If you close your eyes during the terrific, open-hearted, snarky musical “Holiday Inn,” now at Music Guild in Moline, there is virtually no way to tell that the incredibly talented, dedicated volunteer performers are singing with cloth masks on. (Precise diction helps and those must be powerful body mics, thank God.) As we approach our third year of the interminable Covid pandemic, the Prospect Park theater is continuing to abide by the strict Illinois regulations that require everyone above age 2 to wear face masks while in indoor public places. That makes theater-going more safe and secure... Read More

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! What if you got a call one day from a stranger saying that you won half a million dollars? Not from a lottery, but in honor of your amazing career, and the money (paid out over five years) carried no strings in how it could be spent? Since 1981, 942 people (ranging in age from 18 to 82) have been named MacArthur Fellows – with so-called “genius grants” from the John... Read More

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! Josh Turner is the name of a successful, 43-year-old country artist. More importantly to me and my family, Josh Turner is the name of my younger son, a 21-year-old extraordinary musical artist in his own right. Though I have long known Josh to be a multi-talented musician, the depth and meaning of his sweeping, varied, dazzling artistry didn’t become clear or as important... Read More

In the past 24 hours, a review on this site of Countryside Community Theater’s “The Music Man” written by Tristan Tapscott has become embroiled in controversy. So much so that it prompted a guest column from local actor Lou Hare, and my invitation, still open, for any other interested parties to send me rebuttals to Tristan’s review. As always, we look forward to hearing from people and stimulating conversation about the local arts scene, whether the responses are pro or con, particularly in regard to a review, which is an opinion of the writer meant to prompt thought and... Read More

Believe it or not, the classic Bucktown building in downtown Davenport was once a pretty wild and rowdy place. You can learn more about it during a new Zoom program taking place at 6 p.m. Monday, called Davenport’s Bucktown in 1903: “Worst Town in America.” A 1903 editorial in the Chicago Record-Herald claimed our very own Davenport swiped New York City’s title as the “Worst Town in America.” Join author Jonathan Turner, our very own arts and entertainment reporter for QuadCities.com, for a look at what earned Bucktown such a dubious honor. Jonathan literally... Read More

It’s Sunday, and QuadCities.com proudly presents FUN10, a list of the top 10 things to do in the Quad Cities this week, and every week! Every Sunday, we drop a new FUN10, to give you a head start on your week and a heads up on what’s going on over the coming seven days. Check out FUN10 every Sunday for the details on ten awesome events happening around town. It’s a cool read, and a great way to get started planning your entertainment for the week. FUN10 — ten ways for you to have fun in the Quad-Cities, this week and every week, running every Sunday, only on your site for fun, free, local... Read More

It’s time for our look back at the year that was in arts and entertainment, 2020. Every day between now and New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, we’ll be posting a story painting the big picture on the year, a couple months each day. We hope you enjoy the look back, and let’s all hope for a happy new year and a much, much, much, much better 2021! Here’s today’s installment, where we look at the longest month of the year, and probably the decade, that being MARCH OF 2020. I think if there’s a time during the year that encapsulates 2020, it’s this time. March was complete and... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a comprehensive weekly feature looking at a trend, personality, or major subject involving the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene. Making it through nearly five months of a paralyzing pandemic was bad enough, but for those of us in Iowa and the Quad-Cities, Aug. 10, 2020 and the days that followed seemed especially cruel. I’ll never forget that Monday afternoon, working on my laptop in the basement, a prisoner in my home trying not to go insane during a crazy year. The power suddenly went out, as a freak inland hurricane (or “derecho” – duh-RAY-cho – as everyone... Read More

Like most musicians, Joe Nichols is just glad to be back playing live in front of a paying audience. The 43-year-old Arkansas native will bring his traditional country sound to Murphy Park at The Bend, East Moline, Saturday at 8 p.m. It’s an acoustic show with a few other accompanying performers, and two opening acts. This is the first concert at the park (next to The Hyatt, Bend Event Center, and near The Rust Belt) since Sept. 11, 2019, when Murphy Park concluded its 2019 summer concert series. “Any time we can play live, we look forward to it,” Nichols, who lives in Tyler, Tex., said in... Read More

“If you work in the media, you’re going to get fired.” My college Journalism 101 teacher said that to our eager group of 18-year-olds on my first day in his class. Great way to introduce us to his curriculum, and the business, right? He told us it wasn’t meant to be a cautionary statement, merely a pragmatic one. That’s the business. That’s media. Ownership changes, management changes, budgets get cut, formats and directions get shifted, and the people in the trenches are the ones who are usually set loose. You have to have a thick skin, a backup plan, and the ability not to take it... Read More