Andrew OsborneTelevision
BETTER CALL SAUL (AMC) On one level, there's not really a good reason for this odd duck to exist at all, since it's a "Breaking Bad" prequel about characters whose fates we (mostly) already know and thus would seem to be the ...
Marisa HayesDanceParis,
"The Lady of the Camellias," currently being performed by the Paris Opera Ballet through January 3, is no stranger to international audiences and is the most widely-known narrative ballet by John Neumeier. Yet, the company has breathed new life into this contemporary classic that was first performed in 1978 by ...
Paula FarmerFilm
With his new film, writer/director Adam Mckay has carved out a distinct and enviable style, and solidified A-list status for himself. Although “Vice,” starring Christian Bale as Dick Cheney, Amy Adams as Lynn Cheney and Steve Carrel as Donald Rumsfeld, is by no means some typical Oscar bait film, it ...
Lewis WhittingtonMusicPhiladelphia,
Trumpeter Terell Stafford founded The Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2014 and in five years they have covered a lot of musical ground with concerts that have represented every era of jazz- From the heyday of the big-bands, bebop, cool, progressive and contemporary compositions.
Every December ...
James GreenbergFilm
I enjoy popcorn movies as much as the next person. They’re like a sugar high. But they also tend to lower expectations for what a truly great film can deliver. Really, when is the last time a film has stirred your imagination and stayed with you the next day, or ...
James GreenbergFilm
In the Bob Dylan song, “Hurricane,” about the trumped up charges and incarceration of boxer Rubin Hurricane Carter, there is a line about Carter being pulled over by the police in Patterson, New Jersey on a steamy summer night in 1966, “just like the time before and the time ...
Emily S. MendelArt & ArchitectureSan Francisco,
“She is an artist’s artist, with a unique vision,” said Neal Benezra, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) of Vija Celmins, the much-admired Latvian-American artist whose first full retrospective in more than 25 years is now on view at SFMOMA. The exhibit will then ...
Marisa HayesDanceParis,
The theme of legacy has dominated the programming this fall at the Paris Opera Ballet, a season that opened with the Martha Graham Company in September and recently celebrated the centenary of Jerome Robbins. Of course, when an institution can trace its history by the century, it’s not surprising that ...
David E. MorenoDanceBerkeley,
Pavel Zustiak and his Palisssimo Company made its West coast première of “Custodians of Beauty” at Zellerbach’s Playhouse this week, presenting a visually saturating and multisensory experience. Both imagery and choreographic language are streamlined and minimal, weaving together a series of entertaining non-narrative exposés that border on the absurd. It ...
