SPlog

I just got my first cleaning in about 5 years earlier this month and now my teeth feel like perfectly smooth diamonds. Give your child the gift of this wonderful sensation on Wednesday Saturday from …

Champaign-Urbana is listed in a recent article that details five cities struggling the most to recover from the recession. According to the report, only 2.7% of lost jobs will be recovered by the end of …

In a local edition of a Pygmalion Music Festival Afterglow show, Krannert is hosting Common Loon and Elsinore on Saturday, March 31.  The series has featured the likes of The Walkmen, Margot and the Nuclear …

From the News-Gazette: Anthony Cobb was named chief of Champaign police at a news conference Friday morning. He will take the post on March 12. Cobb, 42, has been the assistant chief in Urbana, and …

Today on SP Radio, we are joined by Smile Politely food writers Susanna Kline and Seth Fein. They will talk about the ever changing landscape for local cuisine. We’ll be discussing the emergence of new …

For those of you in town that love to dine out, the Champaign Center Partnership is hosting this year’s Restaurant Week all over the city of Champaign — Downtown, Midtown, and Campustown — starting tonight, …

Well written, and fairly heart-wrenching. Hard to blame the kid if he chooses to head out after this season: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7501291/illinois-fighting-illini-meyers-leonard-shoulders-plenty-college-basketball

An announcement on the University of Illinois Assembly Hall’s Facebook page calls for interested UIUC students (take a hike, Parkland!) to become street team members this semester. If you love promotions and marketing (and who …

Is your band just starting out and looking for fame, fortune and fans? Is being in the band the only way for you to get into the Canopy Club? Does your mom drive you to …

The other night, my spouse, who is an academic in the field of plant biology, made me watch an episode of the show Modern Marvels about “Stink” on H2 (or history to the deuce as …

After Newt Gingrich scored some points during his South Carolina campaign by calling Barack Obama the “food stamp president,” C-U Citizen Access’ Dan Petrella took a look at local Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program enrollment. Nationally, …

Tonight is the second installment in the “Two Beers with Dylan Heath” series at the Iron Post.  This month’s guests are Lisa Bralts-Kelly, host of WILL’s “In My Backyard”, Janelle James, local comedian (opened for Todd …

Two former University of Illinois Dept. of English PhD. students made the front page of The Chronicle of Higher Education with their thoughts on being turned down for countless jobs. While this is an especially …

January 9, 2012: NAPAMA Awards Presented at APAP Awards Luncheon NAPAMA is the association of North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, a not-for-profit service organization founded in 1979, and dedicated to promoting the professionalism …

Oh, Allen. Just when you say something crazy enough for me to start caring about you, you up and take your ball and go home. Looks like the local Republicans are in just about as …

Yesterday I received an email from occasional SP contributor, C-U business person, and good friend Tony Pomonis asking me to pony up $25 so he could go bowling. I immediately moved to delete his email …

Smile Politely would like to be your go-to source for free food information in Champaign-Urbana. If you hear about free food being available, shoot us an email at info@smilepolitely.com.

Today on SP Radio we’ll have Drew Phillips from Big Bluestem Band. We will discuss the band, it’s musical repetoire and the local string band music scene. Plus we’ll probably play some actual music! Big …

I wonder if Penn State can equal Illinois’ attendance (about 3,700, if I recall correctly) at last year’s snow bowl.  

Where: La Casa Cultural Latina When: Thursday, Jan. 19, 7:00–8:30 p.m. With the myth of corporate personhood as a starting point, A. Belden Fields, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, will tackle some of the most …

From the press release: One of the most eagerly anticipated young adult books of 2012 will be launched at the Champaign Public Library. Champaign author Julie Cross’s action-packed debut novel, Tempest, was released on Tuesday, …

From a press release: Our local OccupyCU is holding a protest of the Citizens United decision about unlimited corporate money in politics this Friday, Jan. 20, at 11:45 AM at the corner of Vine and …

The East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra will give its winter concert Monday night (MLK Jr. Day) at 7:30 at Smith Recital Hall on the UI campus — and it’s free. The program: Beethoven, Coriolan Overture …

From the Gazoo: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2012-01-15/illegal-poker-parlor-busted.html  

Today on Smile Politely Radio, we are joined by local concert booker Ward Gallings. He will be in studio to discuss the 2012 edition of the Great Cover Up, which is celebrating its 21st year …

Well, not the actual front page of cbssports.com (it is a Wednesday in January, after all), but the front page of the college basketball section. Check out the clever headline:

Brandon Paul & Meyers Leonard a little more Brandon Paul Bruce Weber Thad Matta

This week, Urbana Public Television presents a lecture by food systems analyst Ken Meter. It airs Tuesday 1/10 @ 7:30 pm, Wednesday 1/11 @ 4:00 pm, and Saturday 1/14 @ 7:30 pm. Ken Meter is …

From a U of I News Bureau release: CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Jeff Christensen, deputy chief of police and assistant director of public safety at the University of Illinois, temporarily will assume the department’s top leadership …

Apparently Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray, the televesion show Extra) has taken a shining to local band Easter. According to Easter’s Facebook page, a friend of the band sent McGrath a link to a video of …

According to a source, this is the year of “olive green, yo”.  In case you missed it, Pygmalion Music Festival dates were announced last week and will take place September 27-29, 2012. Rejoice, all.

C-U Citizen Access has a blog post up with an interactive map detailing census data for households which moved into and out of Champaign County between 2009 and 2010. For instance, 91 people moved from …

The Canopy Club is listed as #88 on Pollstar’s year-end worldwide ticket sales list. Not too shabby.                                      

Item! Smile Politely will be resuming regular publication tomorrow, Monday, January 9. We plan to have three or four articles a day, five days a week, including Mondays. The whole several-posts-on-Monday thing may fall apart …

West Coast DJs 6blocc and Matty G are two of the pioneers of American dubstep sound. Champaign is lucky to have both veteran selectors here in the same night at the same venue! For more …

It’s hard to be the oldest son of the greatest basketball player on earth, especially if you also play basketball, as opposed to say, rebuilding engines or practicing medicine.  After Jeff Jordan quit, then rejoined, …

Lisa Troyer, Chief of Staff to President Hogan, resigned Friday “amid an investigation into whether she sent anonymous emails posing as a faculty leader to try to influence a faculty decision.” Link to the Chicago …

And we’re back up! We apologize for the lengthy downtime. As you all know, our CMS has been getting hacked pretty consistently lately. And it’s been brutal trying to keep up with the spam robots. …

Hurricane Ruth is blowing into town and this is one storm you don’t want to miss. Join Prairie Crossroads Blues Society, WEFT, and Memphis on Main for the January 1st Friday Blues Event, Jan. 6, …

This Saturday, the Champaign County Humane Society is waiving adoption fees for any pet that’s been living at CCHS for more than three months. And something tells me that this adoption agency won’t care if …

Tonight on Smile Politely Radio, we chat with the director and actors from the upcoming show Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Station Theatre in Urbana. Mathew Green, Katie Baldwin, and Rob Zaleski offer up some …

A once vaunted recruiting class seems to be dwindling before our very eyes, and with it, my nostalgic feelings towards Bruce Weber. Head, via ESPN: “I want to go somewhere they play my style of …

Dear loyal readers, As usually happens around this time of year, we’ll be taking a break from our regular calendar for three weeks, starting today. So, you can still submit items to the SPlog, and …

Guess who took that photo. And guess whose hand that is. Oh, and there’s some other stuff about Bon Iver.

Now that Urbana-native Tommy Craggs is running the show at Deadspin, we can be sure that our little burg will get more attention than usual from the infamous sports magazine. http://deadspin.com/5870772/espn-really-doesnt-know-where-champaign-ill-is

NPR’s Bruce Warren picked his five favorite Bandcamp discoveries for 2011 and C-U’s very own Dirty Feathers made the cut. The songs all sound familiar (a little Doors here, a little White Stripes there, a …