flyover country.” And once you are aware of it, you must decide whether or not you’ll embrace your life here regardless or denounce it and move somewhere else, somewhere more conventionally beautiful and wild. Maybe, if you’ve chosen the former, you […]
Posted inAstrology
Astrology forecast — September 2022
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Now that I’m free to be myself, who am I?” Virgo-born Mary Oliver asks that question to start one of her poems. She spends the rest of the poem speculating on possible answers. At the end, she concludes she mostly longs to be an “empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.” Such a […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Forty years after the Johnny Gosch disappearance, fear continues to fuel conspiracy theories in Iowa and beyond
Listen an audio version of this article here, or using the player at the bottom of the page. On Sept. 20, 1984, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Cedar Rapids as part of his reelection campaign. In it, he advocated for slashing taxes and “the simple values of faith, family, neighborhood and good, hard […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Grassley lacks the judgment we need
By Dave Bradley, West Liberty This election, Chuck Grassley seems much more interested in fooling some of the people all the time, or at least enough Iowans to get him elected. Grassley’s newest lie is that IRS agents armed with AR-15s will be coming after taxpayers. This whopper came shortly after his lie about voting […]
