“You may not be able to help the whole world, but you can make a difference in your community.” — Elizabeth P. Carter
“Everyone has a part to play on the stage of life: What will be your part?” Georgia Calhoun, Choccolocco community historian, often asks her young friends this question when the subject turns to their future.
A new radio morning show made its debut last week. “Alabama’s Morning Show with Suzanne and Chris,” featuring Suzanne Wynn and our own local audio-meister Chris Wright, hit the airwaves on Monday.
The fundamental “topic” that “Topics of Conversation,” Miranda Popkey’s debut novel, revolves around, really, is women. Actually, the book is arguably a journal-of-sorts describing the evolution of one woman in particular and her need to “tell” her life’s narrative.
While blues — especially traditional blues — has never been completely eradicated, its popularity has diminished. A passionate lot has continued to support the genre through an era of rock and, more recently, hip hop and rap.
Organizers of the Knox Concert Series said Tuesday that the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra can’t enter the U.S. because members can’t get visas.
Let’s talk about books. What was your favorite (or least favorite) book of 2019? I began and ended 2019 with my favorite detective, Harry Bosch. In “Dark Sacred Night” and “The Night Fire,” Bosch teamed up with graveyard-shift detective, Renee Ballard, to solve cold cases. In both of these b…
I see good things happening in the arts this year. How is that? It’s because I’m using 2020 vision.
A lot of the time, when people see works by Oxford artist Wade Jenkins, they’ll tell him, “Pretty photos!” He’ll respond, “They’re not photos.”
“The Sacrament” opens in 1987 with the brief account of a young student witnessing a harrowing death. From that point, the novel quickly focuses itself on the destructive nature of repression. It is a construct that Olaf Olafsson examines forthrightly in both the individual and in one of the…
I enter each year with open ears and excitement about new music. I’ve worried that I won’t be blown away by new music, but artists haven’t let me down yet. Their work is my reward. Thanks to all the musicians that changed my life the past 12 months.
The hardest job a reviewer probably has is deciding how to structure one of those “Best of the Year” lists. So, how about a few parameters for 2019?
Caldonia, the new funk-soul-R&B band dubbed a “Calhoun County supergroup” by the Anniston Star, released its debut EP this weekend and is set to play a New Year’s Eve show in Anniston.
Comic or satiric, that’s what the big question is going to be about “The Captain and the Glory.” However, deciding that question is certainly not going to affect any reader response to this deeply funny new book from Dave Eggers, author of “The Parade,” published earlier this year.
Coming events in entertainment range from fun to festive to reverent. After the New Year, a program on historic highlights of Calhoun County shifts the aura to spooky. You never know what you can find in area arts, but there’s likely something for every preference.
The debate for authenticity in country music rages eternal. Is it “real country” or “pop country”? Is an artist using the right amount of pedal steel? Would Nashville approve? Would Merle, Johnny and Hank give their stamp of approval?
At a birthday celebration for Randy Owen on Saturday, JSU trustees announced they intend to build a performing arts center and name it in honor of JSU alumnus Randy Owen of the country music group Alabama.
When wintry weather chills the air outside, remember it’s warm inside at events where there’s holiday fare. A Christmas pageant and a concert are scheduled at area churches today, while the Oxford Performing Arts Center is the venue for a dinner theater production of “A Tuna Christmas.”
The dust jacket of “The Movie Musical!” is the perfect complement to film historian Jeanine Basinger’s book-length tribute to a film genre that she believes to be one of the greatest contributions America made to world cinema.
It’s a challenge to find new ways each year to tell the timeless story of Christ’s birth. But through the skill of singers and instrumentalists performing time-honored and new compositions, it’s possible to experience anew the wonder of Christmas.
“The Cheffe,” the new novel from Marie NDiaye, has at its center a female culinary artist determined to make her way in a traditionally male profession.
The sights and sounds of Christmas are already with us. Visual merriment is available now at the Magic of Lights show in Oxford, while a more meditative lights event is the Anniston Civitan Club’s Luminary on Dec. 7 at Forestlawn Gardens.
This year, a record number of 45 local children will be on stage when the Knox Concert Series presents the Alabama Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” holiday ballet. The young dancers, who range in age from 7 to 15, will appear in Act 1 as partygoers as well as soldiers and mouse warrio…
“Olive, Again” is Elizabeth Strout’s continuation of the life of her most cantankerous and best-known creation.
“Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA” is the astonishing first-hand account of one woman’s literal and figurative initiation into adulthood during her nearly two decades as a member of the CIA. It is also the equally absorbing account of the emotional price she paid by accepting that a…
