20 Jun 2007

Don't Hold Your Breath for an End to Budget Stalemate

By Administrator

The Statehouse finger-pointing has escalated right on schedule.

As always with an overtime legislative session, nobody wants to take the blame for failing to reach a budget agreement during the regularly scheduled session, which ended May 31. If the government eventually shuts down because the legislative leaders and the governor can't agree on a state budget, and state workers, contractors, and public-aid recipients stop receiving their checks, the players want to make sure that someone else is fingered as the irresponsible party.

20 Jun 2007

St. Ambrose Students Log 20,000 Hours of Community Service

By Administrator

By the time St. Ambrose University's May 13 commencement rolled around, students had put in more than 20,000 hours of service to the community during the 2006-7 academic year. SAU student service included a wide range of activities and projects. Ambrosians for Peace & Justice sent 15 students and staff to New Orleans to help in cleanup efforts at facilities for the elderly, logging nearly 600 service hours. Twenty others went to the David School in Kentucky over spring break and worked 800 hours teaching the school's students and cleaning and renovating its grounds. Thirty student mentors in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program spent more than 900 hours with their "littles" in a variety of activities that included pumpkin-carving, visiting the Davenport Fire Department, and attending sports events together. And St. Ambrose's Habitat for Humanity group logged more than 2,800 hours helping to build a house in Davenport and volunteering during spring break in Colorado and Arkansas.

 

13 Jun 2007

Playing with House Money: As Isle of Capri Dodders, Davenport and Bettendorf Could Lose Millions

By Administrator

637 Reader Cover The Isle of Capri's hesitance to follow through with two major casino-related projects - a hotel and parking garage on the Davenport riverfront and a financial pledge to the City of Bettendorf's convention center - could cost both cities millions of dollars.

13 Jun 2007

The "Go Between": Lois Deloatch, June 17 at the River Music Experience

By Administrator

Lois Leloatch The theme of Lois Deloatch's workshop on June 17 at the River Music Experience is "the singer as an interpreter of music," and the irony is that her first CD (1998's Sunrise) was a collection of her own songs.

But for the North Carolina-based jazz singer - who will also perform a concert that night as part of the Third Sunday Jazz Matinée & Workshop Series presented by Polyrhythms - the line between original work and interpretation is hazy.

13 Jun 2007

Cable Bill Hits an "Ego Snag"

By Administrator

The toxic combination of an overabundance of testosterone and fragile male egos seems to be contaminating everything it touches during the Illinois General Assembly's overtime session.

13 Jun 2007

Safe and Beneficial

By administrator

Davenport's Eric Schallert should be aware of what's happening all over the country, particularly in exciting cities such as Chicago, Madison, and Seattle, where officials are taking a fresh look at the transportation grid. (See "Bikes and Cars Shouldn't Mix," River Cities' Reader Issue 636, June 6-12, 2007.)

13 Jun 2007

Baseball Film Chooses the Quad Cities

By Administrator

If you provide incentives, they will come. On June 8, Quad City Development Group President Thom Hart and Davenport Mayor Ed Winborn announced that the Quad Cities will provide locations for a new feature by filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated drama Half Nelson. John O'Donnell Stadium, in particular, will play a key role in the currently untitled project, which concerns a young man from the Dominican Republic who - inspired by Field of Dreams - journeys to Iowa to play in the minor leagues. Project co-producers Jamie Patricof and Jeremy Kipp Walker stated that recent legislation providing incentives to film in Iowa, and the stadium's "beautiful field" along the Mississippi River, were key motivators in their decision to shoot locally, with filming scheduled to run from late July through mid-September. Numerous Quad Cities locations are currently being scouted, and the filmmakers hope to employ local talent in the feature's production. For information on the Iowa Film Promotion Act, which was signed into law on May 17, visit (http://www.traveliowa.com/film). - Mike Schulz

 

06 Jun 2007

Triple Threat: Wilco and Low at the Adler Theatre, and Richard Thompson at Iowa City's Englert

By Administrator

One day and less than 60 miles separate local performances by three stellar musical acts - two of them at the pinnacles of their respective genres, and one a genre all to himself. Alt-country royalty Wilco will perform at the Adler Theatre in Davenport on Wednesday, June 13, with minimalist-rock pioneers Low opening, while Richard Thompson will play Iowa City's Englert Theatre the night before.

06 Jun 2007

Wilco: A New Spark

By Administrator

Wilco One reviewer has called Sky Blue Sky the best Eagles record the Eagles didn't make, and it's impossible to shake the timeless soft-rock vibe in the sound, the vocals, and the easy pace.

"A Ghost Is Born was to me really jagged ... abrasive," Stirratt said of his band's last studio album. "And this record has a certain warmth."

But while Sky Blue Sky at first sounds like a retreat for the band that embraced noise and electronics on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, Wilco hasn't abandoned experimentation. "Side with the Seeds" features guitar and Mellotron detours that, combined with slightly muffled drums and throbbing bass spikes, recalls King Crimson's disparate In the Court of the Crimson King and Red.

06 Jun 2007

Low: Letting Go

By Administrator

Low The lyrics that open Low's Drums & Guns are as forceful as singer/guitarist Alan Sparhawk is tentative.

"Pretty People," over a stark wave of fuzz, sets the tone for the record: "All the soldiers / They're all gonna die / All the little babies / They're all gonna die / All the poets / And all the liars / And all you pretty people / You're all gonna die."

It's a grim assessment, and the mood doesn't abate for the Minnesota band, known for its minimalist, slow songs and the often-haunting vocal interplay between Sparhawk and drummer Mimi Parker. (The two are married.) Low's 2005 album, The Great Destroyer, was louder, faster, and more accessible than anything the band had done, but Drums & Guns is a return to glacial pacing, with an experimental sound and a preoccupation with violence.

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