Following the success of last year's inaugural event, the Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat in Wheatland, Iowa invites enjoy an afternoon of music and family fun in the second-annual PrairieFest, the September 24 happening that boasts a quartet of live-music acts within the bucolic splendor of these grounds located a mere 40 miles from Davenport.
An eagerly awaited autumnal tradition will get the blood pumping on September 23 and 24, as the weekend brings with it the Vibrant Arena at the MARK's Active Endeavors Health & Fitness Expo on Saturday followed by the 26th Quad Cities Marathon, presented by TBK Bank, on Sunday, the latter a Boston Marathon qualifier and the only such event in the country to incorporate five races, four cities, three bridges, two states, and one island.
A New York Times-bestselling author of 26 mysteries and thrillers for teens and adults who, as she has stated, "makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters," April Henry will be the special guest in a September 28 presentation at the Bettendorf Public Library, her recent novels including 2019's Run, Hide, Fight Back, 2020's The Girl in the White Van, and the 2021 two-fer of Playing with Fire and Eyes of the Forest.
An evening of jaw-dropping illusions curated by a legendary comedy-and-magic team, Penn & Teller Present The Foolers brings its national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on September 29, this interactive and irreverent evening presenting audiences to the Fool Us alumni – master magicians Matt Donnelly, Vinny Grosso, Jessica Jane, and Alex Ramon – who share the distinction of being among few who have impressed the pair with mystifying mind magic and hilarious comedic routines.
With our nation’s animal shelters currently in crisis due to increased owner surrenders and stray intakes, spiking post-pandemic euthanasia rates across the country, Davenport's Humane Society Of Scott County will join more than 345 organizations from 42 states in taking part in the BISSELL Pet Foundation's "Empty the Shelters" Reduced-Fee Adoption Event, a nationwide program taking place from October 1 through 15.
Among other things, sitting Illinois judges are prohibited by Illinois Supreme Court Rule 4.1 from making “speeches on behalf of a political organization,” or “solicit funds” for a political organization or candidate, except when they’re up for election or retention. So, you might ask, what the heck was Illinois Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Rochford thinking when she decided to accept an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the Lake County Democratic Women annual fundraising gala on September 9?
The last two Chicago mayors took some news media heat for not sending their kids to public schools, as did Chicagoan Barack Obama when he pushed for education reforms. So, this particular issue is obviously not out of bounds in that city and nobody in public life there should expect otherwise. Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates has, in the past, pointed with pride to the fact that all three of her kids attended public schools. While others often chafed at reporters’ questions about their children, Davis Gates did just the opposite, centering her children as part of who she is as a progressive activist.
Just four-and-a-half months since President Biden declared an end to the COVID “emergency,” the media is suddenly full of stories about the return of COVID. This time a new “variant” is being rolled out, and the media, in collusion with Big Pharma and the fear-industrial complex, are churning out stories about how forced masking is making a comeback.
There are few in the Freedom Movement whose names command as much respect, admiration, and prestige as G. Edward Griffin. When the Red Pill Expo, an event created by the man himself, was coming to Iowa and he would be there, it was a no-brainer.
Governments and health authorities, including the World Health Organization, are signaling plans to deploy new emergency health mitigations this fall, including resurrecting the old failures such as masks, social distancing, remote working, and learning, no doubt invoking a new health emergency, claiming to combat SARS-CoV-2 variants and the spread of COVID-19.
It’s always interesting when a season is rounded out with a previously unfamiliar title, and in the case of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's season-ender, it’s Paul Slade Smith’s politically themed The Outsider.
Delivering what The Hollywood Reporter described as “a joyous blast of defiant analog vitality in a manufactured digital world,” Moline's Spotlight Theatre and the QC Rock Academy team up from September 29 through October 8 for the area premiere of School of Rock: The Musical, the Tony-nominated stage sensation based on the beloved film comedy starring Jack Black, and a work lauded by Broadway World as “a big, beautiful blast of musical comedy from start to finish.”
One of the most beloved stage musicals in American history, as well as a Tony Award nominee whose iconic show tune "Day by Day" reached number 13 on the Billboard pop singles chart, composer Stephen Schwartz's timeless Godspell serves as this year's fundraising performance by Muscatine's New Era Dinner Theatre, its September 29 through October 1 run finding its proceeds benefiting Lutheran World Relief, the Muscatine Chapter of the Salvation Army, and New Era Lutheran Church.
A Tony and Olivier Award-winning drama lauded by The Guardian as "sparkling and suspenseful," acclaimed author Conor McPherson's The Seafarer makes its area debut at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre during the play's October 5 through 15 run, this genre-melding 2006 work inspiring the New York Times to rave that "as unlikely as it sounds, The Seafarer may just be the pick-me-up play of the season."
A Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner widely considered one of legendary author Harold Pinter's finest stage achievements, the romantic drama Betrayal serves as the first student-produced presentation in Augustana College's 2023-24 theatre season, its October 5 through 8 run sure to demonstrate why this chronologically inventive drama was praised by the New York Times as a work that "balances surface elegance with an aching profundity."
On September 24, a lauded singer/songwriter and gifted pianist/composer will combine their talents at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre when Pippi Ardennia and Daniel Leahy perform the perfect amalgamation of soul, jazz, blues, gospel and R&B in the afternoon concert Pippi & Daniel, the eclectic, stylistic composers and performers sharing their favorite original compositions and the standards they most love.
Celebrating more than five decades of professional performance with accomplishments including chart-topping success, tens of millions in album sales, and 2000 induction in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the rockers of Three Dog Night play Davenport's Adler Theatre on September 28, their repertoire including such timeless hits as “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Black and White,” and the iconic “Joy to the World.”
Touring in support of their 2023 release Lighting Up the Sky that hit number one on Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart, one of the millennium's most successful and acclaimed alternative-metal acts lands in Moline with the arrival of Godsmack, the Grammy Award winners – and inspirations for Boston, Massachusetts' annual "Godsmack Day" – who headline a Vibrant Arena at the MARK concert event on September 28.
Touring in support of his 2022 release Neon Blue, which Holler Country praised as "a crash course in pure country from one of the music university’s finest and most knowledgeable professors," singer/songwriter Joshua Hedley headlines a September 28 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's latest also inspiring Pitchfork to rave that "the pleasure of Neon Blue is how Hedley subtly twists country conventions, making retro-minded songs and sounds seem both familiar and fresh."
On September 28, the chart-topping, Grammy-winning rockers of the Eagles will be celebrated when Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse hosts the return of 7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles Tribute, an evening of beloved, iconic hits sure to include such chart-toppers as "Best of My Love," "One of These Nights," "Heartache Tonight," and "Hotel California."
A premier autumnal event for fans of all things horror, the 2023 Midwest Monster Film Fest takes over Davenport's Village Theatre on September 23 and 24, this terror- and fun-filled weekend filled with special guests, vendors, live music, a panel discussion, an awards presentation, and scream-ings of more than two dozen features and shorts, among them a full-length creep-out starring famed critic and cult-film aficionado Joe Bob Briggs.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too.
Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again.
Thursday, September 21: Discussion of A Haunting in Venice, The Inventor, and El Conde, and previews of Dumb Money, It Lives Inside, and the third sequel to Stallone's The Expendables, which we're apparently meant to pronounce as "Expendfourbles."
Is it possible that, regarding his previous Hercule Poirot mysteries, Kenneth Branagh not only read critiques of those films, but actively took their criticisms to heart?
A charming family entertainment nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards, the Irish-French-Belgian co-production The Secret of Kells serves as the second screening in the Bettendorf Public Library's Global Gathering Ireland film series, its September 27 presentation sure to demonstrate why Film Comment applauded its "decidedly pleasing-to-the-eye, retro-cartoon vibe," and why the Daily Telegraph deemed the movie "simply ravishing."
Now playing at area theaters.
This fall and upcoming winter, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will an arresting and enthralling new, space-specific installation by a famed Swiss artist during the September 23 through February 4 housing of Zimoun, with the large-scale artwork filling the museum's third-floor gallery and boasting more than 80 16-foot-high cardboard stacks each set in motion mechanically.
On display through September 29, Matthew Terry's fascinating photography exhibit Revisiting Past Exposures will be housed in the ArtSpace Gallery of Moline's Black Hawk College, boasting works by the contemporary photographer, author, and graduate of the Academy of Art University, where Terry earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography with a focus in fine art photography in 2014.
Offering visitors the chance to experience what it's like being in the front row of Spartan athletics, the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery will house Photo Finish: Sports Photography at UD through September 29, this special exhibit timed to coincide with the beginning of the new school year and, of course, the start of collegiate football season.
Through September 30, Dubuque's Voices Studios is pleased to present two solo exhibitions that entice the viewer to drawn on their experiences, ideals, memories, and glimpses from the past through Imagination, featuring the abstractions of Amy Carani, and Mural Microcosms, a collection of photographic works by Becky Sisco.
An impressively wide and beautiful variety of paintings by a trio of Midwestern talents will be on display at the Quad City Arts Center through October 6, with the Rock Island venue showcasing oil paintings by Barbara Curtis of Urbana, Illinois; sculptural paintings by Amanda Mulcahy of Chicago; and oil paintings by Tim Olson of Dubuque, Iowa.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
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