Saturday in the Arts is a weekly feature covering a trend, subject, event or personality of local interest. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for the best entertainment and arts coverage in the area, QuadCities.com! After a relentlessly punishing pandemic of 17 months (and counting) that’s attacked our bodies, souls and bank accounts, what could be better than four days and nights of free fun, on both sides of the mighty Mississippi? For the first time since it launched in August 2017, Alternating Currents is expanding in a big way beyond its downtown Davenport roots for 100-plus events... Read More

Despite the brutal Covid pandemic, film and TV production in Illinois last year spent nearly $362 million, down 35% from about $560 million spent in 2019. Doug Miller of Davenport – who heads the Quad Cities Production Coalition – wants to see some of that money come to the Illinois Q-C area. He is working with state and local officials on establishing a regional film office in Rock Island, and is bringing Illinois Film Office director Peter Hawley to the Rock Island Holiday Inn on Thursday, Aug. 19, to talk about state filming incentives and financing. It’s among first events in the Quad-Cities... Read More

It’s summer, covid is fading, and spirits are high for new beginnings and positivity! And we here at QuadCities.com, as we do every month, are giving you a dose of that positivity with our What’s The Good News column! Every month, we, in conjunction with our friends and partners at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” give you a rundown of some of the positive things going on in and around the Quads. So, what’s the good news for this month? Here ya go… Quad City Arts Metro Arts Is Coloring Moline The Quad City Arts Metro Arts Youth Apprenticeship Program has... Read More

Artists in Conversation is a weekly column running Wednesdays on QuadCities.com. It features a conversation with a local creator or creators going into their artistic process, projects and more. Get to know your local arts scene and local creators better on QuadCities.com with Artists In Conversation! If you’re a local creator and would like to be featured, please email us at Sean@QuadCities.com or Tristan@QuadCities.com! This week our Artists in Conversation from QuadCities.com features Justin Marxen. Justin Marxen – actor, filmmaker, husband, father, all around goodfella – makes... Read More

The latest film from Quad-Cities born-and-raised duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, “65,” starring Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt, has gotten its Sony Pictures summer 2022 release date — May 13. That’s the only big-budget film set to open that weekend at this time. Beck and Woods, who have been making films since they were teens in the Quad-Cities in the late ’90s and early ’00s, finally broke through big time with their script to “A Quiet Place,” which was followed by the successful directorial debut of the duo with “Haunt.” “65”... Read More

“65,” the new science-fiction thriller from former Bettendorf filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (“A Quiet Place”) will be soundtracked by a familiar name — Danny Elfman. The Oscar-nominated Elfman has been a legendary figure over the past several decades, doing the soundtracks for massive hits including Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and Dumbo; Raimi’s Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Oz the Great and Powerful; and Gus Van Sant’s Academy Award-nominated films Good Will Hunting and Milk. Elfman, who... Read More

We’re headed into the home stretch today! This week, every day since Sunday, we’ve been running down the top arts and entertainment stories and features we’ve run on QuadCities.com. We hope you’ve enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! To check out the previous installments, see Sunday for January/February, Monday for March, Tuesday for April, Wednesday morning for May/June and Wednesday afternoon for July/August. Today we hit the final four months of the year! This morning we’ve got September and October,... Read More

It’s been a rough year, honchos. So, damn it, you OWE IT to yourself to check out Khalil’s Christmas Special, sponsored by QuadCities.com. Yes. You OWE it to yourself. Khalil’s Covid Christmas Special premieres December 20, and will be a Christmas Special for the ages! Join your hosts, Khalil Hacker and Tristan Tapscott as they wrap up this dumpster fire year the only way they know how… with a Christmas special! Filled with surprise guest stars, a fruit cake eating contest and many laughs! Shot safely in the beautiful Renwick Mansion of Davenport Iowa! Sit back, poor some... Read More

How do you spell an upcoming film blockbuster? Add star Adam Driver to a sci-fi thriller written and directed by Bettendorf natives Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-produced by the legendary Sam Raimi. “We’re still pinching ourselves with this news,” Beck and Woods tweeted on Tuesday of the planned pic “65.” “Adam Driver will be the star of the next film we’re directing for Sony. He’s one of our favorite artists on the planet. Can’t wait to share this special movie with all of you.” In May, Variety reported a reunion for Beck and Woods (both 35-year-old Bettendorf... Read More

I want to give kudos to Rein Razer. In our story earlier this week on QuadCities.com on her upcoming burlesque show, Rein Razer’s Court of Royalty, coming to Village Theater tonight, she said the following:   “I got the idea from how the Speakeasy was doing their booking for shows.”   Seems simple, right? Just actually acknowledging that you got the idea for something from someone else on the local arts scene. But you’d be surprised at how little this is done. More often, much more often, people have an incredible selective amnesia about things others in the scene... Read More