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!