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This is front-page news [in January, no less] for your hometown paper:

…find family fun in garden tractor pulls

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Give her a sunny, spring Saturday afternoon, and [local seven-year-old] is hoping for one thing – a tractor pull.

What’s the latest on the Beatles in Branson front?

As you might remember from previous posts, the somewhat sleepy day-to-day life in Springfield, IL, was thrown into a tizzy when it was rumored that Sir Paul McCartney made a pit-stop in a local gas station bathroom.

This, my friends, is the stuff I live for.

Anyway, as I told you last August, Entertainment Weekly published a blurb saying that Paul may have been in IL and on his way to St. Louis in order to meet with Louise Harrison [whose interesting life story I profiled in The Register-Mail], George’s sister, about a potential Beatles museum in Branson. I went in search of an update recently and found this:

On the Liverpool Legends web site,

LIVERPOOL LEGENDS 2009 Branson show opens on March 10, 2009 at the STARLITE
THEATRE!

and this story from summer 2008 confirms a long-running project of getting a Beatles Museum established in Branson, using Louise’s own memorabilia. “The nation’s only Beatles museum is set to open in Branson by March 2009, if not sooner.”

First of all, before you read this entry, could you please just remember this very basic but oft-denied fact of life?:

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way:

Thing that can really suck about being from a small town, #149

When you call a plumber to come over because

A) your toilet is clogged again, since freezing temperatures and toilet-flushing-function are apparently somehow related, and your efforts at plunging seem to be making things worse,

B) your washer has water in the bottom and won’t seem to drain out or let you start a new load,

and when the very young and somehow-strangely-familiar-seeming plumber comes over and is standing right in front of you and you look down on the basement floor and see that somehow your washer has come unplugged,

and you realize in that moment that you, effectively, called the plumber to come over and discover that you are totally blond,

and immediately after THAT, when he checks out the toilet and tells you that, [and I quote]:

“It was just a soft plug, that’s all,”

and you realize that “soft plug” is very likely a euphamism,

and he leaves the house and drives away in his white van and you are already reeling from how this 10-minute episode has caused you so much embarrasxment that you are going to need a year’s worth of therapy,

at THAT moment, it dawns on you that the plumber dude, in retrospect, looks a LOT like a kid you once babysat.

That is thing #149.

A. “President Barack Obama has asked his Justice Department to review the case of a former West Peorian accused of being a sleeper agent for al Qaida.”

Maybe you might already be following the case of the Peoria-based suspected terrorist. But in case you missed it last week, there was a pretty big development in terms of what might happen now that Obama is in office.

If I’m understanding it correctly, the news reports say that what Obama eventually decides [about how to handle this guy] could affect the way other possible-terrorists / average citizens-turned-suspects who just happen to be of Middle Eastern descent [but also happen to be doing some weird things with credit cards] are treated, in terms of whether or not they should continue to be held in custody.

Read the full story from the Peoria Journal-Star ["President has asked Justice Department to review al-Marri's case, The Associated Press has learned "] here.

Despite the attempts to save the place several months ago, the owners of the poor little Student Prince, the mom-and-pop diner on Jackson Street (long popular for that Saturday or Sunday morning need-for-grease meal), have called it quits.

I noticed several weeks ago when I drove by that the place appeared to be shuttered, but I never got around to posting anything about it.

I’ve only eaten there a handful of times, but I’m sad it see it go, mainly because it’s just been around forever.

And because when I was a cub reporter [miserable little pee-on] for The Macomb Journal back in 1999, I did a feature on how the owners at that time were closing shop; then another one a few months later when some other people saved it and re-opened it.

It just seems that every town should have that [formerly smoky] little diner where you can fill up on eggs and toast and endless coffee for only a few bucks, and where you see farmers and truckers and factory workers gathered in the same place with late-night college revelers. Don’t you think?

One small bright spot about this passing is that, according to an ad in Friday’s Western Courier,
those breakfasts will actually still be available, just in a different place:

“East [I didn't know there was a west] Student Prince Crew has Moved to Rocky’s! Same GREAT Breakfast! Just Different Location“

So there you have it.

Order up!

(In Which C-Nor* and Tornado Ali Venture Out of Warm Apartment to Brave Cold and Take In Some Perks of Area)
*the Rapper Name with which I have now officially christened him.

For years now, ever since it opened, I’ve been wanting to /meaning to/ hoping to go to the Figge Art Musuem. Last Sunday, Chris surprised me (making me think we were just, like, going to Target) and took me downtown to a place I didn’t even know existed, the Sky Walk, which I have dubbed the Luke SkyWalker,

then to the Figge. It was as cool as I had hoped. Lots of cool stuff. (Like this typography piece which greets you in the vestibule, and which you are totally not supposed to take pictures of, but which Chris did. Sorry, Figge.)

We saw an interesting modern exhibit on the Vietnam War, which featured an empty room with the floor covered by 240 military-style helmets shaped out of rice, (which was cool but also a little bit broken because the multi-media part was not working. So minus a few kudos on that one.)

There was even a random Dali and Picasso.

I am excited to go back again and pay more attention to what’s going on in the changing exhibits.

Right now there’s a big exhibit on, well, decoy ducks.

Not quite my thing, BUT, it was cool to watch a group of local artists work on their carvings.

After the Figge we checked out the cool little River Music Experience (which houses the Redstone Room, [which has hosted such artists as Alejandro Escavedo, for example], which I also hope to hit up more often.)

And then, finally, for supper: BAM!

“Shops coming soon”….okay, sounds good, but note to developers: we’re good in terms of Check into Cash-es, cell-phone accessory stores, and lamps with wolves / dream catchers / race-car drivers on the shades.

(I’m just saying.)

Wouldn’t a Panera look good in this spot?????? Oh wouldn’t it, wouldn’t it? Pretty please!

Excuse me, Macomb City Council, but let’s have an update, please.

As I mentioned awhile back, the city council has been acting all “double secret probation” and not divulging what, if anything, is going to be announced about the future of an empty building on East Jackson Street.

Here’s some of the original Peoria Journal-Star story from just before Thanksgiving:

Macomb aldermen quiet on $2.3 million project known as ‘Mac’

A mystery economic development project known only as “Mac” may soon be the recipient of a local revolving loan.

Aldermen agreed during Monday’s committee meeting to place a $50,000 loan request by a “non-alcoholic entertainment facility” for Community Development Assistance Program funds on next week’s consent agenda.

The project involves the building at 1405 E. Jackson St., part of which now houses the Sears store and would continue to. Mayor Mick Wisslead said Monday he hopes to reveal the project in early December and added it could be up and running by March.

Well, folks, December has come and gone.

What’s the scoop?

Now, sure, it’s entirely possible that I missed a news report if and when it was announced.

But surely I haven’t been that asleep at the wheel?

Because, I have been hoping and waiting to hear clarification about some strange hinting that Jarvis was doing around the same time.

Are we, or are we not, gonna get a new theatre?

I just don’t understand how we can have a town with 10,000 students, not to mention all the faculty who live here and the parents who come to visit, and still only have two screens in town.

[I also don't understand why, if the City Council is dealing with this new project, the deets of the project are not being considered public information. But I'm not a reporter anymore and I won't be able to do the Freedom-of-Information-Act filing, so could y'all look into that for me, please? Thanks.]

The bigger question is: Will there, or will there not, soon be something else to do in Macomb beside go to Wal-Mart?!?

• We were picked to host a “Neighborhood Ball”! How cool! See “WIU selected to host a Neighborhood Ball for live Webcast” here.
• People from the area are attending, including a Western master’s grad and employee who I think is playing an instrument there today.
• John Podesta, Knox College graduate and highly involved trustee, has been a transition team honcho.

As some of you know, I have an annoying habit of quoting Entertainment Weekly.

I’m really not trying to annoy you.

I just do it because I soak up a lot of interesting information from this publication on a regular basis. [Ok, lame excuse. True reason = I just kind have a Cliff Claven-ish part to my personality.]

But once a week, I do go to the Audio Information Services department at Tri States Public Radio to read aloud and record 30 minutes of material from the mag. It is later broadcast to people with vision- and learning disabilities in the Tri-State area.

[The reason I'm telling you this part is not because I'm Cliff Claven-ish but because I obviously want a ticket straight to heaven. Hee hee jk, jk.]

I really like my little gig of reading Entertainment Weekly.

In case you think this is nothing to really be excited about, consider my heightened status within the Audio Info Services:

when I first started volunteering for them, they had me reading “Cat Fancy.”

As in, a magazine with detailed–highly, highly detailed–articles about things like Feline IBS. Which, for the uninitiated [like, you must live in another country where they don't air pharmaceutical commercials 24/7], stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

In cats.

Anyway.

All of this is to say, I have a sweet gig within the Audio Info Services system, and while I am doing my good deed for the week, I get to soak up stuff that serves my own selfish purposes.

Like this update on the new Johnny Depp movie, “Public Enemies.”

As I mentioned awhile back, this movie–which is about gangster John Dillinger– has a tie to our region.

The little-known fact [copyright Cliff Claven] is that a guy from Galesburg allowed for the use of his car, a 1935 Hudson Terra-plane, in the movie.

So here’s the recent deets:

In the latest Entertainment Weekly, (in a movie preview for 2009), Depp talks about how artifacts and 1930s period items lent a depth of reality to the filming that helped him get into character.

[I can't seem to find the article online, but EW did post a sidebar, a short Q&A with Depp about playing Dillinger, here.]

For example, Depp got to see an actual suitcase of Dillinger’s–fully preserved–in which the man’s dress shirts were still neatly folded. Depp told EW that seeing this gave him an insight into the fact that Dillinger had to be economical and prepared and always on the run.

And, perhaps more intriguingly, Depp said he even got to wear the actual pair of pants Dillinger was wearing when he was shot down [although I don't quite get how-- I mean, like, hello bullet holes? That's a situation where having Shout Wipes handy is just not going to help.]

So it’s interesting to wonder: maybe the Galesburg guy’s car also helped Depp feel really tied to the time period too?

Next: I wonder if there’s any news on the Matt Damon / Decatur, IL front? [See “My Friend’s Dad and Matt Damon: Six Donuts of Separation.” I’ll keep you posted.