Mike Wrathell | AmericaJR

MIB: International: “Look At The Pretty Light!”

June 15, 2019 Mike Wrathell 1

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

May 29, 2019 Mike Wrathell 2

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.

May 2, 2019 Mike Wrathell 3

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

April 27, 2019 Mike Wrathell 2

“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

March 16, 2019 Mike Wrathell 1

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?

February 18, 2019 Mike Wrathell 0

“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!

November 11, 2018 Mike Wrathell 0

“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!

July 31, 2018 Mike Wrathell 0

“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

May 21, 2018 Mike Wrathell 3

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

April 22, 2018 Mike Wrathell 2

“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!)

April 8, 2018 Mike Wrathell 2

“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

January 17, 2018 Mike Wrathell 0

“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”

December 31, 2017 Mike Wrathell 0

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!

November 14, 2017 Mike Wrathell 0

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

October 16, 2017 Mike Wrathell 0

“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.

August 21, 2017 Mike Wrathell 0

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 […]