A beloved film franchise that inspired a popular Netflix series will be celebrated when Bettendorf venue The Tangled Wood hosts The Karate Kid Trivia Night, with participants at the June 22 event invited to “wax on” their knowledge of Daniel-san, Mr. Miyagi, Cobra Kai, and loads of other touchstones related to the 1984 film classic, its sequels, and its current TV revival.
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.
Authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more will share their talents and help strengthen the talents of others during the Midwest Writing Center's virtual David R. Collins Writers Conference, a June 24 through 26 celebration of the written word boasting workshops, readings, book pitches, and a keynote address by lauded author Allison Joseph.
An acclaimed author, public speaker, radio host, and former halfback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rocky Bleier takes the stage at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center for the touring sensation The Play with Rocky Bleier, a special June 25 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.
A celebration of the individuals and organizations that best represent the spirit of true river action in regard to our mighty Mississippi, River Action's Fish & Fire Friendraiser enters its 19th year with a June 25 event at Davenport's Modern Woodmen Park and the presentation of the 2020 and 2021 Eddy Awards – recognition for those who “go against the current” to provide outstanding, well-designed, and environmentally responsible riverfront activity and development.
I’d been hearing since the end of May, when the General Assembly adjourned for the summer, that there were some problems with the state budget legislation which needed to be fixed. Some effective dates apparently weren’t drafted right. But, silly me, I failed to follow my own rules and didn’t read the bill (SB2800) for myself. The scope of the problem was worse than I thought, but the most pressing issue was the House did not have nearly enough votes to correct its massive mistakes when the chamber returned to Springfield on June 16. It became a major test of rookie House Speaker Chris Welch’s influence.
More than a year of mounting evidence overwhelmingly contradicts the foundation propping up the COVID-19 narrative as a global lethal pandemic. Yet this need-to-know information continues unaddressed, ignored, even denounced by a preponderance of health authorities and the public, suggesting a successful assimilation into what qualifies as a COVID Cult.
On November 19, 2020, the number of Illinois House Democrats who had publicly stated they would not vote to re-elect Speaker Michael Madigan grew from 12 to 17, meaning that Madigan at that point did not have enough votes to win. By December 1, two more House Democrats, including a member of Madigan’s own leadership team, had turned against him. “The 19” became a real force in Illinois politics.
I interviewed both House Speaker Chris Welch and Governor JB Pritzker last week, so I thought I’d tell you about one of the overlaps. Speaker Welch followed a man who had been in office for decades, so comparisons are unavoidable. When former House Speaker Michael Madigan was around, we were always playing endless guessing games. What is he really up to? What does he really want? What’s he really trying to say?
When reading last week’s indictment of Tim Mapes, it’s important to remember that federal prosecutors have been trying to prove that his old boss, former House Speaker Michael Madigan, was directing the effort to allegedly “bribe” him with favors. Madigan’s long-time chief of staff was indicted May 26 for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury and attempting to obstruct the grand jury’s corruption investigation.
Whether you are shy about trying Shakespeare or are a Bard aficionado, has Genesius Guild got a show for you! The first production of their shortened season, Measure for Measure (abridged), is very funny, well acted, deftly staged, easy to follow, and – so important for an outdoor venue in summer – short.
It was a beautiful summer night on Saturday, and I was thrilled to attend the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre’s energetic new musical Smokey Joe’s Café. Celebrating the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, this production took place outdoors, across the street from the Showboat in the charming Riverview Park Bandshell. And from the first note of the first song, I knew I was in for a treat.
The song “Corner of the Sky” has always been one of my favorite Broadway tunes. I love the lyrics, especially, because they touch areas deep inside my heart with their nuances of looking for meaning in life and trying to find a place where you fit in. The words: “Rivers belong where they can ramble / Eagles belong where they can fly / I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free / Got to find my corner of the sky” really ring true in my own experiences. And this song is the centerpiece for the season opener – the musical Pippin – now playing at the Timber Lake Playhouse.
Two powerhouse vocal legends will be celebrated by one supremely gifted Augustana College professor from June 24 through 27 when the Mississippi Bend Players present Mary & Ethel: How I Learned to Sing, with area stage performer, director, and instructor Shelley Cooper showcasing the musical talents of her musical idols Mary Martin and Ethel Merman in an exuberant one-woman show.
One of the most enduring and entertaining stage musicals of all time will be the first of two summer shows presented by Eldridge's Countryside Community Theatre, with the company returning to stage performance for the first time in two years in its June 25 through July 3 run of composer Meredith Willson's classic The Music Man.
Touring in support of the band's 2020 release Blood & Stone, an album that New Noise magazine raved “starts off strong and grows stronger with each track,” the Grammy-nominated alternative-metal artists of Sevendust play the East Moline venue The Rust Belt on June 29, performing from a repertoire that includes 13 studio albums, one live album, and 36 singles.
A Grammy-winning drummer, a trombone player for Broadway, and many other national and local artists will be celebrating Independence Day Weekend in style with the July 2 and 3 return of the Iowa City Jazz Festival, the 30th-anniversary edition of Summer of the Arts' nationally renowned fest taking place in the city's Ped Mall and on South Clinton Street.
A new iteration of a classic funk band takes the stage at the Adler Theatre on July 3, with the Davenport venue housing an evening with Lakeside, a group whose beginnings date back more than 50 years and whose repertoire includes such Billboard smashes as “Raid,” “Outrageous,” and the chart-topping “Fantastic Voyage.”
There must be something in the water in the Quad Cities that makes absolute shredders out of its residents. I feel like every month, when I’m digging through local music on Bandcamp, some new project that I’ve never heard of before leaps out at me with a malevolent grin and says, “Here, take this masterful, fully realized [death metal] [black metal] [progressive metal] [grindcore] album that was probably recorded in some guy's home studio but that hits with rock-solid ideas and a professional level of production that can compete with the most high-budget release on a larger label.”
A jazz ensemble dedicated to making audiences very happy, and with the band moniker punctuating the “very happy” to prove it, the four gifted musicians of Christopher's Very Happy. Band play Davenport's Redstone Room on June 20, their performance as the latest guests in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Series operating from the premise that “now, more than ever, we all need a little more Happy.ness in our lives.”
As we discover in Edgar Wright's music documentary The Sparks Brothers, not long after the release of their 21st (!) album, the frontmen for the genre-defying rock outfit Sparks – siblings Ron and Russell Mael – embarked on a live-concert run of all 21 of those albums performed in chronological sequence, one night after another, over the course of 29 days. That's insane.
Had the musical been released last June as originally scheduled, and had there been no pandemic, director Jon M. Chu's film version of In the Heights would no doubt have felt like what it feels like today: a sweet, touching, frequently thrilling bash in which the guest list simply reads “Everybody.” Arriving now, however – and for we Illinoisans, debuting on the very same day the state's COVID-19 restrictions were lifted – Chu's big-screen opus feels like more than a party; it feels like liberation.
One of the most intelligent, loving, and hysterical film comedies of the modern era will make a 25th-anniversary return to the big screen when Rave Cinemas Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, from June 27 to 30, houses director Mike Nichols' The Birdcage, the riotous slapstick starring Robin Williams and Gene Hackman that the Washington Post's Desson Thomson called “a spirited remake of the French drag farce [that] has everything in place, from eyeliner to one-liner.”
There are two absolutely excellent moments in the new horror film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Both moments are scary as all get out and boast images that even this longtime genre fan had never seen before, and Julian Hilliard appears to be a remarkable young actor. If director Michael Chaves' fright flick were actually about that kid and his supernatural turmoil, this second sequel might've really been something.
Glorious colors and imaginative designs will be gracing the pavement of Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park in Quad City Arts' 2021 Chalk Art Fest, a June 26 and 27 weekend featuring live music, children's activities, food and drink vendors, and cash prizes, plus, eventually, the recognizable visage of rock legend David Bowie.
One of the most expansive exhibitions in the Davenport venue's recent history, with the works on display numbering well over 100, POP Power from Warhol to Koons will enjoy an engagement at the Figge Art Museum June 26 through September 19, treating patrons to explosions of color, unforgettable imagery, and specific artistic visions that have continued to capture the public imagination for more than 50 years.
Beautiful works by gifted local artists who also happen to be Quad Cities art professors who also happen to be related will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through June 30, with the Moline gallery housing a pair of exhibitions by a pair of sisters: paintings by Kristin Quinn of Davenport, and ceramic creations by Megan Quinn of Rock Island.
Energetic, multi-hued works by an Arizona-based artist with significant ties to the Quad Cities will be on display in the next exhibition at the Beréskin Gallery & Art Academy, with the Bettendorf venue, through July 8, housing Tim Schiffer: Paintings within Paintings, a collection of arresting pieces created by the former executive director of Davenport's Figge Art Museum.
The celebration of a talent known for combining real and imagined elements inspired by nature in his captivating works, the Figge Art Museum's new exhibition Tom Uttech: Origin, on display through August 15, will feature Kisibakwad, the beloved painting from the Figge collection, alongside a selection of the artist's large-scale photographs from the collection of the Museum of Wisconsin Art.
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