The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 29

'Angels and Demons' Blessedly, "Angels Demons" is more entertaining and less self-serious than its predecessor, the dense and dreary yet 3 enormously successful "The Da Vinci Code." i rage 1 THURSDAY, May 21,2009 Your weekly guide to things to do, whether staying in or going out. The Pantagraph Of Dan Craft Veteran country singer Lee Greenwood will be in Bloomington less than 48 hours before he's a grand marshal leading the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C. i- A0 Lee Greenwood blesses the new BCPA outdoor stage in its Memorial Day weekend debut mm By Dan Craft dcraltpantagraph.com Did you hear the one about what happened to Lee Greenwood on his way to suiting up as grand marshal for the National Memorial Day celebration in Washington, D.C. He found that he had time to stop over here in Bloomington for another Memorial Day weekend gig all the better to debut the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts' spanking-new outdoor stage and More to come Lee Greenwood's Memorial Day weekend concert for the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts' new CEFCU Summer Stage on the Green is just the beginning. Four more weekend concerts will follow through the summer's remainder.

They are: Still 6:30 p.m. June 19: A Washington, D.C,-based Beach-Boys tribute band renowned for replicating their inspirations' intricate five-part harmonies. Opening is local Jimmy Buffett tribute favorites, The Boat Drunks. ($10 advance, $15 day of) Family Fest featuring Ralph's World, 1 to 6 p.m. June 28: A full day of outdoor family activities (crafts, games, etc.) will be punctuated by two shows, at 2 and 3:30 p.m., sporting the popular Grammy-nominated Chicago music man Ralph Covert and his hipster kid-rock show.

Also performing will be local islanders, Steely Pan. (All tickets $5) At a glance series (see accompanying stories). Fancy that. Lee Greenwood. "God Bless the USA." Memorial Day weekend.

Not always an easy combo deal to come by, admits the proud to -be-an -American from his home in Tennessee during a pre-M-Day respite. What: Lee Greenwood with Scott DuBose The 101 Ranch When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ribbon-cutting ceremony and stage dedication, 6:15 p.m.) Where: CEFCU Summer Stage on the BCPA Green, 600 N. East Bloomington (rain location: inside the BCPA) Tickets: Advance, $20: day of, $25 Box office number: (866) 686-9541 READ MORE Highlights of some of the summer's other big music events. Page D2 2b: This youthful six-piece bluegrass band was formed just five years ago and has already played the Grand Ole Opry, won an International Bluegrass Music Association Emerging Artist of the Year Award and snared guest A dollar-house for your thoughts Tomorrow's big marquee change at the University Cinemas into B-N's first "dollar house" in nearly a decade has sent us flashing back to bijou bargains of yore.

Here's the reel, er, roll call, with some recollections of their successes at going the second-run route: I The Irvin Theater: The Irvin has the dubious distinction of being the only beloved theater we actually got to watch being unceremoniously slammed into dusty submission. We winced with every bash of the wrecking ball into its defenseless brick-and-mortar being that grisly day back in the waning '80s. Our good cine-buddy, the late Karl Blakney, who was an Irvin projectionist in the theater's '40s '50s glory days, managed to salvage some of its finer un-bashed points. Among them, a terra cotta pineapple he bequeathed to us our only re -minder of the shadow temple where we first encountered an awful lot of, as we recall, Clint Eastwood. Today, a parking lot occupies the space in the 200 block of East Jefferson Street where we forked over $1.50 to see Burt Reynolds in "Paternity" one sub-zero night back in the winter of '82.

Not because we wanted to see Burt at a bargain, please. But because we wanted to sit in the theater that was once downtown Bloomington's A-list bijou before it locked the dream portals forever. The bargain concept lasted barely a year, and set the stage for future evolutionary trajectories (first -run, sub-run, closure). I The Normal Cinemas: The say-what? Yep, that's what the Normal Theater became when its '80s owners, the now-defunct GKC Theaters, shoved a wall between the balcony and the main floor in a benighted attempt at twinning a spoiled only child who refused to say "uncle." Any surviving moviegoer unf ortu nate to be funneled into the "balcony" part of the theater probably has blot ted out that claustrophobic memory. We know we have.

We had to call up our friendly neighborhood shrink for a session just to allow for the excavation of same (accompanied by vertigo shortness of breath palpitations the walls closing in on us Even paying the bargain rate for its second-run cinema seemed on par with, say, forking over a percentage of your weekly paycheck for the privilege of being buried up to your neck in a warrior ant colony. Mercifully, these evil twins closed up shop in '91, with, heaven help them, "Kindergarten Cop" and "The Doors" being the final sacrificial bargain offerings. (As we all know, the cinema escaped its preordained wrecking ball fate, was returned to its single -born status and today flourishes as the Normal Theater.) I College Hills Movies 4: When this little 'plex debuted at the back end of the College Hills Mall in Normal, circa 1980, it was, amazingly, the biggest gunintown. Four screens to the Eastland Cinemas' mere three. We can say it now: four screens or no, this was one motley little bijou, drab, prefab, totally without charm, or even the pretense of same.

By the time it was demoted to second-run status in 1991, it had more than earned the privilege. Amazingly, this stepchild held on for nine long years, the current B-N record for the "dollar house" concept. Will the 40-ish University Cinemas -the first multi-screen theater in Twin City annals survive its midlife crisis with equal longevity? Or is the buck-a-throw changeover merely the last -reel climax for the old girl? As we glance over at our lonely, detached Irvin pineapple now pulling duty as a fireplace ornament we suspect that we, and it, know the Indeed, having appearances by Qolly Parton, George Jones, Dierks Bentley and Steve Wariner on their three albums. Local favorites Comatose Catfish open. ($10 advance, $15 day of) Reverend Horton Heat, 6:30 p.m.

Aug. 21: The long-running Dallas roots rock trio describes their sound as "country-fed punkabilly," mashing up country, rockabilly, punk and big band swing, with tongues in cheek. Their songs have appeared on several dozen movie soundtracks, including "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas" and "Auto Focus." Hometown rockers Backyard Tire Fire open. ($15 advance, $20 day of). Greenwood in town just two days before he grand marshals the National Memorial Day Parade (along with actors Gary Sinise and Ernest Borg-nine) is "something of a coup," noted the BCPA's Joel Aalberts shortly after the star was snared.

"It's really a routing thing," says the 66 -year- old Greenwood. "We have numerous requests from coast to coast, to put it politely. So it's 'how SEE CONCERT PAGE D8 BCPA sets the stage for some summer loving directly south of the BCPA. Patrons should bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating, but no food or drink, which are prohibited (on-site food vendors will be available). Though the BCPA Green can accommodate about 2,500 spectators, advance ticket sales will be limited to 1,200 per show to allow concerts to be moved inside the BCPA in case of rain.

By Dan Craft dcraftpantagraph.com BLOOMINGTON The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts has been outted for the summer. The venue 's long in the -works open-air performance space, dubbed the CEFCU Summer Stage on the Green, kicks off a five-concert series with Grammy-winning country veteran Lee Greenwood at 6:30 Weather permitting, additional tickets will be sold the day of the show until the Green reaches its capacity. The CEFCU billing comes via a $150,000 grant from the credit union. Additional funding for sound and light equipment came through a $60,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Bureau of Tourism. p.m.

Saturday (see accompanying stories). A ribbon-cutting ceremony and stage dedication will precede the music at 6:15 p.m. The portable outdoor stage has been in the works for "a long time," said Joel Aalberts, the Bloomington Cultural District's interim director of cultural arts. It will be situated on Open space at Douglas Street and Northbound Business 51, 60! ing Places GO! twinkle Little stars and big ones alike will be under scrutiny at this month's Twin City Amateur Astronomers public observing session from 9 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Funks Grove's Sugar Grove Nature Center (clear skies permitting).

GO! rent GO! heel If it's Memorial Day weekend, it must be time for the annual Heart of Illinois Cluster Dogs. Shows at Bloomington's well-heeled Interstate Center. A whole lotta waggin' will be going on today through Monday. GO! home again Both of this GO! Bond, James Bond Two vehicles manned by Pierce Brosnan's 007 will be on view Sunday at the Champagne British Car Festival in the Hawthorne Suites parking lot in Champaign: the Gat-equipped Jaguar XKR from "Die Another Day" and the jet-powered Q-Boat from "The World Is Not Enough." GO! salute Lest we forget the reason for the holiday weekend at hand, Bloomington's annual Memorial Day parade returns to remind us, at 9 a.m. Monday, from Front Madison to Miller Park.

GO! tinkle the ivories, that is. Actually, pound 'em good. That's because it's time for the annual World Championship Old-Time Piano-Playing Contest, echoing throughout Peoria's Hotel Pere Marquette Friday through Sunday. weekend's big new movie guns are out to prove, one more time, that sequels are better than ever (sic) "Terminator Salvation," the Two failed assassination attempts on Der Fuhrer debut on DVD this week Fritz -Lang's classic 1941 "thriller, "Man Hunt," with Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett, and last year's semi-remake, "Valkyrie," with Tom Cruise going "Heil.no, Hitler!" fourth in the franchise," and "A Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," merely the second of its kind. Dan Craft is Pantograph entertainment editor.

He can be reached at (309) 829-9000, Ext. 259 or via turn irr4W(WJtej(U fn A 4M tf1 ibH rv FN A w4i WtfWwAataif Sd MlnwttaW iMfUtiiW.