Bob Herington is a cool dude with a cool job and cool glasses. He’s like a much better version of John Cusack in High Fidelity. Like, you actually want to spend time with him and never get the urge to kick him in the liver. Bob’s already proven his good musical taste many times over, so you…
On The Saint Elizabeth’s Fire
There’s a tiny cemetery in the yard of the hospital where I was born. A statue of Mary watches over sixteen plain stone crosses. Mary gazes down, palms outward. She is missing a finger on her right hand. Her brow is relaxed, but her mouth is folded in sorrowful indignation. She gestures to the crosses…
Karen Meat Says ‘You’re An Ugly Person’ And That’s Okay
Did you know Blondie and Joan Jett had a baby? I didn’t, either. They raised her on hot dogs and DaDa and they named her Karen Meat. In what may or may not be her final form, Karen Meat is Arin Eaton and usually Dana Telcrow and also sometimes some other dudes. Yeah, she’s complicated,…
Lavender Daughter’s Moline Club Baptism
On Sunday night, I texted my best friend: “I’m lost in an abandoned country club, and I just found keg half-full of beer.” Because I like to send her tidbits from my life with little to no context. There were a couple of things wrong with the text, though – excluding the fact that, yes,…
Chuckie’s Wild Ride and Posthumous Exhibition
The details of Charles Knudsen IV’s death will be up for debate for years to come. For example, the medical consensus is that he suffered a myocardial infarction, which is consistent with what he’d previously told me about his heart health. A popular belief among his many friends and admirers, however, is that Chuck died…
Awful or Awesome?: Quad City-style Pizza
Update, Mar. 13, 16:22. I just realized this can go in the Awful-Awesome series, which I wanted to be a thing for a while but then fizzled out. Thus, I have retitled this post and added an additional closing paragraph. Enjoy! I was in my twenties before I stumbled upon this term on Wikipedia. That…
The Midwest Writing Center’s March Calendar is Positively Bursting
Note: yes, I realize we’re into the second week in March, but my left hand has carpal tunnel and my right has trackpad wrist. Take care of your hands, kids. The Midwest Writing Center in Rock Island, Illinois is one of the cornerstones of the arts community in the Quad Cities. All year long, they…
A Dying Man’s Final Words
First, the thing; the weird, spooky thing that no one’s really sure what it is (besides R-rated): Some very talented people helped make this thing. Producer Andrew Barkau spent hours searching through sound files for the effects I wanted. Voice actors Mike Steele and Jeff Tady read brilliantly from a script that was deliberately obtuse….
Kweku Collins is Coming to Save Us
In a fog of existential collapse, Kweku Collins is a beacon. He’s a good artist to find when you’ve been beaten down so hard by loss, pain, and despair that you can hardly move. He’ll get you to move – whether it’s through dance, creative inspiration, or just enough psychic energy for you to take one more blind swipe at joy.
Case in point: the title of this post. It makes the corner of my mouth turn up just a bit, and I’d hope a lyrically inventive rapper – with an experimental streak – like Collins would appreciate it.
Rainbow Immunity Soup Recipe
Some of the best recipes are the ones we invent ourselves. This is my new go-to flu season soup, and it’s the healthiest, heartiest meal ever created by human hands. To make it any healthier, I’d have to serve it with a side of GNC vitamins. The black bean rotini is available at Trader Joe’s….
New Venue Alert: The Stardust
Dear Music Makers, meet the Dreamers of Dreams – FINALLY! A mid-sized venue is opening in downtown Davenport! With a capacity of 800, The Stardust is the space we’ve dreamed of and begged for. For years, certain entertainers have declined to perform in the Quad Cities due to lack of an appropriate… Source: The Stardust: The Newest Star…
Art Is Rent and the Residence Gallery
Featuring works by Quad Cities artist Donnie Bobb avail. thru Jan. 15, 2018. For years, I thought an art gallery was a place owned by an uptight rich lady who dyed her hair jet black and dressed like a polo-playing assassin. And in order to get your work into her gallery, Elizabeth Bathory herself had to find…
