Rick Valentin News Today

In this weeks BloNo Beats, we talk to musicians from and playing in the Twin Cities about what theyre feeling thankful for this year.

In this column, our music columnist checks back in with Poster Children, V8 Vast Change, and Modern Drugs, and hears from a hard-rock band that opened for Puddle of Mudd.

"Play Like a Man: My Life in Poster Children" is a new book authored by Illinois State University professor Rose Marshack. The Director of ISUs Creative Technologies program documents her life as a woman in the punk-rock band Poster Children and details the band at the forefront of the DIY music scene.

A series of high-profile pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in the past year has prompted an Illinois State University group to prepare a report on vehicle and pedestrian safety planning near the campus in Normal.

The pandemic brought the live music scene in Bloomington-Normal to a screeching stop in 2020. But many artists took advantage of the unexpected downtime to create new albums that bloomed in 2021.

WGLT Navi Desi, an employee at 707 Liquors in Normal, demonstrates how to use a cryptocoin ATM on Thursday, May 27, 2021. People use these with digital wallets to buy cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The arrival of NFTs in the mainstream has brought a new crowd to cryptocurrency and its blockchain technology. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tied to files, like serial numbers, to show ownership. They’ve become popular among the arts and collectibles’ crowd. The format exploded ...

Central Illinois digital artists are watching the format’s rapid rise in popularity, with some joining in.