Friday night I went with my girlfriend and her family to see a choral group called Chanticleer. It’s about a dozen men, most young, one with a lengthy handlebar moustache, who sing everything from medieval church music to Miles Davis. Also a song by a Korean composer that sounded like a sped up recording of [...]

Finally, movie titles have gone pictorial. It was only a matter of time. With the release of “I ♥ Huckabees” last week, the floodgates have opened. Soon we’ll see things like “(Skull and Crossbones) Man Walking” and “The Passion of the (Little Picture of Jesus)”.
Now, you can debate the merits of this trend (I, [...]

I am having trouble eating food. Good food, bad food. Healthy food, junk food. Any kind of food.
I’m afraid it will pickle my liver. I am afraid it will clog my intestines. I am afraid it will super-size me.
Is there a name for this?
In the feature-length documentary/practical joke “Super Size Me”, independent filmmaker [...]

If I make a movie by the time I’m 29, or for that matter, ever, God help me. Because the things I’m about to say about Garden State, written and directed by 29-year-old Zach Braff, are not the kinds of things I would like anyone to say to me.
But he is rich now, and famous, [...]

On the evening of February 1, 1988, a man sat down for dinner in San Bernadino, CA. He ordered steak, the house special, and turned his face toward the book in his lap.
“The morning of September 29, 1781, dawned gray and overcast, with tendrils of damp mist swelling over the flat countryside surrounding the [...]

No one ever said you have to be a gay, compulsive, ex-drug-addict to be a successful writer, but apparently it doesn’t hurt. And if you’ve got family members whose faults and oddities you don’t mind exposing to the world, that’s even better.
David Sedaris compares his sister’s feet to animal hooves. He portrays his brother [...]

July the fourth. More than 200 years ago the good citizens of our fledgling republic went to war to secure the freedoms we now hold so dear. Victory was not assured, survival was not promised. The future lay ahead like a great sprawling minefield, full of danger.
But they were courageous. They fought and won, and [...]

Post for Thursday, July 1, 2004, in which I attempt to describe how Cake is the best band of the 90s, but fail miserably due to my lack of comprehensive pop-music knowledge. Here we go:
Cake is the best thing to have come of the 1990s. Forget Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the years 1994 – 2000. [...]

Here, in my tradition of reviewing plays when it\’s already too late for my readers to see them, is my estimation of The Guthrie Theater\’s just-ended production of Gilbert and Sullivan\’s \”Pirates of Penzance.\”
My familiarity with \”Pirates of Penzance\” had, until Friday, extended only to Barney\’s rendition, while doing backflips, of the show\’s hit song [...]