Even though it’s been closed nearly three months, Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse got a pretty great 43rd birthday present Thursday, June 11. Within a day of announcing it, the theater sold out all tables (totaling about 140 people) for its unique “Music on the Marquee” cabaret on Sunday, June 21. “The public is hungry to […]
What a difference a year makes… On June 11, 2019, I was lucky enough to be among the 11,000 or so packed into Moline’s TaxSlayer Center (11th row center on the floor) to witness the first (and possibly last) performance of Sir Paul McCartney and his band in the Quad-Cities. It was an electrifying, unforgettable […]
They say every dog has its day. Well, starting last July, Harley – a beloved 10-year-old Golden Retriever owned by Kim Findlay and her husband, Rick Brackey — had quite a year. Findlay, 60, retired last June 30 as president/CEO of the Putnam Museum & Science Center, which she led for 12 years. She also […]
Mercado on Fifth in Moline has won a big financial boost from the state of Illinois. The five-year-old nonprofit in Moline’s Floreciente neighborhood was approved by Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for nearly $500,000 as part of $11 million in state funding for 32 minority-owned businesses and […]
Joining the cavalcade of Quad-Cities cultural offerings impacted by Covid-19, the 49th-annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival in Davenport also is moving online this year, July 31 and Aug. 1. It had been scheduled for the Rhythm City Casino Event Center in Davenport, but bands this time will record videos that can be seen for […]
After 40 years of drawing crowds to Walcott, Iowa, off I-80, the annual Truckers Jamboreee will be virtual this July 9-11, including an online Antique Truck Show; Super Truck Beauty Contest; Trucker’s Best Friend Pet Contest and free meals for drivers. “The good news is we will most definitely continue with our long-standing tradition of […]
After 11 weeks being closed due to the coronavirus, the Putnam Museum & Science Center is taking longer to reopen than many other Iowa businesses and organizations, in order to present a new visitor experience. The 153-year-old Davenport institution, at 1717 W. 12th St., has been closed since March 16, and is planning to reopen […]
Several Q-C arts and cultural organizations received emergency relief funding, among 173 grants throughout Iowa announced Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (IDCA). The department awarded more than $1.1 million in grants — $923,372 for emergency relief and another $178,000 in humanities grants to help Iowa cultural organizations rebound from the financial impacts […]
Sept. 30, 2016 was one of the best nights of my life. At the Boho Chic Gallery in downtown Davenport’s Bucktown Center for the Arts, I was surrounded by friends, samples of Front Street beer (including its Bucktown Stout), and copies of my first book, “A Brief History of Bucktown: Davenport’s Infamous District Transformed.” It […]
America in late May 2020 turned into a dystopian hellscape of grief, loss, and rage. A relentless global pandemic has killed over 100,000 U.S. citizens just since March; 40 million are on unemployment; a nation has been tense, restless and confused in shutdown, and 75 cities were plunged into chaos and violence this past weekend […]
