Category: Arts & Culture

Film Review: ‘No Way Back: the Reality of Gender-Affirming Care’

NR | 1h 30min | Documentary, Medical, Health | 21 June 2023 (canceled) (USA) Following in the wake of “2000 Mules,” “My Son Hunter,” and “Died Suddenly,” “No Way Back: the Reality of Gender-Affirming Care” (“No Way”) is an independently produced, low-budget movie, which those in positions of power (and by extension their minions) do not want you or anyone else…


Alexander Hamilton and the Hurricane

Alexander Hamilton was born a bastard and grew up an orphan. Some might say he didn’t get a fair shake at the start. He was born in Nevis, a very small island that was part of the British West Indies. He was born on Jan. 11, 1755. Or 1757. There isn’t an official record of his…


Drayton Hall: Rich in Southern History

Despite nearly three centuries in existence, Drayton Hall (built between 1738 and 1750) on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina, lives on and, in fact, is an active archeological site. Seven generations of the Drayton family have lived in the home. The original owner, John Drayton was born in nearby Magnolia Plantation, which the family still…


Film Review: ‘No Hard Feelings’

R | 1h 43m | Comedy | June 23, 2023 Why on God’s green earth did Jennifer Lawrence choose the low, low bar R-rated sex farce “No Hard Feelings” to do full-frontal nudity in is beyond me. A classy, artsy movie, ok, but a comedy about a 32-year-old woman who seduces a nerdy high school boy in order…


Musical Review: ‘Days of Wine and Roses’

NEW YORK—”Days of Wine and Roses,” a 1962 film about the descent into alcoholism and what comes after, doesn’t seem a likely candidate for a stage musical. Yet bookwriter Craig Lucas and composer Adam Guettel have taken its core elements and turned it into something fresh and involving, with two powerhouse performances at its center….


Thomas Cole Unbound: Biography of America’s Revered Landscape Painter

Born in England’s industrial northeast in 1801, artist Thomas Cole emigrated to America as a young man. Here, he found a country brimming with unchartered and untamed wilderness. His masterful handling of light, composition, and aerial perspective captured the sublime character of the American wilderness. Cole found his unique place as one of the first…


Roger Sherman: Compromiser of the Constitutional Convention

This early American patriot was not known as an eloquent speaker, but Thomas Jefferson once said that he was “a man who never said a foolish thing in his life.” Although he received little recognition during his life, Roger Sherman would become known as the only Founding Father to sign four key documents of our…


Film Review: ‘Sound of Freedom’: A Must-See

2023 | PG-13 | 2h 15m | Action, Biography, Drama As an admitted cinephile and a film reviewer who’s seen thousands of films, I recall only one about child trafficking: 2019’s actioner “Rambo: Last Blood,” starring Sylvester Stallone. But now, there’s a much more powerful and much more realistic film on the topic: the July…


Centuries of Treasure Bindings: Books Adorned With Beauty

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a popular adage that can be compellingly applied to many situations. However, its wisdom misses the mark in the context of treasure bindings. Treasure bindings, also known as jeweled bindings, are a type of bookbinding where covers are adorned with lavish materials which can include gems, silver,…


Life at Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota

The dry, sand-hued buttes rise from grassy canyons, and sagebrush dots the rugged North Dakota landscape. I am visiting the territory where “the romance” of Theodore Roosevelt’s life began. My renovated 1969 Shasta camper (with wings) navigates the winding roads of the national park named for the 26th U.S. president. It was Roosevelt’s escape to…