An insightful and entertaining exploration into history, cultural heritage, and architectural treasures taking place on September 8, Hungary & Budapest: Physical, Historical, Cultural Contemporary serves as the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series, presenter Russell Baldner having recently presented a similar series of pre-departure orientations on the history and culture of Hungary and the Hungarian language.
There’s a new Carnegie Hall in downtown Moline.
Sports, laughs, and loads of pop-culture references are sure to be on hand when Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort hosts a September 21 evening with touring comedian and frequent TV personality Frank Caliendo. His list of famed impressions includes those of actors Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Robert De Niro; politicians Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama; broadcasters John Madden, Charles Barkley, and Jon Gruden; and talk show hosts Dr. Phil, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.
On September 13 and 14, the Quad Cities' NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative will host a pair of special happenings at Bettendorf's Shive-Hattery/Geifman Pond in the organization's “Making Strides Together: Gynecologic Cancer Awareness” program: a Chalk the Walk event on Friday, and a quarter-mile walk around the pond on Saturday.
Through September 15, fascinating stories of struggle, perseverance, tragedy, and triumph will be shared at Davenport's German American Heritage Center in the venue's Immigration Then & Now: Finding Refuge in the Quad Cities, a meaningful, locally themed exhibition presented in partnership with World Relief Quad Cities and supported by the Moline Regional Community Foundation.
Several stories and columns appeared in the national news media shortly before and during the recent Democratic National Convention about Vice President Kamala Harris’ emphasis on the concept of “freedom” in her speeches and messaging.
Since the 2022 election, far too many Illinoisans have been far too eager to pine for a repeat of the past.
Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch has said he thinks he can flip somewhere between four and six Republican-held House districts to Democratic control, upping his super-majority to between 82 and 84 seats, from his current 78. Which Republican districts are flippable? I talked with a high-level source close to Speaker Welch’s caucus who pointed to the following races.
A Facebook post last week by state Senator Willie Preston (D-Chicago) created a stir, caused one of his fellow Democratic Senators to bow out of a planned joint fundraiser, and, ultimately, the entire fundraiser was canceled. It's all a good illustration of the ill-informed, rapid-fire insanity of our social-media-fueled era.
One of the most successful ongoing progressive political operations has been to replace the founding ideology of America as a Constitutional Republic, with America as a direct Democracy. America is not a direct Democracy, even though it conducts itself as such with ever more distortions in law (substituting administrative procedural law for constitutional law), policies, and the shelving of Americans' constitutionally protected rights.
With the stage hit lauded by Broadway World as "entirely entertaining and enjoyable," the spooky, kooky, ooky musical-comedy version of The Addams Family makes its debut at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, its September 4 through November 2 run treating audiences to a Tony Award-nominated delight inspired by the beloved TV comedy and the iconic cartoon strip by series originator Charles Addams.
A widely staged sequel to one of the most popular musical-comedy franchises of the 21st century, the feel-good hit Church Basement Ladies: A Second Helping enjoys a September 6 through 15 run at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, this continuation also inspired by Janet Letnes' and Suzann Nelson's beloved comedy memoir Growing Up Lutheran.
An operatic comedy by composer/librettist Derrick Wang that was hailed as “a dream come true” by the iconic Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Scalia/Ginsburg opens the 2024-25 season at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, its September 5 through 15 run telling the story of the friendship between the notorious RBG and her fierce judicial opponent Antonin Scalia through the lens of their shared love of opera. What better way to tell of this unlikely bond across political lines than through the art form they both adored?
A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner that stands as one of the most revered plays in theatrical history, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire rolls into the Playcrafters Barn Theatre from September 13 through 22, this fierce, funny, and tragic work enjoying its first staging at the Moline venue in more than 50 years.
Alexander Richardson’s new play is set in the 1840s, but it feels painfully contemporary.
Currently touring in support of their 2024 album Contractual Obligations, a recording that The Grateful Web praised as a "wildly life-affirming portrait of growing older without losing heart," the alternative rockers of Deer Tick headline a September 8 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, their latest recording also inspiring Mxdwn Music to rave that "each song has a story that opens up new emotions simultaneously through powerful lyricism and a passionate production."
A Liberian-born/Tennessee-based artist whose acclaimed style is informed by lyrical pop and traditions of his native West Africa, indie-folk singer/songwriter Mon Rovia headlines a September 12 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his Thursday-evening set sure to demonstrate why Buzz-Music hailed the performer as "an artist like no other."
An evening of exhilarating rock, rap, and hip-hop awaits fans at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on September 13, with the Davenport venue hosting a special evening featuring two chart-topping headliners: the iconic Robert Van Winkle, better known as Vanilla Ice, and Rob Base, who, alongside DJ E-Z Rock, released the number-one smash "Get on the Dance Floor."
With their 2023 album Can't Find the Brakes lauded by Rock & Blues Muse as "pure, organic rock with a bluesy edge that's nearly unbeatable," the Los Angeles-based talents of Dirty Honey bring their national tour to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on September 13, their sophomore recording also hailed by HeadBangers Lifestyle as "one of the most entertaining classic-rock albums you have heard in a while."
Offering a seductive mix of dream pop, shoegaze, and trip-hop influences with an experimental bent, the independent musicians of Bodywash headline a September 13 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, their 2023 album I Held the Shape While I Could lauded by I Am Tuned Up as "an experience that encompasses many moods yet is strangely consistent."
Anyone who stumbled upon the Reagan poster and felt immediately inclined, maybe even compelled, to see the picture likely got exactly the experience they wanted; that visual image is pure hero worship, and so is the movie
Holding a 97-percent "freshness" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critical consensus calls the 1922 film "one of the silent era's most influential masterpieces" that "set the template for the horror films that followed," F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu serves as the second presentation in the German American Heritage Center's German Expressionist Film Series, its September 11 screening at Davenport venue The Last Picture House treating audiences to the movie ranked 21st in Empire magazine's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema."
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 5: Previews of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and The Front Room, and discussion of AfrAId and Reagan, the latter allowing Dave to trot out his Ronald Reagan impression only one week after his Tony Danza impression. What familiar '80s icon will be sucessfully Lavora-ed next time? Stay tuned!
Currently boasting a 97-percent "freshness" rating on aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, where the film's critical consensus calls it "a visually awe-inspiring science-fiction classic from the silent era," Fritz Lang's legendary 1927 opus Metropolis serves as the third presentation in the German American Heritage Center's German Expressionist Film Series, this masterpiece also lauded by Roger Ebert as "a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made."
Now playing at area theaters.
In the latest Musser House Galleries exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center, rides, contests, animals, refreshments, delighted patrons, and more will be showcased in Iowa artist Kurt Ullrich's The Iowa State Fair, a collection of gorgeous and evocative black-and-white images, on display through September 8, that truly evince the wonder of this annually awaited outdoor tradition.
Representing a survey of the magnificent art and artists within the vast collection of the Do Good Fund, a public charity based in Columbus, Georgia, the traveling exhibition Reckonings & Reconstructions: Southern Photography from The Do Good Fund will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through September 8, its local display also thanks to supporting sponsor The Brian Pasierb Family Foundation, contributing sponsor Carolyn Levine & Leonard Kallio Trust, and media sponsor KLJB FOX 18.
Inspired by Carl Sandburg’s poem of the same name, Lisa Nelson Raabe's Prayers of Steel serves as the first art exhibition of the 2024-25 academic year at Galesburg's Carl Sandburg College, its display in the Lonnie Eugene Stewart Art Gallery treating patrons to the talents of the Peoria-based artist who has enjoyed solo exhibitions in locales including San Antonio, Chicago, Peoria, Decatur, and Quincy.
With the goal of the evening's guest the creation of a rich environment in which emergent behavior can occur without a preconceived outcome, visual artist Leo Villareal takes part in a September 19 artist talk at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, this fascinating and thought-provoking discussion held in conjunction with the September 21 opening of the artist's new Figge exhibition Interstellar.
Miranda Skye Vavrosky knows art can help save lives, because it saved hers.
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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