Siouxland Public Media Interviews and Features

In today's adventure, Jared the Pop Machine and Squishy the Jello find themselves trapped in a pool shed. Will they be able to find their way out? Will Jared's hunger get the best of him? Will Squishy forgive Jared for his past transgressions? Find out as the Sanford Center Radio Players present this original radio drama.

This bit of theatre was spontaneously composed by the children at the Sanford Center in Sioux City one summer day in 2015.    

  Human Fest 3 is at Pipe Dreams this weekend. Matt and Libby Church are the organizers and visionaries behind this nexus of music and ideas. They joined Mark Munger.

With the arrival of the new moon, the heavens are in our favor for viewing the Perseid meteor shower. You can, of course, just slip outside and watch for falling stars anywhere; however, if you would like a bit of society, join Woodbury County Parks at the Southwood Conservation Area on Saturday, or meet up with fellow stargazers at the Sanford Museum and Planetarium on Thursday. Or go to both events!

In the early 1970’s, Jazz Fusion was music’s cutting edge, and Alphonse Mouzons’ Mind Transplant is one of the genre’s seminal albums. Sioux City’s guitar hero Tommy Bolin provided much of the soul for that album. This Saturday, Mouzon will be bringing a bit of Tommy’s soul back to Sioux City. The drummer will be headlining the Tommy Bolin Music Festival, which will be held at the Icky Nickel. FM90’s Mark Munger gave Mouzon a call to talk about his work with Bolin.   

"It's got fighting and cowboys and farmers and picnic lunches. It's got everything you can imagine in a show," says Morningside's Randy Peters of Oklahoma!. The show brings this summer's Betty Ling Tsang Fine Arts Series to a close this weekend, which is so difficult to believe. It will feature some of Siouxland's favorite actors, including Mike Skaff and Bill McKenney, and quite a few of our favorite songs.

Siouxland Civic Dance Association is offering the "Gift of Dance" to at-risk middle school children. The project is made possible by the Gilchrist Foundation and offers an opportunity for 50 children to receive instruction in classroom technique, etiquette and performance skills.

As a parent of three, I am always looking for ways to engage the minds of my growing teenagers. Common books are a great way to provoke conversation that is mentally stimulating yet non-threatening for any of us. This summer I decided to read a title from their assigned reading list from school called The Giver by Lois Lowry. I remembered both of them being enthusiastic about the book while reading it.

The Jackson St. Cook-off for the Sanford Center Gang Prevention Program takes place Saturday, August 1. Nine churches on Jackson Street, including Iglesia La Biblia Abierta, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and St. John Lutheran Church, have been challenged to a cook off to be held on the playground of Hunt School. It begins at 11:00 a.m.

  Also happening:

Mark Twain penned the philosophy “Truth is stranger than fiction,” in his travelogue Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World.

This notion is illustrated in shades of humor and heartbreak in Jeanette Wall’s memoir, The Glass Castle.

Walls steers the reader through her nomadic childhood with the kind of turbulence and immediacy that left me feeling the need to buckle in from page one.

Saturday, July 25, the Disabilities Resource Center of Siouxland and the Sioux City Human Rights Commission will host a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the ADA. Expert panelists from local agencies will be present to talk about issues facing the disabled community and answer questions. There will be food and activities. It takes place in the Sioux City Public Museum beginning at noon.