Among recording, touring, and performing as a member of the band Arcade Fire, Will Butler has very little time for himself. But when presented with a year of freedom in 2014, Butler told Chicago’s...

For gamers who have played their way through their holiday game list, I would like to suggest a game you have probably heard of at some point but never took the time to play; it is probably not quite like...

Blue Moon has a beer for every season — and then some — but its peach ale is particularly spot-on. Reportedly designed with warm notes for cold days and zippy peach notes for the warmer, this brew...

Lauren Watt is kind of a theatrical superhero. From crying actors to flickering lights to water splashed across the stage, the stage manager handles it all without a blonde hair out of place.  When...

A dancer moves to the music of a violin player and saxophonist. Their gloved hands moves through the air, simultaneously providing data for a computer program called HIDI, which uses them to create a unique,...

Chicago’s Second City improv and sketch group has taught some of the world’s most successful comedians, including Chris Farley, Joan Rivers, Steve Carrell, and Stephen Colbert, to name a...

Actor, singer, and songwriter Chuck Mitchell has been around the block, from New York City and California to a farm outside of Detroit, and finally to a Mississippi River house in Iowa. With every move...

Fresh off the release of his new album, Let the Good Times Roll, on Feb. 10, rocker JD McPherson plans to bring this belief to Iowa City tonight, where he will kick off his new tour. McPherson sat down...

On Friday at 8 p.m., Tim Sparks and his guitar will light up the stage at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.  Sparks is the National Fingerpicking Champion from 1993, after having trained...

“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.” When Harper Lee wrote these words more than 50 years ago in To Kill a Mockingbird, she may have taken them to heart; this...

Harvest Blush Fruit Wine Eastern Iowa boasts a collection of delicious and successful craft breweries, but it’s time our wineries got a little love. Cedar Ridge Vineyards lies just outside Iowa...

The following account is a complete mess.  I’m sorry. The Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival (BaconMania VIII) in Des Moines on Jan. 31 was designed on such a grandiose scale and executed so flawlessly...