March in the actual world might be known for St. Patrick’s Day or warmer weather (hopefully), or a certain kind of basketball madness, but in the music world, it’s all about one thing: the SXSW music festival and conference in Austin, Texas. Perhaps the biggest and most indulgent exercise in industry self-love ever to be […]
Public Space One
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – February 27-March 1
February’s almost over, but before it is, celebrate Black History Month and catch some musical battles. Friday, February 27 Summercamp Battle of the Bands | The Yacht Club | 8pm | $5 One of two battles going on this weekend (the other being Saturday’s Dollars for Scholars battle at the IMU). Friday night, Uniphonics, Dead […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa City Weekender – January 30-February 1
There’s a little something going on this Sunday called the Super Bowl. 43% of all U.S. households watch the event and chances are that, even if you think football is for savages, somebody will invite you for a party. You should go for the guacamole if nothing else. And did you know that the Super […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Beat: Prepare to be judged
January is the month of perpetual hangovers, and if December was any indication, the whole damn town might be frozen over. So I’m going to partake in the long tradition of using the New Year to pass judgment and make changes—though, not on myself (fine, more vegetables), but on the local venues (Mill: more vegetables!). […]
Posted inCommunity/News
New Politics, New Media
August 13, second day on the job. The 12th I spent in Barack Obama’s Iowa City office, blasting his Facebook supporters with mass emails. The promotion du jour: the senator’s “Be the first to know!” text-message program, a nifty campaign to buzz cell phones “the moment Barack makes his decision” for a vice-presidential candidate. I […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Smart
In this world of excess where all of us end up spending money on things we don’t need, and racking up credit card debt to do it, why not think twice about your luxury purchases? I know when I go on a shopping spree, I always feel better about myself if I come to my […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Beat: Breaking in the new year
I want to have a commemorative plate destruction party. I was thinking about some Christmastime introduction to this column, and all I could think about was some single woman carefully setting up commemorative plates around her living room, in their little stands, and getting the lighting just right, and it was making me insane with […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Freedom Through the Press
Palestinian women speak out with their art. “There are hands that give love and affection while there are hands that steal the soul and take away life. What is so startling to us is that one hand is capable of both.” — Hani Zo’roub, artist, born in Rafah, Gaza in 1976 “The role of art […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Hog Haven
As local officials responded to the threat of floods in southeastern Iowa with repeated appeals for help with sandbagging, I jumped at the chance—to bury my head in the sand, or a sandbag, whatever could be spared. The last time I volunteered during a disaster, the results were disastrous. I’d been part of a mission […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: 12 Days…To Drown Out Holiday Muzak with Twisted X-mas Rock.
Organized religion is responsible for more bloodshed than any institution in human history, but Christmas music is its biggest sin. I hate those songs—and the hegemony they hold over the airwaves, public spaces and every nook and cranny of our subconscious in the weeks leading up to Jesus’s birthday. Nevertheless, I make an exception for […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best Of, Schmest of, Part Deux
BEST FORMER ROCK & ROLLER LIVING MORE OR LESS QUIETLY IN IOWA CITY: Pete Balestrieri Pete Balestrieri was a mainstay of the rotating assembly of musicians known as the Horns of Dilemma, who the Violent Femmes used to add a generous portion of crazy to their live shows, and he appears on several of their […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mannix Attack
For Iowa native Karlee Mannix, doodles turned into an art degree and high school choir turned into a family-affair band. Karlee, an Iowa alum, enjoys her eclectic life. When she is not working as a photographer’s assistant at The Portrait Shop in Coralville, she is singing in Iowa City bars with her husband and guitarist, […]
