16 Feb 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, February 18, through Wednesday, March 2

By Mike Schulz

Miguel ZenónMusic

Miguel Zenón Quartet

The Redstone Room

Sunday, February 21, 6 p.m.

 

Appearing locally in a special collaboration between Quad City Arts and Polyrhythms’ Third Sunday Jazz Series, the Miguel Zenón Quartet will be gracing the Redstone Room stage on Sunday, February 21. Gee, jazz saxophonist Zenón quickly became a world fave. That sentence is both true and my suggested replacement for “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” (That joke is strictly for the typists among you.)

14 Feb 2016

Scar-Spackled Banter: "Deadpool" and "How to Be Single"

By Mike Schulz

Ryan Reynolds in DeadpoolDEADPOOL

Your ability to find the superhero comedy Deadpool funny is dependent on your being a 14-year-old, or more precisely someone who can easily access his or her (most likely his) inner 14-year-old. For director Tim Miller’s new Marvel adventure, I couldn’t quite. But I also can’t deny the obvious pleasure many are getting from this cinematic, deservedly R-rated comic book. And if we must endure future origin stories – and trust me, we do – I’d prefer they all shared this one’s anarchic spirit and happy willingness to trash, within studio-approved reason, the tenets that make so many of them boring as sin.

14 Feb 2016

Abercrummy & Glitch: "Zoolander 2," "45 Years," and "National Parks Adventure 3D"

By Mike Schulz

Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Kyle Mooney in Zoolander 2ZOOLANDER 2

Probably no film genre currently flashes a bigger “get out of jail free” card than the Hollywood comedy, if for no other reason than there being so many outstanding comedians that any movie employing even a half-dozen of them is guaranteed to feature a fistful of reasons to attend. Zoolander 2, however, has the comics and still isn’t worth seeing.

10 Feb 2016

This Land Is My Land, This Land Is Your Land: Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander Presents "Map of My Kingdom," February 24 at the Bettendorf Public Library

By Mike Schulz

Map of My Kingdom author Mary SwanderIn 2013, Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander was asked to meet with the Ames-based not-for-profit Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), a situation she likens to “getting called into the principal’s office” for offenses unknown. Yet when it turned out she was actually being commissioned to write a play about farmland transitions, Swander says her immediate reaction was likely the same as those faced with the prospect of seeing a play about farmland transitions: “Hmm ... really?”

07 Feb 2016

Hail, Coens!: "Hail, Caesar!"

By Mike Schulz

Scarlett Johansson and Josh Brolin in Hail, Caesar!HAIL, CAESAR!

When the first official trailer for Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar! landed, it suggested that their latest movie – set in the glorious Technicolor Hollywood of the early 1950s – would be something increasingly rare for the siblings: the sort of unapologetically lighthearted goofball comedy they haven’t made since 2004’s The Ladykillers. Look! There’s George Clooney in heavy eyeliner and a toga! Scarlett Johansson with a mermaid tail! Channing Tatum tap-dancing in a sailor suit! By this point in their careers, however, the Coen brothers may be incapable of delivering anything lacking in subtext and social critique, and if we were paying attention, we were told as much in the second trailer for their deeply entertaining yet startlingly profound entertainment.

07 Feb 2016

Dogged Walker: "The Choice" and "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies"

By Mike Schulz

Teresa Palmer and Benjamin Walker in The ChoiceTHE CHOICE

Arriving just in time for women and gay men not entrenched in Super Bowl hoopla, this past weekend brought with it the debut of director Ross Katz’s The Choice, the 11th (!) adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks weepie to hit cineplexes since 1999. This one finds its rain-drenched North Carolina romantics portrayed by the Georgia-born Benjamin Walker, which is regionally close-enough, and Australian actress Teresa Palmer, which is regionally not-even-close. Oh, and British actor Tom Wilkinson plays Walker’s homily-spouting father. I’m fine with Walker’s casting. But have these things really become so noxious, and obnoxious, that we can no longer find Americans willing to play major roles in Sparks movies, forcing us to farm those assignments out to foreigners? Is Trump aware of this?!

02 Feb 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, February 4, through Wednesday, February 17

By Mike Schulz

Pam Ohnemus' MiddayExhibits

Figge Art Museum

Thursday, February 4, through Sunday, June 5

 

Well, how about that? It’s the first week of February in the Quad Cities, and there are gorgeous, summery sights everywhere! Fields of wildflowers! Golden-hued sunsets! Irises! Poppies! A child playing guitar on the banks of a gently flowing stream!

You do realize, though, that you’ll have to visit the Figge Art Museum to see all this, right? Because until our weather improves, you can only see that collection of arresting images – along with dozens of equally beautiful pieces – in the Figge’s 39th Annual Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition, on display February 6 through May 15.

01 Feb 2016

Grin and Bear It: "Kung Fu Panda 3," "Anomalisa," "The Finest Hours," "Jane Got a Gun," and "Fifty Shades of Black"

By Mike Schulz

Jack Black and Bryan Cranston in Kung Fu Panda 3KUNG PU PANDA 3

Did the makers of Kung Fu Panda 3 not get the memo that second sequels in franchises are traditionally supposed to suck? Because this thing, to quote Jack Black’s hirsute and animated alter ego Po, is “Awesome!!!” with all three exclamation points.

28 Jan 2016

She's Got the World on Her Strings: Violinist Livia Sohn Performs with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, February 6 and 7

By Mike Schulz

Livia SohnLivia Sohn, the featured soloist for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s forthcoming Masterworks: Song & Dance concerts, began playing the violin at age five. Maybe.

“That’s what they tell me,” says Sohn with a laugh. “I think it was earlier than that, because I have no memory of not playing, and I feel like you remember stuff that happened before you were five.”

27 Jan 2016

Taking the Bull by the Horns: Red Rodeo Provides a Haven for Country-Music Fans

By Mike Schulz

Outshyne, February 6Until very recently, Quad Citians wanting a rodeo experience had no choice but to wait for the i wireless Center’s annual World’s Toughest Rodeo tour. But for the last month, the District of Rock Island has been housing it’s very own, full-time Rodeo – and it’s got the bull to prove it.

“Right now, we rent one for Saturdays,” says booking manager Red Redahan of the mechanical bull at Red Rodeo – the new, Nashville-style nightclub he operates with wife and venue owner Cherie. “But we’re actually going to have our own mechanical bull soon, and he’ll be there every night. And people love it. You land on an air mattress and nobody’s been injured. People just sign their waivers and have a great time.” Red laughs. “And then we throw ’em off.”

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