Iowa City Real Estate Blog: August 2010

Below is a map showing the venues where the films are being shown. When you click on the camera marker you'll find showing times for Saturday and Sunday.

Rain did not wash all the sand sculptures away on Friday. Resourceful Iowans managed to save their exhibits and the weekend continued without further ado at this year's Sand in the City event. I headed over yesterday afternoon, enjoyed some really excellent singing with the all male capella, Intersection. (I'm Welsh, that makes me a sucker for an all male choir - it's in the genes). Right after that I took some snaps of the wonderful exhibits from the Sand Sculpting Competition. Click here if you'd like to see the full-screen version of this slide show over at Picasa.

Sand in the City is part of the Iowa City Summer of the Arts Program. It kicked off on Friday with the sculpting competition and continues through the weekend with fun events and live music - Topped off with great food on Culinary Row. In case you're thinking of heading down there, it's not at the Ped Mall where you might expect it to be. It's at Iowa Ave, in front of the Old Capitol. (The road is closed down as far as Linn St).

I was there yesterday to check out the sculpting competition. As is typical in Iowa City this year the weather managed to put a dent in proceedings. It was looking good until around 5.00pm and then the rain came in... Check out the slide show. This was just prior to events being "rained off." Today the weather is dull, but the sun is doing its best to shine through. Here's a blog post I wrote yesterday with the schedule and map if you want to head on over and have some fun.

Click here if you'c like to check out the full screen slideshow at Picasa.

This is what you see if you're hanging out at the Ped Mall in Iowa City... Browsing fine Art and reading books. Two of my favorite pastimes right there! And you can never get enough of kids having fun. An average day in a college town. You've got to love it!

Music in the Park today in Coralville. Where? Morrison Park. When? 6.30pm - 8.00pm. The weather looks like it's going to play ball. We aren't exactly having our best summer ever... Today by way of a change they're forecasting sunshine. All the more reason to enjoy this break in the wet weather, bring along your chairs and hang out at Morrison Park and enjoy some good local music with Jeffrey Morgan and Friends.

Best of all, this event is free, plus there's plenty of free parking too. As it's a Thursday it's Farmer's market day, plus Hyvee will be sure to get those juices flowing with the smell of brats on the grill. You know you can't beat the smell of brats sizzling, don't you?

Made it to the Marriott to take some cool photos of Anime 2010 and got a bit more insight into the world of Anime - Japanese animation. I have a curious mind and it was a lot of fun learning about something that I didn't have the first clue about just two days ago.Turns out these young people are used to being accosted in the street and were happy to pose for photos. They were open and friendly and Mitch and Holly even filled me in on some background info on the Anime Conventions and the costume Holly was wearing. She's the White Mage in the slide show. Of course everyone knows what a Mage is, right? If you're into fantasy you will. I have sons who are into online gaming, so I had no trouble "getting" what Mitch was talking about with the difference between white and black Mages. I think even without my in-house experiences I would have understood. I'm a Brit. We have Camelot and Merlin and Co. Good and bad sorcerers is not exactly a brand new concept!

Talking to these kids, it seems that cosplay gets you hugs galore off-line from fans who identify with their on screen characters. And if you don't know what cosplay is you will just have to read my last post to find out. At any rate I loved the idea of that and totally get why these conventions are such a huge hit. It's an opportunity for fans to bring their virtual world into the real world. How cool is that?