Category: Arts & Culture

Theater Review: ‘Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground’

NEW YORK—Books, movies, people, and events can all be seen differently with the passage of time. Some rise in stature while others are brought down by changing attitudes and the perspective of hindsight. This premise serves as the starting point for Richard Hellesen’s one-person drama, “Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground,” now at Theatre at St….


Poetry: Giacomo Leopardi’s ‘The Infinite’ (‘L’infinito’)

The Infinite Always to me beloved was this lonely hillside And the hedgerow creeping over and always hiding The distances, the horizon’s furthest reaches. But as I sit and gaze, there is an endless Space still beyond, there is a more than mortal Silence spread out to the last depth of peace, Which in my…


Ass Tries to Become Like Grasshoppers by Defying Nature: The Laws of Nature Are Unchangeable

One day as an Ass was walking in the pasture, he found some Grasshoppers chirping merrily in a grassy corner of the field. He listened with a great deal of admiration to the song of the Grasshoppers. It was such a joyful song that his pleasure-loving heart was filled with a wish to sing as…


Children’s Books About Storytelling

Storytelling is powerful. Its history stretches back to the earliest days of humanity, and it’s an art form intertwined with the passing down of wisdom and understanding. Our love and need for stories is still alive today, although it may be more clearly seen in our habit of getting drawn into episode after episode of…


Music for Healing: A Houston-Area Concert to Aid the Vaccine Injured

In September 2021, the Houston Symphony issued a side-letter to the contract with its musicians, mandating that any musician not fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of the month would be stripped of pay and health benefits. Cellist Jeffrey Butler was one of five musicians who declined to be vaccinated on religious grounds. “Your…


Miss NTD: A Pageant That Reminds Us Why Beauty Matters

The ancients knew that great beauty can just as easily launch a thousand ships and topple a nation as save it—if tempered by morality, righteousness, propriety, benevolence, and faithfulness. These are the values a New York-based pageant seeks to revive. After long hours of intense deliberation, the Miss NTD team has whittled down the number…


Musical Review: ‘The SpongeBob Musical’

CHICAGO—You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy “The SpongeBob Musical,” but it helps a lot if you’re young at heart. After all, this show, which just opened at The Chopin Studio Theatre in Chicago, is based on an animated cartoon character that has appealed to children enthralled by the humorous zaniness and madcap…


Eddie Rickenbacker: ‘The Great Indestructible’

Eddie Rickenbacker (1890–1973) had a knack for danger and an affinity for new technology. He had, according to him, 135 scrapes with death. His passion for speed, whether in cars or in airplanes, was a prime reason for these close encounters. He was born into poverty to Swiss immigrant parents who were both religious and…


2005’s ‘A Soldier of the Great War’ by Mark Helprin

It’s the summer of 1964. A retired university professor, Alessandro Giuliani, and a young factory worker, Nicolò, set out to walk 70 kilometers (about 44 miles) from Rome to the village of Monte Prato. Along the way, musing on his rich and tragic past, Alessandro shares some of his memories and what he has learned…


Film Review: ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’

PG-13 | 2h 43m | Action, Adventure, Thriller | July 12, 2023 Tom Cruise adapted the original 1960s–1970s “Mission Impossible” television series for cinema usage in 1996, and since then the franchise’s popularity has only snowballed. (L–R) Usual suspects of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force): Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and…