Arts columnist looks back on 2021: Music, classes, entertainers and more

Connie Shakalis
·4 min read

As each new year arrives, I list the highlights of the year that came to a close. Most would probably bore you (once it was finding a psoriasis treatment), but I'll mention a few with which you might identify. Some, I've written about in this newspaper before but bear repeating. Some I'll leave out for space's sake alone. But here's some events of note:

  • The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra's concert of music by Florence Beatrice Price, the first Black female composer to be nationally recognized, grabbed, stabbed and consumed me.

Cast members rehearse for the Bloomington Playwrights Project production of "just Between the All of Us." Pictured are Matthew Curiano, Alexander Quinones, Michael Martin, Kyle Pitts and Ali Reed.
Cast members rehearse for the Bloomington Playwrights Project production of "just Between the All of Us." Pictured are Matthew Curiano, Alexander Quinones, Michael Martin, Kyle Pitts and Ali Reed.

  • "Just Between the All of Us" at Bloomington Playwrights Project was indeed what producer Chad Rabinovitz had promised me, "Your kind of thing." These — truly — professional actors from afar pulled off an improv musical comedy. The lead, Ali Reed, is precious, her four suitors adorable. No weak link, pure fun and spontaneity.

  • Buying a Kona (car) and discovering the salesman is a Russian-literature freak. We actually got lost on the test drive talking about Nabokov, who wrote maybe my all-time favorite novel, which I had just read for the first time. Sean got why I loved it. He loved it, too. And, I love the Kona, another highlight.

  • I like design. Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" is one of my favorite novels — oh, those Russian (-American) authors. This year I discovered Canva, a graphic design program for making social media visuals. It's free if you stick to the basic plan; a fee brings additional functions. It hooked me and I started posting artsy (says who?) images on my Facebook profile. Sure, people asked others "What is she trying to do?" Well, she's trying to learn the damned app. It's easy but vast.

  • Hearing the music of Indiana University composer David Canfield. In preparation for writing a feature on him, coming soon, I listened repeatedly to several of his CDs, so I could kind of know what I was talking about. Another IU composer, P.Q. Phan had said, "David is worthy of some recognition." Two other IU composers, whose works rushed to my heart are Phan himself and Don Freund.

Rachel Chan, 6, tries on a Cleopatra costume.
Rachel Chan, 6, tries on a Cleopatra costume.

  • Two little kids, 6 and 9, come to me for lessons in musical theater. They pick it all up. Anything. Almost instantly. The 9-year-old grasps 7/8 time — and how, yes, it's close to 4/4 time. They both caught on to "step-turn-jump," stage directions and "Always thank your accompanist." When the 6-year-old tried on a Cleopatra headpiece — we were studying costumes — she said, "Hmmm, why am I feeling like I'm in ancient Egypt?" Kids!

  • Netflix' hilarious and dear "Travels with My Father" keeps husband and me laughing while learning. We've seen a lot of excellent shows on Amazon and Netflix this year, and this is one. Any parent of a son should watch this. We aren't and still love it.

  • MOOCs, massive open online courses, are unwrapping the world for me. So far, I've taken an art course at Yale, social media classes at Northwestern, journalism at Michigan State University (Uh boy, just when I assumed I would know everything they were gonna teach me. Eeek!) and marketing on Facebook. Thousands of these free courses are online. Or you can pay a monthly fee if you want your work graded and, in some cases, a certificate.

  • Getting to know country singer Clay Walker through an interview. What a nice guy. Getting to interview Glenn Close and telling her how much I loved "Fatal Attraction." Making friends with artist and author Laura Bybee, and many other local artists, whom I met through this job.

  • The Bloomington Rotary Club, with its guest speakers, its members, its events and its goals — to make the world a safer, cleaner, more inhabitable place. One of our best speakers has been Jill Bolte Taylor, the Harvard-educated neuroscientist. She visited in person (because she believes in Rotary International) to tell us about her eight-year recovery from a major left-brain stroke in her 30s. She relied on no PowerPoint slides boiling over with text and graphs. Instead, she used her personality and memory, enhanced by a doll and a rubber brain. "You knew I was going to bring a brain, didn't you?" she asked us.

Tessie Shakalis, a border terrier, takes time to smell the zinnias before heading to Drool in the Pool last summer.
Tessie Shakalis, a border terrier, takes time to smell the zinnias before heading to Drool in the Pool last summer.

  • Drool in the Pool 2021 was a highlight of my eight recent years in Bloomington. Our border terrier jumped right into the deep end, and someone yelled, "That one is fearless." Tessie also won "best trick." Dog people, free treats, a big swimming pool, a summer dusk and 50 dogs a leaping — THAT's perfection.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Arts highlights of 2021: Music, classes, entertainers and more