2007 April

Last fall I got a call to play an opening slot at a really nice music series in Royal Oak. I jumped at the chance for the usual reasons. But one reason outshone them all: I could maybe, just maybe, meet the featured act, folk...

The U-M Chopin Project has no need of boosterism. Though the first recital was on a cold and snowy Tuesday night, and though the program consisted solely of works written when the composer was between seven and eighteen years...

Let's start by acknowledging the elephant — excuse me, the moose — in the room: the Cool Moose Orchestra is composed entirely of local high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors; they're mostly Community...

Eliza Gilkyson sings her songs in a wise alto that I like very much. I love that she's such a literate and subtle writer. I love that she's passionate without being didactic or moralizing. I love the sly sexiness of her...

Your mother’s sauerbraten recipe on an index card. Nostalgia for nasi goring, a spicy Indonesian dish from an unspicy country with a colonialist past. A hankering for double-salt licorice. Given the cornerstone role of...

In a little over a century, jazz has traveled from the cathouses of Storyville to concert halls and universities, with some colorful episodes en route. The academic environment is safer, healthier, and more dignified, but...

Jonathan Lethem's cool. His novels and stories take on everything from detective fiction to comic book heroes. He is very willing to write about big themes — the possibilities or impossibilities of individualism in an...

When I call for information, Anita, one of the founders of SpiritSisters Women's Circle, tells me why they started this monthly group that discusses spirituality, relationships, empowerment, metaphysics, and healing:...

Every Tuesday, area writers wedge themselves between the Money Management and Pop/Rock sections at Arborland Borders to review each other's work. The night I attended, ten folks were crowded around a table, intently studying...

The African Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman is a sensation in every sense of the word. Start with the name: she grew up Measha (MEE-sha) Gosman in New Brunswick; married a Swiss, Markus Bruegger; and fused their surnames....

George Bernard Shaw has a theater festival in Ontario dedicated to him, but that aside, he doesn't seem to have a large or enduring fan base anymore. Many people know him only obliquely through My Fair Lady, the musical...