April ushers in the vibrant colors of springtime (finally!), but it also sounds the first notes of our community’s festival season. The Mission Creek Festival is here! Highly anticipated for its stellar lineup of musicians and other artists, Mission Creek is always an enjoyable showcase of the cultural vibrancy of our home. Iowa City’s festivals […]
Mission Creek Festival
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Along The Way: Mark McGuire shares the details of his journey to the here and now
The Mission Creek Festival kicks off tonight with an incredible set of opportunities to get social at FilmScene, get schooled by Laurie Anderson at the Englert…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Read an excerpt from Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World
Prairie Pop columnist, Kembrew McLeod, will be reading from his new book, Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World, at Prairie Lights this…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek Spotlight: Dead Rider, Foul Tip, Sweet Chariot
Experimental noise, drum and bass, and progressive sludge metal. These are the styles of the three very different bands that will close out the Mission Creek Festival Sunday at The Mill. Chicago’s Dead Rider is the headliner…
Posted inFood & Drink
Get your grub on: Five Days of food in Iowa City
With so much buzz around Mission Creek and the talented musicians and artists visiting our town, it is easy to overlook the stellar line-up of food events that are happening throughout the week. Here’s a five-day guide to feasting through the festivities.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
NCAA athletes should get paid, the question is how much? Hannibal Buress on this and other complicated truths
This year’s Mission Creek Festival welcomes one of contemporary comedy’s leading lights — Chicago native Hannibal Buress. With current starring roles in the…
Posted inCommunity/News
How offices and local technology meet-ups are reshaping the way Iowa City collaborates
On the east wall of the office hang paintings of ships with green seas and yellow skies. The opposite wall holds six brightly-colored abstract pieces that could…
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This Great Experiment of Ours: Interview with Philip Glass
When humanity has moved on and all that remains are the insects making their own music, Philip Glass will sit next to Beethoven, Wagner and Schubert in the history books. His work, often misclassified as minimalism, is more accurately described by Glass himself as “music with repetitive structures” — it is hypnotic, emotive and transcendent. During his prolific career he has composed for opera, ballet, film soundtracks, small ensembles, solo piano work and more. He has collaborated with musicians and artists such as Ravi Shankar, Chuck Close, Allen Ginsberg and Errol Morris, as well as acts like The National. He was also the subject of the documentary A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts directed by Scott Hicks in 2007.
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Philip Glass via telephone about several subjects, including his upcoming performance at the Englert Theatre on April 3 as part of the Mission Creek Festival.
Posted inCommunity/News
Decoding Mission Creek’s Tech + Innovation Festival
Fans of music, literature, food and film have flocked to the week-long Mission Creek Festival for the perfect blend of arts and culture, but this year, tech fans will also get to be part of the action as well. As a new addition to the line-up, the Tech + Innovation Conference will feature local and […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Laurie Anderson interview: An artist of her own invention
Laurie Anderson isn’t solely responsible for me turning out a little bit weird, but she still played a significant role in skewing my worldview. I stumbled across her Big Science album not long after it was released, when I was an impressionable young teenager. This 1982 record contains her unlikely hit single “O Superman (For […]
Posted inPrint Edition
2014 Mission Creek Festival guide
Welcome to the official 2014 Mission Creek Festival guide! Inside you’ll find a slew of show previews, event information, showtimes and ticket details. With the inclusion of a Tech + Innovation Conference, not to mention heaps of literature, music and film events, this year’s festival promises to be the biggest yet. View Schedule Page
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek-bound: An interview author Angela Pelster
Angela Pelster is the author of Limber, a collection of essays that explores the history of her home country, Canada, as well as sustainability, justice and the margins and trees. The winner of a Golden Eagle Children’s Choice award, Pelster is a 2012 graduate of UI’s Nonfiction Writing Program — where we were colleagues — […]
