Everyone's a Critic

I walked out of Fences, which ends its extended run at the Performance Network on May 31, in the daze you got only from first-rate theater. Only one other performance at the Network has so profoundly affected me: a production,...

Today one of my best friends was diagnosed to be dying of a new and irreversible disease. A hundred or so cases have been diagnosed. But this malady appears to be sweeping across the land with deadly vengeance. I try to imagine...

What you find at the Antiquarian Book Fair: A Gone with the Wind poster, autographed by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, price at $1200. A 1966 Detroit Tigers program for $45. A woman’s diary from the 1890s, in spidery,...

While the full house at Hill Auditorium roared its appreciation and approval after every piece during Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’s concerts last month, one music lover clearly didn’t feel she was getting her...

“Attention please: the Ann Arbor News is closing.” Sales rep Vikki Enos, first with the buzz as usual, announced the news over the Observer intercom at 9:55 Monday morning. I discarded the email message I’d...

OMG, he’s back! Poet/musician Rod McKuen, heartthrob of my vanished sixteen-year-old self, will be performing at First United Methodist Church on April 3 as part of its Green Wood Coffee House Series. And though he’s...

What if you woke up one morning and realized that you couldn’t stop noticing red pants? You notice them everywhere–that bag lady’s sweats, that kid’s corduroys, that girl’s tight jeans–red...

Movies provide great escapes. One reason I don’t watch TV is that it’s hard to get lost in the small screen. It’s the same reason I sit up close at movie theaters. Like vivid dreams, movies have the power to...

Now that the Oscars are over, the Michigan Theater is finally going to show one of the most-talked-about Oscar-nominated films, Waltz with Bashir, and I’m eagerly planning on going to see it Friday. My enthusiasm is only...