Music

Mike Garson

First Presbyterian Church of Davenport

Saturday, December 10, 4 p.m.

Performing in a December 10 concert at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church, the latest guest in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist Series is acclaimed pianist/composer Mike Garson, and according to his Web-site bio at MikeGarson.com, he's a musician "to whom the word 'no' is quickly transformed into the word 'now.'" Which is funny, because that's exactly what happens whenever I say 'no' around here ... although it's always my editor Jeff who transforms it into 'now.'

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

In its first 24 hours of release, Modern Warfare 3 - the eighth Call of Duty-branded video game - sold $400 million worth of copies, the highest-grossing launch of an entertainment product ever. It is also the most vicious and morally ugly game I have ever played.

It is perhaps not a great fall from the militarism and glorification of war found in previous Call of Duty games to the revelry in violence of this installment, but it is a fall. The first Modern Warfare struggled to find heroics in a war largely devoid of them, but it tried. Modern Warfare 3 pays lip service to the grim realities of war but is finally just sadistic.