The science world was abuzz last week with the sighting of a spectacular galactic event, the kind that only comes once in several decades.Astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in southern Calif

Normally, as autumn goes in the Midwest, things begin to cool off, but that isn’t so with live music. This fall has a number of options within an afternoon’s drive from Springfield, and th

We know you audiophiles are mourning. Ameren’s Summer Serenades fizzled out and the Washington Street Jazz Festival is no more, but fear not. There’s still a hundred ways to rock your eard

Austin, Texas — At the South by Southwest music festival, the spring break of the music industry, sensory overload is practically guaranteed. From March 17-21, nearly 2,000 acts played in Austin

Hope from the Heartland, a new book by Jay Hoffman, the Democratic state representative from Collinsville, starts with the premise that climate change, the energy and economic crises can be solved sim

Sangamon County board members are considering an amendment to make green energy developers plant wind turbines farther from people who don’t want them. The amendment penned by board member Tom F

Local youths may be familiar with the confrontation and spectacle of mainstream hip hop, where the words flow effortlessly with messages of violence, money and sex. Less familiar is a close cousin, slam poetry, which also has smooth lyrical moves, but uses them to deliver appeals to social justice, racial understanding and cultural identity.

In 1988, Sergei Chepik, a 35-year-old Russian, arrived in Paris, France, carrying only a canvas, his father’s easel and a painting banned from exhibitions in his homeland. A sign of things to co

Before the miracle of refrigeration, the only way to get an unspoiled beer was to get it nearly straight from the brewery. And if you were a thirsty Springfieldian in the early 1900s, the odds were th