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…
AUSTIN OPERA at 40
Austin Opera celebrated its 40th birthday in style at the Long Center this past weekend. Music Director Timothy Myers, in an interview with KXAN news, said in advance of the…
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…
The Book of Kells: Unlocking the Enigma
The greatest treasure of Ireland, The Book of Kells, is considered the most magnificent medieval manuscript that survives and one of the oldest. The Latin manuscript contains the four gospels…
ROBERT McNAMARA: A Distorted View of Loyalty
For most authors embarking on a biography, the danger is to identify too closely with their chosen subject. The result, in the worst case, becomes hagiography. But even scrupulous authors…
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.…
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Unsophisticated and silly, this production of A Charlie Brown’s Christmas is a sheer delight. Generations have seen the animated TV show since it first aired in 1965. So, it is…
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…