River Cities Reader Podcast

Dave Levora and Darren Pitra debate the merits of Jamie Lee Curtis while Mike Schulz can only sit nearby and wonder, Who else can I throw into this Verdun of fandom, this Somme of celebrity?

What’s here:

What’s coming:

“Weapons,” “Freakier Friday,” and “Sketch”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra discuss films that you shouldn’t see with your parents. These are the Blue Velvets of the Twen-Tennies:

The reviewed:

The previews:

“Together,” “The Bad Guys 2,” and “The Naked Gun”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra discuss the week’s haul of film and get really analytical on the subject of the forthcoming Together:

The reviewed:

The previews:

Together (dir Michael Shanks, Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Mia Morrissey, Karl Richmond, Jack Kenny, Francesca Waters, and Damon Herriman).

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” “The Home,” and “House on Eden”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra know what you did last summer. ‘Fess up: You were living at the movies, weren’t you?

Let’s get into it.

The films:

The previews:

“Eddington,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” and “Smurfs”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra talk films — mostly reboots (including James Gunn’s Superman, starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced). They also talk about Jaws, whose fiftieth anniversary is being celebrated with a new documentary (Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story). Pitra tells his colleagues that he saw Sinners (dir Ryan Coogler, starr Michael B Jordan in two roles, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo) and informs Schulz that it’s merely okay, rather than some rapturous out-of-body experience:

The movies:

“Superman” and “Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story”

“Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story”

The River Cities’ Reader’s July 2025 cover story was prompted by two civil rights activists who spoke during public with business at the Davenport City Council meeting on June 25, 2025. As of July 5, 2025 that video previously available the evening of the council meeting and for days afterwards at the city’s website is no longer available. The activist Tanawah Downing has published he and his partner Jessica Saxton’s remarks to the city council at their Facebook and that can be seen at www.rcreader.com/y/tanawah. Their presentation June 25, prompted the Reader to secure an interview with Tanawah Downing a couple days later.

River Cities’ Reader editor/publisher Todd McGreevy and advocate/litigator Tanawah Downing had a fascinating talk, which you can hear, enclosed; and it’s useful to keep their talking points in mind when one reads certain articles within Issue N° 1035, the July edition of the Reader.

Downing has a lot to say about the Supreme Court decision in the 1844 case of Hurtado v California, which he believes has had a disproportionate, deforming influence on American jurisprudence. The Court’s ruling essentially said that state governments can deny recourse to grand-jury hearings to defendants in criminal cases — and, in so doing, deprive those defendants of their Fifth- Amendment rights. Downing maintains that Americans will only ever become full citizens in the eyes of the law when their recourse to the Fifth is wholly untrammeled on the state and federal levels. It will be such an occasion when that day is finally enshrined by the high courts that it might warrant its own holiday for its celebration.

McGreevy’s editorial concerns the increasing inaccessibility of the Scott County government and its public servants, which, in due course, translates into a lack of accountability when it comes to assigning responsibility for, oh, say, the collapse of a building before one’s very eyes after all opportunities to prevent it have been elided. Where Is Scott County’s Local Grand Jury When You Need Them?

In this interview turned podcast, the two discuss McGreevy’s initial skepticism by the appearance on 25 June of Downing and his colleague, Jessica Sexton, at the Public with Business portion before the Davenport City Council. McGreevy’s critique is primarily seeking back up documentation of the documents the two claimed had been served to the Iowa Attorney General and the Iowa Supreme Court.  Their subsequent exchange of legal talk (again, enclosed) allayed his fears (mostly); and if Downing’s credit of divine intervention led Sexton and him to appear in Davenport to serve a public notice in accordance with USC Rules and Supreme Court Rules 17 and 20, then agnostics will have something to gnaw on in favor of a spiritual reality coexisting with the corporeal realm. From the evidence of his own eyes, though, McGreevy has seen so many instances of outside agents infiltrating City Council meetings in order to deflect the efforts of people/groups with legit Business before the Council that it’s not paranoid for an observer to ask, “Is This Crazy Bait?” Many of the documents McGreevy requested as back up from Downing are made available at the article linked previously. However, many are not.

What was shared with the Reader has been posted below.

Tanawah Downing’s 2019 Writ of Habeas Corpus to State of Washington, Subsequent Appeal and US District Court’s Denial

Tanawah Downing’s Attempt to Serve Notice to the Iowa Supreme Court Regarding 5th Amendment Violations August 8, 2024

2025.06.25 Letter Provided to the Davenport City Council Clerk duing Public with Business – Provided by Jessica Saxton titled Commissioner-Meeting-Notice (1) (1).pdf

Lydia Electrum’s own editorial “Erroneous Efforts to a Worthy Cause” was less forgiving of the two’s lack of legal credentials (neither has a law degree or practices law), and she dismisses their arguments as “erroneous and frivolous.” Even though the legal points they raise on whole are salient, the citizens of Iowa would be better suited by experts with direct experience in litigation, rather than the Don Quixote/Sancho Panza approach of Downing and Sexton.

– Remarks by Michael Helke

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra talk about cinema and the New York Times‘ 100 best movies of the millennium. And Superman.

What’s in:

What’s coming:

“F1: The Movie” and “M3GAN 2.0”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra talk cinema, discuss rumblings of Andor, anticipate the fourth season of The Bear, and declare their united love of air-conditioning.

The films:

The previews:

“28 Years Later,” “Elio,” and “Bride Hard”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra talk film like nobody’s business. Concerning Bride Hard, of which Schulz says, “You know someone’s gonna wind up dead in the punch bowl,” that “someone” might be you.

The films:

The previews:

Forthcoming:

“Materialists,” “The Life of Chuck,” and “How to Train Your Dragon”

Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra discuss all things cinematic. Hey, you remember Tim Key’s turn as Pigeon Man in Mickey 17? Dave surely does. . .

The films:

The previews:

“Ballerina,” “The Phoenician Scheme,” and “Dangerous Animals”