One of the area's most eagerly anticipated sales events returns to Rock Island's QCCA Expo Center November 7 through 9, as Melting Pot Productions, Inc. presents this year's autumnal Antique Spectacular Vintage Market Quad Cities, allowing hunters of vintage goods an all-weekend opportunity to shop for a wide range of quality antiques.
With their popular audio series designed to debunk the phrase “that kind of this doesn't happen in our town,” Jonah Lantto and Dawn Palumbo bring their live Midwest Murder Podcast show back to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort on November 7 followingly a hugely popular engagement this past June, the event boasting a live taping of a future broadcast concerning astonishing and sometimes grisly acts committed in small towns nationwide.
Celebrating a dozen years of business and their status as an iconic downtown-Davenport venue, the handmade and vintage outfit Aberbathy's will hold its Bump and Grindhouse 12-Year Birthday Bash at the neighboring Capitol Theatre on November 8, the suitably eclectic night featuring live music by the One Night Standards, a screening of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, and burlesque inspired by the film performed by artists Catty Wompass, Drop Dead Red, Mae Golightly, and Kitty Pardot.
In the latest presentation in the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series, Danville Station Museum curator Janet Hesler will deliver her fascinating program The Danville Station Museum and Anne Frank on November 9, sharing the story of Anne's unique connection to Iowa, how the museum acquired its Holocaust-era railway car, and insights into the museum’s mission and history.
A reading, discussion, and Q&A with a noted psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, veteran, and poet will take place at the University of Dubuque's Multicultural Student Center on November 11, with Jessi Atherton the latest guest in the university's Archway Reading and Lecture Series.
And I'm always shocked when I get these invitations to come speak because my heart is all about making sure that we defeat the great slave master. And it's in an unaccountable black box that we use in every single state. So while we chuckle about 81 million votes going to Joe Biden, we rarely turn the scalpel towards our own backyards. And it's especially difficult to give these speeches in red states. Very difficult, right? It's easy to say those Democrats have problems. But it's we we get really, really cautious about talking about, especially at a Reagan dinner, that our elections have problems.
This means there is real hope for growing the GOP in Scott County into a pack of American Republic advocates for nonnegotiable election integrity as spelled out below, the restoration of adjudication using petit juries and public access to grand juries, and a force for the people's purse power. This was apparent with the recent annual Reagan Dinner, held at Bettendorf's Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center, where the service was exceptional, the food uncommonly good for a large catered event, and for our entertainment, enjoyment, and self-improvement, four remarkable gentlemen provided much-needed perspective as front-liners to subjects that otherwise lurk in the corners of establishment politics as third rails.
It was with great pleasure that I listened to David K. Clements give his keynote speech at the 17th-Annual Scott County Iowa GOP Reagan Dinner last month. Having Iowa's Secretary of State Paul Pate and Attorney General Brenna Bird at the head table overlooking all the attendees while Professor David K. Clements admonished the uniparty for not paying enough attention to election integrity in their own backyards was a moment that may not be repeated in Iowa again if the establishment Republicans have their way.
Last May, several Illinois House Democrats complained bitterly that their mass-transit negotiators were ignored and even shut out by the Senate Democratic mass-transit negotiators. The House members had a point. The Senate passed a bill, which was an almost purely Senate Democratic creation. They literally gave the House a “take it or leave it, but you have to decide right now” moment during the final minutes of the spring legislative session.
At the end of the 2024 spring state legislative session, the Illinois Federation of Teachers issued a decidedly diplomatic press release. Federation President Dan Montgomery praised the new state budget as “crucial for our state’s success” and applauded increases in K-12 and early-childhood education funding.
A legendary holiday-film perennial and thrilling song-and-dance showcase for Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye will be brought to theatrical life when Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse presents the eagerly awaited return of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, its November 5 through December 28 run treating audiences to a Tony-nominated treat featuring timeless Berlin hits in “Blue Skies,” “Happy Holiday,” “Let Me Sing and I'm Happy,” and “I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”
A 2025 Tony Award winner hailed by the New York Times as "the perfect play for our age of disagreement," Jonathan Specter's hilarious, biting comedy Eureka Day enjoys an October 24 through November 9 run at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, the work also lauded by The New Yorker as "so brilliantly yoked to the current American moment – its flighty politics, its deadly folly – that it makes you want to jump out of your skin."
The funny, moving, and profound stage version of one of literature's all-time classics enjoys a November 6 through 9 run at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center when the Department of Fine and Performing Arts presents Of Mice & Men, John Steinbeck's adaptation of his revered 1937 novel included as one of Amazon's list of “The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written.”
Hailed by the New York Times as "a clever, crowd-pleasing holiday comedy" and by DC Metro Arts as "an entertaining new play filled with thrills, chills, and laughs," author Mark Shanahan's mystery-comedy mash-up A Sherlock Carol makes its area debut at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre November 13 through 23, TheatreMania adding to the raves by calling the show "joyful, playful, and clever – and that joy transfers to the audience."
A legendary mystery thriller that stands as the longest-running West End show of all time, the play having reached its 30,000th performance this past March, Agatha Christie's timeless classic The Mousetrap opens Augustana College's 2025-26 mainstage theatre season with its November 13 through 16 run, The Times calling the show "elaborately skillful" and The Daily Express praising its "atmosphere of shuddering suspense."
Currently touring in support of their forthcoming studio album We Didn't Die Young and lauded for the platinum-selling "Hate Me" and "Into the Ocean," the alternative rockers of Blue October return to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on November 7, their repertoire of more than a quarter-century boasting 21 top-40 singles and such chart-topping studio albums as Any Man in America, Sway, and Home.
Boasting numerous chart-topping albums on the iTunes Blues Chart and top-10 smashes on Billboard's Blues, Heatseekers, and Tastemaker charts, the roots and country-blues musicians of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band headline a November 7 concert event as Davenport's Redstone Room, their February release Honeysuckle, according to Americana Highways, "fueled by 12 full gallons of high-octane Americana that ignite the country blues/gospel sparkplugs of legendary masters."
With its showcase for vivid storytelling and orchestral brilliance, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra continues its 2025-26 Masterworks season with Diaspora, the concert's November 8 and 9 performances at Davenport's Adler Theatre and Augustana College's Centennial Hall boasting special guest Steven Banks, the gifted saxophonist whom Seen and Heard International said “has the potential to be one of the transformational musicians of the 21st century.”
Praised by the New York Times for their “vibrantly warm-blooded” song stylings and by Iowa City's The Gazette for their “silky smooth a cappella harmonies,” the lauded male vocalists of Straight No Chaser bring their "Holiday Road Tour" to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on November 8, the group's accomplishments including two gold-certified albums, more than 1.5 million concert tickets sold, more than two million albums sold worldwide, and more than 1 billion streams on Pandora.
Hailed by First-Avenue.com as a band that combines "the explosive elements of white-trash culture, Dada art, and Chuck Berry," the touring artists of the New Duncan Imperials bring their high-energy show to Moline's Rascals Live on November 8, the outfit composed, since the 1980s, of Pigtail on guitar, Skipper on bass, and Goodtime on drums.
Eventually, the bubble will no doubt burst, as one does quite memorably toward the end of his latest film. But barring the unrelieved misery wallow that is 2017's The Killing of a Sacred Deer, no one's movies over the past 10 years have tickled and astonished me quite like Yorgos Lanthimos', with the director's new, wickedly entertaining oddity Bugonia much like his others, and also not at all.
This Veterans Day weekend, the Moline-based Fourth Wall Films – run by the extraordinary husband-and-wife team of Kelly and Tammy Rundle – will premiere the latest documentary in the planned nine-part, short-film Hero Street series.
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, October 30: Prior to the previews of Bugonia, Stitch Head, and Anniversary, discussion of A House of Dynamite, Regretting You, Shellby Oaks, Blue Moon, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowehere, the latter the first title in years that all three guys caught on opening weekend. A bio-pic about a musician they all grew up with and admire -- the boys have got some thoughts!
It's hard to be dismissive toward any movie that inspires you to pick up a book, and having seen Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, I'm now eager to read Warren Zanes' 2023 nonfiction that inspired the release, and maybe the Boss' 2016 memoir Born to Run, too. But I'd argue that your desire to check out those titles has little to do with the quality of writer/director Scott Cooper's bio-musical drama.
Now playing at area theaters.
A traditional Mexican holiday is again being celebrated in high style at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through the exhibit Day of the Dead, with museum patrons, through November 30, invited to reflect on why this Mexican tradition endures, and how it is gaining new resonance across the United States.
Quad City Arts has curated a new exhibit that celebrates the decades long burgeoning Hispanic culture here in the Quad Cities. A colorful and pulsating exhibit of 30-plus pieces – Voces y Visiones: A Celebration of Hispanic Art – is on view at Quad City Arts’ Rock Island Gallery (1715 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL) through December 5. This juried exhibition is presented in partnership with Mercado on Fifth, and Hispanic/Latin/Latinx artists were especially encouraged to apply.
With the Davenport venue partnering alongside the German American Heritage Center and Museum for programming during the exhibit's run, the Figge Art Museum will house Fever Dreams: German Expressionism in the Lewis Gallery through December 7, this arresting exhibition featuring loans from the David and Sarojini Johnson Print Collection, and showcased in conjunction with the GAHC's companion exhibit German Expressionist Prints from the Johnson Collection.
With the project supported by Quad City Arts' re-granting program Arts Dollars, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and the Quad Cities Community Foundation - Isabel Bloom Art Education Endowment, Lucas Berns' exhibition Artificial and Still: Woven Works on Paper is on display at St. Ambrose University's Morrissey Gallery through December 12, a Q&A and reception scheduled for November 6.
An eclectic mix of practical lettering and expressive pieces that involve letters, historical recreations, and three-dimensional collages, Cheryl Jacobsen's Lettering and Assemblage: (things I love, my art so far) is on display at St. Ambrose University's Catich Gallery through December 12.
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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