The Quiet Resurrection of Austin’s First True Chinese Banquet House When the old New Fortune banquet hall in Chinatown on North Lamar shuttered during the uneasy stillness of the COVID years, a kind of cultural oxygen drained from North Austin. The once-bustling room, a sprawling cathedral of red carpets and Read more
Entering the Soane’s, you’re immediately engulfed by a visual tempest — a staggering accumulation of art, artifacts, and plaster casts squeezed into three adjoining London townhouses. There’s not a patch of bare wall or a breath of empty space. From floor to ceiling, every crevice groans under the weight of Read more
Once a Eurovision cynic, I walked out of ABBA Voyage stunned, converted, and grateful for the wake-up call. About 49 years ago, in Tokyo, I first heard ABBA. I wasn’t impressed. Eurovision pop felt too sugary for my taste — bubble‑gum melodies piped into elevators or blasted in arenas where Read more
Continuing its 20th Anniversary Season, City Theatre Austin proudly presents Other Desert Cities, a searing family saga by Pulitzer Prize finalist, playwright, and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz. Family pride proves thicker than blood in this award-winning play that lays bare the secrets, loyalties, and lies within a privileged American family. “Honey, news flash. Read more
There was an instant camaraderie — that rare, unspoken recognition between two people who’ve lived on the same frequency of backstage chaos, late-night interviews, and too many deadline coffees. I admired the view from Britannia House, where Rocks Back Pages quietly operates above the hum of West London. “Yeah,” said founder Barney Hoskyns, Read more
I am a lone traveler and have been my entire life. When the opportunity arose to return to London after a hiatus of two decades (way too long), I jumped on it. The main reason for going was to attend the world premiere of The Hunger Games stage adaptation – I’m a Read more
I’ve always been drawn to the hidden language behind the visible — the carved sign above a doorway, the ceremony that marks a passage from one state of being to another, the geometry that claims to hold the key to order in a chaotic world. My lifelong fascination with symbology Read more
In a Soho alleyway close to the massage parlors and other establishments of ill repute and hidden behind an inconspicuous door sits a small rustic Japanese sushi (and more) Michelin-starred restaurant. Jugemu is its name, sounding not unlike the game or film Jumangi, except here characters and forms appear in the Read more
I just returned from nine glorious days in London, a city I have always meant to live in, but didn’t. For whatever reason, life took me elsewhere on the Continent and in Asia. So I revisited in October, the so-called worst month (I am a veteran of dreary, dank, rainy Read more
