2002 November

The first time I saw Dan Bern, in 1997, he cracked up the crowd with his wild, clowny lyrics, shock played up for laughs, and comedic monologues set to solo acoustic guitar, their words spilling over the ends of lines. In one...

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...

When Full takes the stage, you wonder what the heck these guys are gonna sound like. While the electric bass and trap set are familiar, the vibraphone, trumpet, cello, and African drums suggest a strange combo. And when they...

Among 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...

For most of the last fifteen years now, Ann Arborites have had the opportunity to watch the remarkable talent of Bob Hicok grow and mature. It wasn't long after he started writing poems to perform at the monthly local Poetry...

It’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...

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...

It is seven days before the year 2000. A Kafkaesque plague is sweeping across Taiwan, an end-of-millennium virus that causes its victims to behave like cockroaches — crawling around on the floor, avoiding light, seeking...