Florida. Urbana provides the setting for Bert I. Gordon's 1957 science fiction film, Beginning of the End. Parodied on the television program, Mystery Science Theater 3000, this movie features the unintentional creation of dangerous, giant grasshoppers as a result of agricultural research gone awry. Literature University of Illinois English Professor and National Book Award winner Richard Powers set his novel Galatea 2.2 at the multidisciplinary Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Spanish writer Javier Cercas uses Urbana as the geographical background for two of his novels, "La velocidad de la luz" (2005) and "El inquilino" (1989) Music The "American Football House", which is featured on several American Football albums is located at 704 W High St. Sister cities program Urbana is twinned with three sister cities: Zomba, Malawi Haizhu, Guangzhou, China Thionville, France The city of Urbana has been awarded a major grant from Sister Cities International to undertake a trilateral pilot project involving Urbana, Zomba, Malawi, and the Haizhu District, China. The one-year Sino-African Initiative grant is for up to $100,000 and will involve a collaborative effort to improve the municipal waste disposal system in Zomba, a city of 88,000 in southeast Africa. Urbana has had a Sister City relationship with Zomba since 2008, another relationship with Haizhu District, Guangzhou City, China since 2012, and added a third sister city charter with Thionville, France in 2014. Urbana is one of only three cities in the United States to be awarded a Sino-African grant. The others are Denver and an Asheville/Raleigh, N.C., joint team application. Notable people References External links City of Urbana (official website) Urbana Free Library Champaign-Urbana Historic Built Environment Digital Image Collection Urbana Park District – local parks, pools, and other recreation Early History of Urbana City Urbana Business Association Champaign Democrat, Google news archive. —PDFs of 1,286 issues, dating from 1887 through 1916. Cities in Illinois Cities in Champaign County, Illinois County seats in Illinois Populated places established in 1833 1833 establishments in Illinois