The response of former Boston After Dark editor, Arnie Reisman, to former Cambridge Phoenix editor, Harper Barnes, was too long to post as a comment. Accordingly, we have opted to run it under Reisman's byline. He was my first editor at the Brandeis Univertsity Justice and later hired me for Boston After Dark. There is much yet to be said about alternative media in the 1970s but with this exchange matters get curiouser and curiouser.

In Antony Sher's take on the role, Lear divests himself of authority as well as land. Faced now with relationships which reveal the true characters of not only his daughters, but his friends, his allies and a wise, poetic fool he meets along the way, Lear is stripped to his essence.

The recently published book Astral Weeks, by Ryan Walsh, has brought national attention to the counter culture of Boston/ Cambridge in 1968. This extensive interview with Harper Barnes, former editor of the Cambridge Phoenix and columnist for The Real Paper, covers developments in the early 1970s. It was a fertile era that launched careers of numerous arts critics and political commentators. After a stint in Boston, eventually, he returned to the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch and the city where he continues to reside.

Edgar & Emily is an intriguing new play by William McDonough. The finely-tuned world-premiere production is running at Palm Beach Dramaworks in Florida. Actors and technical elements are strong in the debut staging

It might be his good looks. It might be his magnetic stage presence. It might be his voice. Or it might be his rash of cancellations at the Metropolitan Opera in the last few seasons. Either way, tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who hasn't sung Wagner on a New York stage since 2013, has a fan following. They were out in force at Carnegie Hall on Thursday night to hear him sing

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is flourishing under the leadership of music director Andris Nelsons. Ensemble and music director arrived at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night for the first of three concerts this week, fulfilling their yearly obligation to visit that historic stage and offering New Yorkers a sample of the interesting new directions pursued by this brave and ambitious conductor.

It's the 35th year that New Orleans hosts one of the largest, free, music festivals in the world. Add the culture of the Big Easy and the unique food choices to the festival and you have a four day stint of true debauchery.

“You could have driven into someone else’s driveway.” These words summarize not only the randomness of events that leads to a torrid but compassionate love affair in Bridges of Madison County, but to life itself. Under Robert Kelley’s direction, it is extremely well crafted schmaltz with excellent production values that should appeal to a broad audience.

Simon Stephens has said that Birdland is influenced by Radiohead’s OK Computer tour in 1997 and the rockumentary, Meeting People Is Easy. Stephens said in an interview, “Thom Yorke’s very present in Birdland.” Like Yorke’s, Paul’s band went from venues of 2,000 to 20,000 and 75,000 over a short time span. “You watch him lose all sense of self.”

Each year on April 17th, wine lovers celebrate 'Malbec World Day." The tradition started in Argentina and now throughout the world ia celebrating this wonderful varietal. Malbec originated in France, was wiped out due to phylloxera, and rebounded in Argentina as early as the 1850's. Today it is a National treasure.

One month after Be Here Now's world premiere in Cincinnati, Deborah Zoe Laufer's Play flies south to the Sunshine State. FAU Theatre Lab's production is a noticeable improvement over the play's debut. Piece's second mounting features multi-faceted performances and sensitive direction of an engrossing, thought-provoking play.

Timon of Athens ranks as one of Shakespeare’s least performed plays. While the dialogue is definitely Shakespearean, Timon lacks the popular quotes and hooks of the greater plays – no “pound of flesh” or “out damned spot” or “lean and hungry look” or “slings and arrows.”

One of the founders of the American Composer’s Orchestra played jazz piano in nightclubs after he left his day job on Wall Street. The ACO performed five works, three of which came from composers who work in the jazz idiom. This was a thoroughly enjoyable program of new work.

The New York Philharmonic is back on its home stage of David Geffen Hall, after an extensive tour that saw the orchestra visit multiple Asian countries in March. This week's program, seen Thursday night features a rare podium appearance from composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the premiere of a new work Metacosmos by the young composer and Kravis Prize recipient Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

The popular and award-winning series Mozart in the Jungle has played its last concert. Today, Amazon.com announced that the series, a dramatic sitcom set in New York City that chronicled the backbiting, infighting and backstabbing of the classical music business, will not be renewed for a fifth season.

Clybourne Park's issues take on an urgency with racial strife, other problems plaguing our world. Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize winning sequel to A Raisin in the Sun is receiving a mostly commendable production in South Florida. Fireworks light up New City Players' stage to open New City Players 2018 season

Under the smart and crisp direction of Artistic Director/Actor Michael Shaw, “Motherhood Out Loud” brings insights and revelations to the males in the audience and smiles and a multitude of laugh-out-loud- moments from the ladies in the audiences; be they mothers or not.

A.R. Gurney's “The Cocktail Hour”, is a semi-autobiographical comedy that offers a peek into the world of one upper-crust waspish family as they engage in their nightly ritual – the cocktail get together before dinner.

It’s not unusual to spot a herd of colorful deer right in the center of Idyllwild, the famously art-hearted small town (pop. 3,874 year-round) in the mountains (elevation 5,413) above Palm Springs. Not your ordinary deer, mind you, but 22 fabulously painted aluminum bucks, does and fawns, each decorated to reflect a part of Idyllwild’s history.

It's Berlioz. It's puppets. It's a supershow. The twentieth anniversary production of Basil Twist's remarkable Symphonie Fantastique is at the ever enterprising and surprising HERE in New York. Christopher O'Riley performs Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's love letter/nightmare. Twist performs his magic in an aquarium filled with 1,000 gallons of water.

We met Chicago theatre critic Nancy Bishop during a conference of American Theatre Critics. In the past few years she has covered theatre for us. This is an interview posted to the website she edits Third Coast Review.

Pittsfield used to have a small, charming, eclectic regional museum. As of today that's no longer true.

The Wild Yeast wine movement is here to stay. Organic and biodynamic grapes, unfltered and on occasion, sulfite free.

A Berkshire Fine Arts contributor, the renowned arts critic, David Bonetti, was found dead in his Brookline, Mass. apartment while listening to classical music. His writing career started with Art New England and the Boston Phoenix. He joined the San Francisco Chronicle and then St. Louis Post Dispatch. After that he retired writing the occasional feature on the fine arts. In his final years he wrote on opera for this site. He was widely regarded as one of the best critics of his generation.

Though somewhat rare in Boston, every attempt at public art is not necessarily a triumph. Unfortunately, the recent commission by Alexandre da Cunha in the Fenway Neighborhood is not great, inspiring or even provocative. Just something to fill a space or a true lost opportunity, the civic and artistic bar needs to be set higher.