Pop Goes The Pandemic
“Why don’t you just tell me what you want me to say, and I’ll repeat it for you.” ~~~Andy Warhol (to an interviewer) “Anyone wanting […]
Articles by Mike Wrathell
The French Reclaim Detroit!
“My culture is that of classical ballet, and I confidently remain attached to it. Because while I readily admit that its artistic and social codes […]
VP Pence Brings Greetings From Trump To Detroit
DETROIT — As the media pool and members of the Detroit Economic Club waited for Vice President Mike Pence (and, unbeknownst to us…..a surprise guest), […]
MIB: International: “Look At The Pretty Light!”
Normally, when you go to the movies on your birthday, it’s a fun and joyous thing. This time, it was tempered somewhat with the knowledge […]
‘Soylent Green’ Thru The Orange Light of 2019
I experienced culture shock and an identity crisis when I moved out of the ancestral abode to Ann Arbor for my freshman year at Michigan […]
The Debate Over Pluto Heats Up In D.C.
Monday night in Washington, D.C., two learned men squared off in the greatest debate to date in our truly apocalyptic millennium. When polar bears are […]
Martha Graham’s Answer to Hitler Performed in Ann Arbor
“No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that the others are behind the time.” ~~~Martha Graham It took […]
Musical review: ‘Hamilton’ Romps Into Detroit
After Hamilton’s stellar debut on the only diagonal street on Manhattan Island, the Powers That Be decided it might be time to test the once-murky waters […]
Ballet & Detroit, Just Like Pancakes and Maple Syrup, Right?
“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls […]
Opera Review: “The Barber of Seville” Shears Detroit!
“The Barber of Seville’s” opening night performance on Saturday night at the Detroit Opera House was sheerly brilliant! Grammy Award-winning tenor Lucas Meachem’s Figaro rivaled […]
Throwing Down At The Flint Jazz Festival: Saving David Bowie’s Legacy with Donny McCaslin!
“The cigars are ballast, sweetheart. Sheer ballast. If he didn’t have a cigar to hold on to, his feet would leave the ground. We’d never […]
BOOK REVIEW: Everything You Wanted To Know About Pluto, But Were Afraid To Ask
Alan Stern got interested in space exploration as a boy. He followed his dream to be an astronaut and went and got a Ph. D. […]
Paul Taylor Dance Co.: Dancing In The Streets of Detroit
“Modern is like ballet, only uglier.” ~~Paul Taylor on Modern Dance My college roommate my sophomore year was a dance major. Madonna was, too, at […]
Opera Review: Tosca Delivers Verve and “Verismo” to Detroit (Thanks, Cincinnati!)
“He had sung Tosca and it had been wonderful.” ~~~Ernest Hemingway from A Farewell to Arms In the course of my somewhat wizened 56 years, I’ve […]
My Voyage to the 2018 NAIAS in Detroit
“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what […]
Cyborg Triumphant in “The Mother of All Catfights”
LAS VEGAS — Cris Cyborg won a 5-round decision against Holly Holm in UFC 219 before an appreciative, blood-thirsty crowd at T-Mobile Arena, seeing a […]
Opera Review: Mozart’s “Figaro” Flies Thru Detroit!
DETROIT —“The Marriage of Figaro” is said by many to be the best opera of all time, not only in all of Westerndom, but of Global […]
Opera Review: ‘Rigoletto’ Invigorates Detroit, Rigorously
“Blackbird singing in the dead of night….” The Beatles Verlander may be gone; but Verdi is back in town. One of his best operas, with […]
WATCH: Total Solar Eclipse from Sweetwater, Tenn.
AmericaJR’s Mike Wrathell was LIVE in Sweetwater, Tenn. on Monday afternoon to watch the Great American Eclipse. The city is within what’s called the “path […]
Travel Diary: A Passage To Chicago
“Feed your head….” ~~~~Jefferson Airplane I just got back from Chicago. I hadn’t been there since I went and saw an exhibition of Byzantine […]