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QCA Today: June 19, 2013
This feature collects articles published online by the following Quad Cities-area media outlets: Quad-City Times, Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch, River Cities’ Reader, KWQC, and WQAD. It also includes...
The War on Whistleblowers
Without whistleblowers – employees within government and big business, at all levels, who risk their livelihoods and sometimes lives – the American public (and world) would have no knowledge about...
Enter the Reader’s 2013 Photo Contest! Deadline Extended to May 21
The three categories for the River Cities’ Reader’s 2013 photography contest are “illumination,” “future,” and “brazen.” The deadline for entries is May 21, and the rules are below. We...
Vaudeville-in': Comedian Josh Kahn Hosts "Bottoms Up Burlesque: Komic Kahn," May 17 through 25 at the Circa '21 Speakeasy
As emcee for the Bottoms Up Burlesque troupe and a former emcee for Burlesque Le’ Moustache, Josh Kahn’s formal responsibilities shouldn’t include disrobing in public. But if you ask Kahn about his...
Glass (Ballet) Slippers: Ballet Quad Cities' "Cinderella" at the Adler Theatre
There were two particular elements that made Ballet Quad Cities’ Cinderella (which ran for two Adler Theatre performances on April 20) especially watchable beyond Courtney Lyon’s exquisite choreography:...
Lopsided Democratic Race for Guv Tightens
In a sign that some truly awful publicity for her father may be hurting her possible gubernatorial bid, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has seen her poll numbers plunge in the past several months. And Bill...
Lack of African-American Support Dooms Gay-Marriage Bill
There’s more than enough blame to go around regarding the failure of the gay-marriage bill during the final days of the General Assembly’s spring session, which ended May 31. Governor Pat Quinn knew...
Audubon School Should Be Saved
(Editor’s note: After this commentary was submitted, the Save Audubon School coalition announced developer interest in the site.) Does the Statue of Liberty pay her own way? Does the Chicago Public...
Goaded Senate President Punts on Pension Reform
I told my newsletter subscribers several weeks ago that, without a doubt, if Senate President John Cullerton caved in to House Speaker Michael Madigan on pension reform, Cullerton’s legacy as Madigan’s...
Gun-Control Advocates Quietly Back Away from Concealed-Carry Bill
Pat Quinn has loved to hold Sunday press conferences for decades. The governor discovered a long time ago that newspapers were desperate for stories on Sundays, so a Sunday press conference pretty much...
The Unnecessarily Dark Knight: "Man of Steel" and "This Is the End"
MAN OF STEEL During the final third of director Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot Man of Steel, Henry Cavill’s caped crusader and Michael Shannon’s villainous General Zod take turns pummeling each...
Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk: "Before Midnight"
BEFORE MIDNIGHT Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight – the third and possibly final installment in the director’s ongoing screen romance that began with 1995’s Before Sunrise and continued with...
Now Playing: Friday, June 14, through Thursday, June 20
For show schedule information, visit: Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Davenport Nova 6 Cinemas, Moline Putnam Museum, Davenport Regal Moline Stadium 14, Moline
Lawless Execution: "The Purge" and "The Internship"
THE PURGE If you blended The Hunger Games, David Fincher’s Panic Room, and Shirley Jackson’s classic short story “The Lottery” with generous helpings of ice, you’d wind up with the scare-flick...
Hocus Bogus: "Now You See Me" and "After Earth"
NOW YOU SEE ME Given its premise, its cast, and the fact that it’s a summertime release without a superhero or a number (or both) in the title, it was easy to feel jazzed about the prospect of Now...
A Little Out of Whack in the Right Way: The Multiple Cat, June 14 at RIBCO
The Return of the Multiple Cat represents the first set of new material from Pat Stolley’s band The Multiple Cat in a dozen years, but the man has hardly been slothful. As a founder and a member...
Photos from the Trishas Concert, June 6 at the Redstone Room
Photos from the Trishas concert at the Redstone Room on June 6, 2013, with opener the Dirt Road Rockers. For more from Roberta Osmers on the Quad-Cities music scene, visit OfTechAndMusic.Blogspot.com....
The Turtle in the Race: The Sumner Brothers, June 11 at Rozz-Tox
Several reviews of the Sumner Brothers’ second studio album, I’ll Be There Tomorrow, start similarly. No Depression’s begins: “There’s no reasonable explanation why I have not heard the Sumner...
Photos from Summer Camp, May 24-26 in Chillicothe, Illinois
Photos from the Summer Camp music festival, held May 24 through 26 in Chillicothe, Illinois. For more work by Matt Erickson, visit MRE-Photography.com. Trey Anastasio Band
By Popular Demand: The Trishas, June 6 at the Redstone Room
The members of the band that became the Trishas – playing June 6 at the Redstone Room – knew almost immediately that they had something special. But it took some prodding for them to pursue it....
Bawdy Image: "Cabaret," at the Prospect Park Auditorium through June 23
Quad City Music Guild’s Cabaret is at its most entertaining whenever Bryan Tank’s Emcee graces the stage – “graces” being a somewhat incorrect term, as it's the actor’s unflinching commitment...
Grin and "Bear" It: "Bear Girl," at the QC Theatre Workshop through June 22
Playwright J.C. Luxton’s writing has a beautiful eloquence about it, with poetic word choices and graceful rhythms in his verse. And while I did not understand all of the finer details in the Prenzie...
A Time for Change: "Menopause: The Musical," at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through August 10
While I have no doubt that women who’ve experienced “the change” – and the men who’ve experienced it with them – will better appreciate the humor in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse’s latest,...
Sister Aloysius Beauvier Explains It All for You: "Doubt," at the District Theatre through June 16
The District Theatre’s Doubt may be the most exceptionally performed, strongly directed production I’ve yet seen in the Quad Cities. Saturday night’s flawless performance left me in awe, particularly...
Restaurant Revue: "100 Lunches: A Gourmet Comedy," at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre through June 16
I wouldn’t necessarily associate the titular “gourmet,” which implies “high-quality” or “fancy,” with the script for the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's 100 Lunches: A Gourmet Comedy. But the...
Graffiti Art at the Figge
On May 30, a 48-foot stretch of panels was set up on a row of easels for Kevin McQueen Lonergan II and Gary White to paint a graffiti-style aerosol-art mural on the Figge Art Museum’s plaza. Interrupted...
Featured Images from the Quad Cities Photography Club
(Editor’s note: The River Cities’ Reader each month will feature an image or images from the Quad Cities Photography Club.) This month the Quad Cities Photography Club is featuring two high-scoring...
Winners of the River Cities’ Reader’s Spring Photo Contest
We had 69 entries in our spring photography contest, with the categories “brazen,” “future,” and “illumination.” As you might guess, that last one got the majority of the entries, and there...
Art in Plain Sight: The Centennial Bridge
Connecting Davenport and Rock Island, the Centennial Bridge is one of the most beautiful architectural structures in the Quad Cities. Viewed in the daytime, it is a graceful example of modern design....
Winners from the 37th-Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition
For the 37th-annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, the River Cities’ Reader invited winning artists – selected by juror Pamela Blotner of California – to write about their work. Their statements...
