Long Grove Christian Church

202 South 1^st Street

Long Grove, Iowa 52756

Free admission!

Free food, games, kids fun starts 5:00 pm.

Show starts 7:00pm

With guest: Steve Ernst

Quick Artist Agency presents:

Photoside Café

No tickets needed!

Bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on.

In case of bad weather, event will be held inside the church.

More information:

http://www.newanthem.com/prime.htm

or call 563-570-8638

See and print the flyer!

http://www.newanthem.com/grove.pdf

"Let's Party!" Friday with Kenny Neal on the Bandshell and Super Chikan in the Tent "High Octane Blues" Saturday, with 10 acts on 2 stages, BlueSKool, and free Workshops "RiverRoad" Sunday, honoring MVBS Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Bobby Rush and Lonnie Brooks

DAVENPORT, Iowa?The 28th annual Mississippi Valley Blues Festival June 29-July 1 is sure to be the best bang for the blues buck! With three-day festival tickets only $37.50 in advance, attendees will enjoy some of the best contemporary and traditional blues in the world?for less than $2 per act.

The Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS) today announced the festival lineup of 24 acts?including blues legends, up-and-comers and award winners?who will be performing on two stages June 29-July 1, at LeClaire Park in Davenport, Iowa. Produced by MVBS, the event is one of the longest-running blues festivals in the nation, and the only major blues festival in the U.S. produced entirely by volunteers.

The festival kicks off with "Let's Party" Friday and a new start time?6:30 p.m.?with gates opening at 5:30. Revving up the fun is youngster phenom Matthew Curry and his band The Fury on the Bandshell stage, while Earnest Guitar Roy takes us down to Mississippi on the Tent stage. Blues Music Award nominee and Roomful of Blues alumnus Sugar Ray Norcia on harmonica leads his band the Bluetones next on the Bandshell, followed by Baton Rouge's award-winning guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Kenny Neal. Over in the Tent, International Blues Challenge semi-finalists Liz Mandeville and Donna Herula show why they represented the Windy City in Memphis, and Super Chikan with his band The Fighting Cocks will be crowing Mississippi style.

"High Octane Blues" Saturday offers an eclectic mix that's sure to stir the blues-loving soul. The Terry Quiett Band from Kansas kicks it off on the Bandshell, followed by Ohio's Ray Fuller & the Bluesrockers, the Memphis soul of "The King of Beale Street" Preston Shannon, and Guitar Shorty?a one-time brother-in-law of Jimi Hendrix, and ending up with headliner Coco Montoya, protégé of legends Albert Collins and John Mayall. First up in the Tent is Bryce Janey from Marion IA, who represented the
state of Iowa at the International Blues Challenge in the solo-duo category in Memphis. Next is Blues Music Award nominee Doug MacLeod, who will also present a free workshop about slide guitar. The Ernest Dawkins Quartet from Chicago adds jazz to the mix, followed by the deep blues of Kansas harmonica-guitar duo Moreland and Arbuckle. Sure to blow the roof off the Tent is headliner piano powerhouse Kelley Hunt and her band.

On "RiverRoad" Sunday, the festival honors Mississippi soul-blues icon Bobby Rush, whose show in the Tent will be part acoustic and part his usual party with dancing girls. Legendary guitarist Lonnie Brooks will also receive a RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award, on the Bandshell, before a long set with his sons?stars themselves?Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks. Rounding out the Bandshell performances are Oakland CA pianist Lady Bianca and Kansas City siblings Trampled Under Foot. The Tent performances start with the River Music Experience's Winter Blues Kids led by Hal Reed and Ellis Kell, followed by the country blues of Paul Geremia (who also gives a workshop on 6 and 12-string guitar styles), and the smoldering soul of Mississippi's Johnny Rawls.

The mission of the Mississippi Valley Blues Society is to educate the public about the native art form of blues-related music and to keep the blues alive. On Saturday and Sunday, The Mississippi Valley Blues Festival offers free workshops for adults in the Freight House (on Ripley Street across the tracks from LeClaire Park), a free photo exhibit of blues artists and past festivals also in the Freight House, and BlueSKool for children in LeClaire Park. The workshops and BlueSKool give participants a chance to
learn from the masters.

Sponsors for this year's festival include River Cities' Reader, the Illinois Arts Council, the Riverboat Development Authority, the City of Davenport, KALA radio, Alcoa, Humanities Iowa, Premier Jewelry and Loan, and The Lodge Hotel & Conference Center.

Advance three-day festival tickets are available for only $37.50 or $12.50 per day through Thursday June 28. Advance tickets can be purchased at Hy-Vee stores in the Quad Cities, Clinton, and Muscatine; at Rascals (1414 15th Street, Moline); at The Muddy Waters, 1708 State Street, Bettendorf; and at the MVBS office (by check only) at 102 S. Harrison in Davenport (call first: 563-32-BLUES).

One-day tickets will be sold at the gate for only $15 each day. Children ages 14 and under will be admitted free if accompanied by an adult with a ticket.

It takes over 200 volunteers to produce the Festival. The MVBS is still seeking volunteers for shifts June 29-July 1. Volunteers receive free admission on their day of service as well as a commemorative t-shirt. Volunteers should register online at www.mvbs.org.

For 27 years, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival has attracted legendary blues acts, making it one of the most highly regarded blues festivals in the nation. According to the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, the festival's economic benefit to the area is $2.3 million annually. For more information about the festival, lodging and the complete schedule of artists, visit www.mvbs.org.

###

Nearly half of us have given up on the notion that we can get ahead by digging in and working hard, but the American Dream still has a champion in Hollywood TV and film director Guy Magar (La Femme Nikita, The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica).

As with so many stories out of Hollywood, Magar's reads like a made-for-TV movie. A young Egyptian refugee immigrates to the United States and latches onto two dreams: becoming a filmmaker and finding his one, true love. Despite being a kid from the New York suburbs with no connections to the film industry, he finds a way to manage the first. And, after years of searching, he finally gets the girl, too.

"We had a magical Camelot wedding only a movie director could conjure - complete with sword-dueling to rescue the bride who got kidnapped when she arrived by horse-drawn carriage. It was my Errol Flynn life moment!" recalls Magar. But, into his 25th year of marriage, he learns the love of his life has a fatal illness.

"Everyone needs to dream and anyone can make those dreams come true - if they pursue them with passionate drive," says Magar, who shares his story for the first time in his memoir Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot (www.kissmequickbeforeishoot.com).

He discounts the ABC News/Yahoo poll that found that, at the height of the recession, 43 percent of us had lost faith in the American Dream.

"People have suffered because of the economy, but there have always been economic ups and downs - and there have always been Americans making their dreams come true," he says. "My dreams were seemingly unattainable, but I made them happen because mine was a passionate pursuit -- I never stopped trying and that's what it takes."

"Today, I have my beautiful wife, Jacqui, here by my side, healthy and happy, because I dreamed of finding a cure for her and I didn't stop searching - against all odds -- until we found it."

How can anyone overcome seemingly insurmountable odds? Magar offers his recipe for success:

• Dare to dream. "It sounds simple, but so many people don't bother," Magar says. "Instead of envisioning the magical possibilities, they see only obstacles and challenges." If you have a career dream, find a way to experience it through school or internships to make sure it's a profession you love. Dreams require passion, and you may not have enough to fuel a hard journey if you haven't tested the waters first. At 25, Magar enrolled in film school to find out whether he actually liked the process of filmmaking and had a talent for it. That experience lit a fire.

• Don't settle. "I knew I wanted to marry nothing less than my true love, and that required a lot of patience!" he says. "I didn't meet Jacqui until I was 34." It's easy to jump the gun at 22, or panic at 32, but when you have a dream you're passionate about, you need to believe in yourself and hold fast, he says. How do you know love when you find it? "When you're absolutely sure that you'd be the biggest fool to pass this up," he says.

• Work at it like there's no tomorrow. Magar's first feature film, Retribution, required 12-hour days seven days a week for three months - just for the prep work of finding locations, working on the script, casting, sets and costumes. He knew how to get it done. When Jacqui was diagnosed with an especially aggressive form of leukemia in 2008, Magar was even more dogged.  "I dreamed of finding a way to heal Jacqui, and if that required researching every new treatment and calling every cancer center in the country, that's what I would do." He finally found a promising clinical trial at a Minnesota cancer center that was being replicated at City of Hope near Los Angeles. "Jacqui is now celebrating her third year of remission," he says - with a big smile.

Magar immigrated to New York City with his family in 1958 after a military coup radically changed Egypt. The family came with nothing, and Magar spoke no English. Eventually, their situation improved and Magar finished his growing-up years as a middle-class kid in an idyllic little New York town. It wasn't until after he'd graduated from Rutgers College - with a degree in philosophy - that he discovered his love for telling stories visually through film.

"If I - an Egyptian immigrant kid - can become a Hollywood movie director married to the love of my life, anyone can make their dreams come true," he says.

About Guy Magar

TV and film director/writer/producer Guy Magar has worked for more than 30 years in the motion picture industry. His TV credits include Dark Avenger, The Young Riders, and Blue Thunder. His feature films include Lookin' Italian, starring Matt LeBlanc and Lou Rawls; Stepfather 3, which launched HBO's World Premiere Series, and Retribution, to be re-released for its 25th anniversary on DVD this summer. Guy is also the founder of Action/Cut Seminars which has taught filmmaking to thousands of students with a film dream.

ROCK ISLAND, IL - ComedySportz Quad Cities, operators of The Establishment, were honored as 2012 Small Business of the Year (21-50 employees) on May 16th, 2012 at the Morning Network meeting, held by the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce.  The criteria for the award were based on community involvement, innovation, and leadership through adversity and success.

ComedySportz Quad Cities opened at The Establishment in 2010 after renovating the formerly known Rocket Theatre in The District of Rock Island.  With the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce and DARI, ComedySportz QC Ltd. created a new home for family entertainment with room to grow their creative services.

Since opening at The Establishment ComedySportz QC Ltd. has expanded to offer Dueling Pianos, and Wednesday night comedy showcases as well as hosting many private events.  ComedySportz has also developed an improv theatre training center, open to youth and adults.

In the last year ComedySportz has been involved in the community primarily by donating over 20 private performances to schools and charities, donating over 1200 tickets to regularly scheduled ComedySportz matches and have hosted fundraisers for groups such as QCPaws, JDRF, Children's Therapy Center and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

ComedySportz QC Ltd. recognizes the contributions of both individual and business support that have helped us shape our services and will continue to help us become a greater partner in the community.

The Establishment Theatre is a multi-use venue located in The District of Rock Island.  Visit us online at EstablishmentTheatre.com

Tickets to ComedySportz are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.  Tickets may be purchased by calling the box office at (309) 786-1111 or visiting the website comedysportzqc.com.