Alright, I’ll come clean: I am an English dork, so I guess it’s only natural that I would be interested in books. Lucky for me, I live in Champaign-Urbana, where there are lots of great places to find and read those lovely objects of escape and information.

Downtown Champaign’s Jane Addams Book Shop is an amazing place to find used books, out-of-print books, “antiquarian” books, or simply wander around awed by floor-to-ceiling books stretching back much further than it would appear from the building’s exterior. Seriously, it’s kinda like Narnia for readers, a store that gets bigger the more you explore it. Unfortunately, the time-suspension rules of the magic wardrobe do not apply, so beware of hours passing in the outside world.
Now, if you have no money but you still love books, there are plenty of sweet libraries around. The new Champaign library is sleek and modern, filled with sunlight and people, although there are some rooms for quiet and some comfy places to hang out and read. I saw a girl reading with her shoes off, so you know the staff is pretty chill. Also, be sure to check out the Children’s Desk, which is some sort of see-through plastic covering a neon-like light bank that changes color!! Amazing.
If you like your libraries a little more old-school, head over to the Urban Free Library, with statues, a coffee-shop, and a very comfy-homey relaxing vibe. It seems that they have a better selection of “classics” here than at the new Champaign lib, but this observation is based soley on my own browsing experience and is neither fully researched nor scientifically calculated.

UIUC Main Library

Last but certainly not least is the Main University Library. Not only does this giant building have separate libraries for different subjects, it has plenty of scary gothic passages and stairways, and the Main Stacks, which are both incredible and mildly frightening. It is easy to get lost wandering deep in the stacks, and easy to get fascinated and sucked in to successive wings filled with books. Watch out for ghosts in here…

This week’s sweet spot in the giant wrap-around couch at the 6th St. Espresso Royale. Be careful, this is the couch on the bottom floor! The one on the top floor is kinda icky, a little bit too squishy and right in the middle of everything.

ahhhh, relaxing

However, the one downstairs has perfect cushioniness, a good back to snuggle against, a table for your coffee/books, and enough room to share with any stranger who also happens to be doing homework. Perhaps I will be that stranger, since I myself enjoy doing homework there (clearly, or why would it be a sweet spot?)

Hooray for the Great Cover Up, in its 17th year at the Highdive in Champaign! Awesome local bands musically disguised as slightly more (ok, sometimes way more) famous bands, with cheesiness, daring and originality all drawing enthusiastic crowd response. Definitely one of the highlights of the local music scene.
So far this year, I have made it to one of the two shows, with attendance possible for the Thursday night show, featuring jigGsaw and elsinore, among others. Since elsinore stole the show last year with their Queen cover performance, it should be worth stopping by on Thursday.
But about last night…

oh, how time flies

Had to work, so I missed Monster Honkey, arriving just as The Chemicals took the stage. They started off a Velvet Underground set with “I’m Waitin’ for the Man,” before moving on to some way obscure covers. I saw the Chemicals earlier this year, and thought that their slightly fuzzy sound was perfect for their Velvet performance-I did miss Nico’s horribley lovely voice though. Terminus Victor played the most weirdly upbeat version of Eliot Smith ever, followed by the Tractor Kings, playing a genuinely upbeat Uncle Tupelo set, which was both danceable and sad. The bass player sang a few of the songs in a surprisingly strong yet youthful voice, reminding at least me of a young mournful Jeff Tweedy. All this music was great, but some in the crowd were missing the costumes and drama sometimes seen at past Cover Ups.
Never fear, the Beauty Shop is here, Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s sweet spot is Boardman’s Art Theatre, in downtown Champaign on Church St, near the giant construction site that will be “M2″ in about five years. Unlike the mega-mart movie theaters by Meijer or in Savoy, the Art Theater only plays one movie at a time, but it usually one of the bestest movies currently playing. Lately, they have run “No Country for Old Men” and “Juno,” with “There Will Be Blood” coming soon. The theater itself is not huge, but roomy and appealingly old-school feeling, and the bathroom has those little cool/scary retro white tiles.

check me out!

But Boardman’s is sweet not only for what they do play and where they play it, but also for what they don’t play-namely commercials. If you have been to a mega theater in the last few years, you know that they play about 20-30 minutes of previews and commercials. Now, I have always been a fan of previews, but, as far as I know, Sprint and Coca-Cola are not making movies any time soon. And not just one or two discreet commercials, but five or six, seemingly more than they play on tv at one time. This phenomenon has actually pissed me off at movies before, so the Boardman’s experience is a much appreciated one. Also, they have great popcorn and any movie treat you could want. So, rock on Boardman’s Art Theater! and if you haven’t seen a movie there you should walk or ride your bike or take the bus or even drive your car to downtown Champaign and check it out.
(word to the wise, don’t park in the Impasta’s lot on the right of the Theater-they tow cars like crazy, but the food is great-dinner and a movie anyone?)

I missed the bus yesterday and had to wait for almost 30 minutes outside of folletts. (insert angry rave here: why would anyone go through the trouble of ordering books online, doing all that annoying typing, only to be handed a giant cardboard box at the store and told to wait in line to check out, just in case the books set off the theft sensors at the door? not a time-saver, but at least the box was a total waste of paper).
Anyway, I watched the giant cranes demolishing the building right behind folletts with great interest, not least because of my own earlier post about construction around town. They looked like dinosaurs, one a little bigger than the other (mama and baby? male and female?) and moved quite gracefully between tearing giant chunks out of the walls and picking up tiny pipes no more than an inch think. All the action got me thinking about animals, people and extinction. Now, the dinosaurs were the kings of the world until they went extinct, and I guess I could consider people to be the kings of the world now (despite weather revolt from the earth herself). So, if we have finally reached a point where we build our own dinosaurs and depend on them to further suck up resources and power, can our extinction be far behind?

Alright, so this semester the wonderful world of “CU at my blog” is expanding from music out into other areas of life in the CU area. We have been moving in this direction for a few posts, and we will still do plenty of music information and show reviews, but there is so much going on in the area it seems a shame to limit ourselves.

sweet dude!

I present my new blog feature…drum roll please….”The Sweet Spot.” Each week or two, I will be discussing one of CU “sweetest” spots for finding something, or doing something, or relaxing somewhere. They may be businesses, campus-related areas, or other random things around town. Rest assured, I will not be accepting or soliciting any compensation for my online gushing, and please feel more than free, as readers, to contribute your own “sweet spot” or give me some feedback on mine. Hopefully you are as excited about this new development as I am, see you around town!

Even if you have been gone for weeks, you must have noticed all the construction in the Champaign area. Over break, the action really heated up, with Green St. closing in several spots, and those two buildings going up, one where that Burger King was and another by Qdoba. Also, that new “310″ building on Springfield is starting to actually look like a hideous apartment complex, instead of just a hideous raw field. Seriously, that building is so big and yucky, my eyes cringe when I go by. A word to the wise: don’t sign a lease based on what they promise to have ready by move-in time. We all know how delayable construction projects are.

hard hats required!

On a happier note, the new Champaign library is open again and so amazingly sweet that I am tempted to live there. Lots of natural light, lots of spots to chill and read and hide, lots and lots of lovely books and computers. Once they tear down the empty trash receptacle that is the old library and get a new parking system, it will be a superstar library. So, I know that construction is not all bad, but there is a world of difference between a well designed community necessity and an intrusive twelve (or something like that) story eyesore that rich parents rent for their kids. Perhaps I should pack up my bike and move over to Urbana, where the only thing being remodeled is Strawberry Fields…

Hey CU, hope everyone had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kawazaa/Winter Solstice/ Eidul-Adha/Bodhi Day/insert winter celebration here. If you are on Winter Break from school you must be relaxing unless you are applying to graduate school or trying to get a job in the real world or working fifteen hours a day to make money for spring semester books. Even if you are doing non-class related work, take a minute to relax and read a fascinating blog…