Hosted by River Action and themed "“A Piece of a Larger Puzzle," the 19th-Annual Upper Mississippi River Conference will be held at Moline's Stoney Creek Inn & Convention Center on October 15 and 16, the event designed to bring together conservationists, policymakers, scientists, students, and community leaders to collaborate on holistic solutions for the Mississippi River and its watershed.
A wildly popular touring stage event based on one of the most successful TV game shows of all time, Wheel of Fortune Live! brings the big wheel to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on October 16, with contestants selected from the audience for the chance to solve puzzles and win fantastic prizes, including destination trips to Paris and Hawaii and up $10,000 in cash.
Even in the world of dance, it's not surprising when a successful original inspires a sequel, and on October 17 and 18, a Halloween-themed one comes to Moline's Spotlight Theatre in the form of Ballet Quad Cities' More Twisted Tales of Poe.
Delivering a two-night mega-event that will also be broadcast on pay-per-view, the mixed-martial-arts spectacle Caged Aggression XL: The Big Show will take place at the Davenport RiverCenter October 17 and 18, with more than two dozen supremely talented MMA greats facing off in the nightly battles.
On October 18, Rock Island's Dan Vinar Furniture Company (and current Rock Island Haunted Roadhouse), will host the 2025 Quad Cities Archives Fair, allowing the public to experience Quad Cities history by visiting with regional cultural and historical organizations, learning about unique collections and services, listening to talks on historical topics, and discovering some of the area's hidden gems.
The problem? Corporate tax cuts passed by Congress in July “may offset much of the anticipated corporate tax revenue growth” from state-level reforms. The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected last week the current fiscal year’s budget will run a $267 million deficit. The budget office recommended taking “immediate” action to plug the hole.
The announcement last week that the Illinois AFL-CIO was withdrawing from the “agreed-bill process” at least forty years after its inception took almost everyone by surprise, but nobody was really shocked. For years, whenever the group engaged in carefully-constructed negotiations with business interests on workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, labor leaders would grumble privately that most other states don’t have a similar process.
Overhead, Iowa's landscape is a quilt of green patches of cornfields stitched together by highways that connect its 934 cities. It’s a picturesque Grant Wood painting of rural America. But from the ground, these fields feel very different.
While most voters have turned a blind eye to election irregularities that revealed themselves both in 2020 and 2024, there are still courageous, thoughtful, and measured Americans who continue to research and compile irrefutable hard evidence with the expectation that one day, the culprits will be exposed, prosecuted, and punished and fair, secure, honest elections restored to the people.
One of the reasons a giant energy-related bill failed to pass the Illinois General Assembly last spring was because organized labor remained neutral. At least one union opposed the bill, but overall, the unions weren’t helping to move the ball forward – and they have a whole lot of much-needed legislative muscle.
With the stage hit lauded by Broadway World as "entirely entertaining and enjoyable," the spooky, kooky, ooky musical-comedy version of The Addams Family brings its national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on October 16, this opener to the 2025-26 Broadway at the Adler series treating audiences to a Tony Award-nominated delight inspired by the beloved TV comedy and the iconic cartoon strip by series originator Charles Addams.
Lauded by the New York Times as a "brutal satire about mythmaking" and by the Hollywood Reporter as "something for which to be truly thankful," author Larissa FastHorse's comedy The Thanksgiving Play makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre October 17 through November 2, the show's 2023 New York rendition marking the first time that a female Native American playwright had a play produced on Broadway.
A special one-act version of the hilarious fairytale musical that won Great Britain's 2000 Olivier Award for Best Musical – and triumphed over such contenders as Mamma Mia! and The Lion King – the family entertainment Honk! Jr. will be staged by the young talents at Davenport Junior Theatre October 11 through 19 demonstrating why Broadway World said the show boasts “plenty for kids, parents, and grandparents to enjoy.”
A Noël Coward masterpiece boasting period elegance, touching romance, loads of laughs, and more than a hint of the supernatural graces the stage at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre October 24 through November 2, the British classic Blithe Spirit treating audiences to one of the most popular comedies of 20th Century world theatre, as well as the show whose most recent Broadway version won co-star Angela Lansbury her fifth Tony Award.
If Halloween is approaching, it must be time for that theatrical command: “Let's do the 'Time Warp' again!” Consequently, the Circa '21 Speakeasy will stage its 10th-anniversary presentation of the cult-musical smash The Rocky Horror Show October 24 through 31, treating audiences to live performances of classic songs in this nutty, interactive experience that has been delighting show regulars and virgins alike for more than half a century.
Globally touring sensations who have routinely sold out international theatres and concert halls since their 1999 debut, the talents of MANIA: The ABBA Tribute bring their stage spectacle back to Davenport's Adler Theatre on October 15, thrilling patrons with such iconic pop anthems and familiar Mamma Mia! tunes as “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “The Winner Takes It All,” and “Take a Chance on Me.”
Hailed by the SA Examiner as an artist who "has made a career of romanticizing the past, the human condition, and looking at love and relationships through dark-tinted lenses," Romanian American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vlad Holiday headlines an October 15 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his 2024 debut album My Favorite Drug praised by Atwood magazine as "an intimate and all-consuming 'indie noir' record full of raw reflection and inner reckoning."
With their 2023 album Vacationland hailed by Motif magazine as a recording that "rocks like it’s opening a portal to another dimension," guitarist/songwriter and Quad Cities native Ryan Flaherty and drummer/vocalist Erika Stahl bring their outfit Muddy Ruckus to Players in the Village of East Davenport, their October 16 engagement treating fans to what The Sound hailed as "infectious, foot-stomping Americana tunes."
Currently touring in support of their fifth LP No Fun in the Chrysalis, a February release hailed by Folk Alley for songs that "shine gem-like, sparkling with the light of love and joy," the Midwestern artists of Them Coulee Boys enjoy a headlining engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel on October 16, the group inspiring Jam & Toast to rave, "With a unique blend of Americana, folk-rock, bluegrass, and punk influences, they have cultivated a sound that is both familiar and refreshingly original."
These work products are considered a parody inspired by the original songs. And, given Lydia Electrum's focus on restoring the republic via sound money, namely using gold and silver, we have coined (pun intended) these series of songs "Parody Gold."
A sci-fi excursion that's neither as scientific as you may need nor as fictional as you may want, Tron: Ares finds the fate of humanity resting in the hands of either a global-weaponry mogul or a video-game mastermind. So, you know, we're pretty much effed any way you slice it.
In recent years, it was starting to look as though Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was no longer capable of genuine screen rapport with anyone. Turns out he very much is. Maybe he just needed a true kindred spirit to share some with.
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 2: Before Mike takes next week off, discussion of One Battle After Another, The Strangers: Chapter 2, Dead of Winter, and Eleanor the Great, and previews of The Smashing Machine, Good Boy, Anemone, and the new Taylor Swift experience. Mike won't be seeing that one. A handful of others probably will.
What do you get when you give $130-175 million to a filmmaker who, after nearly 30 years in the business, has never helmed a blockbuster, or even a movie that grossed more than $41 million domestic? If you're Warner Bros., which granted a nine-figure budget to Paul Thomas Anderson, you probably get all sorts of happy, because the writer/director's new screwball epic One Battle After Another is going through the roof in every imaginable way. Better still, it deserves to.
Now playing at area theaters.
On October 16, guests of Davenport's Figge Art Museum are invited to watch a recorded fashion program in the second-floor John Deere Auditorium, with historical costumier Ninya Mikhaila's fascinating program Stitching up History - Clothing in NGA Portraiture being held in conjunction with the current exhibition The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the National Gallery of Art.
A dazzling, visually rich celebration of fascinating felines and the artists who love them, the Figge Art Museum exhibition Cats! can currently be viewed in the Davenport venue's third-floor gallery, and on October 23, a Scholar Talk on both the exhibit and the animal will be presented by Dr. Amy Freund and Dr. Michael Yonan, co-authors of the Journal18 article “Cats: The Soft Underbelly of the Enlightenment."
A trio of gifted artists, and a quartet of disparate artistic mediums, will be showcased in the latest exhibition at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery, the gallery's display cases, through October 29, housing new furniture and sculpture by John Schwartzkopf, fabric collages by Heather Steckler and paper collage by Lauren Pesta.
Featuring presidential portraits and an array of images showcasing the University of Dubuque's evolving campus, all reminders of the rich tradition and enduring mission that continue to shape UD today, Stewards of Our Story: A Legacy of Leadership at the University of Dubuque will be on display in the university's Bisignano Art Gallery through October 31, the exhibit and its opening reception aptly timed for the 2025 Homecoming celebration.
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.
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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