Grammy Award-winning zydeco artist Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience will play Grinnell’s Voertman Theatre on Feb 21– the Saturday before Mardis Gras.

The show, sponsored by the Grinnell Area Arts Council, is supported by Bernie Lowe & Associates and the Grinnell Best Western Pioneer Inn.

Grammy-nominee The Billy Lee Janey Band will open.

Tickets, priced at $20, will be available soon at Browns’ Shoe-Fit and McNally’s Foods in Grinnell.

For one of the many videos of Simien on YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YZRehrfNJI

This is something we preach every day.  Political boundaries are invisible.  What’s good for Grinnell is good for Montezuma and vice versa.  But what’s good for Poweshiek County is also good for Jasper, Marshall, Marion and Mahaska counties.  We live in a world where global competition requires regional cooperation.

I just stumbled across an outstanding op-ed from the Toldeo (OH) Blade by the president emeritus of the University of Toledo on the subject of regionalism.  It’s pretty good and I thought worth sharing.  Enjoy!

http://www.toledofreepress.com/?id=7332

Montezuma is joining the list of area communities improving their central business district.

Work began earlier this month on a sidewalk replacement project that will improve the east, west and north sides of the courthouse square.  Work began with the removal of streetlights along Main Street.  Work should be done in time for the city’s July 4th celebration.

Grinnell has completed the first two phases of a downtown streetscape project.  Brooklyn will also begin an almost $2 million streetscape project this year.

Ask anyone who was a fan of the old "View from the Basement" feature on the KUNI Public Radio website (that was the precursor of a blog on Statehouse happenings back in the 90s), and they’ll tell you it had great material — but wasn’t updated often enough. 

Call it laziness.  Call it procrastination.  Call it writer’s block.  But I could never seem to keep a steady, weekly stream of juicy capitol gossip and news tidbits going.

So, when I launched this PowI-80 blog (maybe 11-12 years removed from the original KUNI pre-blog), I vowed things would be different.

Clearly, not much has changed during the last decade.  It’s been more than a month (a lot more!) since my last post.  In that time, we at PowI-80 have:

• taken a delegation from Poweshiek County to Washington DC.
• honored the Manatt family at our annual meeting
• provided scholarships to young apprentice gunsmiths who will be at a major job fair in Newton next month, hosted by Brownells
• outlined a proposal for a Poweshiek County revolving loan fund for small businesses
• helped to develop a strategic marketing plan for the Grinnell Tourism Group
• participated in the creation of an innovative regional strategy for improving the size and skills of our workforce (to be released publicly on April 8th)
• facilitated successful grant applications for "The View", a student-operated coffeeshop in Motnezuma, and a landscaping project at the Poweshiek County Courthouse
• continued marketing available sites and buildings throughout the county
• hosted a luncheon that provided information on tax credits for businesses that hire Poweshiek County residents
• presided over a five-county regional marketing alliance
• promoted local attractions to patrons of a regional wine trail
• talked to a lot of people
• avoided updating the PowI-80 blog

That’s not a bad laundry list of activities for an 8-week period.  You should hear about these things more promptly.

From now on, you will!

I promise!!

Now that’s something you don’t get to write every day.

And, granted it’s a former Grinnellian.  Well, he was a Grinnell when he attended Grinnell College some 50 years ago.

But Herbie Hancock has returned to the area regularly and speaks glowingly of his team here.  And he stunned the music world last night when he was awarded the top prize at the 50th Grammy Awards — Album of the Year.

Hancock was just another Grinnell College student in the late 50s and early 60s, though he had a knack for playing the piano.  He met a fellow named Miles Davis, a fair trumpet in his own right, who asked him to join his quartet.  Hancock left Grinnell before graduating and the rest is jazz history.  He did return to receive his degree later and is listed as a member of the Class of ‘61.

Hancock’s Grammy-award winning effort was a tribute to Joni Mitchell, “River: The Joni Letters.”  TIt was the first time in 43 years that a jazz album has won the album of the year prize. “What a beautiful day this is in Los Angeles!” Hancock said as he took the stage.

Hancock has played Grinnell at least three times in the last decade or so; at the College’s Sesquicentennial celebration, at the dedication of the Bucksbaum Fine Arts Building, and at an Al Gore campaign event.

I had the chance to interview him during one of those visits. Among other things, he said Grinnell helped to shape him creatively and prepare him for what was to come.

Today, what has come is pretty special!