Volunteers at the fifth-annual Xstream Cleanup on Saturday, August 16, removed 142,566 pounds of debris from area waterways, illegal dumping sites, and flood-ridden areas. Cleanups were held at 39 locations in Bettendorf, Davenport, and LeClaire, Iowa, and Colona, East Moline, Milan, Moline, Rock Island, and Silvis, Illinois. More than 1,300 volunteers worked nearly 4,200 hours and collectively gathered 2,187 bags of trash, 2,416 tires, 36 appliances, and 54 bicycles. This represented 75,180 pounds of trash, 63,444 pounds of tires, 2,700 pounds of appliances, and 1,242 pounds of bicycles. Full statistics, a list of items removed, and photos of cleanups can be viewed at XstreamCleanup.org.

 

papermache.jpgIn two years, the Spokane, Washington-based five-piece Paper Mache - which will be performing at Mixtapes in East Moline on September 3 - has gone through more than a dozen members.

You might assume that singer/songwriter Chelsea Seth Woodward is difficult to work with, but to hear him tell it, it was simply a process of shaping Paper Mache.

"It started off as me doing a singer/songwriter, solo acoustic," he said last week, "but the intention was always to have the songs that I wrote have open interpretation, that we could play with them and I could have different members join and see what fit, and then develop a sound from there."

Leo Acton and fans Leo Acton didn't think this career path was open to him. He considered being a musician, but he always thought of himself as a physical comedian. "In a lot of ways, I've always been a clown," he said last week in a phone interview.

But "I always thought you had to be born into the circus," he added. "I never thought it was really an option."

Silly guy. Everybody knows you can run away to join the circus.

The topic of energy has been overrun with so many false premises and so much junk "science" as to make any intelligent discussion nearly impossible - and nowhere is the effect of this onslaught more apparent than in the field of nuclear power.

The Beaux Arts Fair will be held at its new location on the Figge plaza on Saturday, September 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, September 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The fair features 73 exhibitors from several states working in painting, drawing, printmaking, weaving, jewelry, and crafts. Admission is free to the fair and to the Figge during that weekend. There will be a children's activities tent, and concessions will be sold. For more information, visit BeauxArtsFair.com.

 

Brother Trucker When Flyover, the fourth album from Des Moines-based Brother Trucker, sees the light of day - maybe yet this summer - the band's fans will be treated to a collection of timeless roots rock.

Which is a good thing, because the songs were recorded more than three years ago.

I planned for an elegant dinner out last month. It was important to me that everything should be extraordinary, with nothing taken for granted - not the room, not the service, and certainly not the food. Too often, visiting a restaurant amounts to nothing more than escaping one's kitchen - a convenience rather than an experience, a meal rather than an event. But I wanted this night to be memorable.

On Wednesday, August 27, the LST-325, a World War II amphibious vessel, will dock in the Quad Cities around 10 a.m. Forty-five-minute self-guided tours of the ship will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Thursday, August 28, to Tuesday, September 2. The ship will dock on the Mississippi River along Ben Butterworth Parkway at River Drive and 25th Street in Moline. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children six to 18, $20 for families, and free for children under six. For more information on the Ship, visit LSTMemorial.org.

 

Reader #697 As dismissive as many people are when it comes to blogs, what's often neglected is that they can sometimes represent genuine grassroots movements. And Minneapolis' Tapes 'n Tapes has been a major beneficiary.

The Ruby Suns So far this week, we've already recorded Royal Bangs and New Zealanders The Ruby Suns, who parked their motor home at West Lake Park for the night, ate some Huckleberry's pizza, and then drove to Chicago to make the long flight home. They were a little worn out when they came to see us, but the tunes turned out well. Everyone should check out their newest Sub Pop record and complain to someone that it's not been released on vinyl.

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