Hosted by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club and beginning at 9 a.m., an eagerly anticipated Memorial Day tradition returns for its 54th year in the May 27 Quad Cities Kwik Star Criterium – a Village of East Davenport event featuring hundreds of adult and youth cyclists participating in 12 bicycle races, with over $10,000 in cash prizes awarded throughout the day.
This feature collects articles published online by Quad Cities-area media outlets and by CapitolFax.com and the state-politics sections of the Des Moines Register and the State Journal-Register.
Wildlife, history, geology, and more will be explored when River Action hosts presentations in this year's Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks – “Explore the River Series” celebrations of the Quad Cities' unique culture and landscape taking place four times weekly from May 28 through August 31.
A television and film star whose credits include Heroes, Veronica Mars, and 10 Things I Hate About You makes a special appearance at the Davenport Public Library's Fairmount Street branch on May 30, when actress, author, and Davenport North High School alumna Dana Davis reads from, discusses, and signs copies of her most recent novel The Voice in My Head, scheduled for release on May 28.
Delivering what Moeller Nights bills as “a weekend of professional wrestling, world-class comedy, and part rock-and-roll,” retired WWE sensational Ric Flair headlines a special two-night event at East Moline's The Rust Belt on May 31 and June 1, a Turnbuckle and SCW Fitness presentation celebrating the sports legend whose credits include an appearance in Magic Mike XXL and serving as the subject for ESPN's 30 for 30 episode “Nature Boy.”
As the spring legislative session nears its end, I want to take a moment to look back on one of the scariest times of the year with the hope that one of you might recognize something and help bring a deranged person to justice.
If you want to see how times have changed this legislative session, take a quick look at Senate Bill 1591.
If you listen closely to what Democratic state Representatives Sam Yingling and Jonathan Carroll are saying in public about their opposition to Governor JB Pritzker's graduated-income-tax proposal, they appear to believe that Pritzker's proposed tax rates aren't high enough.
The Chicago Police Department reported last week that the number of people murdered in the city fell 10 percent during the first four months of 2019 compared to last year during the same period.
While that's good news and part of a two-year downward trend, lost in much of the coverage was a worrisome murder spike in the month of April.
Ever noticed, whenever someone inconveniences the dominant western power structure, the entire political/media class rapidly becomes very, very interested in letting us know how evil and disgusting that person is? It’s true of the leader of every nation which refuses to allow itself to be absorbed into the blob of the U.S.-centralized power alliance, it’s true of anti-establishment political candidates, and it’s true of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
It’s an unfortunate tale you’ve heard a lot lately: The Village Theatre, home of New Ground Theatre, wound up with water in the basement this past month. But “The show must go on!” is a cliché for a reason, and Friday's opening-night performance of American La Ronde, indeed, went on as planned to recap the romantic journey of a single silver bracelet.
A Noël Coward masterpiece boasting period elegance, touching romance, loads of laughs, and more than a hint of the supernatural graces Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre stage May 31 through June 9, as the British classic Blithe Spirit treats audiences to one of the most popular comedies of 20th Century world theatre, as well as the show whose most recent Broadway version won co-star Angela Lansbury her fifth Tony Award.
A Tony-nominated musical-comedy delight based on a much-loved Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film, Holiday Inn will enjoy a luxurious staging in its area debut at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the production's June 5 through July 20 presentation boasting costumes from the show's original 2016 Broadway run and a score of beloved compositions by songwriting master Irving Berlin.
Don’t let the title of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Grumpy Old Men: The Musical fool you. I was expecting much yelling at young-'uns and kvetching over chessboards. It’s actually a colorful, fast-paced feast containing no young-'uns (but, yes, one chessboard).
In author Aaron Randolph III’s brand-new adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic tale The Little Prince, we’re immediately introduced to Aviator (Randolph) as he tells us a tale from his past, in which he crashed his plane and met a boy, Little Prince (Daniel Rairdin-Hale), who is traveling from planet to planet. Aviator and Little Prince have a lot to learn from each other, and this charming production serves up many life lessons.
Currently touring in support of their 2019 release Egowerk, the Kansas-based independent rockers of The Faint play Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn in a May 26 co-presentation with Moeller Nights, their latest recording proving that, according to Riff magazine, “the band can still speak truth to power and culture through infectious melodies and electrifying rhythm.”
Indie rock by a four-piece ensemble based in Massachusetts and a solo artist based in Washington will be on the May 26 bill at Davenport's Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, with the venue hosting a Moeller Nights concert featuring the layered vocal harmonies of Dutch Tulips and the singularly thoughtful and soulful sound of Chris Otepka's solo project The Heligoats.
Described by The Obelisk as “among the best in the world at what they do,” the doom-metal musicians of Japan's Church of Misery headline a special Memorial Day concert at the Rock Island Brewing Company, their May 27 set demonstrating why Metal-Archives.com calls the band “a fairly unique and contradictory example of how dark, disturbed, catchy, and even fun this type of music can be.”
An artist who, according to American Blues Scene magazine, “plays a head-spinning variety of styles … never failing to excite the listener,” the Florida-based J.P. Soars and his band The Red Hots play a May 28 concert presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, their engagement at Rock Island's Riverfront Grille demonstrating why BluesSource.com wrote, “Soars can stroke, persuade, bend, and stretch notes from places other guitarists haven't even heard of.”
The familiar sounds of “Peggy Sue,” “Maybe Baby,” “Oh Boy,” “Everyday,” and many other iconic '50s-rock hits will fill the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on May 30, with the Rock Island venue presenting two performances of the exhilarating touring production That'll Be the Day: A Tribute to Buddy Holly & the Crickets starring Todd Meredith, the leading man from Circa '21's 2008 musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.
Coincidence is one thing. Yet what are we to make of the fact that, this past weekend, Hollywood released two sequels to movies released within 15 days of each other in 2017, both of which were about men almost slavishly devoted to their dogs? Last Sunday was Mother's Day, but was this most recent Sunday some kind of canine-centric holiday I was unaware of?
It's nearly impossible to be excited by a movie that merely fulfills your expectations. It's also nearly impossible to be disappointed by one when your expectations are merely that it be lighthearted, fast-paced, and funny, and your expectations are met.
In many ways, Long Shot is a traditional rom-com to its teeth: there are slapstick antics and getting-to-know-you montages and familiar pop tunes aplenty; the supporting figures include sensible besties and backstabbing rivals and foolish authority figures; our heroine, when depressed, consumes a pint of Häagen-Daaz in her bathrobe. But it's been a long, time time since a Hollywood feature made me as thunderously happy as I was during director Jonathan Levine's showcase for Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, and the nearly forgotten pleasure of old-school, grown-up screen romance. And yes: I just referenced “Seth Rogen” and “grown-up” in the same sentence. I also referenced “Seth Rogen” and “Charlize Theron” in the same sentence. We can argue later about which seemed less likely.
What follows are opinions, feelings, and rhetorical questions inspired by directors Joe and Anthony Russo's clever, funny, baffling, touching, blissfully fan-centric Avengers: Endgame – the concluding chapter in the 22-movie Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – more or less in order of occurrence:
The curse of La Llorona, as explained in the fittingly titled The Curse of La Llorona, is a piece of Latin American folklore too juicy to be employed merely as a bridge to yet another feature starring that nasty porcelain doll Annabelle. Alas, director Michael Chaves' supernatural horror film is being marketed as the latest in the “Conjuring Universe” that entails two Conjurings (with a third heading our way next year), two Annabelles (with a third heading our way this June), and last fall's dreary The Nun (with a second, and inevitable third, TBA). Every cinematic series, it seems, has to be capitalized Universe now, but am I alone in wishing that this latest entry had functioned merely as a self-contained planet?
Boasting images from the Windy City both familiar and unfamiliar, and with the sites' natural hues exploding with vibrantly painted colors, Chromatic Chicago will be on display at Bettendorf's Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, from May 31 through June 28, the new exhibition demonstrating the significant talents of Galesburg-based artist Carla Markwart.
Rich oils and paints, vibrant colors, and four-legged majesty will be on display at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy from April 27 through May 30, with the Bettendorf venue hosting a showcase of numerous works by Texas artist Laurie Justus Pace in an equine celebration fittingly titled HorsePower.
Representing a collective 238 years of service to the art programs in local schools and institutes of learning, the new exhibition CREATE: A Celebration of Davenport Community Schools Art Teachers will be on display at Davenport's MidCoast at Bucktown Gallery April 11 through May 31, treating visitors to a dynamic collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and works in other visual mediums.
Sinuous plants, youthful maidens, venomous dragons, and other arresting sights will be on display from January 19 through June 16 at the Figge Art Museum in the Davenport venue's new exhibition Art Nouveau Amphora, a collection of magnificent works of artistic pottery from the late-19th and early-20th Centuries.
Fascinating new works by a pair of Iowa artists will enjoy an Illinois showcase from May 10 through June 21, as Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center Gallery displays photographs by a Camanche talent in Karen Austin: Abandoned, and paintings by a gifted Cedar Rapids resident in Maureen Healy Mossman: Accidental Stories.
You'll get a rundown of What's Happenin' along with your keys to the Quad Cities' culture.
