Oh, I Think So

Van Delisle and his wife, Karin McCool, live by Loyola University in Chicago and about once a month they offer up the best possible evening of live music, that is, in their living room.  The musicians are about three feet from the front row of the audience.  There might be microphones and some percussive device and one musician that is joined by another and then another.  There might be three guys with no mikes at all, a purely acoustic set.  Van and Karin travel to Champaign, IL; Nashville, TN; various points in Iowa to hear their favorite musicians then they invite them to play an intimate concert set in their home between gigs. Let's say someone has a show in Pittsburgh, PA, and another in Milwaukee, WI, three days later.  Van and Karin arrange for them to put on a show in their living room.  They give the musicians a free and private place to stay, a well-stocked fridge, and all the proceeds from the modestly-priced concert.  (As you can imagine,...

It's the World Cup of Football, y'all, when the best national players come home to play for their home countries.  Englishmen playing in Spain, Americans in Holland, Germans in the USA all return to do their patriotic duty.  The best of the best, kind of like almost the entire National Hockey League returning home to Canada to win the gold medal in Olympic Ice Hockey. Four years ago, most Americans I knew were giving it all the big skip (or maybe they were appalled by the vuvuzela, that loud horn the crowd seemed to adore).  This year, Americans are congregating anywhere it's offered, and in my town they're broadcasting games on a Jumbotron in an downtown park.  Thousands of people showed up to watch the USA beat Ghana.  (Actually, they showed up to watch a soccer game and got the bonus of the win.)  People in my office are speaking about the games with great excitement and knowledge.  (Please note: These people didn't work in my office four years ag...

Behold this teaser for the PBS show "Kimchi Chronicles."  Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his wife, Marja, go to South Korea -- the birthplace of Marja -- and learn about Korean food and then come back and cook it with their neighbors, the Jackmans.  Sounds simple, right? In my Thursday night tap class, the teacher, Bril Barrett, has every student name a tap dancer -- past or present -- as an homage to those who have danced before us.  Last week, suffering from Tony Awards damage, I named Hugh Jackman.  Bril said he'd not watched the Tonys but someone sent him the clip where Hugh tapped with the cast from "After Midnight," and then said, "Hugh Jackman tore it up!"  Then he added, "But to me he's Wolverine." After class, I usually walk by myself to the CTA train, but last week walked with one of my classmates.  She said, "Oh you know there is a TV show where Hugh Jackman and his wife cook Korean food, right?  On PBS?"  My bra...

It's the best night for honoring the New York theatre and therefore THE WORLD of theatre!  It's the presentation of the 2014 Tony Awards starring that superhunk of excellent Australian man meat, Hugh Jackman.  Perhaps you've not heard of Mr. Jackman to which I ask, "What the f*ck rock is it you live under?"  Mr. Jackman was Curly in "Oklahoma" on Broadway and he was Peter Allen in "The Boy From Oz," also on Broadway.  He is Wolverine in the popular X-Men series of movies.  He was Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables." Hugh Jackman acts.  Hugh Jackman sings.  As evidence of belonging on the Radio City Music Hall stage, Hugh Jackman tap dances.  TAP DANCES, y'all!  As a student of the percussive shoe art that is tap, I can share that it's not easy.  It takes practice, discipline, and some not-cheap footwear.  We will be seeing Hugh Jackman TAP DANCE and I am very excited. I love the Tony Awards and I would have gladly done with...

Behold Malang Jobateh, a kora player who shares his music in the Union Square subway station.  Like many musicians in New York's subway system, he is a very talented man. I am sharing only 1 minute and 14 seconds of his talent which is not nearly enough.  A lilting voice, a talented kora player, charisma -- Mr. Jobateh is the complete package.  People were showing their appreciation with well-deserved money. In my town, there are subway musicians who are phenomenally talented and others who are so bad that one thinks about fleeing from the station and just taking a bus.  There are wonderfully gifted people like the young woman who sings the blues while playing the banjo (don't mock, it works) or the old man/young man combo who played rocks songs on the Jackson Blue line platform and totally killed it.  There is the middle ground of what-the-fuckery and the lady who plays the violin, whistles, and does flamenco tapping, all at the same time. There is the youn...