river cities reader issue #791 - november 10, 2011

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011� Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

LETTERS [email protected]

Contact Your Elected Officials Now About Property Taxes

Last week, the Iowa Department of Revenue issued an Assessment Limitations Order, or “rollback,” on property values in Iowa. The order adjusts the property values used by local governments to compute property taxes for agricultural, residential, commercial, and industrial property. The taxable value for residential property will be 50.7518 percent of the assessed value. This is an increase from the 2010 level of 48.5299 percent.

This will result in an increase to your residental property tax next September 1 if your assessment stays the same or increases if the levy rates for the various taxing authorities (city, county, schools, community college, etc.) are not lowered.

This increase to your taxable value will net the cities and the county millions of additional tax dollars. What they do with this money is being determined at this moment while they plan their budgets for Fiscal Year 2012-13 and set the levy rates. Let your voices by heard by your elected officials. Ask them if they will be lowering the levy rates based on the fact

that residential taxes will be going up due to the change in the rollback.

Don’t make your calls or send your letters next year when your tax bill arrives – it’s too late. The assessor merely determines the value of all of the property in the city/county. The budgets determine the levy rate you will be taxed at, and that process is going on right now. Contact your elected officials. They are the only people that have the power to raise or lower your taxes based on the budgets they approve.

Diane HolstEldridge, Iowa

Understanding SuperLiberty

From the recent Quad-City Times commentary “Independents MIA in Iowa Q-C,” there seems to be some confusion as to what SuperLiberty is. Started in December 2008 as a local, nonpartisan liberty alliance, we promote all groups who support liberty.

We favor no party over another. We are neither Republican nor Democrat, Right nor Left, Conservative nor Liberal. In fact the American two-party monopoly

perpetuates a false issue-based division amongst the people and helps to prevent us from uniting under the common cause of personal liberty.

Our group acts first and foremost to unite all local, state, and national liberty-minded groups on the local level where effective change can take place. We provide our Web site as a tool for any organizers who wish to keep in touch with their members in the Quad Cities area. We have a start-up kit available to anyone who wishes to organize a similar alliance. Secondly, SuperLiberty acts as an educational and political force to mold our local governments into liberty-protecting forces as they originally were intended and as the law requires.

I helped start the local Tea Party, but I am also an ACLU member and support the Occupy movement. It can seem confusing, since we don’t identify ourselves by party, but rather by issues and principles.

We find the commonality of various factions in order to create positive change for the future of our society. We are opposed to legalized plunder of people’s property, which is where we come at odds with folks like Mayor Gluba. (Witness his Communist-inspired rant at the Occupy event: “We need to redistribute wealth,”

and “If the private sector can’t provide jobs, the public sector should.”) When we helped defeat Davenport Promise, he called us “cultist libertarian nutcases.” (The video link we made is here: YouTube.com/watch?v=kyyaWAari-U.)

Our core members also started Iowans for Accountability – the first non-party political organization in the history of Scott County. We promote the ideals of the Fully Informed Jury Association. (Seen us at the courthouse?)

If you believe in personal liberty – the ability to exercise your natural rights originating from our creator – join us at SuperLiberty.com.

Michael D. ElliottDavenport

CorrectionIn the art review “Illuminating

Comics” (River Cities’ Reader Issue 790, October 27-November 9, 2011), the title of the piece Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was incorrect. However, the author actually meant to reference a Tailspin Tommy piece included in the show as an example of “how much illustrative talent went into even early comics.”

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 3Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

To my amazement, nearly every time I mention the new SECC911, I find residents have no idea that we have

consolidated multiple jurisdictions’ emer-gency dispatching and law-enforcement re-cord-keeping into a single new building and operation. What a shame. Especially because the Scott Emergency Communications Cen-ter (SECC) is now the county’s second-largest budget item, and is funded using a newly established “no cap” taxing authority. This means taxpayers can be endlessly tapped for any and all of the SECC’s funding needs without consent from our elected county and city representatives.

Thanks to emergency-management legislation called “28E” passed by the Iowa legislature and signed into law by former Governor Chet Culver, our local governments ceded authority for a critical component of public-safety services to an independent, unelected board that is answerable to no one, least of all the people who pay for it. The SECC is a classic example of government run amok.

Eldridge resident Diane Holst, a civic hero by any standard, has followed the SECC from its inception. She is so far ahead of the game in terms of knowledge, and connecting the dots, that she shames the supervisors, and even staff, with her inquiries, often evidenced by their inability to competently respond.

Scott County is lucky to have Ms. Holst. Because if you think your elected representatives are managing the business of the county, think again. The vast majority of the elected leaders are clueless about the details of how the taxpayers’ money is being spent. This is evidenced by merely attending any board meeting. County staff is more than happy to perpetuate this arrangement, because it leaves them free to spend tax dollars with impunity. It certainly explains why the staff nearly always gets a pass on incomplete, vague explanations when Ms. Holst presents common-sense, relevant questions.

The institutional laziness, incompetence, and never-saw-a-new-taxing-authority-I-didn’t-love/let-me-rubber-stamp-that-budget mentality of our elected supervisors is embarrassing at best, infuriating at worst. In the October 13 SECC Board meeting, County Board and SECC Board Chair Tom Sunderbruch could not contain his rudeness toward Ms. Holst when she voiced her concerns over safety issues. She suggested that an apology to our law enforcement was in order from the SECC Board for their previous dismissive attitudes with regard to the rank-and-file’s concerns about the new

SECC system – concerns that are absolutely founded, as this issue’s cover story illustrates. “If you read the open-meetings law of Iowa,” Sunderbruch stated, “we don’t have to allow you to speak. So unless you have something new to say, we’ve heard enough.”

Technically, Sunderbruch is correct. And therein lies part of the problem. The only time the public is mandated an opportunity to address these supposed stewards of our tax dollars is during a public hearing for such items as bonding for debt to pay for no-bid contracts for radios costing taxpayers millions. Sunderbruch’s reaction to Holst’s well-documented concerns exposes his inferior understanding of the issues that have plagued the SECC – an unacceptable demeanor from such a leader, considering the magnitude of SECC.

Bettendorf Alderwoman and mayoral candidate Patricia Melinee expressed her concerns in 2007 over the loss of city jurisdiction over dispatching if the county controls the funds. Her concerns were dismissed by most as “overwrought,” when she should be commended for proactive problem-solving. And then-Davenport Alderman Keith Meyer, in an attempt to engage the split Bettendorf council (which voted 4-3 to join SECC) in a dialogue prior to a vote, was called “out of order” by then-County Board Chair Jim Hancock, and the vote was rushed through.

Does one size fit all? Is consolidation of government services among multiple jurisdictions efficient? In theory, perhaps. But the SECC is a newly created government entity, different from any other in Scott County and dangerously unaccountable to the taxpayers, therefore highly susceptible to ballooning out of control relative to expenses and/or scope of services.

Consider that, before it opened its doors, the project was sold to the taxpayers as a cost savings of nearly $5 million over 20 years, with a $2-million, 6,000-square-foot building. That’s how it was advertised. But that’s not what taxpayers got. The project exploded into a $7.3-million, 27,500-square-foot building, with equipment, radios, and software ratcheting up the price tag to $28 million, just for starters.

The study used to justify the project to the public is now being heralded by the administrators as “flawed,” and merely “a guideline.” Never mind those terms were referred to in the intergovernmental agreement as governing the project, via a commissioned study that specified the SECC. This is a typical bureaucratic ploy, and only

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Continued On Page 22

by Kathleen [email protected]

WORDS FROM THE EDITOROctober �� Crossword Answers

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 20114 Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

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Holiday PopsILLINOIS POLITICS

In an exclusive interview last week, CME Group Executive Chair Terry Duffy said he’s more than ready to leave Illinois if he doesn’t

get what he believes is a “fair” tax deal from the General Assembly.

The company owns the Chicago Board of Trade and several other firms. It’s a very big wheel in this state, and leaving would be the worst sort of news for Democrats who raised taxes this year.

Duffy has been under intense pressure all year from Wall Street to reduce expenses. State taxes are listed as expenses on corporate books, so Duffy has been publicly fuming about his company’s $150-million-a-year state-tax burden since corporate tax rates were increased.

Duffy claims CME pays 6 percent of all corporate income taxes in Illinois, and pays more than any other company. “I don’t know another company in the world that pays 6 percent of another state’s taxes.”

As recently as four years ago, the vast majority of CME’s trades were physically handled on the floor of his exchanges such as the Chicago Board of Trade. Now, almost 90 percent of trades are performed electronically, and Duffy says that difference means CME shouldn’t be paying taxes on trades that are obviously originating in other states and other countries. Trouble is, he won’t (and insists he can’t) reveal exactly where those trades are originating, so state negotiators instead decided to reduce his tax burden by roughly two-thirds, which means $100 million a year less in state income taxes paid by CME.

Duffy said he’d talked to at least half of the General Assembly’s members in the past several days, many of whom said they wanted something else in exchange for helping his company, such as tax breaks for other industries.

“I really think these people don’t believe that I have an alternative,” a defiant Duffy said, pointing to very generous offers from other states.

The executive chair claimed he’s been offered as much as $600 million to move Aurora’s high-tech center and mentioned a report about how Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels had offered CME $150 million a year in tax relief – CME’s entire state-tax burden. When reminded that Daniels had denied the offer was made, Duffy said: “The governor denied the number, but he

didn’t deny the discussions. My shareholders heard it. They’re going to say, ‘What the hell did you do that [stay in Illinois] for? We care about us.’”

I’ve criticized Duffy for waiting until after his taxes went up to complain about how his company had historically been mistreated by the state’s tax code. This year’s tax hike cost CME $50 million, but Duffy wants double that amount to stay put. Because he didn’t seem to care about his taxes until January, why should the state give him anything beyond what the tax hike cost the company? Duffy claimed he’d been working on the situation for at least two years. He said he didn’t think he needed to make anything public until he was forced to when he was asked about the tax hike during a shareholders’ meeting.

However, Duffy said he hadn’t met with the governor or anyone else here before the tax hike. “Why work with Illinois when other states have a more business-friendly approach?” he asked.

And as to why CME refuses to offer anything tangible in return for its tax deal, like all other companies seeking

tax relief have to do, Duffy said he doubted the legality of those agreements. If Motorola broke its subsidy deal, Duffy said, it’s doubtful there’d be any real legal ramifications. “We’ve been here 163 years,” Duffy said. “We think we’ve demonstrated that we’re good corporate citizens. I can’t tie my shareholders’ hands like that.”

But if CME is such a good corporate citizen, why demand all that cash when Duffy knows the state budget is still so tight? I mentioned a recent $4.6-million state cut to homeless services, which has resulted in tens of thousands of people being turned away from shelters.

“I’m not asking the state for $100 million,” Duffy said, “I’m asking to give me a rule to say this is what I think is being traded in Illinois and here’s what I’ll pay, whatever the tax rate will be.”

CME, Duffy said, has averaged 19 percent growth for 30 years. “I pay people and they pay taxes, and that money can go to the homeless shelters.”

He didn’t make it sound as harsh as it looks, but it’s an argument he has to deal with.

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

by Rich Miller

Chicago Board of Trade Leader Presses Illinois on Tax Relief

“I really think these people don’t believe that I have an alternative,” a defiant Duffy said,

pointing to very generous offers from

other states.

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 �Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

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can get them into the White House, that’s nuts.”

Minnesota U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann called for a re-examination of all energy tax credits, including ethanol. “I’d like to pull them back and let these industries be more self-supporting,” she said.

U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), who also participated in the event, has long been opposed to energy subsidies.

Vermeer Corporation President and CEO Mary Andringa, who is also chair of the National Association of Manufacturers, told IowaPolitics.com that she agrees with the market-driven approach.

“The industries will find their way to ... compete if we allow them to,” Andringa said. “I think we’re an entrepreneurial country. ... In a way, I just think we have to allow our companies to be innovative, to figure out better ways to do things and then let us compete.”

Mindy Larsen Poldberg, spokesperson for the Iowa Corn Growers Association, earlier told IowaPolitics.com that the larger concern among corn growers is when politicians call for phasing out subsidies on ethanol and not other sources of energy, such as oil and wind energy – which also receive subsidies.

“If a person looked at the subsidies given to the oil industry and ethanol industry and you eliminate them all, it’s a level playing field,” said Poldberg, whose group advocates for corn growers through lobbying and legislative efforts. “The concern that corn growers have is when policymakers choose only to eliminate ethanol subsidies.”

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has supported ethanol subsidies, said any tax credit should be for at least 10 years with a rolling annual renewal. He said tax credits for one or two years are inefficient and “really stupid for America.”

Two of the GOP front-runners, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, were absent from the November 1 forum.

This article was produced by IowaPolitics.com. For more stories on Iowa politics, visit RCReader.com/y/iapolitics.

GOP Candidates: End Tax Credits for Ethanol, Wind Energy

by Lynn Campbell IowaPolitics.com

IOWA POLITICS

Four Republican presidential candi-dates called November 1 for phasing out federal energy tax credits, in-

cluding those for wind energy and ethanol, the corn-based fuel additive.

The calls came despite Iowa being the nation’s top producer of corn and (according to the American Wind Energy Association) ranking second in the nation for wind-energy capacity.

“I believe we have to get rid of all tax incentives for all energy,” said former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum. “I think we have to have a level playing field. ... I don’t think we should create a heart attack for any industry, but we should phase them out over a period of time.”

Five candidates spoke at the manufacturing forum attended by roughly 550 people, televised nationally by PBS, and hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers – the nation’s largest industrial trade association, representing 12,000 manufacturing companies in all 50 states.

Each candidate was interviewed on stage separately at the Pella, Iowa, Global Pavilion at Vermeer Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial and agricultural equipment.

Governor Terry Branstad, one of the moderators, asked candidates if they support extending the federal wind-energy tax credit, which is slated to expire at the end of 2012 and has expired three times. He said U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is among those calling to extend the credit for four years.

Santorum said the ethanol tax credit should be phased out over five years, as well as tax credits for gas and oil.

Texas Governor Rick Perry offered a similar position, despite his state leading the nation in the generation of wind energy. He said if states want to compete against each other, they can implement their own incentives.

“The federal government needs to be completely out of the energy business, picking winners and losers,” Perry said.

Perry said he supports the federal tax credits in research and development in energy, “but the idea of us giving $535 million to some solar company just because they’ve got a good lobbyist that


by Jeff [email protected]

(This is the first of two articles on the Scott Emergency Communications Center. This piece focuses on implementation problems with emergency-response consolidation. The second part will deal with the price tag and to what extent taxpayers have gotten what they were promised.)

Let’s start with the metaphors.We’re roughly six months into

the transition to a consolidated Scott County emergency-dispatch and -records system, said Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin on October 6. “This is the part of the movie where ... the anxiety is. Then there’s the resolution at the end, and there’s a happy ending. We’re at that point where we’re going to be focusing on what the issues are.”

“In a crawl/walk/run category, we stood up and got wobbly,” said Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn, also on October 6. “But we’re still standing. But we’re not walking yet. But we’re pretty much not crawling, either. So we’re working our way forward, and we hope to

get to running. And I think we’re going to get to running; we’re not there yet.”

The Scott Emergency Communications Center (SECC) brings under one roof – at 1100 East 46th Street in Davenport – what had been four dispatching centers, serving Scott County’s 12 municipal and county law-enforcement agencies, 16 fire departments, and five ambulance services.

All those agencies are now using the same radio system, and law-enforcement agencies are also using a single record-keeping system – both of which allow for improved interdepartmental communication. Agencies went live with the system from early April through early May.

Still to come – probably early next year – is the consolidation of each organization’s dispatchers into a single dispatching entity, and the separation of call-taking and dispatching functions. The latter of those is expected to shave 30 seconds off the time it takes to dispatch emergency responders.

And late next year, Medic EMS will decide whether to fold its dispatching operations into SECC or just continue to have its dispatchers working out of the SECC building.

By the standards of local government, the project is complicated. “It takes a good solid year to iron out” issues and difficulties, said SECC Director Brian Hitchcock, who previously oversaw consolidations in Ashland County, Wisconsin, and McHenry County, Illinois. “Every one of those has issues and bugs that have to be worked out. ... We all wish it could happen overnight.” He noted that every consolidation takes a different amount of time to work through, but that the one-year estimate runs through next April.

The consolidation – recommended by a 2006 study and put into motion by a December 2007 intergovernmental agreement – is also expensive, with capital costs of roughly $28 million. The building itself cost $7.31 million. New portable radios for all agencies cost

almost $7 million, purchased without a formal bidding process. Installing a “central electronics bank and associated communications gear into and around the 911 center” cost more than $1.6 million, Hitchcock said. And the dispatching and record-keeping software that has been so problematic cost $2.7 million.

The current operational budget of the SECC is nearly $7.2 million, which includes almost $665,000 in debt service. Outside of operations, the current Scott County budget includes nearly $915,000 in debt service for SECC equipment.

The project’s cost is one reason the SECC bears scrutiny. Beyond that, the tax levy that funds the SECC – unlike those of school districts and municipal governments – is uncapped, meaning that there’s the potential for taxpayers to be on the hook for any runaway costs that might occur. And although four of the five voting members of the SECC board are elected officials, they aren’t directly elected by voters to that board,

COVER STORY

Leaders Say the Transition to Consolidated Emergency Dispatch in Scott County Has Gone Well. It Should Have Gone Better.

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 �Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com


so there isn’t the typical accountability for expenditures or performance.

Eldridge resident Diane Holst, who has regularly raised questions about the consolidation process, said she wants to make sure taxpayer money is being well-spent. “If we’re paying that kind of money, let’s make sure it works, that we’re getting what we’re paying for,” she said. “When they [officers] say it’s all fine. Then I’ll quit raising questions.”

At this point, though, there are still plenty of questions. The positive tone of administrators is a sharp contrast to what’s being said outside of public forums.

“Bettendorf went live [in April] and had problems; two weeks later the county and rural departments went live and had problems; another two weeks went by and Davenport went live and had problems,” said one police officer to whom I talked. “Why didn’t we stop then and regroup until these problems were resolved?”

“The Implementation Has Not Been Successful”

A September 28 memo to Hitchcock from consultant Deltawrx is bluntly critical of how the transition was managed, particularly with the computer-aided dispatch, mobile-computing, and records-management systems from Michigan-based vendor New World Systems (NWS). That is admittedly just one aspect of the consolidation, yet it’s also one that emergency responders use all the time.

“Patrol officers are angry and have lost confidence in the software,” the memo states. “Agencies are devoting time, energy, and resources to working with NWS to fix and test broken software. The frustration level of the Davenport Police Department is so high that it is threatening to revert to its legacy software application. Bettendorf and some rural agencies have already reverted

to using Mobile Cop to run NCIC [National Crime Information Center]

queries in the car.”It summarizes:

“By any measure, the implementation of the NWS applications has not been successful. The software does not work to the specifications proposed, end users are frustrated and angry, administration is devoting already scarce resources and time to fix something that should not be broken, and accountability for problems is almost nonexistent.”

Last month, the SECC board approved a $30,000 contract with Deltawrx to address some of the issues cited in its memo.

The proposal includes activities into February.

This indicates that the SECC acknowledges problems in implementation and is committed to fixing them.

Yet the SECC could have retained Deltawrx earlier for $80,000 to monitor and troubleshoot the entire NWS implementation process. While one SECC board member praised the decision to bring Deltawrx back now – thus saving $50,000 – Scott County Administrator Dee Bruemmer said she wished that the consultant had been kept on.

Furthermore, while the Deltawrx memo relays cautious optimism from police departments that problems can be fixed, those issues and their causes might have some long-term negative effects: The memo expresses a skepticism that the New World Systems software will ever be embraced. “All agency representatives with whom Deltawrx spoke ... expressed a desire for the system to work,” the memo says. “Some people did express doubt that it would be possible to fix the problems, and others are concerned that end-users will never accept the NWS software, even if it works as intended.”

While the memo says that “dwelling

“The software does not work to the specifications

proposed, end users are frustrated and

angry, administration is devoting already

scarce resources and time to fix something

that should not be broken, and

accountability for problems is almost

nonexistent.” – Consultant Deltawrx



Described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “simultaneously hilarious and touching,” the road-trip comedy

Leaving Iowa is the final presentation in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s 2011 season. Leaving Iowa is also the first pre-sentation in Black Hawk College’s 2011-12 theatre season, but don’t chalk that up to either coincidence or some sort of Moline-based rivalry; the productions are actually one and the same.

“It’s a win-win for everybody,” says Leaving Iowa director Tom Naab of this first-ever stage collaboration between the community theatre and the community college. “The students get to use the Playcrafters facility, and it costs Black Hawk nothing; Playcrafters pays for the sets, the costumes, the props – everything.

“And the Barn saves money,” continues the Black Hawk theatre professor, “because the school is paying my salary, and we’re bringing in all these volunteers who are helping build the sets and paint the sets ... . They save money and we save money.”

“It’s also a lot of fun,” adds Tom’s wife Stephanie Naab, who serves as Leaving Iowa’s producer. “When we first scheduled this, we really didn’t know how it would work out. But so far, it’s going very well.”

Running November 11 through 20, Leaving Iowa concerns a man whose family of four traverses the state in search of an appropriate “final resting place” for his late father’s remains. Leapfrogging between scenes set in the present and flashbacks from the man’s family vacations as a teenager, the show features a 16-person cast that includes such familiar Playcrafters presences as Don Faust, Tom Morrow, Spiro Bruskas, Lisa Kahn, and Nicholas Waldbusser.

Yet these and other performers will also be appearing alongside a half-dozen student actors from Tom’s theatre classes at Black Hawk, and working with nine student crew members who, as Tom says, “are running everything. The stage management – which is the most important tech job – the lights, the sound, the props ... . It’s all being run by Black Hawk students.”

Forty-year veterans of Playcrafters who have both appeared in and worked behind-the-scenes on dozens of shows at the Moline venue – Tom most recently appeared in September’s Make

Me a Cowboy, for which Stephanie designed the costumes – the Naabs say that the collaborative effort of Leaving Iowa has been a long time coming.

“It’s not a new idea,” says Tom, “but we always thought it was a good idea. Especially since it would bring in young people to Playcrafters, because that age group is hard to fill at auditions. We get ’em older than that and younger than that, but that college-age group is hard to find.

“So we’d discussed it many times over the years,” he continues. “Steph and I have been on the [Playcrafters] board as director liaisons a number of times, and we would approach college theatre teachers around the area and try to get them involved. And we were always turned down. They were generally busy with their own programs ... and they would always ask how much it pays.”

“We don’t really pay,” says Stephanie with a laugh. “It’s a stipend. It’s basically gas money.”

“It would be like going to a plumber,” says Tom, “and having him say, ‘You’re asking me to do some free plumbing for you in my off-hours? That’s not fun for me.’”

The opportunity for a collaboration, however, finally presented itself after Tom was hired as Black Hawk’s professor of theatre, in the wake of former department head Dan Haughey’s 2009 retirement. “Since I was now the teacher,” says Tom, “I approached the Playcrafters board, and right away they said, ‘Yes. It sounds like a great idea. Let’s bring the students here.’”

In addition to providing the Barn with a number of college-age actors and crew members who had never before participated at the venue, the collaboration offered numerous boons to

Black Hawk’s theatre students, one of the biggest being the chance to work on the Playcrafters stage. “Because Black Hawk’s theatre,” as Stephanie says, “is really not a theatre. It’s a lecture hall.”

“No one should take theatre, or sign up for acting classes, for the building itself,” says Tom. “If you love theatre, you don’t do it because it’s a nice facility. And Black Hawk is budgeting half a million dollars to remodel the space.

“But I know that the fact that it’s a lecture hall can be discouraging for students,” he continues. “We have a girl that came in last year and was all excited, talking to me about the program and lights and sound,

and then she asked, ‘Now when will I get to see the theatre?’ And I said, ‘Well ... this is it.’ And she said, ‘This?!’ So this a great opportunity for our students to get to use a real stage, and to work with some experienced people.”

Tom adds that another perk for Leaving Iowa’s participants “is that Black Hawk offers one hour called Theatre Practicum, where if students act in a show or work on one of the crews, they can get an hour of college credit. Not all of them are taking it, but eight of them are, and it’s something that can really help your GPA. You know, just show up, and do what you’re supposed to do.”

Plus, as Tom says, the production also offers “a chance for our students to get real audiences – large audiences. At Black Hawk, if we can draw close to 100 people over a weekend, that’s pretty good. That’s not even one night of what we can draw at Playcrafters.

“So they’ll get the opportunity to perform for much bigger crowds, and hopefully, the students will bring in other students; we’re advertising Leaving Iowa in the school, and the hope is that we’ll bring some people in here that maybe haven’t been here before. When I talk to some people about the Barn,” says Tom with a laugh, “I’m always amazed when they say, ‘Where is that? Is that where they do the musicals?’”

Leaving Iowa will be staged at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre November 11 through20; Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday performances are at 3 p.m. For more information and tickets, call (309)762-0330 or visit Playcrafters.com.

Playcrafters and Black Hawk College Team Up for Leaving Iowa, November 11 through 20

by Mike [email protected]

Vol. 19 · No. �91Nov. 10 - ��, �011

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THEATRE

Pam Kobre, Hannah McNaught, Don Faust,Dana Moss-Peterson and Taylor Apple

Community Effort


At the corner of Third Avenue and 19th Street in the Rock Island District

is a glazed terra-cotta bust of an American Indian wearing a war bonnet that encircles his head, al-most like the traditional painting of a halo. Arrows, peace pipes, and entwined snakes are also included in the symmetrical composition. This 10-foot-wide relief is placed above the second-story window on the rounded corner of the Fort Armstrong Theatre building.

Though the artwork is ornate, the dominant central face gives it a strong point of emphasis. The angular structure of the face and surrounding triangular patterns are counterbalanced by the overarching half-circle and circular shapes radiating from the composition’s center.

The decorative patterns around the other second-floor windows and the building’s outline are also composed of these geometric shapes and Native American symbols. The ivory-, blue-,

yellow-, red-, and green-colored glaze stands out against the theatre’s dark-red brick exterior.

The wealth of patterns and use of materials are similar to the architectural

designs of Louis H. Sullivan, the era’s most influential architect. The company that produced these ceramics, the Midland Terra Cotta Company in Chicago, was also employed by Sullivan.

The theatre opened in 1921, a time of stylistic transition between elaborate Art Nouveau and streamlined Art Deco. It was also when themed theatres were coming into vogue. The combined influence of these trends makes the Fort Armstrong’s architecture fascinating, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The theatre was named after the fort where the Black Hawk War officially ended with a treaty-signing. Shortly before construction began on the theatre, Rock Island had celebrated the centennial of the military fort’s construction. As part of the centennial celebration, members of the Sauk tribe – including Black

Hawk’s great grandson, Jesse Ka-ka-que – were invited to Rock Island. This focus on the area’s early history undoubtedly

Art in Plain Sight: Fort Armstrong Theatre BuildingArticle and Photos by Bruce WaltersART


Great Russian NutcrackerGreat Russian NutcrackerDecember 5 at 7:30 pm & December 6 at 2:00 pm

www.theorpheum.org TICKETS $30-$50 (309) 342-2299The Historic Orpheum Theatre 57 South Kellogg Street Galesburg, Illinois

THE ORPHEUM THEATRE

TheThe


TOWER HEISTA lot of people make a

lot of fun of director Brett Ratner, partly because his résumé – which includes not one, not two, but three Rush Hour movies – makes it so darned easy to.

So let’s consider Ratner’s new action comedy Tower Heist. In the film, a Wall Street financier, played by a smarm-oozing Alan Alda, swindles the pension funds from the staff at his swanky Manhattan high-rise, stashing their earnings within the confines of a mint-condition Ferrari parked in his living room. (I’ll give you a moment to wrap your heads around that information.) Led by Ben Stiller’s determined building manager, a motley team of employees plans to steal their dough back by inconspicuously sneaking the car out of Alda’s penthouse apartment. And while this scenario is, at best, wildly implausible, it’s still not unreasonable to hope that its execution will yield a goodly amount of enjoyment.

The reason it doesn’t, though, is because Ratner and his quartet of Tower Heist writers don’t appear to give a damn about the robbery’s plotting, and don’t seem to care if we don’t, either. It should go without saying that the pleasures of a clever, tightly constructed heist flick, from The Thomas Crown Affair to (two-thirds of) Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven series, can be enormous. But what satisfaction can we possibly get from a master plan that, as

evidenced here, can only be pulled off if a five-man security staff is distracted by an issue of Playboy? Or a collection of 20-plus in the tower’s lobby is distracted by some birthday cake? Or literally thousands of spectators are so distracted by the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade likenesses of Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants that not one of them notices the cherry-red Ferrari being lowered from the skyscraper across the street? (Aren’t all those people looking up?) Lord knows there are other problems with the movie; tonally, the direction is so unfocused that we frequently need Christophe Beck’s score to tell us which moments are designed for comedy and which for excitement. But it’s Ratner and company’s complete disregard for logic, and even suspended disbelief, that makes Tower Heist so frustrating. Was there no other way to humanize Téa Leoni’s ultra-competent FBI agent than by also turning her into a sloppy drunk whose blathering unwittingly inspires Stiller’s payback scheme?

Yet here’s the rub: Despite its flaws, the

movie, like most Ratner movies, is pretty easy to sit through. While the director’s oeuvre is mostly crap, it’s crap polished to a high gloss, and Ratner pulls off several set pieces here with considerable brio, none finer than the legitimately nerve-racking scene of Matthew Broderick’s former stock trader dangling from that airborne Ferrari. Plus, in case the film’s aforementioned actors didn’t give enough indication, Ratner’s cast does a rather expert job of scoring laughs with less than first-rate material. Stiller may be playing things too dark and “real” for maximum amusement, but in addition to Alda, Leoni, and Broderick, talented performers as diverse as Casey Affleck, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe, Judd Hirsch, and the quickly-becoming-invaluable Nina Arianda are all allowed numerous opportunities to shine.

And if all else failed, the film would at least be notable for the long-awaited return of Eddie Murphy – the actual Eddie Murphy, not that tired, embarrassed-looking star of all those awful kiddie flicks over the past 15 years. Portraying the film’s lone professional thief, Murphy may not be doing anything here that he hasn’t done before, and the gags he’s been given aren’t particularly fresh. But his frenzied, motor-mouthed riffing is still fantastically funny and, above all, incredibly welcome – the laughter that accompanies his routines sounds both genuine and relieved – and Ratner’s latest becomes a sharper, better movie whenever the comedian is around. I couldn’t have cared less about the Ferrari in Tower Heist. I was more than content, though, to watch Eddie Murphy steal the show.

A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR CHRISTMAS

As the movie is unfailingly raunchy, ridiculous, and willing to go to any extreme – no matter how sketchy or tasteless or just-plain-stupid – for a laugh, you’re going to have to be in the right state of mind to enjoy A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Happily, when I saw the film, I was in exactly the right state. (Though perhaps not the perfect state: It was the morning, after all, and I was still on the clock.) If you’re not already a fan of this series starring the sensationally game and witty John Cho and Kal Penn, director Todd Strauss-Schulson’s stoner slapstick – for which I, ahem, highly recommend the 3D presentation – probably won’t recruit you to the cause. But if Patton Oswalt as a spliff-selling Santa, a gory Claymation battle, a breakfast-serving companion named WaffleBot, a dirty-minded riff on A Christmas Story’s stuck-tongue sequence, a coked-up infant racing on the ceiling, and that whirligig of hilarious self-deprecation known as Neil Patrick Harris are enough to get you giggling, know that AVH&KC will be precisely your cup of spiked holiday punch. And that, in all likelihood, there’s something very, very wrong with us.

For reviews of Anonymous, The Way, and other current releases, visit RiverCitiesReader.com.

Follow Mike on Twitter at Twitter.com/MikeSchulzNow.

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

Listen to Mike every Friday at 9am on ROCK 104-9 FM with Dave & Darren

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy in Tower Heist

Haul on WheelsMovie Reviews by Mike Schulz • [email protected]


‘Why aren’t you on the road?’”Yamagata patched together funding

from a variety of sources: a distribution deal, money her father had set aside for her wedding, and contributions through PledgeMusic.com.

The result is Chesapeake, which AllMusic.com noted shows Yamagata in a “more hopeful state of mind” than on her previous two albums, both well-regarded. While some critics have found

After singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata was freed from her contract with Warner Bros.,

she called producer John Alagia about making her third album. She didn’t send him songs to consider, and they didn’t discuss material. The next day, they were making arrangements to get equipment and musicians to his house in Maryland.

“Within a few weeks, we were ... actually doing it,” Yamagata said in a phone interview this week, promoting her November 12 performance at the Redstone Room.

Moving quickly was a response to “several years of kind of being in this holding-pattern experiment with major record labels,” she said. “It was a lot of leap-before-you-look scenarios. I just knew that if you got the right people in the room, we could make it work.”

And the right people wanted to help. “I think people look at me maybe as an underdog of sorts, always wanting good things for me,” she said. “A lot of my peers I think have felt the frustration with me about ‘Where’s your next record?’ or

Out of the Holding PatternRachael Yamagata, November 12 at the Redstone Room


MUSIC

the upbeat tone a little saccharine, most reviews have said that she pulls it off. BlogCritics.org wrote: “Yamagata’s honesty (‘Full On’) proves intoxicating, and her joyfulness (‘Saturday Morning’) is addicting. Thanks to well-crafted songs and a voice to die for, her latest is delicious optimism.” And the Washington Post said: “Her throaty vocals add grit to over-sweetened numbers such as ‘You Won’t Let Me.’ The album’s sense

of style wavers, but Yamagata’s voice and sensibility hold things together.”

A personal favorite is the slinky “Starlight,” which adds doubt and a confident challenge to the equation: “I jumped from a moving train just to keep you / Would you do it for me?” That track and “Even If I Don’t” and “The Way It Seems to Go” pair Yamagata’s nimble, undeniably magnetic voice with punchy arrangements – casting her as

kin to Fiona Apple. (And on the Muppets tribute The Green Album, she lays bare the poignancy of Gonzo’s “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday.”)

Yamagata said she already has a six-song EP in the works that she hopes to release in the next four months, and it seems likely that fans won’t have to wait years between albums as they have in the past.

She was only able to release one studio full-length between her 2004 solo debut (Happenstance) and the new independently released album, which came out last month. “It’s been insane if you kind of bottom-line it in that way – how often have I been on the road, how many releases have I had?” she said. “The time delays have been ridiculous ...

“I couldn’t have seen it coming. I wish I could [have]. I think the industry has imploded within the time frame of me living within it. It started out great and got more difficult along the way, purely because I think everyone’s trying to figure out how to survive. Even with my first


Photo by Laura Crosta

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 1�Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

A young man sits in his liv-ing room, in

a large, inviting house that, as we’ll learn, is located in the small town of Perry, Iowa. He practices a quiet melody on his guitar, occasionally glancing at his handwritten sheet music for a song titled “Last Looks.” It’s a sunny day in late afternoon, and both the man and his surroundings exude an air of utter, un-alterable calm, a feeling only briefly disrupted by the sound of a plane passing overhead. Well, that and the faraway screaming.

So begins Impulse, the latest offering by filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods of the Bettendorf-based (and, now, also Los Angeles-based) production company Bluebox Limited. And over the span of a compact 16-and-a-half minutes, Beck and Woods – both of whom are in their mid-20s – again demonstrate the rather intimidating gifts for screen composition and cinematic nuance that have made the duo’s previous works, particularly their 2006 neo-Western The Bride Wore Blood, such impressive achievements. Impulse may be short, but as an example of engaging, evocative, and ultimately haunting storytelling, it’s very, very sweet.

It’s also, barring the music and designer Mac Smith's sound effects, very, very quiet. I might have already written more words for this article that you’d find in the entirely of Impulse’s scripted dialogue. (Beck and Woods share credit as the film’s writers, directors, and producers.) As we all know, though, a picture is worth a thousand words, and some of the sequences pictured here by Beck and Woods are worth a lot more than that; the moviemakers smartly understand the economy – and, for audiences, the intense thrill – of letting visual and aural clues drive their narrative. Until the film’s final image, we’re never entirely certain about where Impulse’s threat is coming from. But it doesn’t take much more than the sight of a kid spray-painting “To Hell and Back” on a church exterior, or the sounds of unseen helicopters zipping over a deserted Main Street, to glean that something very bad is happening in Perry, and quite possibly the world, and that the situation is quickly getting worse.

To be sure, this is readily apparent to our guitar-playing protagonist David (played with ease and confidence by former Malcolm in the Middle co-star Christopher Masterson), who spends the film making desperate attempts to escape the town. We’re told neither what he’s escaping from nor to where, but Beck and Woods, from the start, pepper David’s predicament with suggestive, insidious hints: warning sirens blaring on a cloudless day; a collection of lit candles arranged in the shape

Bluebox Limited’s Impulse, Now Available on iTunes

by Mike Schulz

of a cross; a well-dressed businessman (James Serpento) apologetically hijacking David’s car and muttering, “We’re all fucked anyway, right?”; a shotgun-wielding grandfather (Michael Kennedy) taking deliberate aim at a skateboard-riding relative. Propelled by Corey Wallace’s insistent, nerve-racking score, Beck’s and Woods’ early scenes of small-town panic all but vibrate with tension and foreboding, and those sensations are intensified by our continued haziness about what, exactly, the source of the danger is. Terrorists? Disease? Zombies? (In an enjoyable newscast cameo, KWQC-TV6’s Gary Metivier tells viewers that their one hope for surviving the threat is to “get to the quarry.”) It’s the end of the world as we know it in Impulse, and based on the on-screen evidence, no one feels fine.

Yet gradually, almost without your being aware of it, the mood of the film subtly shifts, and what began as a paranoid, end-of-days freak-out à la Steven Soderbegh’s Contagion morphs into a hushed, somewhat elegiacal plea for the comforts of simplicity and normalcy – for peace. Through much of Impulse, David’s fanatical insistence on bringing a guitar, any guitar, along on his trek seems vaguely comedic, a symbolic representation of the scruffily bearded, chapeau-wearing young man’s hipster cred. (Although, as a prop, the musical instrument is at least well-used in one brilliantly, hilariously conceived shocker involving a speeding ambulance.) By the time Beck and Woods get to their climactic scene, however, you realize that the whole movie, in its way, has actually been about the guitar – or at least about the collective need, the impulse, behind why we make music in the first place. Without at all skimping on the pleasures of a tightly constructed short thriller (and Andrew M. Davis’ photography and Russell Andrew’s editing are particularly fine), the Bluebox filmmakers, here, have crafted an entertainment of surprising elegance and profundity. The film asks, “What do you want to take from this life? And where do you want to be when it ends?” I’m not sure I’m ready to answer that first question, but if life ends while watching a work as sharply rendered and inspiring as Impulse, that might be all right with me.

Impulse was released on iTunes on October 27; for more information on the film, visit BlueboxLimited.com.

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 20111�

TheatreThe Turn of the ScrewThe District TheatreTuesday, November 15, through Sunday, November 20

In his most recent production for the District Theatre, actor Steve Lasiter

played the famed “sweet transvestite” in The Rocky Horror Show. In his next production for the District Theatre – playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s The Turn of the Screw – he’ll be playing the British owner of a palatial estate, an elderly female housekeeper, and a 10-year-old boy.

In other words, in less than three weeks, Lasiter has gone from being a Frank-N-Furter to a hot dog.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Heh heh heh ... . Hmm.Yeah, apparently it’s gonna be one of those days

on the What’s Happenin’ pages, folks.

A special, spooky treat recently added to the theatre’s 2011 lineup, The Turn of the Screw is Hatcher’s take on the famed Henry James novella, a one-act ghost story called “a beautifully executed adaptation” and

“a dazzling act of the imagination” by the New York Times ... though I actually prefer the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s reference to it as “a Mensa Halloween.” Set in a lonely English manor house, the story concerns a new governess who is sent to care for two recently orphaned children. Yet not long after arriving, the woman must contend with a host of difficulties not

mentioned in the job description – most notably the ghosts of her charges’ former caretakers, who have either returned to inflict further harm on the kids or are perhaps products of the woman’s fevered imagination.

Directed by popular area performer Patti Flaherty, and produced by Tristan Tapscott and Lora Adams, this creepy presentation will find Adams portraying the slowly unraveling governess, and Lasiter portraying everyone else the woman encounters in Hatcher’s 90-minute play. That’s right: Even given its numerous characters, The Turn of the Screw is a two-actor show. Or, as I like to think of the work, a pas de “Boo!” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Oh, come on! That was way funnier than my hot-dog joke!

Never mind. Running November 15 through 20, The Turn of the Screw will be staged on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., and tickets are available by calling (309)235-1654 or visiting DistrictTheatre.com.

MusicCornmealThe Redstone RoomFriday, November 11, 9 p.m.

On November 11, Davenport’s Redstone Room will serve up a special treat for

music lovers: a Cornmeal jam. Trust me, it’s gonna be a lot tastier than that might sound.

The bluegrass and roots-rock outfit Cormeal began as a side project for bass player Chris Gangi in 2001, when he and his bandmates performed weekly gigs at Martyr’s Bar in Chicago. Ten years later, the group has not only released four CDs but has become one of the most popular touring ensembles based out of the Midwest, averaging roughly 130

nationwide stops annually, and opening for such noted acts as Umphrey’s McGee, the Yonder Mountain String Band, the David Grisman Quartet, and moe.

Composed of Gangi, guitarist Kris Nowak, drummer J.P. Nowak, banjo player Wavy Dave Burlingame, and fiddler

Allie Kral, Cornmeal may be described as a jam band, but there are a lot of different ingredients in that particular jam. While the performers are known primarily for their infectious bluegrass stylings, they’re just as musically fluent in roots rock, jazz, country, funk, and blues, and it’s partly their ease in covering so many genres that has earned the

Cornmeal artists scores of fans and major plaudits by critics.The Chicago Reader, for instance, praises Cormeal for its

“very user-friendly bluegrass-jam fusion” and its “seductive detours into jazz, funk, or rock.” The Indypendent newspaper raves about “the harmonies intertwined in a roaring cascade of electric jamgrass.” The Illinois Entertainer calls them “a toe-tapping, hand-clapping, finger-snapping tour de force.” And after one particular Cornmeal concert, the online music site GratefulWeb.com wrote, “They left us in a daze of bluegrass bliss with nothing left to do but recover on Sunday morning.” Considering that Cornmeal’s Redstone Room concert is on a Friday, it sounds like we’re in for a lo-o-o-o-ong music high, folks.

Cornmeal’s Davenport concert features an opening set by the Farewell Drifters, tickets are $10, and more information on the evening is available by calling (563)326-1333 or visiting RedstoneRoom.com.

What’s Happenin’MusicMark SchultzAugustana CollegeSaturday, November 19, 7 p.m.

The latest in Augustana College’s lineup of visiting artists is a Dove

Award-winning musician who will appear in a special concert titled An Intimate Evening with Mark Schultz. I should mention that this event isn’t to be confused with An Intimate Evening with Mike Schulz, which is also great fun, but features a lot more griping about Hollywood reboots and surcharges for 3D glasses.

Arriving at Augustana on November 19, the frequently touring Schultz is based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and over the past decade has emerged as one of Christian music’s most acclaimed artists. Since the release of his self-titled CD in 2000, the singer/songwriter has been praised for his gifts for telling personal, heartfelt stories through music, and has gone on to release an additional seven albums – including 2011’s Renaissance and The Best of Mark Schultz – that have earned both critical acclaim and music-industry accolades. 2010 found the artist nominated for Dove Awards in the categories of “Male Artist of the Year” and “Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year,” and in 2005, Schultz’s DVD Mark Schultz Live: A Night of Stories & Songs received the Dove for “Long-

Form Music Video of the Year.” A platinum-selling artist with 10

chart-topping singles to his credit – among them modern Christian-music staples “Remember Me,” “I Am the Way,” “He’s My Son,” “Letters from War,” and “Walking Her Home” – Schultz is sure to provide an exceptional evening of musical entertainment in his Rock Island engagement. And again, despite the considerable similarities in our names, I assure you that it isn’t me who was invited to grace Augustana’s Centennial Hall stage on November 19 ... even though I did pay four years’ worth of tuition to that school ... and I do make frequent mention of Augie’s events in the What’s Happenin’ pages ... . No big deal ... .

Tickets to An Intimate Evening with Mark Schultz are $10 in advance and $12 at the door, and more information on the night is available by calling (309)794-7306 or visiting Augustana.edu.

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 1�

TheatreThe Turn of the ScrewThe District TheatreTuesday, November 15, through Sunday, November 20

In his most recent production for the District Theatre, actor Steve Lasiter

played the famed “sweet transvestite” in The Rocky Horror Show. In his next production for the District Theatre – playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s The Turn of the Screw – he’ll be playing the British owner of a palatial estate, an elderly female housekeeper, and a 10-year-old boy.

In other words, in less than three weeks, Lasiter has gone from being a Frank-N-Furter to a hot dog.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Heh heh heh ... . Hmm.Yeah, apparently it’s gonna be one of those days

on the What’s Happenin’ pages, folks.

A special, spooky treat recently added to the theatre’s 2011 lineup, The Turn of the Screw is Hatcher’s take on the famed Henry James novella, a one-act ghost story called “a beautifully executed adaptation” and

“a dazzling act of the imagination” by the New York Times ... though I actually prefer the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s reference to it as “a Mensa Halloween.” Set in a lonely English manor house, the story concerns a new governess who is sent to care for two recently orphaned children. Yet not long after arriving, the woman must contend with a host of difficulties not

mentioned in the job description – most notably the ghosts of her charges’ former caretakers, who have either returned to inflict further harm on the kids or are perhaps products of the woman’s fevered imagination.

Directed by popular area performer Patti Flaherty, and produced by Tristan Tapscott and Lora Adams, this creepy presentation will find Adams portraying the slowly unraveling governess, and Lasiter portraying everyone else the woman encounters in Hatcher’s 90-minute play. That’s right: Even given its numerous characters, The Turn of the Screw is a two-actor show. Or, as I like to think of the work, a pas de “Boo!” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Oh, come on! That was way funnier than my hot-dog joke!

Never mind. Running November 15 through 20, The Turn of the Screw will be staged on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., and tickets are available by calling (309)235-1654 or visiting DistrictTheatre.com.

MusicCornmealThe Redstone RoomFriday, November 11, 9 p.m.

On November 11, Davenport’s Redstone Room will serve up a special treat for

music lovers: a Cornmeal jam. Trust me, it’s gonna be a lot tastier than that might sound.

The bluegrass and roots-rock outfit Cormeal began as a side project for bass player Chris Gangi in 2001, when he and his bandmates performed weekly gigs at Martyr’s Bar in Chicago. Ten years later, the group has not only released four CDs but has become one of the most popular touring ensembles based out of the Midwest, averaging roughly 130

nationwide stops annually, and opening for such noted acts as Umphrey’s McGee, the Yonder Mountain String Band, the David Grisman Quartet, and moe.

Composed of Gangi, guitarist Kris Nowak, drummer J.P. Nowak, banjo player Wavy Dave Burlingame, and fiddler

Allie Kral, Cornmeal may be described as a jam band, but there are a lot of different ingredients in that particular jam. While the performers are known primarily for their infectious bluegrass stylings, they’re just as musically fluent in roots rock, jazz, country, funk, and blues, and it’s partly their ease in covering so many genres that has earned the

Cornmeal artists scores of fans and major plaudits by critics.The Chicago Reader, for instance, praises Cormeal for its

“very user-friendly bluegrass-jam fusion” and its “seductive detours into jazz, funk, or rock.” The Indypendent newspaper raves about “the harmonies intertwined in a roaring cascade of electric jamgrass.” The Illinois Entertainer calls them “a toe-tapping, hand-clapping, finger-snapping tour de force.” And after one particular Cornmeal concert, the online music site GratefulWeb.com wrote, “They left us in a daze of bluegrass bliss with nothing left to do but recover on Sunday morning.” Considering that Cornmeal’s Redstone Room concert is on a Friday, it sounds like we’re in for a lo-o-o-o-ong music high, folks.

Cornmeal’s Davenport concert features an opening set by the Farewell Drifters, tickets are $10, and more information on the evening is available by calling (563)326-1333 or visiting RedstoneRoom.com.

everything put together falls apart. Before long, you were homeward bound to Graceland with the boxer – that one-trick pony who’s still crazy after all these years. Congratulations.

Can I forgive him? I don’t know; nobody does. But I know what I know, and while there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, I’m hoping one American tune by Paul Simon might bring you back.

So don’t think of me as just some train in the distance. Whatever I do, I do it for your love.

Sincerely yours, Jonah Duncan ... ... but you can call me Al

For tickets to Paul Simon’s Moline concert on November 16 – and the chance to hear at least a few of the

music legend’s 36 aforementioned songs – call (800)745-3000 or visit iwirelessCenter.com.

by Mike [email protected]

What ElseIs Happenin’


MUSICFriday, November 11 – Peter

Mayer Group. Award-winning singer/songwriter and his ensemble, with an opening set by the Whoozdads. Adler Theatre (136 East Third Street, Davenport). 7 p.m. $25-30. For tickets, call (800)745-3000 or visit AdlerTheatre.com.

Friday, November 11 – Artimus Pyle. Concert with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s percussion legend. Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center (1777 Isle Parkway, Bettendorf ). 7:30 p.m. $10-20. For tickets and information, call (800)724-5825 or visit Bettendorf.IsleOfCapriCasinos.com.

Friday, November 11, and Saturday, November 12 – Burlesque Le’ Moustache Goes to the Movies. A humorous and provocative tribute to the silver screen, featuring comic skits, bawdy songs, striptease acts, and a scantily clad female chorus. Circa ’21 Speakeasy (1818 Third Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $15. For tickets and information, call (309)786-7733 extension 2 or visit Circa21.com.

Saturday, November 12 – Rachael Yamagata. Concert with the folk-rock, acoustic, and pop performer, with an opening set by Mike Viola. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 9 p.m. $15. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RedstoneRoom.com.

MusicPaul Simoni wireless CenterWednesday, November 16, 7:30 p.m.

Cecilia:

I know I think too much, but I feel like you’re slip slidin’ away, and I can’t take the sound of silence anymore. I feel like the boy in the bubble. So what say we call an armistice day? Come with me to Paul Simon’s November 16 concert at the i wireless Center, and late in the evening, you’ll learn how to fall for me again.

Remember when we realized there was something so right about us? It was a sunny day, and we were singing that song about the moon. Sitting by the cool, cool river under African skies – near that bridge over troubled water at the coast – it was like our love was born at the right time, and we felt that love in our hearts and bones. Like Rene and Goergette Magritte with their dog after the war, we had no further to fly.

But of course,


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9-1-1 Whitewash?on the past to place blame is not a useful exercise if SECC and SECC agencies want to move forward,” it adds that “what happened in the past to bring SECC and SECC agencies to this point in time does bear on our recommendations for moving forward.”

The report identifies eight problems in the transition to NWS software:

• “Expedited implementation”;• “Unstructured functional testing”;• “Ineffective system-build sessions”;• “Condensed training”;• “Software that does not meet

contractual obligations”;• “Ineffective customer support from

NWS”;• “SECC support structure”; and• “Vague information-system-

management structure.”Many of those shortcomings appear to

flow from the first. The Deltawrx report says: “Despite warnings to the contrary, SECC moved forward with a 14-month implementation schedule for systems that typically take 18 to 24 months to implement under the best circumstances. ... To expedite the implementation, shortcuts were taken; training was compressed and systematic testing was not conducted. When the system was cut over to live operations, NWS had not yet developed key software modules and interfaces, and promised functionality was missing or not working as intended.”

Malin, Ploehn, and Bruemmer (all nonvoting, ex officio members of the SECC board), as well as SECC Director Hitchcock, sounded a similar refrain: Yes, there have been problems and bugs during the consolidation, but that’s to be expected in such a massive endeavor. And most aspects of consolidation have gone well.

“I think the big picture is heading in the right direction,” Malin said. “We have an implementation issue with one component of the software package that we need to work through. ... The records system isn’t where we need it to be in order to do our operations as efficiently as we did in the past.”

“We are as pleased as we had anticipated we would be at this point in time,” Ploehn said.

And both Ploehn and Malin said that shifting the costs of dispatching from their cities to the county has allowed them to both lower their municipal property-tax rates while funding additional services and projects. (The second part of this article – to be published in the November 23 edition of

the River Cities’ Reader – will deal with the question of whether the consolidation has saved taxpayers money.)

Bruemmer, Malin, Ploehn, and Hitchcock were all asked via e-mail to comment on the Deltawrx memo, and specifically whether they felt the project was rushed at the expense of results.

Bruemmer wrote: “All staffs are working through the issues with a forward-look approach. It is always easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback. I decline to take that position.”

Malin wrote that he agreed with Deltawrx’s assessment of the current situation, the causes, and the recommendations. But he said claiming that “expedited implementation” caused most of the problems cited in the memo “goes beyond Deltawrx’s report. I also don’t accept the premise that 14 months isn’t enough time to do the work that needed to be done by NWS.”

Hitchcock added in an e-mail: “There were no warnings given [by Deltawrx] not to implement in the 14-month timeframe. When being presented the New World Systems software and again in contract negotiations with New World Systems, they were well aware of the timelines involved in the project. They did indicate that these projects usually take from 18 to 24 months. When New World Systems was asked if the 14-month implementation would be a problem, they indicated that it would not be; it would just take a little extra work. NWS also indicated that they have made implementations in as little as 12 months. ... SECC relied on the ability and experience of New World Systems to assist us in guiding this project to completion. Testing and training were performed based on recommendations from New World Systems. At no time did New World Systems indicate that the project needed to be delayed prior to the implementation.”

Ploehn deferred to Hitchcock.SECC board members – Scott

County Board of Supervisors Chair Tom Sunderbruch, Bettendorf Mayor Mike Freemire, Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba, Eldridge Mayor Marty O’Boyle, and Medic EMS Board President James Lehman – were also given the opportunity to respond to the Deltawrx memo.

Sunderbruch acknowledged that “most of the ‘key factors contributing to the current situation’ flow from the first: ‘expedited implementation.’ However, I was not involved on a day-to-day

COVER STORY Continued From Page 7

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 19

9-1-1 Whitewash?by Jeff Ignatius

[email protected]

basis, and Brian Hitchcock, who was/is involved on a day-to-day basis, takes issue with some of those findings, and I have confidence and trust in his reports.”

He added: “Hindsight is great and, of course, deadlines could have been pushed back if problems were known ahead of time. To my knowledge, that was not the case.”

Freemire and Lehman wrote that they agreed with Sunderbruch’s assessment. “I think Chairman Sunderbruch did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the issues,” Freemire wrote.

At press time, Gluba and O’Boyle had not responded to the November 4 e-mail request.

“Frustrating to the Street-Level Officers”

As with any project of this magnitude, there have been hiccups, and many of them have been solved or are in the process of being solved.

The purchase of bi-directional amplifiers improved radio coverage in the Hillandale area of Davenport and Lake Canyada. (The Hillandale amplifier was paid for by the SECC because that gap was anticipated by radio vendor RACOM and therefore beyond its obligation to provide coverage for 95 percent of the geographic area of Scott County. RACOM paid for the Lake Canyada amplifier.) Another amplifier for Buffalo – the SECC’s responsibility – has been ordered.

RACOM has also applied for a license for two additional frequencies from the Federal Communications Commission to handle radio traffic in northwest Davenport.

And many bugs and issues have been addressed in the New World software.

SECC Technology Systems Coordinator Gloria Fitzpatrick, a former Davenport dispatcher, noted one example. When the New World Systems software connected to the state’s NCIC database, it originally produced results based on a driver’s license number; that parameter was too narrow, officers said. So it was expanded to include a person’s name and date of birth, but that parameter was too broad because it looked at a range around the birthdate and variations on name spelling.

This wasn’t a software bug, she said: “It was working as designed.” Because this was New World’s first consolidation in Iowa, the search parameters with the state

computers needed to be refined. “The issue is: How can we better define that?”

Since then, Fitzpatrick said, a sex parameter and a new work flow were implemented, and “those complaints are not coming in anymore.”

Other fixes are promised under a software update delivered to SECC on September 15. “We are still testing [that release] ... to ensure we are thorough,” Hitchcock wrote in an e-mail November 4.

Bettendorf had several issues with the New World software.

Police Chief Phil Redington said that after going live on April 5, his department was dissatisfied with the module that ran license plates and driver’s licenses. In May, he said, the department reverted to its old Mobile Cop system for those functions. The New World software, he said, “was slower than we liked, so we went back to Mobile Cop. ... Mobile Cop was easier to read, ... and it was quicker.”

Redington said several other factors were at work. Officer safety “was part of it,” he said, as was officers’ comfort level. “We thought it was important at that time, since we were on a whole new system, that we would go back to Mobile Cop to ease some of the stress of going to a new system ... ,” he said. “Our officers were comfortable with it.”

Ploehn wrote on November 4: “We are still on Mobile Cop as the interface to the State and the National Crime Information Center. The New World fix has moved to a back burner simply because Mobile Cop is what the officers are familiar with, and it is functional in the New World system. Once all of the other issues are resolved, we will make the comparison and determine what is more functional for the officers.”

Bettendorf also had difficulty initially with the “merge” process that takes approved field records and incorporates them into the SECC database; records weren’t being merged. Redington estimated that issue was resolved by early May.

On August 31, KWQC aired a report on the SECC, focusing on the complaints of Eldridge Police Chief David M. Kopatich. He highlighted connectivity problems and reports being rejected because of time parameters, and he expressed overall frustration: “Are we going to reach a point where we decide to pick up our toys and go back to our old system? We may end up doing that.”

In a September 28 article in the North Scott Press, Kopatich reiterated his concerns and said he’d gotten positive feedback from officers for speaking out. The article states: “Many high-ranking officials, including individuals at the SECC and administration from other police departments, were not as enthusiastic about Kopatich’s discussion with the media.” The chief responded: “The truth hurts sometimes.”

In the KWQC story, Scott County Sheriff Dennis Conard praised the New World system but acknowledged some problems with implementation: “There probably should have been a lot more testing of the different applications,” he said. “But we’re still having trouble getting the different applications that are fixed tested because that’s above and beyond the normal workload.”

Conard – whose office referred an interview request for this article to Bruemmer – said that police officers are generally impatient, and Redington agreed.

“It’s been a slow process, but it’s progressing,” said Redington. “We would have liked to have it gone smoother at the beginning. ... It’s a learning process for all of us.”

His department had undergone a similar computer-system switch in 2003, he said, and “we experienced some of the same frustration from time to time ... . Eventually, the bugs got worked out. ... We knew that in some respects, working through the bugs is normal.”

About New World bugs and problems, he said: “I feel confident that the path

we’re on, eventually things will smooth out and that we’ll be in pretty good shape. ... Every week, it seems like we’re making progress. If I couldn’t say that, then my attitude would be a little different.”

Hitchcock said that since the August KWQC story, “there has been resolution to a number of issues.”

In an interview October 29, Kopatich said that things have improved. “So far our connectivity has been a lot better ... as far as running plates, getting plates to come back. ... It has slowly improved probably ever since the original [KWQC] news story has come out.”

As for time parameters, Fitzpatrick said: “That was a training problem.”

Kopatich said that he and his officers aren’t doing anything differently with those parameters, but “we are not having any other problems with date parameters on reports at this time.”

The issues that remain sound relatively minor.

For example, there’s a filter at the server level to “‘limit’ the access [to unit-status information] to help with connectivity issues,” Hitchcock wrote on November 4 of the ability for a computer in the SECC system to “see” on-duty vehicles and officers. “For example, instead of having the updates for all 300 units that may be listed as on-shift (police units, detectives, fire rigs, and so on), they will see the specific range of units for the agencies permitted (i.e., LeClaire PD may see two units for Princeton, one for McCausland, [and] seven for Bettendorf, as well as their own three units – or Davenport will only see their agency based on what they requested to see). ... With the release of the newest version, units in the field will be able to see all units within Scott County. This version will be released shortly after field testing has been completed and approved by Deltawrx.”

Yet some of the frustrations with the New World Systems software are not fixable. Reports on the New World Systems software, Kopatich said, take an additional 10 to 15 minutes apiece to complete. “It requires the street-level officer to do more work to get it to that end result,” he said.

And extra steps in the records-management component – requiring reports to be approved by a supervisor and then “merged” into the system – can create delays in officers being able to access information, even if it was

“Ninety percent of this is working,” Malin said. “More than 90 percent is working. ... The project has created the most cohesive

communications system that we’ve ever had in Scott County.”

– Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin


River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011�0

9-1-1 Whitewash?generated within the same department. If a report is rejected by a supervisor at the end of a shift, for instance, an officer might not be able to resubmit it to the supervisor until the next day or even later. Previously, there was easy intradepartmental access to records prior to supervisor approval.

And even as problems are getting fixed, that doesn’t change that officers have been frustrated, that they’re therefore less confident in the system, and that resources have been usurped by problems that Deltawrx said could have been avoided.

Kopatich said he likes the idea behind consolidation. “I’m all for the agencies sharing information,” he said. “Maybe in time, it’s all going to work, and I hope that it does, but the implementation of it is frustrating to the street-level officers that are using the system.”

He added in an e-mail: “Providing the software keeps improving and becomes what we were promised, we will continue to keep using it for the common goal of consolidation.”

Asked whether he thought many of the issues police have dealt with since spring could have been resolved prior to going live, he said, “I would have hoped so.”

“More Than 90 PercentIs Working”

The company line from SECC’s director and Bettendorf ’s and Davenport’s city administrators is that police agencies need to be patient. They stressed that problems with New World do not negatively impact the speed of dispatching or officer or public safety.

“It does not affect our ability to get an officer on the scene,” Hitchcock said. In a later interview, he said: “None of this that we’re dealing with deals with officer safety. This is all about reporting ... .”

Ploehn said that “I am not aware nor is Chief Redington aware of any situations” in which public or officer safety has been compromised by SECC software or equipment.

Some people with whom I talked said they were concerned that difficulty connecting with the NCIC database to run plates and licenses could have resulted in officers not knowing that they were approaching somebody who could pose a significant threat.

Hitchcock dismissed that concern: “They pick up the mic, they call the dispatch center, and they have them run

it.”“I think some of the officers said that,”

Ploehn said of concerns with running plates and licenses. I asked whether they were wrong, and he said officers were resistant to change: “‘It wasn’t what I did two days ago. ... It was different,’” he said. But “the ability to call in was still there.”

Overall, the administrators emphasized, many things have gone well and as planned with the consolidation.

“Ninety percent of this is working,” Malin said. “More than 90 percent is working.”

Malin extolled the virtues of the consolidation for the emergency-response process. “The project has created the most cohesive communications system that we’ve ever had in Scott County,” he said. “We are seeing a much bigger picture than we’ve had the capability before ... . I think there are significant efficiencies built in over the long haul. Residents in the City of Davenport aren’t paying twice for dispatch services anymore.”

Malin and Ploehn also said that the consolidation has allowed their cities to undertake projects that wouldn’t have happened – at least not on that scale – without the emergency-dispatch consolidation. While Scott County property-tax rates are higher overall because of the SECC levy, the rates for the two cities have dropped. (A discussion of that trade-off will be part of the November 23 article.)

Malin said Davenport has added nine police officers in the past five years, crime has dropped by roughly half, and the city has two new libraries and a rec center. “And we cut the [city’s property] tax rate” by 5 cents per $1,000 of valuation, he added.

Ploehn said Bettendorf issued $63.6 million in bonds for capital projects in fiscal years 2009 through 2011 while lowering its municipal property-tax rate by 25 cents.

Hitchcock said many variables and vendors were involved in the

consolidation, from the building to the radio system to the phone system to New World’s software to a recording system to procedures to human resources.

He added that problems with the computer-aided dispatch and records-management systems from New World are functions of both complexity and a natural resistance people have to change. The dispatch/records systems not only involve software but also computer infrastructure – including laptops and their air cards – and human beings. “They’re very intense systems,” he said. “It’s a big program.”

Hitchcock said he understands officer frustration. “This is a new system for everybody out in the field,” he said. And because the software is more robust, it does take longer to enter reports.

“A lot of them were not ready for change,” Fitzpatrick said.

“I feel for the officer,” Bruemmer said.Bringing all these bodies together,

Malin said, has been “both a challenge and an opportunity. All these entities do things a little bit differently, and we need to make sure that each entity is able to do the thing that they specifically need that may be a little bit different from others. That’s the challenge.” The opportunity is entities “adopting best practices from others. Over the long haul, it’s a much better operation.”

Ploehn said that relationships among organizations that respond to emergencies “will get better, stronger.” Furthermore, he said, all agencies will be able to communicate during major events (such as this year’s Bix and RAGBRAI weekend), joint scenes, and joint commands. He gave the example of Davenport and Bettendorf police being on the same “event channel” during a presidential visit.

“Criminals don’t stay in one city,” Bruemmer added.

Ploehn further explained that improved communication will lead to better emergency response. “We used to hand off [from a fire department, for

example, to an ambulance service]. ... There’s a transfer now that’s occurring. ... Moving them from ground to ambulance to hospital is becoming seamless.”

And everybody being on same records system will also pay dividends – for instance, Davenport officers being able to see a report on somebody they’ve stopped who might have been arrested a few days earlier in Bettendorf. “The ability for the intelligence to flow in the system, I believe, will be there, and that will be advantageous,” Ploehn said. “We’re not there yet with that piece.”

“You Have to Flip the Switch Sometime”

While the big-picture assessment of the consolidation process varies wildly depending on to whom one talks, there is general agreement from everybody I talked to that training on and testing of the New World Systems software could have been done better.

“Why don’t you test the system before you go online?” Holst asked. “Why put the departments through that?”

(When asked about Holst’s concerns overall, Hitchcock said: “Every time she thinks there’s a problem, she thinks the system’s failing. ... It’s not. ... This is a process we have to go through.”)

Several people noted that no amount of pre-launch testing or training can find all bugs; it can’t anticipate all situations officers will face, and it can’t replicate all agencies using the system simultaneously.

“If we had to do it over again, I wish there would have been more offline training,” Redington said. “More training would have been good, but you still have to go live with it sometime.”

He added that Bettendorf ’s police department probably fared better than most when it came to training, because its training team attended all sessions, even those that didn’t directly bear on their jobs: “We set up a pretty good system, probably by accident. ... We thought, ‘Let’s keep everyone together. The more we all know about the whole system, it probably would make more sense to us.’”

Malin said that some problems aren’t going to be apparent with the records-management system until it’s done under a load in the field. “Until you’re doing it at scale, it’s practically impossible to know if it will work perfectly,” he said. “You have to flip the switch sometime.”

Yet there was acknowledgment that

COVER STORY

“If we’re paying that kind of money, let’s make sure it works, that we’re getting what we’re paying for. When they [officers] say

it’s all fine. Then I’ll quit raising questions.” – Eldridge Resident Diane Holst

Continued From Page 19

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 �1Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com


increased testing, more or better training, and more forgiving deadlines might have made the transition less frustrating for officers.

When asked what aspects of the transition should have been done differently, Ploehn said: “I would have said we probably would have tested, either more or simultaneously more, so that we wouldn’t have, say, crashes occurring. We could have figured that out. But we didn’t.”

“I would have liked it if we pushed back the opening date” to give officers more familiarity and training, and to catch some bugs earlier, Redington said.

Hitchcock said that in retrospect, it might have been wise to have New World Systems train each department directly instead of only conducting train-the-trainer sessions, in which representatives from each agency are given instruction and then present it to their co-workers. “Maybe we would have spent the extra money to put New World Systems in there to go and train each of the entities, because then the training might have been more consistent,” he said. But “we had some time constraints, too. ...

“When all of this was firing off, we had 25 other projects in play that were coming to make this come together. ... So there were some time crunches ... ,” he explained. “You bet: If we could have pushed it out six months to a year, I think we would have entertained more ... testing.”

Yet this is a contrast to his perspective on integration of dispatchers – the process of cross-training them so they’re no longer serving just one geographic area or municipality. “You can’t put a timeline on that,” he said, noting that SECC had vacancies to fill, and dispatchers require six months of training.

(This shift will allow SECC to optimize its dispatching resources where they’re needed. There are some concerns about that process. “Our concern initially ... is that now we will get employees ... who don’t know the city as well,” Redington said.)

When asked when full integration of dispatching would be complete, Hitchcock said it wouldn’t happen in 2011, but he wouldn’t commit to a date. “I’m not going to pull that pin to make that conversion happen until we are comfortable as an agency that it will happen,” he said. “You’ll ask for failure when you do that [put a deadline on it].”

Hitchcock explained the different approaches to deadlines for live

operations on the New World software compared to dispatching by noting that local governments budgeted based on shifting dispatching to SECC this past spring. If that deadline had been pushed later to allow for more testing and training, those governments wouldn’t have had the money budgeted to continue on their old dispatch systems.

Beyond additional training and a more relaxed schedule, there were other ideas on how the transition might have been handled better.

“I think we would have hired Deltawrx to stay with us,” Bruemmer said. The company negotiated the contract with New World and could have gone through the testing and validation of software with SECC and its agencies. “We would have seen some red flags sooner.”

That’s not a uniform position, however. At the October 13 SECC board meeting, Bettendorf Mayor Freemire praised the decision to re-engage Deltawrx at this point rather than retaining the firm throughout implementation. “We had a budget which would have allowed $80,000 for this type of contract, where a third set of eyes ... would ... ensure the implementation, and a lot of these smaller issues are taken care of. My hats off to the staff, and that they were able to forgo a $50,000 expenditure. And unfortunately, what I think we may see are people that say clearly there’s a $30,000 expenditure and forget that there’s a $50,000 savings, from what was originally proposed. ... And I just want to make sure that that isn’t lost.”

Hitchcock implied that it should not have been necessary to retain Deltawrx to assist in the initial implementation. “We have to rely on a certain level [of competence] with the vendor, as well. When we’re being led down the road that this will work, we have to believe in those. They came out on top; they were chosen by all of the representatives to be the outcome. I’m not going to defend the company; I think there’s some improvements that could have been made there as well. But we ... strongly feel that we have a company that’s willing

to admit to some of that [problems] and also work hard to come to a resolution. If we didn’t feel as a group at this point that was worth it, we’d be working at other avenues.”

The Case for Increased Transparency

It’s a fair question whether the working-out-the-kinks phase of consolidation should be something done publicly. Law-enforcement agencies have a chain of command, and standard operating procedure is to talk to the media only when directed to by a superior.

“Individual officers should communicate their concerns to their supervisors,” Malin said. “I know that they have.”

When asked whether there had been a directive to keep radio communications to the essential during the weekend of Bix and RAGBRAI, Ploehn responded: “Did you hear something to that effect? ... Was it from an officer?”

It’s a clever parry, as Ploehn knows full well that officers shouldn’t be talking to the media.

(Hitchcock said some agencies did request that their officers minimize radio traffic: “The directive was only to keep it to mission-critical items. ... It wasn’t from us.” He also said he understood a concern about overloading the system, but that was unwarranted. “We could have handled double that traffic that day,” he said. “That was a very good proving ground.” Bruemmer added: “It’s adding confidence to the system.)

Yet there’s a disconnect between the public comments of SECC leaders on the one hand and the Deltawrx memo and the private concerns of street-level officers on the other; they’re not necessarily incongruous, but they’re tonally opposite. Administrators involved in the consolidation take a nothing-to-see-here attitude, while Deltawrx wrote that there are serious problems that affect whether officers will ultimately accept the New World software.

In that context, SECC leaders might be wise to increase transparency – especially considering that its board members aren’t directly elected by voters and that its levy is uncapped. Taxpayers should have even more opportunity to verify that their taxes are being well-spent; that means letting them see the unvarnished truth – the bad with the good. If, as SECC leaders claim, the consolidation has gone relatively well and is a good deal for taxpayers – both in terms of reasonable cost and value (such as personnel and communications efficiencies, and emergency-response performance) – the public will see that.

And while it might be embarrassing, allowing officers to publicly state their problems, frustrations, and concerns would be a good thing – perhaps not in the media, but at a time during SECC board meetings devoted to allowing ground-level stakeholders to air their perspectives. That would show a commitment to make the consolidation work, and a willingness to be held accountable for its shortcomings.

That’s not happening now, and that’s one reason Holst continues to raise issues she hears about. She accepts the one-year timeline for fine-tuning the system, but she said she fears problems might not get solved if there aren’t pointed questions from the public.

“If I can keep the heat on ... then a year won’t slip by,” she said. “This is their key time to keep the pressure on the vendors. ... You don’t get your bugs out then, you start to make work-arounds and people compensate, and you’re not getting the full value of the system. ... Let’s be more open about this, acknowledge that there’s something [wrong], and let those departments use their old systems temporarily. Don’t hide that there’s an issue right now. Be up-front.”

The first of seven recommendations from the Deltawrx report gently pushes SECC leaders in that direction: “Accept responsibility for project outcome.” It starts: “The first step in reaching a successful outcome for SECC and SECC agency leaders is to agree that they are responsible and accountable for a successful product outcome. Implementation of the following recommendations requires commitment to success from the leadership in participating agencies. Commitment to success means devoting resources and energy, which we understand is difficult to request when so much time and energy have already been devoted.”

“In a crawl/walk/run category, we stood up and got wobbly. ... I think we’re going to get

to running; we’re not there yet.” – Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn

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servants is the root problem plaguing our nation, and civic disengagement is 110-percent responsible. We are fast becoming impotent as a citizenry, allowing rule-making to supersede common law, and doing nothing while our local, state, and federal public servants usurp our liberties under dozens of false pretenses, but most especially under the guise of safety and/or security.

Meanwhile, already entrenched bureaucracies grow ever larger, taking more and more control unto themselves over individuals’ use and enjoyment of private property, combining services and creating multiple or intergovernmental jurisdictions of administrative structure that use rule-making to insulate and protect their so-called public-sector fiefdoms – fiefdoms we the people pay for but have no say in.

If not for your own future, then do your children/grandchildren a favor and attend your local county and city meetings on a more regular basis. City-council meetings can be viewed at home on cable TV. Listen, learn, and engage. No resident gets a pass on civic participation these days. There is no excuse for doing nothing, anymore.

works when the public isn’t paying attention and sworn elected officers shirk their duties.

Scott County residents have no one to blame but themselves. We have behaved like absentee landlords and/or managers when all of this went down. And clearly employees do not respect what management does not inspect.

If you want to engage and begin inspecting what your SECC government is doing, start by going to YouTube.com/ScottIFATV and watch the SECC videos posted there. And you can contact the SECC board members by going to SECC911.org/secc/secc_board.php. Lastly, the SECC Board meets at 5:30 p.m. the third Thursday of every month on the first floor of the county building. The next meeting is November 17.

It can be argued that the biggest contrib-uting factor to America’s decline is the virtual collapse of public oversight of our

own governments, which has led to govern-ment employees at every level – whether local, state, or federal – into behaving like they are the bosses of us and not the other way around.

Unaccountability on the part of our public

Warner Bros.” That process, she said, often involved feedback from different levels of management. “There just gets to be too many people in the room weighing in about how successful something may or may not be. All of these labels are just trying to figure out how to sustain themselves, and mixing that with songwriting is a dangerous thing. ...

“I think there’s a shelf life for analyzing songs and being able to record them and have them sound fresh. ... If I got too intellectual and self-doubting about them, I wouldn’t have been able to go into a studio and think that they had substance. So I had to sort of play mind games with myself and forget any other outside commentary on them and just focus on playing them.”

Rachael Yamagata will perform on Saturday, November 12, at the Redstone Room (129 Main Street in Davenport). Mike Viola will open. The show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets (available from RedstoneRoom.com) are $15.

For more information on Rachael Yamagata, visit RachaelYamagata.com.

influenced the theatre’s name and theme.

Silent movies as well as musical and comedic presentations were featured at the theatre until the introduction of “talking pictures” in the late 1920s. With the advent of suburban movie complexes in the ’60s, the theatre – now named the Fort – declined; for a brief time, it showed adult films. It closed in the early ’70s.

Saved from possible demolition, the theatre was extensively renovated from 1977 through 1979 after it became the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse (named after the year of the theatre’s opening). Circa ’21 is currently starting its 35th season.

Art in Plain Sight: Fort Artmstrong Theatre Building

by Bruce WaltersART

Bruce Walters is a professor of art at Western Illinois University.

This is part of an occasional series on the history of public art in the Quad Cities. If there’s a piece of public art that you’d like to learn more about, e-mail the location and a brief description to [email protected].


Continued From Page 12 by Jeff [email protected]

MUSIC

Out of the Holding Patternrecord, I think I was on five different permutations of RCA.”

Once she was released from that contract, she signed to Warner Bros. – which put out her 2008 set Elephants ... Teeth Sinking Into Heart. “The only reason I signed with Warner Bros. was because I really, really, really believed in my A&R guy and the people I met at the company, and they’ve all since been fired,” she said. “So I made it through years of rounds of regime changes, which is nice in that people don’t want to let me go; they still think there’s something there that they want to stand behind. But it’s also been a Catch-22, because it hasn’t led to the whole point of doing music, which is to make music and then tour the music. It’s been incredibly frustrating. ...

“Each time I’ve come into a record, I’ve had 120 songs to mess with. ... I’ve had the material to at least release one a year.”

Yamagata said label machineries often worked against her ability to run with her songs – even with Chesapeake. “Frankly, I got dropped as a result of some of these songs,” she said. “They were all in play to make a record, even while I was on

Celebrationof Christmas

2011Opera@AugustanaThe Long Christmas DinnerMusic by Paul Hindemith, Libretto by Thornton WilderNovember 18, 19 & 20 at 8 p.m.Tickets: $12 (discount available)

Christmas at AugustanaEnsembles include the Augustana Choir, Augustana Brass Ensemble, Augustana Symphony Orchestra, Cantilena Augustana, Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble and Wennerberg Men’s Chorus.

December 2 at 8 p.m.December 3 at 4 p.m.Tickets: $20 (discount available)

Handel Oratorio SocietyMessiahDecember 10 at 8 p.m.December 11 at 2 p.m.Tickets: $20 (discount available)

Augustana Chamber SingersLessons and CarolsDecember 15 at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.Free and open to the public.

Tickets:www.augustana.edu/tickets or call the Ticket Office at 309.794.7306


Who’s Running the Show?

by Kathleen [email protected]

WORDS FROM THE EDITOR


Monday, November 14 – Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, Split Lip Rayfield, and Mountain Sprout. Rock Island Brewing Company. (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 7:30 p.m. $12-15. For information, call (309)793-4060 or visit RIBCO.com. For a 2009 inteview with Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers’ J.D. Wilkes, visit RCReader.com/y/shakers. For a 2005 interview with Split Lip Rayfield’s Eric Mardis, visit RCReader.com/y/rayfield.

Thursday, November 17 – C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Famed zydeco and blues musicians in concert. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 8:30 p.m. $12. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RedstoneRoom.com.

Friday, November 18 – Clint Black. Country-music superstar in concert. Riverside Casino & Event Center (3184 Highway 22, Riverside). 8 p.m. $40-50. For tickets and information, call (877)677-3456 or visit RiversideCasinoAndResort.com.

Friday, November 18 – American String Quartet with the Maia String Quartet. Solos and ensemble pieces with the classical musicians, in a Hancher Auditorium presentation. Riverside Recital Hall (405 North Riverside Drive, Iowa City). 7:30 p.m. $17.50-35. For tickets and information, call (319)335-1160 or visit http://www.Hancher.UIowa.edu.

Friday, November 18 – Greg Brown. Acclaimed folk-music singer/songwriter in concert. Englert Theatre (221 East Washington Street, Iowa City). 8 p.m. $25-45. For tickets and information, call (319)688-2653 or visit Englert.org.

Friday, November 18, through Sunday, November 20 – The Long Christmas Dinner. Annual holiday presentation by Opera@Augustana, featuring music by Paul Hindemith and a libretto by Thornton Wilder. Augustana College’s Denkmann Memorial Hall (3520 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $8-12. For information and tickets, call (309)794-7306 or visit Augustana.edu.

Saturday, November 19 – Holiday Pops. Featuring Olympic ice skater Todd Eldredge, jazz trumpet player Jon Faddis, actor John Getz narrating “The Night Before Christmas,” and performances by the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, the Figure Skating Club of the Quad Cities, the Sanctuary Choir of First Presbyterian Church, and the Holiday Pops Children’s Chorus. i wireless Center (1201 River Drive, Moline). 7:30 p.m. $20.50-44.50. For tickets and information, call (800)745-3000 or visit QuadCityArts.com or QCSymphony.com.

Sunday, November 20 – Tony Sconyers & Friends. Noted jazz musician performs and educates with Edgar Crockett, Corey Kendrick, Ron Wilson, and Manuel Lopez III, in an event in Polyrhythms’ Third Sunday Jazz Matinée & Workshop Series. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 3 p.m. all-ages jazz workshop – $5/adult, children free; 6 p.m. concert – $10-15. For tickets and information, call (309)373-0790 or visit Polyrhythms.org or RedstoneRoom.com.

THEATREThursday, November 10, through

Friday, December 30 – Nuncrackers. Holiday sequel to the off-Broadway smash Nunsense. Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse (1828 Third Avenue, Rock Island). Fridays, Saturdays, Wednesdays, and November 10 – 5:45 p.m. doors, 6-7 p.m. buffet, 7:15 p.m. pre-show, 7:45 p.m. performance; Sundays – 3:45 p.m. doors, 4-5 p.m. buffet, 5:15 p.m. pre-show, 5:45 p.m. performance; Wednesdays – 11:30 a.m. doors, 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. plated lunch, 1 p.m. pre-show, 1:30 p.m. performance. $41.28-47.55. For tickets and information, call (309)786-7733 extension 2 or visit Circa21.com.

Thursday, November 10, through Saturday, November 19 – Stick Fly. Acclaimed family drama by Lydia R. Diamond, directed by Tisch Jones. University of Iowa’s E.C. Mabie Theatre (200 North Riverside Drive, Iowa City). Thursdays-Saturdays 8 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. $10-17. For tickets and information, call (319)335-1160 or visit UIowa.edu/~theatre.

Friday, November 11, through Sunday, November 20 – Leaving Iowa. Family-themed road comedy, directed by Tom Naab. Playcrafters Barn Theatre (4950 35th Avenue, Moline). Fridays and Saturdays 7:30 p.m.; Sundays 3 p.m. $10. For tickets and information, call (309)762-0330 or visit Playcrafters.com.

Friday, November 11, through Sunday, November 13 – Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas. The Pearl City Players’ presentation of heartwarming holiday vignettes based on stories by Robert Fulghum. The Center for Non-Profits (129 West Second Street, Muscatine). Friday and Saturday 7 p.m.; Sunday 5 p.m. $10-13. For tickets and information, call (563)554-0921 or e-mail [email protected].

Sunday, November 13 – Young Frankenstein: The New Mel Brooks Musical. Tony Award-nominated musical comedy based on Brooks’ film

classic. Adler Theatre (136 East Third Street, Davenport). 7 p.m. $31.50-53.50. For tickets, call (800)745-3000 or visit AdlerTheatre.com.

Friday, November 18, through Sunday, November 20 – It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Joe Landry’s adaptation of the Frank Capra holiday classic. Ohnward Fine Arts Center (1215 East Platt Street, Maquoketa). Friday and Saturday 7 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. $8-15. For tickets and information, call (563)652-9815 or visit OhnwardFineArtsCenter.com.

Friday, November 18, through Sunday, November 20 – Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Musical stage version of the holiday movie classic, presented by the Prairie Players Civic Theatre. Orpheum Theatre (57 South Kellogg Street, Galesburg). Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m.; Sunday 3 p.m. $10-17. For tickets and information, call (309)342-2299 or visit TheOrpheum.org.

COMEDYFriday, November 11 – Skellington’s

Last Resort. Dinner and a debuting, interactive comedy/mystery with the It’s a Mystery troupe. Skellington Manor Banquet & Event Center (420 18th Street, Rock Island). 6:30 p.m. $35. For tickets and information, call (563)344-9187 or visit SkellingtonManor.com or ItsAMysteryQC.com.

SPORTS Saturday, November 19 – MMA

Extreme Challenge. Competitions between amateur and professional mixed-martial-arts fighters. Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center (1777 Isle Parkway, Bettendorf ). 7:30 p.m. $20-30. For tickets and information, call (800)724-5825 or visit Bettendorf.IsleOfCapriCasinos.com.

EVENTSFriday, November 18 – Civil War

Ghosts & Legends. Singer/storyteller Brian “Fox” Ellis presents poetry by Walt Whitman, songs by Stephen Foster, and Civil War tales by Ambrose Bierce. Butterworth Center (1105 Eighth Street, Moline). 7 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (309)743-2701 or visit ButterworthCenter.com.

Saturday, November 19, through Sunday, November 27 – Quad City Arts’ Festival of Trees. Annual event featuring numerous holiday vendors and exhibits. Davenport RiverCenter (136 East Third Street, Davenport). $3-8. For information and a daily schedule, call (309)793-1213 or visit QuadCityArts.com.

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011�4 Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 ��Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

players’ freedom and relying more on non-interactive or heavily scripted sequences. Arkham City moves in the opposite direction. While Arkham Asylum was a largely linear, controlled affair, Arkham City offers an open world that players can explore at their leisure, focusing on whatever aspect of the game appeals to them at the moment. The game gives players most of Batman’s key

tools, from batarangs to explosive gel, right from the start. While there’s a sequence of main plot missions, the environment is packed with side missions and incidental encounters.

This world – the titular Arkham City, a large walled-off section of Gotham City transformed into an open-air prison – is the star of the game. While nearly all of Batman’s major nemeses make appearances, their presence is largely limited to non-interactive scenes, leaving the gothic, post-apocalyptic ruin of Arkham City to take center stage. It’s a phantasmagoric landscape of crumbling ruins, blazing lights, and deep shadows calling to mind not the grim semi-realism of Christopher Nolan’s recent films but the surreal, fantastical architecture of Tim Burton’s and especially Joel Schumacher’s (minus the comic farce).

With the open city populated by gangs of thugs loyal to one or another supervillain, the game offers players an idea of what the night-to-night existence of Batman might be like between stopping supervillains’ doomsday schemes. It’s in these moments, driven purely by the basic gameplay mechanics – whether moving between missions or just exploring Arkham City – that players feel the most like Batman. Or the most unlike him, when they accidentally stumble upon a thug carrying an assault rifle and find themselves gunned down in a few bursts.

The game, however, never seems entirely comfortable with its openness. It’s perhaps understandable that the main missions take place in linear building interiors and contain frequent non-interactive scenes, especially when those scenes feature the likes of the Joker and the Penguin. It’s less forgivable when such cinematic sequences see Batman outwitted by foes the player would have no trouble defeating, forcing him to look dumb in order to advance the developers’ script. There are also a number of instances when Batman’s tools are arbitrarily disallowed in obviously appropriate situations to force players into a scripted, and frequently unintuitive, solution. These occurrences, however, are infrequent blemishes in a lengthy, sprawling, and accomplished game.

Batman: Arkham City is available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $59.99. It is scheduled to be released for PC for $49.99 on November 22.

Grant Williams is a developer at Sedona Technologies who hijacked an English degree to study video games.

Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum was a pleasant surprise when it was released in 2009:

a video game that, in contrast to the lackluster history of superhero games, was actually good. Arkham Asylum wasn’t unique – clearly drawing its combination of rooftop navigation, stealth, and combat from games such as Assassin’s Creed – but it deftly applied that formula to the experience of being Batman and inhabiting his world of Gotham City. Batman: Arkham City expands and refines the first game, crafting a new experience that, while never particularly innovative, remains consistently entertaining and a person’s best opportunity to feel like the Dark Knight.

Like its predecessor, Arkham City rests on a solid foundation of gameplay focusing on the typical image of Batman: gliding from rooftop to rooftop, swooping down to silently knock out a bad guy, disappearing back into the shadows, listening to nearby criminals panic as they realize they’re being hunted by an enemy much smarter and more capable than they. Navigating Arkham City’s world is a delight, and although the stealth mechanics are not detailed, it’s always satisfying to sneak up behind two thugs and smash their heads together.

This feeling of power is at the core of “being Batman”: Ordinary criminals, even in groups, are no match for the Dark Knight; it takes a supervillain such as the Joker to truly threaten him. But because this is a video game, the player will occasionally make a mistake, and when that happens, this feeling of superiority disappears. In many video games, miscues are annoying but part of the experience – perhaps the opportunity for an exciting recovery; slipping up in Arkham City, though, feels like you’ve failed at being Batman. Despite the game’s best efforts, it’s unable to reconcile fallible video-game players trying to live up to a nearly infallible character whose strength comes more from skill and intelligence than superpowers.

When you’re forced to engage with ordinary enemies, because you screwed up or the plot forces you to, the game’s combat system comes into play. Controlling Batman’s bashes and dodges is intuitive and kinetic. Each successful strike in a sequence increases Batman’s speed and power, which reset if you are struck by an enemy. In a large melee, Batman’s maneuvering can quickly escalate into a violent ballet that sees him repeatedly jumping into enemies and using the force of the blow to kick himself toward another foe. It’s a satisfying system that feels appropriately powerful, simultaneously responsive and cinematic. Of course, it’s also possible to mistime a dodge and be knocked to the ground and mobbed by a gang of thugs, barely escaping by shooting a grapple to a nearby rooftop.

Most video games overcome the contradiction between myth and live performance by restricting

Arkham City: Being Batmanby Grant Williams

[email protected]

River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011�� Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

Slipping BeautyI’m in a great relationship of seven

months. My boyfriend and I never get sick of each other. We respect each other and are there for each other, and we talk very openly, even when we’re upset. His ex-girlfriend is part of our group of friends. She is thin and very pretty. I know I’m attractive, but I’m struggling to lose these 10 pounds I put on in college. Also, she’s super-sweet, and she and my boyfriend broke up because he cheated on her. He told her right away and felt sick about it for a long time, so I’m not worried that he’d cheat on me. Friends tell me how much he loves me, and he even told me he’d feel “lost” without me. Still, I get nervous when they’re alone or talking a lot. I haven’t said anything about her being around so much, but I know other girls wouldn’t stand for it.

– Jealous

You’re the one who’s obsessed with getting in another woman’s pants – being able to wear his ex-girlfriend’s skinny jeans, and not just as arm-warmers.

I know, if he’s going to be chummy with his ex, couldn’t she please be one of those women people charitably describe as “pretty once you get to know her”? Instead, it seems her 10-step get-gorgeous routine involves “(1) Wake up,” while you probably feel you have to put in a half-hour in the bathroom some mornings just to keep from scaring the dog. And then, some evening when you’re at your glowiest (after a brief struggle to squeeze your muffin-top into steel-belted control-top pantyhose), you need only stand next to her to feel yourself rapidly devolving from arm candy to arm ballast.

It would be easier if she fit the stereotype of the gorgeous girl with the tiny lump of coal heart. Unfortunately, she’s sunshine with legs. (Sickeningly long, slim legs, with no hint of cankles.) Making matters worse, they had an indiscretion-driven breakup, not an “I’m sick of you” breakup. Whatever could be stopping him from scampering back to her? Well, it doesn’t sound like you’re exactly a barker, and although men prioritize looks in women, once you’re within the zone of what a guy finds hot/cute/sexy, other stuff comes into play: Are you kind? Does he feel needed, appreciated, understood? Do you click as a couple – naked and clothed? And okay, you aren’t on the short

list to be an Abercrombie model, but is every day more fun because you’re in it?

Don’t let on how jealous you feel (it sends a message that you’re not all that), and don’t try to control a man by telling him what to do (it leads to resentment, secretiveness, and rebellion). You tell a man what to do by making him happy and by being happy with him. Your relationship may eventually end, but if you accept that, you can enjoy the hell out of it while you have it. For peace of mind, start a conversation about what you appreciate about each other. Listen up and you might get your head around the notion that he’s with you because he’s “lost without you” – and not because he lost his directions to the skinny girl’s house.

Adjusting the ShudderI’m an okay-looking guy, but I look

terrible in photos. I am joining an online-dating site and don’t know what to do about my picture. I can’t afford a photographer.

– Unphotogenic

Some people’s photos look best with some clever cropping. Apparently, yours look best if you crop out your head. Part of your problem is that you probably think of taking “a” picture (or three) instead of doing as professional photographers do – taking maybe 1,000. This basically means staging a photographic accident, meaning in at least one of the 1,000 shots, you should accidentally look like yourself or even better.

A novelist friend of mine, Sonya Sones, author of The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus, takes some fantastic photos of her various traumatized author friends. She says people look best when the photographer shoots from a little above them and advises against using a flash – ever – because “it makes people look ugly. Period.” She suggests shooting outdoors, in the shade: “In the sun, people get hideous haunted-house shadows under their eyes and noses, which is not a good look unless it happens to be Halloween.” I’ll add that you should experiment initially with different angles to find your best and try some shots in which you’re doing something you enjoy – fishing or grilling or playing poker – so you’ll forget to freeze and look awkward. Put in a little effort and you could soon be posting a picture that’s more NotBadLookingGuy123 than Quasimodo456. (“You had me at ‘Hell, no!’”)

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

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011 ��Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): In Mongolia, there’s a famous fossil of two dinosaurs locked

in mortal combat. Forever frozen in time, a Velociraptor is clawing a Protoceratops, which in turn is biting its enemy’s arm. They’ve been holding that pose now for, oh, 80 million years or so. I’m shoving this image in your face, Sagittarius, so as to dare you and encourage you to withdraw from your old feuds and disputes. It’s a perfect time, astrologically speaking, to give up any struggle that’s not going to matter 80 million years from now. (More info: tinyurl.com/DinosaurFight.)

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): “In your experience, who is the best-smelling actor that you’ve worked

with?” TV host Jon Stewart asked his guest Tom Hanks. “Kevin Bacon,” replied Hanks. Why? Not because of the bacon-as-a-delicious-food angle, although that would be funny. “He smells like a mix of baby powder and Listerine,” Hanks said. Keep this perspective in mind, Capricorn. I think you should be engaged in a great ongoing quest to put yourself in situations with pleasing aromas. I mean this in both the metaphorical and literal sense. To set yourself up for meaningful experiences that provide you with exactly what you need, follow your nose.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): According to my reading of the

omens, Aquarius, you can finally take advantage of a long-standing invitation or opportunity that you have always felt unworthy of or unready for. Congratulations on being so doggedly persistent about ripening the immature parts of yourself. Now here’s an extra bonus: This breakthrough may in turn lead to you finding a lost piece to the puzzle of your identity.

PISCES (February 19-March 20): My acquaintance Bob takes a variety of meds for his bipolar disorder. They work

pretty well to keep him out of the troughs, but he misses the peaks. Last time he saw his psychiatrist he told her he wished he could stop taking the complicated brew of drugs and just take a happy pill every day. The psychiatrist told him that if he ever found such a thing, she’d love to take it herself. Wouldn’t we all? I’m pleased to report that you are now very close to locating the next best thing to a happy pill, Pisces. It may require you to at least partially give up your addiction to one of your customary forms of suffering, though. Are you prepared to do that?

Homework: If you knew you were going to live to 100, what would you do differently in the next five years? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

LEO (July 23-August 22): I was musing on how slow I am to learn the lessons I need to master – how hard it can be

to see the obvious secrets that are right in front of me. But I felt better after I came across the logo for the Jung Institute in San Francisco, which is dedicated to the study of psychology and psychotherapy. The symbol that it has chosen to embody its ruling spirit consists of four snails creeping their way around a center point – a witty acknowledgment of the plodding nature of the human psyche. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because it’s important for you to give yourself credit for how much you’ve grown since the old days – even if your progress seems intolerably gradual.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): It will be a good week to have nice long talks with yourself – the more, the better. The different sub-personalities

that dwell within you need to engage in vigorous dialogues that will get all their various viewpoints out in the open. I even recommend coaxing some of those inner voices to manifest themselves outside the confines of your own head – you know, by speaking out loud. If you feel inhibited about giving them full expression where they might be overheard by people, find a private place that will allow them to feel free to be themselves.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22): During the reign of President

George W. Bush, many Americans viewed France as being insufficiently sympathetic with American military might. So enraged were some conservatives that they tried to change the name of French fries to freedom fries and French toast to freedom toast. The culminating moment in this surrealistic exercise came when Bush told UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, “The French don’t even have a word for entrepreneur” – unaware that “entrepreneur” is a word the English language borrowed from the French. The moral of the story, as far as you’re concerned, Libra: Make sure you know the origins of everyone and everything you engage with, especially as they affect your ability to benefit from entrepreneurial influences.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21): The Cunnilinguistic Dicktionary defines the newly coined word

“mutinyversal” as “rebellion against the whole universe.” I think it would be an excellent time for you to engage in a playful, vivacious version of that approach to life. This is one of those rare times when you have so many unique gifts to offer and so many invigorating insights to unleash, that you really should act as if you are mostly right and everyone else is at least half-wrong. Just one caution: As you embark on your crusade to make the world over in your image, do it with as much humility and compassion as you can muster.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The title of this week’s movie is Uproar of Love, starring The Fantasy Kid and The

Most Feeling Machine in the World. It blends romance and science fiction, with overtones of espionage and undertones of revolution for the hell of it. Comic touches will slip in at unexpected moments. When you’re not up to your jowls in archetypes, you might be able to muster the clarity to gorge yourself on the earthly delights that are spread from here to the edge of the abyss.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): How’s your relationship with your muse? Don’t tell me that you’re not an artist so you don’t have a muse. Even garbage

collectors need muses. Even farmers. Even politicians. All of us need to be in touch with a mysterious, tantalizing source of inspiration that teases our sense of wonder and goads us on to life’s next adventures. So I ask you again: What have you and your muse been up to lately? I say it’s high time for you to infuse your connection with a dose of raw mojo. And if for some sad reason you don’t have a muse, I urge you to go out in quest of new candidates. (P.S. A muse isn’t necessarily a person; he or she might also be an animal, an ancestor, a spirit, or a hero.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Funky pagan scientists at Zen State University have found that the regular

consumption of Free Will Astrology can be effective in smoothing unsightly wrinkles on your attitude, scouring away stains on your courage, and disposing of old garbage stuck to your karma. They’ve also gathered testimony from people who claim to have experienced spontaneous healings of nagging ailments and chronic suffering while under the influence of these oracles. If I were you, I’d try to take advantage of such benefits right now. You could really use some healing. Luckily, it looks like there’ll be an array of other curative options available to you as well. Be aggressive about seeking them out.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Given the lush and exotic astrological factors now coming to bear on your

destiny, and due to the possibility that something resembling actual magic may soon make an appearance, I am taking a leap of faith with this week’s horoscope. Are you game? There is a hypothetical scene described by the English poet Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) that would normally be too outlandish to take seriously, but I suspect it’s a possible match for your upcoming adventures. “What if you slept,” he wrote, “and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there you plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?”

George W. Bush, many Americans viewed

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River Cities’ Reader • Vol. 19 No. 791 • November 10 - 22, 2011�8 Business • Politics • Arts • Culture • Now You Know • RiverCitiesReader.com

October 27 Answers: Page 3MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY - NOV. 10, �011

ACROSS1. Ottava _5. Port city in Israel10. Epicarp14. Compartment18. On the summit of19. Handle of a kind20. Arm bones21. Song22. Bread roll topping: 2 wds.24. Causing astonishment: hyph.26. Turncoat’s crime27. Hardly ever29. Sounds30. Magritte or Russo31. Presently32. Wen33. Autocrat36. Not very bad, not very good: hyph.38. Defoe’s Crusoe, e.g.42. “It’s _ _ to Tell a Lie”43. River horse47. Hasten48. Mil. rank49. Willow tree50. Sacraments51. _ Katherine Sorvino52. Conscious mind53. Green Mountain Boys leader54. Tower site55. Check-in areas56. Relied58. Judge59. Occasional confessor60. Storms61. Brought about62. Swimmer’s problem63. Relief pitcher in baseball65. Divide66. A mixer: 2 wds.69. Unit of volume70. Bookplate71. Means of restraint72. _ se73. Fratricide’s victim74. Cerise or cerulean, e.g.75. Barrel part76. Small

77. _ Lanka78. Internet clutter solution: 2 wds.80. Speed81. Not barefoot83. Yearn84. Pumped up85. Means’ justifier86. Recipe word88. Sing like Ella90. Type of whale93. Staircase shape95. Art supplies99. Furious101. Fear of a certain place103. Woe _ _!104. Shoe part105. Summon106. Mining yields107. Nonsense writer108. Father109. Ceremonial dinner110. Eat a littleDOWN1. Engrossed2. Believe _ _ not!3. Brood4. Manifest5. Argonaut’s leader6. Coeur d’_7. Old cry of disapproval8. Manias9. Valuator10. Silky fabric11. Same as above12. Pinch13. God also called Bacchus14. Per _15. Discord personified16. Wrinkle17. Falls behind20. Change the decor23. River in France25. Mails28. Air show maneuver32. Cud-chewing creature33. Tore34. Concern of a linguist35. A biomolecule

36. Caught sight of37. Exposed38. Trace anagram39. Abele: 2 wds.40. Buenos _41. Brewing need43. One with ownership44. Skerries45. Persuasive speaker46. Famous Buddhist country51. Cripples53. Tee off54. Something donut-shaped55. Up for _57. Atelier item58. Echo chamber effect59. Edge tool61. Form of jazz62. Bit of garlic63. Reunion group64. Sign of the zodiac65. Toledo toast66. A rail67. Make frost-free68. One- _ bandit70. Runs71. Urge74. Gelidity75. Teacher of Plato76. Cuspidor78. Solar-cell array79. Hideout82. Farther down84. Household chore86. Quill87. Metronome sound88. Support for a felly89. Gambol90. Curved handle91. Church section92. _ Linda93. Get top billing94. “_ Actually”96. River in Spain97. Misinformation98. Cummerbund100. Letter after phi102. Seedcase


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

2011/11/09 (Wed)

Blu - JNaturaL - Open Mike Eagle - MC Colorless -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

DJ Jeff & Karaoke -Greenbriar Res-taurant and Lounge, 4506 27th St Moline, IL

Karaoke Night -Applebee’s Neighbor-hood Grill - Davenport, 3005 W. Kimberly Rd. Davenport, IA

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

Keller Karaoke -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

Open Mic Night w/ Karl, Mike, & Doug -Boozie’s Bar & Grill, 114 1/2 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Luis Ochoa -Up-town Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Southern Thunder Karaoke -Hollar’s Bar and Gril l, 4050 27th St Mo-line, IL

The Chris & Wes Show -Mound Street Landing, 1029 Mound St. Daven-port, IA

2011/11/10 (Thu)

ABC Karaoke -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Bebop Night at the Rozz-Tox -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL


Jam Sessions with John O’Meara and Friends -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Jazz Jam with The North Scott Jazz Combo -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Just Chords -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Karaoke & Retro DJ w/ BMAX Enter-tainment -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA


Karaoke Night -Purgatory’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

Karaoke Night -The Gallery Lounge, 3727 Esplanade Ave. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -The Lucky Frog Bar and Grill, 313 N Salina St McCaus-land, IA

Kooby’s Karaoke -Headquarters Bar & Grill, 119 E. 22nd Ave. Coal Valley, IL

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

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

Nick Vasquez -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Kung Fu Tofu -Stickman’s, 1510 N. Harrison St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ The Dukes of Hag-gard -Bier Stube Moline, 417 15th St Moline, IL

Rock ‘N the House Karaoke -Uptown Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Troy Harris, Pianist (6pm) -Red Crow Grille, 2504 53rd St. Bettendorf, IA

University of Iowa Jazz Performances -The Mill, 120 E Burlington Iowa City, IA

2011/11/11 (Fri)

Armed and Hammerd -Purgatory’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

Artimus Pyle -Quad-Cities Waterfront Convention Center, 1777 Isle Park-way Bettendorf, IA

Bettendorf Park Band Pre-Veteran’s Day Concert -Herbert Goettsch Community Center, 2204 Grant St. Bettendorf, IA

Big Al -The Odeon, 8025 Avenue N. Clinton, IA

Buddy Olson (6pm) -Toucan’s Cantina / Skinny Legs BBQ, 2020 1st Street Milan, IL

David Killinger & Friends -G’s Riv-erfront Cafe, 102 S Main St Port Byron, IL

Dirt Road Rockers -Rascals Live, 1418 15th St. Moline, IL

Dueling Pianos: Piano Fondue (6pm) -Rhythm City Casino, 101 W. River Dr. Davenport, IA

Eddie Shaw and the Wolfgang -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bet-tendorf, IA

Elephant Gun - Break Up Art -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Ethanol -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA

Family Groove Company - The Bur-rows Four -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washing-ton St. Iowa City, IA

Funk Daddies -Edje Nightclub at Jumer’s Casino and Hotel, I-280 & Hwy 92 Rock Island, IL

Jason Carl Band (9pm) - The Rusty Nail, 2606 W. Locust St. Davenport, IA

Jazz After Five w/ Groove Theory (5:30pm) - Fourteenth Colony Nov-el Album Release - Jason T. Lewis - Sad Iron Music (8:30pm) -The Mill, 120 E Burlington Iowa City, IA

John Wasem -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night (members only) -Moose Lodge - Davenport, 2333 Rocking-ham Rd Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Circle Tap, 1345 Locust St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Creekside Bar and Grill, 3303 Brady St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Paddlewheel Sports Bar & Grill, 221 15th St Bettendorf, IA

Karaoke Night -Stickman’s, 1510 N. Harrison St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night w/ Stevie J. -Biscuits Bar & Grill, 600 Front St Buffalo, IA

Lee Blackmon -Cool Beanz Coffee-house, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

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

Marvels -Purgatory’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

Maupenei Lelaulu (6:30pm) -RME Com-munity Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Dav-enport, IA

Open Mic Coffeehouse -First Lutheran Church of Rock Island Parish House, 1600 20th St Rock Island, IL

Orangadang -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Peter Mayer Group - Whoozdads -Adler Theatre, 136 E. 3rd St. Dav-enport, IA

Rick K & the Allnighters -Riverside Ca-sino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA


Rootless Experience -Generations Bar & Grill, 4100 4th Ave. Moline, IL

Russ Reyman Trio (5pm) -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Southern Thunder Karaoke & DJ -Hollar’s Bar and Grill, 4050 27th St Moline, IL

Tallgrass - John June Year - The Iowa Beer Band - Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S. Linn St., Iowa City, IA

Tangent -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

The Knockoffs -Fargo Dance & Sports, 4204 Avenue of the Cit ies Mo-line, IL

Troy Harris, pianist (6pm) -Phoenix, 111 West 2nd St. Davenport, IA

2011/11/12 (Sat)

Avian Swarm -Cool Beanz Coffeehouse, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

Bad Fathers - Black Market Maven - Porch Builder -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Cake Tribute w/ Nugget - Chili Pep-pers w/ First Born Unicorn -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Cosmic -Uptown Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bet-tendorf, IA

Danika Holmes -The Grape Life Wine Emporium - Davenport, 3402 Elmore Ave. Davenport, IA


Dueling Pianos: Piano Fondue (6pm) -Rhythm City Casino, 101 W. River Dr. Davenport, IA

Funk Daddies -Edje Nightclub at Jumer’s Casino and Hotel, I-280 & Hwy 92 Rock Island, IL

Icarus Himself - Alex Body - American Dust -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

John Wasem -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA


Karaoke Night -Moe’s Pizza, 1312 Camanche Ave Clinton, IA


Karaoke Night -The Mill, 120 E Burling-ton Iowa City, IA



Icarus Himself @ Rozz-Tox - November 12

9WEDNESDAY

10THURSDAY

12SATURDAY

11FRIDAY

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Mommy’s Little Monster -Purgatory’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

Night People -Len Brown’s North Shore Inn, 7th Street and the Rock River Moline, IL

Open Mic Morning (9am) -Whistle Stop Java Shop, 400 W. 4th St. Milan, IL

Patio -Rascals Live, 1418 15th St. Moline, IL

Rachael Yamagata - Mike Viola -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Dav-enport, IA

Red Pepper Sage (6pm) -Toucan’s Cantina / Skinny Legs BBQ, 2020 1st Street Milan, IL

Rick K & the Allnighters -Riverside Ca-sino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Russ Reyman, Pianist (7pm) -Phoenix, 111 West 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Simon Says Uncle -Hawkeye Tap, 4646 Cheyenne Ave. Davenport, IA

Smooth Groove -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

Songwriters in the Round (3pm) -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA


Terry Quiett Band -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

The Knockoffs -Fargo Dance & Sports, 4204 Avenue of the Cit ies Mo-line, IL

Third Rail -Uptown Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Toology: A Tribute to Tool - The B’Jesus Belt -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Vodkaseven - The Rusty Nail. 2606 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA

Wicked Nature -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA

Zither Ensemble (10am) -German American Heritage Center, 712 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

2011/11/13 (Sun)


Arthur Lee Land (4pm) -Englert The-atre, 221 East Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Damon Fowler (5pm) -The Muddy Wa-ters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Five Bridges Jazz Band (10:30am) -Brady Street Chop House, Radisson QC Plaza Hotel Davenport, IA

Jazz Brunch w/ the Josh Duffee Band (10:30am & 12:30pm) -Hotel Black-hawk, 200 E. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Joe Pena Memorial Benefit: Serious Business & Friends (1pm) -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Daven-port, IA

Karaoke Night -11th Street Precinct, 2108 E 11th St Davenport, IA

Keir Neuringer - Sinjo Thraw Mash -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Is-land, IL

Kiran Ahluwalia -CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 3rd St SE Cedar Rapids, IA

Russ Reyman, Pianist (10am) -The Lodge Hotel, 900 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Stephanie Vinar Memorial Fundraiser: Ellis Kell (1pm) - Jim Ryan & Kenny Carleton (3pm) - Jordan Danielsen (5pm) -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

2011/11/14 (Mon)

Jason Carl -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Bier Stube Moline, 417 15th St Moline, IL

Metal Mondays -Gabe’s, 330 E. Wash-ington St. Iowa City, IA

One Night Stand Open Mic - Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

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

River Bend Foodbank Musical Benefit: Relentless Approach - Sleeper Wakes Society - Powerslop - Nerv -The Moline Club, 513 16th St. Moline, IL

The Legendary Shack Shakers - Split Lip Rayfield - Mountain Sprout -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Is-land, IL

2011/11/15 (Tue)

ABC Karaoke Contest Night -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Glenn Hickson (5:30pm) -O’Melia’s Supper Club, 2900 Blackhawk Rd. Rock Island, IL


Karaoke Night -Sharky’s Bar & Grill, 2902 E. Kimberly Rd. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night w/ Stevie J. -Davenport Eagles Lodge, 4401 W. Locust St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night -Cool Beanz Coffee-house, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

Open Mic Night -The Dam View Inn, 410 2nd St Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Alan Sweet -Green-briar Restaurant and Lounge, 4506 27th St Moline, IL

Open Mic w/ Pat Willis -Bier Stube Davenport, 2228 E 11th St Daven-port, IA

Open Mic w/ Steve McFate -Salute, 1814 7th St Moline, IL

Quad-Cities KIX Band -RME Com-munity Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Dav-enport, IA

Southern Thunder Karaoke & DJ -Mc-Manus Pub, 1401 7th Ave Moline, IL

The Chris and Wes Show - Stacks Bar, 525 14th St., Moline, IL

The New York Steinway Experience -West Music Quad Cities, 4305 44th Ave., Moline, IL

2011/11/16 (Wed)

Aaron Kamm & the One Drops - Jam Session -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA


Jeff Miller (6pm) -G’s Riverfront Cafe, 102 S Main St Port Byron, IL


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


Keller Karaoke -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

Not a Planet - Pisces Cult - Muddy Rails - Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Alan Sweet and Siri Mason -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Karl, Mike, & Doug -Boozie’s Bar & Grill, 114 1/2 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Luis Ochoa -Up-town Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Paul Simon -i wireless Center, 1201 River Dr Moline, IL

Rich Baumann (6:30pm) -Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Cam-pus Bettendorf, IA

Ruth Moody Band -CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 3rd St SE Cedar Rapids, IA

Southern Thunder Karaoke -Hollar’s Bar and Gril l, 4050 27th St Mo-line, IL

The Chris & Wes Show -Mound Street Landing, 1029 Mound St. Daven-port, IA

The Coveralls -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust St, Davenport, IA

2011/11/17 (Thu)

ABC Karaoke -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust St, Davenport, IA

C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

DJ Jeff & Karaoke -Greenbriar Restaurant and Lounge, 4506 27th St Moline, IL

DJ Scott Ferguson -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Jam Sessions with John O’Meara and Friends -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Just Chords -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke & Retro DJ w/ BMAX Enter-tainment -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA


Karaoke Night -Purgatory’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

Karaoke Night -The Gallery Lounge, 3727 Esplanade Ave. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -The Lucky Frog Bar and Grill, 313 N Salina St McCaus-land, IA

Kieth Soko -Cool Beanz Coffeehouse, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL


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

Open Mic Night w/ Kung Fu Tofu -Stickman’s, 1510 N. Harrison St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ The Dukes of Hag-gard -Bier Stube Moline, 417 15th St Moline, IL

Ra Ra Riot - Mates of State -The Blue Moose Tap, 211 Iowa Ave. Iowa City, IA


Troy Harris, Pianist (6pm) -Red Crow Grille, 2504 53rd St. Bettendorf, IA

University of Iowa Jazz Performances: Jazz Rep Ensemble -The Mill, 120 E Burlington Iowa City, IA

2011/11/18 (Fri)

Battery -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Big Al -The Odeon, 8025 Avenue N. Clinton, IA

Bucktown Revue -Nighswander The-atre, 2822 Eastern Ave Davenport, IA

Charles Hayes Trio (6pm) -Toucan’s Cantina / Skinny Legs BBQ, 2020 1st Street Milan, IL

Clint Black -Riverside Casino Event Cen-ter, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA


Erica Martin & Kick Start -Riverside Ca-sino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Greg Brown -Englert Theatre, 221 East Washington St. Iowa City, IA

18FRIDAY

16WEDNESDAY17THURSDAY


15TUESDAY

14MONDAY

13SUNDAY



Rootless Experience -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL

Rude Punch -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA

Russ Reyman Trio (5pm) -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Smooth Groove -Edje Nightclub at Jumer’s Casino and Hotel, I-280 & Hwy 92 Rock Island, IL


The Nields -CSPS/Legion Arts, 1103 3rd St SE Cedar Rapids, IA

Troy Harris, pianist (6pm) -Phoenix, 111 West 2nd St. Davenport, IA

uneXpected -Purgatory ’s Pub, 2104 State St Bettendorf, IA

X+X - travis - ARU - Shock Tactic -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

2011/11/19 (Sat)

An Intimate Evening with Mark Schultz -Centennial Hall, Augustana College, 3703 7th Ave. Rock Island, IL

Cosmic -Mound Street Landing, 1029 Mound St. Davenport, IA

David Killinger & Friends -G’s Riverfront Cafe, 102 S Main St Port Byron, IL

Gray Wolf Band -Crabby’s, 826 W. 1st Ave. Coal Valley, IL

Groove Dynasty -Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22 Riverside, IA

Holiday Pops featuring Todd Eldredge - i wireless Center, 1201 River Dr Moline, IL

Justin Morrissey & Friends -Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St Rock Island, IL


Karaoke Night -Generations Bar & Grill, 4100 4th Ave. Moline, IL

High Cotton Blues Band -Davenport RiverCenter, 136 E. 3rd St Daven-port, IA

Hot Club of Davenport -Cool Beanz Coffeehouse, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

Ian Cooke w/ East Fourteen -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Jazz After Five w/ Equilateral (5:30pm) - Jeremy Messersmith - Lucy Mi-chelle & the Velvet Lapelles - Joe Fassler (9pm) -The Mill, 120 E Burl-ington Iowa City, IA

Jon Faddis (3pm) -Deere-Wiman Carriage House, 817 11th Ave. Moline, IL

Karaoke Night (members only) -Moose Lodge - Davenport, 2333 Rockingham Rd Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Circle Tap, 1345 Locust St. Davenport, IA



Karaoke Night -Stickman’s, 1510 N. Har-rison St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night w/ Stevie J. -Biscuits Bar & Grill, 600 Front St Buffalo, IA

Kevin Presbrey -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Lonesome Road - The Rusty Nail, 2606 W. Locust St., Dvenport. IA

Mercury Brothers Reunion Show -Ras-cals Live, 1418 15th St. Moline, IL

Mississippi Blues Journey -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Pert Near Sandstone - Pre-Apocalyptic Junkyard Orchestra -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

River City 6 -Rhythm City Casino, 101 W. River Dr. Davenport, IA


Karaoke Night -Moe’s Pizza, 1312 Ca-manche Ave Clinton, IA


Keep Off the Grass -11th Street Precinct, 2108 E 11th St Davenport, IA

Kevin Presbrey -Kilkenny’s, 300 W. 3rd St. Davenport, IA


Lonesome Road - The Rusty Nail, 2606 W. Locust St., Davenport IA

Maylane - One Night Standards -Rozz-Tox, 2108 3rd Ave. Rock Island, IL

Nitrix -Deeters Hometown Bar, 402 Main St New Boston, IL

North of 40 -Uptown Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 2340 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Open Mic Morning (9am) -Whistle Stop Java Shop, 400 W. 4th St. Milan, IL

Orquesta Alto Maiz -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

Poket Vinyl -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

River City 6 -Rhythm City Casino, 101 W. River Dr. Davenport, IA

Rob Dahms & Detroit Larry Davidson (6pm) -Toucan’s Cantina / Skinny Legs BBQ, 2020 1st Street Milan, IL

Russ Reyman, Pianist (7pm) -Phoenix, 111 West 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Secret Squirrel -Hawkeye Tap, 4646 Cheyenne Ave. Davenport, IA

Smooth Groove -Edje Nightclub at Jumer’s Casino and Hotel, I-280 & Hwy 92 Rock Island, IL

Songwriters in the Round -Cool Beanz Coffeehouse, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL


Steph Johnson -Rascals Live, 1418 15th St. Moline, IL

The Lustalots -RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave. Rock Island, IL

The Mike & Carrie Show -The Pub, 4320 N. Brady St. Davenport, IA

Trevor Hall -The Mill, 120 E Burlington Iowa City, IA

Uniphonics - Funk Trek - Twin Cats - More Than Lights -Gabe’s, 330 E. Washington St. Iowa City, IA

Wade Braggs & the Lucky Cheats -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bet-tendorf, IA

Whiskey of the Damned - Phantom Vibrations -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

Widetrack -Tommy ’s, 1302 4th Ave Moline, IL

Zither Ensemble (10am) -German American Heritage Center, 712 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

2011/11/20 (Sun)


Barb Ryman -Cool Beanz Coffeehouse, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

Bitch -The Mill, 120 E Burlington Iowa City, IA

Buddy Mondlock (6pm) -Paul Engle Center for Neighborhood Arts, 1600 4th Ave SE Cedar Rapids, IA

Funday Sunday w/ Dave Ellis (6pm) -The Muddy Waters, 1708 State St. Bettendorf, IA

Jazz Brunch w/ the Josh Duffee Band (10:30am & 12:30pm) -Hotel Black-hawk, 200 E. 3rd St. Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -11th Street Precinct, 2108 E 11th St Davenport, IA

Russ Reyman, Pianist (10am) -The Lodge Hotel, 900 Spruce Hills Dr. Bettendorf, IA

Terry Hanson Ensemble (10:30am) -Brady Street Chop House, Radisson QC Plaza Hotel Davenport, IA

Third Sunday Jazz Series featuring Tony Sconyers & Friends (6pm) -The Redstone Room, 129 Main St Davenport, IA

2011/11/21 (Mon)

Jason Carl -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Davenport, IA

Karaoke Night -Bier Stube Moline, 417 15th St Moline, IL

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

One Night Stand Open Mic -Iowa City Yacht Club, 13 S Linn St Iowa City, IA

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

2011/11/22 (Tue)

ABC Karaoke Contest Night -The Rusty Nail, 2606 W Locust Dav-enport, IA

Glenn Hickson (5:30pm) -O’Melia’s Supper Club, 2900 Blackhawk Rd. Rock Island, IL



Karaoke Night w/ Stevie J. -Davenport Eagles Lodge, 4401 W. Locust St. Davenport, IA

Mandolin Junction: Bluegrass & Old Time Music Jam -RME Community Stage, 131 W. 2nd St. Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night -Cool Beanz Coffee-house, 1325 30th St. Rock Island, IL

Open Mic Night -The Dam View Inn, 410 2nd St Davenport, IA

Open Mic Night w/ Alan Sweet -Green-briar Restaurant and Lounge, 4506 27th St Moline, IL

Open Mic w/ Pat Willis -Bier Stube Davenport, 2228 E 11th St Daven-port, IA

Southern Thunder Karaoke & DJ -Mc-Manus Pub, 1401 7th Ave Moline, IL

The Chris and Wes Show - Stacks Bar, 525 14th St., Moline, IL

22TUESDAY20SUNDAY

21MONDAY

Split Lip Rayfi eld @ RIBCO - November 14

19SATURDAY


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Michelle Wells

Inks, Images & Fonts : Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

USC-ILL-10-015_E.eps (CMYK; 91 ppi; 164.68%), USC_news_red_blue_CMYK.eps (47.92%), BURST_3_Upper_A_LR.psd (CMYK; 515 ppi; 29.08%), USC-PRD-10-113_TRD_4C.eps (CMYK; 1115 ppi; 13.46%), USC-PRD-11-149_SMART_4C.psd (CMYK; 316 ppi; 5.04%), USC-PRD-11-036_4C.eps (CMYK; 383 ppi; 18.78%), USC-PRD-11-015_SOCIAL_4C.psd (CMYK; 445 ppi; 14.89%), USC-PRD-11-028_CRAIGS_4C.psd (CMYK; 361 ppi; 18.36%), USC-ICON-11-002.psd (CMYK; 2484 ppi; 6.04%)

SanukOT (Regular, Medium), Matrix II Script USC (Reg, Bold), Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk (Medium Condensed, Light Condensed)

Inks, Images & Fonts Cont'd :

4C

None10" x 12.5"NoneNone1" = 1" @ 100%

100%10/7/11N121Per ad rotation dated 8/22/11

CTA verifi cationToll-free#/Acct Mgmt

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39888 Version:01 09-28-11 gm

We’ve taken the cost out of switching.Choose from a selection of free phones and switch without any activation fee. Just one more reason U.S. Cellular® has the happiest customers in wireless.

Things we want you to know: While supplies last. Requires new account activation and a two-year agreement (subject to early termination fee). Agreement terms apply as long as you are a customer. Credit approval may apply. Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or government-required charge. Additional fees, taxes and terms apply and vary by service and equipment. See store or uscellular.com for details. Promotional phone subject to change. Tablets not included. U.S. Cellular MasterCard Debit Card issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from MasterCard International Incorporated. Cardholders are subject to terms and conditions of the card as set forth by the issuing bank. Card does not have cash access and can be used at any merchants that accept MasterCard debit cards. Card valid through expiration date shown on front of card. Allow 10–12 weeks for processing. Smartphone Data Plans start at $30 per month or are included with certain Belief Plans. Applicable feature-phone Data Plans start at $14.95 per month. Application and data network usage charges may apply when accessing applications. Kansas Customers: In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Commission Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Limited-time offer. Trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. ©2011 U.S. Cellular.

To learn more, visit uscellular.com or call 1-888-BUY-USCC.

USC-PRD-11-172 USC-PRD-11-173 USC-PRD-11-174 USC-PRD-11-036 USC-PRD-11-175 BURST_3_Upper_AUSC-ILL-10-115_E

SAMSUNG CHARACTERTM After $50 mail-in rebate that comes as a MasterCard®

debit card. Applicable Data Plan required for 90 days. New 2-yr. agmt. required.

LG SABERTM New 2-yr. agmt. required.

HTC DESIRETM SMARTPHONE After $100 mail-in rebate that comes as a MasterCard debit card. Applicable Smartphone Data Plan and new 2-yr. agmt. required. While supplies last.

SAMSUNG CHRONOTM New 2-yr. agmt. required.

HT

Find the phone that’s right for you.

free

LG OPTIMUS UTM

After $100 mail-in rebate that comes as a MasterCard debit card. Applicable Smartphone Data Plan and new 2-yr. agmt. required. While supplies last.

river cities reader issue #791 - november 10, 2011

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