Suggestions for New Year’s Eve in Des Moines

There’s a lot of events to attend tonight. Many of them political. In case you are still wondering where to go, here are a couple more ideas:

• GuideOne ImaginEve
• Chemical-Free New Year’s Eve Celebration

If you know about more, let us know and we’ll add them.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News[/tags]

Are We Too Divided?

I was taken aback by the results of a political survey published (12/28/2007) and copyrighted by KCCI.com in Des Moines. The poll is still up but the details are no longer available on-line. In this survey Iowa “voters” were restricted to 500 Democrats and 500 Republicans only, but that is another issue.

The startling point of the survey is that there was no common ground between the Democratic and Republican respondents listing their 3 most important issues. How can that be? We all live in Iowa. I’d like to talk about the concept of divided.

I don’t remember a time when this nation was so divided. I live in Des Moines and work in Grinnell and have an apartment there so I see an interesting mix of cultures. The first time I went to Grinnell I thought I was on another planet. Stay with me and I will get to the divided part.Grinnell is a very small town (9,000) so I also walk downtown sometimes to the movies or coffee house, and in the summer to the Thursday Night Concert in the Park. Between Monday morning and Friday afternoon the only time I get in my car is to go to the Community Meal at the local elementary school. Grinnell is a fun place in a lot of ways — a real throwback to the 1950s.

One of the most interesting aspects of small town living is that I know people from all parts of society — rich-poor, educated-uneducated, old-young, healthy-handicapped, lawyers-people who collect cans for the nickels, business owners-paper carriers and I see them all within a single week and know them by name. Living in Des Moines for many years I didn’t realize how isolated I had become from a lot of the society until I spent time in Grinnell. It is time-warp back to another era.

In that sense (but not in others) Grinnell feels more like 1950 when I knew my neighbors, when I went to high school with a banker’s daughter and with a boy who lived in a downtown tenement and whose teeth were rotting in his mouth, where my tennis doubles partner was the cantor’s son, where more than 80% of my classmates were white but 15% were African-American, where one of my schoolmates went on to a jazz career in Paris, another to head a major corporation, another to fight Muhammad Ali, and others to just disappear. In the 1950s my friends were rich and poor, black and white, from professional, clerical, and labor families, college-bound and not, and where some of my friends worked after school by necessity and some didn’t. We were diverse but we didn’t know it. We thought we were Americans.

I think that we may have lost that sense of one America where we might think first of unity rather than a narrower group identity. As a nation I think we have lost track of each other. Personally I think we know too narrow a cross section of our country. We have lost the ability to come together and do the uncomfortable — to discuss our points of difference and to find the common ground to rebuild the nation. It is so much easier to seek shelter in catchy phrases, in half ideas, in emotional response, or in a point of view that we feel cannot be challenged.

Are you too isolated? Could your view be broadened?

• Do you know anyone who has lost their home to foreclosure?
• When is the last time you had dinner with a CEO of anything?
• If you are a devout Protestant when is the last time you had a Catholic in your home (or vice-versa)?
• Do you know anyone who slept under a bridge by necessity?
• Do you know anyone with a house of greater than 4000 square feet?
• Do you know anyone without medical insurance?
• Do you know an executive of an insurance company?
• If you are white, when is the last time you had an African-American in your home? (or vice-versa)
• If you live in a suburb, when is the last time you had a person from a family making less than $50,000 in your home?
• If you live in Des Moines, when is the last time you did anything with a person making more than $500,000 a year?
• When is the last time you discussed abortion with someone you loved who disagreed with you?
• Can you discuss your moral values with strangers and listen to theirs?

It is time to reunify the U.S. Good luck.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News[/tags]

The I List

This is a fun way to end the year – with an “I” list. For all the Iowa bloggers. Several of us have been posting lists of Iowa bloggers during the past year, but Drew McLellan turned it into The I List. What a great idea!

Go ahead, add any Iowa blogger links that are missing, grab the code and post it on your blog.

Here’s the list with my additions.

The I list:

Adam Carroll
Andy Drish
Around Des Moines
Art Dinkin, CFP, CLU, ChFC
Association of Business & Industry
Association for Women in Communications DSM Alliance
Babich, Goldman, Cashatt & Renzo
Barry Pace
BeatCanvas
Bill Grell
Blue Frog Arts
Brett Trout
Bridges Financial
Broom Wizards
C Wenger Group
Carpe Factum
Claire Celsi
Cloud Nine Diamonds
Compass Financial Services
Conference Calls Unlimited
ConverStations
Dave Dreeszen
Des Moines Families
Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen
DMWebLife
Do You Q?
Dr U Fantasy Football
DSM Buzz
Dwebware
Employer Ease
Enroute365
Eric Peterson
Essential Estrogen
Focal Point Multimedia
George Davison
Gift Idea Help
Home Know-it-All
Insight Advertising & Marketing
Iowa Bed & Breakfast Association
Iowa Biz
J. Erik Potter
Jann Freed
Jennifer Jaskolka-Brown
Josh More
Kyle’s Cove
Maiers Educational Services
McKee, Vorhees & Sease
McLellan Marketing Group
NCMIC Insurance
Purple Wren
Radio Iowa
REL Productions
Rental Metrics
Rita Perea Consulting
Roth & Company
RSM McGladrey
Ruby’s Pub
Runners’ Lounge
Rush Nigut
Ryan Rossinick
Simplifive
SmartPestSolutions
Snap! Creative Works
Studio 24 Design
Sullivan & Ward’s Iowa Law Blog
Swing Station
The Members Group
The Mitchell Group
The Simple Dollar
The Yin Blog
This Ain’t No Spin Class
Transition Capital Management
US Rodeo Supply
Victoria Herring
Wade Den Hartog
Wealth With Mortgage
When Words Matter
White Rabbit Group

Additions from readers:

24-Hour Dorman
Bleeding Heartland
Blog for Iowa
Century of the Common Iowan
Chase Martyn On Display
Cyclone Conservatives
FromDC2Iowa
Iowa Geek
Iowa Guy’s Blog
Iowa Progress
Joe Says So
John Deeth
NewsConference
OnTheStreet
Political Fallout
Political Forecast
Popular Progressive
Price of Politics
State 29
The Radloff’s Random Midnight Thoughts
Thoughts From the Oasis Amidst the Corn

Related posts:

Recognizing Outstanding Bloggers
Z-Listers are now Pic Shots
Sharing the Z-List Collage
Z-List goes Interactive and Mobile on Wiffiti
Have you seen the Iowa Blogga Nostra?
Using Photo Flicks to Share Memories

Writer: Sandy Renshaw is a self-employed communications consultant. You will also find her blogging at Purple Wren.

Behind the Podium in Des Moines

With the Iowa caucus fast approaching, the candidates are making multiple appearances across the state. It’s an opportunity to hear them all and make a decision.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to sit in the section behind the speaker? We had the chance this week. The lights are really bright. It is an interesting perspective though.

Here’s the full speech Barack Obama gave at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Des Moines on Dec. 27, 2007.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News, Barack Obama[/tags]

Commentary: The Sound of Noise

A dance review written earlier this month generated considerable discussion when I commented about the most prominent feature of the performance, i.e., a disruptive audience. Some people thought I was being mean and ignorant and not writing a review. The fact that the audience behavior was more remarkable than the performance was, in itself, a review.

People I spoke with about my reaction and the responses to it split as to when it is acceptable to clap. There are many places in which I have no problem with audience clapping during performances. These include the highly-structured routines of the Rockettes, where motions resembling the playing of scales on a piano do not require musical interpretation.  Outdoor performances of marching bands, where other distractions are already included in the sensory perceptions, also do not suffer from applause. In a small space, such as Hoyt Sherman Place, clapping is more problematic. Sound carries well in that auditorium, e.g., the thud of dancers’ shoes hitting the stage could be heard clearly in the back of the theatre.

A search of the Internet for ballet etiquette pulled up sites that offered information about what to do at intermission while on a date and how children should behave. The rules included going to the bathroom before going into the theatre, not unwrapping throat lozenges, not talking, and being seated when the curtain goes up. Interestingly, after all these rules about how not to disturb fellow audience members or the performers, clapping was said to be acceptable during the performance after difficult movements or when there was something especially appreciated.

This reminds me of experiences I have when I go to restaurants by myself. At such times I am usually trying to read or to write, so a quiet place is important. Inevitably, when I ask for a quiet table prior to being seated, I am told about children in the restaurant. However, my requests are about noise, not about children. Restaurant staff continuously demonstrate that they do not consider music being played loudly through low-quality speakers directly over a table noise. If a restaurant is full, the crowd can dampen the sound of loud music. In turn, the music offers cover for conversations. In contrast, when a dining establishment is not busy, the only reason for loud music is to keep the rock-and-roll-deafened staff awake.

Restaurants can adjust their extraneous noise to capture different types of customers. Such is not possible with dance groups. There are alternatives to clapping during performances, though. The energy of an audience is palpable even before the curtain goes up and receptive clapping at the end of the first dance can set the mood for the ones that follow. During the dancing, audiences’ breathing can reveal excitement or boredom. At the performance that I reviewed, several audience members stopped clapping during the final bows rather than get pulled into the rhythmic clapping coming from one section. This raises a question, was the clapping rewarding or punishing the performers?

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa. 

Commentary: The Misrepresented Cs

“Down with corporations!” “Give me change!” are battle cries of frustrated Americans and voters. Democratic candidates for president are spending millions of dollars arming their enlisted supporters with slogans and other imagery. Republican candidates are spending millions of dollars trying to camouflage their strategies for change. The only problem with these wars is that they are useless. Corporations are not inherently evil and some change will happen regardless of who is the next president.

Health care provides a good example of these points. During calls for universal health care, the wealth of insurance executives and the size of their collective campaign contributions often are used to argue for the need of some type of campaign finance reform. Yet, think of all the people who have difficulty with their insurance company or do not have insurance for a particular situation and call up their elected representatives for help. The elected official or, usually, a staff member, calls up the insurance carrier or health care provider and arranges for payment to be made. The constituent is overwhelmed with gratitude. The corporate executives want to keep good relations with the elected official so they agree to cover the medical costs. However, when the insurance company wants something in the future, an executive can call up the elected official and say, “remember when we helped your constituent?” The voter put the elected official in a position to owe a favor to the insurance company without the need for a financial paper trail that election observers could follow.

Exchanging favors is at the heart of compromise. Even if there is no quid pro quo, opposing sides will each give up something until they reach a mutual point that is jointly acceptable.

Another position that does not make sense to me is all the people supporting mandatory insurance coverage who also object to corporate participation in health care decision-making. Do supporters think that if everybody has insurance, then the insurance companies will pay for everything? The companies are not going to change their behavior.

As for other ideas of change, we’re already under assault. I want a president who can position the country to be a global leader throughout the next hundred years, with benefit for all Americans. Only fifty years ago, trolleys, buses, foot traffic, and other methods of transportation moved Americans. Then the Interstate highway system was started. Now, I regularly hear people opine that we will never be a limited-automobile society again because changing behavior just is not that easy. Yet, time after time, when the federal government puts its mind and money behind something, behavior changes.

I gave up trying to sustain myself on hope years ago. I want concrete plans and a solid vision for how America and Americans will come out ahead in these interesting times of global and domestic repositioning. Alas, mostly what I see is people trying to add some trim here or a new facade there and calling it change.

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.

Weekend Pick: Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

Numerous shows and events get started next weekend, but there aren’t many for this one, except those planned around the New Year’s holiday.  Enjoy the free time and get ready for January.  Of course, if you are volunteering on a presidential campaign, rest is the last thing you will be getting this weekend. Any left over consumables from upcoming parties can be used next weekend to celebrate the end of robot calls.

If you can’t shake that holiday spirit, the Rockettes are still performing through this weekend at Civic Center. If you are ready to take on the New Year, Caucus! The Musical, opens on Saturday, December 29, at the State Historical Building (600 East Locust). Preview dates are December 27th at 7:30 p.m. and the 28th at 8:00 p.m. The last performance is on Sunday, January 13th at 3:00 p.m. There is a wide price range available and it is listed on the web site for the musical. This is an original play with book, music, and lyrics by Robert John Ford. I heard some previews on “The Culture Buzz” on KFMG 99.1 FM and am looking forward to seeing the full show. Some performances are sold out. Check the schedule for a full list of dates and times.

Many people will head to stores to exchange Christmas gifts or to use their gift cards. Here’s a request and a suggestion. Take 10% of the money you receive by returning an item or save by using the gift card and donate it to a food bank in your community. The winter heating bills and the price of housing are going to keep squeezing several families’ food budgets. They could use your post-holiday donations.

With students out of school this week, much of the activity has been centered around entertainment for youth. The East Side Library (2559 Hubbell Avenue) will show Shrek the Third on Friday, December 28th, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. It is free, but bring your own popcorn and pillow. On that same date at the Franklin Avenue Library (5000 Franklin Avenue) at 4:00 p.m., Greyhound rescue dogs will be on hand and information on the program that finds new homes for dogs that have been rescued from places where they were not wanted will be provided.

The issue of war comes back to the front on Friday, December 28th with a prayer service for peace on the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church at 1001 Pleasant in downtown Des Moines. It is organized by the Des Moines Area Ecumenical Council for Peace and seeks to emphasize that children need peace to thrive.

Kwanza is being celebrated this week. Dr. Maulana Karenga founded this event in 1966. It runs from December 26th through January 1st with each day set aside to honor a different character trait. The traits are: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa. She encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com. 

Des Moines is Now Cool Enough for New Years

To hear The New York Times writer Adam Nagourney tell it, you’d think that Des Moines hasn’t always been “cool.” In his words, “there was a time when being told that I would be spending New Year’s Eve in Des Moines would have, well, sobered me up in a New York minute.”

Times, however, have changed. And, as he considers his return to Iowa to cover the January third presidential caucuses, Nagourney is actually looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve in our fair city. He’s not alone.

Even those of us who were born within twenty miles of a cornfield have more to enjoy in this new, reborn Des Moines. Oh, we don’t have the lighted ball in Times Square. But we’ve got a Countdown Clock (albeit one the kids will enjoy at the Science Center) and we’ve got a downtown that’s set to rock (with a free New Year’s Eve Pub Crawl in the Court Avenue District). Citizens now have a wide variety of musical, theatrical and comedic acts to boot.

Des Moines now features four- and five-star restaurants, like Sage, that are still taking New Year’s dinner reservations. That’s cool. Yet we haven’t lost our hold on the past, on old-fashioned farm dinners at Living History Farms. Cooler still.

I’m glad Des Moines is stepping it up. And happy to believe that we’re doing so while keeping it real. Because while we may not yet be a vacation destination, more than ever we’re a better place to call home. And that’s a great thought for the new year.

Guest Writer: Brenda Friedrich is an Iowa-based writer and business communications consultant. You can also find her blogging at Enroute365.

Related Post: Des Moines Shines in the New York Times

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News[/tags]

Seasonal Snapshots in Downtown Des Moines

If you haven’t gotten the chance to enjoy the holiday color in Des Moines’ East Village, Suwandi Chandra has made it easier. Check out these “capitol” Christmas shots taken in downtown Des Moines:

* Published in Photography Voice
* Displayed in JPG Magazine

Guest Writer: Brenda Friedrich is an Iowa-based writer and business communications consultant. You can also find her blogging at Enroute365.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News, East Village[/tags]

Iowa Holiday Lights by the Megawatt

If residential light displays don’t satisfy your desire for Christmas color, it’s time to turn up the wattage!

Since 1995, the most famous central Iowa light show has to be Jolly Holiday Lights at Water Works Park in Des Moines. Popular with the kids, this seasonal sight packs the power of some 75 moving-light displays featuring whimsical holiday characters and scenes. The tour is open nightly from 5:30 – 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. Admission is $9 per car or $45 per bus with proceeds going to the Make a Wish Foundation.

Photo from Flickr

Cutty’s Camping Club at 10500 N.W. 54th Ave. in Grimes is also back with a new and improved light tour. Now bigger and better than ever, the Cutty’s display features with five lighted themes:

• 12 Days of Christmas
• Santa’s Workshop
• Wilderness
• Toys of The Century
• Joy to the World

Hours are dusk – 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and dusk – 10 p.m. Saturday to Friday through Jan. 6. Admission is $13 per car OR $10 per car when you bring three canned food items for Food Bank of Iowa. Special pricing is available for buses.

If you enjoy the sounds of the season as well as the sparkle, consider a visit to Marshalltown. There you’ll find the musical mastery of Eric Rodemeyer, one of the pioneers who brought choreographed carols to holiday light shows in Iowa. This year, as a part of Optimist Holiday Lights, Rodemeyer will have Main Street dancing to tinsel-laden tunes from 5:30 – 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 5:30 – 11 p.m. Friday to Sunday through Dec. 31. Enjoy a sneak peek, or head to Marshalltown for this free event.

Guest Writer: Brenda Friedrich is an Iowa-based writer and business communications consultant. You can also find her blogging at Enroute365.

[tags] Iowa, Des Moines, Des Moines News[/tags]

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