HBO , or Max , or HBO/Max , or Max in My Pants...whatever the hell it's called, is now streaming and broadcasting an extremely entertaining documentary called "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary " all about the smooth West Coast sound that dominated radio and the charts from the mid-70s through the early 80s. Artists like Steely Dan , Toto , Christopher Cross , Kenny Loggins , the one and only Michael McDonald , and more pioneered this genre of music that combined elements of smoo

The " Mavis Staples Hometown Birthday Celebration" took place Friday, December 6th, at the beautiful Auditorium Theatre , with special guests Jackson Browne and Margo Price . WXRT and Jam Productions presented Mavis' birthday show as the climax to their fabulous 93XRT Fall Jam Series, and man.... it was a doozy! Julie and I went with her sister Kathleen and our longtime friend Maureen. We had great seats on the main floor with a terrific view and some fun neighbors. This

The outstanding new Martin Scorsese -produced documentary "Beatles '64" has been released on Disney+ this week, and it is definitely worth watching. It is a terrific film that captures the madness of the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. and the aftermath of their first three-week visit to the country in February 1964, which included their historic appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Directed by David Tedeschi , this impressive work is loaded with outstanding archival footage,

With the recent film release of the hugely successful Broadway musical "Wicked" (a musical I did NOT like), I thought I'd share a list of my 10 Favorite Movie Musicals. My list features musicals from the 1970s onward because, in reality, most great movie musicals were released between the late 1930s and the 1950s (with a few legendary ones in the 1960s). Incredible films like "Singin' In the Rain," "A Hard Day's Night," "Mary Poppins," "My Fair Lady," "Funny Face,"

For over a year, "Auditorium Philms" has been one of the most exciting features in the Auditorium Theater's programming and concert schedule. At each Philms event, a classic movie is projected on a big screen, and the film's music is performed by a live orchestra from the Chicago Philharmonic . Julie and I have attended several Philm events, including the most recent one last Saturday featuring Francis Ford Coppola 's 1992 version of Bram Stoker's Dracula . I had mixed feel

The new documentary "Music By John Williams," now streaming on Disney+ , explores composer John Williams ' life, historic career, and contributions to music. It is outstanding and a must-see for any fan of movies and music. In honor of this new film about the life of perhaps the greatest film composer in history, I am sharing with you the list of my 20 Favorite Movie Scores of All Time, ranked in order with the # 1 entry being my favorite movie score ever (yeah, I know, it's