Amy Winehouse, used with permission

Used with permission

I happened to have been in the United Kingdom four years ago when the BBC announced that six-time Grammy Award winner Amy Winehouse was found dead. It was a tragic media frenzy, and many Londoners went near her home as they were tragically stunned at the death of such a great jazz singer, who at such a young age sang as well as the greatest jazz musicians of the twentieth century.  For days, her death was in the media as the public was awaiting the autopsy report.  I admit, regrettably, that I had not followed Winehouse’s music at the time; however, after her death, I began to think, like others, about her music and wondered about her life.  I wondered how could such a great singer be dead at an early age from the abuse of drugs and alcohol.  When the autopsy was…

Last October was the one hundred anniversary of Arthur Miller’s (an American playwrite) birth. Accompanying this anniversary are several works, two of which highlight the witchcraft era. One of his most famous works, The Crucible, uses historical records to recreate the Salem Witch Trials. Within the next week, the theatrical production of TheCrucible will appear on Broadway (directed by Ivo van Hove). Additionally, as a forerunner to the upcoming Broadway production, Robert Eggers’s debut film, The Witch premiered last week. It is set in seventeenth century New England, a few decades preceding the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The Witch is not classic horror, but it has enough horrific scenes to make one uncomfortable. A Sundance favorite, Eggers won best director for this dramatic feature.  It is the story of a devout Christian family banished from their puritanical community for actions that are theologically based, but are not specified…