IA Confidential is a serial comic depicting true tales form Iowa City’s storied past. Read part two of the story here. […]
Surfwise Movie Review
Surfwise Documentary, 93 min Directed by Doug Pray The floods have got me thinking about water: the great life-giver, the great destroyer. Lao Tzu, the founding Taoist, says that we should emulate water over rock; for the softness of water, which yields infinitely to anything in its path, eventually overcomes and destroys the hardest stone. […]
Horoscopes for July 2008
For Everyone ~ This month brings a combination of flux and stability. We achieve a new and relatively secure status quo. This will lessen our concerns about the future. However, we will also find ourselves grappling with some things. We have a safe place to stand, but we will have difficulty integrating other people or […]
Believe the Hype
When Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back in 1988, it was as if it had landed from another planet. The album came frontloaded with sirens, squeals, and squawks that augmented the chaotic, collage backing tracks over which PE frontman Chuck D laid his politically and poetically radical rhymes. […]
Fields of Sea
Iowa experienced the flood of the century 15 years ago. That, of course, was a different century. Last month Iowans saw floods unlike any in living memory. Fourteen hundred city blocks in Cedar Rapids were inundated with water up to 11 feet deep. Twenty University of Iowa buildings were flooded. Interstates 80 and 380 were […]
Art on the Water
Compiling this month’s Little Village calendar of events and seeing so many flood-related closures provided a somber reminder of the serious blow suffered by many of our beloved arts and cultural venues. Much hard work and rebuilding lies ahead. Below is an overview of where some of these organizations stand now that flood waters have […]
Paul's Picks: July 2008
It’s time to highlight a few paperbacks that are unlikely to receive much national attention. Some are published by small publishers, which can’t buy expensive lunches for the New York Times reviewers. Others have been out of print for a while and are being republished on the chance that they might find their audience on […]
Twisted: A Balloonamentary Movie Review
Twisted: A Balloonamentary Documentary, 79 min Directed by Naomi Greenfield and Sara Taksler How much does the best-paid poet in the world make? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot less than one woman in Twisted: A Balloonamentary, who declares that she took in $1.5 million last year for twisting balloons into […]
On the Beat: At least the shows will be smokin’
UR Here: Farewell, Mr. Higgins
To Protect Through Fear
Escape the Floodwater Jug Band – Wrong Doings and Done Wrongs CD Review
Escape the Floodwater Jug Band Wrong Doings and Done Wrongs Whiskey for Breakfast Records [audio:Escape the Floodwater – Rag Mama.mp3] Escape the Floodwater – Rag Mama (mp3) It’s perhaps apt that Escape the Floodwater Jug Band’s new album comes out just in time for the great flood of 2008. The band photo on the back […]