An acclaimed author, public speaker, radio host, and former halfback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rocky Bleier takes the stage at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center for the touring sensation The Play with Rocky Bleier, a special January 28 event in which the guest will take audiences from his early years through his professional career and talk about the lessons he learned along the way.
Its enduring legacy including 30 seasons on ABC, 470 episodes, and the receiving of 18 Primetime Emmy Awards, the TV-competition smash Dancing with the Stars comes to Davenport's Adler Theatre on February 2 in a thrilling live show boasting nine professional dancers and such special guests as Amanda Kloots, Jimmie Allen, and Mirror Ball Champions Kaitlyn Bristowe and Iman Shumpert.
Hosting an original exhibition displayed in conjunction with the Figge Art Museum's For America: 200 Years of Painting from the National Academy of Design, Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center will, through March 3, offer a fascinating exploration into historic portraiture with the homegrown exhibit Faces of the Past.
Vintage, classic, and antique motorcycles of all makes and models will be on display through April 3 when Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center debuts its homegrown Winter Wheels: Antique Motorcycle Exhibition, in which patrons can enjoy viewing rusty gold to frame-up restorations to everything in between.
An exploration into the innovations that have resulted when the natural world is allowed to be our guide, the new Putnam Museum & Science Center exhibition Mother Nature: Modern Muse is currently on display at the Davenport venue, this celebration following the museum's mission of delivering to patrons "a sense of place, time, and purpose to ignite human potential and inspire our diverse community to learn about and care for our world and all its people."
Richard Irvin is a Republican. Period. Irvin might not be enough of a Republican for the purists. And Democrats might want to weaken Irvin in the Republican primary for governor by pointing to some of the nice things he’s said about Democrats (including the governor) over the years. But Richard Irvin is still a Republican.
"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." - MLK
House Speaker Chris Welch marked his one-year anniversary as his chamber’s top leader with a series of news media interviews last week. One of the questions I asked was what his legislative district’s constituents were talking to him about the most. “The number-one issue in my district, and this is across the state, is crime,” Speaker Welch said.
First and foremost is that no one has explained the motive behind why Trump supporters would deliberately storm the castle to sabotage the Congressional Electoral College certification process when they considered it the last best hope to see their precious Trump restored to the office of the President. The third narrative hole is that there are 14,000 hours of video footage being withheld from the public.
Thank you to these five concerned citizens who provided their candid and first-person perspectives about a day that many would have live in infamy. Below are short bios on each participant, followed by each person's response to our 12 questions.
A world-premiere presentation that challenges commonly held beliefs about the true cost of freedom, playwright Mat Smart's Eden Prairie, 1971 enjoys a January 27 through February 20 run at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, its author a noted talent whose The Royal Society of Antarctica received Chicago's 2015 Jeff Award for Best New Work.
From January 21 through 30, the Center for Living Arts, the Penguin Project of the Quad Cities, and Augustana College's theatre department will team up to help turn kids into stage stars for the eagerly awaited family-musical presentation The Little Mermaid Jr. – a production based on Disney's Oscar-winning animated adventure, and a show that boasts a cast composed of talented youths with special needs.
An exploration of the valiant and courageous personalities behind one of the most critical chapters in the history of the Civil Rights movement, Mad River Theater Works' Freedom Riders will enjoy a special January 31 staging at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, the play delivering unforgettable heroes and facts essential to a full understanding of the Civil Rights era and American history.
The Play That Goes Wrong is an apropos title given that director Warner Crocker’s cast, in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's new production, is enacting the Cornely Polytechnic Drama Society troupe's production of The Murder at Haversham Manor. It's a play within a play. As such, there’s even a program within a program.
Touring in support of their new EP the flower, a recording that Under the Radar magazine praised for its “towering guitars and sharp melodies,” the Cincinnati-based pop/folk ensemble Motherfolk headlines a February 3 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, with the artists lauded by Divide & Conquest Music for their “vibe that is immediate, visceral, and even cathartic.”
A platinum-selling singer, YouTube sensation, and winner of four Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, the 18-year-old pop star JoJo Siwa brings her national “D.R.E.A.M.” tour to Moline's TaxSlayer Center on February 4, the artist listed in 2020 as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.
Performing locally on February 4, Taylor Goldsmith – one of the co-founders of the acclaimed indie outfit Dawes – will headline an acoustic set at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the singer/songwriter having also performed on albums by Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, Dave Rawlings, Sara Watkins, and his wife and This Is Us star Mandy Moore.
Lauded by Rolling Stone as "one of country’s most fascinating young songwriters" and by Saving Country Music as "a big man with a high lonesome voice and heartfelt songs who is quickly rising up the independent country music depth charts," Joshua Ray Walker headlines a February 4 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, an evening with the artist who, according to Pop Matters, "sings with a tear in his beer-stained voice about our shared destiny."
A transcendent musical work that will be performed in two intermission-less concert experiences, Austrian composer Anthon Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 will, on February 5 and 6, be performed in its entirety as the latest presentations in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's 2021-22 Masterworks series, this thrilling piece credited by BBC Music Magazine as one of “the 20 greatest symphonies of all time.”
The short version is that it's a queasy morality fable about a fallen woman who, due to the love of a faultless man, ultimately discovers the grace of God and mends her wicked ways. The longer version is that this earnest, tacky, largely offensive trifle is – thanks to a handful of unexpectedly resonant performances – a lot less icky than it should have been. Damned actors. The good ones can make almost anything bearable.
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, January 20, 2022: Discussion of Scream, Drive My Car, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Hotel Transylvania: Transformania.
While this latest, incessantly meta sequel is frequently clever and easily watchable, it also kept reminding me, unfortunately, that there's a fine line between smart and smarty-pants.
An intimate yet sprawling work selected as an official entry in the Mountain Film Festival and the Sheffield Docfest, directors Raj Patel's and Zek Piper's The Ants & the Grasshopper serves as the latest presentation in River Action's QC Environmental Film Series, its February 6 premiere at Davenport's Figge Art Museum set to explore how, according to The Guardian, “power and privilege shape climate justice and food justice from Africa to America – and how we might move forward together."
Now playing at area theaters.
Held in conjunction with the Figge Art Museum's current exhibition Breakfast on Pluto, art historian Joy Sperling and exhibit creator Jane Gilmor will discuss the artist's career and how her work “bounces off” the world around her, the January 27 conversation topics extending to current events and the opportunities for dialogue, exploration, and connection that thrive in Gilmor’s artwork.
Always an eagerly awaited series at the Figge Art Museum, the latest incarnation of Young Artists at the Figge will be on display from January 29 through May 15, with the Davenport venue again celebrating the accomplishments of budding creative talents of local elementary art students whose works will be showcased in a continuing series of individual exhibitions.
A beautiful exhibition of four large-scale paintings depicting the four seasons, along with a collection of smaller canvases, Elaine Miller: Uncommon Ground will be on display at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center through January 29, the Chicago-based saying of her work, ”I paint to try to engage the spiritual qualities of nature that overwhelms our everyday existence whenever we can stop and notice.”
Visually resplendent works by a Quad Cities native and current Kansas resident are currently decorating the walls of the Berėskin Gallery & Art Academy, and on February 4, the Bettendorf venue will celebrate the great outdoors and some of its great mammals in an Open House Reception for painter Troy Swangstu's exhibition A Bullish New Year and the opportunity for guests to meet its featured artist.
A gifted painter and Aledo, Illinois, native known for her beautiful and evocative figurative painting and printmaking will be celebrated in a new exhibit at the Figge Art Museum, with the Davenport venue, from February 5 through May 8, housing Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee, the first major critical assessment of Lee’s superlative works.
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