Friday, September 03, 2004
How Does It Feel to Be Back?
I am just back from a few days in Iowa--specifically Iowa City, where I attended college in the mid 90s, and where I lived and worked for a couple of years in the late 1990s. I have several regular stops when I visit: I always arrange to bend elbows with my favorite barroom companions; I drive by the house The Mrs. and I used to own; I eat at the Hamburg Inn; I troll for used CDs at Record Collector. And I made quite a find the other night--a three-disc best-of by Hall and Oates, a comprehensive career retrospective released only in Australia and unlike anything available in the United States. When I put it in the car CD player, one of the first songs I heard was H&O's minor 1980 hit "How Does It Feel to Be Back?"
Answer: Great. Iowa City is both precisely like and utterly different from the rest of Iowa. Although it's home to a major research university, it seems like a small town. Its hipness is a bit self-conscious--as if hipness is not entirely seemly. Its local government, despite the best efforts of the community's progressives, is dominated by Chamber-of-Commerce booster types. In one way, it holds its own with much larger cities, though--during the morning and evening rush, it has some of the worst traffic you'll ever see--anywhere. Having said all that, I love the place. I feel more at home in Iowa City than any place I've ever lived. Madison is like the glamorous cheerleader who'd never look your way, but Iowa City is the sweet-natured girl in the next row whose inner beauty makes her irresistable, and who loves you just because.
Recommended Reading: A friend sent me a link to the latest column from the Mighty Krugman, which she headed "Krugman takes the gloves off." And he does. That the Republicans get away with accusing Democrats of hate speech is one of the grandest outrages of the age, when it's the Republican Party that's made anger the centerpiece of its ruling philosophy. A good Republican has to be angry--in fact, he or she has to hate. And because of that, contrary to Bush's rhetoric about bright futures last night, another four years of Republican government is going to make American life smaller and uglier. It cannot do otherwise.
Tonight on The Hits Just Keep On Comin': Summer's End.
I am just back from a few days in Iowa--specifically Iowa City, where I attended college in the mid 90s, and where I lived and worked for a couple of years in the late 1990s. I have several regular stops when I visit: I always arrange to bend elbows with my favorite barroom companions; I drive by the house The Mrs. and I used to own; I eat at the Hamburg Inn; I troll for used CDs at Record Collector. And I made quite a find the other night--a three-disc best-of by Hall and Oates, a comprehensive career retrospective released only in Australia and unlike anything available in the United States. When I put it in the car CD player, one of the first songs I heard was H&O's minor 1980 hit "How Does It Feel to Be Back?"
Answer: Great. Iowa City is both precisely like and utterly different from the rest of Iowa. Although it's home to a major research university, it seems like a small town. Its hipness is a bit self-conscious--as if hipness is not entirely seemly. Its local government, despite the best efforts of the community's progressives, is dominated by Chamber-of-Commerce booster types. In one way, it holds its own with much larger cities, though--during the morning and evening rush, it has some of the worst traffic you'll ever see--anywhere. Having said all that, I love the place. I feel more at home in Iowa City than any place I've ever lived. Madison is like the glamorous cheerleader who'd never look your way, but Iowa City is the sweet-natured girl in the next row whose inner beauty makes her irresistable, and who loves you just because.
Recommended Reading: A friend sent me a link to the latest column from the Mighty Krugman, which she headed "Krugman takes the gloves off." And he does. That the Republicans get away with accusing Democrats of hate speech is one of the grandest outrages of the age, when it's the Republican Party that's made anger the centerpiece of its ruling philosophy. A good Republican has to be angry--in fact, he or she has to hate. And because of that, contrary to Bush's rhetoric about bright futures last night, another four years of Republican government is going to make American life smaller and uglier. It cannot do otherwise.
Tonight on The Hits Just Keep On Comin': Summer's End.
