Twenty years after it first raised awareness and funds for African famine relief, the Band Aid Trust is active again, preparing to re-record the mother of all benefit projects, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" later this week with Bono of U2; members of Morcheeba, Coldplay, Travis, and Supergrass; Sir Paul McCartney; Dido; Robbie Williams; and Snow Patrol, with guitar power via The Darkness.

The River Cities' Reader's photo contest is getting bigger. Much bigger. In its inaugural edition last year, the contest received roughly 80 entries. This year, we got 105. And while we published 12 winners a year ago, we're giving you 15 in this issue.

Over the last few weeks it's become clear that Alan Keyes lives in his own little world. And it's a pretty odd planet at that. In Keyes' version of reality, pro-choicers are like terrorist sympathizers, his Democratic opponent Barack Obama has a "slaveholder mentality," and Jesus would never even consider voting for Obama.

New Ground is one of my favorite local theatre groups because it doesn't settle for slapstick comedies, cliché-filled scripts, or sappy dramas. Instead, the not-for-profit organization with the mission to "bring the best in contemporary and original theatre to the Quad Cities" does superb work living up to that goal. New Ground's upcoming show, Talley's Folly, the recipient of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for drama, is certainly no exception to the "best theatre" rule and is perhaps one of the most unconventional, intriguing love stories I've ever seen on stage. The production opens August 26 and runs through September 5 at Rivermont Collegiate in Bettendorf.