Iowa City Owl

If Iowa City can get out from under this overcast, tonight will be the peak of the April Lyrids meteor shower, especially since there will also be a new moon, clearing out the light pollution for pristine viewing.

With President Barack Obama showing up to Iowa City on the 25th in order to supposedly rally youth voters toward his reelection this November, it seems that his main tactic is to talk about student debt accrued by federal loans.

As Earth Day will be celebrated internationally this Sunday, April 22nd, I decided to do some research into a couple environmentally-focused events happening in Iowa City this weekend.  On Saturday, many members of the community will meet at the Boyd Law Building (130 Byington Road) to discuss the effects of mega-agribusiness Monsanto on our food, our farms, and our future.

With the recent release of the hardcover collection of Grant Morrison's all-but-forgotten 'Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery' four-issue miniseries, I felt it imperative to discuss this comic at length so that those new to Morrison's work (or to comics in general) would come to regard 'Flex Mentallo' as a classic of modern sequential art.

The third-annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo took place this past weekend at the McCormick Place North Building in Chicago, bringing over 30,000 comics fans to buy from nearly a hundred exhibitors and meet special industry guests including sci-fi TV stars and dozens of comic book artists and writers.

Let it be known that I drink daily. I love alcohol, from wines and beers, to liquors and liqueurs, and tote myself as a bit of a connoisseur, seeking out the best libations. Yet unlike the nefarious 'binge drinkers' which worry the administration of the University of Iowa, I was raised with an acute understanding of my own level of tolerance and how to make drunkenness a creative and positive experience.

A little while back, a friend of mine was commenting on how smart-phones, tablets, and other such devices were curiously all designed to be held or to fit into pockets, lamenting the fact that  Dick Tracy's famous wristwatch communicator had never been developed.

It's been forty years since the last moon-landing made by NASA, and while the governmental space program has no direct plans of their own to get back to our orbiting celestial body, companies such as Space Adventures and Google have reignited the race in the commercial realm.

Say you're nervous before your first date, quickly walking through the Ped Mall and passing by the Bread Garden, when you decide that it would be best to get a bottle of wine to ease that first awkward conversation.

Today, hundreds of millions of people the world over are celebrating Easter, a celebration of the ascension of Jesus Christ, savior, fulfilling prophecy and saving us from our sins so that we may one day join him in the kingdom of heaven.