Curated by Christine Chandler, curator of Natural Sciences at the Putnam Museum & Science Center, the enthralling exhibition Tales from Tails: Storybook Beasts will be on display at the Davenport venue through May 31, inviting guests to embark on a wild adventure through the world of literature.
German breweries had a huge impact on the lives of Scott County citizens in their time, and in the German American Heritage Center's exhibition Beer Beyond Germany: History of Brewing in the QC, on display from June 2 through October 20, venue guests will have the chance to learn about historic breweries, how prohibition led to creative business ventures, and the booming brewing industry after the repeal of prohibition in the 1930s.
Appearing in a special virtual program in conjunction with her most recent book Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, & Abstractions, Dr. Temple Grandin - one of the world’s most accomplished and well-known adults with autism - takes part in a June 4 lecture presentation hosted by Illinois Libraries Present and the Rock Island and Silvis Public Libraries.
In the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee & Kuchen" series, Dr. Danuta Hutchins will refer to her book Torn Out Memories while sharing her experiences as a child living under the Nazi occupation of Poland and during the Warsaw Uprising, with June 9's The Butterfly Effect: Why Do We Feel Empathy with the Victims of War, Hunger, Terror, & Natural Disasters? finding Hutchins relating her personal trauma to the terrors suffered by the victims of 9/11 attacks.
On June 11 and 12, a trio of gifted, award-winning authors will take place in a pair of virtual conversations hosted by the LeClaire Community Library, with fans of child and young-adult fiction invited to a Tuesday-evening audience with Diane Wilson of the All Iowa Reads selection The Seed Keeper, and a Wednesday-evening online chat with Celia Perez and Samira Ahmed of All Iowa Reads choices Tumble and Hollow Fires.
Scott County Primary Elections on June 4, 2024, are especially important
The World Health Organization's (WHO's) attempted global coup is mere days away. If you ever thought of calling your legislators, now would be an ideal time to express your objection to assigning emergency management to a foreign entity. For everyone's sake, leave politics out of it.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a stranger roll-call than last week’s House vote on Senate Bill 2978. The data privacy bill is an initiative of Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, and he was on the House floor during the debate. The far-right ginned up social-media opposition to the bill by claiming that it would allow non-citizens to vote. More than 1,400 electronic witness slips have so far been filed in opposition.
On May 28, 2023, my wife and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary at our home in Davenport with family and friends when we began to hear police and ambulance sirens racing downtown. News reports soon made it clear that there had been a horrific disaster: 324 Main Street, a 116-year-old, six-story building housing numerous low-income tenants partially collapsed from top to bottom. Given the gravitas of what had transpired in 2019 with the flood wall disaster and in 2023 with 324 Main St. disaster – both of which occurred on (former city administrator) Corrin Spiegel's watch as the top paid city official – compared to the school-age-girl-thin-skinned complaints in the finally released September 2023 demand letter, one could say Spiegel's demand letter is a “nothing burger.”
Take a closer look at the candidates.
Based on the 1943 Vera Caspary novel and the 1944 movie classic that the American Film Institute named one of the 10 best mystery films of all time, Caspary's and George Sklar's stage thriller Laura enjoys a run at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre from May 30 through June 9, the play a faithful adaptation of the Oscar-winning entertainment that Roger Ebert's cited in his famed "Great Movies" series.
Hailed by Variety as a slapstick in which "the audience almost never stops laughing," with "handkerchiefs wiping away tears of merriment," Larry Shue's screwball stage classic The Nerd opens the 2024 mainstage theatre season at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, its May 30 through June 9 run sure to demonstrate why the Milwaukee Journal raved that "Shue delivers a neatly crafted package that uses some classic comic forms to bring the audience to its knees laughing."
Lauded by Entertainment Weekly as "a dizzyingly romantic operetta and a farcical commentary on the fools that love and desire make of us all," legendary composer Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece A Little Night Music opens Quad City Music Guild's summer season from June 7 through 16.
Praised by USA Today as a Broadway hit of "uncynical warmth and charm," the Tony-nominated Tarzan: The Musical swings into Moline's Spotlight Theatre for an area-debut run from June 7 through 16, this theatrical adaptation of Disney's Oscar-winning animated film boasting magical stagecraft and delightful tunes including "Two Worlds," "Strangers Like Me," and 1999's Academy Award champion ""You'll Be In My Heart."
For its season-opening production at Rock Island's Lincoln Park, the Quad Cities' venerated classical-theatre organization Genesius Guild will present the return of Euripides' timeless Greek tragedy Medea from June 8 through 16, the one-act play's director Michael Callahan planning to deliver “an intense 90 minutes that you will, I promise, never forget.”
Playing from their extensive repertoire encompassing more than three decades of professional performance, the regional-Mexican musicians of Banda Maguey headline a special May 31 concert event at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, the group's many hit singles including "Las Nachas," "Me Llamo Raque," "El Próximo Tonto," "La Manguera," and "Sigues Siendo La Reina."
Telling an epic story on the high seas through song, Galesburg's community chorus Choral Dynamics will bring their delightful new concert event Rolling in the Deep to the city's Orpheum Theatre from May 31 through June 2, with proceeds from this full-length family entertainment benefiting the Galesburg Public Library Foundation.
Black metal was born in Scandinavia more than three decades ago, the devilish creation of bored, angry, and misanthropic teenagers who sought to take the rawness of thrash and carry it to faster and more sinister extremes. Thirty-plus years later, the style is more popular than ever, but many bands have realized that reinventing the diabolical wheel is not enough.
With their most recent EP Honey lauded by Spinning Thoughts as a "crowd-pleaser" that "spotlights how to rise from the ashes of the relationships that break us the most," the touring indie rockers of Crooked Teeth headline a June 2 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the trio's 2023 EP also praised by The Skinny as "infectiously good, bouncy fun."
Touring in support of their latest recording Soul Grave 2022, a 2.0 version of the 2004 Billboard smash recorded by Cross Canadian Ragweed, that outfit's lead guitarist and his ensemble Cody Canada & the Departed headline a June 6 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the alternative-country and Americana musicians' latest inspiring Rock and Blues Muse to state that "Canada has more music in him now than he ever did and he makes every beat of this set shine."
If you see George Miller's prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and find yourself off-put by more than a few shaky visual effects (a motif that'll continue throughout the film's two-and-a-half hours), a number of colorless performances, a rather pushy degree of myth-building, and one of the most fraudulent fake noses of the past few decades, you'll likely find your early irritation largely forgotten by the finale.
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, May 30: Discussion of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Garfield Movie, and Babes, and previews of In a Violent Nature, Exra, and Summer Camp. Plus, a head-scratcher: Is a summer blockbuster an official summer blockbuster if its studio didn't expect it to make summer-blockbuster dollars? Hmmm ... .
Written, produced, and directed by co-star John Krasinski, the comedy fantasy IF concerns a bunch of imaginary friends (hence the acronym) eager to feel needed again, and when I first scanned the list of those voicing these beings, I practically needed an overnight bag and a canteen to get through it.
Considering that nearly all of its performances are motion-capture ones, I didn't expect to spend so much time at Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes marveling at the nuances of naturalistic human acting.
An eagerly awaited tradition featuring dozens of recent and debuting works in a variety of artistic mediums, the 43rd edition of the Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition will be on display at the Figge Art Museum through June 2, with the Davenport venue housing 62 works - paintings, sculptures, installations, and more - by 42 artists living within a 200-mile radius of the Quad Cities.
A tradition of 40-plus years that has attracted more than 25,000 people each summer to downtown Iowa City, the Iowa Arts Festival, from June 7 through 9, will showcase a wide array of visual artists from local and national levels, and also feature a beverage garden, a variety of culinary delights, children’s activities, and thrilling live-music performances, including a Saturday-night set with Grammy-winning festival headliner Terrance Simien.
With the exhibit's artist known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials, and technique, as well as for being one of the most famous of the "Mexican muralists," Revolutionary Artist: The Prison Fantasies of David Alfaro Siqueiros will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through April 9, this lithograph series on loan from the Deere & Company collection for an intimate exhibition on view in the Lewis Gallery.
In the latest Musser House Galleries exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center, rides, contests, animals, refreshments, delighted patrons, and more will be showcased in Iowa artist Kurt Ullrich's The Iowa State Fair, a collection of gorgeous and evocative black-and-white images that truly evince the wonder of this annually awaited outdoor tradition.
Held in conjunction with the venue's new exhibit Reckonings & Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host a special Southern Photography Exhibition Celebration on June 13, with curator Dr. Jeffrey Richmond-Moll introducing the exhibition and sharing fascinating insights on his curatorial process.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
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