Posts Categorized: Music/Books/Movies

By Beth Klemick As a recent birthday gift I was treated to a wonderful weekend in New York City; the highlight was orchestra tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway. What a show! From the "animals" and characters' entrance, throughout the entire performance the audience was transported to Africa. The costumes, sounds, music and… Read more »

By Beth Klemick In the spring of 1997 I had the opportunity to visit China, at that time Hong Kong was still independent from mainland China and the control of Beijing. In fact I can recall standing in Tiananmen Square looking at a gigantic sign along the one side of the square that was counting… Read more »

By Elizabeth Gregory The other day I was browsing at the bookstore. I wandered into the CD section in search of expanding my world music collection. I lucked out and found a no-name sort of "best of Russian music" CD on clearance for $5. I was pleasantly surprised at the sound quality on such a… Read more »

By Anne-Marie Dingemans City of God (Cidade de Deus) is the ironical name of one of the most dangerous favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The movie director, Fernando Meirelles, based this film on a true story, filmed in Cidade de Deus itself, and he used hundreds of local children (real-life slum children) as… Read more »

By Sue Lavene One of the reasons we love Philadelphia (we live in South Jersey, just "over the bridge") is because of the ever-expanding cultural diversity. Last weekend, my husband and I joined a Mural Arts tour headed for an area of North Philadelphia known to have a large Hispanic population. Since many of the… Read more »

By Elizabeth Gregory Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) is my favorite Spanish poet. Although he was born in Sevilla, he spent much of his life in Madrid. Many of his shorter Rimas are professions of love, and are so romantic. I swear, the first time I read some of these for homework in Spanish Literature class… Read more »

By Sue Lavene Innocent Voices (Voces Inocentes), filmed in Mexico and based on the childhood of screenwriter Oscar Torres, tells the true story of the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s. What makes this film stand out from all other war dramas is that its perspective is told through the innocent eyes of… Read more »

The Devil's Backbone (El Espinazo del Diablo) is one of those rare movies that I saw in the theater without the faintest idea as to how terrified I would be. I am not a fan of suspense or horror movies, and this movie is a mix of both; in spite of the fact that this… Read more »

By Sue Lavene Maria Full of Grace (Maria, llena eres de gracia) This is a distressing though honest view of one young woman's life-changing and life-threatening journey through the dark and scary world of drug trafficking, taking her from her rural town in Colombia to the streets of Queens, NY. Starting the film as an… Read more »

By Jennifer Horigan It's rare to find a perfect pairing of concert performers. I was lucky to see one such performance, the pairing of Lila Downs from Mexico and Mariza from Portugal. Lila Downs performed first. She has become recognized in this country with a small part in the film Frida. Originally from the southern… Read more »