Hello. My name is Diana, and I’m a Fanilow. I’ve been this way since “Mandy” hit the airwaves in 1974, smack dab in the middle of my high school years, continued through my disco days and right on through the five or so Barry Manilow concerts I saw in the ’80s and ’90s, including [...]

Preservation Hall Jazz  Band and Hancher are indelibly linked, not only because the New Orleans jazz masters were the first touring musicians to help open Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City in 1972, but because the two river city institutions share the same scars — and the same unwavering spirit. “In New Orleans, we have a [...]

After wandering to various venues after the Flood of 2008, the Cedar Rapids Community Concerts series is returning to the Paramount Theatre. “It’s an important move back home for us,” says Tony Staab, concert association president. “We have been at the Paramount for years and years,” he said, but had to find other venues following [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cirque du Soleil’s “Quidam” is tres French, tres exotic — and equal parts fun and creepy. At the forefront of bringing European-style circus to global audiences, the Montreal-based company staged a triumphant opening Thursday night (6/6) at the U.S. Cellular Center, drawing cheers, whistles and a standing ovation from the nearly sold-out crowd. [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — Grant Wood opened a window to the world onto the rolling hills and dour faces of his native Eastern Iowa, but one of his greatest achievements opens a window to freedom. And now it will be open to the public as part of the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival. ” ‘American Gothic’ [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — I thought Lady Antebellum was the wrong choice for reopening our renovated U.S. Cellular Center arena Saturday night (6/1/13). I thought wrong. Lady A was the perfect band to welcome back the state’s second-largest concert venue, revitalized by an $85 million facelift that includes a convention center complex that ups our urban [...]

Paramount Theatre WHERE: 123 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids PROJECT COST: $35 million COMPLETION DATE: Oct. 19, 2012 GRAND REOPENING: Nov. 3, 2012, with Harry Connick Jr. concert UPDATE: The theatre has seen few dark days since the reopening, and the majority of concerts and events have sold out. The 1928 Mighty Wurlitzer console was destroyed in [...]

“The National Weather Service is now predicting that the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids will climb to 19.8 feet by midday on Saturday (6/1/13). At 10 a.m. Thursday, the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids had reached 15.22 feet.” — The Gazette/KCRG-TV9 Hoopla: When the rain starts falling and doesn’t let up, we get that awful [...]

  The U.S. Cellular Center was the first Corridor entertainment venue to reopen following the Floods of 2008, when an up-and-coming teenage Taylor Swift tossed out a $100,000 Red Cross lifeline that lasted long after her Aug. 8, 2008, concert ended. Now just weeks from the fifth anniversary of the flood, the renewed and renovated [...]

The Pistol Annies — Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley — have canceled their June 28 concert at Riverside Casino & Golf Resort. Instead, Miranda Lambert will bring her show to the resort’s outdoor stage that night, to launch the casino’s Summer Outdoor Concert Series. All Pistol Annies tickets will be honored at Lambert’s [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — The aerialists will spin and float among the rafters. Other artists will have their feet on the ground — sort of. Adrienn Banhegyi (pronounced “bahn/edgy”) stands on the cutting edge of rope jumping. She gave area media reps and VIPS a sneak peek today (5/21/13) at the fancy footwork that raises her [...]

Realism melted into surrealism for the protectors of the Corridor’s iconic art, who watched in horror as the Floods of 2008 trashed their venues and threatened the pieces held most dear at home and abroad: The world’s most extensive collection of Grant Wood works, at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Jackson Pollock’s massive “Mural” oil painting, [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — “Rock of Ages” was so much more fun than I remembered. The national tour of the musical that stormed Broadway in 2009 hit the Paramount stage with its best shot Thursday night (5/23/13). It took a wildly cheering sold-out crowd on a 2-1/2 hour wild ride back in time, when every day [...]

  Whether your summer playlist bounces from chamber to country, blues to bluegrass, rock to rhythm, patriotic to pop, you’ll find ‘em all in Eastern Iowa from now through September. We can’t wait for the U.S. Cellular Center to reopen, with a free sneak peek May 31 , followed by Lady Antebellum on June 1 and Barry Manilow on June [...]

Jacob Smith by any other name would be — Dennis. The last time we saw the Monticello native onstage, he was a Dennis. Next week, we’ll see him be a Dennis again. But neither of these Dennises are menaces. Smith was knightly Sir Dennis Galahad when the national tour of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” played at [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — The aerialists will spin and float among the rafters. Other artists will have their feet on the ground — sort of. Adrienn Banhegyi (pronounced “bahn/edgy”) stands on the cutting edge of rope jumping. She gave area media reps and VIPS a sneak peek today (5/21/13) at the fancy footwork that raises [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — A full house of (mostly) female fans yelped and screamed throughout “SPANK!” last night (5/10/13) at the Paramount Theatre. They weren’t in pain — although some of the singing and writing was purposely painful. Instead, this “Fifty Shades of Grey” theatrical parody makes its audience writhe in laughter. I see no Tony [...]

  While we all should honor our mothers every day of the year, Sunday marks the official day for showering moms with love and appreciation. Flowers, cards, brunch and phone calls are the obvious ways for grateful husbands and children to say thank you. Here are several other ways to get Mom out and about [...]

DECORAH – Down in a valley, between majestic limestone bluffs and the rolling hills of northeast Iowa, the sound of music slowly dissolves from traffic whizzing by to the drone of a fly layered over a babbling brook, a bevy of birds, a band of frogs and a choir of insects. They join their voices [...]