Chamber Music in Stockholm
I attended the Grande Finale of the Classical Chamber Music Festival in Stockholm on July 30. In attendance was a friend who drove from Tierp (some 80 miles north of…
The Inheritance Part 1
The Inheritance can best be understood by reading the book it was based on, Howard’s End by E. M. Forster. But this is Howard’s End viewed through the glass darkly.…
Gilligan’s Ghetto Island
The music here is a heady mix of Latin rhythms, hip-hop, pop and rap. The latter is what one would expect from Lin Miranda, creator of the play Hamilton. Fortunately…
Good Out-Trumps Evil
Destry Rides Again is famous as a 1939 movie, less so as a 1959 play, even though it won a Tony award in 1960 for Best Choreography. The singer who…
Picasso and Einstein
The year is 1904, and the place is Paris. Specifically, the Lapin Agile, a bar; in English, it means Nimble Rabbit. In 1904 Picasso painted a portrait of Suzanne Bloch;…
Texas Honey Bee Farm
Not far from Austin Zoo lies the Texas Honey Bee Farm, nestled in a wooded area close to Cedar Valley. I visited there recently for a honey tasting (available in…
The Sound of Music
Twenty years ago I saw Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer on stage in Toronto for a Sound of Music reunion. As Ms. Andrews had already pretty much stopped singing by…
Frank Lloyd Wright’s House at Cranbrook
Of the 400 remaining buildings designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright, some 250 are single-family homes. Several of these are open to the public; Michigan has at least three.…
War of the Worlds
The threat of alien invasion is very much with us now, as it actually happened on Jan. 6, 2021. It was a worn-out Hollywood cliché that when aliens invaded they…
RAPHAEL: Blockbuster Exhibit in London
For someone who has been dead for 502 years, Raphael still exudes a superstar aura in the art world. Together with Leonardo and Michelangelo, they are the Great Triumvirate, the…