A revealing production of Gypsy at Toby’s
The musical Gypsy online pharmacy order orlistat online with best prices today in the USA online pharmacy buy phenergan no insurance with best prices today in the USA — loosely based on the early life of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee — is really more the story of her single-minded narcissistic mother Rose. And if Rose brings to mind Ethel Merman, there’s a good reason: Merman... READ MORE
Love music? Time to get jazzed
“You must join a jazz band!” shouted my sight-singing teacher after I played a few bars on the piano. “What? I’m 76 years old. Who would want me?” I replied. Well, the Jazz Workshop did. Paul Pieper, who runs the 18 two-hour classes and jam sessions every week in Tysons Corner, had me sit in on a session so we could size each other up. Since I took jazz piano lessons in... READ MORE
A workshop for jazz singers
In 2008, when the Jazz Workshop was in its early stages, director Paul Pieper realized some students didn’t play any instrument at all; they were singers. So Pieper enlisted a colleague, jazz pianist Chris Grasso, to teach a session for vocalists only. Now, almost a dozen years later, the jazz singer subgroup is still going strong. Every Thursday, Grasso meets with three groups for a... READ MORE
Sample Baltimore’s markets and food halls
Several years ago, food trucks were all the rage. Now food halls are popping up all over the country, giving restaurateurs the opportunity to lower their overhead by sharing space, while also giving diners the opportunity to partake of a variety of food offerings in one location. Baltimore has long had its own version of food halls, with its traditional city markets. These include some... READ MORE
Enjoy free Mardi Gras concert and more
Music lovers should be grooving at St. Louis Church in Clarksville on March 1, when the Howard County house of worship continues its 13th season of concerts with “Les Bons Temps” — a celebration of Mardi Gras, a swinging session by a jazz combo, and a New Orleans-style reception. The free concert is part of a series hosted by the Clarksville Catholic Church each year in the fall... READ MORE
A father’s harrowing memoir
Columbia resident Morey Kogul’s recently published book is about an immigrant who illegally makes a border crossing to escape almost-certain death, and who then, after incredible hardships and adventures, is able to settle in a free country and raise a loving family. But while the story seems pulled from today’s headlines, the protagonist of this hair-raising non-fiction story is... READ MORE
A little emergency room etiquette lesson
My friend Tom is an emergency room physician. As he so often says, he has seen everything and has fixed everything. Tom never worries about the quirks of his patients. That’s not his job. He’s there to mend, stitch, rescue and console. He leaves social trend analysis to politicians (or, Heaven help us, to columnists). But when I broke bread with Tom the other day, he was as... READ MORE
A healing rite of passage through pain
In 2013, filmmaker Werner Herzog released a short film, From One Second to the Next, which dealt with tragedies born of texting while driving. One of the stories told in the film is that of Chandler Gerber. In 2012, while sending a text to his wife, he plowed his car into a horse-drawn Amish buggy, killing three children. As Amish culture emphasizes the importance of forgiveness, the... READ MORE
Acts of Faith theater festival now on stage
Over the next couple of months, Richmond theaters will offer a variety of performances as part of the 15th Annual Acts of Faith Festival. It is the largest festival of its kind in the country. Jeff Gallagher and Daniel Moor, members of the Second Presbyterian Church, and Bruce Miller, founding producer of the Virginia Repertory Theater, first developed the festival to bring people in... READ MORE
She defies her bipolar diagnosis
Charita Cole Brown remembers being “weepy and clingy” as a child, but she didn’t experience her first significant bout of depression until high school. She rebounded from that and went on to college at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she majored in English. But during her first semester, she suffered another round of depression and withdrew from school for a ... READ MORE
