David Luhrssen

Milwaukee

Art and Entertainment Editor at Shepherd Express

Author, Critic, Historian, Speaker. The original founder and Entertainment Editor of the Shepherd Express, Wisconsin's largest independent weekly newspaper.

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Articles

The World After Gaza: A History by Pankaj Mishra

6 days ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen |Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra’s intellectual life, his worldview, was shaped in large measure by Jewish writers and his Brahmin family’s admiration for Israel—a democracy that repeatedly fended off massive assaults from their authoritarian neighbors. Visiting Israel gave him a shock. The West Bank settlers and the growing right-wing fervor in Israeli put him in mind of the arrogant imperialism most of the world shook off in the last century.
Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care by Claudia Rowe

6 days ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

Can serious crime be blamed on bad foster care? Seattle journalist Claudia Rowe never gave the idea a thought until confronted by the case of a 16-year-old girl charged with murder after spending much of her life in the foster system. For children who survive family trauma, foster care is supposed to be “the net that had saved them,” she writes. Many have fallen through the holes.
These Fists Broke Box Offices

6 days ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

In the ‘70s, everybody was kung-fu fighting, as the old song went, and in one form or another, martial arts has become even more pervasive in American life. Along with Chinese takeouts, it was one of East Asia’s biggest exports before TikTok and Temu. The popularity of martial arts spiked with the rise of martial arts movies, the primary subject of These Fists Break Bricks.
Apollo Café’s 25 Years of Classic Greek Dishes

1 week ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

How does a restaurant survive for 25 years? In March, Apollo Café marked a quarter-century on a busy East Side thoroughfare, Brady Street, that has seen many changes this century. However, Apollo has changed little over the years and is now an anchor on Brady—a neighborhood gathering place and a destination for anyone hungry for Eastern Mediterranean dishes in an unpretentious setting. The ambiance is pleasing with a style of its own.
The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away

1 week ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

“What in the world can you write about me?” Vera Miles asked a journalist in 1958. Biographer Christopher McKittrick gives a belated answer with Vera: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away. Miles is remembered by cineastes and film scholars for supporting roles in Hitchcock’s Psycho (no, she didn’t die in the shower) and John Ford’s The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. She was almost cast in Vertigo, but pregnancy and other delays left Kim Novak with the unforgettable part.
I Got You Babe: Cher, A Celebration by Annie Zeleski

1 week ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

Sonny and Cher, underdogs? The breezy new career overview of Cher reminds us that their colorful clothes and long hair set them apart in the mid-‘60s, even in LA. According to author Annie Zeleski, “they were kicked out of restaurants and refused service at certain hotels,” incidents that inspired the lyrics of their hit “I Got You Babe.” Cher’s divorce with Sonny Bono wasn’t the end but the beginning of a career that kept her at the top of the pop chart and in Hollywood.
Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy adapted by Paul Karasik, Lorenzo Mattoti and David Massucchelli

1 week ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

Author Paul Auster was suspicious of language. He wrote a trilogy of thematically linked detective novels, “The New York Trilogy,” that had less to do with solving crime than with interrogating the deceptive ambiguities of words—the riddles of language itself. “The New York Trilogy” has been adapted in graphic novel format by a trio of esteemed artists, boiling down the text to essentials and providing pictures.
Milwaukee Art Museum’s ‘Brilliance of the Spanish World’

2 weeks ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

Spain was the world’s superpower in the 1500 and 1600s, a colossus astride four continents and rich from the gold of the New World. Spain’s wealth provided opportunities for artists to find patrons and its reach gave them options for immigration as Spanish spread culture across the globe. “The Brilliance of the Spanish World: El Greco, Velázques, Zubarán,” the Milwaukee Art Museum’s new exhibition, is nearly as wide in scope as the empire it represents.
Mingus in Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts by Charles Mingus

2 weeks ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen

Some of the tracks on this two-CD set have circulated on YouTube, but this is the first official release with good audio fidelity. Bassist and composer Charles Mingus performed this music in Buenos Aires during his 1977 tour of Latin America. The live album captures a superb quintet whose members were seldom recorded together: saxophonist Ricky Ford, trumpeter Jack Walrath, pianist Bob Neloms and drummer Dannie Richmond.
Film Clips: May 1, 2025

2 weeks ago | shepherdexpress.com | David Luhrssen |Lisa Miller

(In Theaters May 2) Directed by 25-year-old Felipe Vargas, this freshman effort highlights the director’s attraction to horror. Emeraude Toubia portrays a first generation American, Rosario. Having found success as a stockbroker, Rosario reluctantly makes her way to her deceased grandmother’s rundown New York City apartment to await an ambulance delayed by a monstrous snowstorm.