WFIE is reporting that University of Evansville Athletic director Bill McGillis is leaving the University to take a job at South Florida. McGillis has been the AD at UE for the past five years coming in after the departure of long-time basketball coach Jim Crews.

More details to come…

When you were growing up, you probably at one time or another had a dream of one day working at the local record shop so that you could get free CDs. Joe Smith took that dream and made a living out of it. It’s Evansville met up with Joe, owner of Joe’s Records, at his east-side store to talk about his store, the Evansville music scene and how the digital age has impacted his industry.

Tell me about Joe’s records.

Three years ago we opened our first shop on the West side and we dealt mostly with used CDs and Vinyl. We did well enough in the first year to open a second store on the East side of Evansville. We’re now looking to open a third one in Owensboro. It’s going well.

What prompted you to open your first store?

I managed the Coconuts in town here for 15 years and learned the trade from them. We fell out of love with each other, I took a year off and then came back to the only thing I know how to do. I could see it coming that [music stores] weren’t going to survive on new music, so we wanted to do the used thing. Even though we started used, we’re now immersed in the new even though we didn’t want to be, but it is what it is.

Continue reading Interview: Joe Smith of Joe’s Records…

Ever since the Funny Bone closed it’s doors a few years ago, there have not been too many comedy acts making their way to town. Comedy in the past few years has been making an impressive comeback thanks to nationwide comedy tours put on by the likes of Opie and Anthony or Bob & Tom.

With this resurging interest in comedy that is upon us, local Top-40 station KISS-FM has brought comedian Katt Williams to town tonight (7:30PM The Centre). Katt Williams has been featured in his own HBO special, movies and music videos for big name artists such as Ludacris, Ice Cube and Nick Cannon. My favorite role of Williams’ is Money Mike in the otherewise abysmall Friday After Next. Katt Williams’ comedy centers on the black community, so fans of Larry The Cable Guy probably need not apply.

Click through to see a clip of Williams’ work.

Continue reading Comedy Night: Katt Williams…

• Whirlpool has changed their mind and decided that it actually doesn’t need to layoff 25 people.
• In another example of overreacting to a non-situation, if you want to get inside the Vanderburgh Court House, be prepared to take your belt off. Don’t worry though. If they really wanted to inconvenience you, they’d make you take your shoes off as well.
• The Vanderburgh County Sherrif’s must be fans of 24. They have setup a new pilot program that attaches a GPS to sex offenders.
• New University of Evansville Basketball coach Marty Simmons has signed his first recruit: 6’1” Kavon Lacey, a guard from Alton, IL.

Here at the It’s Evansville headquarters we’re just sitting around watching the rain out the windows and wishing that warm weather from a few weeks ago would return. Sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be back in the 80’s for a while. Rather than sit around and wish for warmer weather, I think we’re going to get out of the office early this afternoon and find something to do.

We’re feeling a bit mellow and sophisiticated today, so here’s a low-key night in the town.

• If you’re into wine tasting, Winetree-East has a tasting at 4PM today (1951 Washington Ave). Once you’ve sampled their collection, grab your sober driver and head over to Raffi’s (1100 N Burkhardt Rd ) for more wine tasting and maybe some of those delicious crab cakes. Make sure you get some soup too!
• Keeping with our mellow mood, there’s live jazz being played this evening as well. If you are staying at Raffi’s, Cynthia McDonald & Bob Green are performing starting at 6:30. Firefly has live jazz with Theo & Friends.
• After dinner, why not head down to The District and listen to some acoustic music at Ri Ra’s with drinks.

photo courtesy of emdot

One of the things that always gets under my skin is seeing giant buildings become vacated for several years at a time. When Wal-Mart moved, their building was vacant for a few years (the West side’s old store still is vacated). The same thing happened when K-Mart closed. Luckily most of these buildings find a new home at some point, it just takes a while. Sam’s Club moved to their new building almost 3 years ago, and their old building off of Green River Road has sat vacant, save for a few Fireworks sales.

The old Sam’s Club building on the East side is may soon be occupied once again. Cingular Wireless is planning to renovate the building to turn it into a call center for for their business customers. The call center is expected to bring in 500 jobs, which could be beneficial to those 500 people who lost their jobs at Whirlpool back in December.

While nothing is officially announced, the general consensus is that the new center will be announced by Cingular and the City Of Evansville on Monday.

photo courtesy of brave new films

Looks like another slow news day in Evansville. Here’s today’s highlights.

• The Indiana House approved legislation that would establish a statewide smoking ban in Indiana. Sadly, it still doesn’t cover bars.
• A new domestic violence bill has been been passed to protect victims of domestic violence. Under the new law a victim who rents property will have the right to request the landlord change the locks or terminate their lease without penalty with 30 days notice.
• The Evansville Blitz youth soccer team plans to host a 130 team tournament next year.

I’ll admit that I was a fan of the Bravo TV show Blow Out, which followed around Beverly Hills hair stylist Jonathan Antin. From that show I got my initial introduction to the Pussycat Dolls who were created by Antin’s sister, Robin. Robin Antin started the dolls in the early 90’s as a burlesque dance group in Los Angeles.

A few years ago, the idea came to recast the group as a pop group. Since then, they have had great commercial success on terrestrial radio stations with catchy tunes such as Don’t Cha and Wait A Minute. The dolls will bring their music and dance show to The Centre tomorrow night. In between opening for Christina Aguilera’s nationwide tour, the group is performing several headlining shows at smaller venues and cities like Evansville and Louisville.

While It’s Evansville is glad to see a rare non-country or metal act come to town, we’d sure like SMG or some other promoter bring more modern, independent rock acts like Arcade Fire or The Killers to town.

The show is at The Centre at 7PM. Tickets are $30. Call 435-5770 for more information.

We know it’s an easy target to complain about. We’ve all heard about how it’s ironic the Lloyd Expressway is named as such since it takes so long to get anywhere in town from it. We get it. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those jokes will be around for another 28 years because the Indiana DOT has suspended it’s plans add an interchange to the Burkhardt road area (think Wal-Mart and Target).

The Indiana DOT was planning to add an interchange to the area to help alleviate the traffic nightmare that has built up there in the past ten years. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try to drive on Burkhardt road during lunch hour or at any time on a Saturday. As part of the plan, all but one entrance point to the Lloyd would have been shut down while construction was underway. The new interchange would have added three 12-foot lanes in each direction for cars to get onto Burkhardt. An overpass would have taken Lloyd traffic over Burkhardt. Sadly, those plans have been tabled until 2035 as funding was moved to other projects that didn’t receive such a negative uproar.

While this project has been tabled, it looks like work is still on schedule for the new Lloyd interchange at Fulton Avenue is still on schedule. This new interchange will hopefully alleviate all the traffic that is being driven downtown. At least we’re getting some relief on the Lloyd.

photo courtesy of Illinois & Indiana Highway Ends

Sure MSNBC and Fox News spend most of the day talking about Hillary, Obama and Giuliani, but 2008’s other candidates are ramping up for their reelection campaign. Remember back in Government class when you learned about the legislative branch? Senators server 6 year terms, but House members are up every two years. Brad Ellsworth, our congressman is already starting to prepare his campaign for reelection.

This week congressional candidates must report their first quarter campaign finance reports. Even though Ellsworth was just elected last November for his seat, the campaign war chest never closes. In 2006 Ellsworth spent over $1.5 million to gain his seat. He’ll need just as much money, if not more, to keep his seat. While there isn’t a republican candidate to challenge Ellsworth at this point, it’s highly doubtful his seat will go uncontended considering the Republicans want you to get to know The Real Brad Ellsworth. Even though he’s only been in office four months, that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t done something to irritate republicans who want his seat. The site goal is to outline Ellsworth’s voting record against his campaign promises. I won’t comment much on the validity of the site to keep my own personal politics out. Of interest is the site’s increasing usage of social media like blogging and YouTube.

In other local political news, Aaron Ridlen, a 24-year-old USI student is running for Mayor of Evansville. Before he can target Weinzapfel, though, he has to win his primary on May 8.

photo courtesy of Putnam Democrats