After wandering to various venues after the Flood of 2008, the Cedar Rapids Community Concerts series is returning to the Paramount Theatre. “It’s an important move back home for us,” says Tony Staab, concert association president. “We have been at the Paramount for years and years,” he said, but had to find other venues following [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — Grant Wood opened a window to the world onto the rolling hills and dour faces of his native Eastern Iowa, but one of his greatest achievements opens a window to freedom. And now it will be open to the public as part of the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival. ” ‘American Gothic’ [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — The aerialists will spin and float among the rafters. Other artists will have their feet on the ground — sort of. Adrienn Banhegyi (pronounced “bahn/edgy”) stands on the cutting edge of rope jumping. She gave area media reps and VIPS a sneak peek today (5/21/13) at the fancy footwork that raises her [...]

DECORAH – Down in a valley, between majestic limestone bluffs and the rolling hills of northeast Iowa, the sound of music slowly dissolves from traffic whizzing by to the drone of a fly layered over a babbling brook, a bevy of birds, a band of frogs and a choir of insects. They join their voices [...]

What better time to introduce a picture book titled “Thunderstorm” than at the start of Iowa’s flash-crash-boom season? Award-winning artist and author Arthur Geisert will launch his latest creation Saturday afternoon (5/11) at the bar across the street from his home studio in Bernard, a village off Highway 151, south of Dubuque. National Public Radio [...]

A thirst for knowledge took Elizabeth Barry far afield in her 91 years, but her love of home kept her rooted in Cedar Rapids. Barry, who died March 1 from ovarian cancer, spent her lifetime nurturing her family and her passions, from fishing and gardening to Hawkeye football and The Gazette, which her grandfather helped [...]

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Don’t expect a lot of mushy stuff from Tom Arnold tonight (2/14) at Penguins Comedy Club. “It’s sort of funnier when you hear things that maybe weren’t so lovey-dovey, when you hear things that might have gone wrong here and there,” Arnold, 53, says by phone from his home in Beverly [...]

Iowa City native Paul Nelson will be back at the button, hoping to come up with the right questions in the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions. Taping started in mid-January and the episodes begin airing Feb. 13, 2013. Nelson, now 24, had a successful six-episode run on the venerable game show back in November, winning $54,900. [...]

  Nestled among upscale homes on one of southeast Cedar Rapids’ loveliest streets sat a diamond in the rough. Vacant for seven years, it was home only to a growing colony of mold, a dead bird, broken pipes and some empty liquor bottles. Matt and Amy Stoner saw past all that. They rolled up their [...]

Another Eastern Iowan has won a golden ticket to the Hollywood rounds of “American Idol.” Alisabeth Von Presley of Cedar Rapids also won over the celebrity judges in Chicago, but her audition wasn’t aired on Thursday night’s episode. Like Gabe Brown of Marion, whose audition was shown on TV, Von Presley caught producers’ attention at [...]