Music & More

  Photo Courtesy of the Artist Bonnie Raitt played  The Mann Center for the Performing Arts  on Wednesday night, June 15th armed with her 18th album, Just Like That , her slide guitar, and her crackerjack touring band. One of Raitt's strengths, in addition to her music, is the way that she speaks to the audience. Opening the show, she said that she was very glad to be back on the road following a two year Covid layoff. Raitt thanked the crowd for coming to the show and the thunderous applause that she got throughout sounded more like a sold out large arena or stadium (if you closed your eyes) rather than The Mann, which wasn't quite full.  I was glad too, being that this was my first time back seeing live music since December 2019. Despite several excellent live streams, there is nothing like seeing a live show in the flesh. During the song "Something to Talk About," I kept thinking that this was something to celebrate.  The sound at The Mann that night was outs...

  Photos and Video Courtesy of Touchstone Pictures Gems From the Movie Shelf: One measure of a good movie is how it holds up over time. The first time I saw  Adventures in Babysitting was in 1988 when I rented the VHS tape to play with my kids in a Jersey beach motel. At the time, we knew nothing about the movie except for the premise of its title. We not only thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm here to say that it is one movie that gets better with repeat viewing, and still looks and sounds great on DVD, now 35 years later. Like many ostensibly similar night in the city mishap movies ( Into the Night ) the premise is simple. Elisabeth Shue plays high school senior Chris Parker who, as the movie opens, is preparing for a big date. When her boyfriend shows up, he cancels the date with the excuse that he has to take care of his sick little sister. Suddenly without plans for the evening,  Chris reluctantly accepts a babysitting job.  At the job, the parents had not been...