Despite months of public protest, the Iowa City School Board voted unanimously during their June 9 meeting to close Roosevelt Elementary and build a new school on the west edge of town. But many in the community never accepted the administration’s premise, much less conclusion, if that meant ignoring the “how” and “why” questions behind […]
Iowa City Mill
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Bowerbirds | Upper Air
Bowerbirds Upper Air Dead Ocean www.myspace.com/bowerbirds The sophomore release from North Carolina’s Bowerbirds opens simply and unassumingly with an acoustic guitar and the voice of lead singer Phil Moore. Upper Air isn’t making a grand statement, nor is it declaring a grand departure from the group’s debut Hymns for a Dark Horse, it is quietly calling […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – July 2-5 – JAZZ FEST PREVIEW
Perhaps freedom isn’t free, but 4th of July weekend is! Jazz Fest (July 3-5) is bringing some of the biggest names in Jazz to downtown Iowa City — all for our very free enjoyment — AND, when the festival finishes around 9:30/10? The Mill is inviting the musicians over for jam sessions both Friday and […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – June 25-28
The IC Weekender is sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, July 2-4, 2009 **** LATE ADDITION: Official Michael Jackson Tribute Dance Party at the Picador tonight (Thursday 6/25, no cover downstairs, dress like Mike (and Farrah) would like! ***** Iowa City has been very kind to LV this week~~ First, special thanks to the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – June 18-21
The IC Weekender is sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, July 2-4, 2009 Oh Weekend, where do you end? And where does Week begin? Oh Sun, you shine whenever you please. And oh Rain, you sometimes fall. But we never stay inside. We go out. For reasons. For reasonable reasons. Reasons that are so […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – June 12-14
The IC Weekender is sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, July 2-4, 2009 Ah, just when we’ve started to recover from Arts Fest, the weekend is here again! Big thanks to Andre Perry and The Mill for bringing yet another world-class band to Iowa City–Last night’s Rock Plaza Central (http://www.rockplazacentral.com/) show was definitely one […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Feelin' Blues
Driving to Fort Dodge is not what I had in mind on a Wednesday, but when Vicki Price e-mailed saying she and her husband, blues guitar slinger Joe Price would be happy to take time out of their busy touring schedule to chat, how could I resist? I only met this inductee of the Iowa […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Big month at the Mill
It’s time for a mea culpa. Once in a great while we here at LV make a mistake. In our June issue (which just hit the stands), we made such an error, running the wrong ad for The Mill. So, first a public apology, but second, we thought you should know that its a great […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Closing Arguments
Superintendent Lane Plugge’s office on Dubuque Street is in the three-story brick building that used to be Henry Sabin Elementary School. The elementary school closed in 1979. Now it’s the Iowa City Community School District’s administration building, and site of increasingly fractious school board meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Plugge […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Living in a Disposable World
I sit with John Solow, an associate professor of economics, to chat about DVD players. Five years ago, his broke. It was a hulking, silver box, a relic of early-era digital technology. Motors whirled in an eh-eh-eh sputter, but, try as he did, Solow couldn’t get the disc tray to open. Where I would have reached […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Deconstructing the Iowa Barn
The Johnsons kept eight or 10 milk cows in the barn. They sometimes kept pigs, too, but cows suited the barn best. They milked the animals by hand. Later, they skimmed the cream and sent it to the local creamery for butter or ice cream, saving the remaining milk for the hogs. That was 1950. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender: May 8-10
The University’s leg of this town might be twitching and tired from too much adderal and final projects, but stepping outside their bounds, Iowa City still doesn’t sleep (until after 2 a.m., at least. Gotta rest sometime). Here’s what we recommend: Friday, May 8th: • Iowa City’s own Birth Rites debuts its debut album at […]
