The temperature was 90+ degrees in Chicago Wednesday. Our time at a rap concert outside at Grant Park that night was hot — in more ways than one. I wrote a post earlier this week about my quest to understand what young people are listening to these days. If the musicians we heard in the […]

Last week, in my ongoing quest to understand what the young people are doing these days, I took advantage of an offer to get two tickets in the handicapped section for a Taste of Chicago concert. The bands are The Roots (who I know of thanks to QuestLove) and someone called Donnie Trumpet, who I’d never heard of. I […]

Here we are on July Fourth, and as a show of patriotism, a big American beer brand decided to rename its beer America for the summer. This Canadian brand did something very different to celebrate that country’s own independence celebration, Canada Day, July 1. Your assignment: Compare and contrast. For our part, Beth and I […]

Happy Fourth of July weekend, everybody. Last week we published a post Mike wrote about his visit to Pittsburgh and to the area in Western Pennsylvania where his parents grew up, and his visit with his cousin Linda. Well, that sparked Linda to write about one of the unique facets of the small town near […]

In my playwriting post last week I promised a second post with more details on my failed attempt to memorize and perform a monologue without being able to see the script – or the audience. I wrote my two-minute dog monolog on my talking computer, then listened to it line by line and repeated the […]