I saw a production of “Jersey Boys” recently in southern Maine at the Ogunquit Playhouse. It’s still going on, but apparently it’s sold out or almost sold out for the rest of the run—and no wonder, because watching it is … Continue reading →
I love this guy. Love, love, love. I once took about eight voice lessons before I quit in despair, and maybe if he’d been my voice teacher I would have improved rather than gotten worse over the course of my … Continue reading →
She had a troubled life in certain ways, but boy could that woman ever sing. Most people think of “Respect” as Aretha Franklin’s anthem, and I suppose it was. I liked a great many of her songs very much—including that … Continue reading →
..keeps on…trucking. I never had a taste for whatever it is she does. But anyway, she’s still doing it. At nearly 60.
Continue reading →I’ve posted this song before, but I think it bears repeating, especially on Memorial Day. It’s Tim McGraw’s extraordinarily moving song “If You’re Reading This“: If you’re readin’ this My momma’s sittin’ there Looks like I only got a one … Continue reading →
Ta-Nehisi Coates weighs in on the Kanye West Trumplove, as might be expected. I’ve written about Coates before (see also this). In that first post I wrote: The larger message [Coates received from his father’s treatment of him] was that … Continue reading →
“Re-imagining” works of art that have withstood the test of time is a trend, one I encountered last night when I attended this performance of the full opera “Hansel and Gretel” at the Yale School of Music. I’ve written about … Continue reading →
While taking a walk the other day in a suburban area, I passed a yard with a tire swing tied to a large tree branch. Into my head popped a song lyric that goes like this: Life was just a … Continue reading →
Good question, I think. And it’s one being asked by Gabriel Hays in this article: For the week of March 31st, 2018, eight of the top 20 songs in Billboard’s “R&B/Hip-Hop” chart were blatantly sexist and misogynistic. In these songs, … Continue reading →
“The Most Happy Fella” is a musical by Frank Loesser (I wrote about Loesser and his oeuvre here) that opened on Broadway in 1956. “Fella” is an odd bird in that it requires many operatic voices. Perhaps that’s why it’s … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Here’s the original post.] Commenter “skeptic” writes: Neo, I think you are on to something here even if you may not realize it. The dweeb couple in the video also raised my, and many of your commenters’) hackles even … Continue reading →
The song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was written in 1944 by the brilliant Frank Loesser, composer and lyricist for the musical masterpieces “Guys and Dolls,” “The Most Happy Fellow” (performed less frequently because of its operatic requirements, but absolutely gorgeous … Continue reading →