PeoriaStory

Heartland Festival Orchestra and the guitar

WASHINGTON, IL -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra audience on Oct. 20 received a couple of treats -- a modern guitar piece with orchestra and a duet between the soloist and conductor. The program took place at the Five Points Washington auditorium.

The modern piece was Six Sixteen by Jeff Beal, an Emmy award winner who composes music for the screen. He did the music for House of Cards on Netflix, soloist Jason Vieaux said. The classical piece was very interesting.

Vieaux also performed Fantasia para un Gentilhombre by Joaquin Rodrigo, a 20th century composer whose lovely piece inspired a standing ovation and the impromptu duet by Vieaux and conductor/artistic director David Commanday who played the viola.

The other pieces in the program were Symphony No. 8 in D Major by Mozart and Symphony no 92 in G Major by Haydn. These are two 18th century composers whose music lives on.  The new and the old blended well in this interesting program.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Rocky Glen event-- great hiking

PEORIA, IL -- The Rocky Glen event on Oct. 20 went well.(See previous post.)  Even the weather cooperated, with beautiful blue skies.

Rocky Glen is a lovely wooded area.  The site now has trails to the waterfall site and the nearby old coal mine, now a bat cave. The glen is a historic/geologic/biological wonder. 

The Rocky Glen Box Canyon in a burst of sunlight.

The hike takes about 90 minutes if you stop to read the helpful signs. Wear hiking shoes or sneakers that can take some mud, as the trail is slick and rough in spots. It has some steep areas, and is a good workout.

The entrance to the old coal mine, allows bats to enter and exit but not people.

There's a small parking lot next to the trailhead.

Here's the Journal Star's story.

This great new Peoria park came into being under the leadership of Dave Pittman.  Here is his talk, which summarizes all those who have helped:

Remarks at Celebration Rocky Glen 10/20/2018

Thank you for coming today. My name is David Pittman, current president of the Friends of Rocky Glen, a non-profit volunteer group. Today marks the fulfillment of a promise. A promise to the people of Peoria and Illinois by the Peoria Park District and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. These folks promised that Rocky Glen would be a public natural area park, with safe facilities, open to the public 365 days a year. Look around you. Here it is.

A $200,000 purchase of 70 acres of treasure in 2011, Rocky Glen is a fascinating mixture of geology, rare biology and human history. Back in the 1940s, folks wrote the Peoria Journal Star saying Rocky Glen should be a park. Carved into the sixty foot sandstone rock walls are dates that go back to the 1880s, proof that Rocky Glen is both one of the oldest Parks in Peoria as well as one of the newest.

So it makes sense that the will of the people, consistent over time, combined with scientific evidence of the unique natural areas here should establish Rocky Glen Park as legacy for the next century. And it makes sense that the Peoria Park District with its unique expertise become the stewards of Rocky Glen. It certainly makes sense, but the creation of the park did not come easily.

Unlike most parks, Rocky Glen was not not created by a generous large donation by a philanthropist but by the sustained efforts of citizens who gave of their time and their skills over many years. Beginning with donations and book sales and 50-50 raffles with art auctions and the sale of a fantastic original art piece, volunteers combined free guided monthly hikes and grant writing, challenge grants and matching Foundation grants in fundraising. It was many many  people of Peoria who created the desire, sustained the public government will and encouraged public agency staff to jump through the bureaucratic hoops to make today the Celebration it has become.

Friends of Rocky Glen has hosted nearly 100 public hikes and guided several thousand people to see for themselves the beauty of this incredible place. I want to thank each of those hikers for their kindness, their letters of support to public officials, their financial donations, and their appreciation of Rocky Glen. We the People are alive and well in the Peoria Park District, in Peoria County and in West Peoria, Illinois.

I want to specifically thank the following Friends of Rocky Glen Board members:

There  will be a quiz afterwards, so please pay attention.

Todd Abercrombie our webmaster.  Michele Kiergard our awesome Facebook Administrator. Thanks to Lynn Dempsey our Treasurer and Secretary and my dear friend. Thanks to Tracy and Rick Fox who inspire me every day. Thank you to Marshall Hopkins, Cheryl Resnick, Ed Stermer and  Vanessa Voelker. Thank you to past Board members Elaine Hopkins, Rita Pogioli, Mariel Parrish, Phillip Lockwood Matt Ryan and my lovely wife Teresa Smith.

I want to thank the West Peoria Residents Association and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Bradley University for their steady support. Thanks to Jimmy C Dillon of the Peoria County Board and his dad James R Dillon, Mayor of West Peoria for the behind the scenes work to bring the landowner into an official agreement to buy Rocky Glen. Thank you to the Rucker Family Foundation for their early and ongoing steady as a rock support for our vision.  And a shout out beyond the grave to Bill Rutherford, who took his future wife Hazel on their first date as high school kids to Rocky Glen nearly 100 years ago.

I want to thank Scott Hillyard of the Peoria Journal Star for his early stories and recognition of the wonderful human history of Rocky Glen. Thank you to Darryl Kussendorf of Sky Harbor Steak House, Clay at Country Club Bar BQ, Rhodell Brewery and Shawn at  Kennys Westside Pub.  A very special shout out to Jimmy Spears and the staff of Jimmys Bar who took a hike with me into Rocky Glen and fell in love with the place. Thank you to the Clean Energy Foundation for their support for this Celebration and our trail signs. Thank you to Doug and Eileen Leunig, to author Bill Knight, to the Community Word and to the Family of Ronald Roos. Thank you to Peggy and Chelsea for their outstanding work on our trail signs.

I want to thank the Pimetoui Trail Association, who have hosted hikes into Rocky Glen. Thank you to Bruce Brown and Norm Kelly for their support, to Inter Business Issues and Jonathan Wright for his sensitive stories. Thank you to the Forest Park Foundation, the Peoria Camera Club and the Moss Bradley Residents Association. Thank you to the Illinois Labor Historical Society for their early support of the tremendous story of creating a union for the coal mining industry that happened right here in Rocky Glen.

We owe so much to Senator David Koehler, to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Angella Morehouse and the Nature Preserves Commission. Thank you to the City of West Peoria, the City of Peoria and especially Susan Schlupp, formerly of Peoria Department of Economic Affairs,  who postponed her retirement in 2011 to help steer the Rocky Glen agreement through the bureaucratic shoals. Thank you to Marilyn Leyland for sharing her grandfather’s photographs of Rocky Glen.  A very very big thank you to retired park district director Bonnie Noble who recognized and supported the Rocky Glen vision over  many years.

 Dave Pittman speaks at the event.

-- Elaine Hopkins

A great event: Rocky Glen is open

PEORIA, IL -- From a news release:

Peoria Park District, Friends of Rocky Glen to Celebrate Grand Opening of Local Park

A grand opening celebration has been planned to commemorate the completion of renovations at Rocky Glen Park.

On Saturday, October 20, 2018, from 10am to 4pm, the Peoria Park District and the Friends of Rocky Glen will host a grand opening celebration to commemorate the completion of the hiking trail, trail signage, and trailhead kiosk at Rocky Glen Park.

The trail signage, trailhead kiosk, and grand opening celebration are funded by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation through a Public Amenities and Events grant to Friends of Rocky Glen.

Rocky Glen Park is 125 acres of natural area owned by the Peoria Park District. The park features a single box canyon with 60 foot sandstone walls, two small waterfalls, a number of prairie meadows, and hundreds of carvings, some dating back over 130 years.

The event will feature a brief ceremony at 10:30am. There will also be free guided hikes for those interested.

The Peoria Park District and Friends of Rocky Glen invite the public and members of the media to attend this celebration! With limited parking at the small parking lot, a free shuttle service will run from Jimmy's Bar, 2801 W. Farmington Road beginning at 9:30am.

ABOUT FRIENDS OF ROCKY GLEN
Friends of Rocky Glen (FORG), is a Federal non-profit organization of volunteers working to protect and promote Rocky Glen. Partial funding for the Celebration and trail signage was provided by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. For more information, please visit the FORG website
at www.friendsofrockyglen.org, visit Friends of Rocky Glen Facebook or contact President David Pittman at 309-573-2354.

ABOUT PEORIA PARK DISTRICT
Public stewards of nearly 9,000 acres of park and greenspace and another 185 buildings, the Park District's mission is "To enrich life in our community through stewardship of the environment and the provision of quality recreational and leisure opportunities." To learn more, please visit
PeoriaParks.org.

Peoria Park District | 309.682.1200 | [email protected] | www.peoriaparks.org- 30  -

The Kavanaugh situation -- not all bad

PEORIA, IL -- The sad situation of seeing Judge Brett Kavanaugh confirmed today for a lifetime appointment to the US Supreme Court has many people depressed. My advice:  stop it and get to work.Your anger should motivate you.

One of the sharpest writers in the U..S., Benjamin Studebaker,  says this appointment could  energize anti-Republican voters who will put Democrats in office to stop more right wing judicial appointments. Let's hope he is right.

Our state, Illinois, has two sharp Democrats in the Senate, but too many Republicans in the US House.  In Peoria we have an opportunity to flip the 18th Congressional District to a Democrat, Junius Rodriguez, a good candidate, honest, smart, approachable.  

His campaign office is 1207 E. War Memorial Drive, Peoria Heights, IL 61616
HQ Phone number 309-265-2540. Regular Hours M-F 10 AM - 4 PM
Rodriguez 2018 Team <[email protected]>

Contact them and take a sign for your yard.  Vote for him, as well, and tell your friends to vote for him.

Now regarding Kavanaugh: Do we remember Dennis Hastert -- long time Republican Speaker of the US House, who a judge termed "a serial child molester" ? He had a secret life, apparently, for decades.

We surely remember Aaron Schock, whose not so secret life involved apparently illegally spending money wildly on office decorations, travel, etc. -- now scheduled to stand trial next June.

Both of these Republicans were beloved by their friends and constituents who praised them as nice guys.  Both knew how to flatter people and possibly lie to them -- and that's what happened to Senator Susan Collins. 

Flattered, lied to, and possibly bribed by the Trump administration telling her something good will be in store for Maine, she was the key vote on Kavanaugh.  So forgetting about Kavanaugh's menacing testimony and lies and to the Judicial Committee,  she insulted every woman urging her to vote 'no' on Kavanaugh.

Her term is up in 2020. Remember Alan Dixon?  He lost his Senate seat because he voted for Clarence Thomas.

Does Kavanaugh have a secret life? All those willing to talk about his drunk, aggressive behavior can't be making this stuff up.  There's no Democratic plot to smear him, just concerned citizens coming forward.  But the Senate Republicans don't want to believe them.

Yet old habits die hard and may not die at all.  Will Kavanaugh be arrested in a bar or restroom incident? That's what happened to Larry Craig on on June 11, 2007, arrested in an airport restroom. He was a Republican United States Senator from Idaho.  The charge: lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport.

So -- in the words of Trump, "we'll see what happens."

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Lion King roars into Peoria

PEORIA, IL -- The Broadway show The Lion King roared into the Peoria Civic Center Theater tonight, and plays until Oct. 13.  It's quite a spectacle.

The famous puppets, the incredible sets, the fabulous costumes and dancing, the special effects, all in all it's an odd combination of Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil and worth seeing for the spectacular, well, spectacle.

There's also comedy and interesting music and singing, but an odd lack of emotion and character development. It deals in stereotypes  -- the lively lions, the evil laughing hyenas, the males as king.  Perhaps that simplicity plus spectacle is its appeal to the public.

And yes, there was a glitch: a mysterious sudden fall of the curtain with a total blackout for the audience for a couple of minutes -- perhaps understandable given the complexity of the sets and scene changes.

Then there's the Civic Center Theater - so grungy with its worn out carpets.  Such poor planning that it ran out of programs. And something new and bad has appeared -- an airport style security system, which caused huge lines and made the show begin 15 minutes late. There's a long ominous list of banned items from weapons to diaper bags, a sign states. At least we didn't have to remove our shoes.

The theater's infamous sound system hadn't been improved, and as usual made the dialogue almost impossible to understand.

Still, people were saying how much they liked it, as the crowd spilled out of the theater.

 -- Elaine Hopkins