You know Gordon Parks. Or, rather, you know his work. Maybe it’s just that one photo of Muhammad Ali from 1970, with sweat dripping down his exhausted face, but you’ve seen a Gordon Parks photograph. Perhaps it’s just because of a little 1971 flick by the name of, oh, Shaft,…

You remember him: unnaturally thick hair, tucked-in sport shirt, half-sitting on the front of the desk with a fleshy thigh splayed to the left, the crew-socked calf dangling below. He could be any teacher–that is, until he flubs virtually all historical events and the fact that his pants are not…

Thursday, May 19 White wines are great and all–perfect for spritzers, great with salads–but like spritzers and salads, white wines seem a little lacking in muscle. Now don’t get us wrong. We like a good chardonnay, Riesling and pinot gris/grigio, but rarely do we take a sip of those varieties…

Thursday, May 12 There’s a different way of doing things in the South. After all, where else can you still find hoop skirts at a debutante ball, have Grandma stare you down when you say you like white bread dressing better than the cornbread variety and be able to crown…

Someone once told us that rather than shop for jewelry, or any girlie thing for that matter, he’d take on the challenge of making sure Mom was technologically advanced instead–DVDs, digital cameras, you get the idea. The whole gift-buying thing befuddled him, and he had to somehow relate what he…

Thursday, April 28 It’s a damn good thing that Dave & Buster’s hosts Karaoke Idol on Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., because no self-respecting Idol (that’s right, we mean American Idol) fan would leave the house on Tuesday or Wednesday before the performances are over and the unlucky…

In a social group of cinephiles, music snobs and general arty folk, I was lacking something. My friends just assumed I’d seen all of those talked-about films. The ones everyone is supposed to see. The ones that if you haven’t, well, you just fall below the cool mark. The truth?…

Thursday, April 14 Damn that “aged museum” stigma. It stealthily places blue-haired ladies and dozing lecture-goers where edge-dancing art and youthful activities should reside in the minds of the young and artful. Of course, blue-hairs will always lunch at the Atrium Café, and 80-plus series sponsors will always nod off…

Faced with a genius rival and battling his own perceived inferiority, Enlightenment composer Antonio Salieri was a therapist’s wet dream. Love issues, competitiveness, anger, malicious intent, sneakiness–Salieri had it all. But what do you do if you’re up against the one, the only, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, musical prodigy? Though the…

Thursday, March 31 Our first thought was that Extreme Dance! would involve pirouettes on a skateboard or some sort of kamikaze-like performance with a half-pipe and rolling stilts. But since we don’t like blood or vitreous humor with our ballet, it’s a relief that the show is actually an explosion…

To find an example of man giving nature its proper respect, look no further than Kyoto, Japan. The city is Japan’s seventh-largest with nearly 1.5 million people and was home to the emperor from 794 to 1868. But it isn’t the people–emperors or otherwise–who cause visitors of Japan to flock…

Thursday, March 17 First of all, Noel Coward never should have titled his play Hay Fever. It pretty much ensures that we’ll never see it, read it or think about it positively. See, all we can think of is itchy, watery eyes, sneezing and more sneezing. We totally admit that…

Performing the role of a costumed character is challenging. You have to remember to use the character’s voice all the time, even when you’re just telling Pete the checker that you’ve gotta hit the bathroom. If you’re a silent creature, that means you keep those lips shut even when little…

I must thank my sister for her tip on watching horror movies. Both of us saw some movies when we were too young and have harbored an anxiety about them ever since. Last year I set a goal to overcome my fear of these traumatic flicks. The first challenge was…

Thursday, February 24 It started innocently enough–watching occasional Great Chefs episodes on PBS. Then the Food Network came along, and we were no longer satisfied with whisks from Target and 30-year-old waffle irons. We wanted the prized KitchenAid mixer, and we wanted all the accessories. Watching Rachel Ray make fresh…