Cityview | Central Iowa's Independent Weekly

The Dude

Drake prof examines why he drinks the iconic White Russian

Drown the iPhone. Sewer that Blackberry. Bury the laptop in the backyard snow.

It’s time to don a raggedy robe and kick on a pair of jellies slippers. Don’t just let your hair down. Let it grow down.

And find a White Russian. Post haste.

In a world of boomeranging e-mails, constant chatter and 24/7 connectivity, it’s time to go all 1998 on 2010.

We need The Dude, dudes.

As in Lebowski, Jeff Lebowski (aka The Dude), the iconic slacker who helped turn the 1998 Joel and Ethan Coen film “The Big Lebowski” into a cult classic.

Don’t take it from Cityview, man...Read More>>

Tom Miller gets an opponent; Roxanne trails badly

Republicans have come up with a candidate to run against Attorney-General-for-Life Tom Miller. “The Iowa Republican,” a blog, says Brenna Findley, Steve King’s chief of staff in Washington, “has opened an exploratory campaign” to run against Miller. Findley, a Dallas County native and member of the Dexfield High School class of 1994, is a 1998 graduate of Drake and a graduate of the highly regarded law school at the University of Chicago, so her credentials, at least, are as good as those of Miller, who went to Loras College and Harvard Law. Findley didn’t respond to a Cityview e-mail over the weekend asking her to confirm her candidacy.

Miller, who will be 66 years old next summer, will not be easy to beat. He was first elected attorney general in 1978 and has served ever since — with the exception of one term. He sought — but lost — the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1990, so he sat out the next four years, practicing law in Des Moines. Bonnie Campbell served that term; she’s the only woman to have been Iowa’s attorney general. Thirty-one men have held the post since David C. Cloud took office in 1853. Twenty-four of those men were Republicans, the most recent being the almost legendary Dick Turner. He served from 1967 to 1979. Two of those Republicans, Leo Hoegh and Norman Erbe, went on to become governor....Read More>>

Pink Floyd Experience keeps Floyd fans comfortably numb

The influential British group was at the forefront of the 1960s psychedelic movement thanks to the vision of its mentally ill co-founder Syd Barrett. The band morphed into one of the most progressive rock bands during the 1970s under the direction of David Gilmour and Roger Waters, disbanded in 1985 upon Waters’ departure, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Over the years, Pink Floyd became famous for its high-tech live shows and sold more than 200 million albums, most notably “Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Animals” and “The Wall,” which spawned FM rock radio staples like “Money,” “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick in the Wall.”

Like many others, Tom Quinn became a Pink Floyd fan in 1973, the year “Dark Side of the Moon” was released. A senior in high school, Quinn had just purchased his first guitar and was starting a rock band when he became mesmerized by Gilmour’s guitar playing....Read More>>

Open Sesame finds a niche

Lebanese restaurants have never really taken off in Middle America but many Lebanese dishes hit the mainstream during the last two decades, mainly in health food stores and delis. Hummus, baba ganoush, tabouleh and falafel all benefited from the popularization of both the “Mediterranean Diet” and vegetarianism. Those dishes are more apt now to be found in university cafeteria salad bars than in the old-fashioned kebab houses that brought them to America. Adonis, greater Des Moines’ first full service Lebanese café, came to West Glen last year. Named for the Semitic — Greco god who dies and is reborn each year — it closed as winter approached.

Now like magic, it’s reborn as Open Sesame in East Village, a neighborhood much better suited to its adventurous menu. The new place seems to be thriving. I found it completely packed as early as 5:15 p.m. for dinner and as late as 2 p.m. for lunch. The smallest crowd I found at Open Sesame was bigger than the largest I ever saw at Adonis. The new place is not big; I counted 30 table seats plus a bar. Burgundy and purple paint, minaret stencils and Arabic music transformed a former diner into an intimate ethnic café. A flimsy curtain subbed as a vestibule, which allowed arctic air to wind its way to every corner when the door opened on a cold night. Oddly in so small a place, I never smell meat searing, a trademark of Lebanese restaurants in my mind....Read More>>”