A lobbyist who works for a business-related organization asked me a question the other day that I've been hearing a lot lately: "Who's going to be the stopper now?"

What he meant was: Who in the legislative process can be counted on these days to help derail bills which are deemed hostile to business interests?

Nominated for more than a dozen Grammy Awards and winner of three Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, singing/songwriting superstar and Grand Ole Opry member Dierks Bentley brings his “Burning Man Tour” to Moline's TaxSlayer Center on March 7, performing mere months after landing a chart-topping album in The Mountain and chart-topping singles in “Women, Amen” and “Burning Man.”

After nearly a half-century of live performances and 2014 induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the legendary rockers of KISS finally reach their figurative end of the road in their fittingly named “End of the Road World Tour,” which makes its long-awaited stop at Moline's TaxSlayer Center on March 10.

One of America's most powerful and iconic works by one of the world's preeminent playwrights, Arthur Miller's Tony-winning drama The Crucible will enjoy a March 8 through 17 staging at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, with the New York Times stating that Miller's wrenching, timeless tale “insists that we identify with not only the victims of persecution but also with those who would judge them.”

Presented at Moline's Black Box Theatre in the style of a radio play complete with live music, sound effects, and actors with scripts in hand, three new episodes of the locally produced podcast All You Care to Eat will be performed by the area troupe Comedy Thingy on March 11 and taped in front of a live “studio” audience.

With Publishers Weekly raving that The Night Bookmobile is a “romantic, melancholy tale” that's “a paean to reading and to the life one person lives through books,” Audrey Niffenegger's 2010 graphic novel travels from the page to the walls of St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery in a February 28 through April 12 exhibition, one that showcases original art in which “the simplicity of the images contrasts with sophisticated page layouts in which [Niffenegger] plays with panels and perspective.”

A six-piece ensemble from Austin, Texas whose 2015 release Mockingbird was cited by Rolling Stone as one of the year's best country albums, the honkytonk talents of Mike & the Moonpies play a March 12 concert as Moeller Nights headliners treating audiences to a sound that NoDepression.com praised for its “shining tautness” and “crisp precision that is marvellous.”

There's so much to talk about regarding last night's host-less Oscars ceremony – Green Book's Best Picture win! Spike's speech! Olivia freakin' Colman! – that I feel both silly and a little embarrassed to open with an admission: I didn't watch it.

Or rather, I couldn't watch it. Or rather, I could, but it wasn't worth the hassle.

Give Governor JB Pritzker some credit: The man can give a good speech.