A Labor Day-weekend tradition once again blasts into the District of Rock Island in this year's Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the August 30 and 31 vent in which hundreds will cheer as participants, from one inch off the ground, traverse city streets at speeds approaching 100MPH.
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A delightful fundraiser for music education and an evening with exhilarating tribute rockers are on the August 30 agenda on Davenport's Credit Island, with Common Chord hosting the 2025 rendition of its popular Great River Ducky Derby, and joining the City of Davenport in presenting a Big 9 Concert Series night with the Steely Dan celebration Steely Dane.
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Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will present a series of outdoor presentations in the third and final month of the 2025 Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks: weekly programs that, from August 5 through 30, will address such topics as the U.S. Coast Guard, area water quality, the Quad Cities' locks and dams, and spooky tales of Nahant Marsh.
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Iowa gets unfairly maligned as “flyover country.” But the Hawkeye State also has been immortalized as “heaven” in the 1989 classic film Field of Dreams, which was shot in Dyersville. Megan Bannister is firmly in the latter camp, as the bubbly Chicago native turned willing Iowan has traversed our divine cornfields and assembled 84 quirky, fun places to stop in her 192-page paperback book Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, & Obscure.
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Inviting guests to explores sites worldwide, share the beliefs of young worshippers, and view images, artifacts, and stories from more than two dozen sites and across various faiths, Davenport's Putnam Museum & Science Center, through September 1, will host the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis's traveling exhibit Sacred Places, allowing patrons to explore the significance and insights provided by the locales of its title.
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I’ve been belatedly reading Jeremiah Joyce’s 2021 book Still Burning: Half a Century of Chicago, from the Streets to the Corridors of Power; A Memoir. The former 19th Ward alderman and Southwest Side state senator is a conversational writer and speaks frankly about some very divisive times, particularly regarding race. (It can get cringey.)
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Some Republicans in Illinois have taken to regularly bashing Republican state legislative leaders for seeking support from the Illinois Education Association, a teachers union that has for decades worked to help elect Republicans who are sympathetic to their issues.
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I cannot stress the importance of familiarizing yourselves with Tina Peter's ongoing case. Judge Barrett ordered Tina's incarceration prior to her appeal being heard. Not for any of the crimes she was convicted for, but for her potential speech, for what she might say that he determined might be potentially dangerous.
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I am calling on the Iowa Supreme Court to act. Not for me, but for the patients who have been denied care and for the physicians who have been punished for serving them.
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I’m assuming you’ve already seen coverage of the Democratic Texas state legislators who fled to Illinois to prevent a Republican-backed redrawing of congressional district lines in their home state. Their absence means their Legislature doesn’t have enough members to legally conduct business.
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Treating audiences to a number of enthralling, one-person performances over the course of Labor Day Weekend, Moline's Black Box Theatre will host its inaugural Solo Fringe Fest from August 29 through 31, this celebration of music, drama, comedy, dance, and storytelling boasting stellar talents whose work has taken them throughout the Midwest, across the country, and overseas.
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The Timber Lake Playhouse tries something new with its world-premiere musical Glü. Directed by Tommy Ranieri, and with a book and lyrics by Jake Lockwood and music and lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen, this heartwarming tale gives audiences a chance to see something local, and possibly even familiar.
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A 1957 film classic currently ranked by Internet Movie Database voters as the fifth-greatest movie of all time, Sidney Lumet's riveting 12 Angry Men will, from September 5 through 14, be given a fresh spin via Circle's Edge, an offshoot of City Circle Theatre Company.
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Kitty: Full disclosure: We once dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert for Halloween. We’re very serious about our Poppins lore.
Mischa: But we promise to be absolutely objective in our reactions to this show.
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Lauded by the New York Times as a "big bearhug of a musical" in which "even the most stalwart cynics may have trouble staying dry-eyed," the Tony Award-winning Come from Away makes its debut at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse with its September 10 through November 1 run, this deeply moving 2017 entertainment also hailed by Broadway World as "inspiring, funny, and kick-ass beautiful.”
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Two classic piano concertos, two world premieres by female composers, and the Quad Cities debut of a new saxophone concerto are among highlights of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's (QCSO's) 111th season, which will formally begin with its first Masterworks program on October 4 and 5.
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The gist of Lydia Electrum's essays focus on restoring sound money to our nation's economy, using gold and silver rather than fiat currency printed out of thin air in ones and zeroes. In pursuit of engaging more like-minded concerned citizens, Lydia was inspired to re-write the lyrics to more than 15 Bob Dylan songs with these principles, history, and topics in mind.
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Having sold more than 10 million albums worldwide, and with their discography boasting six top-100 Billboard hits, nine top-200 Billboard albums, and two platinum-selling albums, Great White brings their national tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on August 29, the Grammy-nominated glam rockers currently celebrating the band's 48th year of professional performance.
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Touring in support of his July release Space Brain, a recording that The Rock Father Magazine said finds the artist "throwing gasoline on the campfire and lighting up his metal roots," Nashville's Alex Williams returns to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on August 30, the musician hailed by PopMatters as “a winning songwriter who manages to mix humor with traditional country sentiment without falling into hokey pastiche."
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Praised by the Memphis Flyer for "eschewing de rigueur hoarse screaming for simple but effective melodies (and yes, screaming!)," resulting in "an irresistible combination," the Japanese punk rockers of TsuShiMaMiRe return to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on August 31, the female trio famed for mixing pop instrumental sounds with idiosyncratic, quirky, and oftentimes funny and disturbing lyrics.
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As a way of acknowledging the brief time they'll likely stay in theaters, here are brief ruminations on four all-but-abandoned late-August titles, in escalating order from not-awful to actually-pretty-great.
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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, August 28: Discussion of Honey, Don't!, Eden, Relay, and It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, and previews of Caught Stealing, The Roses, The Toxic Avenger, and the 50th-anniversary return of Jaws. Darren, by the way, took the day off to attend a concert in Chicago, so Dave and Mike are forced to party like it's 2002.
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Because I'm predisposed to love Bob Odenkirk in anything, it says something about the man's unique charisma that I even managed to like him in Nobody 2, a comedic action thriller that falls apart in nearly every conceivable way.
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In Weapons, writer/director Zach Cregger is almost too inventive, his apparent making-it-up-as-he-goes-along approach so reckless that it seems to stop mattering if what we're watching makes any earthly sense.
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Now playing at area theaters.
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With the colorful and arresting exhibit on display through August 31, a closing celebration and artist talk on the footwear-themed exhibit Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks will be held at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on August 28, the evening featuring a captivating talk by award-winning virtual shoe designer Antonio Arocho Hernández, whose works are featured in the exhibit.
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Davenport's Figge Art Museum is delivering some extra-special kick with its colorful and arresting exhibit on display through August 31, 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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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 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.
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A trio of gifted artists, and a quartet of disparate artistic mediums, will be showcased in the latest exhibition at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery, the gallery's display cases, from September 3 through October 29, housing new furniture and sculpture by John Schwartzkopf, fabric collages by Heather Steckler and paper collage by Lauren Pesta.
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On September 4, patrons of Davenport's Figge Art Museum are invited to explore a period of artistry, innovation, and cultural richness in a special Curator Talk held in conjunction with The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, an exhibition showcase of masterpieces from one of the world's finest collections.
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