Essays & Media

I know how lucky I am to be enjoying theater and opera, live music and dinner out with friends, travel, being with family, reading and writing.

In songs and stories, we heard from Muslim teenagers whose friends were killed and Jewish teenagers whose families survived being forced out of other countries.

I love this city — the lake, the culture, the people, the food. So far, we only got to two of the free Grant Park Wednesday night concerts this summer, but they were both magnificent.

Yesterday evening, we went over to Grant Park, and sat on the grass facing the gorgeous Frank Gehry Pritzker Pavilion for a Wednesday concert in the park.

Aside from being ageless and adorable, Lucy looks delicate, but on stage, she’s an engaging force.

I saw Champion a few nights ago at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and it deserves all the praise it has been receiving.

We’d planned to visit our niece and spend our days in Los Angeles treating her and her two sets of twins to some fun auntie/uncle time.

We thought it might be another one of the ubiquitous immersive experiences that are popping up in empty storefronts all over, but I wanted to see the “Small is Beautiful” in NYC.

We were out with my youngest brother and his wife, and they treated us to dinner first, at Rosebud Steakhouse on Walton.

Despite all my gushing about the performers, I wish I could say I was moved by the subjects of female empowerment and finding your best self (or something along those lines) that passed for underlying themes.

Nothing like walking south from Chelsea into Greenwich Village, searching for an hour of great jazz singing. Vocal jazz is my favorite.

The Lyric’s program claims that Proximity is a “collaborative complement of some of the most creative minds of our time

I remember seeing Carmen (the opera) for the first time in about 1977 or 78, although I can’t recall who sang any of the roles.

Cuban pianist and composer Chuchu Valdez (Jesús Valdés Rodríguez b1941) has been playing, composing, arranging, recording, and conducting bands for fifty years.

The sound of the shofar, three simple phrases repeated in a specific order, are meant to wake us up, to stir our humility, push us to repentance, remind us of revelation and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.