ChimpersCage

To many of the festivals hosted in Normal, the Make Music Normal festival is pretty young.  That doesn't keep it from being a great event.  The festival set in the more mature business district of the town provides an inviting rustic, quaint and appealing venue.  The festival seems to be growing every year.  This year it sported 6 stages in about a 3 block area of North, Broadway and Beaufort streets, including the round a bout area.  Providing the entertainment for the festival are a large number of bands from both the twin cities, central Illinois area and the nation at large.  The festival gives music lovers a place to see the local entertainment outside the usual bar and restaurants and without a cover charge.  Along with the entertainment are a number of vendors selling assorted eats and drinks, including wine and beer.  The music genres are varied and include something for just about everyone.  Folk to pop to rap to indie rock and c...

--> Sports fans love a good player tribute or memorial.   They flock to places like stadiums, the various hall of fames, hometowns of heroes and museums to see artist’s renditions of the athlete and their careers.   There are simply hundreds of places to visit to pay homage to the many great athletes of the world.   Bloomington Illinois has added a venue in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery!   A cemetery is not your standard variety venue. Many cemeteries feature stone art.   Many old stones were carved with scenes of nature or animals and the way those are depicted generally has a meaning.   There is some of that art in Evergreen Memorial, but there is also new art that just grows with the trees.   It all began in 2015 when a tree died near a spot where a plane had crashed during the Memorial Day ceremonies of 1948.   Instead of cutting down the tree and removing the stump, management decided to have it carved into a memorial com...

Redbird Arena - 2-16-2019 Bradley at Illinois State The Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball outcomes have been absolutely unpredictable this season.  A few games back, Illinois State defeated Loyola to take the lead in the conference.  Last night they lost to a struggling Bradley team.  Actually, Bradley has been staging a bit of a comeback the last few seasons, albeit a slow one.  But, nothing seems to happen overnight with maybe the exception of the Loyola Rambler cinderella team last season...Devine Intervention? The game has always been a rivalry, but in recent years it's been beat up.  This game, 9000 people filed in to the 'nest' to watch the game.  Some accounts say the contingent of Braves fans that travelled 40 miles from Peoria were more energized.  Maybe so, so much red in Redbird that I couldn't tell the fans apart by just looking up.  Still, the rivalry wasn't like it was in its heydays a dozen plus years ago when the th...