LOS ANGELES — Usher has a new confession: The Grammy winner will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in Las Vegas. The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Sunday that Usher will headline the halftime celebration at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11. The music megastar, who has …
Read More »“Run Bambi Run” is a musical explosion at Milwaukee Rep
Have you heard of Lawrencia Ann “Bambi” Bembenek, who was convicted of brutally murdering her husband’s ex-wife under very suspicious circumstances in 1982? Most in the audience at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater on Thursday night knew exactly who “Bambi” Bembenek was; a former cop, a sometime rabbit at the former …
Read More »Bibliography of John McPhee’s new book “Tabula Rasa”
One of the things I love about reading good nonfiction is that it’s as if you’ve sent your own explorer out into the world and been tasked with returning with the most interesting things he can find. Sometimes writers explore ideas, sometimes it may be the past (as in a …
Read More »Amazon Prime Video will include ads starting next year
Amazon Prime Video will include ads during shows and movies starting early next year, joining other streaming services that are adding different subscription tiers. Amazon Prime members can pay $2.99 a month in the U.S. to keep their service ad-free, the company said Friday. Streaming services are hotly contested among …
Read More »Muti directs ‘Firebird’ for CSO opening night
Poor Anatoly Lyadov. “Who?” If you’re thinking, that’s true. The Russian composer was Ballets Russes’ first choice to write music for the choreographic retelling of the Firebird, a Slavic folk tale. He never did. One account claims that Lyadov, who made up for what he lacked in work ethic with …
Read More »The powerful role AM radio has played in MLB history
NEW YORK – Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Suzyn Waldman fell madly in love with two things: baseball and Broadway shows. In the 1950s and ’60s, the long arm of AM radio brought both home. “I can still hear Ned Martin of the Red Sox reciting poems about the …
Read More »Pumpkins, world music and a haunted house on the first weekend of fall
Your calendar makes it official, Saturday is the first day of fall. Also opening at the National Museum of Mexican Art are Reeling, the Day of the Dead exhibit, and dinosaurs in the western suburbs. Celebrating art, music and creativity, this free, family-friendly festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The …
Read More »New 4K version of the best concert movie ever
Write a few sentences about the chef’s kiss digital restoration of “Stop Making Sense” and you’ll start sounding like you work for A24, the distributor of this 40th anniversary edition. The film’s highly detailed and newly mastered sound mix is not as good as, if not better than, the live …
Read More »Sylvester Stallone’s sequel ‘Expend4bles’ heads towards self-parody
In 2010, Sylvester Stallone created the mother of all goofy teasers in “The Expendables,” packing every over-the-top action star into one movie like they were Pokémon; You have to catch them all. Since then, our favorite monuments to manhood have come and gone, but still the Expendables persist whether we …
Read More »Side hustles come to the fore to pay bills for striking Hollywood workers
NEW YORK — Lighting for the entertainment industry is Ryan Meyer’s lifeblood. Before the Hollywood strike, he worked 40 hours or more a week as a lighting man or cinematographer. He also owns a company that often makes more than a million dollars a year in production support. For now, …
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