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.

Praised by the Bristol Evening Post as “a real winner” that earns “four stars out of four,” and by The Guardian for being a “slick, swashbuckling romp that cleverly updates the Dumas novel,” the literary classic The Three Musketeers enjoys a thrilling new stage presentation at Augustana College January 25 through February 3, with Tony Award nominee Ken Ludwig's 2007 adaptation delivering, according to The California Aggie, “two hours of pure awesomeness.”

Foxes in the henhouse. Elephants in the room. Cats in the cradle. And from January 26 through April 28, there will be Animals in the Museum, as Davenport's Figge Art Museum showcases works in all artistic mediums devoted to the world's furry, feathered, finned, and four-legged friends.

Appearing locally with familiar traveling companions such as Peanut, José Jalapeño, Bubba J., Sweet Daddy Dee, and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham brings his national “Passively Aggressive” tour to Moline's TaxSlayer Center on January 23, the performer's comic talent and audience rapport establishing why he holds the Guinness World Record for “Most Tickets Sold for a Stand-Up Comedy Tour.”

Performing in support of their most recent album Odd Boat, a release that SoundRenaissance.net called “a gem of our time” for its “infusion of melodic punk and anthemic rock n’ roll,” the Chicago-based musicians of Flatfoot 56 perform at the Redstone Room on January 26, filling the Davenport venue with what IndieVisionMusic.com called “their rambunctious style that their fans have come to love.”