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QCA Today: February 3, 2012
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, and WQAD. It also includes items...
How Public-Safety Pensions Are Increasing Your Taxes
State public-employee pension systems are grossly underfunded in general and are financial time bombs for most states. According to the 2010 paper “Are State Public Pensions Sustainable?”, 31 state...
Enter the Reader’s Winter 2011-12 Photo Contest! February 6 Deadline
Back in the fall of 2008, we opened our photo contest to pictures of babies and pets. We had previously held themed contests but in a rare generous mood offered a reprieve, with the threat that our next...
Fall 2011 Best of the Quad Cities
For many years, we asked our readers to fill out surveys to determine the best of the Quad Cities. We gave them categories and lines on which to write, and we tallied the results, and the winners were...
Media Manipulation and Ron Paul
(Editor's note: This is one of three articles on Ron Paul in the December 8 issue of the River Cities’ Reader. The package also includes Kathleen McCarthy’s “Ron Paul Personifies Iowa GOP Party Platform”...
Bill Calls for University Presidents to Feel the Pain of Tuition Hikes
If students enrolled at Iowa’s state universities have to pay higher tuition, university presidents should share the pain, some House Republicans said. “This is about making accountable a person...
Bill Could Be Coming Due for Teacher Pensions
Last week, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared to all but endorse an idea to force Downstate and suburban school districts to pay a significant share of their state pension contributions...
City and County Officials: Help Us Fix Our Roads
City and county officials expressed frustration and a sense of helplessness January 24 over the lack of money to repair crumbling roads and bridges. The local-government leaders argued strenuously at...
Stopping the Rush to War Against Iran
A growing group of individuals and organizations has designated Saturday, February 4, as a “National Day of Action” aimed at preventing a war against Iran. The manifesto is simple: “No War, No Sanctions,...
Taxpayer Group Vows It Won’t Be Alone in Opposing a Gas-Tax Hike
As momentum builds for a measure to increase Iowa’s gas tax to pay for the state’s roads and bridges, a taxpayer-advocate group is one of the lone voices opposing the plan. Lindsay McQuarry, policy...
Now Playing: Friday, February 3, through Thursday, February 9
For show schedule information, visit: Great Escape Theatre, Moline Nova 6 Cinemas, Moline Putnam Museum, Davenport Rave Motion Pictures Davenport 53, Davenport
Where to Find the 2012 Oscar Nominees: Updated for February 3 through February 9
The Adventures of Tintin. Not in local release. Nominated for Best Original Score. Albert Nobbs. Not in local release. Nominated for Best Actress (Glenn Close), Best Supporting Actress (Janet McTeer),...
Northern Exposure: "The Grey," "Man on a Ledge," and "One for the Money"
THE GREY Whenever I watch a movie such as Alive or The Thing or director Joe Carnahan’s The Grey – especially in January – I ask myself the same question: Is it worth it? I know about cinematic...
The 2012 Academy Award Nominees
Well, I have to hand it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences: For all of the widespread grousing about its changing the rules regarding the Oscars’ Best Picture race for the second time...
Black and White and Rad All Over: "The Artist"
THE ARTIST In the spirit of Michel Hazanavicius’ extraordinary silent-film celebration The Artist, I considered offering a review that, likewise, didn’t offer much in the way of verbal language –...
Channeling Doom: Deleted Scenes, February 3 at Rozz-Tox
When the quartet Deleted Scenes recorded its second album, Young People’s Church of the Air, the atmosphere was “intense and pressurized,” resulting in a “doomed energy,” singer/guitarist/co-songwriter...
Symphony Spin-Off: The Lyrebird Ensemble, January 21 at the Figge Art Museum
Not long after meeting through their participation in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, second flutist Ellen Huntington and principal harpist Lillian Lau decided to form their own two-person ensemble....
Modern Metal with a Sabbath Touch: Helmsplitter, January 13 at RIBCO
Metal often skates by on aggression and technical chops, and it rarely creates drama. The Quad Cities quartet Helmsplitter, on its debut Storms of Genocide – for which the band will perform a CD-release...
Many-Trick Ponies: Satellite Heart, January 7 at RIBCO
If you attend a Satellite Heart show – such as January 7’s at RIBCO – two of the songs you might hear are “Rock N’ Troll” (“Fighting dragons / Killing marauders / Doing things that we...
A 2011 Album (and 67 Other Worthwhile Songs)
Twenty favorite songs from 2011 clocking in at just under 76 minutes, roughly sequenced. No apologies for the narrowness of my tastes. Paris Suit Yourself, “Sometimes.” From the flat, stuttering...
Stage to Page to Stage: Author Eileen Boggess Brings Her Junior Theatre Experiences to Life – at Davenport Junior Theatre – in "Mia the Melodramatic," February 18 through 26
Those familiar with Davenport Junior Theatre might find its forthcoming production of Mia the Melodramatic a bit ... well ... familiar. After all, the show concerns a children’s theatre company that...
If Memory Swerves: "How I Learned to Drive," at Augustana College through February 5
Augustana College’s How I Learned to Drive offers an interesting opportunity to compare the acting talents of performers at different points in their lives, as there’s a marked contrast between Reader...
Buy Local: "Bad Habits," at the Village Theatre through February 5
New Ground Theatre’s Bad Habits is one of those rare local productions where the focus is on the writers rather than the actors, directors, or technical aspects. While a cast and crew, of course, are...
The Gables Are Always Greener ... : "Anne of Avonlea," at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through January 22
Sydney Crumbleholme is maturing. Not only is she physically more mature than the impressive young acting prodigy I fondly recall from the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Anne of Green Gables four years ago,...
Kind of Smooth, Kind of Sticky: "Grease," at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through March 3
I adore the movie version of Grease, and think it's one of the few musicals in which the film is an improvement on the original stage version. The theatrical musical is less cohesive in terms of the timelime's...
Featured Image 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.) One of the top images in the Quad Cities Photography Club’s January...
Art in Plain Sight: First National Bank Building
The entrance to the First National Bank Building (now U.S. Bank) at 201 West Second Street in Davenport tells the story of commerce and banking through classical images and symbols. The ancient Greek...
Heroes Through the Lens of the Depression: “Beyond the Surface,” Through February 26 at the Figge
Artists use certain visual cues to make a portrait feel heroic: bright, clear lighting, a low viewing perspective, strong or kind facial expressions, adoring masses, flying flags. These techniques cast...
Art in Plain Sight: Christmas Lights
It’s easy to start taking outdoor Christmas lights for granted about now. They have been draped over trees and strung along porch railings and under the eaves for weeks – even longer in the shopping...
Art in Plain Sight: Fort Armstrong Theatre Building
At the corner of Third Avenue and 19th Street in the Rock Island District is a glazed terra-cotta bust of an American Indian wearing a war bonnet that encircles his head, almost like the traditional...
