Sam Adams' Photography

Our friend Sam Adams had a retrospective of his black & white photography at El Museo Cultural. Sam photographs street scenes & street theater, and has a wonderful knack for capturing the spirit of the place and the moment. He often focuses on older people and teens, a rich subject matter in his hands. He also shot some special situations such as the separation of Siamese twins in Viet Nam. Sam's photos are well composed & gorgeously printed the old fashioned way. The result is perfect contrast and saturation, with great compositions. This is so refreshing in our age of point-and-shoot slice of life photos with no attempt at composition or eye for color & contrast, found on every gallery's wall and winning prizes left and right, gimme a break! Thanks for your great work, Sam!

Patricia Racette sings cabaret

Opera soprano Patricia Racette sang a program of cabaret songs at the Lensic Theater. She was fantastic. I am very wary of opera singers doing jazz or cabaret programs because they usually sound like opera singers trying to sing jazz...negative outcome! Ms. Racette, however, grew up on this music & she nailed it. Her singing was as smoky as 20 year old Scotch. She sang "chest voice" for the entire evening. In fact, she warned the audience, "If you came for the high notes, you're not going to hear them tonight!" Craig Terry was her wonderful collaborative artist on piano. His day job is the Assistant Director of the Chicago Lyric Opera. But, he, too, began his career playing jazz and this was well evident. He played the hell out of the songs! A delightful evening!