River Cities' Reader - Issue 874 - January 22, 2015

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 22 No. 874 • January 22 - February 4, 20152 Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 22 No. 874 • January 22 - February 4, 2015 3Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

by Ryan Calhoun

“Terror” as Victim RhetoricGUEST COMMENTARY

The entire purpose of the language of terrorism is to cloak the sentiments of war in a victim rhetoric. You see,

France isn’t “at war”; it’s merely respond-ing to “terror” attacks. Those wretched, vile gunmen are not warriors or soldiers; they’re madmen, lonewolf terrorists.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo’s office on January 7 might otherwise be considered an invasion, an attack from outside forces France has declared war on. But war is far too brutish for the 21st Century, where of course violence is on an inevitable downturn and world peace is just around the corner if not for a few meddling terror cells.

Calling such events “terrorism” is just a way of de-familiarizing people with the concept of war. No matter what, an attack on any Western nation’s soil is terror, wholly undeserved, never the result of an ongoing worldwide conflict but merely the work of crazed individuals.

Delude yourself no longer with these politically correct terms. There’s a war, many Western nations are involved in it, and attacks on your home turf are a result of it. Maybe the neo-cons would be a little less annoying if they stopped trying to dress this up as something else. Maybe people would be more hesitant to simply pick a side and declare the other side nothing more than barbarous lunatics if we actually talked honestly. It would at least do us all the service of clearing up people’s intentions and allow those around us to judge the situation more accurately.

All acts of war involve terror. The horror of war is not a byproduct; it is the intention. One cannot divorce terror from war anymore than one can divorce pleasure from sex. Treating an entire side of a conflict as the mere triggering of emotions among a geopolitical constituency reinforces that society’s self-righteousness and blinds them to the environment of terror present constantly throughout Middle Eastern nations that the West has established.

Perhaps this victim rhetoric has been generated by Western militaries and media mouthpieces because they know the painful truth: Islamic terrorists are simply more efficient in provoking a feeling of helplessness. While the psychological effects of the West’s war of terror on the Arab world (and beyond) cannot be overstated, it is not difficult to notice just how much more reactive and frightened Westerners get when these attacks occur, because they have been sheltered from the results of war for so long.

This is not to say their panic is not without justification. It is perfectly normal to become fearful and aggressive when you realize that no public space is safe, that a

group of extremists could, at any moment, decide to make you a target of their violent political agenda. But because theirs is an act of terror and ours an act of defensive war – or, more sickeningly twisted, a humanitarian intervention – we as a civilization do not have to come face-to-face in our discourse on this most horrifying of realities.

Ryan Calhoun is a philosophy student and activist at the University at Buffalo, as well as a contributing author at the Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS.org), where this article originally appeared.

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From Neighborhood Cops to Robocopsby John W. Whitehead [email protected]

If 2014 was the year of militarized police, armored tanks, and stop-and-frisk searches, 2015 may well

be the year of technologized police, surveillance blimps, and scan-and-frisk searches.

Just as we witnessed neighborhood cops being transformed into soldier cops, we’re about to see them shapeshift once again, this time into robocops, complete with robotic exoskeletons, super-vision contact lenses, computer-linked visors, and mind-reading helmets.

For instance, with the flick of a switch (and often without your even being aware of the interference), police can now shut down your cell phone, scan your body for “suspicious” items as you walk down the street, test the air in your car for alcohol vapors as you drive down the street, identify you at a glance and run a background check on you for outstanding warrants, piggyback on your surveillance devices to listen in on your conversations and “see” what you see on your private cameras, and track your car’s movements via a GPS-enabled dart.

Once these technologies, which used to belong exclusively to the realm of futuristic sci-fi films, have been unleashed on an unsuspecting American public, it will completely change the face of American policing and, in the process, transform the landscape of what we used to call our freedoms.

It doesn’t even matter that these technologies can be put to beneficial uses. As we’ve learned the hard way,

Continued On Page 10


Polls, Money Point to Dems Being More Reticent

by Rich MillerCapitolFax.com

ILLINOIS POLITICS

A solid majority of Illinoisans wants newly inaugurated Governor Bruce Rauner to find common ground with

the Democratic legislative majority rather than be confrontational, a new poll finds. However, most aren’t confident that the state’s leaders can avoid gridlock, and a majority believes Democrats will be to blame.

In a January 15 We Ask America poll, 1,026 registered voters were asked: “Do you think Republican Governor Bruce Rauner should try to solve the state’s problems by working to find common ground with the Democrat-controlled legislature, or should he take a more confrontational approach with the Democrats in trying to solve this state’s many problems?”

Sixty-seven percent said they want Rauner to find common ground, while 22 percent said he should take a more confrontational approach. Another 6 percent said he should do both, and 5 percent were unsure.

Eighty-four percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents wanted him to find common ground, while 76 percent of African Americans and 67 percent of whites said the same.

Every demographic favored the common-ground approach, although only a 49-percent plurality of Republicans did so, as opposed to 36 percent who wanted a more confrontational approach from the GOP governor.

Next question: “Now we would like to know how confident you are that Governor Rauner can avoid gridlock with the Democrat-controlled House and Senate.”

Just 31 percent of Illinoisans were confident that gridlock cold be avoided, while 54 percent said they were not confident. The most “confident” group was Republicans, but even they were outnumbered 46-39 by Republicans who said they weren’t confident.

I think you might get a higher confidence level for compromise at the Statehouse, particularly among folks who have experienced progress under divided government in the past. It rarely accomplishes sweeping changes, but Springfield has a much better track record than Washington, DC – which has a structural bias toward do-nothingness.

“Finally, if Illinois government gets mired in gridlock, who do you think will likely be the cause of the gridlock?” the pollster asked.

Fifty-two percent pointed a finger at

Democrats, while just 20 percent figured the Republican governor would be the cause and another 20 percent said “all of them.”

More specifically, 30 percent said they thought House Speaker Michael Madigan would be to blame, 3 percent said Senate President John Cullerton would likely be the problem, and 19 percent said it would be Madigan and Cullerton together.

Even a 42-percent plurality of Democrats said their own party leaders would be to blame if the state crashes into the gridlock wall. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percent.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by We Ask America on January 14 had Rauner’s approval

rating at 52 percent, with 23 percent disapproving. Speaker Madigan’s numbers were almost the exact reverse, with 26 percent approving versus 55 percent disapproving.

And that’s not the only Democratic deficit.The Democratic legislative leaders spent

down their reserves during last year’s campaign, and ended 2014 with a combined total of $2.8 million in their campaign bank accounts.

Normally, that wouldn’t be too bad. But Rauner dumped $20 million into his campaign coffers before the year ended. That gives him an advantage of better than seven to one.

Rauner has said he will use the money to communicate his message with voters and support his legislative allies. But lots of Springfield folks are wondering who’s going to get whacked by that cash mountain.

And for the first time in memory, the Illinois Republican Party ended a year with more than twice as much cash on hand than Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois: $566,000 for the Illinois GOP and $215,000 for the Democrats. That advantage is mostly due to contributions from Rauner himself.

If you were wondering why people such as me believe Speaker Madigan will hold his fire for quite a while, all you have to do is look at the results from the above two polls and that cash disadvantage. Speaker Madigan knows he and his party will be the fall guys in any war. Rauner will have to take the first shot – and maybe the second and third.

And Madigan had better go out there and raise some more money.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax (a daily political newsletter) and CapitolFax.com.

Even 42 percent of Democrats said their

own party leaders would be to blame

for gridlock.

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I’m on record stating that I was “Les Mis-ed out” after seeing three local produc-

tions of Les Misérables, and facing a fourth, over a year-and-a-half span. Yet after attending the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse’s version on Friday, my love for the material is renewed, as director Jerry Jay Cranford’s staging adds intimacy while still possessing the grandeur of composers Alain Boublil’s and Claude-Michel Schön-berg’s musical masterpiece.

This newly close relationship between show and audience is largely created with the help of scenic designer Susan D. Holgersson’s set. Her raised, stone-wall-like platforms on either side of the stage limit the performance space – which, in turn, makes the relatively small cast (for Les Mis) seem bigger as they fill a more compact area. It also brings the actors closer together, making their characters’ shared experiences seem both claustrophobic and communal, and their cozy convergence had this jaded-from-overexposure reviewer stirred to passion and tears.

The waterworks started in an unexpected spot – when Adam Clough’s nuanced Javert sang “Stars.” The song is about the inspector’s respect for order and truth. Yet Clough, particularly through his use of softer vocals paired with deep emotion, turns the solo into a sort of love song, revealing an underlying affection for the order of God’s creation, and the beauty of right-minded living, that layers this otherwise rather heartless figure. “Stars” makes Javert’s never-ending hunt for parole-breaker Jean Valjean (Don Denton) seem driven more from conviction and honor than merciless commitment to the letter of the law.

Passion also stirred in me during the scene at the ABC Cafe in which Cody Webb’s stalwart Enjolras attempts to enlist his friends to revolt, while Collin O’Connor’s dreamy Marius tells of his newfound love for Cosette (Kimberly Steffen). The players sang with such devotion to their cause that I was almost convinced to sing along and join

is more a believable boy with a youthful zest than a street-hardened urchin. (Brune will alternate playing his role with Gage McCalester.)

Also noteworthy is Ronnie Breedlove’s lighting design, especially his abundant use of spotlights. Oftentimes, the stage lights go black, leaving only one or two spots lit. This allows cast members to fade into the shadows while the story continues, contributing to Cranford’s continuous flow

that helps make the two-and-a-half-hour run-time seem not nearly as long.

Unfortunately, I do take issue with a few of the production’s elements. Holgersson’s otherwise remarkable design includes an underwhelming barricade that’s a painted wall rather than a three-dimensional set piece. James Fairchild’s diction made him difficult to understand during Friday’s performance, so I missed several of his lines. O’Connor didn’t seem to adequately comprehend the meaning of some of his lyrics on opening night, such as when he sang “Hey, little boy, who’s this I see? / God, Éponine, the things you do!” in a flat manner, rather than registering his recognition of Lili Torre’s Éponine (who’s dressed as a boy) midway through his greeting. And Kimberly Steffen’s Cosette, who seemed to enjoy the movement of her hoop skirt too much, came across as a bit of a sickeningly sweet Disney princess.

O’Connor and Steffen (almost) make up for their flaws, however, with flawless, beautiful voices, and taken overall, this production is, in my estimation, among the finest to ever grace the Circa ’21 stage. It says a lot when someone who was tired of Les Misérables is now listening to the soundtrack again, on repeat, and even considering a repeat visit. So: Bravo, Circa ’21! Bravo!

Les Misérables runs at the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse (1828 Third Avenue, Rock Island) through March 21, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)786-7733 extension 2 or visiting Circa21.com.

their crusade – and in truth, the entire cast sings so well, Cranford could’ve set them in place at the front of the stage for the entire performance and the piece would still be fantastic.

Denton, meanwhile, is not only in better voice than I’ve ever heard him, but his Valjean clearly ages as the plot progresses, which doesn’t always happen in productions of Les Mis. With long, loose hair and a bushy beard, his newly released convict is youthful and unkempt in look and spirit as the character wrestles with his disproportionately harsh prison term. Yet once his redemption begins through the grace of Tristan Layne Tapscott’s calm, collected Bishop of Digne, Denton makes the first of many costume changes (from yet another impressive wardrobe line created by designer extraordinaire Gregory Hiatt), pulls his hair back into a ponytail, and adds a touch of gray to it. And as this graying slowly spreads through the course of the show, Denton’s stature gradually fades so that the wiry Valjean we saw at the start of the story becomes, convincingly, the feebler elderly man at its end.

Caitlin Borek underscores her tragic Fantine with a subtle sassiness in the face of the co-workers attempting to get her fired, while Allison Wille’s young Cosette adds an “aw-w-w” factor through her singing voice that’s closer to how children actually sound than you’d hear from a trained professional. (Through Les Mis’ run, Wille will share the role, as well as that of young Éponine, with Lily Leding, Grace Moore, and Elizabeth Mooy.) Joseph Brune’s Gavroche, likewise,

Merci Beaucoup!by Thom White

[email protected]

Vol. 22 · No. 874 Jan. 22 - Feb. 4, 2015

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Dave & Darren Rescue Themselves from the AirwavesNacho Radio

On his morning show on January 14, Dar-ren Pitra asked with

mock exasperation: “Haven’t we learned enough?”

Just a year ago, the answer to that question would have been simple: Absolutely.

Pitra and Dave Levora have been on-air morning-show partners for nearly 11 years – as “Dave & Darren in the Morning” – so it’s no surprise that these old radio pros have an easy rapport, or that they breezed through the show of comedy and conversation without a lull.

There was a bit about a beer brewed with smoked whale testicles, a recurring motif of the perils – sometimes self-inflicted – of being a bus driver, and evidence of both men having way too much familiarity with the live-action Flintstones movies. They roped me in as a guest – sorry, listeners! – and asked off-the-cuff questions that were thoughtful and insightful without ever getting too serious. Their routine is smooth and comfortable – a warm welcome to the day for listeners tuned in to their favorite radio station.

Except that the show wasn’t on the radio at all, instead a podcast on Dave & Darren’s NachoRadio.com – which was launched in October after Pitra and Levora lost their jobs at Rock 104-9.

So the learning must continue.The January 14 podcast was run

through a new mixing console, for one thing, and because of that the pair could have three people on the show simultaneously instead of just themselves. (Again: Sorry, listeners!) Pitra and Levora for several months couldn’t get firm numbers on how many people were listening to Nacho Radio’s two streaming-music stations, and they still can’t tell you the geographic breakdown of their podcast listenership except in the vague sense of being strongest in Illinois and Iowa.

For the first times in their careers, they’re not just on-air personalities but salespeople and tech guys and accountants and ... .

“We’ve never been businessmen before,” Pitra said.

“Always been employees,” Levora added.

Walking the Plank on a Sinking Ship

For more than a decade, the Dave & Darren show was a staple of Quad Cities FM radio, first on 96.9 and then – after being bumped from that station by Dwyer & Michaels in 2007 – 104.9.

But Townsquare Media acquired 53 Cumulus stations in late 2013 – including Dave & Darren’s – and a country format was unveiled for 104.9 in July 2014. The duo was out of a job, and what’s-next conversations that had been happening for years got more specific and urgent – leading to the October 1 launch of Nacho Radio.

Levora said he knew the radio gig wasn’t going to last. “There was always the general, hanging-over-your-head [feeling] that FM radio is a dying thing,” he said. “I used to make the analogy all the time that I felt like I was a blacksmith, and the Model Ts were rolling down the street. The technology had changed to such a degree that doing a show on FM radio … was not a forever thing.”

“The technology gives the consumer more choices,” Pitra said. “It’s not that they’re not listening to radio [or other audio-entertainment products]. They do, but they don’t listen to it in the same way.”

Levora said that younger consumers – specifically Generation X and Millennials – “look at radio as: This is someone else’s iPod, and there’s commercials on it. And they have no need for that, because they know they

can be in complete control of the content. They don’t have to sit through nine-minute commercial sweeps.”

And that’s not the only problem youthful listeners have with radio, he added: “They think that radio is inauthentic, because it’s all about hype, it’s all about ‘We play the most,’ ‘We’re the best.’ People in their 20s hear that, and their bullshit alarms go off so fast. They want nothing to do with it. Radio is run by 50- and 60- and 40-year-old guys who are used to the way things used to sound in the ’80s.”

So Levora (who’s 43) said he and Pitra (who’s 50) knew they wouldn’t work in radio for even another decade. “Watching that industry implode, I’m going to take some degree of pleasure in that,” he said. “Because ... we walked the plank on a sinking ship. ...

“We always thought we’d get rescued by some small-time operation, and it turns out: We are the small-time operation.”

“We’re Still in Our Infancy”It is a small-time operation, in pretty

much every way. The podcast is streamed and recorded starting at 9 a.m. weekdays from Levora’s kitchen. When I was there, the dishwasher was running and the Today show was on a television in the background. Levora had a laptop in front of him, while Pitra brought some papers, including sponsor promos to read.

NachoRadio.com at this point consists of two streaming-music stations – Planet ALT

with alternative music and Solid with rock music, both curated by Levora – and the Dave & Darren podcast.

The audience is modest so far. Levora and Pitra said they typically have 100 to 125 live listeners for the podcast. When they checked the audiences for the music stations, Planet ALT had 12 listeners and a peak that day of 35. Solid had 21 listeners and a peak that day of 203. Combined, Levora said the two streams now have 10,000 listeners each week.

Billing and costs to-date are presently measured in the thousands of dollars rather than the tens of thousands. Ads sell for $10 apiece, and Pitra said Nacho Radio has a dozen sponsors at this point.

“Most people still don’t even know what we’re doing,” Levora said. “We’re still in our infancy.”

Yet for a nascent enterprise, there are promising signs. After 74 podcasts, the duo had amassed downloads approaching half a million – an average of nearly 6,300 downloads per podcast. (This does not include those listening live.) The first episode has been downloaded more than 16,000 times.

“If you would have told Darren and I that in January we’d be approaching half a million podcast downloads,” Levora said, “we would have said, ‘There’s no way.’ I don’t think we knew enough about the business to have projections or goals as far as how many people would participate live and how many people would download the podcast. ... We knew that we wanted to continue to do the show. We’re not smart enough to be able to say, ‘This is how many people we think we’ll have.’”

The Nuclear OptionPitra said he and Levora might have talked

as many as five years ago about podcasting as an alternative to being on the radio. But they didn’t get beyond the basic idea until their Rock 104-9 careers ended.

“As far as serious nuts-and-bolts conversations – we’re going to do a podcast, we’re going to do two streaming stations, we’re going to call it Nacho Radio – that discussion happened in July ... after we gave ourselves a couple days to process what the hell had happened,” Levora said.

COVER STORY

Dave Levora (left) and Darren Pitra


by Jeff Ignatius [email protected]

He added that they considered trying to stay in radio: “We were wondering if maybe we would get a job across the street. Maybe we would go to Clear Channel [iHeartMedia].”

Regardless of what form it took, Pitra and Levora felt strongly about continuing the show. “It was a brand we spent 10 years developing,” Levora said.

Ultimately they opted for the present and future of the Internet rather than the at-least-temporarily-more-lucrative past of radio broadcasting. “We had three months of severance,” Levora said. “The way we looked at it was we were being paid to develop our own company.”

And the podcasting/streaming-music combination was a natural choice for keeping the brand alive – although both Levora and Pitra said it wouldn’t have happened without getting canned.

“This was a much easier thing to do when it was our nuclear option,” Levora said. “I would not have had the courage to do this on my own, even knowing this is the way it’s going” in the radio business.

Certainly, it’s more comfortable to go to work than to be in charge of everything. Unexpected challenges included getting responses from Web designers, and trying to figure out how many people were actually listening to the music stations.

“You would think that if someone is hosting your stream, they would be able to tell you how many people are listening to you,” said Pitra, who handles the bulk of the business aspects of Nacho Radio. “That’s not the case.” He added that January is the first month for which there are “super-accurate” numbers.

(“We want accurate numbers,” Pitra said, in large part because broadcast radio can’t provide those to advertisers. Added Levora: “FM radio will go to you with data that is six months old and is an estimate of what the audience is. We can tell you right now exactly how many people are listening. ... It’s not an estimate.”)

Expected challenges included not having the stability of a corporate job. Yet Levora said he’d rather be earning less money to be “able to do the kind of show that we want to do, to put out the kind of music that people say they want.”

That’s true even with the added responsibilities. “Being a sales guy was never something I put on my list of things I really wish I could be, but we’re not going door-to-door selling vacuum cleaners,” Levora said. “We’re going door-to-door selling something we believe in. We believe in it

enough that we’re putting all of our eggs in this basket. ... And it is getting heard.”

“That makes it easier,” Pitra said.And even though there’s the potential for

a global audience that wasn’t there on Quad Cities radio, Levora and Pitra don’t have aspirations for world domination.

“No one in Utah was pissed off that we got fired in July,” Levora said. “This is where we’re from, and this is where our audience is. ... It’s not like we’re national figures that started a podcast.”

That’s also true in soliciting advertising. “We continue to try to reach out to people that we consider to be part of the fabric of the Quad Cities,” Pitra said. “Let’s not pretend that it’s not a Quad Cities operation.”

Obvious, and Obviously Smart

Because the podcasting-and-streaming-music idea was so obvious, both Levora and Pitra said they worried that their build-up to Nacho Radio’s launch would be greeted by something less than enthusiasm. “You set us up for this?” Levora said. “You’re doing a podcast?”

Yet even though something in the vein of Nacho Radio seems a logical next step for fired radio personalities, the differences between over-the-air radio and Nacho Radio underscore the problems that the former is going to continue to have; this is two radio guys doing pretty much what they always did, but in a way that sidesteps the annoyances and pitfalls of commercial radio.

In other words, Nacho Radio shows why commercial stations will ultimately need to become something much different to survive, especially when the Internet is a standard feature in the last stronghold of radio broadcasting: the automobile.

The weekday podcast typically runs 75 minutes, and it has more Dave & Darren content than their old four-and-a-half-hour radio show. Because the content is condensed, they can play off earlier jokes and bits without losing the audience. Because the talk isn’t interspersed with commercials and music, they can talk about something as long as they’d like. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

The podcast can be consumed whenever and wherever its audience wants. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

Dave & Darren aren’t interrupted by minutes-long blocks of commercials. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

The music isn’t interrupted by minutes-Continued On Page 13


Jessica Lamb-Shapiro’s Prom-ise Land seems to invite preconceptions.

First, there’s the white kitty hanging perilously from a rope on the book cover, cheekily recalling the famous “Hang in There” inspirational poster.

Then there’s the subtitle: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.

Flip to the first page of prologue. The book opens: “Ten years ago, I tagged along with my father to a weekend conference on how to write self-help books.” Yes, it really was a self-help retreat for self-help-guru wannabes.

From those elements, you might expect an arch, cynical take-down of a movement and the industry that feeds it (or feeds off it).

Lamb-Shapiro will be the January 27 guest in the River Readings at Augustana series, and you’re hereby advised to not judge this book by its cover or its opening sentence. It’s so much richer than that.

There is a hint of that on the cover: It’s labeled a memoir.

And another hint in the first paragraph: Her child-psychologist father had written self-help books for decades, and only the most churlish child would write a book mocking a well-meaning, generally competent parent.

Later in that opening chapter, Lamb-Shapiro lays out what she’s really up to, writing about her struggles with the book, with her failure to find a firm stance: “Some of the groups and workshops I attended seemed useful and genuine; some didn’t. Some of the books I read I admired and enjoyed; some I didn’t. There was no truth waiting to be discovered. Eventually, I grew tired of searching, and that’s when I realized that I had been stalled at the threshold of something much more personal.”

The next paragraph begins: “Self-deception is the most intractable deception.” It ends: “I was headed toward a very uncomfortable, awkward, and painful conversation with my father.”

And the next paragraph begins: “My mother died just before my second birthday.”

All of this suggests a restive, curious mind, and in an interview last week, Lamb-Shapiro admitted that it’s difficult for her to keep things simple. “I’d be terrible on a debate team,” she said. “I’m always arguing with myself. ... It’s always very complicated.”

And later: “I would write the worst self-help book ever.”

So six pages in, the author has obliterated any sense of what Promise Land is, replacing it with suspense, with questions. How will the author negotiate the tension between earnest assistance and crass commerce, both inherent in self-help? Can she reconcile her conflicted feelings

by Jeff [email protected] Easy Answers

Jessica Lamb-Shapiro on Self-Help and Self-Discovery, January 27 at Augustana Collegeabout self-help, especially considering her father’s vocation and aspirations against her skepticism? How will the personal narrative play out in the context of an immersion in self-help literature and workshops? And will it all amount to a coherent book, or something with a hopelessly split personality?

To partly answer those last two questions, I’ll fast-forward to the book’s epilogue, titled “In Which My Father & I Break Into a Cemetery.” I’ll leave the details for you to discover, but I will say that Lamb-Shapiro has built the book to a tender, tentative moment that is entirely expected yet written with delicate precision – a quiet breakthrough that is a beginning rather than an ending.

In other words, Lamb-Shapiro and her father are still working through what they didn’t talk about for more than 30 years – the 1979 death of her mother.

“I have a lifetime of habits I’m still somewhat enslaved to,” she said. “It’s sort of a slow process of change. ... We’re still the people we were last year.”

That process is hard enough for two people. The difficulty is magnified when it’s in service to a book, and then made public through the book.

Lamb-Shapiro said she was careful to be sincere with her father, and to never do something merely for Promise Land.

Take the cemetery visit. “Certainly, when we made the plan to go,” Lamb-Shapiro said, “it wasn’t about the book. ... The writing sort of initiated a process in real life. ... I didn’t force any of it, because I was afraid to force any of it. ...

“My mother’s death was a subject nobody wanted to discuss,” she added, because nobody had discussed it. So when it became clear that the book needed to address that death, she had to lay groundwork with her father: “In order for me to feel comfortable talking about it publicly, I have to talk to him privately. ... That was something he had not wanted to talk about with me,” let alone with his friends or with the reading public.

And, as the prologue suggests, this was not territory Lamb-Shapiro approached with enthusiasm. The book was published early last year, but its origins date back a decade, to an article Lamb-Shapiro wrote about that self-help-for-self-help-authors workshop led by Chicken Soup for the Soul kingpin Mark Victor Hansen.

Agents thought the article might lead to a good book, but the author was hesitant. In 2008, she finally sold the book on proposal, intending to write a survey of self-help. She wrote several complete drafts but found it repetitive and

BOOKS



out of them – last many minutes longer than necessary. But there are perks. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting (as Gad’s fiancée) and Olivia Thirlby (as her suspicious sister) are gracefully assured comediennes, and Ignacio Serricchio is wonderful as a swishy wedding planner with a big secret, and then a bigger secret. Jorge Garcia, who’s now completely circular in frame, is given a great, movie-capping Lost joke. And for all the attempted big yuks that crash and burn and the general unpleasantness, The Wedding Ringer’s leads are actually quite charming together, and even manage to pull off the film’s scenes of sticky bro bonding. It’s all mostly a bummer, but I leave feeling surprisingly cheery. I blame Paddington.

3:45-ish: About seven minutes into our showing of Clint Eastwood’s Iraq War drama American Sniper – newly nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture – there’s a series of digital-projection snafus that result in the loss of sound and eventual freezing of the screen image. (When a patron shouts, “It’s North Korea’s fault!”, the tension-breaker is especially amusing because the image we’re frozen on is a Sony TV.) The problem is quickly corrected with apologies and efficiency, but it does mean starting the movie over again ... at which point I sigh, because the opening seven minutes are awful. Okay, the part with Bradley Cooper’s heroic sharpshooter Chris Kyle targeting the Iraqi woman and kid – in effect, the movie’s trailer – is good, if not nearly as intense as the preview suggested. But then we get an extended flashback to Chris as a kid, hunting and goofing around in church

Movie ReviewsFriday, January 16, 10:05 a.m.-ish: My

first and final quadruple feature of 2015 (yeah, right) begins with the Michael Mann thriller Blackhat, which opens with the camera racing within a computer module and deeper and deeper into the internal workings of binary code, like a burrowing reverse of Robert Zemeckis’ introductory shot in Contact. At its climax, we discover that we’ve been watching the process by which a faraway cyber-terrorist sets off an explosion at a Chinese nuclear facility, and it’s a juicy, unsettling prelude – so good, and so promising, that it probably takes longer than it should to realize the movie is goofy as hell.

You’re given hints about Blackhat’s ludicrous bent with Chris Hemsworth’s arrival as Nick Hathaway, a bad-ass, only-in-the-movies tech whiz whose blond locks tumble below his chin and half-buttoned shirts constantly expose his rippling abs. (Only one character, Wei Tang’s vacantly gorgeous ally Chen, appears to recognize Nick’s resemblance to Thor, and their subsequent relationship is almost an insult to the phrase “tacked-on romance.”) For long stretches, through, Mann’s sterling technique outweighs your complaints. The sound design is exceptionally strong, particularly during a tense subterranean shoot-out, and Mann still has his gift for images of poetic horror, such as the closeup on Viola Davis (excellent here) staring upward at a skyscraper, and the shaky hand-held shot that makes a computer’s “Enter” key look utterly sinister. But Mann’s considerable skill isn’t enough to disguise the asinine contrivances that force Hemsworth’s computer wonk to morph, with no hesitancy or strain, into a gun-toting action stud, and the final half-hour is nearly hysterical in its ridiculousness. If you can get through

the climax without giggling – with hundreds of oblivious Jakartans failing to notice the gun- and knife-fights directly in their midst – you’re made of stronger stuff than I. But not stronger than Chris Hemsworth. Those abs, I’m tellin’ ya ... .

12:15 p.m.-ish: Time for Paddington, writer/director Paul King’s family entertainment based on the adventures of Michael Bond’s beloved children’s-book cub who travels to London from darkest Peru. A week ago, I noticed that this enormous U.K. hit received British Academy of Film & Television Award nominations for Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay, which seemed surprising given its manic, underwhelming previews. As the end credits roll, however, I find myself hoping it wins both, because this thing is absolutely sensational – hilarious and clever and touching, and easily the finest outing of its type since 2006’s Charlotte’s Web. There’s not much to the story, which finds Paddington (beautifully voiced by Ben Whishaw) attempting to find a home, and mean ol’ Nicole Kidman attempting to capture him for stuffing and mounting. Yet beginning with the black-and-white newsreel footage of an explorer teaching Brit-spreak to Peruvian bears (“Now say ‘Stratford on Avon’ ... ”), I laughed so heartily and consistently at King’s visual and verbal slapstick that I would’ve been embarrassed had other adults not been cackling just as hard. The kids certainly were, too; Paddington’s travails with vexing

home plumbing, Scotch tape, and a flock of hungry pigeons appeared to hit everyone’s funny bones equally. And with its lovely flights of imagination and occasional, Wes Anderson-y stylization

augmenting the boffo humor, no grown-up should feel the least bit silly about attending. There are dozens of smart throwaway gags (Londoners, we discover, have 107 ways to say “It’s raining”), exciting chases, Sally Hawkins and Julie Walters, an unexpected and priceless Winter’s Tale reference ... . All this plus Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville in disguise as an elderly cleaning lady. I wind up loving Paddington so much that I’m tempted to get in my car and call it a day, so as not to spoil my mood. But alas, duty calls, so it’s off to ...

2:05-ish: ... The Wedding Ringer, director/co-writer Jeremy Garelick’s sentimental gross-out that forces us to wait 100 minutes for best-man-for-hire Kevin Hart and groom-to-be Josh Gad to realize they’re each the best friend the other never had. What can I say? If you saw the trailers and thought it looked hilarious, with Gad getting scalding-hot chili poured on his crotch and Cloris Leachman catching fire and so forth, it probably will be. If you saw them and quietly wept thinking this is as good as it now gets for Hart and the Book of Mormon star ... it’s actually not that terrible. I mean, it’s bad, all right, and the script is so low on inspiration that the most tortuously unfunny bits – the bachelor party gone awry, the muddy touch-football game with seniors getting the crap pounded

Tickler, Failure, Soldiers, Spies: Notes on a Quadruple Feature

Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis in Blackhat

by Mike Schulz • [email protected] Mike Schulz • [email protected]



once the government gets involved, it’s only a matter of time before the harm outweighs the benefits.

Imagine self-guided “smart” bullets that can track their target as it moves, solar-powered airships that provide persistent wide-area surveillance and tracking of ground “targets,” a grenade launcher that can deliver 14 flash-bang rounds, invisible tanks that can blend into their surroundings and masquerade as a snow bank or a soccer mom’s station wagon, and a guided mortar weapon that can target someone up to 12 miles away.

Or what about “less-lethal weapons” such as the speech-jammer gun, which can render a target tongue-tied; sticky foam guns, which shoot foam that hardens on contact,

immobilizing the victim; and shock-wave generators, which use the shockwaves from a controlled explosion to knock people over.

Imagine attempting to defend yourself or your loved ones against police officers made superhuman thanks to technology that renders them bullet-proof, shatter-proof, all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful.

While robocops are troubling enough, the problem we’re facing is so much greater than technology-enhanced domestic soldiers. We’re on the cusp of a major paradigm shift from fascism disguised as a democracy into a technocratic surveillance society in which there are no citizens, only targets.

What’s taking place in Maryland right now is a perfect example of this shift. With

Congress’ approval and generous funding (and without the consensus of area residents), the Army has just launched two massive, billion-dollar surveillance airships into the skies over Baltimore, each three times the size of a Goodyear blimp, ostensibly to defend against cruise-missile attacks. Government officials claim the surveillance blimps, which provide highly detailed radar imaging within a 340-mile radius, are not presently being used to track individuals or carry out surveillance against citizens, but it’s only a matter of time before that becomes par for the course.

In New York, police will soon start employing mobile scanners that allow them to scan people on the street to detect any hidden object under their clothes, be it a gun, a knife, or anything else

that appears “suspicious.” The scanners will also let them carry out enhanced data collection in the field – fingerprints, iris scans, facial mapping – which will build the government’s biometric database that much faster. These scanners are a more-mobile version of the low-radiation X-ray vans used to scan the contents of passing cars.

Google Glass, being considered for use by officers, would allow police to access computer databases, as well as run background checks on and record anyone in their line of sight.

One program, funded by $160 million in asset-forfeiture funds, would equip police officers and vehicles with biometric smartphones that can scan individuals’ fingerprints and cross-check them against criminal databases. The devices will also

DanceEnsemble Español Spanish Dance TheaterGalvin Fine Arts CenterSaturday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.

The latest entertainers and educators in Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artists Series are the extraordinary talents of Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, the Chicago-based company that performs its public concert at St. Ambrose University’s

Galvin Fine Arts Center on January 31.Dedicated, as its EnsembleEspanol.org Web site states, to “the preservation, presentation, and promotion of the classical,

folkloric, flamenco, and contemporary traditions of Spain,” this electrifying troupe of dancers, singers, and instrumentalists has not only thrilled audiences nationwide, but has become one of the world’s leading exemplars of Spanish dance history.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, this team of incredibly gifted professionals “never ceases to bedazzle its audiences with the variety, precision, beauty, and heat of its performances.” The Chicago Tribune praises the group’s “breathtaking stretches of large choral flamenco foot-tapping, phenomenal not just in acrobatic skill, but in beauty, lyricism, and often poetry, too.” St. Louis’ StLToday.com raves, “Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater pursues its art with a blend of precision and grace that’s as unforgettable as it is breathtaking.”

Words, however, hardly scratch the surface of the troupe’s expressive talents. So if you visit this article online, I’m happy to guide to you to spectacular YouTube demonstrations of the Ensemble Español style by clicking HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. If you choose to stick with the paper version, through, here are two photos of the ensemble in action:

If you dart your eyes back and forth between ’em, it’ll look like they’re dancing!For tickets to Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater’s January 30 event, call the Galvin box office at (563)333-

6251. For more information, visit QuadCityArts.com and SAU.edu/galvin.

What’s Happenin’MusicJames ArmstrongThe Muddy WatersFriday, January 23, 9 p.m.

James Armstrong, who plays the Muddy Waters

on January 23, is an electric guitarist and singer/songwriter whose venerated talents have earned him the nickname “The Ambassador of the Blues.” But with Armstrong boasting, according to JazzTimes magazine, “the kind of flexibility that allows him to easily and convincingly shift gears,” and celebrated blues historian Tony Russell calling him a master of “the flexible language of feeling allusion,” I’d like to propose a new moniker for the famously flexible artist: Stretch Armstrong.

And just now, I received a cease-and-desist from Hasbro. Man, I really thought I was the only one who remembered that toy ... .

Performing in a concert co-sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, Armstrong is sure to bring to the Bettendorf stage all the blues know-how and passion he’s amassed over the 40 years of his professional career. Born in Los Angeles to a jazz-guitarist father and a blues-singer mother, Armstrong was touring the country in blues bands by his late teens, and his musical education as a young man included his learning from the masters, serving as backup for Albert Collins, Big Joe Turner, and Smokey Wilson.

After years spent honing his skills in the San Francisco area, Armstrong released

his debut album Sleeping with a Stranger in 1995. Yet not two years later, the man’s nascent career nearly ended when he was almost stabbed to death by a home intruder; Armstrong’s shoulder injury left him with limited movement in his left hand and required months of physical therapy.

But after discovering that playing slide guitar helped him recover his mobility and dexterity, Armstrong slowly convalesced, and returned with the critically acclaimed 1998

album Dark Night. That led to frequent touring on the blues-festival circuit and the 2000 release Got It Goin’ on, and in 2001, that album received W.C. Handy Award nominations for Contemporary Male Blues Guitarist of the Year and (for “Pennies and Picks”) Song of the Year.

Since then, Armstrong has become a beloved blues icon, headlining blues fests nationwide and sharing stages and studios with the likes of Keb’ Mo’, Coco Montoya, Chaka Kahn, Ricky Lee Jones, and Tommy Castro. And given the rapturous response to his 2011 album Blues at the Border and 2014’s Guitar Angels, Armstrong is as big a critical favorite as ever. The former was described by Living Blues magazine as “a well-balanced combination of fire, technical proficiency, and taste,” and “not to be missed.” The latter, meanwhile, found Blues Blast Magazine calling it “as edgy as a razor blade and as smooth as the foam on a glass of beer.” Hopefully not in the same glass.

For more information on James Armstrong’s January 23 gig in Bettendorf, call (563)355-0655 or visit TheMuddyWaters.com.

Continued From Page 3

From Neighborhood Cops to RobocopsGUEST COMMENTARY


that appears “suspicious.” The scanners will also let them carry out enhanced data collection in the field – fingerprints, iris scans, facial mapping – which will build the government’s biometric database that much faster. These scanners are a more-mobile version of the low-radiation X-ray vans used to scan the contents of passing cars.

Google Glass, being considered for use by officers, would allow police to access computer databases, as well as run background checks on and record anyone in their line of sight.

One program, funded by $160 million in asset-forfeiture funds, would equip police officers and vehicles with biometric smartphones that can scan individuals’ fingerprints and cross-check them against criminal databases. The devices will also

contain real-time 911 data; warrant information from federal, state, and city databases; photographs of missing persons, suspects, Crime Stoppers posters, and other persons of interest; and the latest cache of information on terror suspects.

Collectively, all of these gizmos, gadgets, and surveillance devices render us not just suspects in a surveillance state but also inmates in an electronic concentration camp. As journalist Lynn Stuart Parramore notes: “The Information Age ... has turned out rather differently than many expected. Instead of information made available for us, the key feature seems to be information collected about us. Rather of granting us anonymity and privacy with which to explore a world of facts and data, our own

data is relentlessly and continually collected and monitored. The wondrous things that were supposed to make our lives easier – mobile devices, Gmail, Skype, GPS, and Facebook – have become tools to track us, for whatever purposes the trackers decide. We have been happily shopping for the bars to our own prisons, one product at a time.”

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute (Rutherford.org). His award-winning book A Government of Wolves is available online at Amazon.com.

A longer, hyperlinked version of this article is available at RCReader.com/y/robocop.

DanceEnsemble Español Spanish Dance TheaterGalvin Fine Arts CenterSaturday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.

The latest entertainers and educators in Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artists Series are the extraordinary talents of Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, the Chicago-based company that performs its public concert at St. Ambrose University’s

Galvin Fine Arts Center on January 31.Dedicated, as its EnsembleEspanol.org Web site states, to “the preservation, presentation, and promotion of the classical,

folkloric, flamenco, and contemporary traditions of Spain,” this electrifying troupe of dancers, singers, and instrumentalists has not only thrilled audiences nationwide, but has become one of the world’s leading exemplars of Spanish dance history.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, this team of incredibly gifted professionals “never ceases to bedazzle its audiences with the variety, precision, beauty, and heat of its performances.” The Chicago Tribune praises the group’s “breathtaking stretches of large choral flamenco foot-tapping, phenomenal not just in acrobatic skill, but in beauty, lyricism, and often poetry, too.” St. Louis’ StLToday.com raves, “Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater pursues its art with a blend of precision and grace that’s as unforgettable as it is breathtaking.”

Words, however, hardly scratch the surface of the troupe’s expressive talents. So if you visit this article online, I’m happy to guide to you to spectacular YouTube demonstrations of the Ensemble Español style by clicking HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. If you choose to stick with the paper version, through, here are two photos of the ensemble in action:

If you dart your eyes back and forth between ’em, it’ll look like they’re dancing!For tickets to Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater’s January 30 event, call the Galvin box office at (563)333-

6251. For more information, visit QuadCityArts.com and SAU.edu/galvin.

What Else Is Happenin’What’s Happenin’ by Mike Schulz

[email protected]

ExhibitYuriko Yamaguchi: Interconnected in Art, Nature, Science, & TechnologyFigge Art MuseumSaturday, January 24, through Sunday, May 31

On display beginning January 24, the Figge Art Museum’s latest exhibition features works by the

Washington, D.C.-based Yuriko Yamaguhi and is titled Interconnected in Art, Nature, Science, & Technology. According to the Figge’s Web site, “Yamaguchi creates organic, web-like sculptures from nets of wire and resin forms cast from dried curls of potatoes, onion ends, leaves, and seed pods found in nature.” This suggests that the artist probably makes a helluva casserole, too, but as with most art, I’d be too intimidated to eat it.

You will, though, likely find yourself wanting to reach out and touch the delicately glorious works included in Yamaguchi’s Interconnected exhibit – installations in which, the Figge site continues, their creator “seeks to explore the constantly fluctuating but ever-present ‘interconnections’ that bind us to one another and to the natural world.”

A sculpture instructor at George Washington University, Japan native Yamaguchi received a 1975 BA in art at the University of California at Berkeley, and a 1979 MFA from the University of Maryland. That information fits onto roughly an eighth of a page of the artist’s online résumé (at YurikoYamagichiArt.com). If, however, you check out the nine full pages of résumé that follow it, prepare to be blown away. Over the span

of her three-decade career, Yamaguchi can proudly boast 18 significant art prizes, grants, and fellowships; a quartet of public-art commissions; 41 solo gallery exhibitions; 53 museum exhibitions; more than a dozen collections of art housed in sites including the National Museum of American Art and the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi; and I-stopped-counting-after-100 articles in newspapers and periodicals worldwide, from the LA Weekly to the Vienna Times.

Within those write-ups, you’ll discover that reviewers have been enamored with Yamaguchi’s aesthetically gorgeous and thought-provoking sculptures for decades. The Seattle Times, for instance,

writes of the artist’s sculptures, “Even though the word ‘poetic’ tends to get overused as an adjective in describing artworks, here no other fits quite so well.” Meanwhile, the Washington Post states, “No other sculptor can turn paper, wood, flax, and wire into wall sculptures of such intriguing ambiguity as Yuriko Tamaguchi.” The newspaper goes on to add, “With many of the pieces, it’s almost impossible to know without referring to Yamaguchi’s written description whether a sculpture is animal, vegetable, or mineral.” So again: Don’t eat ’em.

But don’t just trust the critics. See the Interconnected works for yourself. And see a few of them, prior to January 24, at Yamaguchi’s Web site, where you’ll be awed by the endlessly fascinating pieces that resemble explosions of confetti ... and potato chips ... and Willy Wonka candies ... . I really have to stop writing these things when I’m hungry ... .

Interconnected in Art, Nature, Science, & Technology will be on display through May 31, an artist’s talk is scheduled for the evening of January 23, and more information on Yamaguchi’s exhibit is available by calling (563)326-7804 or visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.

MUSICThursday, January 22 – Frank

Waln. Native American hip-hop artist performs accompanied by Native American hoop dancers the Sampson Brothers. Augustana College’s Wallenberg Hall (3520 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island). 7 p.m. Free. For information, visit Augustana.edu.

Friday, January 23 – Trippin’ Billies. Dave Matthews tribute band in concert, with an opening set by Jason Carl. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 9 p.m. $8. For information, call (309)793-4060 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24 – Bucktown Revue. Fundraising celebration of Mississippi River Valley folk music, humor, and culture, featuring emcee Scott Tunnicliff and special guests. Richmond Hill Barn Theatre (600 Robinson Drive, Geneseo). 7 p.m. $12.50. For tickets and information, call (309)944-2244 or visit BucktownRevue.com or RHPlayers.com.

Saturday, January 24 – Rozz-Tox Fundraising Concert. Event designed to raise money for new P.A. equipment, featuring sets by the Easy Mark, the Toby Brown Band, Tambourine, and Foxholes. Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island). 7 p.m. $5 minimum donation. For information, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.

Thursday, January 29 – The Continued On Page 12

by John W. Whitehead [email protected]

RiverCitiesReader.com


Coop. Rock and electronica musicians in concert, with an opening set by Genome. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $9.50. For information, call (309)793-4060 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, January 20 – 2015 Battle of the Bands. Competition featuring 45-minute sets of original music by local artists Trippin Molly, Gain the Wolf, and Crater. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 9 p.m. For information, call (309)793-4060 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, January 30 – “One Family, One Night” Benefit. Cody Tucker emcees a benefit performance featuring a silent auction, 50/50 raffle, door prizes, and sets by alternative rockers The Lion in Rome, Bailiff, and Tambourine. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 8 p.m. $10 suggested donation. For information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.

Friday, January 30 – Studebaker John. Concert with blues guitarist and harmonica player John Grimaldi. The Muddy Waters (1708 State Street, Bettendorf). 9 p.m. $5. For information, call (563)355-0655 or visit TheMuddyWaters.com.

Saturday, January 31 – Anthony

Gomes. Rock and blues musician in concert, with an opening set by the Winter Blues All-Stars. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport).

8 p.m. $14-17. For information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.

Tuesday, February 3 – Luther College Nordic Choir. Concert with the Decorah singers prior to their performances in Rome, Florence, and Venice. St. Paul Lutheran Church (2136

Brady Street, Davenport). 7 p.m. $10-15. For information, call (800)458-8437 or visit Tickets.Luther.edu.

THEATREFriday, January 23, through

Saturday, January 31 – Julius Caesar. The Prenzie Players’ production of Shakespeare’s historical drama, directed

by Tracy Skaggs. QC Theatre Workshop (1730 Wilkes Avenue, Davenport). Fridays and Saturdays 8 p.m., $15; Sunday 2 p.m., $10; Thursday 8 p.m., $10. For tickets and information, call (563)484-4210 or visit PrenziePlayers.com.

Friday, January 23, through Sunday, February 1 – Things Being What They Are. New Ground Theatre presents Wendy MacLeod’s dramatic comedy, directed by Bryan Woods.

Village Theatre (2113 East 11th Street, Davenport). Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. $15-18. For

tickets and information, call (563)326-7529 or visit NewGroundTheatre.org.

Friday, January 30, through Sunday, February 8 – Angels in America: Perestroika. Part two of Tony Kushner’s Tony Award-winning 1980s fantasia, directed by Deb Shippy. District Theatre (1623 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $20. For tickets and information, call (309)235-1654 or visit DistrictTheatre.com.

LITERATURETuesday, January 27 – Jessica Lamb-

Shapiro. The fiction and nonfiction author in the latest “River Readings at Augustana” presentation, followed by a reception and book-signing. Augustana College’s Wilson Center (639 38th Street, Rock Island). 7 p.m. Free. For information, call (309)794-7316 or visit Augustana.edu.

Thursday, January 29 – Odd?Rod. Poet and spoken-word artist Rod Duval performs in Ambrose Hall’s BeeHive. St. Ambrose University (518 West Locust Street, Davenport). 7 p.m. Free. For information, call (563)333-6023 or visit SAU.edu.

EVENTSFriday, January 23, and Saturday,

January 24 – World’s Toughest Rodeo. Touring presentation featuring barrel racing and bareback, saddle-bronc, and bull riding events. i wireless Center (1201 River Drive, Moline). 7:30 p.m. $18-57. For tickets, call (800)745-3000 or visit iwirelessCenter.com.

Friday, January 23, through Sunday, January 25 – Rod & Custom Show. A weekend of classic cars on display,

vendors, information booths, and more. QCCA Expo Center (2621 Fourth Avenue, Rock Island). Friday 1-10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-3 p.m. $8, ages six and under free. For information, call (309)788-5912 or visit QCCAExpoCenter.com.

Friday, January 23, through Sunday, January 25 – Eagles & Ivories Weekend. Twenty-third

annual weekend celebrating ragtime, early jazz, and bald eagles, with concerts, presentations, eagle watches, movies, a soup supper, and more in downtown Muscatine. For information, call (563)263-8895 or (563)263-9978 or visit MuscatineArtsCouncil.org.

Saturday, January 24 – An Evening of Mental Mayhem. Presentation with touring mentalist and hypnotist Dan Ladd. Circa ’21 Speakeasy (1818 Third Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $13-15. For tickets and information, call (309)786-7733 extension 2 or visit Circa21.com.

Friday, January 30 – Champagne on the Rocks. WQPT-TV’s annual fundraiser featuring dinner, live and silent auctions, musical entertainment, and more. Hotel Blackhawk (200 East Third Street, Davenport). 6 p.m. $100. For tickets and information, call (309)764-2400 or visit WQPT.org/champagne.

Saturday, January 31 – Beach Bum Bash. Annual event featuring music by the Fry Daddies, indoor beach games, summertime refreshments, and more. Quad City Botanical Center (2525 Fourth Avenue, Rock Island). 7 p.m. $10-12. For tickets and information, call (309)794-0991 or visit QCGardens.com.

Visit the Reader’s full events calendars at RCReader.com/calendar.


What Else Is Happenin’

The World’s Toughest Rodeo @ i wireless Center – January 23 & 24

Andy Curtiss and Pat Flaherty in the District Theatre’s

Angels in America: Perestroika – Open-

ing January 30

Frank Waln @ Augustana College

– January 22


you get back” lie.) There’s also overly convenient melodrama in the Iraqi sniper who’s like a projection of Chris’ internal struggle – a familiar Eastwood trope – and so much foreshadowing that I was amazed characters could still see the sun. Yet Eastwood’s staging of the combat scenes, if unremarkable,

is at least blunt and effective, the sound effects and squib work are consistently superb, and Hall’s dialogue hums whenever troops are just razzing one another; like the uncharacteristically bulky Cooper’s


and listening to Dad’s pithy bromides, and it’s all so earnest, compositionally obvious, and verbally painful that I slouch down and prepare for the inevitable: Unbroken 2: Still Not Broken. Eventually, thankfully, this mostly hagiographic bio-pic got better – if never great, primarily because nearly everything involving poor Sienna Miller as Chris’ eternally teary-eyed spouse is unconvincing. (Weeping through the hoariest clichés screenwriter Jason Hall can conceive, she’s even forced to utter that famously hackneyed “I won’t be here when

Tickler, Failure, Soldiers, Spies: Notes on a Quadruple Featureby Mike Schulz

[email protected]

Paddington

Nacho Radiolong blocks of commercials. The music stations have a maximum of three one-minute commercials each hour, all separated by music. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

If you like the music, it’s not interrupted by the morning-show shtick. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

If you like the morning-show shtick, it’s not interrupted by the music. Advantage: Nacho Radio.

Because Levora selects all the music for the streaming stations, he’s not constrained by commercial radio’s limited corporate playlists. He said his songs for the alternative station could run for more than seven days without a repeat, and the rock station could go more than 22 days without the same song being played twice. “It’s hand-crafted,” Levora said. “It provides an infinitely better experience than these [corporate] playlists.” Advantage: Nacho Radio, unless you really, really like hearing the same songs several times each day.

Yet being a superior conceptual model doesn’t ensure financial success, and a decade as a successful team on the radio doesn’t necessarily translate into an equivalent audience online.

That highlights the one very large advantage commercial radio has over Levora and Pitra: the ability to absorb losses over a long period of time.

Can’t Walk AwayYet Levora and Pitra seem realistic in their

expectations. They know they’re not going to make enough money this year to cover their costs plus their old radio salaries. And they’ve planned for that.

“We can certainly survive 2015,” Pitra said. “And if for some reason we find that, going into 2016, we need to modify things ... . I would think at the very least we’ll continue to do the podcast.”

“If the [music] stations don’t grow to a point where it makes sense to keep doing them, we could pull the plug on those,” Levora said. (Alternatively, if the music stations sell out their three-ads-per-hour inventories, Levora and Pitra will consider adding new streams.)

They know that their podcast and music streams have limited rather than broad appeal.

They know that audiences won’t just find them. Pitra said he’s looking forward to better weather, for opportunities to personally put the Nacho Radio app on people’s phones. “There are still plenty of people that don’t know about us,” he said.

And they know that they might not generate enough revenue to enable them to keep doing Nacho Radio as their only employment.

But the great thing about a 70- to 75-minute podcast five days a week is that it doesn’t preclude other jobs.

“If I have to get a job driving a bus to support my family, I’m happy to do that,” Levora said. “But there’s nothing to say I can’t still spend an hour with my pal here and do the podcast.”

Added Pitra: “And sell the podcast.”“When you have 500,000 downloads, I

don’t think that’s something you can walk away from,” Levora said. “We were right not to throw it all away, not to say in July, ‘Well, we had a great run, but now it’s time to do something else.’”

COVER STORY Continued From Page 7 by Jeff Ignatius [email protected]

boring. Then she had her epiphany and was able –

with the help of her editor – to incorporate the personal into the exploration of self-help. “Those choices [of what to include and exclude from her family story] felt very unclear to me,” she said. “To me, everything about me is self-evident.”

The result is, to some extent, messy. Personal history is interspersed with personal self-help experiences undertaken for the book and with an exploration of self-help literature through the centuries. But her family anecdotes give the book a shape and momentum through what the self-help books would call a journey – although Lamb-Shapiro never settles for the easy platitudes or mangled language you’ll find in the genre she’s writing about.

She goes to a workshop based on the dating handbook The Rules and hears a distressing testimonial that undercuts the whole enterprise. She walks on hot coals with hormonal teenagers. She tries to overcome a deep phobia. (The chapter begins: “I am afraid of crowds, elevators, and heights. I am – to such a degree that I avoid it entirely – afraid of flying.”) She attends a grief camp for kids (in the chapter “The Saddest Camp in the World”).

Lamb-Shapiro has a sharp eye, but the book would indeed be tedious without her heart. You can see the distaste she has for the self-help industry and its profiteering, for the isolation inherent in trying to work through one’s problems via books, and for the kookiness of much of the advice. Yet she sometimes finds herself moved personally, and cheered by the community that develops at workshops despite all the money changing hands. Some people are indeed helped.

It’s less neutrality than openness, and Lamb-Shapiro said that mindset “was something I had to work at. ... It was almost like a thought experiment.” Instead of going in cynically, she

by Jeff [email protected] Easy Answers

tried to figure out what was good about any particular self-help event. People aren’t stupid, she said, and self-help was meeting a need.

Promise Land, she added, was helpful to her personally in several ways. Her fear of flying, she noted, likely wouldn’t have been addressed without the assignment she gave herself in the book. “I can push myself to do things for writing that I wouldn’t do for myself,” she said. “I would not have sought out that kind of self-help.”

And then, of course, there’s the death of her mother, and the way that talks with her father have moved beyond the perfunctory.

“We’ve gotten a lot closer,” Lamb-Shapiro said, and “I really enjoy that change in my relationship with him.”

And although she forced him to begin talking about the previously unmentionable, “I feel like my dad has taken the lead” since the book was published, while she’s become more “shy” on the topic.

“It’s not finished,” she said of her family’s grief process.

Jessica Lamb-Shapiro will speak on Tuesday, January 27, at 7 p.m. at Augustana College’s Wilson Center (3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island). Admission is free.

For more information about Jessica Lamb-Shapiro and Promise Land, visit PromiseLandBook.com.

Continued From Page 8BOOKS

portrayal, the movie itself proves solid, unfussy, and sincere. I may not have joined in the crowd’s rapturous applause at the end, but as meat-and-potatoes experiences go, American Sniper is nourishing enough – if, for some of us, also pretty undercooked.

6:35-ish: I realize I can catch Foxcatcher at 6:40, but then remember the overall mood of that film, and decide to go tomorrow instead. Still blaming Paddington.

For reviews of Foxcatcher, Selma, Taken 3, Inherent Vice, and other current releases, visit RiverCitiesReader.com.

Follow Mike on Twitter at Twitter.com/MikeSchulzNow.


to focus on this – lest you be tempted to go low-blow and tit-for-tat and start screaming out the names of dead men in bed: “Ooh, Copernicus ... Oh, my God, Cicero ... I mean ... . Take me, Archimedes!”

Demotion SicknessMy boyfriend just broke up with me but

wants to “stay friends” and keep hanging out on those terms. (He says, “My life is much better with you in it.”) I’d like to be friends eventually, but I told him that it’s just too painful and confusing to see him now. He says I’m being dramatic and unreasonable and keeps calling.

– Broken

This guy’s notion of how a breakup should work is like telling an employee, “Hey, you’re fired, but please feel free to come in a few times a week and do some light janitorial work.”

A breakup is supposed to be an ending, not a “Let’s continue as if very little has changed, and I’ll pretend not to notice those big wet mascara stripes down your cheeks.” Research by clinical psychologist David Sbarra confirmed what most of us already know about getting dumped – that contact with your former partner while you’re trying to recover jacks up feelings of love and sadness, setting back your healing. You need time and distance to process and accept the change in your relationship; you can’t just send a memo to your emotions, ordering them to re-categorize the guy: “Cut the love. From now on, respond to him like he’s a brick or maybe a lamp.”

It’s wonderful to have a man who insists on standing by you, but not because it’s better for him than respecting your need to go away and lick your wounds. This is not friend behavior. If, despite that, you want him in your life down the road, inform him that for now, you’ve made a “no contact” rule – lasting until you feel ready to see him on different terms. When he (inevitably) tries to break it, politely reiterate it and end the conversation. The sooner he’s out of your daily life the sooner you’ll be open to a new man – dreamy as it would be to spend lazy afternoons at your ex’s place writing him letters of recommendation for prospective girlfriends and Photoshopping your arm out of pictures so he can post them on Tinder.

Got A Problem? Ask Amy Alkon.171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405

or e-mail [email protected] (AdviceGoddess.com)©2015, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

Askthe Advice GoddessBY AMY ALKON

Urning CurveMy boyfriend of eight months was with

his ex for almost five years. Unfortunately, she passed two years ago. I have sympathy for him, but occasionally he’ll call me by her name, and it’s really upsetting. I feel like she’s haunting his brain, and I don’t know how to do an exorcism. How do I take my rightful place in his life?

– Can’t Compete

If you’re putting on some skimpy somethings to get your boyfriend in the right mindset in bed, ideally, they aren’t three strategically located “Hello, My Name Is…” stickers.

It’s understandable that you’re feeling bad, but his detours into Wrongnameville probably don’t mean what you suspect they do. Using the wrong name is what memory researchers call a “retrieval error,” describing how an attempt to get some specific item from memory can cause multiple items in the same category to pop up. Basically, your brain sends an elf back into the stacks to get the name to call someone, and he just grabs the first name he spots that’s associated with “girlfriend” and girlfriend-type situations. (Lazy little twerp.) This sort of cognitive error – following a well-worn path (five years of grabbing the late ex’s name) – is more likely when a person is tired or preoccupied. In other words, your boyfriend’s name-swapping may be a sign that he needs to stop multitasking; it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s been taping a cutout of her face over yours in his mind.

There is a solution, and no, it doesn’t involve inventing a time machine so he can go back 20 years and get in the habit of calling all women “babe.” It turns out that a person can get better at retrieving the right name with practice. Cognitive psychologist Gordon Bower explained in Scientific American that the one making the error needs to consistently correct themselves or be corrected and then repeat the right name a few times. It would be best if you correct him teasingly, and perhaps incorporate visual aids like homemade flashcards – ideally of you in various states of undress with your name on them.

Assuming he isn’t trudging around in all black like a Fellini film widow or putting the ex’s urn between you two in bed, it might help to consider how he is when he’s with you: Engaged? Loving? Present? If so, do your best


Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) didn’t like to work hard, and yet he was also prolific. In fact, his desire to avoid strenuous exertion was an important factor in his abundant output. He got things done fast. His most famous opera, The Barber of Seville, took him just 13 days to finish. Another trick he relied on to reduce his workload was plagiarizing himself. He sometimes recycled passages from his earlier works for use in new compositions. Feeling good was another key element in his approach to discipline. If given a choice, he would tap into his creative energy while lounging in bed or hanging out with his buddies. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, I recommend you consider strategies like his.

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Each hour of every day, the sun offers us more energy than oil, gas,

and coal can provide in an entire year. Sadly, much of our star’s generous gift goes to waste. Our civilization isn’t set up to take advantage of the bounty. Is there a comparable dynamic in your personal life, Capricorn? Are you missing out on a flow of raw power and blessings simply because you are ignorant of it or haven’t made the necessary arrangements to gather it? If so, now would be an excellent time to change your ways.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): According to my analysis of the long-term astrological omens, 2015

is the year you can get totally serious about doing what you were born to do. You will be given the chance to slough off all that’s fake and irrelevant and delusory. You will be invited to fully embrace the central purpose of your destiny. If you’re interested in taking up that challenge, I suggest you adopt Oscar Wilde’s motto: “Nothing is serious except passion.” Your primary duty is to associate primarily with people and places and situations that feed your deepest longings.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): “Give up all hope for a better past,” writes Emily Fragos in her poem “Art Brut.”

That’s generally sound advice. But I think you may be able to find an exception to its truth in the coming weeks. As you work to forgive those who have trespassed against you, and as you revise your interpretations of bygone events, and as you untie knots that have weighed you down and slowed you up for a long time, you just may be able to create a better past. Dare to believe that you can transform the shape and feel of your memories. Homework: Name something you feel like begging for. Then visualize in great detail that this something is already yours. Report results to FreeWillAstrology.com.

what we now call Mesoamerica. According to legend, that changed in 1323, when their priests received a vision of an eagle eating a snake while perched at the top of a prickly pear cactus. They declared that this was the location of the tribe’s future power spot. Two years later, the prophecy was fulfilled. On an island in the middle of a lake, scouts spied the eagle, snake, and cactus. And that was where the tribe built the town of Tenochtitlan, which ultimately became the center of an empire. Today that place is called Mexico City. Have you had an equivalent vision, Leo? If you haven’t yet, I bet you will soon. Go in search of it. Be alert.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): By the end of the 16th Century, nutmeg was in high demand

throughout Europe. It was valued as a spice, medicine, and preservative. There was only one place in the world where it grew: on the Indonesian island of Run. The proto-capitalists of the Dutch East India Company gained dominion over Run, and enslaved the local population to work on plantations. They fully controlled the global sale of nutmeg, which allowed them to charge exorbitant prices. But ultimately their monopoly collapsed. Here’s one reason why: Pigeons ate nutmeg seeds on Run, then flew to other islands and pooped them out, enabling plants to grow outside of Dutch jurisdiction. I see this story as an apt metaphor for you in the coming months, Virgo. What’s your equivalent of the pigeons? Can you find unlikely allies to help you evade the controlling force that’s limiting your options? .

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): Have you triggered any brilliant

breakthroughs lately? Have you made any cathartic departures from the way things have always been done? Have you thought so far outside the box that you can’t even see the box any more? Probably not. The last few weeks have been a time of retrenchment and stabilization for you. But I bet you will start going creatively crazy very soon – and I mean that in the best sense. To ensure maximum health and well-being, you simply must authorize your imagination to leap and whirl and dazzle.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): The cassava plant produces a starchy root that’s used as food by a

half-billion people all over the planet. No one can simply cook it up and eat it, though. In its raw state, it contains the poisonous chemical cyanide, which must be removed by careful preparation. An essential first step is to soak it in water for at least 18 hours. I see this process as a metaphor for the work you have ahead of you, Scorpio. A new source of psychological and spiritual sustenance will soon be available, but you will have to purge its toxins before you can use and enjoy it.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Italian composer

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny's EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES

& DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPESThe audio horoscopes are also available by phone at

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY by Rob BrezsnyARIES (March 21-April 19): Is there a patron saint of advertising or a goddess of marketing or a power animal that rules publicity and

promotion? If so, I’m going to find out, then pray to them on your behalf. It’s high time for your under-appreciated talents and unsung accomplishments to receive more attention. And I am convinced that the astrological moment is ripe for just such a development. Help me out here, Aries. What can you do to get your message out better? What tricks do you have for attracting the interest of those who don’t know yet about your wonders? Polish up your self-presentation, please.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): During his 67 years of life, Taurus-born Leonardo da Vinci achieved

excellence in 12 different fields, from painting to engineering to anatomy. Today he is regarded as among the most brilliant humans who ever lived. “His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf,” said one observer. “He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents,” said another. Yet on his death bed, Leonardo confessed, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” Typical for a Taurus, he underestimated himself! It’s very important that you not do the same, especially in the coming weeks. The time has come for you to give yourself more of the credit and respect you deserve.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Where you have been and what you have done will be of little importance in the

coming weeks. Both your mistakes and your triumphs will be irrelevant. In my estimation, you have a sacred duty to spy on the future and reconnoiter the pleasures and challenges that lie ahead. So I suggest you head off toward the frontier with an innocent gleam in your eye and a cheerful hunger for interesting surprises. How’s your Wildness Quotient? If it’s in a slump, pump it up.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Will you ever find that treasured memento you misplaced? Is there any chance

of reviving a dream you abandoned? You are in a phase when these events are more likely than usual to happen. The same is true about an opportunity that you frittered away or a missing link that you almost tracked down but ultimately failed to secure. If you will ever have any hope of getting another shot at those lost joys, it would be in the coming weeks. For best results, purge the regret and remorse you still feel about the mistakes you think you made once upon a time.

LEO (July 23-August 22): In the early 1300s, the people of the Mexica tribe had no homeland. They had wandered

for centuries through the northern parts of

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January 8 Answers: RightGOLD MINE · January 22, 2015

ACROSS1. Granny5. Woodstove detritus10. Fold15. Luck of the Irish19. Mild oath20. “Once _ _...”21. “_ Doone”22. Medieval strongbox23. Sanctioned, British style25. Queenslander27. Fur cape28. Impenetrable30. Salad fixings31. Kind of house32. Blackboard33. _ there, done that34. Nonclergy36. Many fads37. Info about info41. Purple shade42. Encircle43. Backbone44. Irrational number45. Bone: Prefix46. Hibernia47. Intense49. Pop50. “_ steals my purse...”51. Gracie or Ethan52. Disney’s Sea Witch54. Rend55. Stood wide open57. Place of embarkation58. Pummeled60. Au: 4 wds.66. Aboveboard67. French department68. Less refined69. Bodement70. New York island72. West African nation74. Promise of a kind77. _ Palmas78. Unreactive79. Kitchen scrap80. MLB players81. Sponsorship (var.)

83. Born and _84. Hogshead85. _ Geneva Doud Eisenhower86. Mended88. Checks90. Salon solution91. Among92. Philately item93. Wheels for a VIP94. Pizzazz97. Scale98. Theatergoers102. Record of events: 2 wds.104. Promising106. _ plaid107. Weapon of old108. _ America109. _ Fifth Avenue110. Dross111. Swords112. Arboreal ape113. Old pronounDOWN1. _ tide2. Fit of shivering3. Part of NIH: Abbr.4. Mucilage5. Make into gold6. Book part7. Stockings8. Compass pt.9. Loaded down10. Factories11. Wingless insect12. Scottish Gaelic13. Farm denizen14. Focuses on15. First Roman day16. Cleveland’s waters17. Read18. Without24. Deliver a discourse26. Zone29. Consume32. Temptress of myth33. Pepper plant34. Tie35. Spontaneous appearance of life

36. Dismal37. Pari- _38. Gathering places39. Varlet anagram40. Term in arithmetic41. Hayloft42. Rita Hayworth role43. Relish46. Votes in47. Make greater48. Crosspatch51. Genus of bees53. Be plentiful54. Storm56. Word of agreement59. Wagner’s Earth goddess60. One of the ancient humors61. Honor62. Lent63. Placed64. River in France65. Edible “dog,” briefly71. All-in72. Mate for 1-Across: Var.73. Sibilate75. Theater award76. Application80. One with a paddle82. Gazing83. Variety of candy84. Harpsichord85. Comedian of a kind87. Drop88. Sets of steps89. Cap90. Kind of habit92. Golfer’s problem93. Bluebonnet: Var.94. Droops95. Sign on a door96. Notion97. Woody stem98. “Thin Man” dog99. Genesis name100. Salad plant, abridged101. _ est percipi103. Tap105. Old political acronym

January 8 Crossword Answers

Show Your LoveFor Valentine’s Day, Adopt-A-Manatee®

For a Loved One

Call 1-800-432-JOIN (5646)savethemanatee.orgPhoto © David Schrichte


Live Music Live Music Live Music Email all listings to [email protected] • Deadline 5 p.m. Thursday before publication

2015/01/25 (Sun)

Eagles & Ivories Weekend: Ivory & Gold featuring Jeff & Anne Barn-hart (2pm) -Muscatine Art Center, 1314 Mulberry Ave. Muscatine, IA

Mann at the Mill: Bob and Kristie Black & Banjoy - Crystal City - City High Jazz Combo - Black Saturday (3pm) -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Wifee & the Huzz Band -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

2015/01/26 (Mon)

Live Lunch w/ John Stanford (noon) -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Mr. Daytrotter Presents Moeller Mondays -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

2015/01/27 (Tue)

Bahamas -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Bailiff -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

2015/01/28 (Wed)

Burlington Street Bluegrass Band -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Maiden Mars - Planetrawk - Sum-mer town - Heather Cousins (8pm) - Red Rose (11pm) -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

2015/01/22 (Thu)

Frank Waln -Wallenberg Hall, Augus-tana College, 3520 7th Ave. Rock Island, IL

I.C. Kings -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Jordan & Jef -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

Particle - Duenday - Damn Juhl -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

2015/01/23 (Fri)

Bucktown Revue -Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, 600 Hk Robinson Dr. Geneseo, IL

Cherry Gun -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Christine Lavin & Don White -CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 3rd St SE Cedar Rapids, IA

Corporate Rock -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

Crystal City - Extravision - Milk Duct Tape -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

David G. Smith (noon) -Bettendorf Public Librar y, 2950 Learning Campus Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Dusty Liquor Box - Bad Boyz Pizza & Pub, 5266 Utica Ridge Rd., Dav-enport, IA

Eagles & Ivories Weekend Kick-Off Concert (9am) -SunnyBrook, 3515 Diana Queen Dr. Muscatine, IA

Eagles & Ivories Weekend: Mad Creek Mudcats (5pm) - Ivory & Gold featuring Jeff & Anne Barnhart - Ragtime Dr. Dave Ma-jchrzak - Daniel Souvigny (7pm) -Wesley United Methodist Church, 400 Iowa Ave. Muscatine, IA

2015/01/29 (Thu)

KO - Loaf - Nightlight - Baby Al-chemy -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Mixology - Soulshake -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Molly Conrad -Uptown Bill’s Coffee House, 730 S. Dubuque St. Iowa City, IA

The Coop - Genome -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

2015/01/30 (Fri)

Bad Hair -Thirsty’s on Third, 2202 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Battle of the Bands Round One: Trippin Molly - Gain the Wolf - Crater -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Chuck Murphy -Lyndon Pub, 704 1st St. W Lyndon, IL

E11eventh Hour -The Cooler, 311 W. 2nd St. Rock Falls, IL

Fairview - Unnamed Acoustic - Evan Stock Band -Gabe’s, 330 E. Wash-ington St. Iowa City, IA

Fire Sale - The Weathered Heads - Duology -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Jive Radio -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Lewis Knudsen Band -Milltown Cof-fee, 3800 River Drive #2 Moline, IL

NE-HI - Younger - Bull Black Nova -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Hightop Fade - Bad Boyz Pizza & Pub, 5266 Utica Ridge Rd., Dav-enport, IA

Iowa City Yacht Club 12th-Anniver-sary Party: The Candymakers - Surrounded by Giants - Cedar County Cobras - Flannel Season CD Release - Emmett Sheehan- -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Irish Session (3pm) - Ukulele Winter Spectacle (7pm) -Uptown Bill’s Coffee House, 730 S. Dubuque St. Iowa City, IA

Jack Lion - Christopher the Con-quered - Bull Black Nova -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Justin Morrissey (6pm) -Barrel House Moline, 1321 5th Ave. Moline, IL

Kronos Resistor - Eleven Fifty Two - Pangaea - 9th St. Memory -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Mark Dvorak -Princeton Coffeehouse, 25 E. Marion St. Princeton, IL

Music of the Moment -CSPS/Le-gion Arts, 1103 3rd St SE Cedar

Eleven Fifty Two - Drama Major -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

James Armstrong -The Muddy Wa-ters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Jef Spradley & Jordan Danielson -Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave. Moline, IL

MC Animosity - DJ XXL - Rahland K - Imperfekt - Felix the Thunda Cat - B-Tho -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Mrs. T & the Wack -My Place the Pub, 4405 State St. Bettendorf, IA

The Candymakers -Brady Street Pub, 217 Brady St. Davenport, IA

Tony Roi: Elvis Tribute Artist -Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Cen-ter, 2021 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Trippin’ Billies - Jason Carl -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Winterland -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washing-ton St. Iowa City, IA

2015/01/24 (Sat)

Barstool Boogaloo & Them Som’ Bitches -Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave. Moline, IL

Blues Rock It w/ “Detroit” Larry Davison -Jim’s Knoxville Tap, 8716 Knoxville Rd. Milan, IL

Bucktown Revue -Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, 600 Hk Robinson Dr. Geneseo, IL

Eagles & Ivories Weekend: Rag-time Dr. Dave Majchrzak (2 & 7pm) - Locust Street Boys (5pm) - Ivory & Gold featuring Jeff & Anne Barnhart - Daniel Souvigny (7pm) -Wesley United Methodist Church, 400 Iowa Ave. Muscatine, IA

Hap Hazard -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

Rapids, IAPatio CD Release Party - Half Naked

- Evan Stock Band -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Roylee McPeely -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Scrap Metal -Riverside Casino Event Center, 3184 Highway 22 River-side, IA

Songwriters in the Round (2pm) -RME (River Music Experience), 129 N. Main St. Davenport, IA

The Easy Mark - Toby Brown Band - Tambourine - Foxholes -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

The Old 57’s -Desperado’s, 112 S. Main St. Wheatland, IA

The Strays (6:30pm) - Cherry Gun (9:30pm) -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Who Cares Band -Silvis Eagles Club, 911 Mansur Ave. Silvis, IL

Brooks Strause @ Rozz-Tox – January 31

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Quad Cities Hash House Harriers 5th Annual

RED DRESS RUNSaturday, February 28, 1pm Shenanigan’s • Downtown Davenport

QCRedDressRun.com • Facebook: Quad Cities Red Dress Run

Proceeds to BenefitHand-in Hand


Live Music Live Music Dave Ellis & Guests -Grumpy’s Sa-

loon, 2120 E 11th St Davenport, IAFuture Death - BLXPLTN -Gabe’s,

330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IAThe Sapwoods - Dan Tedesco - Crys-

tal City -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

2015/02/06 (Fri)

12th-Annual Bob Marley Birthday Bash w/ Natty Nation - Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Battle of the Bands Round Two: Battle Red - Waking Robots - Carsick Radio -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Dani Lynn Howe Band -Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave. Moline, IL

Ellis Kell Band 25th Anniversary Show -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

Hello Weekend -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

In Honor of Graham Parsons: Seth Wenger - Ryan Bernemann - Scott Cochran - Laura Goddard - Joe & Coleen Peterson - Marty Letz -The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St. Iowa City, IA

Leon J - Brian James Hill - Dan Toomey - Tyler Holst -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Moonshine Run -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

The Franti Project -Brady Street Pub, 217 Brady St. Davenport, IA

The Kinsey Report -The Muddy Wa-ters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Greg & Rich Acoustic Duo -Firehouse Bar & Grill, 2006 Hickory Grove Rd. Davenport, IA

Hold On Band -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Justin Morrissey (6pm) -Barrel House Moline, 1321 5th Ave. Moline, IL

Minus Six -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Punk Turns 40: Samuel Locke Ward - Speakerwire Collins - Wax Can-non 3 - Foxholes -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

S e e d s o f D i s s e n t R e u n i o n w / Marv Hain & J.P. Claussen -Up-town Bill’s Coffee House, 730 S. Dubuque St. Iowa City, IA

Stephan David Johnson -Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave. Moline, IL

The Recliners -The Mill, 120 E. Burl-ington St. Iowa City, IA

The Undertones -Fargo Dance & Sports, 4204 Avenue of the Cities Moline, IL

North Scott Jazz Choir -RME Com-munity Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

One Family, One Night: The Lion in Rome - Bailiff - Tambourine -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

Soul Storm -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

Studebaker John -The Muddy Wa-ters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

The Chris & Wes Show -My Place the Pub, 4405 State St. Bettendorf, IA

2015/01/31 (Sat)

Aaron Kamm & the One Drops - The Casual Ties -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Anthony Gomes - Winter Blues All-Stars -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

Beach Bum Bash: The Fry Daddies -Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 4th Ave. Rock Island, IL

Blues Rock It w/ “Detroit” Larry Davison -City Limits Saloon & Grill, 4514 9th St. Rock Island, IL

Chuck Murphy -Cochran’s Pub, 13464 Galt Rd. Sterling, IL

Cobalt Blue -11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St. Davenport, IA

Community Drum Circle (10:30am) - Kidz Days at the RME featur-ing Nick Vasquez (noon) -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Corporate Rock -Stooges, 908 3rd St Orion, IL

Extravision - The Muptiple Cat - Brooks Strause -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Wild Oatz -Nitelife 48 Bar - Plamor Lanes, 1411 Grandview Ave. Mus-catine, IA

2015/02/01 (Sun)

Molly Conrad - Lewis Knudsen (6:30pm) -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

2015/02/03 (Tue)

Luther College Nordic Choir -St. Paul Lutheran Church - Davenport, 2136 Brady St. Davenport, IA

2015/02/04 (Wed)

The Old 57’s (6pm) -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W. Locust St. Davenport, IA

2015/02/05 (Thu)

Bob Marley Birthday Bash: Natty Nation - DJ Trichrome - Firesale -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

Studebaker John @ The Muddy Waters – January 30

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Karaoke Night – 11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St., Davenport, IA.

MONDAYS

Open Mic w/ Corey Wallace – 11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St., Dav-enport, IA.

Open Mic w/ J. Knight – The Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., Iowa City, IA.

TUESDAYS

A Live One – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA.

Acoustic Jam Night w/ Steve McFate – Tim’s Corner Tap, 4018 14th Ave., Rock Island, IL.

Acoustic Music Club (4:30pm) – RME Community Stage, 129 N. Main Street, Davenport, IA.

Karaoke Night – Brady Street Pub, 217 Brady St., Davenport, IA.

Open Mic w/ Corey Wallace – 11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St., Dav-enport, IA.

WEDNESDAYS

Brady Street Pub Open Jam – Brady Street Pub, 217 Brady St., Davenport, IA.

Jam Session w/ Ben Soltau – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA.

Karaoke Night – 11th Street Precinct, 1107 Mound St., Davenport, IA.

Karaoke Night – My Place the Pub, 4405 State St., Bettendorf, IA.

Karaoke Night – RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave., Rock Island, IL.

Karaoke Night – Thirsty’s on Third, 2202 W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

THURSDAYS

C.J. The D.J. – RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave., Rock Island, IL.

Thursday Night Jam Sessions w/ Bret Dale & Zach Harris – The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St., Bettendor f, IA.

Twisted Mics Music & Entertainment – Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave., Mo-line, IL.

FRIDAYS

Cross Creek Karaoke – Firehouse Bar & Grill, 2006 Hickory Grove Rd., Dav-enport, IA.

Karaoke Night – The Grove Tap, 108 S. 1st St., Long Grove, IA.

Karaoke Night – Roadrunners Roadhouse, 3803 Rockingham Rd., Davenport, IA.

Karaoke Night (Jan. 30 only) – Thirsty’s on Third, 2202 W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

Twisted Mics Music & Entertainment (Jan. 30 only) – Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave., Moline, IL.

SATURDAYS

Karaoke Night – The Grove Tap, 108 S. 1st St., Long Grove, IA.

Karaoke Night – Roadrunners Roadhouse, 3803 Rockingham Rd., Davenport, IA.

Karaoke Night (Jan. 31 only) – Thirsty’s on Third, 2202 W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

Open Mic Night – Downtown Central Perk, 226 W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

Russ Reyman Request Piano Bar – The Phoenix Restaurant & Martini Bar, 111 W. 2nd St., Davenpor t , IA.

Twisted Mics Music & Entertainment – Barrel House Moline, 1321 Fifth Ave., Moline, IL.

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS

WEDNESDAYSSATURDAYS

SUNDAYS

MONDAYS

TUESDAYS30 31SATURDAY

DJs/Karaoke/Jams/Open Mics


ComedyTHURSDAY 29

The Bix Beiderbomb Comedy Workshop (8pm) – Boozie’s Bar & Grill, 114 ½ W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

FRIDAY 30

ComedySportz (7pm) – The Establish-ment, 220 19th St., Rock Island, IL.

C o m e d y S p o r t z : M i n o r L e a g u e s (9:30pm) – The Establishment, 220 19th St., Rock Island, IL.

The Blacklist: The Backroom Comedy Showcase (8pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

SATURDAY 31


Pimprov (7 & 9:30pm) – Circa ‘21 Speak-easy, 1818 3rd Ave., Rock Island, IL.

Studio Series: Tubbs & Kelly Present (9:30pm) – The Establishment, 220 19th St., Rock Island, IL.

The Blacklist: Shots ‘n’ Giggles (8pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

SUNDAY 1

The Circumstantial Comedy Show (9pm) – BREW, 1104 Jersey Ridge Rd., Davenport, IA.

MONDAY 2

The Catacombs of Comedy Showcase (10pm) – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA.

WEDNESDAY 4

Comedy Open Mic Night (7:30pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

THURSDAY 22

The Bix Beiderbomb Comedy Workshop (8pm) – Boozie’s Bar & Grill, 114 ½ W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA.

FRIDAY 23


T.G.I. Funny: Critical Hit – Improv the Gathering (9:30pm) – The Establish-ment, 220 19th St., Rock Island, IL.

The Blacklist: Comedy Gang Bang (9pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

SATURDAY 24


Studio Series: Morning Drive (9:30pm) – The Establishment, 220 19th St., Rock Island, IL.

The Blacklist: 100 Laughs (9pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

SUNDAY 25

The Circumstantial Comedy Show (9pm) – BREW, 1104 Jersey Ridge Rd., Davenport, IA.

MONDAY 26

The Catacombs of Comedy Showcase (10pm) – Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA.

WEDNESDAY 28

Comedy Open Mic Night (7:30pm) – The Backroom Comedy Theater, 1510 N. Harrison St., Davenport, IA.

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Richard Ross, Orleans Parish Prison, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1, 2009 digital inkjet print.

January 17–March 15, 2015This exhibition will feature 53 large-scale photographs by award- winning photographer Richard Ross. The images focus on the stories of young women Ross has encountered in juvenile detention facilities across the country, accompanied by each girl’s personal story.

Funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Exhibition opEning

Davenport, Iowa • 563.326.7804 www.figgeartmuseum.org

RichaRd Ross GiRls in Justice

River Cities' Reader - Issue 874 - January 22, 2015

Documents

Transcript of River Cities' Reader - Issue 874 - January 22, 2015