Lost in Space LOST IN SPACE SEASON ONE (2018) (Netflix) Still Lost in Space Netflix brings back the sci-fi classic in this winning reboot by Mark Mussari “Danger, Will Robinson.” You’ll feel a certain thrill when the Robot speaks those lines in the first episode of Netflix’s new reboot of Lost in Space. It might be your childhood returning – or it might just be that you’ve found yourself in a reinvigorated version of the classic television series. And this time: no camp. Othe

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Webb’s New Memoir The Cake and the Rain Is a Rollicking, Musical Romp by Mark Mussari “There were two of me,” Jimmy Webb states at one point in his highly engaging new memoir The Cake and the Rain (St. Martin’s Press). Truer words could not be spoken by the composer of some of contemporary music’s most elegant and intelligent pop songs. From “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” to “Up, Up and Away,” from “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” to “The Highwayman,” from “Wich

Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard starred in “Lost in Space.” Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard Fifty Years Later and Still Lost in Space by Mark Mussari Fifty years ago this year, families across the United States sat down on a Wednesday evening to watch the premiere of a new science-fiction series on CBS: Lost in Space. When it first appeared — on September 15, 1965 — it was the most expensive television pilot ever produced. No one had ever seen anything like it. In retrospect, i

Ronstadt Generations Ronstadt Generations Rooted In Family By Mark Mussari “Though leaves are many,” the Irish Poet William Butler Yeats once observed, “the root is one.” Sit down to talk with the members of Ronstadt Generations — Michael J. Ronstadt and his sons Michael G. and Petie — and you’ll feel the strength of their roots in Tucson, Arizona. In the late 1980s, Linda Ronstadt — the family’s most celebrated member and Michael J.’s older sister — explored the family’s Mex

Pentatonix Pentatonix PTX – Pitch-Perfect in Every Way by Mark Mussari An eargasm. There’s no other way to describe the experience of hearing the five-member a cappella group Pentatonix sing live. Intricate harmonies buzz in a way not heard since the Manhattan Transfer’s heyday. The band moves deftly among dubstep, ballads, hip-hop — even a cover of Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road Jack” (a song first recorded in 1960 as an a cappella demo). The aural experience of seeing Pentaton

Mary Wilson Mary Wilson Supreme Talent By Mark Mussari Mary Wilson is standing on stage in the amber glow of a spotlight and singing “Here’s to Life,” a jazzy autumnal number about embracing the passage of time.  Could any voice be better suited to this wistful tune?  Wilson reaches deep into her warm alto for the bluer notes and then opens into full throttle for the song’s more expansive moments.  With its emotional twists and turns, the performance is a tour de force, a mov

Little Big Town Little Big Town Four Distinct Voices in Perfect Harmony By Mark Mussari As a vocal group Little Big Town exists on a rarified plane. The country-rock quartet – whose album The Road to Here has already sold over 500,000 copies and spawned a mega-hit in the stomping Southern anthem “Boondocks” – consists of two women and two men. That would be singular enough in the country field, but all four members of this powerhouse group, who also write much of their own mu