Those who love dinosaurs and all things Mesozoic will be in Putnam Museum & Science Center paradise when the venue welcomes families to the June 29 and 30 celebration Dino Days – a family-friendly, specialty-ticketed weekend event boasting crafts, activities, a scavenger hunt, and screening of dinosaur-themed movies including the Putnam premiere T. rex.
Authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more will share their talents and help strengthen the talents of others during the Midwest Writing Center's 2023 David R. Collins Writers Conference at Augustana College's Sorensen Hall, a June 27 through 29 celebration of the written word boasting workshops, readings, book pitches, and more, with special events planned at several additional Quad Cities locales.
Delivering a blend of local history, environmental issues, education, entertainment, and fresh air, Davenport's River Action will again present a series of outdoor presentations in the first month-plus of the annual Channel Cat Talks and Riverine Walks: weekly programs that, from May 28 through June 29, will address such topics as local abolitionist freedom fighters, steamboating, birds of prey, infrastructure, and the Quad City River Bandits.
Live performances, games, tournaments, cosplay competitions, and loads of special guests will be on hand when the Davenport RiverCenter hosts the June 28 through 30 convention Planet Funk Con 2024, a weekend event housing entertainment, presentations, panel discussions, and more for connoisseurs and collectors of all ages.
Designed to bring some serious swing into the summer, the John Deere Classic returns to Silvis' TPC at Deere Run from July 3 through 7, with this professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, in its 53rd year, enjoying coverage on the Golf Channel and CBS Sports, and featuring youth activities, clinics, and a climactic awards presentation.
As you’ve probably heard by now, Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy announced his resignation last week, apparently effective the day after the Republican National Convention concludes on July 18.
“What was supposed to be a simple storage warehouse for the Metra transit agency has now buried the nation's fourth-busiest commuter rail system in a sinking money pit, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.” The Chicago broadcast station’s scoop last week is an almost perfect encapsulation of why northeastern Illinois’ mass-transit fiefdoms need to be busted and reformed.
A state law essentially designed to prevent Republicans from appointing legislative candidates to the ballot after the March primary was ruled unconstitutional by a Sangamon County judge last week, but her ruling only applied to the fourteen Republican plaintiffs in the case who are running for the Illinois House and Senate.
Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch gave added meaning to the phrase “winning ugly” during last Wednesday’s early-morning hours. I’ve never seen anything like it, so let’s take a look. House members were told to be in their seats by noon on Tuesday after the Senate had easily passed the entire budget package on Sunday.
The World Health Organization's (WHO's) attempted global coup is mere days away. If you ever thought of calling your legislators, now would be an ideal time to express your objection to assigning emergency management to a foreign entity. For everyone's sake, leave politics out of it.
A 13-time Tony Award nominee that received four trophies including Best Musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda's exhilarating stage musical In the Heights serves as the season-opener for Eldridge's Countryside Community Theatre, the show's June 28 through July 7 run sure to demonstrate why the New York Times raved that "the energy it gives off could light up the George Washington Bridge for a year or two."
At the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts from June 28 through 30, family audiences are invited to follow the yellow brick road toward a magical stage treat when the student talents of Young Footliters Youth Theatre present The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition, a delightful, one-act stage adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s beloved tale in which our plucky heroine must make friends, face her fears, and discover how good it is to go home.
One of the most popular and beloved musicals in theatre history is scheduled to set sail at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, with the romantic and hilarious Cole Porter sensation Anything Goes enjoying a June 27 through July 7 run, and treating audiences to such iconic show tunes as "You're the Top," "All Through the Night," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and the unforgettable title number.
Described by Time Out New York as an “insanely fun mixtape musical” and by Variety as a show that “gleefully apes the worst excesses of the era's pole-dancing, crotch-grinding, big-hair-tossing movies,” the Broadway smash Rock of Ages enjoys a June 27 through July 7 run at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, treating audiences to a celebration of 1980s chart-toppers that NY1 called “so cleverly staged and impressively performed that it's an irresistible, offbeat trip of a show that hits all the right notes.”
Keeping an eye on forecasts for days in advance, I was sure that severe thunderstorms were going to wash out Genesius Guild's opening-night performance of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. But they didn't, and with my umbrella, I went, I watched, I liked it.
Touring in support of their 2023 debut Hope's Eternal, an album praised by The Big Takeover's Dave Franklin as "one of the most attractive musical propositions I have heard in a long time," Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel bring The Scarlet Goodbye to Davenport's Redstone Room on June 23, the alternative-rock ensemble lauded by Roots Music Magazine as an outfit that "takes their listener's hand and guides them through a vast and bright world."
With their stated mission to promote public goodwill toward the U. S. Coast Guard and the country they serve, and to preserve and honor the heritage, traditions, and history of our nation, the touring talents of the United States Coast Guard Band perform a special, open-to-the-public concert event at Moline High School on June 29, the ensemble's "Heartland Harmonies" tour taking the musicians through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska following engagements in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.
Winners of the Quad-City Times' 2017 Reader's Choice Award for “Best Local Band” and one of the most successful music acts to emerge from the area in recent years, the AC/DC tribute artists of Electric Shock headline a June 29 Summer 2024 Music Lineup concert at Bettendorf venue The Tangled Wood, with the night boasting hits from a classic-rock repertoire that includes Billboard chart-toppers Black Ice, Power Up, Ballbreaker, and 1980's seminal Back in Black.
Boasting two days' worth of amazing music, food, and vendors, the inaugural Tree0ninE Festival will be presented by the Yabba Dabbas House of Glass collaboration at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, the June 28 and 29 event designed to celebrate, educate, and advocate for local tree culture through a smoking lineup of national touring artists alongside favorite local and regional musicians.
For its concert event at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities on June 30, Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Series will deliver (on the fifth Sunday of the month) a rich Andalusian-jazz feel in a concert with the acclaimed Yogev Shetrit Trio, an ensemble boasting the collective talents of Moshe Elmakias on piano, Noam Tanzer on bass, and the bandleader/composer himself on drums.
Hailed by New York Observer reviewer Rex Reed as “one of the most powerful films about the Arab-Israeli conflict that has ever been attempted on the screen” the award-winning dramatic romance Out in the Dark will be presented as the fourth and final Pride Month event in the Figge Art Museum's 2024 Free Film at the Figge series, its June 30 screening treating audiences to what the Los Angeles Times deemed "an edgy tale fueled by do-or-die sociopolitical intrigue."
If you're still coming down from the sexy, full-throttle charisma assault of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, you'll likely be lifted right back up with writer/director Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders, which equals that tennis-throuple melodrama in allure and watchability – and co-stars Mike Faist, to boot.
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, June 27: Discussion of The Bikeriders, The Exorcism, and Thelma, and previews of A Quiet Place: Day One, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, and a few Netflix titles. The guys are taking next Thursday off, as well as the Thursday after that, so plan on there being muuuuuuch to chat about on July 18th.
Easily Pixar's most satisfying entertainment of the decade, it's imaginative, thoughtful, and touching, and if nothing here rips your heart out in the manner of Bing Bong (thank God), you might find yourself laughing even harder than you did during the 2015 classic. The original had almost everything, but it didn't have a French-accented emotion named Ennui, nor a riotous 2D dog and his ambulatory fanny pack.
Work of couture by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, and other artists recognized around the world will be on vivid display in the Muscatine Art Center from June 29 through September 22, with the venue's Fashionably Dressed exhibition pairing drawings, paintings, and prints of women, men, and children with historic clothing from the Muscatine Art Center’s permanent collection.
Providing insight into our country’s past through the work of revered American artists including Thomas Cole, Severin Roesen, Albert Bierstadt, and John Frederick Kensett, the touring exhibition The Warner Foundation Collection: History in the Painting will be on display in Gallery 206 of Davenport's Figge Art Museum through June 30, the engrossing exhibit's foundation dedicated to promoting an understanding of American history through American art.
New works by a pair of gifted Iowa artisans will be decorating the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through July 1, with thoughtful and arresting pieces in the Schafer & Rocca exhibit showcasing the talents of oil painter John Paul Schafer of Cedar Rapids and wall-sculpture artist Kimberlee Rocca of Solon.
Arresting shapes, bold designs, and beautiful photographs in both color and black-or-white will be showcased at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery from July 3 through August 26, this latest exhibition featuring works of photography by Brad Perkins and Mark Weller alongside ceramic sculpture by Laura Vincent-Arnold.
The whimsical world of Walter Wick has fascinated people of all ages since 1992, when his first children's book series I Spy found its way onto the bookshelves of millions of American households. And from July 6 through November 17, admirers of the artist can delight to his elaborate images in Walter Wick: Hidden Wonders!, a dazzling collection of dozens of colorful wonders on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum,
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
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