Blending horror with the Bee Gees era will absolutely be intentional on October 21 and 22, when Ballet Quad Cities hosts its fall fundraising performances of Halloween Disco Party at the Club – two nights of groovy/spooky vignettes performed at Davenport's Outing Club by the talents of the Quad Cities' professional dance company.
In the Davenport Public Library's latest virtual program in its monthly 3rd Thursday at Hoover's series, the venue will take a look back 57 years – to October 25, 1964 – in the October 21 presentation Hoover's Last Trip Home, which will explore, through archival videos and audio clips, the 31st American president's burial on a hill overlooking his childhood home in West Branch, Iowa.
Turning to nature for solutions to life's modern problems is the subject of a new and fascinating touring exhibition hosted by the Putnam Museum & Science Center, with the Davenport venue, from September 1 through October 20, treating patrons to the wonders of the world in ExhibitsUSA's Nature's Blueprints: Biomimicry in Art & Design.
One of history's most noted professors and priests – as well as a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation who was the namesake of Lutheranism – will be the subject of a virtual October 24 program by the German American Heritage Center, with the Davenport venue hosting noted historian Russell Baldner as he delivers his acclaimed presentation I Am Baptized: Martin Luther & Birthplace Eisleben.
Described by the Washington Post as “the perfect balance of bizarreness, comedy, and horror,” director Tim Burton's Oscar-winning supernatural slapstick Beetlejuice is the focus of the latest trivia might at Bettendorf venue The Tangled Wood, the interactive October 26 event inviting attendees to share their knowledge of this unforgettable movie entertainment that went on to spawn video games, an animated TV series, and even a Tony-nominated Broadway musical.
On Tuesday, November 2, Scott County Iowa voters have the responsibility of electing the school board directors in the districts in which they live. In the Bettendorf, Davenport, North Scott, and Pleasant Valley districts there are challengers running against incumbents. And there are two write-in candidates declared in the Davenport district. Most candidates run on their electability driven by their professional experience and/or vested interest in the district's governance because they have school-age children inside the system. While these are important attributes for said leadership, a grasp of the monumental issues facing our public school institutions is also a measure of one's qualifications to serve.
The Illinois House Redistricting Committee held its first hearing last week on new congressional and judicial subcircuit district maps at the Michael Bilandic Building in Chicago. Another half-dozen hearings were scheduled for the following seven days to redraw the maps, which have to be reconfigured after each decennial census.
Denis Rancourt, in familiar intellectually disciplined form, unmasks the substantial defects in the latest study mainstream media is lauding as ending the “masks-don't-work debate.” For science geeks, this analysis is riveting. For data lovers, this analysis is evidence-based and powerful not just in showing the specific flaws relative to the study's stated achievements, but as a case study itself for how so many white papers and studies are propped up rather than keeping to scientific methodology that has prevailed until now, jeopardizing trusted journals and peer-review processes essential to scientific integrity.
At the end of August, after the Illinois Senate had been unable to find a consensus on the massive climate/energy bill, and punted the issue to the House, I asked Senate President Don Harmon during a press conference why he hadn’t addressed Governor JB Pritzker’s list of problems, legal and otherwise, with the Senate’s proposal. “I don’t know if the governor’s team understood how fundamental some of those provisions were to getting the agreement among all stakeholders,” Harmon replied. That seemed to me to be quite an extraordinary statement about the governor and his team.
Every so often there seems to be a test of the public’s will to check its obedience. As children in once meaningful classes in public school (when I was a kid), we were always taught how the Chinese, for example, could change collective policy overnight because the population did as it was told. That’s why it accepted the "one-child-per-family" rule almost overnight and by edict. This despite the fact that the Chinese people love children to an extreme. This is the sort of fealty you can expect from a vassal state. And it works. The Chinese people do as they are told.
A remarkable and largely unsung historical figure will be celebrated at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on October 18 when the venue and guest presenter Dr. Robert F. Jefferson Jr. present a screening of the theatrical drama Wings of Courage, the astonishing true story of adventurer Eugene Bullard, the first African American to fly a plane in combat.
Described by Chicago Theatre Review as “an inventive and beautiful work of art for these difficult times,” the cabaret-style musical Island Song opens Augustana College's 2021-22 season of student-directed works, the show's October 21 through 24 run sure to demonstrate why BritishTheatre.com's Julian Eaves raved, “I guarantee it will stay with you -marvelously – long after you make your way home.”
If Halloween is approaching, it must be time for that annual theatrical command: “Let's do the 'Time Warp' again!” Consequently, the Circa '21 Speakeasy will stage its sixth-annual presentation of the cult-musical smash The Rocky Horror Show from October 22 through 31, treating audiences to live performances of classic songs in this nutty, interactive experience that has been delighting show regulars and virgins alike for close to 50 years.
Some of the most beloved figures in children's-book history, and perhaps in all of literary history, will be brought to life October 16 through 24 when Davenport Junior Theatre hosts its new production of Winnie the Pooh, the theatrical opener to the company's 70th season and its official 2021-2022 declaration: “Shows Are Free for All to See.”
I was delighted to catch Friday’s opening-night performance of the new musical comedy Disenchanted! at the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse. Directed by Corinne Johnson, with musical direction by Ron May, this show is about the other sides – more disgruntled sides – of the lives of fairytale characters made famous through the wonderful world of Walt Disney, with Snow White and her gang of dissatisfied co-princesses venting their frustrations as storybook/movie characters.
A touring engagement with the platinum-selling, chart-topping, chainsaw-playing rock and metal artists of Jackyl comes to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on October 19, its musicians not only fan favorites but the possessors of two actual Guinness World Records: one for playing 100 concerts in 50 days, and one for performing 21 concerts in a 24-hour period.
With their 2017 album Elements described by New Noise magazine as “a timeless and accomplished listen for ears that appreciate mature enlightening sounds,” the nine-piece Chicago outfit Bassel & the Supernaturals will deliver four performances, from October 29 through 21, as the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist series - the band's rock template, New Noised continued, “tinged with the most graceful, sophisticated, and warm influences, of R&B, jazz, and funk.”
With singing sensation Keila Martinez headlining and a sextet of gifted musicians backing her vocals, the tribute artists of Los Chicos del 512: The Selena Experience play the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on October 22, their show a dynamic touring celebration of the legacy and dance-tastic hits of the late, great pop and Tejano chanteuse Selena.
Making his Quad Cities debut in support of his debut EP, Nashville-based country singer/songwriter Timbo plays Davenport's Redstone Room on October, the nascent artist's first six-song collection lauded by American Highways' Mason Winfree as a work that “weaves a thread through the emotions of loneliness, longing, and dependency and leaves the listener yearning for more.”
Touring in support of the band's acclaimed 2020 album Perdita, the Grammy-winning, chart-topping rockers of Stone Temple Pilots play East Moline venue The Rust Belt on October 23, with the musicians' most recent recording described by Deadpress as “a beautiful collection of gentle, sincere, and delicately crafted country/folk ballads,” and a work that Paste magazine says “may be the most sonically rich experience that Stone Temple Pilots have offered their fans to date.”
No Time to Die is more of the same – and at 163 minutes, a lot more of the same – but with heightened yet human-scale threat, as well as an emotional urgency that makes the old feel close to new.
They're both follow-ups to hits that also enjoyed October openings – one in 2018, and the other in 2019. They're both blessedly short, running 97 and 93 minutes, respectively. And if you're wondering what else Venom: Let There Be Carnage and The Addams Family 2 might have in common, they're both considerably better than the works they hailed from, although in only one case does the improvement result in something resembling a good movie.
While it's intermittently moving and generally well-acted, the film version of Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen, as you may have heard, has a number of problems: an unconvincing, even preposterous premise; blithe depictions of teen depression and mental instability; a 27-year-old lead cast as a high-school student. We'll get to those shortly. But the movie's biggest issue, it seems to me, lies in a sensation that you might only recognize if you've seen a lot of stage musicals, or least a lot of sub-par ones.
Clint Eastwood isn't necessarily bad here; at times, he's even enjoyable. But while I don't wish to be indelicate, there's no getting around the fact that, at the time of filming last year, Clint was 90, and he looks 90, and sounds 90, and moves 90 … and somehow, maddeningly, not one character in the film seems to notice.
Now playing at area theaters.
In the new Morrissey Gallery showcase at St. Ambrose University, works by a gifted painter and noted arts educator with Connecticut's Mansfield Center will be on display from October 18 through November 26, with the venue housing rich and colorful artworks in Douglas Degges' latest exhibition Remembering Accardo Tackle.
A fascinating discussion on the various techniques and production processes used to create spectacular pieces in the Davenport venue, the Figge Art Museum's virtual artist talk on October 21 will find curator Joshua Johnson taking an in-depth look at key art in the popular exhibit Dimensional: 3D Works from the Figge Collection, a showcase for the talents of dozens of gifted artisans spanning literal centuries.
Music, dance, food, and a community parade will all be on the celebratory agenda on October 24 when the Figge Art Museum hosts its Day of the Dead In-Person Family Day, a tribute to the memories of lost loved ones being held in conjunction with the Día de los Muertos holiday and the Davenport venue's current Day of the Dead exhibition.
Expressive, multi-hued works by an esteemed professor of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa will be on display in St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery, with the venue, from October 25 through December 17. showcasing paintings by Susan Chrysler White, whose artistic creations, as the artist says, are “subjects that I am grappling with as my work moves into more poignantly personal terrain.”
Held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking, the Figge Art Museum's virtual curator talk on October 28 will feature fascinating insight provided by learned Blackburn expert Dr. Deborah Cullen-Morales, who will deliver a talk about the innovative and highly influential artist who famously challenged the idea of lithography as a high-craft process.
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