Steven Rinella is one of the excellent writers associated with Outside magazine, which over the last couple of decades has carved out a niche as the place that publishes smart young writers who have polished prose styles and a...
Read MoreRabbi Bob Levy knows where to find a lot of his congregants on Christmas morning—at the Michigan Theater, where Temple Beth Emeth will be sponsoring a showing of Shrek. Several years ago, the energetic rabbi initiated the...
Read MoreThe duo of guitarist Tuck Andress and vocalist Patti Cathcart perform with in-ear monitors. “The result of these is that everything but Patti and me disappears while we are playing,” says Tuck. They draw the listener...
Read MoreWhen I arrive at the Elbow Room, Stevie Wonder is pumping through the dark, dingy space. It’s wonderfully funky. The husband-wife team that runs MoFo Karaoke is setting up, but I don’t see any bubbles. That’s...
Read MoreJeff Daniels is author of about a dozen plays, most of which have been produced at his Purple Rose Theatre. And if he ever turns up on one of those “This I Believe” spots on NPR, I think I know what he’ll say:...
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Inside the elegant 1920s golden marble lobby at the U-M Exhibit Museum, children gather around a folding table to guess how many Brazil nuts are in a jar. A staffer restocks cold apple cider and cookies. A flushed three-year-old...
Read MoreEvery good song recital should have a theme, even if it’s only “An Evening with Frank Sinatra.” Otherwise how is the audience supposed to know what it’s in for? So for Joan Morris and Bill Bolcom, the...
Read MoreOf the poets who have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature during the last quarter century or so, almost all of them are primarily concerned with history and the individual’s place within the historical swirl. Of...
Read MoreMary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was, of course, Dusty Springfield. Shelby Lynne is, of course, Shelby Lynne. The intersection of these two singers—one a phenomenally popular beehive-haired, blue-eyed-soul...
Read MoreFirst-time Ann Arbor children’s book author Sheila Pursglove found her dream illustrator through a blind ad on Craigslist. “I’m your man,” confidently asserted bily charley (he doesn’t capitalize...
Read MoreJoe DeVito comes onstage with no gimmicks. He doesn’t sing songs, wear funny clothes, or pretend to be anything other than what he is: a nerdy, clever New York Italian. We should all be so comfortable in our own...
Read MoreWhen Cadillac Sky’s album Blind Man Walking appeared early last year, bluegrass fans didn’t know quite what to make of it. These musicians from Fort Worth, Texas, took the generally conservative sound of bluegrass...
Read MoreIf Chris Canas isn’t livin’ the blues, he sure knows how to channel it. This guitarist and singer, with jazz training from the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts, recorded his first blues CD at seventeen. Now...
Read MoreShortly after gaining independence from Russia in 1991, Estonia ditched socialism and embraced capitalism. The result was a balanced budget, no public debt, and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Perhaps not...
Read MoreAccounts of Eugene Chadbourne’s music usually state in one way or another that it’s impossible to predict what will happen during his shows. While this is indeed noteworthy in a calculating world, it’s not...
Read MoreWhether Yiddish is a dead language or reviving has been an ongoing source of debate ever since Hitler murdered most of its European practitioners, and its American speakers, of whom there were many even into the 1940s and 1950s,...
Read MorePieces of women peek out from behind shadows, prison bars, and maximum-security doors in the current collection of Jane Atwood’s photographs at the Slusser Gallery. Taken throughout the 1990s in prisons from Arizona to the...
Read MoreFor many the tenor saxophone is the totemic instrument of mainstream jazz, and Joe Lovano is one of its prime high priests. Born in Cleveland into a family that worshipped music, he was largely self taught, although mentored by...
Read MoreMartha Keller’s hair is thinner than Andy Warhol’s but just as white. At eighty-two, she’s begun to feel her age, but when she talks about painting, her eyes fill with the joy of a child.After earning a...
Read MoreI think I want to play the bassoon. Really, really well. I know, everyone says it’s one of the hardest instruments to play, but I figure if I make a plan and stick to it—you know, maybe start with some DVDs, take some...
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