Good luck spreading holiday happiness on the same day that your concert, like every other at this location, has been Covid-canceled till the new year. But, despite the fact that this is a sad background to Le Gateau Chocolat and Jonny Woo’s cheap-and-cheerful songs-from-the-shows cabaret, the two refuse to give in. The so-called “ebony and […]

On the evening of August 9, 1956, a few hundred people crammed into a student union lounge at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, some 130 miles northwest of Chicago, for a musical recital. The launch of the Illiac Suite: String Quartet No 4, composed by a member of the chemistry department, Lejaren Hiller Jr, using […]

Billie Eilish’s existence in 2021 may be summarized by the fact that she awoke one morning last month, turned over to check her phone, and discovered she’d received seven Grammy nominations. She’d slept through the official announcement. “I stayed up late last night watching Fleabag. Again!” We’re talking over Zoom from her Los Angeles home. […]