Carrie Newcomer Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer tells about a friend who leads a group of people who knit for the local food bank. They'll set up somewhere and knit with a sign that reads, "Knitting for the Food Bank."

"People will come and talk to them," Newcomer said in a phone interview last week. "Folks who might not maybe go up to someone on the corner and talk to somebody who has a sign will sit down with a group of women knitting and talk about the issue. 'What's happening with the food bank?'"

Tenki, It's apparent both in its publicity materials and in its recordings that the Chicago-based band Tenki aspires to the epic.

Yet by that measure, the band's newest release - the second in its two-part CD series We're Not Talking About the Universe Are We (on the Quad Cities-based Future Appletree label) - comes up short. Aside from the intentional brevity of its running time - 33 minutes - the songs are too compact for the band to stretch its legs. Almost all the songs clock in at around three minutes, and they need to be longer.

On Thursday, April 19, the Family Museum in Bettendorf will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. The evening will include music by Ellis Kell and light hors d'oeuvres and refreshments. The open house will also include an awards ceremony celebrating the successes of the facility, the people who have helped make it what it is today, and the museum's millionth visitor. Admission to the Family Museum is free during this open house. For more information, visit (http://www.familymuseum.org).

 

Reader issue #628 Philip Bialowitz should have died 64 years ago. That he survived one day at the Nazi death camp at Sobibór was mostly a matter of luck.

That he has lived this long is a testament to a group of people - himself included - who planned and executed one of two successful prisoner revolts against the Nazis during World War II.

If you wonder about the durability of stereotypes, ask Solo Greene. A member of the Nez Perce Native American tribe and an education specialist with an environmental group on the tribe's reservation in Idaho, he began going into elementary schools five or six years ago to speak to students.

"I thought it was just because they were young," he said in a phone interview, in advance of his fifth-annual appearance in the Quad Cities as part of a cultural exchange with Black Hawk College. "Some of the questions that they asked me ... were: Where did I come from? ... How is it living in a tipi? Did I have to get a pass to get off the reservation?"

Editor's note: Prior to press time, the Davenport City Council tabled the appointment of John Nahra and canceled meetings scheduled for April 11 and 12.

 

Last week, eight Davenport aldermen and the mayor signed what several of them thought was a petition seeking the reorganization of the city legal department that had been drafted nearly a year ago but vetoed twice by the mayor. Following the petition - less than a week later - the demotion of sitting corporation counsel Mary Thee (without a formal performance review), a revision of the ordinance governing the council's supervisory purview of the legal department, and the hiring of retired Judge John Nahra to replace Thee were all on the table for a special council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 10, at 5 p.m. The administrator's office scheduled three special meetings - for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - in case Tuesday's meeting did not result in a waiving of the "three readings" requirement for an ordinance change.

Iowa Public Radio News has won four awards from two prestigious news associations. The Radio & Television News Directors Association presented its 2007 Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for News Documentary (Small Market) to Jeneane Beck for her documentary on child-abuse investigations in Iowa. The documentary aired in December 2006 on Iowa Public Radio. Iowa Public Radio was also the recipient of three awards from the Northwest Broadcast News Association. In the Association's 2006 Radio & TV Sevareid Awards, Iowa Public Radio won in the Investigative category for Beck's stories on laboratory-waste disposal at Iowa State University; Beck was also given an Award of Merit in the Documentary/Special category for her documentary on child-abuse investigations. Iowa Public Radio also took an Award of Merit in the Newscast category.

 

Reader issue #627 Each year, our regional artists have the opportunity to showcase their work in the premier juried art exhibit in the Quad Cities area: the annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition in the Centennial Hall gallery at Augustana College. Area artists know that this is an important show not only for the regional recognition and the respect of fellow artists, but also for their résumés and possible sales.

Woodbox Gang Most people think of bluegrass as music for old people, and Alex Kirt of the Woodbox Gang doesn't disagree. He calls it "timeless," but as a performer that has one big advantage.

By the time you hit age 50 or so, you can't credibly play metal, punk, or hard-rock music. "You're probably going to look ridiculous," said Kirt, a singer and multi-instrumentalist with the southern-Illinois "trashcan Americana" band that will be performing at the Bent River Brewing Company on Saturday, April 7. And the age-imperviousness of bluegrass is important, because the 33-year-old wants to be playing this music "forever."

Because many of us were once teenagers, we rely on those past experiences to help us understand and cope with the behavior of today's teens. That works only to a point. While many of the problems that plagued our post-pubescent years are similar to those of our children, the scope, depth, and intensity varies significantly with the times.

The times greatly contribute to the evolution of common issues that often overwhelm, confuse, and misdirect young people - more today than ever before.

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