In 1938 Thornton Wilder's famous play about dead people, Our Town, hit the stage. It quickly became one of America's best-loved classics, so accessible that it has been fondly performed by high school after high school...
Read MoreAmong the jazz pianists who came to prominence during the 1960s, perhaps none has had the staying power of Herbie Hancock. His early stint with Miles Davis allowed the young pianist to develop his unique style and exposed him to...
Read MoreIt’s been said that people travel to reinforce what they already know, not to discover anything new. This theory may also explain the appeal of pictures that strengthen visual perceptions of a specific place. Such is the...
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At thirty-two years of age, and weighing in at 320 pounds, comedian Kevin McPeek proudly claims that "I've been gaining ten pounds a year since the day I was born." The math may be fuzzy, but McPeek's...
Read MoreThe experts disagree about Riders in the Sky. Do they offer "the loving re-creation and perpetuation of a myth," as country-music historian extraordinaire Bill C. Malone opines in his liner notes for the album...
Read MoreWhen you head out for a night of live music, sometimes you want to be challenged by new bands and cutting-edge sounds; other times you simply want the relaxing comfort of familiar tunes and dependable talent. Laith Al-Saadi...
Read MoreBased on Petru Dumitriu's short story "La Salade," Lucian Pintilie's 1994 film An Unforgettable Summer evokes the insanity and moral outrage of war, Balkan style, from the perspective of an officer's wife....
Read MoreThere's a new film group on campus — thank god — that calls itself Projectorhead. On Halloween, at the Modern Languages Building, it will screen the 1942 Jacques Tourneur classic Cat People. Simone Simon stars as...
Read MoreDuring the swing era the clarinet was king in the public eye, but during the postwar years, as small combos took over in jazz, it was eclipsed by the louder saxophones and trumpets in the front line. The instrument may have lost...
Read MoreBuilding a private mental greenhouse of growth and respite amid a daily blizzard of dirty dishes, half-done homework, unpaid bills, and questions that begin, “Honey, where’s my . . .” takes determination. The...
Read MoreThe Ann Arbor District Library begins its Downtown Sounds series on Thursday, October 24, with an energetic headliner: local pianist Tom Loncaric and his big band. Decades younger than the generation of music they represent,...
Read MoreI am no fan of the piano playing of Garrick Ohlsson. I admit that he has astounding technique, amazing stamina, and great taste in what he plays. And I acknowledge that he is admired and even adored by Ann Arbor audiences. But I...
Read MorePoet Philip Levine left Detroit almost fifty years ago, when he was twenty-six. He had been born and educated in the city, part of the immigrant Jewish working class; his father died when he was five, leaving his mother to raise...
Read MoreThe shadows are long. The leaves are falling. My four-year-old is smacking the daylights out of every ball I throw to him. He straightens from his stance and asks, "What's that?" I, too, stop and listen. At first,...
Read MoreWhen looking for a new music director, the Cleveland Orchestra has a tradition of favoring people who might politely be called “strict disciplinarians”: Artur Rodzinski (1933-1943) supposedly carried a revolver to...
Read More"I am content with my country: good, bad, and worse than bad — I am enchanted by my country," Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo has said. His twenty elegiac dreamscapes on display at the U-M Museum of Art...
Read MoreCloud Nine Music can certainly get into a groove. Trouble is, they can't get out of it. They've got the steady beat, the dependable keyboard line, and the bass riff you can latch onto — all creating a dance-party...
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