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QCA Today: February 8, 2010
This feature collects articles published online by the following Quad Cities-area media outlets: Quad-City Times, Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch, River Cities' Reader, and WQAD. If you'd like your media...
Vote for the Best of the Quad Cities
Balloting is now open for the first part of the Best of the Quad Cities survey. Click here to begin voting online. The survey includes 63 questions, and all we ask is that you provide reasonable...
Presumed Impossible: Author and Attorney Scott Turow Speaks at the Adler Theatre, January 26
You might think that the art of writing fiction would have little in common with the art of practicing law. Scott Turow would beg to differ. "They're actually very similar tasks," says Turow, the bestselling...
Candidate Forum Slated for Thursday
A Rock Island County candidate forum will be held Thursday, January 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the Rock Island High School Little Theater. Candidates for Rock Island County sheriff, clerk, and treasurer are expected...
Eldridge Woman Wins National Library Essay Contest
Leslie Powell-Skinner of Eldridge, Iowa, last month was named the winner of the American Library Association's At My Library Creative Essay contest. She won $350 for her poem "A 'Cents'ible Resource."...
Pat Quinn’s Incredible Week
Every night before an election day, I spend four or five hours on the phone with people I trust asking what they think will happen. There are always a couple of races that will have them stumped, but...
Iowa Politics Roundup: Culver Signs Union-Friendly Executive Order
Governor Chet Culver received a standing ovation at the Iowa State Building & Construction Trades Council convention and shook the hand of almost everyone in the room after signing an executive order...
Should We Be Compliant Lambs or Nonviolent Gadflies?
"We must see the need for nonviolent gadflies." -- Martin Luther King Jr. When it comes to the staggering loss of civil liberties, the Constitution hasn't changed. Rather, it is the American people who...
The Trouble with Tax Credits: The Iowa Legislature Could Take the Easy Way Out, but It Shouldn’t
Revelations last fall about the mismanagement of Iowa's film-tax-credit program came at a convenient time for the governor and the state legislature, as they provide an opportunity to evaluate tax credits...
How Blagojevich’s Trial Could Derail Dems
Lawyers for Rod Blagojevich told reporters last week that there might be a delay in the former governor's criminal trial when a federal grand jury, as expected, hands down a new indictment. But they also...
Where to Find the 2010 Oscar Nominees: Updated for February 9 – 11
Ajami - Not in local release. Nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film. Avatar - Great Escape Theatre, Showcase Cinemas 53. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (James Cameron), Best Cinematography,...
Bridges Over Troubled Waters: “Crazy Heart,” “An Education,” “From Paris with Love,” and “Australia: Land Beyond Time”
CRAZY HEART Writer/director Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart is a character drama of gentle, lulling rhythms -- so lulling, in truth, that I momentarily dozed off halfway through the film. But I'm pretty...
Mike Schulz with Dave & Darren on 104.9
Going to the cineplex or IMAX this weekend? Every Friday morning at 9 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on the Quad City Rocker...
The 2010 Academy Award Nominees
Granted, I was in Illinois when I watched this morning's announcement of the 82nd Annual Academy Award nominees. But I'm still reasonably sure that, as Anne Hathaway finished reading the list of 10 Best...
Taken, Too: "Edge of Darkness" and "When in Rome"
EDGE OF DARKNESS For better and/or worse, Mel Gibson hasn't exactly vanished from the public eye since his last starring role on-screen, in 2002's Signs. Yet even if, like me, you've spent an inordinate...
New Chops: Dr. Dog, February 9 at RIBCO
To understand some of what makes Dr. Dog sound like it was preserved in amber in the mid-1960s, listen to singer/guitarist/songwriter Scott McMicken talk about drums. The quintet -- performing a Daytrotter.com...
Growing on the Road: Gov’t Mule, February 9 at the Capitol
Warren Haynes joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989, and was a member of the Dead for its 2004 and 2009 tours. But Haynes, who was 23rd on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists...
Out of the Past: Leon Redbone, January 30 at the Capitol Theatre
Leon Redbone sounds like a relic. It's not just his repertoire -- mostly songs from the 1910s to the '30s -- but his attitude. Asked in a phone interview last week about the appeal of music that preceded...
MVBS Presents Jim Suhler
MVBS Presents Jim Suhler, George Thorogood’s Guitarist, on Sunday Jan. 31 The Mississippi Valley Blues Society presents guitarist Jim Suhler and his band, Monkey Beat, on Sunday Jan. 31 at Creekside...
Out of His Own Way: Freedy Johnston, January 23 at RIBCO
If you followed the career of Freedy Johnston, you might wonder what happened to him after 2001, when Elektra released his Right Between the Promises album. Until Rain on the City (out today), Johnston...
Right for Each Other: Married Actors Chris White and Jessica Nicol White Star in Richmond Hill’s New Romantic Comedy
On February 11, Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre opens its 43rd season with Wrong for Each Other, playwright Norm Foster's two-character comedy about a reunion between a long-estranged divorced couple....
House of Booze: "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," at the Harrison Hilltop Theatre through February 14
[Editor's note: On February 3, Harrison Hilltop producers Tristan Tapscott and Chris Walljasper announced the cancellation of the remaining performances for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.] As...
Perennials: "The Secret Garden," at Augustana College through February 7
Supposedly a family-friendly audience favorite, The Secret Garden, currently being performed at Augustana College, is an emotional but often downright dreary musical based on the classic children's novel...
Untrue West: "Fool for Love," at the Village Theatre through February 6
The more performances I see as a reviewer, the more I ponder and study stagecraft. With many productions, I take away a concept or idea as to what makes a performance good, whether at the individual...
Sheer Lunar-cy: "Moon Over Buffalo," at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through January 24
Attending the theatre is typically a form of escapism, a chance to get lost in the magic of the staging and performances. And then there's Moon Over Buffalo, one of those shows that doesn't just let...
Featured Image from the Quad City Photography Club
(Editor's note: The River Cities' Reader each month will publish images from the Quad City Photography Club. Click on the image for a larger version.) Photographer: Mary Anderson of Moline retired...
Reverential Reflections: Emily Christenson’s “Rivers & Rain, Pieces of Denali,” through December at Bucktown
One of the biggest success stories to come out of Bucktown Center for the Arts is Emily Christenson and her nature-inspired works. Some early visitors to doeGallery were impressed with her art and took...
Frank Lloyd Wright at the Figge: A Conversation
The Figge Art Museum will soon open its Frank Lloyd Wright gallery, a collection of eight pieces showing the architect/designer's "Prairie" and "Usonian" styles, documenting his shift toward ever-simpler...
Memory, Identity: Peter Xiao and Les Bell, through November 25 at Quad City Arts
The centerpiece of the current two-person exhibit at Quad City Arts is a collection of four paintings recalling Peter Xiao's childhood in China. From an artistic perspective, Xiao is rendering people...
The Case for a Strong Art-Gallery Scene
I've been thinking more than usual lately about the local art-gallery scene, for three reasons: a citywide open studio I attended earlier this summer in St. Louis with 151 venues; David Burke's September...
