Soil Compilation

Music
Interview: Iona Zajac on The Pogues, “Bang”, and the Lash

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Iona Zajac made her way across the pond from Glasgow with The Pogues to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their record “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash”. We discussed touring with this historic band, the best music coming out of Ireland, and her debut album “Bang” releasing this November.

Music
ICSF Friday- September 5th

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It is crucial to preface this article with a warning. Without fail, every single set that I saw during ICSF left me in tears. Both Sunny War and Courtney Andrews’ ability to be completely and wholly open in their art showed in every single second of their performances.

Music
Infinite Dream Festival Preview

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Hancher Auditorium will be hosting the 3rd annual Infinite Dream Festival this week from September 17 through September 20th. From the heart of the festival at Hancher, it branches all across Iowa City to The James Theater, The Old Capitol Museum, and many more locations. Here is your guide to the festival. 

Sports
Sports

Chaos Brews for College Football Playoff Committee

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Countless Upsets Stir Limitless Playoff Combinations One month ago, the College Football world told itself that the 4-team playoff would be filled with ease once again. At the time, the SEC, ACC, Big 10, and Big 12 conferences each presumed to be represented by their champion. Only the Big 12 conference’s presumed representative is the same as prior with the top of the rankings left to chaos. Oklahoma continues to hum past the remainder of the Big 12. The following list withhold the schools who were in the top 6 a month ago and still are today: Alabama. That’s it. … Continued

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The Vikings QB Debacle

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After what has been a pretty impressive season for the Minnesota Vikings, there are a lot of positives to take away from this team. The run game is finally a dependable aspect of their offense, thanks to the upgraded offensive line. The Vikings offense, which ranked 28th last season, is now a top 10 offense in the NFL. Lot of props should and will go to the offensive line, but some should also go to their diamond in the rough QB, Case Keenum.   Case and Point The Vikings acquired Case Keenum in March of 2017, mostly for the role … Continued

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Determining Cards’ Pitching Attack By Quality of Contact

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Based upon my last article, I feel the Cardinals could make a strong approach to the “modern bullpen approach”. In this article, I will discuss the difference between players who will pitch to start an inning, and the players who will pitch when there are runners on base, based upon quality of contact. Thanks to the people at Statcast, there is a measure for this, called expected weighted on base average(xwOBA). xwOBA measures the wOBA of a given player, along with their exit velocity and launch angle, giving more points to players who make outs, but hit the ball hard … Continued

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Boiler Spoiler on Hawkeye Senior Day

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IOWA CITY – Playing one of the 10 hardest schedules in all of college football would wear on most teams. It’s a grind, week in and week out. Lots of teams aren’t built for it, especially young teams with still-developing stars. Iowa showed us first hand how hard football can be. The Hawkeyes looked lethargic for the second straight week as they dropped their home finale to the Purdue Boilermakers 24-15. “Told our team you win as a team, you lose as a team, and certainly tonight that’s the case,” said head coach Kirk Ferentz. “We lost as a football … Continued

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Spoilers: Hawkeyes Dance in March

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IOWA CITY – Young, Tenacious, and Ready to Dance. When describing the 2017 Iowa Basketball team, these concepts first come to mind. Each of the previous renditions of the squad in recent years made promises which were not kept. Past teams lead by players Peter Jok, Jarrod Uthoff, and Aaron White set bars high with little result to show. However, the Hawkeye program does have results of the rise, which began in 2010. The first year of the Fran McCaffery Era. Under McCaffery, the Hawkeyes returned to March Madness in 2013 and would continue to dance until the 2016 season. … Continued

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Three reasons the Bears could be back in the Postseason sooner than we think

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The Lowdown:   As Bears fans everywhere know: rebuilding is a long, torturous process that has had us ready to punt our TVs out the window ever since Jay Cutler joined us in watching the Packers advance to the Super Bowl in 2011. But hey, it could always be worse… the Jets were also playing in the conference championship that season, at least we’re not them. That being said, things are cautiously optimistic for Bears fans right now… even with the injury to Zach Miller. Most people believe the Bears are still years away from true contention, but why listen? … Continued

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Don’t Worry About The Cavs…Yet

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The NBA season has started and it’s quite an interesting one at that. Many fans were starting to speculate how stale the league was getting, with the never-ending Finals rivalry between the Warriors and the Cavs. Another concern prior to this season was if or if not the future of the league was in good hands. With standout young guys in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Ben Simmons, I think it is safe to say that the future of the league looks pretty bright. Into the Darkness You know what doesn’t look too bright in the season, though? As the … Continued

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Rookies on the Rise

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Going into the 2017 NBA draft experts were projecting that the draft class could rival the 2003 draft class of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony as one of the best draft classes in recent history. Names that popped up in conversation as potential super stars were top picks Markelle Fultz, Josh Jackson, Jayson Tatum, Lonzo Ball, and De’Aaron Fox. Yet these are not even the rookies having outstanding seasons, besides Tatum, and it still looks convincing that this draft class will produce players that will have long standing NBA careers outside of the top 5 draft picks. … Continued

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Big Ten Football: Week 10 Takeaways

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Week 10, without using over-the-top hyperbole, was absolutely chaotic in the Big Ten conference. From Iowa’s historic thrashing of #6 Ohio State at Kinnick Stadium, to Michigan State’s last-second stunner over #7 Penn State. Week 10 threw the Big Ten into disarray, and here are some of the biggest takeaways.   1. Iowa in November is a very scary thing Entering the game, Iowa had won three out of the last four match-ups against AP Top 5 teams, the lone loss to Penn State earlier this year. One team that has always seemed immune to Kinnick’s “voodoo” is the Ohio … Continued

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Iowa Dominates No.3 Ohio State on Unforgettable Night

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IOWA CITY – It was a night unlike any other. We’ve seen upsets. We’ve seen blowouts. But nobody could have predicted a game like this one. Ranked third in the AP poll and sixth in the College Football Playoff race, the Ohio State Buckeyes came to Kinnick Stadium for the first time since 2010. Having won each of the last five games over Iowa and 13 of the last 14, they had to feel good about being a 20.5point favorite. The final score? 55-24. The winner? Not the Buckeyes. Donning alternate uniforms for the blackout, the Hawkeyes played a complete … Continued

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