Vote for the Best of the Quad Cities

Get YOUR VOTE in for 2010 Best of the Quad Cities survey, balloting ends September 10!
The survey includes 63 questions in the categories of "Arts, Culture, & Entertainment," "Night Life," "Shopping & Services," and "People," and all we ask is that you provide reasonable answers for at least 20 questions. People who complete a valid ballot and choose to receive both once-a-week content alerts from the River Cities' Reader and Low Fare E-Alerts from the Quad City International Airport will be entered in a drawing to win a $500 AirTran Gift Certificate good for booking airfares at AirTran.com.  Click here to vote online.


Iowa Politics Roundup: Culver Takes Responsibility for “Mistakes”

By Lynn Campbell - 8/20/2010
Governor Chet Culver used an appearance at the Iowa State Fair to say mistakes have been made under his watch, and to tell the approximately 100 fairgoers that he takes full responsibility for those mistakes.
"There's been a lot of criticism, there's been a lot of questions about things we've done or we've not done ... and I want to say that some of that criticism is justified and that we have made our fair share of mistakes," Culver said. "And I take full responsibility for those things that have happened in various state agencies, that happened on my watch, and I take responsibility for those mistakes that have been made." Click here to read more.



Quinn Against Brady Recalls Carter Against Reagan

By Rich Millers - 8/22/2010
Lots of people are having trouble getting their heads around the fact that Republican state Senator Bill Brady may well be our next governor. This is, after all, a Democratic state.
But it's way past time to consider Brady a very real probability. Governor Pat Quinn's poll numbers, along with the economy and the state budget, are in the dumper. Scott Lee Cohen will likely target African-American voters and badly damage Quinn's chances. The Green Party's candidate won't help, either. And almost $2 million spent on TV ads attacking Brady on abortion, health care, and the minimum wage haven't yet worked.
I've told you this before, but I think it's even clearer now: This campaign looks more and more every day like the 1980 presidential campaign between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. We have the decent, honest person who can't seem to run a government up against a conservative guy who all the liberals love to hate. Click here to read more.


Kings of the Hills: "Restrepo," Opening Friday, September 3, at Rave Motion Pictures Davenport 53

By Mike Schulz -  8/25/10
Restrepo would be supremely noteworthy even if it weren't a documentary on modern warfare in Afghanistan that somehow found its way to a Quad Cities cineplex.
Directed and produced by reporter Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington, this fascinating, heartbreaking achievement debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival (where it won the prestigious Grand Jury Prize) and opened in larger metropolitan areas in late June; the movie eventually made its way to cities that don't traditionally screens docs of its type, including Clarksville, Tennessee; Columbus, Georgia; and Harker Heights, Texas. On September 3, Restrepo premieres at Rave Motion Pictures Davenport 53, and the film turns out to be much like its stealthy nationwide release strategy; Junger's and Hetherington's vital, necessary work boasts a power that sneaks up on you and hits in continually unanticipated ways.  Click  here to read more.


Wielding a Precise Instrument: Nathaniel Rateliff, August 27 at Borders and RIBCO

By Jeff Ignatius - 8/13/2010
When I talked with Nathaniel Rateliff earlier this week, he was driving a dump truck for his job as a gardener, and closed the interview with these pronouncements when asked if there was anything he'd like to mention: "I love to swim. I like poultry."
Aside from hinting at a dry sense of humor, these things suggest that Rateliff is grounded person. And that's reflected in the path that he's chosen.
The Denver-based singer/songwriter, who will perform two Daytrotter.com shows on August 27, had an opportunity to have his rock band (Born in the Flood) and perhaps his current folk-ish outfit signed to the Roadrunner label. But he chose instead to follow his heart. 
Click here to read more.


Letter: Hog-Farm Debate Doesn’t Address All Environmental Questions

By Mary Orr - 8/21/10
As I follow the request by the Scott County owner of Grandview Farms to expand his Concentrated Animals Feeding Operation (CAFO), I do not think the debate has adequately addressed the question of how this CAFO and factory farms will affect the quality of the environment for generations to come.
No matter how scientifically farmers manage their livestock, pig, or poultry operation, these operations have seismic consequences:

• Methane gas is produced, which eats holes in the ozone layer of the atmosphere;
• Manure containing growth hormones and antibiotics presents a threat to the quality of ground water; and
• The subsequent promotion of the heavy eating of meat laden with growth hormones and antibiotics poses serious health risks to humans.

One other consequence of a CAFO is the inhumane treatment of animals, all of whom are sentient beings capable of experiencing suffering. While I eat some meat, I don't want to eat meat produced at the expense of animals raised inhumanely.
The emphasis on the economic bottom line of the farmer and the ripple effect through the local economy does nothing to reverse the harmful environmental costs that will be paid by future generations.
Click here to read more.

Jaws. Lots and Lots of Jaws: "Piranha 3D," "Clary Illian: A Year in the Life," and "From the Badlands to Alcatraz"

By Mike Schulz 8/22/2010

PIRANHA 3D
Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3D puts you in the unexpected position of actively rooting for the piranha, not because the effects are all that great (they're actually pretty awful), but because more flesh for the fish means fewer irritating humans to put up with.
This CGI-happy horror flick finds thousands of toothy bottom-dwellers taking over an Arizona town's previously tranquil lake during spring break. It's unclear whether the fish knew they'd arrive during the filming of a porn-y, Girls Gone Wild-esque video shoot, but either way, the piranha are there, they're hungry, and given the hundreds of empty-headed co-eds who've shown up for the lakeside party, there are now far fewer bathing suits to nibble through. Click here to read more.


CLARY ILLIAN: A YEAR IN THE LIFE
Area filmmaker Atom Burke will be screening his new documentary Clary Illian: A Year in the Life at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on August 27, and my major complaint with the movie lies with its title. Isn't "A Year in the Life" a rather grand subheader for a work that's only 24 minutes long? Director/co-writer/co-producer/editor Burke's endeavor is basically a cinematic getting-to-know-you with longtime pottery artisan (and author of A Potter's Workbook) Clary Illian - born in Sioux City, raised in Cedar Rapids, and currently living and working in Ely, Iowa - and if you're wondering how much of a year in her life can be squeezed into 24 minutes, the answer is: obviously, not all that much.
Click here to read more.


FROM THE BADLANDS TO ALCATRAZ
Another recent documentary makes a local(-ish) debut this upcoming weekend, as writer/director Nancy Iverson's From the Badlands to Alcatraz enjoys screenings at Iowa City's Landlocked Film Festival on August 27 and 28. Running just under an hour, this friendly, moving, incredibly informative film follows members of South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as they attempt a demanding and dangerous swim from the former prison to the San Francisco Bay, an annual rite that finds its participants contending with freezing waters, the threat of sharks, and not much in the way of aquatic expertise.
Click here to read more.


Gone to Seed: "The Switch," "Eat Pray Love," and "Nanny McPhee Returns"

By Mike Schulz 8/22/2010

THE SWITCH
Since it's a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston that actually doesn't suck, it's temping to overrate The Switch, which opens with Aniston's Kassie preparing to be artificially inseminated, and BFF Wally (Jason Bateman) - who secretly loves her - swapping her sperm donor's donation for one of his own.
Yes, the set-up does boast a pretty heavy "E-e-e-ew-w-w!" factor. But that's nothing compared to the movie's "meh" factor; you get no points for correctly predicting that Kassie's child (Thomas Robinson) will bond with Wally, and a romantic rival (Patrick Wilson) will threaten everyone's happiness, and Wally will get interrupted every time he tries to tell Kassie the truth about what happened, and there'll be long walks in the rain while sad-bastard acoustic numbers play on the soundtrack... . The movie is pure formula. But it's a pleasure to report that this time, the formula works, oftentimes far better than you'd have any right to expect. Click here to read more.


EAT PRAY LOVE
Based on Elizabeth Gilbert's much-loved best-seller, one unread by me, Julia Roberts' latest is titled Eat Pray Love. Or, as I prefer to call it, Watch Smile Leave - and I don't mean that insultingly. I should admit, however, that I'm not the ideal audience for this lightly melancholic drama about a New Yorker who escapes her life of moneyed, married drudgery by taking a year to visit Italy (where she eats), India (where she prays), and Bali (where, with Javier Bardem, she loves). Idiot that I am, I thought Roberts' character should be happy to be living in Manhattan with a well-paying freelance-writing job, fantastic friends (played by the seriously fantastic Viola Davis and Mike O'Malley), and the devoted affections of the charming Billy Crudup and, later, the charming James Franco. So I didn't quite get Roberts' quest from the outset, and once she arrived at her vacation spots across the Atlantic, I didn't quite get why every character, tourist site, and line of dialogue was such a cliché; this too-perfectly-lit, too-neatly-composed movie appears to be based less on Gilbert's novel than on a trio of glossy travel brochures. Click here to read more.

NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS
Since I was annoyed beyond belief by the aggressive slapstick antics and forced whimsy of the 2005 kiddie flick Nanny McPhee, I was all set to blow off its sequel, Nanny McPhee Returns. I just figured that one pre-teen adventure featuring Emma Thompson's scowling, snaggletoothed, unibrowed governess per lifetime was enough, and besides, I saw the movie's cast list, and really had no interest in watching Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans, Maggie Smith, and Ralph Fiennes debase themselves in this sort of bombastic family entertainment. But for reasons too boring to get into, I wound up at a screening anyway, and am happy to say that director Susanna White's sequel is a vast improvement over its predecessor.
Click here to read more.
 

Featured Image from the Quad City Photography Club

Photographer: Paul Riewerts.
The Quad City Photography Club holds digital and print competitions most months. At its meetings, members discuss the images, help each other to improve, and socialize. The club meets at 7 p.m. the first Thursday of the month September through June at the Butterworth Center, 1105 Eighth Street in Moline. The club also has special learning workshops and small groups that meet on specific photography topics.
For more information on the club, call (563)332-6522 or visit QCPhotoClub.com.
To see works by club members, visit QCCC.SmugMug.com.