Taking place in three cities, two states, and more than 40 area locales, the popular summertime traveling festival Alternating Currents returns to Davenport, Bettendorf, and Rock Island from August 14 through 17 – a Quad Cities celebration of music, film, comedy, and the arts boasting more than 200 music performances, comedy sets, film screenings, local art displays, and family activities.
With the Midwest Writing Center's literary magazine THE ATLAS celebrating the publication of its 20th volume, a release party, open-mic night, and DJ set honoring the Young Emerging Writers (YEW) program will be held at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox on August 14, the evening boasting readings from YEW alumni and copies of new and back issues of THE ATLAS available for purchase.
River Action’s fun Floatzilla event is roaring back for its 16th year, and it's bigger than ever.
On August 20 at the Moline Public Library, guests are invite to bring an appetite for sizzling storytelling when the library presents an online author talk with Casey McQuiston, the writer's program "Returning to Romance Through Food & Flirty Fun in Fiction" a virtual hour with the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White, and Royal Blue and last year's acclaimed romantic comedy The Pairing.
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.
According to the 2020 Census, Cook County is 40-percent white, 26-percent Latino, 22-percent Black, and 8-percent Asian. Chicago is 21 percent of the state’s population. But the statewide ticket recently endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party is overwhelmingly made up of white Chicagoans (JB Pritzker, Alexi Giannoulias, Mike Frerichs, and Margaret Croke), with two Black Chicagoans (Lieutenant Governor candidate Christian Mitchell and Kwame Raoul) and no Latinos or Asian Americans.
The Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois and the Regional Transportation Authority agree that a change to Illinois’ sales-tax law will net the RTA an additional $150 million this year and another $225 million next year. That money will drastically reduce the impact of the looming $770 million “fiscal cliff,” which begins in January.
Christian Mitchell has had strong detractors ever since Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle elevated the young Black man out of obscurity and backed him for the Illinois House in 2012. Preckwinkle chose her trusted aide Mitchell over appointed Representative Kimberly du Buclet (D-Chicago). Preckwinkle’s move upset a lot of people in that part of the world because the du Buclet family’s local influence had been strong for decades and Mitchell was not a born South Sider.
The costs to Illinois’ government because of the new Republican congressional budget-reconciliation law will be steep. However, the state has some time to prepare itself, and possible Democratic gains in the U.S. House and Senate next year might be able to reverse or mitigate some of the steepest cuts to food-security and health-care programs before the vast majority of them take effect after the 2026 elections.
No amount of media manipulation of election coverage, past or present, can restore the trust that has been lost relative to the security, fairness, and authenticity of U.S. elections, especially in the last decade. The election bureaucracy, in full cooperation with mainstream media, have maintained a pathological denial and suppression of widespread irregularities, including compelling supporting evidence, dooming its credibility going forward.
Hailed by The New Yorker as "clever in conceit, alive with humor, surprising in its turns, and terribly haunting by the time the lights go out," playwright Jordan Harrison's science-fiction tale Marjorie Prime makes its debut at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. Its August 14 through 24 run is sure to demonstrate why the New York Times deemed the stage piece an "elegant, thoughtful, and quietly unsettling play" that "keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it."
Let it be known: My family and I are exactly the intended audience for the Timber Lake Playhouse’s current production of Disney's Frozen. We love the material. We love theatre. So in the words of everyone’s favorite animated snowman Olaf, “Put ‘em together, it just makes sense.” The good news? If you’re also a fan, chances are you’ll feel the same way about this particular production.
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.
Julie Funk is both excited and terrified to take on one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre. The passionate 50-year-old Davenport mom is playing the monstrous Mama Rose in Quad City Music Guild's Gypsy, running August 8 through 17 at Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium (1584 34th Avenue).
On August 14, the chart-topping, Grammy-winning rockers of the Eagles will be celebrated when Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse hosts the return of 7 Bridges: The Ultimate Eagles Tribute, an evening of beloved, iconic hits sure to include such chart-toppers as "Best of My Love," "One of These Nights," "Heartache Tonight," and "Hotel California."
A Grammy-nominated Nashville sensation whose plaudits include two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award, singer/songwriter Tracy Lawrence headlines an August 15 concert event at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, the artist's many chart-topping singles including “Sticks and Stones,” “My Second Home,” “Alibis,” “Texas Tornado,” and “Time Marches On.”
Housing a special event in Common Chord's “Live at 5” Free Summer Concert Series, Davenport's SkyBridge Courtyard will celebrate the weekend's Alternating Currents festival with a performance by Heads in Motion, the Quad Cities-based tribute act dedicated to free-spirited and energetic concert experiences from Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense era and the genius of Oscar, Grammy, and Tony Award winner David Byrne.
For this year's annual Riverfront Pops concert event in Davenport's LeClaire Park, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Quad City Bank & Trust invite audiences to rock out with the talents of Jeans 'n' Classics and conductor Hisham Bravo Groover – as well as unforgettable hits of iconic ’70s horn bands – during the August 16 extravaganza Chicago & More!
Touring in support of their springtime release American Grin that Holler Country Music deemed "a masterpiece not only in sound but in substance," the touring country, Americana, and roots-rock artists of Jason Scott & the High Heat headline an August 19 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Holler Country adding that the group's critical smash is "a road map for this weird and wonderful ride of existence."
Alison Brie's and Dave Franco's arguably inappropriate chemistry might make this supremely clever, enjoyably gross body-horror comedy stronger than it would've been without them, because even when their characters are at their lowest communal ebb, you sense that these two will always fundamentally stick with one another. And stick with one another they do. They very much do.
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 7: Previews of Freakier Friday, Weapons, and Sketch, and discussion of The Bad Guys 2 and The Naked Gun, with a primer on why you should ma-a-a-aybe think twice about bringing your mother or father-in-law to that latter title.
By the finale, nearly everything of early interest has succumbed to the same ol' visually indistinct, destruction-of-the-universe meaninglessness, with the added hangup of the action being almost insultingly stupid.
Presented in conjunction with the venue's current exhibition of the same title (with an added exclamation point), director Tom Hooper's arguably legendary screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats enjoys an August 14 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, with kitty costumes encouraged for this free event in the Thursdays at the Figge series.
Now playing at area theaters.
A trio of the Quad Cities' favorite artists will blend their talents for the latest exhibition at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center, with Wayfinding, from August 14 through October, showcasing ceramic sculpture by Lori Roderick, woven tapestries by Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, and abstract paintings by Zaiga Minka Thorson.
At the Rock Island Public Library's Watts-Midtown Branch from August 15 through 30, works by three gifted area visual artists will be displayed in the exhibition Image & Idea, an arresting showcase for the works of Tony Seabolt, Lisa Mahar, and Jeff Ignatius.
On August 21, guests of Davenport's Figge Art Museum are invited to enjoy a closer look at two current exhibitions – Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks and Cats! – in the docent-guided Exhibition Tour Night, with the 30-minute tours repeating in order for patrons to attend either or both, as well as enjoy live music, drinks, and food options.
Run by Quad City Arts and open to youth ages 15 to 21, Metro Arts is a paid, five-week summer apprenticeship in which participants work side by side with professional artists on real, public-facing projects. From murals and mosaics to poetry, live performances, and digital storytelling, apprentices shape and improve the creative landscape of the Quad Cities while gaining invaluable professional experience.
Davenport's Figge Art Museum is delivering some extra-special kick with its colorful and arresting exhibit on display 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.
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?)
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