This is a bit of a slow weekend in Iowa City. There are a lot of sports events this weekend, but that’s not the focus of this column. They don’t pay me in beer and chewing gum to talk about sports. They pay me in real (paper) money to talk about culture and the arts around this fair city of ours. Let’s do that!
Iowa City Mill
Posted inArts & Entertainment
First Announcements: Mission Creek Festival 2011
The first announcement about 2011 Mission Creek Festival dropped today. It should be obvious that the Little Village staff overlaps with the Mission Creek staff, and that we have been in the past and will be forever huge cheerleaders for the Mission Creek Festival. So full disclosure: we don’t pretend anything resembling objectivity here — we’re huge fans, we’re friends, we’ve held each other’s hair while we’ve puked.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender: January 13-15
This weekend is eve of MLK Day weekend. Is that a real thing? Probably not, so get out on the town with your young ones and friends, maybe even at the same time.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Tube: We're Never Going to Like You, Governor
Since October, CNN has filled its 8 p.m. weeknight time slot with a program called Parker Spitzer, co-hosted by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker and infamously-humbled former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The show seems virtually indistinguishable from other split-screen partisan debate-fests but for one novel, ratings-courting feature: unlike, say, Crossfire or Hannity and Colmes, Parker Spitzer happens to employ a man who, in 2008, undid years of populist crusading and election night triumphs with some “personal failings” of the hooker-in-a-hotel room variety.
Posted inCommunity/News
Homelessness and Shelter: Part Two
Read Part One The old Black Hawk Mini Park on the Iowa City pedestrian mall was the distribution point, the place for the drop. It was mid-November and a mild autumn was giving way to winter. About a dozen men milled around waiting to get a bag. There were a lot of sweatshirts, flannel and […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Beat: January 2011
In 1953, a guy named Pat Best wrote a song for his band The Four Tunes, called “I Understand (Just How You Feel)” a Pop/R&B crossover that broke into the top 10 on both charts. The original recording is fine, if a bit basic, but soon the song was covered by a slew of pop groups–Elvis even did a demo of it at one point. My favorite version is by The G-Clefs, who, in one of the world’s greatest (and earliest?) mashups, combined the song with that traditional New Year’s jam, “Auld Lang Syne.”
Posted inCommunity/News
Your Town Now: The Month that was December 2010
Porter Agonistes The City Council decided to “defer indefinitely” a motion to decide on renewal of The Summit’s liquor license after Police Chief Sam Hargadine submitted a newly expanded chronicle of Porter’s deepening financial troubles. We’re not saying that the writing’s on the bathroom wall for the man who profited so handsomely during the go-go […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Tube: We're Never Going to Like You, Governor
Since October, CNN has filled its 8 p.m. weeknight time slot with a program called Parker Spitzer, co-hosted by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker and infamously-humbled former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The show seems virtually indistinguishable from other split-screen partisan debate-fests but for one novel, ratings-courting feature: unlike, say, Crossfire or Hannity and Colmes, Parker […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender: New Year's Special
This is the only thing you will need to navigate New Year’s Eve in Iowa City.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Times Club: Interview with Manager and Curator Pete Schulte
Pete Schulte came on board as manager and curator at the Times Club over the summer with hopes of changing how a social space such as a coffee shop can be activated and perceived anew through thoughtful curation and mediation. Since Pete’s first show Gone to the Other Side in September, The Times Club has […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek's Best of 2010
Year-end lists from the staffers at Mission Creek.
