The Arts

New outcry as Trump tweets mock video showing him beating up CNN stand-in

WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump has said that when her husband, Donald, is attacked, he will “punch back 10 times harder.” On Sunday, President Trump put those pugilistic instincts on display for all the world to see, circulating a doctored video clip that showed him physically attacking a crudely rendered stand-in for CNN, then […]

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Hero- Martyr: Basquiat and Samson

By Sam Ben-Meir ROME, Italy –  For international collage artist, Michael Anderson, Jean-Michel Basquiat is the single most significant artist of the last fifty years: “Picasso, Pollack, Basquiat,” he tells me. There is no denying the immense influence of this extraordinary painter, who in a short but meteoric career of seven years produced an astonishing

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Bipolar disorder led to life as prostitute

Fast Girl: a Life Spent Running From Madness by Suzy Favor Hamilton; HarperCollins (c) 2015. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This book was recommended to me with the assurance that the story it contained was interesting and even enlightening. I’m not quite sure about that. I don’t happen to find copious detail about the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

About Lenny Bruce, who started it all

By Cynthia Citron NORTH HOLLYWOOD, California — Before George Carlin.  Before Richard Pryor.   Before EVERYONE who followed, there was Lenny Bruce. Ostensibly having died of a drug overdose in 1966, Bruce is apparently still alive and unwell at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood. His essence and his memories are currently residing in the body of consummate actor Ronnie

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Cynthia Citron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Some impressions of San Diego’s Intl Fringe Festival

  By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — The fifth annual San Diego International Fringe Festival is well underway, 11 days of “eyeball busting” shows. “Fringe” theatre refers to shows on the edge. They are short (no longer than an hour) and travel light. Many are circus acts with feats of acrobatics, dances and one-person

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

3 CNN journalists resign over retracted Trump-Russia story

NEW YORK — Three journalists from CNN’s investigative unit are leaving the network after the retraction of their June 22 story connecting an ally of President Donald Trump to a Russian investment fund. The story, citing an anonymous source, said Senate investigators were examining a meeting between Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci and an executive

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International, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

China’s jailed Nobel laureate is granted parole after terminal cancer diagnosis

BEIJING — Chinese authorities released detained dissident and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo on medical parole after he was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, his lawyer said Monday. Liu, 61, is receiving treatment at a hospital in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, according to his lawyer Mo Shaoping. The Norway-based Nobel committee awarded Liu, a

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International

Romping through Withering Heights

By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO– The Roustabouts continue to make their debut season a winner.  The trio opened with Margin of Error, a dramatic and emotional ride, and continues with Withering Heights, a delightfully, over-the-top hilarious adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic.  But, don’t expect a rehashing of the nineteenth century novel you read in tenth grade. 

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Powerful musical recounts Atlanta lynching of falsely accused Jewish man

A century after the murder of Leo Frank, ‘Parade’ — now staged in Chicago — is still a devastatingly relevant piece of drama By Ronit Bezalel Patrick Andrews and Brianna Borger in ‘Parade.’ (Michael Brosilow) CHICAGO — Chicagoland theater goers have a must-see play in their midst. Even a century after the events that inspired

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Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Glen Campbell’s wife speaks out about the severity of his current condition

It’s been a little over six years since Glen Campbell and his family shared the heartbreaking news that the legendary singer-songwriter had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Since then, Glen’s decline has been slow and steady, and in a recent interview with “Access Hollywood,” wife Kim shared a devastating update. “He’s in the late stages

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education