We all know that former Governor Bruce Rauner was outspent by our new Governor JB Pritzker during the 2018 campaign. But the actual numbers are pretty darned eye-opening.

The personal beliefs and significant experiences of two Iowa-based artisans will be expressed in a fascinating pair of Quad City Arts Center Gallery exhibitions February 1 through March 22: Esprit De Corps: The Brotherhood of Paratroopers, Rangers, & Special Forces at War by Eldridge painter Kenneth Cunningham, and Sophisticated Disobedience by Davenport's stpray-paint-college artist Brian Schulz.

From February 1 through March 31, vibrant watercolors by one of the Quad Cities' most accomplished artists will be showcased in Tom Hempel: Retrospective, a exhibited collection of works by the Davenport-based talent who has painted more than 1,700 originals depicting a wide variety of subjects that include water scenes, landscapes, and the architecture of area homes, schools, office buildings, and churches.

With its main event touted as “the biggest pro boxing event in the Quad Cities in over 20 years,” homegrown talents Limberth Ponce and Stephen Edwards square off in the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center's battle royale Destiny: Live Professional Boxing – a February 2 clash of the titans presented by Alien Boi Boxing and Calkins Sports Productions and boasting additional exciting bouts for area boxing fans.

Appearing locally just one day after the release of their debut album A Light Left On, the alternative-folk musicians of The Western Den – pianist Deni Hlavinka and guitarist Chris West – headline a February 2 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, treating patrons to a sound that, according to Broadway World, finds the duo “pushing out into orchestral, ethereal, and chordally complex territory while preserving their sweeping vocal harmonies.”

It's easy, on Oscar-nomination morning, to be surprised and/or upset about names and titles not cited, and this morning, when the nominees for the 91st Annual Academy Awards were read by Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross, there were certainly omissions that some might find surprising and/or upsetting. (Okay, that I might find surprising and/or upsetting: No mention of the Mr. Rogers doc Won't You Be My Neighbor?!? Come on!) But before diving too deeply into who's not there, let's take a paragraph-long moment to appreciate who is – more specifically, who finally is.

On exhibit from February 1 through March 22, 2019, will be paintings by Kenneth Cunningham of Eldridge, IA, and spray-paint collages by Brain Schulz of Davenport, IA.

Here’s the thing: Any show that opens with a warning of “Please don’t shift your chair to avoid being trampled” is bound to be thrilling, even if, I admit, I was initially pretty hesitant about the idea of seeing the Prenzie Players’ Friday-night opening of Macbeth amidst the snow. But damn was this an exciting, emotional two hours in Scotland care of director Catherine Bodenbender.

M. Night Shyamalan has publicly stated that there won't be any sequels to Glass, the auteur's quasi-comic-book thriller that is itself a sequel to 2000's Unbreakable and 2017's Split, and I have no reason to doubt the man. Yet I'm hoping Shyamalan might at least consider a prequel or two, because as of now, I'm not quite ready to be done with James McAvoy's electrifying, disarmingly jovial performance(s) as Kevin Wendell Crumb, the conflicted serial killer who, in Split, made life hell for a trio of kidnapped teens. I wouldn't even mind if those prequels were as messy and overwrought as Glass, just so long as they were equally entertaining.