The Arts

Anthem outburst is what happens when social media opens up ‘the conversation’ to morons

If Remigio Pereira’s performance the other night at Major League Baseball’s all-star game in San Diego is not a sign of the coming apocalypse, it’s at least one of the madness currently sweeping the planet. Pereira is – was? – one of The Tenors quartet, formerly The Canadian Tenors, and he had a pretty dishy

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International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions

Artist Charlotte Salomon’s life told in free verse

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson   MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Life is full of strange coincidences. I first encountered the story of Charlotte Salomon about twenty years ago, when an exhibition of her work, a series of paintings with captions describing her life and entitled Life? Or Theatre? was held at the Royal Academy in London. It made

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History

Detective, romance story based on Salem Witch Trials

How to Hang A Witch by Adriana Mather; Alfred A. Knopf; © 2016; ISBN 978055-3539479; 358 pages including author’s notes; $17.99 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Adriana Mather is the author and Samantha Mather is the fictional protagonist of this mystery-romance-supernatural novel for young adults that draws upon the Salem Witch Trials for

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Santana thumbs nose at BDS to appear in Tel Aviv

The legendary Grammy-award winning guitarist Carlos Santana is scheduled to appear in Park Hayarkon is Tel Aviv on July 30, Yediot Aharonot reported. When asked what his stance is regarding the anti-Israel BDS movement, that encourages the boycott of Israeli businesses and often pressures artists not to perform in Israel, Santana stated that “I prefer

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Days of Awe’ tells of recovery from a close friend’s death

Days of Awe by Lauren Fox; Penguin Random House Vantage Books: © 2015; ISBN 978030-7388278; 256 pages; $16 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Isabelle’s life is ruined after her best friend and fellow school teacher, Josie, died when her car plunged off an icy road.  She was so devastated by the loss that her marriage

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

George Takei says the decision to make Sulu gay is ‘really unfortunate’

George Takei did not want “Star Trek Beyond’s” Sulu to be gay? Oh my. While news broke that “Star Trek Beyond” will feature an openly gay Hikaru Sulu in a nod to original Sulu actor George Takei, it turns out Takei was never actually on board with this development. To be clear, the long-time LGBT

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Maestro: Music, mysticism of Leonard Bernstein

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — One man and a piano. For most, this would be a scene in a hotel lounge with patrons coming and going. But not for virtuoso Hershey Felder who completes this year’s Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival playing at the Lyceum Theatre. Hershey Felder is well known

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Movie review: ‘The Innocents’ strikingly tells of what befell a convent victimized during WWII

“The Innocents” soars above its seeming contradictions. A gripping psychological drama based on events more than half a century old, it has inescapable contemporary echoes. Laced with intensely emotional situations, it refuses to force the issue by pushing too hard. And it proves, yet again, that though moral and spiritual questions may not sound spellbinding

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Online auction of Judaica set for July 14

JERUSALEM (Press Release)– The Jewish Jerusalem Fine Art Store, http://www.tjjfineartstore.com, will be holding an art auction, featuring the works of eight outstanding Jewish artists, at the Leonardo Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem on July 14, 2016. Proceeds of the auction will benefit Deaf youth in Israel through the International Young Israel Movement (IYIM) Judaic Heritage program

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Kisses and tomatoes at the Fringe Festival

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — Another Fringe Festival has come and gone, 11 days of ‘eyeball busting’ shows at fourteen venues around San Diego. If you’re not familiar, “fringe” refers to theater that’s a little too “out there” for a regular theater season.  Many are small shows that travel light. Some are autobiographical.

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

IDF commander jailed for inviting rapper to army party

An IDF Company Commander was sentenced to a week in a military prison for inviting controversial Israeli rapper Yoav Eliasi to perform for his soldiers, it has been revealed. Eliasi – more widely known by his stage name “The Shadow” (Ha-Tzel) – has in recent years become something of a social media pundit, with his

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Bad Jews’ depicts split between religious and secular

By Cynthia Citron HOLLYWOOD — The play has such a despicable name that you would think it would attract every neo-Nazi, Aryan Nation, Skinheaded anti-Semite in southern California.  The play is called Bad Jews.  But, surprisingly, playwright Joshua Harmon’s four-person diatribe is actually a perceptive reflection of the way in which many modern Jews relate

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Cynthia Citron, Jewish Religion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast