Presented in celebration of America's oldest, largest civil-rights organization and its local members, the Figge Art Museum will house History of the Davenport NAACP February 10 through April 22, a new exhibition focusing on area contributions to this nationwide effort that boasts more than 2,200 branches and roughly half a million members worldwide.

Two sensational blues acts join forces for one stellar concert when the Mississippi Valley Blues Society hosts a February 10 event at the Moline Viking Club: a night of rock, reggae, and good-old-fashioned blues with Odds Lane and Reverend Raven & the Chain-Smoking Altar Boys.

So much has been said about Pat Flaherty's performances over the years that I hesitate to add more here for fear of being accused of plagiarism. Suffice it to say Flaherty has brought a smile to my face in everything I have ever seen him act in, and his portrayal in Sleuth was certainly no exception.

If the news is true, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread does indeed mark Daniel Day-Lewis' retirement from acting, it's an occasion for remorse, if also delight that the legendary performer is at least going out on a high note. (The movie is deservedly nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, and Actor.) But woven into the sadness of “No more Daniel!” is a very specific kind of regret, because man is it a shame the guy didn't make more comedies.

For its annual Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Lecture, St. Ambrose University hosts the February 6 event Sharp Fights & Hard Lessons in the Global Race, a presentation on energy and the environment delivered by award-winning author Jeffrey Ball.

A six-piece ensemble from Austin, Texas whose Mockingbird was cited by Rolling Stone as one of the year's best country albums, the honkytonk talents of Mike & the Moonpies play a February 4 Moeller Nights concert, treating audiences to a sound that NoDepresion.com praised for its “shining tautness” and “crisp precision that is marvellous.”

As NoDepression.com raved, “If James Brown and Otis Redding had a love child, it would be Josh Hoyer,” and the Nebraska-based musician and his Soul Colossal ensemble play RIBCO on February 2 in a show guaranteeing “a sound so big, so funky, so wring-the-sweat-out-of-you energetic that it reaches through the speakers and shakes you until you start moving to its groove.”

Heading into this morning's announcement of nominees for the 90th Annual Academy Awards, there were loads of questions waiting to be answered. Would The Shape of Water set a new record for most nominations? Would the late release dates for The Post and Phantom Thread damage their Oscar chances? Would the announcement of James Franco's name result in spontaneous booing?