In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, the city's The Last Picture House will host the August 12 event TEDxDavenport, a local, self-organized event that brings people together to share a TED-like experience, and that will find six gifted speakers – including Quad Cities residents – sparking deep discussion and connection through a number of fascinating subjects.
Taking place in two states and among more than 40 local venues, the popular summertime traveling festival Alternating Currents returns to downtown Davenport and other Quad Cities locales from August 13 through 17 – an area-wide celebration of music, film, comedy, and the arts boasting more than 200 music performances, comedy sets, film screenings, local art displays, and family activities.
With the Midwest Writing Center's literary magazine THE ATLAS celebrating the publication of its 21st volume, a release party, open-mic night, and KAS concert honoring the Young Emerging Writers (YEW) program will be held at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox on August 13, the evening boasting readings from YEW alumni and copies of new and back issues of THE ATLAS available for purchase.
From August 13 through 15, an eagerly awaited summertime tradition returns both on and in between the LeClaire and Port Byron Levees, as the 2026 Great River Tug Fest delivers outdoor family fun with carnival attractions, live music, arts and crafts vendors, fireworks displays, and the hotly anticipated tug-of-war over the Mississippi River.
Those who love dinosaurs and all things Mesozoic will be in Putnam Museum & Science Center paradise when the venue welcomes families to this year's August 15 and 16 Dino Days – a family-friendly, specialty-ticketed weekend event boasting crafts, activities, a fossil dig, and screenings of the Pixar hit The Good Dinosaur and the international box-office smash Jurassic Park.
Senator Rand Paul recently revealed an interesting, albeit jarring, fact about Congressional oversight of the intelligence community in D.C. Senator Paul explained that only eight members of Congress, four from the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee (HPSIC) and four from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSIC), are privy to the activities of the CIA and the FBI.
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch promised the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) last week that he will “lead” the effort to send more state money to Chicago Public Schools during the upcoming fall veto session.
By now, you’ve probably read at least something about the scandals surrounding former state Representative Harry Benton, D-Plainfield. In a nutshell, a young female district office staffer alleged Representative Benton sexually harassed her in 2023.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted by the second Continental Congress of the 13 united states, and soon after sent to King George III to serve as notice of the 13 former colonies' separation from Great Britain, including future jurisdiction and all subsequent authorities of the Crown.
The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223,000 in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual end balance was $101,000 higher than it had reported the day before. But that bit of found money was basically the end of the “good news” for the GOP last week.
Hailed by The Guardian as "an incredibly fun, energetic performance" that "remixes some of your favorite moments from the show with a new and touching story," the stage version of a children's-TV sensation hits Davenport's Adler Theatre on August 11 and 12 in Bluey's Big Play, a blend of live actors and puppetry that, The Guardian continued, "doesn’t shy away from sharing honest truths while celebrating imaginative play."
Lauded by the New York Daily News as "consistently entertaining" and by Newsday as "a major treat," Steve Martin's hit comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile enjoys an August 20 through 30 run at Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, the New York Post adding to the praise by calling the show "highly credible" and "very funny" with "giggles in plenty [and] moments of enlightenment."
A dramatic landmark whose 2026 Broadway return recently won six Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Play, Arthur Miller's timeless Death of a Salesman serves as the debut production in a new collaboration between the Mockingbird on Main and Black Hawk College, the show's August 20 through 29 run at Black Hawk treating audiences to an undisputed classic playing locally fewer than two weeks after its New York run ended.
Nostalgia has a funny way of raising the stakes. A mediocre presentation wouldn’t just be disappointing; it would feel like someone had replaced my ruby slippers with muddy boots and then trounced all over my childhood memories. Thankfully, director Tony Parise’s production bursts to life with color, imagination, and obvious affection for the material.
Touring in support of their most recent album Distroid that, according to Rock the Body Electric, "touches on everything from prog to country to reggae as the band stretches out and flows," the genre-bending musicians of Dogs in a Pile headline an August 12 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room at Common Chord, the group's output also hailed by Go-Set.net as "fun and jovial, hot and sexy, funky and weird, contemplative and dreamy."
With his most recent album Texas to Tennessee hailed by Album of the Year as “a fun, lighthearted, and breezy country-pop project from one of neotraditional country's most underrated '90s artists,” the chart-topping Texan Clay Walker brings his "Doin' What I Love Tour 2026" to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on August 14, the artist having debuted six chart-topping hits and a dozen acclaimed studio albums over a career of more than three decades.
Having already won 20 awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association and 23 from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America, the Grammy-nominated bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent – composed of guitarists, bassists, and vocalists Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent – will perform music that speaks to faith, family, hope, and the journey they have walked together when their "A Beautiful Life Tour" comes to the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center on August 15.
With the headliner performing in his four-octave vocal range and backed by some of the nations best musicians, the touring sensation Rick Lindy's A Black & White Night: A Salute to the Legendary Roy Orbison lands at Maquoketa's Ohnward Fine Arts Center on August 15, this exhilaration celebration of the music legend designed to delight audiences of all ages and get them dancing in their seats.
Transforming its gardens into one of the region's most memorable concert experiences, Rock Island's Quad City Botanical Center will host a special "Bluegrass on the Grass" music event on August 16, allowing guests, as surrounded by blooms, trees, and fellow music lovers, to experience an unforgettable night with the artists of Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain String Band.
There are essentially three plotlines fighting for space in director Destin Daniel Cretton's Spider-Man: Brand New Day – even though, given its generous 145-minute running length, you wouldn't think any in-fighting was necessary.
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, August 6: Discussion of Spider Man: Brand New Day, and previews of One Night Only, I Want Your Sex, Maddie's Secret, Ice Cream Man, and Super Troopers 3. Mike claims he's never seen a Super Troopers before. One minute after the segment ended, Dave proved him wrong by pulling up Mike's 2018 review of Super Troopers 2. Not a good sign of how memorable the third one might be.
It's not that the characters can't talk. They just don't, or do without our being able to hear them, and that makes many of the goings-on here silly to the point of absurdity.
Christopher Nolan appears seriously invested in our enjoyment, and there are many, many sequences in this grandly scaled adventure as thrilling, juicy, and ticklish as any that 2026 has thus-far produced. Those demanding fidelity to Homer are likely gonna hate it.
Now playing at area theaters.
New works by a pair of gifted artists, working in vastly different mediums, will be on display at the Quad City Arts Center from August 13 through October, staffers at the Rock Island venue proud to house paintings by Colleen McCarty-Tomlinson and marbled-paper works by Connie Sherman.
Taking as its inspiration a beloved television series starring Lynda Carter, visual artist Dara Birnbaum's Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman will be on view in Davenport's Figge Art Museum through August 16, the video one of the best-known creations from the talent who borrowed imagery and sound to compose powerful, politically charged video works.
A fascinating collaborative art installation that invites viewers to return to a place before definition, Amniotic Ambiguity: Comparative Embryology to Queering a Space will be on display in Augustana College's Wallenberg Hall through August 20, artists Maggie Adams and Aykeem Spivey demonstrating how, in this period of incubation, black-or-white thinking is disrupted by a bold labor of love.
With its venue transformed into a space to honor and celebrate the creativity of four graduating digital art and design majors before they step into the world as professional designers, the 2026 DART Senior Thesis Show will be on display at the University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery throughout the summer, this annual exhibit an energetic mix of illustration, motion design, and digital painting.
With the artists encouraging their audience to pause and find hidden details in their work., two Midwestern talents are showcasing pieces at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through August 31, the Bowden & Shultz-Hetrick exhibit hosting abstract paintings by Peotone, Illinois' James Bowden and fused-glass art by Cedar Rapids' Barbara Shultz-Hetrick.
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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