Five days of outdoor fun will be on hand when East Moline's Rock Island Country Fairgrounds hosts the annual Rock Island County Fair July 15 through 19, offering patrons mornings, afternoons, and evenings filled with carnival rides, games, food vendors, animal shows, racing tournaments, 4-H events, live music performances, and exciting happenings scheduled for the nights' grandstand entertainment.
Exhibit: Saturday, July 19, through Wednesday, December 31
Returning to downtown Davenport for its incredible 51st year, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 will again find runners and walkers taking on a seven-mile foot race alongside live bands and cheering crowds, the July 26 event famed for being the largest non-marathon race in the Midwest, having captured the imaginations of thousands upon thousands of enthusiasts from both the United States and countries around the globe.
Offered as part of the Davenport venue's popular “Kaffee und Kuchen” series, the German American Center's engaging July 27 program The 1919 Army Convoy & the Interstate Highway System will find presenter George Eaton speaking on the "Truck Train" of the U.S. Army Motor Transport Corps that drove more than 3,000 miles from Washington, D.C. to Oakland, California.
Returning to the area for its incredible 105th year, an eagerly awaited six-day festival boasting games, competitions, vendors, and concert sets by more than two dozen national and local acts returns with the 2025 Mississippi Valley Fair, its July 29 through August 3 engagement at Davenport's Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds boasting, as always, grandstand performances by chart-toppers, multi-platinum sellers, and multiple-award winners.
The costs to Illinois’ government because of the new Republican congressional budget-reconciliation law will be steep. However, the state has some time to prepare itself, and possible Democratic gains in the U.S. House and Senate next year might be able to reverse or mitigate some of the steepest cuts to food-security and health-care programs before the vast majority of them take effect after the 2026 elections.
Christian Mitchell has had strong detractors ever since Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle elevated the young Black man out of obscurity and backed him for the Illinois House in 2012. Preckwinkle chose her trusted aide Mitchell over appointed Representative Kimberly du Buclet (D-Chicago). Preckwinkle’s move upset a lot of people in that part of the world because the du Buclet family’s local influence had been strong for decades and Mitchell was not a born South Sider.
No amount of media manipulation of election coverage, past or present, can restore the trust that has been lost relative to the security, fairness, and authenticity of U.S. elections, especially in the last decade. The election bureaucracy, in full cooperation with mainstream media, have maintained a pathological denial and suppression of widespread irregularities, including compelling supporting evidence, dooming its credibility going forward.
The City of Rock Island is set to experience significant economic growth with the anticipated Milan Bottoms development that includes a new Nature's Treatment of Illinois (NTI) cannabis dispensary, truck stop, car wash and franchise restaurant. The 10-acre development is at the northwest corner of Interstate 280 and Highway 92, across from Bally's Casino. The new businesses to be constructed at these four previously industrial and commercially developed and occupied parcels has spurred considerable recognition and new found stewardship for the adjacent, surrounding, city-owned 500-plus acres, including an easement prohibiting development in the to be designated wetlands.
The Friends of Milan Bottoms (FMB) are a group of local individuals and organizations who are against locating a truck stop and cannabis dispensary on a specific 10-acre site adjacent to vital wetlands. We are not against Puffing and Pumping. However, locating those businesses there will cause extreme noise and lighting that will destroy the largest Bald Eagle winter night roosting area in the Lower 48 States and jeopardize the long-term health of our area’s only real touch of wilderness, as well as pose a potential drastic risk for oil/gas contamination over the decades.
The Timber Lake Playhouse continues its hot streak with Waitress, directed and choreographed by Jennifer Hemphill. A crowd-pleaser through and through, with a charming book that's further buoyed by a wonderfully diverse cast of performers, this production is a saccharine slice of heaven.
I’ve never been disappointed to spend a Sunday in the park with Shakespeare, though I am grateful that, this past Sunday night, the weather was fairly mild for July. I admit to being only vaguely familiar with Antony & Cleopatra before the evening commenced, but I was not fully anticipating the story to be as epic as it was in director Alaina Pascarella’s production.
With the New York Times stating that "the shining achievement of the musical is its winsome country and bluegrass score," and USA Today lauding the book "that's as forthright as it is smart, funny and charming," collaborators Steve Martin's and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated Bright Star continues the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's summer season, its July 17 through 27 run treating patrons to a musical treat that Stage & Cinema called "full of unforced goodness and rewarded risk-taking."
Lauded by the New York Times as "gorgeous" and "hypnotic," and by the Hollywood Reporter as "utterly fabulous," the teen edition of the Broadway smash Hadestown enjoys a July 18 through 20 run at Rock Island's Center for Living Arts, the original staging of this youth-performed musical the winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Direction, and, for composer Anaïs Mitchell, Original Score.
Boasting warmth, humor, magic, and unforgettable songs including "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Chim Chim Cher-ee," "Let's Go Fly a Kite," "Step in Time," and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," an Oscar-winning family classic becomes a Tony-winning stage spectacular in the theatrical version of Mary Poppins, which will enjoy its long-awaited debut presentation at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse July 9 through September 6.
Touring in support of his fall release Hundred Mile Wilderness that the SMCC Beacon said "manages to pack a folk-rock, foot-stomping punch," singer/songwriter and former Ghost of Paul Revere frontman Griffin William Sherry headlines a July 16 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his 2024 recording also hailed by Medium as "one of the best albums to come out of the New England region so far this decade."
Boasting numerous chart-topping albums on the iTunes Blues Chart and top-10 smashes on Billboard's Blues, Heatseekers, and Tastemaker charts, the roots and country-blues musicians of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band headline a July 17 concert event as Davenport's Redstone Room, their February release Honeysuckle, according to Americana Highways, "fueled by 12 full gallons of high-octane Americana that ignite the country blues/gospel sparkplugs of legendary masters."
Touring in support of last year's OMNI, which Blabbermouth hailed as an album that "keeps the standard for futuristic deathcore in the stratosphere," the metalcore talents of The Browning headline a July 17 concert event at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, the group's latest also praised by The Metalverse as being "filled with breakdowns and bright synths from start to finish."
Touring in support of last year's Billboard hit Strong, an album that People magazine called "tailor-made for jubilant live performances," chart-topping country rocker Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line headlines a July 18 concert at East Moline's The Rust Belt, the singer/songwriter's smash singles including "Back Then Right Now" and the double-platinum-selling "5 Foot 9" and "Dancin' in the Country."
Death metal has roots in numerous bands and places, most significantly in the humid, blood-soaked, stimulant-crazed state of Florida, a peninsula cursed since the days of the Spaniards, if not before. Its tentacles have spread across the globe, including to the poisoned wastes of Iowa, which brings us to the subject of this article.
As most everyone will likely agree, the best thing about 1978's Superman is Christopher Reeve. And happily, though perhaps more arguably, the best thing about writer/director James Gunn's new Superman is David Corenswet, the 32-year-old tasked with breathing fresh life into this costumed crime fighter (and his alias Clark Kent) whom, by this point, we're all too familiar with.
If the sure-to-be-boffo global box office for Jurassic World Rebirth can be trusted, we real-life humans apparently haven't gotten close to bored with dinosaurs. Not all of us anyway.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too.
Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again.
Thursday, July 3: Discussion of F1: The Movie and M3GAN 2.0; a review scoop on the debuting Jurassic World Rebirth; and an analysis of the New York Times' 100 best movies of the millennium voted on by critics, show-biz folk, and the public. No segment next week, so the guys will reunite - and chat about Superman - on July 17. Happy 4th of July!
Why F1: The Movie debuted on June 27 rather than over Father's Day weekend is frankly baffling, given that I can't remember the last time a film was so objectively, overwhelmingly, a Dad Movie
With the exhibition made possible through generous funding from Art Bridges Foundation, and with KLJB FOX 18 serving as media sponsor, the fascinating collaborative exhibit CHAIN RE·AC·TION will be celebrated at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on July 17, with community partners, mural artists. and the public joining together in conjunction with the art experience's continuous cycle of inspiration, reflection, and response.
On July 24, art collectors David and Sarojini Johnson will join artist Joseph Lappie at Davenport's Figge Art Museum for an incisive and engaging discussion on Fever Dreams: German Expressionism, exhibition featuring German prints. the arresting current exhibition featuring loans from the David and Sarojini Johnson Print Collection.
Bringing together the compelling works of mother and daughter artists Sandra Louise Dyas and Jamie Elizabeth Hudrlik, the arresting exhibition Double Vision will be on display at Dubuque's Voices Studios through July 26, this showcase of talent a powerful visual dialogue that spans generations, mediums, and personal histories.
A celebration of work completed by graduating seniors in the Department of Digital Art and Design, the DART '25 Senior Thesis Show will be on display at the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery through August 1, the exhibit boasting a variety of pieces in illustration, animation, digital painting, motion graphics, and digital artwork, and displaying the wide range of skills students cultivated during their time at UD.
Art you can view and art you can wear (though not during its local showcase) will be celebrated at the Quad City Arts Center gallery through August 8, with the Rock Island venue proud to host the collective exhibition Bales & Pappageorge: an arresting showcase of sculptural fashion by Judy Bales and fiber wall pieces by Louise Pappageorge.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
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