Ames Coalition for Effective Schools Petition

David Gradwhol brought to our attention a petition to include neighborhood schools in the planning of the Ames Community School District’s “World-Class Education Philosophy”. The closure of Crawford had a negative impact on our neighborhood and we encourage our members to support this petition. Below is the message he forwarded – if interested, you can contact him at gradwohl@iastate.edu or David Putz, chair of the Ames Coalition for Effective Schools, at amesces@gmail.com.

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If you support the inclusion of either neighborhood schools, smaller elementary class size, or both, in the Ames Community School District's Comprehensive and World-Class Education philosophy, please respond as follows:

Address: AMESCES@gmail.com
Subject: Response to Petition

Along with your name and home address to document your response, include one of the following statements of your support:
1) I support the inclusion of neighborhood schools in the ACSD's philosophy on Comprehensive and World-Class education.
2) I support the inclusion of smaller elementary class size in the ACSD's philosophy on Comprehensive and World-Class education.
3) I support the inclusion of both neighborhood schools and smaller elementary class size in the ACSD's philosophy on Comprehensive and World-Class education.

Thank you for your support of schools and kids in Ames!



PETITION TO INCLUDE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS & SMALLER ELEMENTARY CLASS SIZE IN THE AMES COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT COMPREHENSIVE AND WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY

In the community survey conducted this spring by the Ames Community School District (ACSD), both neighborhood schools and smaller elementary class size were left off the survey.

Neighborhood schools are located in areas where children can safely walk to school, are small enough so children don't get lost in the crowd and allow teachers, families and the surrounding community to work together to educate children. Neighborhood schools:
- Promote family involvement with students and schools.
- Improve community support and volunteerism.
- Provide a welcoming and safe environment.
- Reduce the need for busing, making more money available to educate kids.
- And, as a result, improve academic performance.

Smaller elementary class size:
- Gives teachers more time to teach by spending less time on classroom management.
- Increases teacher morale and reduces burnout.
- Lets teachers identify educational issues sooner and deliver individualized instruction.
- And, as a result, improves learning - especially for students who have challenges.

Because of this, neighborhood schools and smaller elementary class size are important aspects of a comprehensive and world-class education!


This petition is sponsored by the Ames Coalition for Effective Schools (AmesCES), a group of parents and community members interested in providing the best possible education for kids!

VEISHEA Advisory Council

A request arrived from ISU’s Office of VP for Student Affairs for a member to represent SCAN on the VEISHEA Advisory Council. If you’re interested, email Fern Kupfer, flkupger@iastate.edu.

I figured I'd post about this here in case anybody wanted to share any experiences they've had being on an ISU committee.

Entertainment within walking distance: review and preview

First off, a review. I went to the BB King concert Wednesday, and the King of the Blues was...the King. Occasionally rambling between songs, amazing during them, but definitely showing his age -- he shared the wisdom that's come with his 83 years freely. The warm-up band from Chicago was pretty good too (although between them, intermission, and the intro numbers by BB King's own band, he didn't get on stage until 9, so there was only an hour out of a two and half hour show with the headliner. Still a good show overall.) They did a standard 5 song warm up set. BB King did a number of songs, only one of which I recognized from an older album. He made a Willie Nelson reference at one point, who's coming to Stephens in December (I'm guessing BB King didn't even know). Isn't it great how we can walk and see not just the academic and student events, but some of the most amazing artists of the 20th century?

The other review I'd hoped to do was the movie I'd wanted to see, Nick and Norah -- surprisingly, it hasn't stayed a second week so I'm going to have to hope it returns or goes to the North Grand theaters. The two movies at the Varsity now just don't appeal to me (Eagle Eye and Sex Drive), although the new big-budget western directed by Ed Harris, Appaloosa, and the new plot-twist-riddled police corruption story starring Colin Ferrell and Ed Norton, Pride and Glory, look like they have potential. I'm hoping they stay for a little while since I'll be out of town from Friday through Tuesday, so if they're out after only a week I won't get much of a chance.

In other upcoming walking distance events, the Greek community is a bit busier with the fundraisers this week, with brats at Adelante Wednesday night, spaghetti at Sigma Alpha Epsilon late Thursday night/friday morning, and walking tacos hosted by Phi Beta Chi at the Memorial Lutheran Church (they're one of the few Greek organizations that doesn't own a house.)

This weekend is big for student productions, with the Symphony Orchestra on Friday, Band Extravaganza Saturday evening, and the ISU Theatre production of Tartuffe all weekend (showtimes and ticket prices at their websites).

Other performing arts include the Billy Joel based musical, Moving Out, on Thursday, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra on Sunday.

Lots of concerts and comedy at the M-Shop, and lectures (mostly at the Union) in the next week -- none of them from a genre or academic discipline respectively that I'm especially interested in, but in a couple of weeks is Carly Fiorina, and later that week is a forum with Dr. Politics and Arnie Arneson. I am a WOI addict so I will probably be there for that.

Finally, athletics -- Football is away (there's only 1 home game left, it's the 15th.) Basketball exhibitions have started, with a couple this weekend, as well as a volleyball game. Wrestling starts next week, so we are definitely shifting gears away from fall and into winter.

As always, if you made it to anything, please post your comments below!

EWWD for October 23

Another week goes by, another week where I don't want to talk about Cyclone football. But I will, because it's homecoming. The Huskers behaved themselves pretty well, I think -- ran into a lot when I was at the concert at Papa's Corner. A lot of them seemed to be older, not students. I was surprised at their attendance at this event since one thing about the band I was going to see, is it's loud. As in, a friend who goes to their concerts regularly actually brought hearing protection so he could be up near the stage.

As for homecoming itself, prepare for another weekend with a large number of visitors -- but these are mostly alumni who should have a fair amount of respect for their alma mater and its surrounding neighborhoods. I'm really sorry to be missing it, as I'm in Minnesota for a cousin's wedding. There are also a lot of extra events going around surrounding homecoming, especailly at the new alumni center, as well as lots of reunions of various groups, like the Alumni Band. It's an evening game, which means extended tailgating.

Reimann is doing that Halloween event for kids again on Sunday. At the Varisty, Tonight is your last night for The Duchess (mentioned last week) and "An American Carol" -- the old Dickens tale done as a thinly veiled send-up of Micheal Moore. Tomorrow starts Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (which I am planning to see) and Quarantine (horror, no thanks for me)

Only thing in Greekland for the next week is Greek Trick or Treat on Wednesday. (the city's trick or treat night will be next Friday, on Halloween itself.) If you'd like for your child to participate, I'm guessing Jenn Plegman-Galvin will have more info. She'd probably be able to give information on the Rake-a-thon too, which is a fundraiser happening through November. Proceeds for that go to the MS foundation and Habitat for Humanity.

The event of the week, besides homecoming, is the BB King concert at Stephens on Wednesday. I bought tickets as a birthday present to my husband, and I am really looking forward to it. Concerts at the M-shop include a member of the Indigo Girls doing a solo show Saturday, and a folk singer/songwriter on Tuesday. Not much of interest from the Music Department this week, but Band Extravaganza is coming up in a couple of weeks.

If you want to make a really big day of Cyclone sports, there's a volleyball match at 2:00 Saturday (before the homecoming game). It's free and the first 300 fans get free Coldstone ice cream.

In lectures, there's one on the financial crisis in the Great Hall and one on climate change in the Sun Room tonight, and Monday and Tuesday an author will be talking about the environmental effects of meat eating in the Pioneer and Oak rooms, respectively. Monday features a talk on biofuels in the Sun Room, and Tuesday's lecture in the Sun Room is on the Middle East.

Entertainment round-up

Yikes, I've gotten behind. Well, I've been a bit busy and haven't made it to anything other than the Kansas game. We don't need to talk about that, or Cyclone football in general. Then again, we do, because this weekend is the Nebraska game, and regardless of whether you're a fan or not, this affects everyone in the neighborhood. The Iowa game, which is here in Ames in odd years, has a reputation for the out-of-town guests sometimes getting out of hand (or at least being higher profile, since there are so many.) Huskers, whom we host in the even-numbered years, are just as bad both in terms of numbers and collective respect for property. Be prepared. Whatever you do in terms of signs, minimizing the potential for vandalism, and Sunday morning cleanup -- make sure you're ready for it.

Besides going to the Nebraska game Saturday, I'll be at the bar formerly known as Peoples (Papa's Corner) on Friday -- the local band playing that night has a friend in it. No solid plans other than that, but I will review anything I do make it to.

Besides the football game, there's volleyball Wednesday and soccer Friday.

If you've got kids, Rieman has an event involving various mascots and Halloween activities on Sunday. Thursday at 8 they have a lecture by an author who writes about ethnic Americans and how they express and transmit their culture through gardening.

In music, there's a concert Sunday night by the Ames Piano Quartet featuring a work by Felix Mendelssohn at Music Hall, and a Mexican group at Stephens on Friday (only $10). The M-shop has something going on pretty much every night this week, check out their website for prices, showtimes, and to get links to bands' sites. And from the category of "Buy tickets now" (even though the event isn't for another 2 weeks): BB King at Stephens on the 29th.

The movies in the neighborhood are an adaptation of an autobiography of a British writer in New York, which has gotten bad reviews; and a historical piece starting Kira Knightley as an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, who had similar marital difficulties.

One Greek philanthropy - "Crescent Cakes" at Gamma Phi Beta Sunday morning. I'm guessing that means pancakes since it's breakfast.

The big event (besides Nebraska) is in Lectures: John Kerry (isn't it great to be in a swing state?) on Wednesday. If you want a different political perspective, an editor from The National Review will be promoting his book, Liberal Fascism, on Thursday. There are also lectures tonight on sustainable agriculture in the Great Hall, and immigration in the Sun Room; tomorrow on food and health; photography of the white house; and marketing in Hollywood (that last one given by an alumnus who worked on the promotional campaigns for Braveheart and Titanic); and two others on Thursday (besides the national review guy and the gardens) on environmental impacts of ethanol production, and global citizenship.

Upcoming EWWD

Kind of a light week: only 4 smaller lectures, 2 M-shop shows, 1 Greek philanthropy, 1 Reiman Gardens event, and a handful of athletics. 2 new Varsity II movies though (did anyone make it to that French movie? doesn't seem like anything is staying very long there, other than Wall-E, which was there forever.)

Athletics is the big one this week, with the return of Cyclone Football and the Big 12 opener. Since we lost our road games, there won't be a lot of casual interest, but they were both very close losses, so I'm not writing the Cyclones off for this one. Then again, Kansas is ranked #16 in the country. Game time is 11:30, so tailgating will be starting at 5:30AM. The swim team also starts what I assume is their pre-season with an intrasquad meet on Friday; there's also volleyball after the football game.

Lectures are tonight at 8 on Amazonian languages (titled "Challenging Chomsky"); Wednesday at 8 on the Supreme Court; and Thursday there are 2, one at 7 on energy and politics, and one at 8 on "the definition of manhood". All are in the Sun Room except the Energy and Politics, which is in Howe.

The Thursday show at the m-shop is "hip-hop/psychedelic" and probably not that appealing to most of my readers, but the Friday show is jazz/roots, and after a listen on their Myspace page I'd say the Will Bernard band guys have the funk. More info on tickets at m-shop.com.

The Greek fundraiser is at Alpha Gamma Rho (201 Gray Ave) on Saturday morning - the food is waffles, the cause is the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the cost is $5.

There's an artist reception Saturday at Reiman -- info including RSVP details at http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/index.cfm?nodeID=5693&action=detail&eventid=18393

The two movies are the new Woody Allen flick, and a road movie about returning Iraq veterans.

And this isn't entertainment, and it's not walking distance, but it sure as heck is having me doing a happy dance: S. 4th reopens Wednesday. The loss of this major artery has been an inconvenience to everyone in Ames, but especially those of us on the south side of Lincoln Way. I am especially looking forward to having one of my favorite bike trails back (a rails-to-trails that runs from Research Park all the way to 4th, connecting up with the one that runs along 4th and then along Elwood and on to Brookside)

Review: Sweeney Todd

I was warned before going that the movie version of Sweeney Todd was extremely gory. The gore was not so graphic in the stage version– just symbolic in the form of a giant coffin being reused as all the large furniture props and buckets of blood being poured into one another. So now I'm curious as to whether the symbolism was carried over to the movie or if it was all literal in its depiction of violence. The performers were all very impressive -- there's no separate pit for musicians; everyone is on stage all the time playing an instrument (and often switching between them) as well as a part. I wonder if when casting, the director is just looking to fill out the instrumentation and it doesn't matter who plays which, as long as you can play some something -- or if, for example, the woman playing the daughter has to be a talented bassist. If it comes back to central Iowa I would definitely recommend you see Sweeney Todd (assuming the darkness of the subject matter and the symbolic way it is portrayed is your cup of tea.)

Upcoming EWWD: September 22-27ish

This week's featured entertainment within walking distance is Sweeney Todd at the Iowa State Center. Yes, the actual musical. Not one for the kids, obviously. That's Wednesday at 7. $20 for students and $40+ depending on how nice you want your seats for everyone else. Do what I'm doing and go with a group of grad students. Students can get 2 tickets per student ID.

If you don't want to spend the cash, you can still get plenty of high-class culture at Music Hall Wednesday at 7:30, where there'll be a concert featuring Cantus, a nationally known men's choir, singing with ISU's own men's a capella group, The Statesmen. That's only $5, $3 for students. Since I'll be at Sweeney Todd I'd love to hear from anyone who make it to this. The Music department also has a big concert Friday at 7 with symphonic and concert bands, followed by the Wind Ensemble; it's at the City Auditorium so not actually in walking distance for SCAN people. $4 for students, $6 for the rest of us.

In food and fundraising, there's a Greek philanthropy shindig Thursday: Sigma Phi Epsilon Sausage Fest and BBQ; Cost: $3; Proceeds to benefit: Youth AIDS. Sig Eps are at 228 Gray Ave. That's from 4-8.

ISU Lectures has another full week, with feminist icon Adrienne Rich speaking tonight at 8 in the Great Hall and tomorrow morning at 10 in the Campanile room. Tomorrow evening is a lecture on immigration (part of Hispanic heritage month). Wednesday features a talk at the auditorium in the Design Building on architecture and reducing fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Thursday has two lectures, one at 8 at City Hall (seems to be a theme this week; it's being catered with local foods so I'm still tempted to go) on "Can capitalism save the planet?" and one closer to home at Howe Hall at 6pm, which is a roundtable on energy security. All lectures are of course, free.

No football game whatsoever this week (the last two were away games). Athletics does have a couple of home matchups though: Soccer against Missouri at 7 on Friday and Volleyball against Nebraska at 6:30 on Saturday. Volleyball is only $1 as part of the "cram the coliseum" promotion -- and don't forget to wear gold (not cardinal, don't want to be confused with fans of the evil Big Red) if you go. If I do anything Friday night it'll probably be the concert, and I have a wedding to go to on Saturday, so this week in sports is another area where I'd appreciate my dear readers' reviews.

Wall-E is approaching a status as a permanent feature at the Varsity, and the other screen is still turning over at a weekly rate. Right now it's a French movie, Roman de Gare. Must be in their contract as an indie/foreign movie house to show 1 French film per semester. The initial plot summary -- it's about a novelist -- on IMDB made me think that it's a stereotypical French movie that only an NPR reviewer could love, but the full summary makes it sound like more of a murder mystery, which could be fun. I'll never convince Chris to go unless it's dubbed though. Can't find any information on whether it's subtitled or dubbed unfortunately.

The M-Shop has indie music on Tuesday and Friday, hip-hop on Saturday, and sketch comedy (Grandma Mojo's of course) Wednesday night late (a person could probably pull off both that and either Sweeney Todd or the men's chorus, if they were up for a full evening out.)

That's it for now -- I'll be back Thursday with my review of Sweeney Todd and hopefully a better preview for the weekend.

Review: Constitution Day at the MU

Banned Books Jeopardy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir were the events Wednesday night at the Union. The lecture on the electoral college at the beginning of the Jeopardy event seemed a little tangential, but once the game got going it was a lot of fun. I had initially thought that the 8:00 show was just the movie, but it was in fact the live performance. I'd never heard the first amendment sung gospel-style before; it was a very unique experience.

Upcoming EWWD: September 15-19

I gotta remember to do these on Thursdays -- the Varsity doesn't post the movie that starts Friday until Wednesday, so I only know that Wall-E is still there, and American Teen (a documentary on high school students) started this past Friday; no clue whether they'll still be there this weekend, and if not what's starting. High school is still a pretty recent memory for me, and nothing I'm interested in reliving. Reviews I've seen of American Teen have been somewhat neutral, with the biggest minus being that they tend to pigeonhole the kids into stereotypes, showing more of what reinforces the idea that one kid is a geek, another a queen bee, another a jock, etc. than what might be interesting about them.

In Greek philanthropies, Beta Theta Pi (on Lincoln Way) is hosting "Beta Burgers and Bands" on Friday from 5:30 till 9 -- for $4 in advance or $5 at the door, get burgers and local music and benefit the 10000 Hours Show, a concert for which the admission price is proof you've done a certain amount of community service.

The M-shop has shows tonight, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, all around $10 for the general public (cheaper for students). They all look like current pop acts, varying from electronica/hip hop to alternative/folk/indie. Check out their website for more details.

It's a full week of lectures at the Union, with "What Would Jesus Buy" (a movie on materialism in America) tonight at 7, Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP and the first woman to hold that post in a Fortune 20 company) tomorrow at 7:30, and Banned Book Jeopardy on Wednesday at 7, featuring SCAN's own Fern Kupfer. Competing for that timeslot over at the Design College is an artist, chemist, and industrial hygienist lecturing on the topic "Danger! Artist at Work". Also on Wednesday competing for the 8:00 hour (assuming the 7:00s are only an hour long, you could do two) are an encore of What Would Jesus Buy, and the opening of a gallery exhibit on the subject of assisted reproductive technology. Thursday features Henry Rollins doing a spoken word show at Stephens at 8, and a lecture titled "Civic Professionalism and the Pursuit of Sustainability in the Arts and Humanities" in the Sun Room of the MU, also at 8. And even though I hope to do another Upcoming EWWD yet this week, I want to mention now that a member of the Mythbusters team is going to be at Stephens on Saturday. All ISU lectures are free.

Also somewhat outside of the scope is Sweeney Todd (yes, the actual musical) at Stephens on Wednesday the 24th (next week). Buy your tickets now! $20 for students, $43+ for the rest of us. Students can buy 2 each, so I'm hoping to go with some of my HCI colleagues who are taking their time graduating.

Finally, Reiman Gardens is doing Butterfly Docent Training on Saturday -- I'm thinking about doing this one as a way to schedule my day up a little better while I continue the full-time job hunt. Shifts look pretty flexible. If you want to do it you'll have to RSVP, more info at http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/index.cfm?nodeID=5693&action=detail&eventid=17975

EWWD: A Snack and a Movie

Last Tuesday (gosh, I've gotten behind) was the ice cream social at the new Alumni Center on Beach. As I mentioned on my post on the Kent State game, when I first got a good look at the inside, it's very nice. I got a chance to chat with Jeff Johnson, president of the Alumni Association, who's an all-around great guy, and the staff was on hand to explain various architectural details, such as the pitches in the ceiling designed to remind you of the campanile. I also got a chance to look closely at the university mace, which I believe was introduced at my first graduation ceremony in May '04, so that was pretty cool. Turns out the little gold plates are the names and dates served of all the university presidents. The interesting thing to me was the couple of guys who got stuck doing the interim president thing again and again, and wound up serving longer that at least one regular president. The root beer floats were tasty, too. I wasn't able to stick around for a tour as I had a dinner in Des Moines to get to.

Wednesday Chris and I went to Clone Wars at the Varsity II. As I mentioned in my last "upcoming EWWD" post, we enjoyed the cartoon series, but something was off from the series -- the animation wasn't quite the same, and the darkness that should have been present in Anakin was so toned down that it just didn't seem to fit in the chronology of the prequel trilogy. It also bothered me that they introduced and developed a likable (almost to the point of being a Mary Sue) character that gets killed in Epsiode III as just another Jedi . However, it's not like we paid dodecaplex prices for it, and it is always nice to just walk to a movie, and then just walk home.

Ok, that review was pretty flamboyantly geeky, so I'll move on to researching for Upcoming EWWD for this week.

Neighborhood Business: meeting and letter

So, attendance was pretty good at the meeting. I'm especially pleased with the signups I got for the welcome committee. At this point I only know of a couple of houses for sale -- none sale pending -- so if you know of any let me know. I know Barbara and Leslie didn't get what they were hoping for with signups for the home tour (they need people to check tickets at the door of each home). You get to do the tour free, assuming there are enough volunteers to relieve you from your duties for half the time. It's October 12, a Sunday of a weekend with no home football game.

From the APD reports, it sounds like the Crime-Free Housing initiative is going fairly well, although it's still just getting started. We also heard about the Campustown Safety Walk tentatively set for the evening of October 6 -- if you'd like to walk around the neighborhood one of 8 or so groups consisting of APD officers, city council members, Greek community members and other relevant individuals, they'd love to have more residents volunteer -- just email Adi Johnson, ajohnson@city.ames.ia.us.

Finally, my letter was published by the Daily -- 2 days after they published a similar one (although in my opinion more intrusive in its advice on students' personal lives), giving them nearly identical titles. The previous one has already gotten some negative online feedback, and shows up on the sidebar on every page of the Daily's website as one of the most read stories; I'll have to keep an eye on mine to see if there's any either in print or online. I worry that with 2 letters on similar topics, as well as feedback on people not picking up after their dogs, there will be backlash against all of it. Speaking of which, it appears I have my first comment -- and it's my first flame. I don't see any need to respond to it: if the person who left it is as apathetic about our organization as they claim they won't be back to benefit from a reasoned response. Then again if they were as truly apathetic as they claim they wouldn't have bothered to go online to complain about us in the first place.

EWWD: Upcoming

This promises to be a pretty busy week, despite the lack of a home football game to cap it off. I won't be going to Iowa City, although many people I know are; I have a wedding (which also means I'll be missing any events Friday and Saturday nights.)

There appear to be several Greek philanthropy dinner events beginning tonight; thanks to the meeting tonight I'll be missing the Chi Omega chili supper, and I've got a supper invitations out of town Tuesday and Thursday and will have to miss Farmhouses' burritos and Alpha Gamma Delta' Pajama Jam, but I'll try to make it to DTD's grilling on Wednesday. If you make it to any of them, or would like to, this is the entry to comment on. There all around $6 each.

In lectures, Kal Penn, an actor in a number of college-student-oriented comedies will be on campus campaigning for Obama. On Tuesday there's a more serious Obama-oriented lecture about racism, and Wednesday is the weekly Globalization series, this one about financial markets. Thursday features a colloquium on sustainable agriculture. As I mentioned I'm busy Tuesday and Thursday so I'd love to hear from anyone who makes it to those two lectures.

Wall-E continues to grace the Varsity II, and will be joined by another sci-fi animated movie: Star Wars Clone Wars. I liked the animated Clone Wars series that was on Cartoon Network, and have been planning to go to Clone Wars and the fact that it's at the Varsity II means it's less expensive than at the dodecaplex on South Duff (well what do you call a theater with 12 screens?) Don't know whether I'll try to make it Monday or Wednesday, or hope that it sticks around through next week (since Tuesdays are yet less expensive).

In athletics the women of the volleyball team take on two intrastate rivals: UNI on Wednesday and Iowa Friday.

At the m-shop there's open mic night Tuesday, sketch comedy Wednesday (only $1) and indie bands both on Thursday (supposed to be like the Rolling Stones) and Saturday (which is more modern and angry sounding) both at $9 in advance, $10 day of the show.

See you at the meeting, and don't forget to comment here on anything you make it to that I don't!

Football: ISU vs. Kent State

As I predicted in my last football-related post, Kent State did present a bit more of a challenge than SDSU, but the Cyclones pulled it off, and then pulled ahead in the end for a 20 point lead over the other guys. We checked out the new alumni center as part of our afternoon of tailgating -- we contribute to a friend who has a bus to help cover gas, parking permit, and propane for the grill. It's respectable tailgate, thanks to the numerous babies born to its participants in the last 2 years (including the bus owner), but we wanted to wander around a bit. The place itself is very swanky with leather chairs and high ceilings. They're having an ice cream social Tuesday so I'll be discussing that here then.

Since it was a Saturday game, the parking situation should be closer to what we'll be seeing in the future, although overall attendance will be impacted by the Cyclones' record going into the next home game -- if we're on a 2-game losing streak there won't be as many casual fans, and conversely if the team beats Iowa and UNLV while away, there will be a great deal more excitement, especially since we'll be starting the "conference" portion of the season (games more important to determining whether we get a post-season game.) Additionally, it will be family weekend, and students' parents will be in town for the game and other events.

Next week's game in Iowa City should be very close -- I think this is one of the years when we go in truly nearly evenly matched. Beat the Hawks! The next home game isn't until October 4th, and will be against Kansas.

Entertainment within walking distance: The Onion

This is a little late, and I've got a couple more coming up but I wanted to get the backlog out before tonight's meeting. ISU Lectures hosted two writers from The Onion, "America's Finest News Source" Wednesday night. It was a fun way to spend an evening; as a regular reader of the Onion the retrospective on the articles was mostly a nostalgia trip -- a lot of the humor of the Onion loses its punch the second time around, especially since it is news satire, and funniest when it's fresh. For someone unfamiliar with the Onion itself, it's the newspaper equivalent to The Daily Show's take on the nightly news; and if you're completely unfamiliar with news satire, the lecture probably wouldn't have been for you. In my opinion the media benefits from being skewered in this fashion (and it makes for great entertainment) and The Onion does a great job of stepping outside of and then capturing the national zeitgeist.

There's no print edition for central Iowa, although I imagine we'd have enough readers to support one; I get physical copies whenever I visit family in Boulder CO so I have seen it in print. Occasionally I run into people who are faithful readers of the online edition and have no idea it started as a college humor newspaper (sort of like the Green Gander was here 50 years ago) in Madison in 1988 and print editions can be found in dozens of cities, serving not only to deliver headlines such as "Kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day" but also the "AV Club", a serious look at local entertainment with reviews and listings for live acts, comedy, and movies.

For the lecture itself: as I said, the retrospective was good for some laughs but all quite familiar territory for me. The Q&A covered some pretty generic topics, and the answers I was largely familiar with thanks to an episode of "This American Life" (weekends on NPR) which covered their creative process. There was a book signing afterward but we didn't stick around.

Neighborhood Business: The Upcoming Meeting

Now that I and some board members have distributed several hundred fliers with this blog's address, there are probably new readers interested in the association itself, as well as this meeting that the flier was advertising. Well, here's an article I originally wrote up for the member newsletter, which won't be ready until after the meeting (it'll make it easier to figure out who's a member anyway).


The board of directors of the South Campus Area Neighborhood invite you to the annual meeting, to be held Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 7:00 PM at the Crawford School.

Officer Harry Samms, our Community Resource Officer from the Ames Police Department will be speaking on the Certified Crime-Free Housing initiative that his department has been working on, as well as general policing and crime prevention in our area.

We encourage all residents and interested parties to attend, including owner-occupants, renters, landlords, and business owners.

As at all our annual meetings, we will enroll members for the 08-09 year and elect people to our board of directors. Voting and holding office are the only meeting activities limited to our paid members.

Gloria Betcher of the Historic Preservation Committee will update us on all of their activities. We will also have reports from our president, Fern Kupfer; treasurer, Steve Ringlee; and new public relations director, Helen Colvin.


Yep, that's me there at the end. For more about SCAN check out this blog's very first post.

Entertainment Within Walking Distance: 8/29-9/6

Once again, I'd like to create a post that will give my readers an opportunity to give feedback on events I can't make it to, and to let you know what I'll be going to (in case you'd like to join me). The only lecture which I am planning on attending features a couple of writers from The Onion which should be pretty hilarious. It's on Thursday at 8 in the MU. I probably won't make it to the one on primate aggression which is Friday the 5th at 9AM. The only home athletics event is the football game next Saturday; I will of course be there. The Varsity isn't getting anything new this week -- I reiterate my recommendation that you see Wall-E on the big screen, and The Longshots still doesn't appeal that much to me (I'm not hearing the buzz that I did for Bend It Like Beckham) but I'd love to hear about it if you go.

The M-shop is having a whole lot of bands for only $5 tonight and $7 tomorrow, all local. Tonight's are described as "indie pop rock" and I would say that they sound a little like early Smashing Pumpkins or Green Day (but I'm dating myself by saying that). Tomorrow's are described as "Indie Shoegazer Folk Rock" which puts me in mind of Simon & Garfunkel, but I'd say they're more like what would have happened if Nirvana had been on antidepressants instead of illegal drugs. There's shows Wednesday and Thursday as well, with acts from further away. Wednesday is also described as indie pop rock. I'd say they sound more like current pop music. Thursday is electronica and I'm not even going to risk my eardrums listening to a sample. How do I know what any of these bands sound like? the M-shop links to Myspace pages. There's also other music around campustown at the usual venues. Let me know if you catch any.

Reimann Gardens is having a "weed warrior days" Thursday morning. If there are any other events in walking distance of the neighborhood, this is the post to comment on them.

I've added some tags to this and my previous entertainment posts describing the costs associated: free, $($1-10), $$ ($10-25), and $$$(more). Football gets both $$ and $$$ since you can get a hillside ticket or spend pretty much as you want (in the thousands, no I am not kidding) in order to get better seats out of your season tickets, which are $300 by themselves. A regular seat will still get you into $$$ range, though.

Football: ISU vs. SDSU

Our neighborhood feels the impacts of football games greater than any other residential neighborhood in Ames. If you enjoy football (or just rooting for the Cyclones in any context, as I do) then it's pretty easy to make the best of it. This year, like last year, the first game was on a Thursday night. This can depress attendance a little since it's difficult for faraway fans who normally make the drive on a Friday night to take of at least one, and probably two days of work. Even nearby fans (at least all of my friends working in Des Moines) had to take off a few hours early to have enough time to drive up and enjoy dinner. However, attendance was pretty impressive with just the corners of the upper level looking empty, and fairly full hillsides. The improvements to the stadium were also interesting -- I don't know how impressive they actually are since they were mostly to box seats, and even if I ever see the inside of one in the future, I won't have any basis for comparison. There were also improvements to the bathrooms, and while new facilities that way are always nice (at least when they are new) and added capacity is always appreciated, I found the women's nearest our seats a little claustrophobic compared to the old one.

The game itself was a pretty thorough win on our part, which always makes a game more fun. I'm not enough of an expert on football to give you a forecast on the rest of the season based on this one game -- it was, after all, an opponent from a smaller school, and not nearly so formidible as Iowa or our conference schedule. The best part (besides the win) in my opinion was the gorgeous weather. Tailgating was a little warm mid-afternoon, but the game itself being in the evening meant that the temperature was perfect, combined with clear skies and little wind meant that outside was the place to be, regardless of your choice of entertainment.

On my way back I grabbed a can out of the yard of a neighbor. I pick up nickles on the ground no matter what form they take. Often a neighbor or two who are on the main route out of the stadium (Country Club, mostly) will put out a sack for trash and probably get a dollar or two out of the cans. I think this is great -- people don't like to litter but if they don't have a recepticle they will. I suspect fans overally were pretty well behaved because of the Thursday night game, so we'll see how the next one -- 6:00PM on Saturday, the 6th -- goes. The evening on a weekend will mean much more tailgating, and therefore more potential for litter, but the greater distance that the opponent is travelling means that a smaller percentage of our guests will be strangers.

ISU Lectures: Paul Shirley

Paul Shirley's talk was a lot of fun. He's got a self-deprecating shtick, heavily laden with sarcasm, that makes you think he'd be a fun guy to spend an evening having a conversation with. Since the talk was part of the Globalization series (actually a mechanical engineering course, but everything's open to the public), he tried to make a few points about how students should respond to that, namely:

1. Don't try to predict change; it's unpredictable by its very nature. (he recommended The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.)
2. Don't specialize yourself too much, as tempting as it is as an engineer.
3. Pay attention to the world around you. Go visit it.

He also had some life lessons to impart learned from sports and the business of sports, about how to deal with stress and failure, mainly having the right attitude so that you don't compromise your own success, as well as living in the moment. He also recommended writing as a way to handle failure. But the main thing I got out of it was the anecdotes, pretty hilarious on their own but made funnier by his style (if you like it; there were a few times when Chris, my old roommate, and I were the only ones laughing out loud. I think some of the students were afraid to be amused by a classroom speaker.) If you missed it, there's supposed to be a podcast, but it looks like they haven't updated that feed since spring. Check back with www.lectures.iastate.edu/podcasts/ in a week or two. I'd totally recommend his book, and he was classy enough to stick around signing them afterwards; I'm sure he'll be back in Central Iowa to sign books at some point in the future.

Entertainment Within Walking Distance

As I said in my first post, this is the sort of thing I'm planning on blogging about for the most part, since neighborhood business is going to be too infrequent to make a solid blog out of. Today's entertainment within walking distance was Acacia's Root Beer Floats. The weather yesterday had been threatening but today was perfect - warm enough to make ice cream a good idea, not so hot that it's unbearable to be out in it. Acacia is one of the smaller fraternities, found on Grey Avenue. The root beer floats were $3, with profits going to Pages of Promise (a student run, non-profit organization that holds biannual text-book drives on campus to send to schools and libraries in Africa) and the American Red Cross (to help recovering communities in Iowa devastated by historic flooding this past June). Another aspect of the event was a root beer pong tournament, at $2/game. If you're unfamiliar with beverage pong, the basic idea is pretty simple - teams stand at either end of a ping pong table, trying to bounce a ping pong ball into each others' cups, thus obligating the owner of the cup to consume its contents (usually a small amount in each cup, and several cups -- first team to empty all its cups loses.) The game is actually highly structured with all kinds of rules about what happens when a ball goes somewhere other than a full cup, and don't worry, the ball gets washed every time it goes off the table, or in a cup. SCAN members can probably guess the usual context of this game. As a result, and also since the tournament area was bathed in rap music, I can't really recommend sticking around to most SCAN members -- it's just not a scene I see you as being comfortable in -- but if you have fond memories of pong and rap music, $2 isn't a bad deal. For the majority of you, though, I can still recommend the floats, and simply suggest that after buying them you enjoy them somewhere more peaceful. This is Acacia's first year doing this as their philanthropy event -- their previous one involved the use of fire hydrants and the city was going to start charging them for the water. As a result, whether it happens the same way next year is a bit up in the air. Watch this space for more Greek philanthropies like this one.

Upcoming neighborhood entertainment that I'm planning on attending is the first in ISU Lectures Technology, Globalization, and Culture series, featuring Paul Shirley, former ISU basketball player and author of Can I Keep My Jersey?, as well as the first football game of the year. The lecture is in the auditorium in Howe Hall on Wednesday at 6pm, and is free and open to the public. Shirley is highly articulate, and when he finished his degree in mechanical engineering before he'd used up his NCAA eligibility, he stayed on for a year of grad school. The football game is Thursday evening, check out cyclones.com for more info including the various ticket prices (this is one of the cheapest games of the season for single game tickets). SCAN residents are welcome to contact me if you'd like company walking to campus for the lecture. (I'll be with friends from my undergrad days for the game.) Events I'm going to be missing include anything happening over the weekend (I'll be out of town); mostly bands at various campustown businesses and the M-Shop as well as a comedian at Stephens Saturday night. That show is free, but part of Destination Iowa State (i.e. intended for incoming freshmen) so I'm not sure whether it'll appeal to you; he's not anyone I'm familiar with. Also there's a women's soccer game tonight (a bit of a stretch to call the soccer complex walking distance; it's on Elwood aka University way up north at 6th Street, right next to Lied) as well as the Cyclone Fan Fest at the new indoor practice facility next to the stadium Sunday afternoon. Chris may go to that depending on when we get back -- I have a meeting that afternoon. Another maybe is what's playing at the Varsity II right now -- I've already seen Wall-E (and if you haven't GO NOW, best movie of the summer) and the other is The Longshots, the story of the first girl to play Pop Warner football. Sounds like it would be good if you were into sports movies and/or women's empowerment films. I did like Bend it Like Beckham, which also had interesting cultural aspects. Not sure about this one.

If anyone goes to any of the events I can't make it to, leave a comment below letting your neighbors know about the experience. In the interest of minimizing jerks posting anonymously, I'm requiring a login; if you've already got a gmail account you're good to go, and getting one is pretty easy. I'll have other posts about the ones I do attend.

Welcome to our neighborhood's corner of the internet

As this is the first post, I'm going to keep things brief and just take care of a little business. First off, for those who've wondered in off the internet, I want to cover who we are. If you're from the neighborhood, you're probably wondering "Why a blog?" and I'll get to that too. What I'm hoping will be "regular" content will wait for another post.

The South Campus Area Neighborhood Association began in 2002 when neighbors and the city began to work together toward an improved enforcement of over-occupancy, trash, parking, noise and other city ordinances. We welcome participation by all interested parties. We are not anti-renter; it is just as important to us to make sure that a student renter’s landlord complies with ordinances that benefit the renter as it is to remind the student that excessively loud late night parties, underage drinking, and public urination are not acceptable, especially in a low-density neighborhood with the mix of families, retirees, and working adults that we have living in SCAN

Since 2002, we’ve had success with our historic preservation committee and home tour; legal victories regarding the over-occupancy zoning ordinances and “couch ordinance”; had many meetings with city and university officials, and had an intern to assist in organizational issues.

Now in 2008, SCAN continues these efforts through guest speakers at the annual meeting, and the hiring of a Public Relations Director (me!).

Why a blog? Well, our mission is to work with the city of Ames and Iowa State University to maintain and revitalize a healthy, diverse, family-friendly neighborhood that reflects the best of a true "university community”. One of the things I'd like to do in this blog is help reflect that community: specifically, to talk about what's going on not just with the association and in city government as it affects us, but the diverse cultural and entertainment events available. Part community calendar, part review (and what would a blog be if it didn't have reviews of something?) these posts will be all about what's within walking distance - not to slight the great things that happen in Old Town, Downtown, Somerset, West Campus, or the other parts of Ames, but this is about our vitality here, south of campus.