SPlog

Before tomorrow’s sun sets and you head to Canopy Club to hear Chicago’s Company of Thieves opening for The Appleseed Cast, make sure to spend your 80-degree day enjoying them, too. Around 2:45 pm tomorrow …

Opening night at Ebertfest, director Michael Wadleigh looked as though he stepped out of a timewarp.  Follow Ebertfest tweets at ebertfest.blogspot.com or follow @pgspringer on Twitter.

April is National Poetry Month. Come celebrate at the first annual Poetry Palooza this Friday, April 24, at Caffe Paradiso in Urbana, beginning at 6 p.m. The night kicks off with an open mic followed …

17 across: 1908 Cubs player and position 25 across: 1908 Cubs player and position 43 across: 1908 Cubs player and position 57 across: What 17-, 25-, and 43-across were, famously. Unfortunately, the 100-year sting remains…

Come out to the Iron Post on Sunday, April 26 from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. for four bands for five bucks. Paul will have the grill going as usual. All this fun will help …

In addition to all the coverage on Smile Politely, this year’s Ebertfest extravaganza will be twittered (follow @pgspringer), with a stream of posts added to the feed at http://ebertfest.blogspot.com. Note “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” …

From a press release: The parents of Oluwatofunmi Kaiyewu- the 23 year old medical student shot and killed on April 6, 2009, by police from the University of Illinois, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, and …

’80s Champaign-Urbana garage rockers The Vertebrats are reuniting this fall for two shows. Hat tip to The Sandwich Life for pointing this out.

P. Gregory Springer, film critic and columnist for the online magazine Smile Politely, will introduce [The Maltese Falcon], which stars Humphrey Bogart as Detective Sam Spade [Bogart’s first heroic role] plus Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, …

Calling any Good Samaritan in the C-U area: Please come to my house at around 11:00 a.m. this Saturday morning, April 25, and stage an intervention with me regarding the fact that Taco Loco will …

The new addition is literally made of twisted steel and sex appeal. Welcome Van Morrison, a ’91 Ford Econoline with a straight 6 motor, 106,000 miles and a whole lotta love. Caleb Means and Roy …

Thomas Herbert and a few of his colleagues (also known as Project Team #23) in Industrial Design at the UIUC will be holding a raffle this week starting today and ending May 2. According to …

The News-Gazette has some more information on the Market at the Square baked-goods issue in today’s edition.

Local label Hidden Agenda got some mad love from upstate indie rock juggernauts Pitchfork today when they reported on the U.S. release of The Guilty Office, the latest album by The Bats, to be released …

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch the first two programs of Local Cinema @ Paradiso on Friday during the Boneyard Arts Festival. The screening provided a glimpse of huge talent among the cornfields, showcasing …

The Celebration Company at the Station Theatre will hold auditions for two summer productions on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day.  The first show of the …

The Illinois baseball team won two of three from Minnesota over the weekend, and Illinois Baseball Report had full coverage, as always. Now 23-11 overall and 8-4 in Big Ten play, the Illini trail Ohio …

Now that Furniture Lounge has skipped from one downtown to the other, they’ve been taking advantage of its new spacious digs by showcasing visual artists in what it calls its, “FLEXSPACE.” Up next: the artwork …

Thanks to the Common Ground Food Co-op, which is making excellent use of its Facebook feed, I found out about this report published last month. Written at the behest of the General Assembly, the report …

Apparently, a lot. Make sure to check overUC.com tomorrow for photo and video from the event!

Fernando Ramirez paints outside Jim Gould at One Main as part of the Boneyard Arts Festival.

Celebrating all that is good about a) vinyl and b) brick and mortar, mom & pop record stores, today (Saturday) is “Record Store Day.” Exile on Main Street and Parasol Records will be selling many …

Cupcakes. Cocktails. CUDO. Mix the three, and poof! A delicious confection of design goodness. As the featured artist at Cakes on Walnut, CUDO (the Champaign-Urbana Design Org) showcased 125 entries from community designers at the …

Congratulations to Lindsey Scofield and Ben Valocchi, who each won a pair of weekend passes to IMC Fest. Next week’s ticket giveaway will be for the Appleseed Cast show at Canopy Club on Thursday, April …

Here are the new brews making the rounds this weekend. Crane Alley In the bottle: Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti, Port Brewing Hop-15 On tap: Southern Tier Hoppe, Delirium Tremens, Three Floyds Pride & …

Champaign movie-making zine C-U Confidential spins off into prime-time Friday night at Caffe Paradiso in Urbana from 6 to 10 p.m. Free show features more than 20 shorts, trailers, and music videos made in the …

In case you were wondering why WWHP 98.3 FM from Farmer City hadn’t been broadcasting over the airwaves lately, here’s a note from their newsletter: The Whip transmitter is back on the air again after …

Alex Brown Racing, an organization dedicated to fighting horse slaughter in America, is holding a contest for anti-horse slaughter videos on YouTube. The winner of the contest will be awarded a $1,000 prize to be sent …

For the most part, the “change in programming” at WPGU has been minimal, but we couldn’t help but notice this little nugget on there this morning. Break out the bong, homies!

Of course, it’s still a work in progress, but Boneyard Arts Festival begins its 7th year today, and we think that’s something to celebrate. The festival has been split up this year by day and …

Workshop: Strategic Planning for Activists: Personal Maps for Social ChangeMany people would like to see large scale social change, but don’t understand how to make the leap from the big picture to daily life. In …

See all the events that the 217Mafia will be appearing at this weekend here: http://djmertz.com/?p=64

If movies about food aren’t your thing, maybe a movie about gun-crazed men and femme fatales will hit the spot. The Urbana and Champaign libraries continue their film noir series tonight, as part of the …

John E. Marlin answered a few questions about tonight’s ASAP Food Film Festival at Allen Hall. Admission is free, and it starts at 7 p.m. with King Corn, followed by Eat Drink Man Woman at …

Vegan Linda shared a picture of her batch of cookies as well as an esme sauce recipe and some pictures of rainbows in her latest post. Looks delicious. Check it out!

Surprise!

Students and poor people are the main customers of rental housing. These are not people that the Council members are going to run into at the country club. — Esther Patt, UIUC Tenant Union coordinator. …

Rants of a Hyphenated Researcher posted a link to an interesting article from yesterday’s New York Times which examines taxation and tithing among other species. Some have more of a flat tax, while others prefer …

I was lucky enough to see Old Fashioned this past Saturday in what may very well be his last race. The gray speedhorse ran second in the Arkansas Derby after a grueling stretch battle with …

This is insane. And this is hilarious:

Are you following Smile Politely on Twitter? Don’t you think it’s time? And while we’re here, why not be our fan on Facebook?

Thanks to Gamera Gabs for posting this.

D’s partner’s name is Clay. He is 43 years old, and has served in the military for 20 years. Clay is one of at least 65,000 gay soldiers serving this country, and as I said, …

The Urbana Park District had their funding request approved by voters, as well. So, they have $850,000 per year burning a hole in their pocket, and residents have some ideas on how to spend it.

The one percent sales tax approved by Champaign County voters gives local school officials money to spend. They are getting ready to get it spent.

From Illinois Baseball Report, the U of I baseball team rallied to take the series from the host Wolverines after losing the series opener on Friday. The Illini are now 20-8 overall, and 5-3 in …

In observance of Easter, there will be no MTD bus service on Sunday.