With another year about to end, and having recently engaged in a friendly debate with a “big-city” dweller (he currently lives in Berlin, having previously resided in New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area), a summary of the performing arts scene in and around Sacramento should definitively establish that we live in the […]

David Sedaris’s “SantaLand Diaries” is an adult Christmas comedy, and in the current production of the one-man play at Capital Stage, it is every bit of that.  Shannon Mahoney’s direction embraces the staging from two years ago (when Peter Mohrmann directed).  Benjamin T. Ismail replaces Aaron Wilton in the Sedaris role.  He is assisted by […]

              Johann Sebastian Bach was a remarkably prolific composer of some of the greatest classical music (from the Baroque era).  Many of his compositions have endured and continue to enjoy great popularity three hundred years after they were written.  In one year alone, 1720, Bach composed the six chamber orchestra works known as the Brandenburg […]

              All right.  It’s been over a month now since that shocking election, and if time doesn’t heal all wounds, at least it should reduce some of the pain.               So, let’s talk about the impending start of the Donald Trump presidency because there’s no getting around it.  Whether you voted for him never thinking […]