Under normal circumstances, assembling a list of a given year’s best films is a simple matter of keeping score as you go, adding and removing movies as the months roll on, knowing full well that your carefully assembled rankings will probably just get blown to hell in the fall when the big studios start rolling […]
Under normal circumstances, assembling a list of a given year’s best films is a simple matter of keeping score as you go, adding and removing movies as the months roll on, knowing full well that your carefully assembled rankings will probably just get blown to hell in the fall when the big studios start rolling […]
Every week for the last 10 months, I’ve interviewed area artists for this column. Over coffee and phone lines I’ve been privileged to speak with writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, actors and mixed media creators. We’d talk for an hour, I’d write for three more, and in the process I’ve found a few themes that […]
As the year draws to a close, we may opt to wrap ourselves in nostalgia for the past 12 months, making lists of what was great about 2014. Or we can choose to face forward with racing hearts, speculating on what will make the next year more interesting than the last. I’ll take the latter. […]
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men takes the stage at London’s National Theatre as part of its HD broadcast series. The play is a powerful and raw depiction of struggles during the Great Depression and the heart-wrenching bonds of friendship. James Franco and Chris O’Dowd step out of their comedic comfort zones to play two […]
The longest running local community chorus returns for what has become an annual holiday highlight: The Oratorio Society’s Christmas at The Paramount. Celebrate with song as conductor Michael Slon (below) leads a program of classic favorites that soars to its highest point during an audience sing-along in this spirited seasonal event that joins area school […]
Over his 20-year career, singer-songwriter Ellis Paul has released 19 records, received 14 Boston Music awards (along with a slew of other honors and decorations) and played close to 200 shows per year across the globe. With a leading role in the folk revival of the ’90s, Paul is often compared to legendary predecessors Bob […]
Sarah White and Siân Richards are back with their annual songbird tradition, The Country Christmas Show. The angel voiced duo welcomes Peyton Tochterman to the tinseled stage for this year’s tribute to the season, as well as long-standing favorite Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees, who always rock our stocking’s off. And if we’re lucky, […]
Top Five is not Chris Rock’s first time in the director’s chair, but it is the first time he’s seemed truly comfortable sitting there. For far too long, Rock’s film output has been a pale reflection of his fiery, fearless stand-up persona, consisting mostly of awkwardly paced PG-13 fare or misguided romantic farce. Not that […]
“One of my paintings is on the cover of American Psychologist this month, and it shows a man looking out over a field and into the mountains. My feeling was he is in harmony with nature, and if you can just be with him, you can feel that same peace and bliss from the painting,” […]
I was 10 years old when I saw Les Misérables on Broadway, and my dislike of the show was immediate and intense. I wasn’t prepared for my total immersion into a world where destitute mothers became prostitutes, innocent men served on chain gangs and girls my age toiled barefoot in the streets. Oh, and then […]