Last Chance! You CAN win! Downtown supports the Crisis Center

Recipe for today through Sunday, August 1: 

• Bring your cans to the businesses listed below.
• Fill out one entry form per can donated.
• Be eligible for one of three gift coupon baskets worth $500 each.

Result: win win all around, and especially for the Crisis Center--- Read on:

Twenty  local businesses are joining the fight against hunger in our community by supporting the Crisis Center Food Bank’s Thanksgiving in July Event. “We're giving away the most food bags that we ever have," said Beth Ritter Ruback, communication and development director at the center." In the past 10 years, it's more than doubled. The need for food is great in our community is great- especially during the summer months as school age children are at home. Downtown Iowa City businesses want to help.

Twenty locally owned and/or operated businesses in downtown Iowa City (Discerning Eye, Textiles, RSVP, Herteen and Stocker, Hands Jewelers, Beadology, Om, Dulcinea, Lorenz, Fired Up, Technigraphics, Iowa Artisans Gallery & DJ Rinner Goldsmith, Bella Joli, Modela, Sweets and Treats, Glassando, Velvet Coat, Revival, Active Endeavors and Home Ec Workshop), have joined the fight against hunger by collecting canned goods continuing through this weekend Sunday, August 1.

These donated cans will be displayed in store windows or within in-store displays to create a visual representation of community helping community. To encourage donations, each donations will allow patrons entry into a drawing for three sizable downtown gift certificate baskets. Each basket will contain one gift certificate from each participating business-that’s 20 gift certificates in all! Patrons are encouraged to bring in as many cans as they can carry to as many businesses as they can visit to increase chances of winning. Three names will be drawn on Monday, August 2. Look for the "Small Businesses Have Big Hearts" poster displayed in your favorite stores and bring in a can or two before time runs out-The Downtown Can Drive Ends Sunday!

The economic slow down, job layoffs, termination of unemployment benefits, rising food and medical costs-the list goes on. There are many reasons for the increased requests for food assistance in Johnson County.  Thanksgiving in July is a community-wide food drive that provides assistance to the hungry, homeless and working poor.

Your Downtown shares a common commitment to community- bring in your donations and watch our store windows fill!

Parking meters- or are they?

Iowa City's Donation Stations.

There they are, in the middle of the Ped Mall, an innovative solution other cities have used to help funnel spare change directly to organizations serving the homeless and those in need of assistance. But you wouldn't know this unless you come for a close-up inspection. They ARE purple. Wendy Ford, Iowa City's Economic Development Staffer who's also involved with downtown issues, assures us that there are plans to make them artistic, to place more of them, including sponsored meters. Why not involve UAY or other organizations to paint them? A good idea. Next time you have spare change, you know what to do...

More Book Festival Pictures = Discerning Eye + Carl Klaus

The venues on the Festival lineup were not large. The women's clothing store, Textiles, reports standing room only for their author. Carl Klaus read at Discerning Eye on Sunday at 1 p.m.  With 40 people in attendance the report is, "he was just great! I served cookies and lemonade and many people stayed to visit afterward." See for yourself, as Carl tries alludes to some of what Discerning Eye's known for...

Pictures! The Iowa City Book Festival visits r.s.v.p

What a great event the Iowa City Book Festival was! In its second year, this time there were three days of activities, including one focused on downtown.  Mark at Active Endeavors reports an increase in traffic and sales. "The Book Festival was a hit, and well attended!"

 r.s.v.p., another downtown business located in the Near Northside, hosted UI Graduate Kiki Petrosino, who read new poems. Kiki was born in Baltimore and received her BA from the University of Virginia. She spent two years in Switzerland teaching English and Italian at a private school, after which she earned graduate degrees from both the University of Chicago and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her poem, "You Have Made a Career of Not Listening," was featured in the anthology Best New Poets 2006 (Samovar Press), and other poems have appeared in FENCE, The Iowa Review, Forklift, Ohio, and elsewhere. Kiki presented her poems at a podium in front of a display photos created by Tom Langdon. Tom's exhibit, Writers of the World featured portraits and photographic broadsides of visiting poets and writers from the UI International Writing Program. 

Karma

So, you know that little problem with Panchero's I mentioned yesterday:
I am happy to report today that all is well. Panchero's humming again, and our favorite purveyor of homemade tortillas is doing just fine.

snapshots: sidewalk sales, bargains on a super summer day

Following yesterday's  hottest-yet summer steambath, today was pure enjoyment in downtown Iowa City. Here are a few snapshots of sidewalk sales in progress.

Sidewalk Sales continue through Saturday. Downtown Businesses are also collecting canned food to benefit the Crisis Center. Each can qualifies the donor to one entry form for a drawing for one of three baskets, each containing more than $400 worth of gift coupons to downtown businesses.

Friends at Panchero's brought some of our downtown staffers some welcome complementary chips and salsa, then suffered through a 911 call with fire fighters in their kitchen area. Checking out the evening news: no mention, so hopefully Panchero's good karma allows them to slip out of this without harm. (Dulcinea, shown above)

Prairie Lights' stylish shade, pottery finds at Iowa Artisans Gallery

Hula skirts on sale tables at Domby's; Spring cleaning the  awning at Panchero's

July means... Sidewalk Sales!

Time to get the calendar out. Sidewalk sales start this Thursday, Friday & Saturday, July 15-17 at many locations in downtown Iowa City. It's the biggest sale of the year and your favorite time to find bargains at Prairie Lights Books, Active Endeavors, and many more of your local favorite stores. Iowa Artisans Gallery also sells artist "seconds" on this day. These are works that look quite wonderful to shoppers but may not quite meet the artists' high standards and are usually priced about 50% off of their customary prices. The Gallery will also do some housecleaning on gallery-owned items.

On Sunday, look for the Iowa City Book Festival as it expands into downtown Iowa City with its A Day in the City of Literature. We'll post about this exciting event tomorrow.

Where's the Secret Passageway?

Here's a clue: How do you get to the Near Northside Neighborhood? Let Mr. Irving Weber show you the way. Oh, so you say he's been gone for a while now. No, I hope not, at least not his life-size sculptural likeness created by Max-Cast Studio in Kalona. Irving Weber was Iowa City's resident historian and one time purveyor of Ice Cream. The Irving Weber Days are a city-sponsored celebration that takes place every year, but I digress...

No, let Irving Weber lead the way. He's located at the three-way stop on the corner of Iowa and Linn Streets, flanked by the University. (You can get mighty distracted by the literary walk showcasing quotations by famous authors with Iowa connections, embedded as sculptures in the sidewalks there. Rumor has it that at some point in the future, this literary walk will be extended to the near Northside.) Go see Irving, then proceed beyond in the passage way between the Physics Building and Seashore Hall over to East Jefferson St. Continue to follow Linn St over to Market St, and there you are. You've found it! It's a handy five minute diversion that doesn't even require parking. 

The Northside is a great little incubator of interesting shops and restaurants, from upscale to funky. Check out Home Ec Workshop, Haunted Bookshop, rsvp, modela and Artifacts. Make sure you're hungry! So many options: Hamburg Inn, Oasis, Devotay, Linn St Cafe, Bluebird Diner, T-spoons,  and more. A guided tour will follow on another day.

Green Drinks, Red Avocado & Iowa City EcoCabs

Iowa City Green Drinks meets on the second Thursday of each month, and the next gathering is this Thursday, July 8th at The Red Avocado (521 E. Washington St.) beginning at 5:30 pm. Everyone is invited to join this informal group for food and/or beverages while discussing a wide range of environmental issues (and ideas) in the Iowa City area.

At the June gathering, our local contact Risa Dotson- Eicke reported that the group discussed bottled water and two 2009 documentaries: GasLand and Tapped. "We also talked about edible planting in urban areas, like medians in Des Moines and beans in downtown Iowa City. We discussed the uses of used kitchen grease from restaurants, including bio-diesel, and whether or not the containers that soy milk and boxed soup come in are recyclable." Green Drinks is a great way to learn and to connect with other local environmentally-minded people. For general info and a list of local green events visit the website. To receive email reminders and info on Iowa City Green Drinks, join the email list.

By the way, The Red Avocado has been with us here in downtown Iowa City for more than 10 years. If you check the website for this vegetarian/vegan restaurant, you will see that they have started working with Iowa City Ecocabs, a local bicycle cab service which will deliver Red Avocado lunches every Friday to the downtown area. Sounds like an interesting topic for another post!

It's Jazz Festival time!

 Rowell Rudd's Trombone Tribe, headliner on Saturday

Iowa City swings...Check out the Iowa City Jazz Festival, Friday through Sunday July 2-4. Saturday nights' 8pm headliner is Roswell Rudd’s Trombone Tribe. Sunday night's is the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio. And the list of ensembles is long- read more here.

Live music takes place on various stages in downtown Iowa City, Friday 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm; Saturday 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm
  and Sunday 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Sunday's performance will be followed immediately by fireworks in Hubbard Park on the UI campus. Three stages include the Main Stage at Old Capitol Building; the Youth Stage at Iowa Avenue; and the Local and College Stage at Clinton Street. Grab a bite, bring your lawnchairs and let the fun begin.

Public Property, a local favorite

The Summer of the Arts website introduces a new feature to this year's Jazz Festival: Listen, Learn and Ask Questions of Three Unique Jazz Performers. This presentation will take place Saturday, July 3rd 10am to noon in the Carver Room at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Iowa City and is sponsored by aGrant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Here's a chance to listen to some of our internationally known mainstage performers tell stories about their musical odysseys, their approaches to learning how to play jazz and answer your questions. The workshop will include:

Roswell Rudd, trombonist and composer & leader of the Trombone Tribe, performing on the mainstage at 8:00 pm Saturday evening. This year Rudd was selected as one of the top jazz trombonists in the Downbeat Magazine’s Critics poll and leader of the best jazz CD’s of the year by the Village Voice. In addition to having played with such jazz notables as Carla Bley, Archie Shepp and his long-time collaborator, Steve Lacey, Rudd also has performed and recorded world and ethnics music with traditional musicians from Mongolia, Mali and Puerto Rico.

Bob Washut, pianist, composer, arranger and educator is Professor of Music at the University of Northern Iowa. He has received numerous commissions for collegiate jazz ensembles and directed the award-winning UNI Jazz Band One. Washut was also the founder of the well-known salsa band, Orquestra Alto Maiz. Washut’s Dream Band will also be the headliner on the mainstage Friday evening.

Deborah Weisz, jazz trombonist and educator. From playing in the Sahara Desert, just North of Timbuktu, to creating music in a grain silo at an artist colony in upstate New York, to traveling all over the world with Frank Sinatra (1987 - 1994). Weisz will be performing with the Trombone Tribe on Saturday evening.

Riverside Theatre's Shakespeare Festival- now through July 11

There's still time to visit Riverside Theatre's Shakespeare Festival, ongoing in Lower City Park now through July 11. If you've never attended, you're in for a treat, and the spectacular weather of the last week makes it even more fun. Riverside alternates Shakespeare's Love’s Labour’s Lost with Romeo and Juliet. Love's Labor's Lost is directed by Theodore Swetz and is shown on July 3, 6, 8, 11. Romeo and Juliet is directed by Riverside Theatre founder Ron Clark and can be seen on July 2, 7, 9, 10. Read more about these performances on the Iowa Theatre Blog or in reviews in the Gazette or Daily Iowan posted on Riverside Theatre's website.


Based in downtown Iowa City, Riverside Theatre is celebrating 30 years of excellence. The Shakespeare Festival is one portion of the Theatre's lineup. In order to pull of the Festival, Riverside showcases a separate 2010 Acting Company, as well as a 2010 roster of interns. Riverside has been on the Iowa City Press Citizen's "Best of the Area" list for 2001-2009, and KCRG's A-list  as "Best Theatre Group 2009." The Iowa Theatre Blog was founded by Matt Falduto in 2007.