Those who have always wanted to enjoy an audience with one of world history's most famous figures will soon have an entire week to do so, with the Bettendorf Public Library hosting online October 19 through 25 presentations of actor Kevin Wood in The Political Lincoln: Honest Abe on Campaigns & Elections, the latest presentation in the library's popular Virtual Community Connections series.
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This feature lists all headlines with links to the articles by date/time published online by Quad Cities-area media outlets and the state-politics sections of the Des Moines Register and the State Journal-Register.
Visit QCAToday.com for a variation on this theme with curated-for-local-content, and categorized headlines from expanded sources.
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A pair of global health crises – one past, one present – will be the focus of this year's October 20 and 27 presentations in the annual Frieze Lecture Series, with the Rock Island Public Library hosting informative, insightful, and illuminating virtual programs delivered by lauded professors at Augustana College.
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Hosted by Davenport's German American Heritage Center, the virtual October 18 presentation The Journey to Mollie's War: WACs & WWII will bring deserved attention to the many brave military women during World War II – an online program delivered by 2020 Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Cyndee Schaffer, whose mother Mollie serves as the event's chief inspiration.
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Although this year's event will be taking place not at the Davenport venue but from the comfort of your own homes, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's annual fundraiser the Mad Scientist Ball is set to take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on October 17, the virtual party delivering experiments, entertainment, and a question-and-answer session with Daytime Emmy Award nominee Emily Calandrelli.
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After Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appeared in all but actual name in ComEd's deferred federal-prosecution agreement, Representative Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) was one of the first Democratic state Representatives to call on him to resign without the qualifying “if he did it” language. And the freshman Democratic legislator has been breaking pretty much all precedent the past month or so by putting significant campaign money where her mouth is.
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We all agree there is a new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 that causes a disease called COVID-19, from which people have died. That's pretty much where the agreement begins to wobble as new information is discovered, building on the science and informing the relative risk, which in turn informs the extreme response that lingers with increasingly less justification.
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We've written about the importance of the quiet government, the county officers, for years. Most Quad Citizens can't name their county sheriff or a single county supervisor. And that's just fine for them, as they have no readily tangible example of how those offices impact their daily lives. If you don't pay property taxes, interact with the court system, develop property in the unincorporated rural county, or utilize mental-health services, then this indifference is somewhat understandable.
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The River Cities’ Reader asked the two candidates for Scott County Sheriff to answer 12 questions in advance of the November 3 election. The background information, questions, and answers for incumbent Republican County Sheriff Tim Lane and his Democratic challenger Scott County Sheriff's Deputy Pete Bawden are printed below. Responses are presented in full but have been lightly edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Please see these additional introductory remarks on Why Local County Elections Matter.
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The River Cities’ Reader asked the four candidates vying for two of the available County Supervisor seats to answer six questions in advance of the November 3 election. The background information, questions, and answers for incumbent Republicans Tony Knobbe and Ken Beck and challenger Democrats Jazmin Newton and Rogers Kirk are printed below. Responses are presented in full but have been lightly edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Please see these additional introductory remarks on Why Local County Elections Matter.
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An absurdist classic made newly relevant by the global pandemic, the legendary tragicomedy Waiting for Godot enjoys an October 22 through 31 run at Moline's Black Box Theatre, with Samuel Beckett's timeless story of hope amidst existential dread described by New York Stage Review as “the great play of the 20th century.”
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If Halloween is approaching, it must be time for that annual theatrical command: “Let's do the 'Time Warp' again!” Consequently, the Circa '21 Speakeasy will stage its fifth-annual presentation of the cult-musical smash The Rocky Horror Show from October 3 through 31, treating audiences to live performances of classic songs in this nutty, interactive experience.
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It’s been a painfully long wait, but I finally got to crack open my new notebook and fresh pen for Wednesday night's performance of The Savannah Sipping Society at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse.
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Reviews by Jeff Ashcraft, Patricia Baugh-Riechers, Audra Beals, Pamela Briggs, Dee Canfield, Kim Eastland, Emily Heninger, Heather Herkelman, Paula Jolly, Victoria Navarro, Mark Ruebling, Mike Schulz, Joy Thompson, Oz Torres, Brent Tubbs, Jill (Pearson) Walsh, and Thom White.
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An 1882 stage classic that the New York Times, in 2018, called “suddenly as timely as a tweet,” Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (adapted by Tom Isbell) will be presented in radio-play format – and on radio station KALA 88.5 FM – by the St. Ambrose University theatre department October 2 through 11, its tale of a fight against injustice perhaps even more relevant now than it was in the 19th century.
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With the Orange Country Register calling the production “electrifying” and the Los Angeles Times labeling it “the most unique tribute show in decades,” the touring sensation Beatles vs. Stones: A Musical Showdown makes its long-awaited area debut on October 20, filling the Davenport venue with some of the most electrifying and beloved songs made famous by two of history's most iconic bands.
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With its guest artists, at least through January, performing solely online in the University of Dubuque's Live(stream) with Heritage Center series, acclaimed classical pianist Alpin Hong will demonstrate his gifts virtually on October 22, delivering an exclusive, live showcase performance and engaging in a question-and-answer session with Heritage Center staffers.
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Continuing the group's season-long celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra teams up with WVIK Public Radio to present their first Signature Series event of 2020-21: Naha Plays Beethoven, an October 23 evening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum showcasing the talents of QCSO Concertmaster Naha Greenholtz and pianist Marian Lee.
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From a thematic perspective, stalwart free-form rock weirdos Dark Family from Moline seem to have taken the COVID-19 pandemic to heart, dropping two albums in mid-September that seem to float within a more morbid, albeit probably tongue-and-cheek, virus-type mood. The cover of We All Fall Down (you know, like, a “Ring Around the Rosie” plague reference) bears an unsettling collage of children crying, while the sister album Coronaroma carries the plague right there in the title.
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COVID-19 concerns, venue closings, and a near-total wipeout of legitimate live music has forced most bands to adjust their plans and change their approach in 2020. But even before the music world was thrown into disarray, Davenport's Giallows were already changing, arranging, and adjusting, seemingly at random but ultimately by design.
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With the exceptions of 12 Angry Men and maybe the first two Godfather flicks, I literally can't think of another movie so abundant with exceptional ensemble acting in juicy character roles; you could expand the Oscars' Supporting Actor roster from five nominees to 10 and still pack it solely with deserving Chicago 7 performers.
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I think I'm speaking literally when I say that, had The War with Grandpa been released in any other year, I'd probably have found it close to unbearable. But this isn't any other year. And beyond being grateful simply for cineplexes – some of them, at least – staying open these days, I find myself inordinately appreciating the movie-going experience, which turns out to include the sound of other patrons, for 100 minutes, howling with delight at a dopey little comedy.
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Despite the bitchiness and anguish inherent in the material, Netflix's new streaming version of The Boys in the Band is one of the very few releases of the last six months that feels absolutely suffused with joy. You won't necessarily find it in the characters, and certainly not in most of the things they say and do. But as a filmed reunion for the cast and director of Broadway's 2018 Tony Award winner – a revival of playwright Matt Crowley's iconic examination of urban gay life in 1968 – there's so much love baked into the presentation that you might find yourself grinning even when situations are at their most dire, and they frequently are.
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Now playing at area theaters and drive-ins.
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On display in celebration of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will showcase larger-than-life Catrinas – iconic skeletal images commemorating the event – throughout the venue from October 20 through November 3, along with a Day of the Dead altar that will be on view in the Quad City Bank & Trust Grand Lobby.
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A celebrated artist and Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa headlines the Figge Art Museum's latest Virtual Artist Talk on October 22, with fabric assemblage, paintings, videos, music, works on paper, and performance art all under discussion when T.J. Dedeaux-Norris presents on the works in their new exhibition T.J. Dedeaux-Norris Presents the Estate of Tameka Jenean Norris.
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What part of yourself must you hide or bury for another to survive? This question is at the core of the Figge Art Museum's new exhibition T.J. Dedeaux-Norris Presents the Estate of Tameka Jenean Norris, an October 24 through January 31 showcase of the (living) University of Iowa assistant professor's work, and an exhibit designed to explore the complex legacy of an artist’s identity after their passing.
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Some of the greatest and most beloved figures in world history will soon be celebrated at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, with the Bettendorf venue, from August 28 through October 28, showcasing portraits by internationally recognized artist Cecile Houel in Nobel Peace Prize Collection: Peace Starts Within, a new exhibition co-sponsored by Quad Cities radio station WVIK.
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Outdoor views of Bettendorf will soon be admired and enjoyed in the great indoors of a Bettendorf venue, with the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, from October 2 through 30, housing its new exhibition Paint the River: Fourth-Annual Plein Air Paint Out – a collection of works by local artists all created outside, and all executed on subject matter set within the boundaries of Bettendorf.
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