While this latest, incessantly meta sequel is frequently clever and easily watchable, it also kept reminding me, unfortunately, that there's a fine line between smart and smarty-pants.

An eagerly awaited wintertime treat populated, this year, with two-legged, four-legged, and winged friends, the annual celebration Icestravaganza returns to downtown Davenport in Icestravaganza 2022: A Zoo Animal Safari!, with this safe and family-friendly event – taking place from January 14 through 16 – boasting ice-sculpted renditions of creatures including lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my!

Described by CNN as “amazing,” by the San Francisco Chronicle as “wonderful,” and by the Hollywood Reporter as “a fascinating portrait,” Picture of His Life, the 2019 documentary on lauded underwater photographer Amos Nachoum, opens the 2022 season in River Action's QC Environmental Film Series, this January 23 presentation at Davenport's Figge Art Museum a multiple festival-award winner by acclaimed directors Dani Merkin and Yonatan Nir.

With the Washington Post deeming her latest novel “a fast-paced, darkly romantic journey,” and NPR stating that its characters are “unique, flawed, and sad in a way that burrows into your heart,” best-selling and award-winning novelist Silvia Moreno-Green will take part in a virtual conversation hosted by the Rock Island Public Library, the January 26 event allowing the author to discuss her 2021 book Velvet Was the Night and her genre-defying mashups of cultural noir and Lovecraft-ian horror.

In a special panel discussion taking place at the Bettendorf Public Library on January 25, area professors and their students will share some of their faculty-led experiences abroad, their Stories from Around the World program presented by the World Affairs Council of the Quad Cities and featuring Augustana College's Dr. Mariano J. Magalhães and St. Ambrose University's Dr. Kirk Kelley, Dr. Terri Switzer, and Dr. Duk Kim.

An opportunity to explore the personal and collective experience of living through a global pandemic, the Figge Art Museum's January 20 maker session will find artist Anna Richards guiding participants through an exciting, hands-on program that explores the Feminist Art Movement in relation to the Davenport venue's current installation Jane Gilmor: Breakfast on Pluto.

To download a PDF of the puzzle, click here.

The Illinois Senate’s COVID-mitigation protocols (testing, masks, and limited remote-voting) didn’t anticipate a partisan attempt to use a record-breaking virus-surge to shut the chamber down, but that’s what almost happened last week.

More than a balm, music this past year was a glorious brick to the head, shaping how we see the world and introducing us to new experiences that temper our reality in ways that aren’t always positive, but are always quite welcome. Here are four releases from last year that blew my mind and kept the bricks flying.