Events

i wireless Center

March through June

Shall we commence? If you’re a staff member at Moline’s i wireless Center, the only answer to that question is “Heck, yeah, we shall!” Because in its season featuring two-dozen events open to the public, a full 11 of them are commencements, as students and their families – from May 15 to June 5 – celebrate graduations from area colleges (Augustana, Scott, Black Hawk), universities (St. Ambrose, Western Illinois), and high schools (Rock Island, Pleasant Valley, North Scott, and Davenport North, West, and Central). Consequently, a bunch of you will already be spending time at the i wireless at least once this spring. But I urge you to also consider several additional visits, considering how many springtime engagements will leave patrons with the urge to cheer and throw their hats in the air.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

If your biggest complaint about a movie lies with its title, that movie is probably pretty great, and director Dan Trachtenberg’s 10 Cloverfield Lane is pretty great – a splendidly acted, hugely entertaining nail-biter that continually surprises despite its claustrophobic setting and cast of characters that can be counted on the fingers of one hand. But while it may lure fans of 2008’s astoundingly irritating “found footage” monster mash Cloverfield, did that title really need to be baked into this one, effectively establishing Trachtenberg’s outing as some kind of sequel or prequel? Theoretically, the thrill of 10 Cloverfield Lane lies in our not knowing where its true threat lies. It’s a measure of the film’s success that it works despite a title implying exactly where that threat lies.

Music

An Evening with Christian Howes

Redstone Room

Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m.

On March 9, Davenport’s Redstone Room will host a hugely acclaimed, virtuosic jazz violinist in “An Evening with Christian Howes.” In its 2011 critics’ poll, DownBeat magazine voted Howes number one in the category “Rising Stars/Violin.” DownBeat called his 2012 album Southern Exposure “a masterful journey.” DownBeat praised Howes’ musicality by writing, “Everything about the way he moves across each string seems to express another emotion.” That’s an awful lot of DownBeat for someone who makes listeners so darned happy.

GODS OF EGYPT

When the first preview for the mythological-sci-fi-fantasy-action-adventure something-or-other Gods of Egypt landed last fall, it was met with widespread derision due to the overwhelming whiteness of its cast of “Egyptians.” To their credit, film studio Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas quickly issued statements of apology for the movie’s lack of diversity. But now that the ghastly embarrassment in question has been released, I’m hoping for a statement of rebuttal from slighted Egyptian actors everywhere: "Hey, you know what? No apology necessary."