Ah, the glamour of city life:  The elegant manifestations of culture, the glittering cocktail parties, the sophistication of one’s fellow urban denizens.   These are the reasons one lives in a major city, yes?  They were a big part of the draw for me, particularly when I was growing up on my family’s farm, dreaming of […]

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Thomas
Filed under: San Francisco | 1 Comment »

San Francisco abounds with unique and unusual things to do, which typically does not include something as traditional as on opera.  But operas can be innovatively suprising, as I discovered recently.  Tuesday night was the final installment of  my San Francisco Opera mini-subscription, and this time it was Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.  I’ve always found […]

Posted on December 6th, 2007 by Thomas
Filed under: Opera, San Francisco, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

As long as I’m playing entertainment critic, I might as well throw in my review of the latest Coen brothers movie, “No Country for Old Men,” which I saw last night at the Bridge Theater here in SF.  I give the film two very enthusiastic thumbs up.  I have two thumbs, so I’m allowed to do […]

Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Thomas
Filed under: San Francisco, movies | 2 Comments »

Tonight it was yet another opera, this time Nicola Raab’s production of Verdi’s “Macbeth.” I went with some reservation, because it had gotten some overwhelmingly bad reviews.  What’s more, during the intermission tonight, I heard a great deal of criticism on elements ranging from the sets to the costumes to the lighting.
 All I can say is […]

Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Thomas
Filed under: Opera, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Alright, enough about Hawaii.  All this writing about beaches and islands is making me pine away for a vacation, and I can’t take one at the moment, which makes for a crappy mood.  Instead, I’ll write about the here and now in San Francisco, where I’ve just moved.  Besides, I promised some tidbits of the […]

Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Thomas
Filed under: Opera, San Francisco | 2 Comments »