Reader issue #607(This is part of a series of articles looking at the components of River Renaissance five years after Scott County voters agreed to contribute $5 million to the effort. While that amount was relatively small in the projects' financing, it secured $20 million in Vision Iowa funding from the State of Iowa.)

The most disheartening aspect of last week's announcement that River Music Experience President and CEO Lon Bozarth had quit was not the resignation itself but the hints that the organization doesn't have a clear sense of how to right itself.

In essence, the River Music Experience (RME) board of directors is trying to cut its way to prosperity - or at least the break-even point.

Reader issue #603In the 1985 HBO mockumentary The History of White People in America, co-writer and host Martin Mull offered the world mayonnaise-loving WASPs - suburbanites who had lost any sense of their roots, to the point that one child's understanding of his own heritage was limited to the streets on which he and his parents had lived.

White people, the show seemed to be saying, are beyond ethnicity and culture.

Mull doesn't see a meaningful connection between that work and his paintings, which will be shown at the Figge Art Museum in a retrospective that opens October 28. The only link, he said in an interview last month, is that they reflect his upbringing in Ohio. "It comes from the same vein," he said, "the same mother lode."

"Genre Chaos" Les Bell is well-known in the Quad Cities area for his teaching at St. Ambrose University, his wide intelligence, and his colorful and sensitive use of the nude in his art. There are few artists who can so easily paint the human figure as the primary subject of their work. The new Leger Gallery, in downtown Davenport, is presently hosting a 10-year retrospective of his paintings.

In Bell's world, the nude form is an artistic style, a psychological mystery, and a symbol. He is painting women in their many relationships and roles - from strong to vulnerable, from innocent to wise, and from beautiful to detached. She appears as a nervous young girl looking out from behind a curtain, a busy young woman at the beach on her cell phone, a calm, dark-haired female eyeing her companion, a distressed woman turning away, an intense, worldly lady erotically drying herself on a beach, a shy young girl, a young maiden holding snakes, a waif, a French courtesan, a Spanish dancer, and many more.

Mike and Mark Creger of M and M Hardware Mike Creger, at the front counter of M&M Hardware in Rock Island, warned a customer this past Friday: "I need big bucks from you."

The total: $2.73.

Steven Cozza of Scout's HonorSCOUT'S HONOR

"To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight" have, since 1910, been the closing words of the Boy Scout Oath. The question of what, exactly, constitutes "morally straight" is the subject of Tom Shepard's award-winning documentary Scout's Honor, which will be screened at the Figge Art Museum as part of Quad-Citians Affirming Diversity's June 16 fundraiser.

At her house, Katie Kiley is drawing in India ink on a wooden vase created by Steve Sinner. Using magnifying-glass headgear and two of the finest-point pens she could find, she's creating eight panels around the vase, depicting scenes from a California town. The naked eye can't appreciate the level of detail, and each panel takes two weeks to complete, she said.

Sinner expects to sell the piece for $20,000, Kiley said, and she's being extremely careful with the vessel. "I have this resting on a down pillow," she said.

Sinner, of course, is among the most highly regarded artists in the Quad Cities, and Kiley notes that he knows what price his work commands. But she is no slouch, as evidenced by two awards she won in the 181st Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, presented by the National Academy in New York City.
Not many people have heard of Mia Zapata, a punk singer who was murdered in 1993. At the time of her death, Zapata's group, The Gits, had released just one recording, Frenching the Bully. The CD is in many ways unremarkable, except for one thing: Zapata is a force of nature, and her powerful, un-self-conscious voice makes it impossible to keep your ears off her.
Loose Change 911 Creators: Korey Rowe, Dylan Avery, Jason Bermas

On Friday, Paul Greengrass' film United 93 opens nationwide, telling a story of bravery that this country has embraced because of the comfort it provides in the face of intense pain. On September 11, 2001, passengers on that plane stormed the cockpit and foiled a terrorist plot, in the process sacrificing themselves.

It's not quite miraculous that The M's will be performing on Friday at the Redstone Room, but given the group's origins, it's a surprise that the band is making public appearances at all. It started out as a lark, four guys recording dozens of songs at home.
In discussing the Quad Cities’ inaugural Venus Envy last year, festival chair Rachael Mullins said she hoped to draw between 300 and 500 people. Mallarie Zimmer, the founder of Venus Envy who has spread her celebration of women and the arts from St.

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