Entertainment

The annual Bald Eagle Watch event will be held on Saturday, March 20 from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. This come-and-go event at the Prairie Heritage Center will provide opportunities to see eagles and other raptors. The O’Brien County naturalist as well as other volunteers will be available to help visitors spot and identify eagles. There will also be hands-on activities to participate in...

Drishti School of Dance and Fitness will present its annual show May 8, 6 p.m. at the Sunset Park Bandshell in Storm Lake. The public is invited and admission is free. The Alta-based school offers a variety of dance, yoga and fitness programs, serving all ages. / Photo submitted...

Free Fallin’ - a tribute band to Hall of Famers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - will open this year’s Live at the Lakes concert series, after health concerns sidelined the popular series in 2020. The free live concerts are held outdoors on the Preservation Plaza green next to Arnolds Park Amusement Park on Saturday evenings all summer long...

Jon Langston is the first announced act for the Live at the Lake concert series this upcoming season at Preservation Plaza, next to Arnolds Park Amusement Park. Langston will headline a free show Saturday, July 31, 7:30-11 p.m. The performer has been named one of Rolling Stone’s “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”...

Des Moines Performing Arts (DMPA) announced a new virtual performance from one of the Prairie Meadow’s Temple Comedy Series favorite performers, Dixie Longate. Known for her one-woman shows, including the international smash hit Dixie’s Tupperware Party and the inspiring Dixie’s: Never Wear a Tube Top While Riding a Mechanical Bull (and 16 other things I learned while I was drinking last Thursday), Dixie has returned with Dixie’s Happy Hour, a new show for these unpredictable times...

The City of Spencer will hit a significant milestone in 2021: the 150th Anniversary of its founding. The City, the Spencer Chamber of Commerce, and a group of Spencer citizens are currently coordinating activities to celebrate this commemorative event. ...

The great recession didn’t just eliminate jobs, it also erased an entire town. Six months after U.S. Gypsum closed its doors in Empire, Nevada, a company town since 1948, its zip code was retired and its inhabitants forced to leave. It’s this brief history that opens Chloé Zhao’s extraordinary “ Nomadland,” which follows one of those residents, Frances McDormand’s Fern, on a journey through the American West to nowhere in particular...

The Songs and Strings Benefit Fundraiser will be hosted by the Fort Dodge Opera House, Saturday, March 27, beginning at 7 p.m. Admission for a night of area musical talent will be free. Free will donations go to Broken Strings Inc. Performers include Jeremy Ober, Cory Waller, Jesse Wilson, Clint Reidel, Danny Grause, and program founder Scott Kirkhart, a Manson native and member of the local band Salty Views Acoustic Review...

Rock the Roof kicks off the music season in the Iowa Great Lakes, Thursday, March 18 at the Roof Garden Ballroom in Arnolds Park. The show begins at 6 p.m. Think of it as a St. Patrick’s day celebration, a day late. The always entertaining Rock a la Carte will be performing. Tickets are $20 for a set of two, $32 for a set of four, or $90 for a reserved booth for up to 6. Masks are required except while seated. Tickets will be available at wwww.eventbrite.com...

‘Murder on the Orient Express’ begins 2-week run

Native northwest Iowan singer-songwriter Chad Elliott blends folk roots, swampy blues and soulful writing to deliver an original Americana sound. Chad Elliot and Friends will perform at Byron’s in Pomeroy, Sunday March 21. A four-hour show is planned, starting at 5 p.m...

The Iowa State Fair Grandstand is bringing back the soulful harmonies of the 90’s with Boyz II Men and special guest Bell Biv DeVoe on August 15, 2021. Although the groups have a list of awards and accolades from the past two decades, Boyz II Men with special guest Bell Biv DeVoe have never been on the Iowa State Fair Grandstand...

So what happens when two PTSD victims converge in a lonely cabin during a Colorado blizzard? That’s the setup for Halfway to Someday, a psychologically engaging novel by Osage, Iowa, author Layla Dorine. Rocker Jesse Winters, who suffers from the aftereffects of a past relationship from a man who still stalks him, meets up with Ryker, a former Army Ranger who is trying to overcome survivor guilt and his own wounds and trauma brought on by eight tours in Afghanistan...

The deadline for artists to apply to a part of the 17th annual Artisans Road Trip (A.R.T.) is Monday, March 1st, and it’s coming up fast! Artists who work in all mediums and disciplines are invited to apply – painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, jewelry, fabric, wood, photography, pottery, and more!...

Witter Gallery has organized a virtual event with the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Saturday, March 6 at 2 p.m.. Former Buena Vista University professor Bob Ferguson will lead a Zoom tour of the art museum for Witter Gallery members. The tour will review some of the major styles and movements in American art, ranging from Colonial portraiture through the Hudson River School, the Civil War and its aftermath, the Gilded Age, abstraction, and contemporary conceptual art...

Metal legends Quiet Riot have been rebooked to appear at the Roof Garden Ballroom in Arnolds Park, Saturday, April 24. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. The concert was rescheduled from last year due to COVID-19 concerns...

There’s a tiny oasis on the west coast of Florida where the men wear Tommy Bahama from head to toe and women of a certain age stroll around poolside in tube tops and full jewelry. It’s a “middle-age Nirvana” where crabs talk and you can eat veal-stuffed manatee while wearing your evening culottes and sip tropical drinks served in a mini-aquarium...

Visitors can experience a little of the Emerald Isle in northwest Iowa as the Browns Century Theater in LeMars features a new series of shows in March - A Celtic Music Celebration. The two-hour shows will be fast-paced with fiddle jigs and reels, along with vocal harmonies on favorites like “Danny Boy,” “You Raise Me Up,” “Amazing Grace,” “Lord of The Dance” and more...

A Touch of Brass returns to Wayne State College Sunday, Feb. 28 with a performance honoring nostalgia, pioneer settlers, and all things brass. The 2 p.m. concert in Ramsey Theatre is free and open to the public and will also be livestreamed. To view the livestream, go to www.wsc.edu/watch-live. If patrons are exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19, they should remain at home and watch the livestream...

Below zero temps for days, it seems like, and now, the snow looks to be piling up – Iowa winters can get downright nasty. Bring on more isolation, in what has been a year of constant isolation, and people can get a bit stir crazy. The power of reading is a habit that some folks have discovered, or re-discovered, during this time. Here’s some recommended books, new and old, to help further the cause...

Imagine Iowa Great Lakes and the Iowa Lakeside Lab are excited to announce the Public Art & Ecology Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program which invites artists to apply for an eight-12 week residency. Lakeside Lab is a biological field station and nature preserve located in the northwest region of Iowa. ...

The 17th annual Artisans Road Trip (A.R.T.) is looking for artists! The deadline for applications is Monday, March 1st. All disciplines and mediums are accepted – painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, jewelry, fabric, wood, photography, pottery, and more!...

An Iowa original musician will perform in a live stream concert from the University of Dubuque Heritage Center, Tuesday, Feb. 23. Dubuque’s own Elizabeth Mary shares her relatable lyrics, genuine personality, and story to success. Recently juggling the trials of the pandemic, production of a full-length album, and welcoming a child, Elizabeth Mary has a whole lot to share!...

A new West Gallery Exhibit will open February 15 at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee. The show includes fishing hooks, a totem pole, woven baskets, snow goggles, a spear, and a mountain goat horn ladle are among objects crafted by Northwest Coast and Arctic artists and curated at the Sanford Museum...

The actors Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth have been friends for 20 years and that is plainly evident watching them play longtime lovers in the wrenchingly beautiful film “Supernova.” The award-winning duo are like a well-worn sweater onscreen, comfortable and lived-in, showing the kind of tart affection people show when ardor’s lust has given way to the slow burn of adoration...

Religion and horror are hardly novel bedfellows, but writer-director Rose Glass crafts something fresh of the construct in her promising debut “ Saint Maud.” The film follows the psychological undoing of a devout hospice nurse who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her terminally ill patient...

• Foo Fighters, “Medicine at Midnight” (Roswell/RCA) “Medicine at Midnight” is what happens when the Foo Fighters embrace grooves instead of riffs. Who asked for that? No one, really. But we should have. The nine-track album clocks in at a swift 36 minutes and it’s the band’s coolest in years, throwing out sounds they’ve rarely shown before — David Bowie, hair metal and glam rock. The band sounds like it’s having fun...

Unique duo My Darling Clementine will offer a show at Byrons in Pomeroy Sunday April 18. The band is sandwiching U.S. appearances during April in between tours of the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. The Byron’s show is their only scheduled appearance in Iowa. Showtime is 5 p.m...

Soulful-pop singer-songwriter and Des Moines native, Emma Negrete, teases her debut EP “Algorithms,” with the release of the first single, “Lost In Translation.” Featuring a dynamic music video directed by award-winning director Jenn Hanching, “Lost In Translation” captures the Los Angeles-based songstress as she navigates love, where it all went wrong, and the uncomfortable truth that she too is to blame for it falling apart...

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson has announced his retirement after five decades and named a manager for his estate. A press release issued Wednesday said that the 84-year-old actor and singer actually retired last year and his son, John, stepped in to oversee his father’s business, including special projects and his record label KK Records. ...