The members of the band Giallows, who were slated to perform on Tuesday, 13 November, at 8PM at Rozz-Tox (2108 3^rdAve, Rock Island), have watched Hell blaze across the streets of the Quad Cities.

Well, not Hell, exactly. That may be overstating matters. And nothing purgatorial or bardo-esque, for that matter. But they’ve seen some stuff occur. They also seemed to agree that they would never really agree on the nature of such stuff — so they might as well play music.

Lauded by Broadway World as “a stunning new holiday musical” and by The Independent as “a beautiful story” that's “fun for the whole family,” the touring Christmastime production Noël: The Musical brings seasonal messages and beautiful music to Davenport's Adler Theatre on December 2, and with a depth that led The Independent to call it “a feel-good show, but with a storyline touching on the very real issues of homelessness, bullying, loneliness, and the materialism of the holidays.”

With its latest musical described by Bold Life magazine as “some kind of wonderful” and by the Asheville Citizen-Times as “an old-fashioned holiday greeting card come to life,” Quad City Music Guild brings a timeless holiday treat to the stage in its November 29 through December 2 run of Miracle in Bedford Falls, a brand-new theatrical imagining of the Frank Capra classic It's a Wonderful Life.

One of the most popular and beloved animated movies of all time gets a holiday makeover at Moline's TaxSlayer Center from November 29 through December 2, with an Oscar-winning Disney masterpiece turned into an ice-skating spectacle in Disney on Ice: Frozen, a delightful touring adventure featuring Frozen's Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and more singing and skating alongside numerous additional Disney favorites.

Seasonal activities, song and dance performances, Christmas displays, and much more can be found at the Family Museum on December 2 when the venue hosts its annual celebration WinterFest, with this year's event-filled afternoon treating guests to displays, photos, and even visits from Santa, Mrs. Claus, and a real live reindeer.

A former Black Hawk College student who studied under famed area artist Jean Tamesia, Kathleen “Casey” Washington will showcase her artworks at Davenport's MidCoast Gallery at Bucktown, with the painter and multi-media artist having prepared three different approaches for the December 1 through January 31 exhibition: “The Essence of Picasso,” “Specialized Portraits,” and “Art Designed Furniture.”

In presenting the third of its six Masterworks concerts during the 2018-19 season, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra celebrates not only the ensemble's 104th year of performance, but the 100th birthday of a composing and conducting in the December 1 and 2 concert event Celebrating Bernstein's Centennial, with the program of Leonard Bernstein works featuring special solos for Concertmaster Naha Greenholtz on violin and Daniel Won on clarinet.

There's a little something for everyone in the adventure fantasy Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – and that's kind of the problem. Serving as both prequel and appendage to her Harry Potter series, screenwriter J.K. Rowling's continuation of her latest wizard saga boasts plenty of random pleasures, including some nifty visuals, a couple of cheerful comic turns, and a scarily resonant sequence suggesting a Rowling-ized Nuremberg rally. Yet this second installment in a planned five-part franchise – one that began with 2016's Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them – is still so wildly overstuffed with incident and exposition, and so distractingly focused on The Bigger Picture, that it barely gives us a chance to admire its many lovely fringe touches. There may be a little for everyone here, but taken overall, there's not a lot for anyone.

I had the pleasure of meeting several Democratic women candidates from Lake County during the Illinois State Fair last summer. Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) was showing them around town and brought them to a reception I was attending. We chatted for a while before they went on their merry way.

“Merry” is actually an understatement. Those candidates were positively joyful. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be running for office. Only one had ever run for something before. The rest felt compelled to get involved after the 2016 election.