Why Murder on the Orient Express Still Works
A sumptuous, intelligent production at ZACH Theatre proves the classic endures I’ve seen a lot of theatre in Austin over the years—both as a longtime audience member and as part…
From Austin–Houston to London–Cardiff: A Friendship That Became The Last Five Years
Texas doesn’t always let its artists leave cleanly. Even when they go, the imprint stays. That imprint—equal parts ambition, polish, competition, and tradition—travels with Emma Wallace, an actress from Austin,…
Every Day You Eat Like a God:
The Quiet Resurrection of Austin’s First True Chinese Banquet House When the old New Fortune banquet hall in Chinatown on North Lamar shuttered during the uneasy stillness of the COVID…
The Noble Rot: Not as Rotten as It Sounds
On a drizzly October evening, I slipped into Noble Rot Soho with a friend I was visiting in London. He told me he had a surprise for me. The mystery…
From Bricklayer to Eclector: Sir John Soane
Entering the Soane’s, you’re immediately engulfed by a visual tempest — a staggering accumulation of art, artifacts, and plaster casts squeezed into three adjoining London townhouses. There’s not a patch…
I Traded My ABBA Tickets for a Kitchen Table — then this show changed everything
Once a Eurovision cynic, I walked out of ABBA Voyage stunned, converted, and grateful for the wake-up call. About 49 years ago, in Tokyo, I first heard ABBA. I wasn’t…
Other Desert Cities
Continuing its 20th Anniversary Season, City Theatre Austin proudly presents Other Desert Cities, a searing family saga by Pulitzer Prize finalist, playwright, and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz. Family pride proves…
Temple Church and the Secret Within
Way back when The Da Vinci Code was first released, I was fascinated—not least because symbols and symbology have been tenants of my mystical journey and curiosity, seeking for decades.…
Rocks Back Pages: The World’s Largest Archive of Music Journalism
lead photo: Author Elise Krentzel and Founder of Rocks Back Pages Barney Hoskyns at their HQ There was an instant camaraderie — that rare, unspoken recognition between two people who’ve…
Symbols, Secrets & the Builders of Light: Inside the World of the Freemasons
I’ve always been drawn to the hidden language behind the visible — the carved sign above a doorway, the ceremony that marks a passage from one state of being to…