Johanne Jakhelln has worked with unorthodox spaces before. As the artistic director for Ballet Quad Cities, Jakhelln, for example, has had to deal with the choir step on the stage at Augustana College's Centennial Hall. "You have to be creative to integrate that into what you're doing," she said.

So the Mississippi River is no big thing. For this Saturday's one-hour performance One River Mississippi, Jakhelln merely needs to choreograph and coordinate more than 60 volunteer performers at seven sites along the river from the Centennial Bridge to the roller dam at Locks & Dam 15. She will just work with dancers, water skiers, boaters, and a Native American medicine woman. And it only needs to be coordinated with six other river sites - Itasca, Minnesota; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Memphis; New Orleans; and Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana - and set to music.

No big deal. Just like at Centennial Hall.

When last we heard from state Senator James Meeks, he had dropped out of the governor's race and endorsed Governor Rod Blagojevich's much hyped education/lottery plan. With the proposal currently under fire from almost all corners, I thought it might be a good time to check back in with him. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last week that it issued a permit to relocate the Rhythm City Casino riverboat to an area upstream of its current location on the Mississippi River in Davenport. The Corps found that Isle of Capri's performance of the work, in accordance with conditions of the permit, will have no significant impact on the environment and navigation, and is not contrary to the public interest. For more information, visit (http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/PublicAffairsOffice/IsleofCapri/Permit.pdf) and (http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/PublicAffairsOffice/IsleofCapri/Hearing.pdf).

Louisiana Red and Honeyboy Edwards

The Redstone Room

Saturday, June 17, 9 p.m.

In this corner, weighing in with a W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Blues Artist, a discography that spans more than three decades, and a list of influences that includes Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Arthur Crudup - ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage that bluesman extraordinaire, the Alabama slamma ... Louisiana Red! And in this corner, weighing in with his own W.C. Handy Award, a 1996 induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, and both an autobiography (The World Don't Owe Me Nothing) and a documentary (Honeyboy) to his name - ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the Baron of Blues, the Goliath of the guitar ... David Honeyboy Edwards! One's a touring dynamo whose 2006 gigs have taken him to Ghana, Greece, and Belgium; one's a 90-year-old inspiration called "always enjoyable and occasionally brilliant" by Living Blues magazine. Who will emerge victorious when the two meet at their shared performance in Davenport's Redstone Room on Saturday, June 17? Based on their stats, I'm makin' an early prediction, folks: It'll be a draw. For more information, visit (http://www.redstoneroom.com). - Mike Schulz