And now for a little culture

Did you know there was more to me than baseball, the Beatles and lurid crime programs? Well there is! And here are my recommendations, my reviews of the best of the best …

THE PIRATE QUEEN. Elaborately staged and always entertaining, The Pirate Queen is premiering here in Chicago. Because it's the pre-Broadway engagement, we knew going into it that the show was going to need a little work. And it does; it's too, too long and the male lead is a little blah. But the story -- of Grace O'Malley, the wife, mother and pirate queen who clashed with Queen Elizabeth in long ago Ireland -- is compelling, the sets are sumptuous, and the Pirate Queen herself is terrific. Stephanie J. Block is all passion and spirit and pipes. And she's the voice of Barbie on the TV commercials! So I got to see Barbie herself, live and in person!

THE DEPARTED. Gruesome and great. I'm not a big Scorsese fan, but this is the best film I've seen in a long, long time. Jack Nicholson is a goofy cartoon of evil, but it's the same over-the-top performance audiences (not including me) have been loving for decades. Leonardo Di Caprio draws us in with a diffident, pained, charismatic performance. For me, the real revelation was Matt Damon. Good Will Hunting is sure as hell not very good here. The dichotomy between that angelic face and his depraved action creates a fascinating tension. Mark Wahlberg isn't pictured on the poster, but he's great in this, too.