Presented by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club and returning to the Village of East Davenport, an eagerly anticipated Memorial Day tradition returns for its 58th year in the Quad Cities Criterium – a May 26 event featuring hundreds of adult and youth cyclists from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe participating in a dozen bicycle races, with thousands of dollars in cash prizes awarded throughout the day.
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Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will again present a series of outdoor presentations in the first month-plus of the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks: weekly programs that, from May 27 through June 28, will address such topics as Brazil's Amazon River, invasive species, area raptors, and the home of the Quad City River Bandits.
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Recently hailed for her hosting of the 2025 Golden Globe Awards – a gig she so effectively slayed that she's already been invited back for 2026 – comedian, actor, and podcaster Nikki Glaser brings her “Alive and Unwell Tour” to Davenport's Adler Theatre on May 29, her career-defining 2024 career culminating with being named “Comedian of the Year” by the New York Times.
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With his album Stever Fever named one of its year's top-10 comedy albums by Comedy-Reviews.com, and his latest recording Alive on State a number-one smash on iTunes, standup comedian Steve Gillespie brings his touring act to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on May 29, the evening of laughter held in support of his new album Liminal Bliss and boasting sets by Donny Townsend and Maggie Driscal.
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Those who love dinosaurs and all things Mesozoic will be in Putnam Museum & Science Center paradise when the venue welcomes families to the May 31 and June 1 celebration Dino Days – a family-friendly, specialty-ticketed weekend event boasting crafts, activities, a fossil dig, and screenings of a Jurassic “animated short” double feature.
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It’s Speaker Welch’s Fingerprints on the Blade Sticking Out of Fred Crespo, in Case You’re WonderingHouse Speaker Chris Welch took the extraordinary actions last week of permanently kicking Representative Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates) out of the House Democratic caucus, stripping him of his legislative staff, removing him from his appropriations committee chair’s position, and booting him from the bicameral Legislative Audit Commission.
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[The remarks below were delivered during Public With Business at the Scott County Board of Supervisors Board Meeting Thursday April 24, 2025.] "I will save you the suspense: It is a public record. We all know how this is going to end. The only question is if you’re going to write another check for $93,000 to Mike Meloy or not?"
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For two years, lifelong Scott County residents Dr Allen Diercks and Diane Holst (a former Scott County Board of Supervisor) put their money where their convictions are and hired Attorney Mike Meloy to take Scott County, Iowa, and Auditor Kerri Tompkins to court in 2023 to compel her in the direction of greater transparency and participation with Scott Countians by disclosing the list of names and addresses of 27 candidates who submitted résumés for a vacant supervisor seat on the Scott County Board of Supervisors (SCBS).
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As we approach May 28, the second anniversary of a tragedy that shocked the people of Davenport and brought national attention to the issue of building safety, secrecy continues to cloud public confidence in their government officials.
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I spent some time talking with a top legislative budget negotiator last week who said rank-and-file legislators will very soon have to come to terms with a state budget environment unlike anything many have ever seen before.
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Conceived by the revered artistic team of Craig Lucas and Norman René, and boasting nearly two dozen songs by the composing legend that is Stephen Sondheim, the two-character musical Marry Me a Little makes its Quad Cities debut at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre, its May 23 through June 1 sure to demonstrate why The Guardian hailed the show as "a carousel of regrets and rapture."
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From May 29 through June 8, one of the most endearing and enduring of all dramatic comedies enjoys a run at Geneseo's Richmond Barn Theatre with the venue's presentation of Steel Magnolias, playwright Robert Harling's charming, riotous, and moving tale of mothers, daughters, and best friends that inspired the 1989 movie classic and led Drama-Logue to call it "a skillfully crafted, lovingly evoked picture of eccentricity in the small-town South."
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A finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that also received five 2015 Tony Awards including Best Musical, the critically lauded Broadway hit Fun Home makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre May 30 through June 14, this triumph for composer Jeanine Tesori and book writer and lyricist Lisa Kron hailed by the New York Daily News as an "achingly beautiful" musical that "speaks to one family and all families torn by secrets and lies."
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With Broadway World calling the show “a fast and fun night of musical theatre” that's “brimming with so many 'wow' moments,” the disco sensation Saturday Night Fever opens the 2024-2025 mainstage season at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, this exhilarating musical – running May 30 through June 15 – adapted from the Oscar-nominated 1977 smash that catapulted the Bee Gees to international fame and made a household name of star John Travolta.
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Hailed by Broadway World as a "topnotch" entertainment boasting "fun, spirited musical numbers," the family-friendly stage entertainment Arthur & Friends Make a Musical! makes its Quad Cities debut at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the show's June 3 through 21 run treating kids of all ages to beloved figures from the Arthur PBS series and author/illustrator Marc Brown's books.
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Touring in support of their latest album Chosen at Random, and lauded by Medium.com for their "energetic instrumentation and stunning vocal performances," the Colorado-based alt-rock duo of INTHEWHALE headline a May 24 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the Web site adding that the artists' latest recording "shows how passionate the band is with their music."
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Inviting audiences to step into a virtual time machine and journey back to the glory days of the late '60s and early '70s, the musicians of Commotion: A Tribute to the Music of Creedence Clearwater Revival bring their tour to Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on May 24, performing from a legendary repertoire that boasts seven studio albums, five live albums, 43 compilation albums, and 29 singles, among them "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," and "Who'll Stop the Rain."
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With their most recent album Death by Rock and Roll lauded by Classic Rock as "brilliant" and by Kerrang! as "made by people who have suffered for their art and whose art will in turn soothe their suffering," lead vocalist Taylor Momsen and her outfit The Pretty Reckless headline a May 25 concert at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, the group winners of the Alternative Press Music Award for Best Hard Rock Band and the iHeart Radio Music Award for Rock Artist of the Year.
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Delivering what Pitchfork called "militantly adventurous heavy metal" that runs the gamut "from stoner metal to psychedelic rock, free jazz to electric blues," The Chicago rockers of The Atlas Moth headline a May 28 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Angry Metal Guy raving that their most recent EP Coma Noir is " an inventive, addictive and fun extreme-metal album with a burly, beer swilling rock soul, loaded with a bounty of killer riffs, memorable songs, and daring experimentation."
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Plenty of albums feature songs that are also love stories. Far fewer albums are themselves love stories.
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Not only did I have a ball – one far less lethal than the ball employed for directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's funniest demise – but I was reminded why the FDs constitute my all-time-favorite fright-flick franchise that doesn't feature H.R. Giger xenomorphs.
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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, May 22: Discussion of Final Destination: Bloodlines, Hurry Up Tomorrow, and Nonnas, and previews of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, The Last Rodeo, and Friendship, the latter of which looks like a feature-length take on one of Tim Robinson's I Think You Should Leave sketches. In other words: priceless.
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In this horror comedy, at least a dozen wannabe killers dress as a small town's costumed mascot Frendo, and while it would be nice to report that this circus freak resembles Javier Bardem's Anton Chiguhr, he's really just a low-rent Pennywise. It would be nicer to report that the movie was even the least bit scary, yet given the genre and my personal expectations, I happily settled for funny.
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Is it possible that, over the past three years, Marvel Studios has been experimenting with a release strategy designed to get audiences excited for every other MCU movie?
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Now playing at area theaters.
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Davenport's Figge Art Museum is delivering some extra-special kick with its colorful and arresting exhibit on display from May 24 through August 24, as the footwear-themed exhibit Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks enjoys a stay in the venue's fourth-floor gallery, the exhibition co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum, and curated by he latter's director and senior curator Elizabeth Semmelhack.
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Always an eagerly awaited series at the Figge Art Museum, the latest incarnation of Young Artists at the Figge will be on display through May 25, with the Davenport venue celebrating the accomplishments of budding creative talents of local elementary and junior-high art students whose works will be showcased in a continuing series of individual exhibitions.
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With the eagerly anticipated weekend event hosted by Rock Island's Quad City Arts and taking place for the ninth time, glorious colors and imaginative designs will be gracing the pavement of Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park in the Quad Cities Chalk Art Fest, a May 31 and June 1 pre-summertime fixture boasting free admission, beautiful artistic creations, live music, children's activities, food and drink vendors, and more than $2,000 in cash prizes.
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Offering a bold, provocative critique of societal structures through collaborative, resistance-driven prints, the exhibition Delusion of Choice, by the art collective Fatherless Print Posse, enjoys a showcase at Dubuque's Voices Studios through May 31.
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Delivering intimate explorations of the human condition through drawing and printmaking, the exhibition Fresh Steele, by area talent Priscilla Steele, enjoys a showcase at Dubuque's Voices Studios through May 31.
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