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.
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.
With the show presented by RockTown Entertainment Group, its sounds provided by DJ Smiles, and MZ.Behaven serving as the night's host, noted standup Donnell Rawlings brings his “Urban Comedy Tour” to Davenport's Adler Theatre on November 13, his recent credits including joining Dave Chappelle for a historic run at Radio City Music Hall and performing with the multiple Emmy and Grammy winner on Saturday Night Live.
On November 18, a virtual evening of cooking insights, techniques, and foodie exploration will be delivered as Illinois Libraries Present and the Rock Island and Silvis Public Libraries host a presentation of J. Kenji López-Alt: A Journey Through Food & Science, a delightful how-to program with the award-winning cookbook author and New York Times food columnist.
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 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.”
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.”
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."
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.”
Boasting more than 15,000 followers on social media and performances alongside the likes of Chris Janson, Dallas Moore, and Confederate Railroad, country-music singer/songwriter John PayCheck and his Cavalry Band headline a November 10 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the rising talent a 2024 guest of the Grand Ole Opry and Academy of Western Artists Award nominee for “Country Album of the Year.”
Lauded by Country Central as an artist who "fuses funk, Southern rock, and soul into his own unique style of country music," singer/songwriter Ben Chapman headlines a November 11 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his most recent album Downbeat inspiring Americana UK to rave, "The songs on this record are well constructed both musically and lyrically, covering an eclectic range of musical styles."
With the Orange Country Register calling the production “electrifying” and the Los Angeles Times labeling it “the most unique tribute show in decades,” the touring sensation Beatles vs. Stones: A Musical Showdown makes a stop at Davenport's Capitol Theatre on November 13, filling the Davenport venue with some of the most electrifying and beloved songs made famous by two of history's most iconic bands.
Acclaimed by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for their "rich voices and exhilarating rhythms," the Zimbabwe-based female a cappella group Nobunto performs two intimate public concerts during their tenure as Quad City Arts Visiting Artists, the ensemble's November 13 appearances finding the talents at the Geneseo Public Library at 2 p.m. and Moline's Butterworth Center 6:30 p.m.
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.
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, November 6: Discussion of Bugonia, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Hedda, Ballad of a Small Player, and KPop Demon Hunters, and previews of Predator: Badlands, Christy, Die My Love, Nuremberg, Sarah's Oil, It Was Just an Accident, Frankenstein, Train Dreams, Kren Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring ... . And those aren't even the only films opening this weekend!
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.
Because the presentation is so confident and the film's look so distinctive, it might take a while to realize just how bad Black Phone 2 actually is.
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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