Bistro Grace

Where everyone would want to be, 

if only it were kicked up a few notches

Bistro Grace

      This restaurant space hasn't looked this good since the early days of the old Boca at the turn of the last century.  Dramatic lighting along with benched seating and good acoustics all make for a night of relaxed dining.  There's only

Big Eyes

I can't stop thinking about this movie, 

but for all the wrong reasons

      I've been infatuated with Keane's paintings since they first appeared to me in the '70s.  I did a lot of pebble art in the early '60s and big eyed elves were a common subject matter for 

Pebble Art Elf

them.  I can't help but wonder if Margaret Keane wasn't influenced by them. Later on, the Keane paintings became a running gag on SNL. I don't recall any of the controversy over the paintings so when I saw the story on CBS This Morning, I was immediately sold on seeing the movie.  Unfortunately, the report focused on the movie's entire story and the film didn't bother to expound much beyond that. 

Margaret's Studio

      The best part of the movie for me was the flawless art direction by Chris August.  Candy coated pastels appeared throughout to emphasize the time period and innocence of the

Is the Movie Musical Back?

Annie and Into the Woods

are the tent poles for this Holiday Season

     TV ads have trumpeted Annie and Into the Woods and it’s a watershed moment when two big musicals are opening this close together.  The movie musical was declared dead back in the early ‘70s when a number of the monstrously expensive stage generated properties failed to perform and broke the 

Opening Scene of The Sound of Music

old time studios.  The three that work are The Sound of Music (1965) because of Julie Andrews, West Side Story (1961) because of the dancing and arguably the greatest Broadway

Sleeping Beauty at Ensemble Theatre

Thanks for an original version of a classic tale

     Sleeping Beauty by Joseph McDonough and David Kisor has been remounted by Lynn Meyers at Ensemble and it’s charming.  We saw it five years ago and it’s been modified in

Tacqueria Mercado

Lo que pasó con todos los elogios 
from a couple of years ago?

Tacqueria Mercado Sangria

      We stopped by their downtown version for dinner a few weeks ago.  Eric and I were looking forward to dining there as we had heard good reports shortly after its opening a few years ago.  Looking at the menu, I was inspired by seeing Goat Soup and Tripe Tacos.  I wasn't interested in ordering

The Theory of Everything

The reflection of the cosmos 

in a loving relationship

     The Theory of Everything will please those who like movies about English geniuses who develop frightening illnesses such as Hilary and Jackie (1998).   I don’t mean that as disparaging because they also end up in some intriguing, outré romantic entanglements.  In H & J, one sister shares her

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue or Ignorance)

A mash-up (or mix-up?)

or styles in a powerhouse comedy

     We saw Birdman two weeks ago and I’m still not certain how I feel about it.  For one thing, it’s two movies rolled into one.  There’s the tight paced, hyper-energetic backstage comedy that most reviewers have made a big deal about and then the more intriguing mid-life crisis fantasy that keeps cutting in and then finally takes over.  Actually, Michael Keaton is sixty-three, but he could pass for a decade younger.  This is his best work

Rachel Kushner: The Flamethrowers

A young woman comes of age on a motorcyle

1970s Art Scene in New York

     Italian Motorcycles, the downtown New York art scene of the 1970s, American youth revolts of the 1960s, Italian worker/consumer/student/kidnapper-you-name-it revolts of the 1970s, the Land Artists, May-August romances, artists whose persona/story reveals their art, a young woman of talent

Banana Leaf Modern Thai

Destination dining for us that appeared

to be a neighborhood gem for others

Banana Leaf Modern Thai

     I doubt there are many of us that can remember the streetcar and bustling hotel on Main Street in Mason.  They're gone, but the private residence across the street has stood there since 1877.  Currently, it's been elegantly revamped with

Miranda Lambert: Platinum

Yet again, Lambert delivers 

tough vulnerability with exquisite precision

     Miranda Lambert’s latest solo album Platinum was released five months ago, which was when I picked it up and I’ve played it about a dozen or so times since then.  It’s an easy collection to hear a number of times because it sums up the past of country and western music, while also placing Lambert in the forefront of where C & W may go next.  Along with Beck on Morning Phase (Alternative Rock/Rock) and Pharrell Williams on Girl (R&B/Pop), Lambert has taken stock of a musical genre and stated why it is and has been important to American culture.  For me, those are the three most significant albums released this year.

     Lambert wrote/co-wrote about half of the songs on this album and performed works by some other top C & W songwriters.  She comes across as Western because of the