Around Des Moines

One Day Blog Silence to honor the victims of senseless violence.

technorati tags: One Day Blog Silence

5th Annual Asian Heritage Festival
Saturday, May 12, 2007
10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Des Moines Water Works Park (directions)
Free admission. Parking $2.

Each May the different Asian American communities in Iowa unite for a daylong celebrAsian. Villages at the 2007 Asian Heritage Festival include: Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Nepalese, Thai, Taidam, and Vietnamese. It’s the largest Asian American event in Iowa. The program this year includes:

• cultural exhibits
• history
• food
• performance artists
• sports
• martial arts
• children’s villages and rides
• other family-friendly activities

There’s plenty of opportunities to get involved.

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Des Moines, CelebrAsian, Iowa Asian Alliance, Annual Asian Heritage Festival

Looking for something to do on Friday nights? The Urbandale Sports Association is hosting the 9th season of FridayFest. Yep, every Friday starting on April 27th.

They feature a live band every week with some of the Des Moines metro’s best musical talent. It’s a great place to socialize in an outdoor setting, with activities for children, as well as concessions.

Dates: Every Friday Night Beginning April 27th through July 27th
Place: Walker/Johnston Complex (map)
Time: 4:45 – 8:30

Admission:
$6.00 (Includes Cup, Wristband, and 3 Drink Tickets)
Children 12 and Under are Free
Group Rates Available

Check out the website for further details and rainout info.

Enter to win free tickets.

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Milo, Main Street Station, Jim Wiggins, Comedy

It was spring break week and my husband had the whole week off. All week we had tried to get out of town, but it was Friday at noon before I was able to break free from my business.

By then, we were both too tired and time constrained to go far, but we still wanted to go somewhere! What about Grinnell, my husband suggested. I said OK, as long as we could take the bicycles with us. We loaded them into our little Ford Ranger and took off east on I-80. Just being in the truck with the bikes in the back made me feel like we were On Vacation!

We made it only as far as Colfax before Tom started wondering about lunch. So we indulged our diets and had fish sandwiches, fries and a malt at McDonalds. Back on the highway, we’re at Grinnell (map) within minutes. This part is definitely great.

We drive around town until we found a B&B I had seen on the internet – alas, no one home. I was starting to envision having to drive on to Iowa City. Then, we stopped by the Chamber of Commerce, which is the former bank building, to ask directions. This is not just any old bank building, but the Jewel Box Bank Building designed by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s instructor. This bank is stunning with huge square panels of stained glass which make up the east wall, an ornate clock above the door and other features that truly make this building a “jewel box” on the prairie.

While there, we were informed of another B&B nearer to campus, so after snapping some digitals, we headed off towards it. A nice lady answered at this gorgeous Victorian mansion, and . . . we were in luck. We took the room with the turret and didn’t even unpack. Just ran down the ornate wooden staircase to get the bikes out of the truck, and we were off on a winding tour of Grinnell College’s Oxford inspired campus which is, by the way, large enough to rival Drake University in size.

Tired, we napped until 8:00, then got up and went for drinks and appetizers at a darling restored train depot now serving as a cozy and elegant restaurant.

Awoke to rain showers, but that made the woodburning fireplace all the more delightful in the living room as we waited for our hosts to put the finishing touches on our breakfast of egg and cheese casserole, lovely fruit with yogurt topping and Irish soda bread.

We had a leisurely morning enjoying our hosts, who were originally from Ireland, and the other guests before we headed uptown to shop around a little. We were back home by noon on Sunday, but felt like we’d had an easy and interesting micro-vacation.

Guest Author: Linda Mathews is the owner of Iowa Process Service based in Des Moines, Iowa, providing service of legal papers throughout the state.

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Grinnell

More than 300 Drake University musicians will join forces to perform Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at the Civic Center of Greater Moines, 221 Walnut St.

The performance will feature all four Drake choral ensembles (Drake Choir, Chamber Choir, Chorale and Drake University/Community Chorus) and an orchestra made up of Drake faculty and other professional players as well as Drake students. Also performing will be soloists Leanne Freeman-Miller, soprano and Drake associate professor of voice, and Stephen Swanson, baritone and professor of voice at the University of Iowa. The conductor is Aimee Beckmann-Collier, Drake professor of conducting.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for students of any age.

technorati tags: Home Turf Network, Iowa, Des Moines, Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, Brahms, Drake University

Nurturing Your “Seeds of Innovation”
Facilitated by Sherry Barrett, Career Resources Group

Have you ever heard the expression, “Bloom where you’re planted”? No matter where we are planted, innovation is a critical competency for individual and organizational effectiveness.

Join us for a fun, interactive meeting in which you will:

• Refresh your definition of innovation
• Learn how to support your own and others’ innovative ideas
• Leave with practical tools to nurture your innovation

Sherry is a certified trainer for The Seeds of Innovation, based on Elaine Dundon’s best-selling business book. Save a few minutes to get inspired by walking through the spring flowers after lunch!

TIME: 11:30 a.m. - Registration / Networking | 12:00 noon - Presentation

COST: $20 for members | $25 for nonmembers | Late Registration/at the door—$30 | Students—$15

MENU SELECTION: Strawberry Chicken Salad OR Vegetarian Thai Noodle Bowl

technorati tags: Home Turf Network, Iowa, Des Moines, The Association for Women in Communications, Sherry Barrett

Twenty-some years ago, artist/teacher Peter Feldstein followed through on a notion to photograph each resident in his new-found home of Oxford, Iowa. Two decades later the townspeople came before Feldstein’s camera once again, this time telling their stories to University of Iowa collegue Stephen G. Bloom. The result - a photo-and-text exhibition entitled “The Oxford Project: Who We Are” - is a candid look into the effects on time on a community.

Sixteen sets of Feldstein’s photographs and Bloom’s texts are now on display at the Des Moines Art Center (through April 29), as part of the Oxford project, which has been profiled in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and on ABC World News Tonight. The attention comes as a welcome surprise considering the project’s humble beginnings.

During the summer of 1984, University of Iowa professor Peter Feldstein hoped to convince Oxford’s entire population of 673 into sitting for a free portraits. Feldstein had been inspired by Arkansas artist Mike Meyer (also known as Mike Disfarmer), famous for snapshots of his neighbors taken in the 1940s.

Homemade signs and word-of-mouth publicity slowly brought the townspeople in. By summer’s end, Feldstein had photographed 670 Oxford residents, each dressed in come-as-you-are fashion with no posing or photographer-supplied props. The collected photos were kept on display for a time, then filed away, almost forgotten. Until recent years.

In 2005, Feldstein asked U of I colleague and writer Stephen G. Bloom to join him in revisiting the Oxford project. Bloom’s job was to capture the story of each resident returning for a photo.

Once again word spread in the small town of Oxford and over 100 participants returned for a second portrait. Many shared poignant personal stories from the intervening 21 years, causing Bloom to postulate, “Two decades is a long time. Or is it? People change. Or do they? Peter’s time-lapse photographs pose those questions, and they remind us of who we dreamed we would become and who we turned out to be.”
Guest Author: Brenda Friedrich

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, Peter Feldstein, The Oxford Project, Stephen G. Bloom, Oxford Iowa

The Art Directors Association of Iowa (ADAI) welcomes Steve Sikora, co-founder and creative director of Design Guys. The presentation will be held Thursday, April 12, at Meredith Conference Core, 1716 Locust Avenue in Des Moines.

For more information and to RSVP, check here.

About the Art Directors Association of Iowa
The Art Directors Association of Iowa (ADAI) is a non-profit organization of professionals working in the field of graphic design. Founded in 1957, ADAI is one of the nation’s oldest art directors associations and strives to maintain and further the profession, assist others interested in entering the field, and encourage high standards of competence. For additional information on the organization, visit www.artdirectorsiowa.org

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Des Moines, Art Directors Association of Iowa, ADAI, Steve Sikora, Design Guys

Drake University (map)

technorati tags: Home Turf Media, Iowa, Des Moines, Drake University, Chrysalis Foundation, HerStory