Most of the characters in Buried Child do not exist. Not just because the players in Sam Shepard’s 1960s-set American drama are fictional, but because nearly every character, at some point, has the desperate need to assert that their existence is factual and their perspective true. By the time the play ends, one wonders how […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inBook Reviews
Fully Booked at DMPL: Haunted houses, haunting reads
Halloween is just around the corner, when larger-than-life skeletons adorn front yards and glowing pumpkins sit on every doorstep. These spooky season staples aren’t always indicative of thrills and chills behind the front door — but if you’re a horror reader like me, you can’t help but wonder what terrors may lurk inside. One of […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Fully Booked at ICPL: Horror classics for young readers
October is upon us, and the veil grows thin, which means it’s time to put aside our beach reads and turn towards some darker books. As a child, I loved being read to by my mom, and our go-to for a long time was Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural, a collection of 19th and early-20th […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Oogie Boogie, Nosferatu, a sword-swallowing jester and other creatures of the night entice for Kitty and Red’s Burlesque Revue
The lights dropped low at Rock Island’s Circa 21 Speakeasy on Oct. 10 as “She’s My Witch” started to play. Out of the darkness, Kitty Bardot stepped into the spotlight, her confidence instantly taking over the room. From that moment on, the crowd was hooked. Laughter, cheers and applause filled the space as the second […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: An environmental art exhibition at Grand View University combines the cosmic and down-to-earth
The exhibition “GAIA II: The Pale Blue Dot” begins a month-long run at Des Moines’ Grand View University on Monday, Oct. 20. A beguiling blend of expressive imagery and compelling messaging, celebrated artist Mary Kline-Misol and conservationist Christine A. Curry join forces to create an immersive, thought-provoking climate crisis dialogue anchored by complex paintings. Kline-Misol […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Every Day, I’m Brave’ by Renee Zukin
I had been at a crossroads in my life the first time I met Renee Zukin. She was working as a brilliant educator in Coralville while my decade-long career as a program manager was going nowhere slowly. It was this dead-end gig that landed me in Zukin’s classroom one afternoon in 2017. It was a lively […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: Catch the Vibe at CSPS, Baltimore’s End It in Iowa City and more
Established 2001 | Always free! We’re back with another weekend full of events throughout our reader regions. Jonathan Richman, founder of the Modern Lovers and subject of our October Prairie Pop column, hits up the Englert in Iowa City. Meanwhile, Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper visits Cedar Rapids Paramount Theatre on his Suffering Fools tour. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with Chase Abner ahead of his new Halloween-themed music festival, set in a historic Iowa schoolhouse
As a parent to a 4-year-old, I’ve come to realize that, when it comes to finding things to do, the Halloween season can be tricky. Scoping out a spooky-themed event for a possible family outing becomes a recon mission. How scary is it going to be? Too scary? Not scary enough? Going too heavy on […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
An early Velvet Underground ‘protégé,’ Jonathan Richman wrote his way into punk history while trying to troll the hippies
Jonathan Richman can still pinpoint how the Velvet Underground transformed his life with their collar-grabbing sound back in 1967. “It was on record and it was that drone! Oh my God! They changed everything!” As a teenager, he saw the band over 80 times and was a regular presence before and after gigs. “If the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Lost Woods Music Festival reached new heights in 2025, offering the ultimate escape in a Cedar Falls forest
Returning to the Cedar Falls forest for the third iteration of Lost Woods Music Festival felt like stepping into another dimension—a place where we could escape the chaos and stress of the real world for a single night of bliss. The brainchild of Iowa’s hardest working musicians, the Cedar Falls based indie pop group Salt Fox, Lost Woods 2025 went bigger and better while retaining its authentic, intimate, identity.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with Jordan Klepper of ‘The Daily Show’, a MAGA mediator during Iowa caucuses, Jan. 6 and Trump’s ‘weird, dark’ second term
Jordan Klepper is more determined than ever to wrap his mind around the MAGA mindset. A Daily Show correspondent since 2014 (with a two-year hiatus at the start of Trump’s first term that yielded the TV special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns and his own late-night news satire, The Opposition), Klepper is currently one of the storied program’s regular rotating hosts.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Dubuque poses for the eighth Bluff Strokes Paint Out, a week of open-air art-making
The streets of Dubuque became more creatively engaging when 51 jury selected artists from across the country converged on the city for the Bluff Strokes 2025 Paint Out Sept. 28 through Oct. 4. With artists setting up easels around town, competing for awards and engaging the local community through the act of live art making, […]
