A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But "any other name" just might not do.
Read More »Jon Sobel
Music CD/DVD Review: Joe Bonamassa – ‘Live at the Greek Theatre’
Bonamassa and his band fire on all cylinders on this live 2-CD or 2-DVD set. Recorded, amazingly, at a single sold-out Los Angeles concert in 2015, the selections pay tribute to the three "Kings" of the blues: Freddie King, Albert King, and Bonamassa's mentor B.B. King.
Read More »Theater Review (NYC): ‘Hedda Gabler’ by Henrik Ibsen
The sharp poignancy of Ibsen's classic comes through strongly in a flawed but sincere new production by the young company The Instigators. The tragic story of an unhappy young wife whose hopes of a glorious future of social ascendancy are being dashed before her eyes rings as true today as it did when Ibsen wrote it 125 years ago.
Read More »Music Review: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – ‘Circlin’ Back: Celebrating 50 Years’
Back when the term "Americana" just meant pioneer-era antiques, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was bringing American folk music into the pop-music mainstream. To celebrate half a century of making music, the group is releasing a live album of 18 favorite tunes recorded at Nashville's famous Ryman Auditorium, many featuring guest artists from the pantheon of folk, Americana, and country music.
Read More »Music Review: Lisa Delan and Kevin Korth – ‘Out of the Shadows: Rediscovered American Art Songs’
Soprano Lisa Delan's direct, humanistic approach and pianist Kevin Korth's sensitive musicality strike just the right balance between liquid emotion and straightforward braininess.
Read More »Exclusive Interview: Tulis McCall on Her One-Person Show ‘Are You Serious? A Woman of a Certain Age Inquires’
'Age is something that we avoid talking about in our Western society. We either ridicule it or try to ignore it, or we box people in by calling them senior citizens. So I say let's bring it out into the open and shine a light on this aging process.'
Read More »October 1: United Nations International Day of Older Persons
But we shouldn't need the UN, or a special day, to make an effort to understand the aged, and to become not only patient but respectful.
Read More »Classical Music Reviews: Schubert Piano Trios, Songs of the Rhinemaidens, and New Music for Theremin
Knowing that Eyck conceived and recorded the album for 12" vinyl made even my digital listening experience feel somehow richer – as if I were in the presence not just of new avant-garde music but of the whole weird history of the theremin.
Read More »Hero of the American Taxpayer: Why Clinton Won’t Draw Much Blood from Trump’s Tax Return Secrecy
Hillary Clinton shouldn't expect to score major political points by implying, or even showing, that Donald Trump doesn't pay his personal income taxes. It just puts him in a place where we all, at least on some level, wish we could be.
Read More »EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Director Courtney Laine Self on Presenting Mae West’s 1927 Broadway Hit ‘SEX’
Mae West wrote 'SEX' in the mid-1920s, just after the peak of first-wave feminism hit with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. First-wave feminism was about suffrage and other basic political inequalities. 'SEX' more directly challenges gender roles and expectations and illustrates the hypocrisy and tragic consequences of societal gender inequities. So, West was more in line with second-wave feminism – which didn’t happen until the 1960s!
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