The Buzz |

Actor and Cedar Rapids native Ashton Kutcher is helping flood recovery in this month’s GQ Magazine.

A six-page spread, labeled a “GQ Promotion,” includes a photo essay showing the devastation from last year’s flood and text that details recovery efforts so far and what’s left to do.

Kutcher teamed with HP and The Gentlemen’s Fund to produce the story-like ad, which is published on a web site, MagCloud.com, that allows registered users to create and publish their own magazine.

A preview of Kutcher’s article is posted here; proceeds from visitors who purchase the magazine online will go to the Cedar Rapids School District Foundation.

Snapshots from the Avett Brothers’ nearly sold-out performance at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City last night:

The Iowa City Public Library is selling a new poster that features 36 Pulitzer Prize-winning authors with Iowa City connections.

The 2-foot by 3-foot “Pulitzer Town” poster is available for sale at the library’s checkout desk for $10, cash only.

All proceeds will benefit the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization’s non-profit efforts.

And in case you were wondering, here’s the list of 36 authors included on the poster:

Frank Luther Mott

Richard Wilson

Tennessee Williams

Don Ultang

W.D. Snodgrass

John Berryman

Anthony Hecht

Marquis Childs

Wallace Stegner

Robert Lowell

James Alan McPherson

John Cheever

Robert Penn Warren

Donald Justice

Tracy Kidder

Paul Conrad

Carolyn Kizer

John Camp

Rita Dove

Mona Van Duyn

Jane Smiley

James Tate

Robert Olen Butler

Louise Gluck

Mike Toner

Steve Berry

Philip Levine

Jorie Graham

Philip Roth

Charles Wright

Mark Strand

Michael Cunningham

Marilynne Robinson

Philip Schultz

Robert Hass

David Lang

Two state managers tied to alleged abuse and mismanagement within Iowa’s tax-credit program for movie-making lost their jobs Monday, hours after Gov. Chet Culver expanded the investigation into what went wrong.

The Des Moines Register reports Culver fired Iowa Film Office manager Tom Wheeler, who was in charge of coordinating tax-credit deals with moviemakers, who flocked to Iowa during the past year.

Vince Lintz, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, which oversaw the film office, turned in his resignation. The director of the department, Michael Tramontina, resigned Friday, the same day Culver announced he was suspending the tax-credit program.

Read the full Register story here.

Also, in today’s Los Angeles Times: a report on other states that offer tax breaks for movie and TV production, several of which are having second thoughts in the face of budget crises. The Times story says Iowa (at least until the current scandal) offered “one of the most generous tax-credit programs in the country.”

Gov. Chet Culver today asked Attorney General Tom Miller and the State Auditor to assist in a growing probe of a state tax credit program for the movie industry, the Des Moines Register reports.

“I am very troubled by reports of the lack of oversight and accounting procedures of tax credits under this program,” Culver says. “My first priority on this issue it to the taxpayers of Iowa, and I know that Attorney General Miller and Auditor Vaudt will help us to quickly identify changes that need to be made and how we can best move forward.

In the wake of the shutdown of the Iowa Film Office and the suspension of the tax-credit program last week, hundreds of people have been left wondering if Iowa will be able to keep a starring role in the film industry.

Iowa Department of Economic Development Director Mike Tramontina abruptly resigned Friday, following the disclosure of a memo detailing irregularities in the office. His department oversees the Iowa Film Office, headed by Tom Wheeler, who was placed on paid leave.

The news came as a record six movies were in production in Iowa and several other multimillion-dollar deals are under negations, the Register reports.

The Iowa Motion Picture Association, which is holding a news conference regarding the audit findings in Des Moines this afternoon, have urged state leaders to allow existing tax credit projects to proceed.

Organizers are getting an early start on planning the next Mission Creek Festival, a five-day series of concerts, readings and film screenings set for March 31 through April 4, 2010.

Here’s your chance to share ideas and get involved: Mission Creek staff will hold a social gathering and fundraiser will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, at Dawn’s Hide and Bead Away, 220 E. Washington St.

Wine and cheese will be provided and local folk songwriter Alexis Stevens will play music. All are welcome to attend for a $3 donation at the door.

This year’s festival included more than 60 musical acts, ranging from headliner The GZA at the Englert Theatre to smaller, more intimate performances at Public Space ONE.

“We had our most diverse and well-attended festival in our four-year history,” festival producer Craig Ely writes in an email. “Thanks to the support of many local businesses, generous individuals, and passionate arts fans, we managed to transform those 4 days in April into one of the most memorable arts events of the year.”

Call (412) 353-9129 or email Ely at craigeley@gmail.com for more information.

The Iowa City Council has pledged $50,000 a year for three years to support the hiring of a director for the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature’s nonprofit organization, the Press Citizen reports.

The action was approved at the council’s Monday night work session. Read the full story here.

Iowa City was named a “City of Literature,” one of only three in the world and the first in the United States, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The new organization will promote reading, support writers and literary education, create literary activities and facilitate appreciation of literature, according to a city memorandum.

The University of Iowa has indicated it will offer the same financial support for the UNESCO organization.

Much of what is reported in journalist Nick Reding’s terrific new book Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town, seems almost surreal.

Based on four years of research, Reding’s account focuses on Oelwein, Iowa, where the horrors of a crystal methamphetamine epidemic take hold amid the town’s declining population, disappearance of family farms and reduced wages for local workers.

Things get so bad that locals dub their northeast Iowa town of 6,100 people “Methlehem.”

I’ve certainly been aware of the state’s meth problem since covering the cops beat at several Iowa newspapers in the mid-1990s, but a lot of what I read here was stunning:

• Lori Kaye Arnold of Ottumwa, sister of comedian/actor Tom Arnold, built and operated for almost two decades the only known meth superlab outside of California. Before she went to federal prison, her empire grew to include a car dealership, 14 houses for her employees to live in, and a 144-acre horse farm with 52 racehorses.
• By 2005, the dangerous process of manufacturing meth was being done in 20-ounce plastic soda bottles, often by cooks riding mountain bikes in attempts to diffuse the strong smell of the process.
• Despite four heart attacks and nearly burning alive in a meth lab explosion, one addict named Roland Jarvis teaches himself to hold pipe and lighter with the finger nubs he has left in order to continue his meth habit of two decades.

Methland is compelling read that also explores the lives of those who try to cope with the epidemic, including a prosecutor whose caseload is filled almost exclusively with meth-related crime and a doctor who fights the ravages of meth on his patients as he battles his own alcoholism.

The author returned Oelwein on Monday to sign books and answer questions, though many people in town have said they don’t like the way Oelwein is portrayed. Reding also reads at 7 p.m. tonight at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City and at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Barnes and Noble in Cedar Rapids.

Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander and her two predecessors, Marvin Bell and Robert Dana.

Given a specific topic and a deadline, can an inspired poem really be written upon request?

For the three Iowa Poet Laureates, producing poetry on demand has just been part of the job.

Appearing at a panel discussion at the University of Iowa Main Library’s Shambaugh Auditorium Saturday as part of the first Iowa City Book Festival, the three poets discussed some of the work they’ve been asked by others to contribute.

Iowa’s current Poet Laureate, Mary Swander, was recently asked to write a poem about Des Moines for the public radio program “State of the Re: Union,” hosted by Al Letson. Her reading of the poem will appear in a segment to be aired next month.

Robert Dana, who held the title before her, wrote a six-line poem for the Iowa Workers Monument in Des Moines, drawing upon his own experience working during his summers off from Cornell College as a union-card carrying laborer. He read that poem, “In Praise,” and one he wrote for the Coralville Public Library, simply entitled “Library.”

Similarly, Iowa’s first Poet Laureate, Marvin Bell, wrote a poem for the Iowa City Public Library. He’s also written “Writers in a Café,” verse that commemorates Iowa City’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, and wrote “Yes, We Can” an inaugural poem for President Obama that wasn’t used but is published here.

“I’m willing to try anything,” Bell said, adding that he was once asked to write poems for a set of urinals a donor wanted to give to Penn State University. (The university ultimately declined the offer.)

Named Iowa’s first poet laureate in 2000, Bell said the Iowa legislature agreed to create the position if it cost no money. He agreed to the title, he said, because “arts matter. Arts are like philosophy – a survival skill. Kids now need them more than ever, given the human condition.”

More snapshots from Saturday’s Iowa City Book Festival:

Printing demonstration

"Poets on the Patio" tent at UI Main Library entrance

Books for sale

More books for sale

Actor Ed Helms, who appears in the hit NBC sitcom “The Office” and has a role in the recently released movie “The Hangover,” will star in a film titled “Cedar Rapids,” two Hollywood trade publications are reporting.

The Alexander Payne-produced comedy will be directed by Miguel Arteta and begin shooting in October, when Helms in on hiatus from “The Office.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story centers on a wholesome and naïve small-town Wisconsin man (Helms) who, when his role model dies, must represent his company at a regional insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, where his mind is blown by the big-town experience.

Read the full story here or here on Variety.com.