An engaging and fascinating exhibit developed by the Davenport venue's curatorial staff, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's Indigenous Roots of Mexican Americans will, beginning March 22, treat guests to artifacts and textiles from areas in Mexico that are housed together alongside some 250,000 objects from the Putnam’s collections.
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With his amazing feats of prestidigitation witnessed on America’s Got Talent, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Masters of Illusion, and Penn & Teller: Fool Us, noted illusionist Leon Etienne brings his touring spectacle Magic Rocks! to Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on March 22, a jaw-dropping, family-friendly stage spectacular featuring the world’s best illusions, award-winning sleight of hand, and hilarious comedy.
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Delivering a three-night mega-event that will also be broadcast on pay-per-view, the mixed-martial-arts spectacle Caged Aggression XXXIX: The Triad will take place at the Davenport RiverCenter March 20 through 22, with 68 supremely talented MMA greats facing off in the nightly battles "Origins," "Rising Warriors," and "Ascendance."
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A fascinating exploration of both a well-known German-American blacksmith and a revolutionary addition to the transportation industry, Immigrant Innovators: The Fruehauf Trailer Company will be on display at Davenport's German American Heritage Center from March 23 through June 29, the exhibit offering insight into the company’s origins, its development over the decades, and its ultimate downfall after the Fruehauf family’s involvement.
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Presented as part of the Davenport venue's popular “Kaffee und Kuchen” series, the German American Center's March 23 program Singing Wheels: August Fruehauf & the History of the Fruehauf Trailer Company will find August's granddaughter Ruth Fruehauf celebrating the exhibit opening of Immigrant Innovators: The Fruehauf Trailer Company, August's invention of the truck trailer having played a key role in transforming transportation in the 20th century.
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Representative Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines) recently told me he was “astonished” by some Chicago Transit Authority employee paychecks. Representative Moylan, the Chair of the House Transportation: Rail Systems, Roads, and Bridges Committee, is heading into the transit-funding discussions armed with an inch-and-a-half-thick binder filled with CTA salary data. The agency’s gross payroll for all employees in 2024 was close to a billion dollars.
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Saturday March 8, 2025 the 6th Annual Oberholzter Awards were hosted by the Nahant Marsh organization at The Bend event center in East Moline, Illinois. This year's award winners are listed below along with more information about why each was nominated and chosen for the award.
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Advocates say a major storm is brewing that could overwhelm the state’s child foster-care system. The problem is legal liability insurance, or, more specifically, the lack thereof.
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In 2023, Dr Allen Diercks and former Scott County Supervisor Diane Holst enlisted Attorney Mike Meloy's expertise in a lawsuit to force transparency on the part of of our elected public officials with respect to the people's representation. I can't encourage and urge people enough to read the case documents for a great lesson in how government service is supposed to work according to law, but how said service often goes awry.
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The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision and ruled that the public should have access to county-supervisor applications maintained by Scott County. (Full ruling available at IowaCourts.gov/courtcases/21492/embed/SupremeCourtOpinion.) The case involves the Scott County Board of Supervisors, which experienced a midterm vacancy in December 2022 when one member resigned.
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Winner of five Tony Awards and one of the most memorable, iconic, and popular musicals of the last several decades, legendary composer Stephen Sondheim's Assassins enjoys a March 21 through 23 staging at the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center, a production performed by students in the university's Department of Fine and Performing Arts. A twisty, tuneful tale of famed and obscure killers (and would-be killers), the show was lauded by the New York Times for its “astonishing score” in which “sly distortions of familiar musical tropes approximate the skewed ways in which these characters hear everyday melodies.”
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The art-deco ties for the gentlemen and lovely dresses on the ladies made the whole evening feel like a true blast from the past.
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For those those who "aaaarrrrrr" ready for some hilarious, musical fun on the high seas, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse will be staging the eagerly awaited return of the family comedy How I Became a Pirate from March 25 through April 19, this sublimely silly show adapted from the beloved children's book written by Melinda Long with illustrations by David Shannon.
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A Tony Award-winning drama and the seventh play in author August Wilson's legendary 10-part series The Pittsburgh Cycle, Two Trains Running will enjoy a national-tour stop at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on March 26, this lauded production by The Acting Company and director Lili-Anne Brown treating audiences to the 1990 stage classic that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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The 19th-century author of some of history's creepiest stories will serve as the inspiration for mistaken-identity hilarity when Geneseo's Richmond Barn Theatre opens its 2025 season with The Tell-Tale Farce, playwright Don Zolidis' witty and wacky comedy slapstick that enjoys an area engagement April 3 through 13.
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Praised by AllMusic for their “intriguing and quite effective blend of hard melodic rock with progressive rock tendencies and awesome vocal arrangements,” the musicians of the iconic rock ensemble Head East bring their "Flat as a Pancake 50th Anniversary Tour" to Davenport's Adler Theatre on March 21, performing cuts from their 1975 album debut 14 years after being inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association's Hall of Fame.
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Described by the Examiner as “a band unlike any other” and by Blurt magazine as “a hybrid of Idris Muhammad, George Clinton, Ohio Players, and Earth, Wind & Fire,” the tightly-wrapped funk, rock, and R&B musicians of Here Come the Mummies headline a March 21 concert at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, their infectious grooves leading The Bob & Tom Show co-host Bob Kevoian to call one of their concerts “the most fun I've had in 20 years.”
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Delivering high-energy numbers from an album inspired by the musical worlds of the Grateful Dead and New Orleans funk, a rock, folk, and psychedelia master bring Joe Marcinek’s Dead Folk Summit to Davenport's Redstone Room on March 21, this singular night of entertainment boasting performers Melody Trucks, The Fitzkee Brothers, and others alongside Marcinek himself.
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Ever since the 2018 musical bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody won four Academy Awards and grossed more than $215 million domestic and $875 million worldwide, Freddie Mercury and Queen have been hotter than ever – which is sure to be proven by the raucous crowd response on March 22 when Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK pays tribute to the iconic British rockers in the stage spectacle One Night of Queen performed by Gary Mullen & the Works.
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A thrilling night of high-energy blues is guaranteed at the Davenport RiverCenter on March 22 when the venue hosts a shared headlining event with two masterful blues outfits: the Madison, Wisconsin-based touring artists of The Jimmys, and the homegrown talents of the Avey Grouws Band.
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“You know which reviews of yours I really like?” asked a friend not long ago. “The short ones.” Taking that as a compliment for my more succinct pieces and not as the insult it almost certainly was, here are 300-word takes on the half-dozen movies I saw between Thursday and Sunday. They're presented in order of viewing, and preceded by five-word synopses that might, in effect, provide greater impetus to see or ignore said films than the subsequent wordage ever could.
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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, March 20: Discussion of The Electric State, Black Bag, Novocaine, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Opus, and Omni Loop, and previews of Snow White, Locked, and The Alto Knights, the latter featuring Robert De Niro acting opposite a first-time co-star: Robert De Niro.
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Bong's latest may not be Parasite, but the writer/director's adaptation of Edward Ashton's 2022 novel Mickey7 is still an almost overwhelming amount of fun.
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An iconic title from Hong Kong's legendary writer/director Wong Kar-wai enjoys a special screening in the Figge Art Museum's springtime Free Film at the Figge series, with In the Mood for Love, on March 27, treating audiences to a work the New York Times called "breathtakingly gorgeous," and one that was included on Sight & Sound's esteemed list of the greatest motion pictures of all time.
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Now playing at area theaters.
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A wide and beautiful variety of artistic media will be showcased in the latest group exhibition at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center gallery, with Davis-Salazar, Weiland, & Regional Woodturners, through March 21, boasting new paintings by Katrina Davis-Salazar, sculptural ceramics by Brant Weiland, and 20 works by nine of the region’s best woodturners.
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Nearly 200 works by gifted student artists will be on display at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center from March 28 through May 1 in the expansive 48th High School Art Invitational, a glorious celebration of local talent featuring the Quad Cities’ most promising artists expressing themselves through paintings, drawings, sculpture, paper, recycled materials, and film.
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With the gifted artist on hand to introduce her exhibition, artistic practice, and techniques, an exhibit celebration and artist talk for Louise Kames: I Don’t See Anything That’s Not Beautiful will take place at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on April 3. Focused on creating works that explore the beauty of natural decay, the line between life and death, and what remains after, Kames will reflect on both her career and her current Figge showcase, which boasts large woodcut prints and charcoal and pastel drawings of a dying willow tree from her yard in Dubuque,
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A fascinating and absorbing collection of abstract art is currently on view in the Black Hawk College ArtSpace Gallery, as gifted Midwestern artist Kent Broadbent showcases recent works in New & Improved, the fascinating pieces on display through April 4.
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Notable and engaging works by 10 artists from Iowa and Illinois will be housed in the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through April 29, with Moline's airport showcasing floral paintings by Kathleen Rietz, landscape paintings by Evan Ventris, and 19 works by eight of the region’s finest woodturners.