For those fascinated by German folklore and its connection to the holiday season, a devilish good time is sure to be had in the German American Heritage Center's December 6 presentation of Krampus: The Roots & Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil, the Davenport venue's virtual program in which historian Al Ridenour will recount the origins and resurgence of this fabled figure in Germany, Austria, and throughout the world.
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A local author, entrepreneur, and retired combat veteran hosts a special December 7 presentation at the Davenport Public Library's Eastern Avenue Branch, with Dr. Burl Randolph Jr. speaks on Hard Work: The Mind of an Author, describing the differences between being a writer and an author, and whether hard work is a factor in success for being either.
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On December 10 and 11, one of the Quad Cities' most adored holiday traditions returns to Davenport's Adler Theatre when the professional talents of Ballet Quad Cities perform Tchaikovsky's holiday dance classic The Nutcracker, this eagerly awaited family experience boasting choreography by Artistic Director Courtney Lyon, live musical accompaniment by Orchestra Iowa, and the return of popular guest artist Domingo Rubio, the longtime portrayer of the company's dancing Dracula.
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An avidly anticipated holiday tradition returns to Augustana College from December 10 through 16 when the John Deere Planetarium hosts the week-long presentation Season of Light, a fascinating and beautiful holiday presentation hosted by the college's planetarium director and professor of physics and astronomy Dr. Lee Carkner.
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Admired for his current half-hour comedy special on season three of The Standups that's now streaming on Netflix, Los Angeles-based comedian Brian Simpson brings his national tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Rhythm Room on December 11, the hilariously uncensored standup having recently made his television debut on Comedy Central's Lights Out with David Spade.
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The state legislative debate last week over amending the Pre-Trial Fairness Act provisions within the controversial SAFE-T Act featured many of the same obfuscations and outright misinformation that characterized the fall campaign by Republicans and many of the same insufficient answers by Democrats. One of the problems that the super-majority Democrats have in both chambers is that when they know their bill is going to pass, they usually don’t take the Republicans’ objections seriously enough to fully engage with them. But on bills like this, misinformation can spread when points aren’t adequately rebutted.
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The Illinois Senate Republicans’ new leader John Curran told Capitol News Illinois the other day that there was nothing left to do on the abortion topic in Illinois. “The reality is, what else can we do here in Illinois?” Senator Curran said. “The laws of Illinois are more weighted towards guarantees of the rights to have an abortion than any other state in the nation. There's no further to go.”
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Governor JB Pritzker’s administration recently used its annual Economic and Fiscal Policy Report to outline three new budget proposals. The report revised projected revenues upward by $3.69 billion for this fiscal year, but noted that most of the projected increase was from one-time sources, like an unexpected spike in the state’s Income Tax Refund Fund of $1.28 billion.
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The best Western journalists are overwhelmingly despised while the worst are acclaimed millionaires. Western civilization is built on lies, dependent on lies, powered by lies. Don’t seek widespread approval. It’s worthless. Live long enough and you’ll learn that the people who’ll really hurt you and screw you over aren’t the obvious, overt monsters but the sly manipulators who smile to your face. The U.S. empire is a sly manipulator smiling and posturing as the good guy by contrasting itself with overt monsters.
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The United States government censored parts of Chelsea Manning’s new book, in which she attempted to describe the information she provided to WikiLeaks in 2010. Manning says she wrote README.txt because she had not really been able to tell her story, and that the book was a “first draft of history” from her perspective. “While I did testify a little bit during the court-martial, my voice has been kind of lost during this whole process,” Manning declared on CBS Mornings. However, the U.S. government used the publication review system to block her from highlighting any of the documents from the Afghanistan War Logs, Iraq War Logs, or US Embassy cables that garnered widespread news headlines.
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While watching the Spotlight Theatre’s joyous opening-night performance of A Christmas Story: The Musical, I could feel the nostalgia and love for the material coming from much of the audience. The 1983 film is an iconic holiday flick, and it was fun to witness this production’s viewers follow along already knowing the story.
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Lauded by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as "a beautiful present for theater-goers" and by The Daily Beast as "a brilliant show that you should see immediately," a historical a cappella musical drama All Is Calm makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre December 8 through 17, this landmark show also praised by the New York Times as "a beautiful musical recounting of a World War I cease-fire of gifts, poetry, and melody."
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A celebrated seasonal event described by DC Metro Theater Arts as “an exhilarating must-see” and “a pulse-pounding pageant full of talent and praise,” Langston Hughes' iconic Black Nativity enjoys a December 9 through 11 run at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, its presentation by Creative Resources sure to prove why the Maryland Theatre Guide deemed it “a celebration of life and spirit that is at once essential and timely.”
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A familiar holiday tale will enjoy a novel retelling at the Mockingbird on Main from December 9 through 17, with the Davenport theatre hosting a new version of Charles Dicken's timeless yuletide story A Christmas Carol performed by a three-person cast in an abridged, radio-comedy format.
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Lauded by the New York Times as a "sweetly enjoyable holiday show" and praised by Broadway World for delivering "toasty, cozy, musical holiday cheer to assist us in appreciating all the good stuff around us," the holiday-themed revue Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings closes the 2022 season at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, the show's December 1 through 11 run reuniting audiences with the beloved doo-wop quartet who refuse to let their years-ago deaths get in the way of having a delightful musical-comedy time.
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Described by Little Voice magazine as an artist who “is both a throwback to '60s folk-pop and very much in the moment,” singer/songwriter and Iowa native Elizabeth Moen headlines a December 8 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, her 2020 EP Creature of Habit having amassed raves from Hot Press for the musician's “innate ability to craft tongue-in-cheek lyrics and pair them with arresting melodies.”
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In addition to his rock, blues, and gospel smashes, Elvis Presley recorded numerous renditions of popular seasonal tunes, and many of those timeless hits will be heard when the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse hosts two December 8 performances of Blue Christmas: An Elvis Rock 'n' Roll Holiday Extravaganza, the return of the King-sized stage entertainment starring touring musician and noted impersonator Robert Shaw.
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A thrilling night of funk, soul, EDM, and live genre-fusing jams will be on the December 9 agenda at the Redstone Room at Common Chord, with the Davenport venue and Digital Notation hosting a night with the young musical talents of Recycled Funk, The Tripp Brothers, and Quad Cities ensemble The Textures.
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Boasting 40 million video views online and 350,000 followers, country/pop singer/songwriter Casi Joy headlines a December 9 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's highly-touted run on NBC's The Voice leading Rolling Stone to state that she had "one of the top 10 best blind auditions of all time," adding, "Between her distinct yodel and booming lower register, Casi Joy is a fan favorite."
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A rock sensation hugely admired by his peers, with Peter Frampton describing him as “the next guitar hero” and Steve Miller calling him an artist “in the Stevie Ray Vaughan area of virtuosity and originality,” Matthew Curry headlines a December 10 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room at Common Chord, the native of Bloomington, Illinois, lauded for songs that, according to American Artists, "reflect his style and sound, yet no two sound exactly the same."
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Before discussing the very, very Bad Santa at the heart of director Tommy Wirkola's Violent Night, I want to address this grisly action comedy's other heroic perpetrator of bloody mayhem. Because despite the commitment that David Harbour lends to his portrayal of a jolly old elf by way of The Northman, seven-year-old Trudy Lightstone (endearingly enacted by Leah Brady) is easily the film's more interesting figure, largely for being the only movie character I can think of to truly call out the insidious irresponsibility in that holiday “classic” Home Alone.
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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, December 1: After a week off, a lightning-round discussion of (deep breath) Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Fabelmans, Strange World, Devotion, The Menu, Bones & All, She Said, Good Night Oppy, The Wonder, and Spirited.
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As you may recall from 2019's comedic whodunit Knives Out, the soon-to-be-deceased Harlan Thrombey and his soon-to-be-accused caregiver Marta Cabrera ended every evening with a friendly round of the board game Go. I mention this because, after seeing Rian Johnson's continuation Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, I've realized that reviews of this burgeoning franchise for Daniel Craig's Southern-dandy detective Benoit Blanc have been completely superfluous. The only critical analysis these films really require is a simple directive: “Go.”
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Held in conjunction with National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, the December 7 screening of An Infantryman from Hero Street will find local Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films sharing their moving new documentary with patrons at the Moline Public Library, this latest work in the Hero Street series followed by a question-and-answer session with the area talents.
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Now playing at area theaters.
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The talents of three generations of artists will be on display in the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Gallery December 5 through 29, with the venue housing beautiful and evocative drawings, paintings, prints, and more in Lasansky in the UD Collection, an exhibit boasting works by Mauricio Lasansky, his son Tomás, and his grandson Diego, the latter of whom will also speak in a special guest lecture on December 5.
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An assemblage of arresting works by a former teacher at the Davenport Museum of Art (now the Figge Art Museum) and Davenport's St. Ambrose University will be on display at the Figge from December 3 through June 18, with the exhibition Mother, Goddess, Crone: The Art of Maria Cusumano boasting 11 prints that were recently gifted to the venue by Cusumano’s husband and fellow artist Mark Towner.
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A collection of 20 unique software, video, and light-technology artworks, the Figge Art Museum's latest touring exhibition Message from Our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection, on display through December 31, will treat visitors to the Davenport venue to an arresting assemblage created by a diverse group of international artists working at the forefront of digital and electronic art.
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Presented by the area nonprofit Living Proof Exhibit, an organization that celebrates the creative spirit of those impacted by cancer, the eagerly awaited annual exhibition A Visualization of Hope will bring messages of strength and resilience to Davenport's Figge Art Museum through January 1, with Living Proof Exhibit's collection boasting beautiful and evocative works by cancer survivors living within a 200-mile radius of the Quad Cities.
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Gloriously colorful and arresting works by a pair of Illinois-based artists are currently on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery, with the Moline airport, through January 2, hosting new ceramic works by Gary Beaumont of Champaign and recent acrylic paintings by Tony Seabolt of Rock Island.
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