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 […]
Articles by Mike Wrathell
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 […]
PREVIEW: Ford Arts, Beats & Eats celebrating 20th anniversary
ROYAL OAK, Mich. — The 20th Annual Arts, Beats & Eats is almost upon us, and is bigger and better than ever. A slew of […]
Review: “Baywatch” Movie is a Risque, Rowdy Romp
I went to an advance screening of the new “Baywatch” movie at the MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16 on Tuesday night and had a […]
U of M: A Friend of Student-Athletes?
“One does nothing who tries to console a despondent person with word. A friend is one who aids with deeds at a critical time when […]
WATCH: 420 Day celebrated in Ann Arbor, Michigan (U of M campus)
AmericaJR’s Mike Wrathell reports from the University of Michigan central campus in Ann Arbor, Mich. 420 day is known as “marijuana culture’s high holiday.” April […]
Opera Review: ‘The Girl of the Golden West’ Hits Detroit
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~~~Ben Franklin I’m trying to get myself edumacated. So, when I saw that a relatively […]
The Hidden Language of Modern Dance
Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. ~~~Martha Graham Last Saturday night in Detroit was a veritable urban petri dish of […]
The North American International Auto Show of Detroit Must Go On!!!!!
“…the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now […]
Election 2016: Trump Rebounds Roaringly in Detroit
DETROIT — The Trumpster delivered a flawless address to the Detroit Economic Club, the media, Secret Service agents with strawberry-shaped lapel pins on their suits, […]
Opera review: Mozart Mows Through Motown
Anyone who’s ever seen the movie about Mozart from the 80’s called Amadeus knows that little Wolfgang was a wild thing as a little boy. […]