Delivering a weekend of family fun that blends history with excitement, the city of LeClaire and its Buffalo Bill Museum are proud to treat guests to the outdoor delights of The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, the June 28 and 29 celebration at LeClaire's Cody Elementary School boasting horse-riding events, children's activities, live music, food vendors, and much more.
A fascinating exploration of both a well-known German-American blacksmith and a revolutionary addition to the transportation industry, Immigrant Innovators: The Fruehauf Trailer Company will be on display at Davenport's German American Heritage Center through June 29, the exhibit offering insight into the company’s origins, its development over the decades, and its ultimate downfall after the Fruehauf family’s involvement.
In a special Moline Public Library on July 1, two science-fiction visionaries who were able to imagine the world we now inhabit – and beyond – will be celebrated through story in song in Barry Cloyd's solo performance Jules Verne & H.G. Wells: The Birth of Sci-Fi and the First Citizens of the Future, a salute to the literary geniuses who peered beyond the curtain of time to predict the far distant future.
Designed to bring some serious swing into the summer, the John Deere Classic returns to Silvis' TPC at Deere Run from July 2 through 6, with this professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, in its 54th year, enjoying coverage on the Golf Channel and CBS Sports, and featuring youth activities, clinics, and a climactic awards presentation.
Annual explosions of fun followed by literal explosions in the air will be taking place in Davenport's LeClaire Park, Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park, and Davenport's baseball stadium Modern Woodmen Park when the Quad Cities hosts its Fourth of July celebration Red, White, & Boom!, the bi-state July 3 event delivering a spectacular fireworks display over the Mississippi River as well as live music, food and beverage vendors, special presentations, family programming, and more.
I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session.
As I write this, multiple news outlets have reported that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is preparing to deploy its Special Response Teams to five major U.S. cities, including Chicago, in the very near future. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas told reporters last week: “There will be tactical teams, mini-tanks, other tools they use in which they plan to do raids, as we saw in Los Angeles.”
I reached out last week to several members of the “19” – the Democratic House members who refused to vote to re-elect House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2021, thereby forcing him into retirement. I asked for their reaction to Madigan’s 90-month federal prison sentence handed down a few days earlier. Because it was a holiday (Father’s Day), I didn’t expect to hear much back.
The watchers are no longer being watched by the people. At least in Scott County, Iowa, that is.
Inexplicably, for decades, incurious American voters refuse to remove el
There are three main villains from childhood fiction that still occasionally haunt my nightmares – my terror trifecta, if you will: the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Barnaby from Babes in Toyland, and Miss Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson Is Missing! So naturally, I was both excited and terrified when I took my seat at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre.
T Green's and Calvin Vo's production hooked me from the start – the performers are lively, fully present, and engaged in their scenes, and usually moved and spoke naturally, with excellent projection and diction.
Presented by Journey Live Production, a performing-arts organization dedicated to uplifting communities through the transformative power of African American storytelling, organization founder Curtis B. Lewis Jr. will stage his debuting play The Half at Davenport's TMBC Lincoln Resource Center, the emotional drama a two-person showcase for co-stars Lewis and area performer, author, and spoken-word artist Aubrey "Aubs." Barnes.
For the company's annual classical production staged in Iowa City's Lower City Park, Riverside Theatre takes on perhaps the most beloved – and certainly the most famous – tragic romance of all time, with William Shakespeare's timeless Romeo & Juliet enjoying an outdoor run from June 13 through 29.
A one-act version of the Broadway-musical hit praised by Variety for its "off-the-wall humor, endless visuals and aural delights, [and] tuneful music and wicked lyrics," Beetlejuice Jr. enjoys a June 26 through 29 run at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, this adaptation of the Oscar-winning Tim Burton smash boasting a gifted cast of young talents and all the favorite characters audiences have loved for a generation-plus.
Their discography including such Billboard smashes as “Let It Be Me,” “Ball and Chain,” “Bad Luck,” “I Was Wrong,” and “Machine Gun Blues,” the venerated punk rockers of Distrotion headline a June 29 concert event at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, with founder Mike Ness (vocals and guitar), Jonny "2 Bags" Wickersham (guitar), Brent Harding (bass), David Hidalgo Jr. (drums), and David Kalish (keyboards) continuing to write and tour some 47 year's after the band's inception.
Like many of us, Mike Conrad is just making it up as he goes along. Unlike most of us, however, the 37-year-old – a Bettendorf High School alum whose trio headlines a June 29 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room – has won international acclaim and several awards for his improvisational wizardry as a composer, arranger, pianist, and trombonist.
For its concert event at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities on June 29, Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Series will deliver (on the fifth Sunday of the month) a rich Andalusian-jazz feel in a concert with the acclaimed Yogev Shetrit Trio, an ensemble boasting the collective talents of Moshe Elmakias on piano, Itai Eliezri on bass, and the bandleader/composer himself on drums.
Performing locally in advance of the July 11 release of their latest album Longtime Friend, the brother-and-sister folk and Americana duo The Wildmans headline a June 29 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, with Aila and Elisha Wildman's outfit inspiring American Songwriter to rave, "The storytelling, Aila’s vocal delivery, and the siblings’ harmonies all carry the fingerprints of generations of mountain music."
With Pitchfork declaring the artist's 2024 recording We Belong "an exuberant new album" that "rejoices in the power of Black diasporic identity and community," progressive-rock and Sudanese-pop musician Sinkane headlines a July 2 concert event at Davenport's Redstone Room, Pitchfork adding that "glittering with disco lights and showered with confetti, We Belong is a radiant homage to Black music and Black people."
With 28 Years Later, we appear to be exiting the realm of realism and entering the land of the mythic, and I'm not sure that, inspiration-wise, trading George A, Romero for J.R.R. Tolkien is any kind of upgrade.
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, June 26: Discussion of Elio, 28 Years Later , and Bride Hard; previews of F1: The Movie and M3GAN 2.0; and some early chat about Andor and the new season of The Bear -- though as long as they come with air-conditioning, any indoor entertainments seem worthwhile these days.
No one can singlehandedly revive the fading genre of the swoony big-screen romance. Yet with only two features under her belt to date, Celine Song is certainly giving it a good shot.
Although the movie isn't very funny until it begins hitting us with its really creative gory deaths, there was a moment not long into director Len Wiseman's Ballerina – a continuation being helpfully marketed as From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – that made me and others among our Thursday-afternoon crowd laugh out loud.
Art you can view and art you can wear (though not during its local showcase) will be celebrated at the Quad City Arts Center gallery from June 27 through August 8, with the Rock Island venue proud to host the collective exhibition Bales & Pappageorge: an arresting showcase of sculptural fashion by Judy Bales and fiber wall pieces by Louise Pappageorge.
Highlighting the importance of sustainability in the arts and encouraging their audience to see the beauty of Earth’s resources and ecosystem, a trio of Illinois and Iowa talents enjoy a collective exhibition at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through June 30, Olson, Stampfli, & Sunderman showcasing a beautiful assemblage of quilted art by Lindsay Olson and Jessie Stampfli and sculpture by Robert Sunderman.
Located on the north bank of the Mississippi River in Davenport, boasting an encyclopedic collection, and serving as the major art museum for the eastern Iowa and western Illinois region, the Figge Art Museum celebrates the 20th anniversary of its opening on August 6. And from July 1 through August 31, this landmark cultural center will be celebrated in the venue's Model Museum, an exhibition saluting what was among British architect David Chipperfield's first architectural commissions in the United States.
A variety of artistic mediums will be showcased at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery from July 3 through August 27 in the engrossing exhibition Bada Maloney & Jagitsch, a fascinating collection of charcoal drawings and sculpture by Deana Bada Maloney and white-pencil drawings by Matt Jagitsch.
Bringing together the compelling works of mother and daughter artists Sandra Louise Dyas and Jamie Elizabeth Hudrlik, the arresting exhibition Double Vision will be on display at Dubuque's Voices Studios through July 26, this showcase of talent a powerful visual dialogue that spans generations, mediums, and personal histories.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!
