Recent Smile Politely Entries
- Ask Politely #3108/29/08 - Smile Politely Editors
- Hurry to Mackinaw Valley Vineyard Before Grape-Picking Season Ends08/29/08 - Sam Vandegrift
- Curlin Ready for Saratoga — Will He Meet Big Brown?08/29/08 - Jamie Newell
- An Epidemic of Hip-Hop’s Illest Descend Upon the Cornfields08/29/08 - Edward Moses
- Man on Wire: Following the Object of One's Obsession08/29/08 - Chuck Koplinski
- Jared Bartman Plays Monday on WEFT08/29/08 - Joel Gillespie
- The Big Ten Football Report: Week 108/29/08 - Seth Fein
- Market Watch: The Full Swing of Summer08/29/08 - Alisa DeMarco
- Pygmalion Pre-Party at Urban Outfitters08/28/08 - Caitlin Cremer
- Kick Out the Jams with Tea Leaf Green at Canopy on Sunday08/28/08 - Joel Gillespie
About Lena Singer
Lena Singer
Lena Singer was raised on a farm in Central Illinois. She went to journalism school in Champaign, was an editor in Chicago for a couple years, then came back to Champaign for more school. Now she writes and edits here. She plays records once a week (at Mike 'n' Molly's) and hosts a trivia night once a month (also at Mike 'n' Molly's). She loves food, periodicals, pop music, and ABBA; separately or together, always with complete seriousness.
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Move it: Recycle Your Stuff When You Pack Your Bags
You're moving soon, and you're not taking that never-used mini Crock-Pot with you. Or those dead batteries. Same with that pile of clothes, a foot-tall stack of old magazines, and the busted microwave.
You don't have time for a garage sale, but your conscience says you can't throw it away, either.
Champaign-Urbana is home to plenty of places that will gladly and quickly take this stuff off your hands. True, it's a little annoying to haul it around town, but beneficial to your new apartment and the community if you can donate it or properly dispose of it. And if you're leaving town, what better excuse to take a farewell tour
through C-U than to deposit your unwanted goods at sites infinitely more useful than its dumps?
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Happy Birthday to the Brass Rail, Which Celebrates Its 75th Tonight
Downtown Champaign's oldest bar--as old as the end of Prohibition — is throwing itself a party, with bands, birthday presents and, of course, cheap beer.
Three dollars gets you in to see Dottie and the Rail (a ragtag country band fronted by a smoky-voiced singer whose beau, Foty Backey, is the 'Rail's owner) and The Golden Quality (a rock band with a Brass Rail bartender in the lineup).
Take Two Wheels Tomorrow for National Bike to Work Day
If rusty chains, blown-out tubes or any other cycle malady has been keeping you from participating in this week's Bike to Work Week (May 12–16), and you feel like you don't have the tools or know-how for a DIY fix, The Bike Project of Urbana- Champaign can help (and before the big Bike to Work Day tomorrow, May 16).
Rising Food and Fuel Costs Create Problems For Local Food Bank
Late last year, the increasing prices of food and fuel were putting pressure on the Eastern Illinois Foodbank's ability to meet the needs of hungry people through its food pantries in the 14 counties surrounding Champaign County.
Since then, the price of oil hit a record high and the costs of basics such as rice have been soaring higher, too. With the U.S. economy having taken a turn for the worse, the lines at food banks have gotten longer.
Not surprisingly, things haven't gotten any easier for the food banks, either.
"The pressure has gotten much greater,"says Jim Hires, Executive Director at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. "As lines at pantries have grown, we have not been able to increase our ability to acquire food."
Cakes on Walnut Opens Today
Cupcakes, among life's extravagances, are now available to regularly indulge in at Cakes on Walnut, a cupcake shop at 114 N. Walnut open for business today (April 22) at 7 a.m.
Vanilla, chocolate, classic yellow, red velvet, salted caramel, green tea and strawberry balsamic are the cupcake flavors featured on the shop's opening menu, which will rotate from time to time, according to
owners (and sisters) Trisha Bates and Amanda Bates.
Rock Against Rape Benefit Show This Saturday at the Highdive
Though not as heinous as the act of rape itself, blaming rape victims is an infuriating practice that, for reasons beyond this writer, has not yet died. (You might ask the Los Angeles Times or Cosmo about that
one — both have run articles since the beginning of the year that did exactly that.)
Locally, we're fortunate to have Rape Crisis Services. Not only are they advocating for and providing services to victims of rape, they're also educating students and community members about sexual harassment, rape and how to support rape victims. And they're out there dispelling rape myths, too (such as that it could be a victim's fault).
This Saturday night, five local bands will come together to raise money to support all of Rape Crisis Services' programs at the fifth annual Rock Against Rape.
Sweet Escape: Cakes on Walnut Slated To Open Later This Month
After about two years of learning how to build a business, and a year of renovation and construction at 114 Walnut Street in downtown Champaign, Trisha Bates and her sister, Amanda, are almost ready to open Champaign's first cupcake shop, Cakes on Walnut.
The shop, for a time known as Cream & Flutter, is scheduled to have its grand opening party the last week of this month. Cakes on Walnut will have a menu of rotating cupcake flavors — classic flavors like chocolate and vanilla will be served daily with three or four exotic "featured" flavors (such as green tea, for example, or lavender).
A New Brain Opens Tonight at Midnight
"In the 21st century, with all of the chaotic things going on around you, you lose sight of the person standing right beside you," Zev Steinberg, senior in Theater at the University of Illinois says.
Sometimes you need a reminder. An important reminder. A musical reminder.
This weekend at Armory Free Theatre, Steinberg directs a cast of 10 other University of Illinois students in the musical A New Brain, a production by William Finn and James Lapine that tells the story of a young man who is facing near-certain death from a brain condition.
Inner Voices presents Endangered Black Girls Tonight at Armory Free Theater
Inner Voices, a University of Illinois social issues theater group, presents the last of three performances of Endangered Black Girls tonight at Armory Free Theater.
The play was written by Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor in Gender and Women's Studies and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois. Brown researches the political socialization of African American girls; her interviews with African American girls form the production's narrative backbone.
Telluride's Mountainfilm on Tour at the Virginia Theatre Tonight
Telluride's Mountainfilm on Tour, a touring short film festival, makes an appearance this evening at Champaign's Virginia Theatre. Ten short films (mostly documentary shorts, with some animation and political satire mixed in) will be screened, and "indomitable spirit" is the theme: an 89-year-old woman walks across the country to raise awareness about campaign finance reform, rare baby ducks make dangerous leaps to water so they can get their lives started, 40 kids climb the summit of Mount Everest… Ten tales of outdoor adventure, environmentalism, and social consciousness, all told in 17 minutes or less.
Poetry Slam at Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally Conference
The University of Illinois hosts the registered-to-capacity Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference this weekend, beginning Friday and running through Sunday.
While it's too late to participate in conference workshops (or see any of the keynote speakers, including Eric Alva, TJ Jourian, and Angela Davis), consolation can be found in what the registered will accomplish: Conference organizers and attendees will be working to organize for and promote LGBTQA activism and awareness (and diversity in general) on Midwestern college campuses.
Outside, but near, the conference, there's still at least one opportunity to get involved – the Illini Union will host Spit Fire, a competitive poetry slam organized for conference attendees and community members alike.
Major Leaguers: Champaign County League of Women Voters
Looking for unbiased information this election year that speaks to you as a voting citizen, rather than as a fraction of a percentage point for some political party?
There’s a non-partisan, citizen-run organization that, for the last 85 years, has been dedicated to educating the voters of Champaign County, engaging them in the political process, and acting as watchdogs over local governmental bodies on their behalf.
The Champaign County League of Women Voters has been active since 1924. As an organization that strives to be neither Democratic nor Republican (or, politically, anything else), promoting informed voting has been its primary focus from the beginning, according to Trisha Crowley, the league’s current president (and Deputy City Attorney for the City of Champaign).
Donation Times Ten: Giving to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank
If you’re a religious believer with a holiday to celebrate or a non-believer with a spirit for giving, you’ve likely thought about making a charitable donation this month.
As everyone knows, there is a huge and unknown number of charities that need and deserve more money. That said (as it always is and has to be when talking about charitable giving), consider a donation to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, regardless of what you’ve already given or plan to give to other organizations.
Every Day is EC Day
On Oct. 24, Champaign County Health Care Consumers and Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois co-sponsored an event to distribute free packs of emergency contraception pills, otherwise known as "EC," or by the commercial name Plan B.
Free EC Day isn't exactly news anymore, but it's still worth talking about. As the Health Care Consumers reported at their Women's Health Task Force meeting on Nov. 11, 180 people received packs of Plan B that day. Many of us, on the other hand, continue to be at least somewhat unprepared.
