Some days I think more about food than others. Today was one of those days. Oysters were on my mind. A bell went off in my head and said, "Well if you want oysters, there is no better place in Manhattan than the Grand Central Oyster Bar".

Opera is so engaging when it is done with perfect casting, conducting, and singing. The opera in Munich is sold out every night. No audience problems when the productions are first-rate. It is hard to believe that Strauss resisted opera until his wife and a Viennese theatre director conspired to set some of his music as songs. Strauss himself was bowled over. Fledermaus is his third operetta. Fledermaus tempts the listener with sweet melody, bouncy rhythms, and thrilling scoring. The music hints at the mistaken identity, gala ball, and humorous plot twists that are to come.

The review of the musical "Lazarus" by David Bowie and Edna Walsh, directed by Ivo van Hove was in the works long before the announcement of Bowie's passing. The author, critic Edward Rubin, has opted to treat this as a note added to the review rather than lead as an obituary. The point is to cover as fresh and current the work of a great genius and unique artist of his generation. Tickets to the off Broadway production sold out almost immediately.

Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' had not been newly published in Germany post WWII. As of December 31, 2015 Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' has been in the public domain and on January 7th, the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich published a two volume scholarly edition with approximately 3700 notes on 2000 pages. The first 5000 volumes have been sold out with 1500 pre-orders already booked. Also from January 7th to January 10th Rimini Protokoll presented its first performance of 'Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Band 1 & 2' at the theatre complex of Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin to sold out audiences.

Contemporary architecture is not an easy fit in Boston. Hoping to stimulate higher quality and innovative design in the region, Design Biennial Boston was introduced during the dark economic days of 2008. Its mission is to showcase the distinctive work of emerging Boston architects, designers, and landscape architects. This past year, four younger firms were chosen to create an architectural statement in the form of a sculptural form. Were these pieces metaphorical or symbolic or something else?

The occasion of an opening for Large Watercolors by Robert Morgan inspired a winter break weekend. On Friday night we visited the spacious and lively AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H. We spent Saturday at Dartmouth College in nearby Hanover viewing the Orozco murals and works in the Hood Museum of Art. There was a lot of remarkable work to enjoy and think about.

Seeming to be set in an empty MIT campus corner space, this memorial does not elicit a strongly felt aesthetic or visceral reaction. Perhaps, it was a prose statement expressed too soon rather than physical poetry done with more thought?

What began in 1899 with the discovery of Diplodocus carnegii eventually led to the museum’s current Dinosaurs in Their Time, the first permanent exhibition in the world to feature scientifically accurate, immersive environments spanning the Age of Dinosaurs—arranged chronologically and filled with actively posed original fossil specimens.

An Avant-garde multi-media production by Italy's Modus Company was featured at New York's La MaMa. It comprises a solo performance by Silvia Calderoni that combines dance, music and multimedia. It continues through January 17.

A temporary structure set up for a few days by an English/French consortium that uses maze space and color to transform awareness and spatial sensation. This environment is just a lot of fun to experience--an aesthetically infused inflatable bouncy castle to the nth degree for the whole family. This was one of two exciting environmental art events produced at the Lawn on D (a park adjacent o the Boston & Convention Bureau in South Boston) in 2015.

By weaving and intertwining branches and twigs, environmental artist Patrick Dougherty crafts primitive yet metaphorical structures around the world. These structures are at once mythic and primitive touching chords on our human instrument. A wonderful installation was set adjacent to the Peabody Essex Museum for several months in 2015. Rather than just closing, the environmental statement had begun to deteriorate back into its earlier natural form.

After years of a yard full of junk, the current curatorial staff at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum has cleaned up its act and created a wonderful sculpture environment. Architectural Allusions is a stunning exhibit underscoring architectural gesture as sculpture and sculptural form as architectural statement. Now, everybody wins.

An exhibition opening next month at the Library of Congress will offer perspectives on the art of vocal jazz, featuring singers and song stylists from the 1920s to the present. "Jazz Singers" will open on Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Performing Arts Reading Room Foyer on the first level of the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Two great wines from Spain debut in America. Wine guru and personality, April Cullom selects two wines from Spain to begin her portfolio of wines. Casa Abril Coupage is from La Mancha and Alma de Abrilhails from the Ribera del Duero region.

How does the special exhibition at LACMA, The Rain Room, work? Tim Rushby-Smith of the Royal Academy of Engineering said, ”The Rain Room installation includes injection moulded tiles, solenoid valves, pressure regulators, custom software, 3D tracking cameras, steel beams and 2,500 litres of water creating a downpour of a thousand litres of rain each minute.

A thought-provoking life work by Dutch artist Theo Jansen that explores the notion of movement, robotics, nature and artificial intelligence. It is gracefully done with a smile and a deft touch. Here engineering becomes art, and art becomes fantasy and even myth.

In this powerful current production of the play at the State Theatre in Pforzheim, Germany, the artists have taken the liberty of adding lines to Brecht’s. It makes the play more of the moment. It also illustrates how Brecht, often called an epic playwright, is also a playwright for all time. The Volkswagen emissions scandal is hurled at us. Mrs. Merkel’s constant assurance that “We can manage,” is suggested at moments when it is clear not no one on stage or in the audience can. When Mother’s Courage’s daughter is raped, she says, “All you have to do to get raped is go to Cologne.” Less than a week ago, a very large group of young male immigrants attacked and raped women in Cologne, Germany.

Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. But their heritage strongly identifies unique architecture, culture and cuisine in Andalusia. During the winter season it is the warmest region in Europe for leisure, vacations and tourism.

One of the largest film festivals in North America is the annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), now in its 27th year. This year my focus is “Award Buzz” film entries. These films have an opportunity to be considered as candidates for Oscar nominations in the category of “Best Foreign Film for 2015.

In some of the most exciting and insightful productions and performances of the year there was a notable cross pollination and invention as vernacular street cultures and indigenous art forms conflated into high art. Classic works were not just revived but reinvented from the insight out. The best works of 2016 raised the bar through risk taking and challenging audiences. These rare experiences tend to make the majority of what we experience ordinary and enervating. In an era signified by ubiquitous standing ovations what is truly worthy of special recognition?

“Troublemakers” documents Virginia Dwan’s unflinching belief in projects unimaginable to most – in sheer vastness of scale and sometimes limitlessness of time to realize. Her generous patronage made some of the most profound Land Art projects realities, like Heizer’s “Double Negative,” Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” and more recently in 1996, Ross’s solar spectrum environment for the Dwan Light Sanctuary in Montezuma, New Mexico, to name but a few. Her philanthropy continues to this day with her 2013 bequest of her collection and archive to the National Gallery of Art, of which “From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971” is being curated by James Meyer to open in the newly renovated East Building in 2016.

“Phil and Grace Kelly had a special relationship that evolved from mentor to collaborator to friend,” said Jill Goodwin, Woods’ wife and business manager of 40 years. “From the moment they stepped on stage in Pittsfield, and especially after he passed the torch by putting his cap on her head, their relationship grew. Phil was proud to be a part of ‘Man With The Hat,’ and they appeared together at major festivals around the world. Phil and Grace were in touch frequently, up to the day he died. Joining Phil’s group again will be a very special moment for all of us.”

For decades, no centuries, public art in Boston was a bronze statue of mostly historical men sometimes on horses. Unlike most contemporary cities, there were few and mostly small examples of public art sprinkled throughout the city and the region. The long time Mayor Menino regime was frightened of public art. Conservative institutions and universities seemed to ignore what was happening outside the region as well. Public art was something other cities invested in, but not Boston. However, the year 2015 began to demonstrate that there was a new flowering of public art. And about time, too!

The new Pop Art Design exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art pairs 150 art works and design objects in an exhibit that sparkles with wit and irreverence. And it reminds you of how Andy Warhol's "Campbell soup can art" was first received with ridicule...by non-connoisseurs. That was just about the time that the elite collectors woke up and began buying Warhols.

Vigne Surrau is a relatively new producer that focuses on Sardinia's age old grapes to craft wine that is memorable of centuries before. Using state of the art technology, this small vineyard is gaining worldwide popularity.