Once again, and hopefully for good, theatre is back in the Quad Cities, and the Black Box Theatre is dipping its toe into the world of live performances with Dick Tracy: A Live Radio Play. Director Lora Adams started Saturday's performance by describing it as a helping of Chinese Food Theatre: We would be full when we left, but hungry for more theatre soon. While this metaphor made me chuckle, I soon realized just how true it was. This charming foray back into theatre definitely left me eager for more.

Iowa City-based producer landethics’ release phantom tidepools appeared in the Reader’s pages back when it was released in May of 2020, and its lovely blend of post-video game OST melodicism and tonal choices, fused with a fine-tuned sense of beat programming, won my heart.

Whoa. Here’s a nice surprise from a Quad Cities-based project that until this point has been nowhere near my personal radar. A five-track EP of mostly instrumental hip-hop beats from the Davenport duo Pariah and Robscire, Idle Hands perfectly scratches a sweet spot between the kinetic, proto-trap drum patterns and throbbing basslines of Memphis hip-hop staples such as Three 6 Mafia, and a strain of more tripped-out modern-rap beatmaking closer to, say, Death Grips.

When Marigold Resources' branding and agribusiness adviser Larry McDonald came up with the idea to re-purpose the portion of the I-74 Bridge that used to house the toll plaza operations into an elevated park on the Mississippi River, his concept rendering (pictured above) was posted to several social-media and LinkedIn accounts. 

We're finally approaching an end to the longest gap between nomination announcements in the Oscars' 93-year history. So welcome, friends, to my predictions for the 2021 Academy Awards! Is it 2022 yet?

The latest online presentation in the Bettendorf Public Library's popular “Community Connections” series, Life on the Mississippi River with John Lynn will find the Peoria-based lecturer and nature enthusiast hosting a virtual guided tour down “The Mighty Miss” as he shares tales of the body of water's course and character, and of general river life.

On March 18, Michelle Hargrave, the Figge Art Museum's executive director and CEO, and Mark Russell Smith, music director and conductor for the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, will team up for the virtual presentation Art Meets Music, a thoughtful and fascinating exploration of its titular themes and the roles the art forms play in tandem with one another.

Delivered as part of the Davenport Public Library's virtual 3rd Thursday at Hoover's Presidential Library & Museum programming, the March 18 Zoom webinar A Woman of Achievement: Stories from the Life of Lou Henry Hoover will provide fascinating insight into the life of President Herbert Hoover's wife, educating participants about the achievements of a First Lady whose legacy has been largely forgotten, but whose impact can still be felt today.

Deemed “wildly funny” by the Los Angeles Times and “a madcap condensation that features nonstop laughs” by Variety magazine, the recently updated slapstick The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] marks the long-awaited return to scheduled stage performances for Moline's Spotlight Theatre, with the comedy – running March 19 through 28- described by the Montreal Gazette as “the funniest show you are likely to see in your entire lifetime.”