Entertainment

Last spring, I wrote about the explosion of black on the live stage. In 2022, all the new plays opening on Broadway were written by black playwrights and starred black performers. Locally, in Chicago, the explosion is sustained by the four-to-six-week schedule of new performances throughout the year. All Black Productions Most theater groups average […]

The gaunt, stricken faces on the characters of Director Sarah Polley’s Women Talking tell us a great deal about despair. Living within the confines of an isolated religious colony, they have, over the course of their lives, been repeatedly sprayed…

Living in Chicago, you automatically qualify as a Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) fan. Many of his famous commissions still stand, some owned by single families, or open to the public and owned by churches (Unitarians), communities…

If theater is about the suspension of disbelief, then puppetry is a double suspension of disbelief – the story is told not by an actor, but by a doll or costume controlled by a puppeteer. Done well, it works in a magical way. The creative skill…

Well, here we are in the early days of slushy, mushy March. We are crawling toward spring, but it’s slow. The holidays are behind us, winter has lost its charm, the tax deadline looms, and summer vacations are still months away. It’s no wonder that many…

As we crossed the well-named Blue River Bridge over the St. Clair River from Port Huron, MI to Sarnia, ON Canada, we breathed the clean gun-less air of our northern neighbor. Sister-in-law, Norah, and I were on a five-day jaunt from Chicago…

Steven Spielberg slipped into our collective consciousness more than 50 years ago. With a sweeping imagination and spot-on storytelling ability, he has, in film after film, outperformed even the most imposing expectations. And good for all of us that The Fabelmans…

I still have fond memories of listening to David Crosby and the iconic Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young band. In my early university days, I loved to lie on the floor, put on my headphones, and listen to the album Déjà Vu. The guitar rhythms…

A study of more than half a million people in the UK and Canada has linked social isolation to signs of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. More than a third of people worldwide over 50 live alone. In addition to the toll cited above, social isolation…

Recently, I began to sheepishly tell friends about the project I’d been working on for the last several months. To supplement my blog, Who I Met Today, a podcast (same name) launches on January 13. As I spread the word, I received a mixed bag…