Category Archives: General

Here are some other things I’ve written lately for other outlets: A survey of 20 new exhibits to see in 2020 at various Smithsonian Museums. A dance review of the National Ballet of Canada’s recent visit at the Kennedy Center. A Q&A with Sergio Mendes for The Vinyl District. Alex Trebek holds forth at the [...]

What was already a pretty nifty small club gig – with New York rocker Jesse Malin and his band headlining a show also featuring Chuck Prophet at Hollywood’s Hotel Cafe turned into something more notable when the guest stars started coming in during Malin’s encore. First there was Richard Bacchus of his old band D [...]

The biggest episode of “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 11:30 p.m.) in years comes tonight when one of the show’s biggest cast members returns to host for the first time. Eddie Murphy will be under a lot of pressure to revive many of his great old characters, but he’s also moved on. Almost as big a [...]

The NBA Playoffs begins its months-long campaign today with a number of first round games: San Antonio at Golden State (ABC, 3 p.m.), Washington at Toronto (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.), Miami at Philadelphia (ESPN, 8 p.m.) and New Orleans at Portland (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.). The Stanley Cup Playoffs qualify for Saturday Night prime time hockey with [...]

Tina Fey puts a little more juice in her “Great News” (NBC, 9:30 p.m.) by joining the cast as a tough new executive and just like that the series moves from cute to genuinely funny as it takes on the changing tone of cable news to include panels of people that include “Obama deniers.” The [...]

“Greenleaf” (OWN, 10 p.m.), the Oprah Winfrey produced soap about a big church family in Memphis,   in which she sometimes appears as a  bartender, returns for a second season. But when it comes to sophomore seasons, I’m much more interested in the return of the bayou bedlam on “Hap and Leonard” (Sundance, 10 p.m.), the underrated [...]

Never mind that #OscarsSoWhite is slightly less so this year. But before that all gets on display Sunday, here’s the 2017 American Black Film Honors (BET, Centric, 8 p.m.) taped last weekend from Los Angeles. Regina Hall hosts the event, which will present special awards to Denzel Washington, Issa Rae, Queen Latifah, Terrence Howard and [...]

If only to hear President Obama join Chance the Rapper on “Jingle Bells,” it may be worth tuning into the “National Christmas Tree Lighting” (Hallmark, 7 p.m.). The annual event is rarely also on TV but last week’s ceremony, hosted by Eva Longoria also featured James Taylor, the Lumineers, Yolanda Adams. Plus there might be [...]

Days after the death of Fidel Castro comes two previously scheduled documentaries on the future of Cuba. In Platz Lopez Garmendia’s “Cuba, Fatherland or Death” (HBO, 8 p.m.), executive produced by Julian Schnabel, artists and activists discuss what’s coming for the island nation. It’s followed by “Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution” (HBO, 9 p.m.) [...]

He’s not moving his hips quite so much any more. His dark hair has long since gone to silver. But time has done little to take the pipes of Tom Jones, who at a remarkable 76 is doing far more than just reciting the hits that made him a star in the ’60s, but reinterpreting [...]