American folk legend Tom Paxton has been writing and performing music for 50 years. Four years ago he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of Paxton's songs have become modern standards, including "The Last Thing on My Mind," "Bottle of Wine" and "Ramblin' Boy."

This summer is shaping up to be radical, man. The Lansing Symphony Orchestra is totally going back to the '80s to launch the 20th annual Concert in the Park series on June 5.

Wednesday, April 17 — Rick’s American Café hosts a beneficiary for seniors tonight. Senioritis Night will be a chance to revel the end of the school year. What better way to approach the end of exams by giving back to the community and drinking a celebratory beer?

Monday, April 15 — There aren’t a lot of classical and jazz dates on the Wharton Center’s 2013-14 schedule, but what’s there is “cherce,” as Tracy once said of Hepburn.

Monday, April 15 — The Wharton Center’s 2013-‘14 Broadway season was also announced on Monday. The lineup includes an irreverent hit musical that Wharton is getting on the first leg of its touring production, three movie-to-stage adaptations (including a smash Disney favorite) and a grown-up — but not “adult” — take on the Peter Pan story. Oh yeah, and a show commonly called the Great American Opera as well as the jukebox musical that launched the whole singing-along-with-radio-songs fad 14 years ago. Talk about diversity.

Monday, April 14 — Actor Dominic Fortuna, part of the touring production of "Catch Me If You Can" hitting the Wharton Center on Tuesday, has roots in small-town dinner theater in northern Michigan. The Antwerp County native plays the main character's father in the musical adaptation, a role originated by Christopher Walken in the Steven Spielberg-directed blockbuster.

Friday, April 12 — As we age, and physical deterioration sets in, there are intense urgent moments where we feel a need for answers to unresolved existential questions, to bring completion to important personal goals before we die.

Friday, April 12 — The pitter-patter of drops, the smell of rain, the feeling of changing seasons — as wonderful as it sounds, the beginning of April has become a fashion damper. The temperamental rain has caused a shift from heavy winter jackets to dark and shiny raincoats. Although, the existence of trendy rainwear is not as mythical as that of a fashionable winter jacket, the challenge of the cover up layer shuffled the fashion show indoors.

Thursday, April 11 — Get your folk fix this weekend in East Lansing as a pair of nationally known artists — Bruce Molsky and Craig Bickhardt — visit the Ten Pound Fiddle series and the Pump House, respectively. For the more restless — and probably younger — crowd, a pop/punk trio from Oregon headlines Mac’s with support from several local bands of the same genre.

"It is hard to be good in spring," read the fluorescent green card tied to a bush in the park. The woman in the gorilla mask and the man with a box on his head moved on. It was 6 p.m., Thursday, and a massive poetry attack on Harrison Meadows Park in East Lansing was under way.