Star City Blog

GEEK GUIDE: Lies a “Geek” Told You

By Beth Sachtjen

Computer maintenance isn't the most exciting concept, but perhaps you'd be more interested in the topic if you knew you've been scandalously misinformed with outdated information and mythology about its maintenance.

You are now entering the Geek Guide Twilight Zone: a dark, seedy underworld of technology treachery with the following popular computer lies:

“Defragment the heck out of your PC!”

If you've moved from Windows XP to Vista to Windows 7, the exciting arc your defragmentation tool has taken might surprise you. In Windows XP, you knew that defragmenting your computer simply made it work faster. This is because defragmentation does two things: groups related files and makes more efficient use of free space. However, Windows Vista was developed with a new algorithm that accounted for the fact that defragging pieces of a file larger than 64 MB requires more performance input/output than the benefit of defragging. Windows Vista made this a schedulable process, and Windows 7 made defragmentation of multiple drives automatically a default. Therefore, if you are a Windows 7 user that regularly defragments your computer manually, you are wasting valuable Facebook time.

Jazz in June 2011: Smooth Jazz Saxophonist Joseph Vincelli Closes Out Concert Series

By Tom Ineck

Making his Jazz in June debut tonight is the Dallas-based smooth jazz saxophonist Joseph Vincelli, who will perform June 28 for the final concert of the 2011 series.

Among the players expected to accompany Vincelli are Danielle Brown, Joel McCray and Roberto Bernardinello.

Vincelli has a string of nearly a dozen recordings dating back to 1995, first on Breakaway Records and then on the Integra Classic label. The latest, “The Invitation,” is his first studio CD in years. It is a collaboration with pianist Joel McCray featuring new songs in funk and ballad styles.

His sound often ranges from romantic ballads to energized funk, with a band that usually includes electronic keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. Vincelli and his band have shared the stage with such notable jazzmen as singer Al Jarreau, guitarist Earl Klugh, pianist Joe Sample and saxophonist Boney James. They are in the midst of a busy spring and summer schedule, with performances not only throughout Texas but also in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Florida.

A Cup of Lincoln: New Coffee Roasters Build on Tradition

Editor's note: "A Cup of Lincoln" will be a three-part series by Michael Hennings exploring Lincoln's eight coffee roasters. Today, he writes about The Mill, 800 P St., and Coffee Emergency, 2723 N. 48th St. Look for part two on Tuesday, July 5th and part three on Monday, July 11th.

By Michael Hennings

Twenty years ago, there were only a handful of coffee shops in Lincoln. Since then, coffee culture has grown immensely, and today there are more than twenty-five coffee houses speckling the landscape.

But have you ever wondered where the coffee comes from? The Lincoln area alone is home to eight different roasters. Star City Blog spoke with all of them, and what we found was more than just a hill of beans.

Science Odyssey: The Evidence for Evolution

By Clay Farris Naff

Evolution continues to lead a double life. In science, it is currently the most widely accepted, uncontroversial theory around. By contrast, gravity is hotly disputed. Among the public, however, evolution is far more controversial than gravity.

To address the doubts of evo-skeptics, University of Utah anthropologist Alan Rogers has written a slim new book that elegantly compiles the overwhelming evidence for evolution. On this program we talk with him about the book and why he wrote it.

Evo-evidence, Part 1

Evo-evidence, Part 2

Clay Farris Naff is (claynaff.com) is a science author and blogger whose weekly radio program, Science Odyssey, airs Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 9 a.m. CST on KZUM, Lincoln's community radio station. You can hear it over the air at 89.3 FM or on the web live at kzum.org. Clay's science and religion blog on the Huffington Post can be seen here.

 

CD REVIEW: Vocables reign on South of Lincoln’s new EP, “The Monsters/Bathroom Sessions"

By Spencer Powell

Littered with oohs, ohs and la-da-dahs, the new album from South of Lincoln, aka Max Holmquist, gives us seven new songs that rip right out of his guitar with driving resonant chords that are the backbone of this dark yet gentle EP.

 “Coming Home” is a quick first track that balances a steady bass side with some slick, high-end picking.  With no additional instruments on the album, each track is just a man, a guitar and his voice. Holmquist’s songwriting really shines in this understated approach.  

Track three, “Eleanor,” one of the finest songs on the record, features a haunting chorus lamenting the loss of women for whom men would give their lives. Eerie rolling and bending strings slowly crescendo the tune into one of the fullest and boldest of Holmquist’s songs.

MOVIE REVIEW:”The Tree of Life” is Terrence Malick's Epic American Poem

By Justin Senkbile

Usually the winner of the Palm d'Or, the Cannes film festival's top prize, takes almost a year to make its way to Lincoln screens. This isn't the case with Terrence Malick's “The Tree of Life,” which took home that prize last month. But the latest from the legendarily enigmatic director isn't a stark Romanian drama or an even more stark German art piece. Compared to the Cannes champs of the last several years, “The Tree of Life” is a big movie, complete with A-list stars (Brad Pitt and Sean Penn), an insanely huge scope, and a whole sequence full of CGI effects.

That said, this is still the most avant-garde Brad Pitt movie you've ever seen. “The Tree of Life” begins its approach to life on Earth from very far away - from before life existed, in fact. A prologue introduces us not only to Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien (Pitt and Jessica Chastain) in the 1950's and their adult son Jack (Penn) in the present day, but also to the poetic, frenetic beat this picture dances to. Then Malick switches gears and shows us the beginnings of our world, from amorphous plumes of color to green foliage roamed by dinosaurs (yep, there are dinosaurs).

OVERLOOKED LINCOLN: Museum Boasts Nebraska's Smallest Railroad

Editor's note: "Overlooked Lincoln" is a series profiling unique and under-the-radar museums and personal collections in the Lincoln area. If you have a suggestion, send an email to editor@starcityblog.com.

By Marcia Claesson

Just a half an hour west of Lincoln, you’ll find a place where you can ride on a real steam engine. It’s one-twelfth the size of a regular railroad.

The Chippewa Northwestern Railway  in Goehner, Neb. was constructed by Jim Culver and Joel Harper, model railroad enthusiasts who wanted to share their hobby with others.  Ten volunteers operate one-inch live steam trains on 1,900 feet of track. It’s the experience of running a real steam engine, as well as riding on the train, that makes live steam different from other kinds of model railroading, Culver said.

“You have to work to make it work,” he said. “You’ve got to maintain the fire, maintain the water. It’s a real railroad. You have all the same problems you would with a full-size version, just in miniature.”

The Bottle Chronicles: Refreshing Summer Brews

By Alexis Abel

Yesterday marked the happiest day of the year for many. We’ve had our share of scorching weather this spring in Lincoln, but yesterday’s solstice made it official: summer is here.

Whatever your plans are — barbecues with friends, weekends at the lake, a road trip to Nebraska’s finest tourist destinations (I recommend Carhenge) — I can’t think of a better way to celebrate summer than with an ice-cold beer.

Summer is about having fun and taking it easy, which is what you want in a summer beer.  Today’s Bottle Chronicles explores new summer brews that will keep you chill until fall.

Jazz in June 2011: Omahan Susie Thorne a Recognized Talent Locally and Internationally

By Tom Ineck

Omaha-based singer and pianist Susie Thorne will take the stage June 21 at Jazz in June, fronting a band that also includes some of the area’s best jazz musicians: saxophonist Darren Pettit, guitarist Ron Cooley, bassist Andy Hall and drummer Joey Gulizia.

A Hastings, Neb. native, Thorne was first inspired by the choir music of her childhood and the jazz played by her trumpeter father, who played with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, among others. She served as her mother’s piano accompanist and sang with her dad's ensemble.

Thorne later grew to love the soulful sounds of Motown, sang with a touring rhythm and blues band and traveled Europe and Asia as a solo performer on piano and vocals. Returning home, she studied piano performance at the University of Colorado at Denver, where she also rediscovered the allure of jazz.

For her light and lively vocal style, Thorne draws inspiration from such legendary singers as Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and Nancy Wilson. “Love for Sale,” Thorne’s debut recording, was released in 2000. A collection of jazz standards called “Blue Skies, Clear Day” was released in 2006. She last appeared in Lincoln as guest vocalist with the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra for the NJO’s annual Christmas concert in December 2008.

THEATER REVIEW: Flatwater Shakespeare's "Midsummer" is a Dream

By Ladd Wendelin

 “I may never believe / These antique fables nor these fairy toys,” speaks Theseus in Act V, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. which played to receptive, if not bug-bitten, audience in the Lincoln Foundation Gardens (1417 N St., just past Colby Ridge Popcorn) Sunday evening.

Watching a cast of Flatwater regulars and newcomers perform, it struck me just how prevalent the supernatural is throughout the play (learning something new every time – a guarantee with any Shakespeare play). Magic, or the misuse of it, inevitably leads to disbelief. The fancies of love quickly become a fool’s errand. And yet, deep in the heart of the Athenian woods, Shakespeare invites us to scrap our skepticism, get lost in the language and be seduced by transformative, magical powers that only appear in the heat of the moment, just before daybreak.

It would be difficult to imagine this play being staged in Flatwater Shakespeare’s regular home, the Swan (or Carriage House) at Wyuka Cemetery. Currently under renovation, director Bob Hall has wisely moved operations for this production of Midsummer from the Swan to the Lincoln Foundation Gardens. The Foundation Gardens are the ideal setting for the play, and Hall has clearly taken great care in adapting the play for the space. Forget that it’s bordered by the Windstream building! Stretch your imagination just enough, and you’re bound to find yourself in a hanging garden surrounded by Roman ruins.