04 Nov 2003

Iowa Values Fund Faces Tough Road, but the Director Welcomes the Challenge

By Jeff Ignatius
Iowa's massive economic-development boost is starting to look a lot more modest. The Iowa Values Fund was originally pitched as a $500-million state investment focusing on three core areas: life sciences, information solutions, and advanced manufacturing.
21 Oct 2003

NCRC Conference Seeks to Spur New Investment in the Quad Cities

By Jeff Ignatius
It might sound like a small thing, but when the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) was putting together its regional conference - scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the RiverCenter in downtown Davenport - organizers put their money where their mouth was.
14 Oct 2003

MidCoast Film & Arts Festival Brings the Buzz

By Jeff Ignatius
When you ask Brandon Jones about the MidCoast Film & Arts Festival, he often sounds like the shoestring-budget seat-of-the-pants filmmakers whose work he's bringing to the Quad Cities next week. "Our biggest downfall is that we don't have any staff," Jones said.
14 Oct 2003

Filmmakers Come Up with Masterful Premise

By Jeff Ignatius
Master of the Game is great high-concept cinema. During World War II, four German soldiers and four Jewish prisoners are stranded in a farmhouse. The Nazis begin executing the prisoners, but one proposes a game: The soldiers can keep their weapons, but they must answer all his questions.
14 Oct 2003

Writer-Director Brings Up His Baby

By Jeff Ignatius
Stu Pollard will be an exception at next week's MidCoast Film & Arts Festival. While most films at the event are still negotiating the winding road of distribution - trying to be seen by people who don't get to film festivals - Pollard's Nice Guys Sleep Alone has achieved success.
14 Oct 2003

Amiable Comedy Promises No Sleep

By Jeff Ignatius
Erik Moe is obsessed with high-school hockey. He lives in the Los Angeles area, the creative director for an advertising company, but he's brought his Wisconsin-bred insanity with him; his agency even has a Wisconsin-high-school-hockey office pool.
07 Oct 2003

Feeling Blue

By Jeff Ignatius
Kalen Allmandinger says that his mother can always identify him at the start of a show. He's in profile, and "she can always tell by my skinny neck," Allmandinger said. Of course, most mothers can readily identify their kids, but the task is a little more daunting if yours is one of three mute guys on stage with a bald pate, covered in blue grease paint.
07 Oct 2003

Second Dingo Takes a Step Backward

By Jeff Ignatius
Sean Leary, entertainment editor of the Rock Island Argus and Dispatch, has just released the second issue of the humor publication The Dingo. In the spirit of the work at hand, I offer my own Top 10 list (for the counting impaired), and some constructive criticism.
30 Sep 2003

The One-Man Jam Band

By Jeff Ignatius
Keller Williams is a unique artist, a multi-instrumentalist whose body can produce sounds reminiscent of Bobby McFerrin, a guitar virtuoso, a performer who can create a wall of sound on stage even though he's all by himself.
23 Sep 2003

Looking for a Spark

By Jeff Ignatius
Last week in Rock Island, a crowd gathered for the announcement of a new housing development: Highland Place. It's a small project, but it's drawing a lot of attention as what is hoped to be the first of many new housing developments in Moline and Rock Island.

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