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My back pages – Page 3 – Ennis Smith

My back pages

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Current Affairs, My back pages, New York

Manhattan on the Rocks

November 2, 2012

Looks like we survived the week. What an advantage we have living on top of a hill; still, it’s tree-heavy here. A stroll through our neighborhood revealed the carnage of both broken limbs and major uprootings. Meanwhile New York rises from the ashes. The trick for them: drain the tunnels, get the subway and buses…

Fashion, My back pages, New York

Finding a suit, and myself

September 16, 2012

Like all great romances it started slowly. First it was underwear; later I graduated to socks and ties, little wardrobe resuscitators for a single guy on a budget. I found myself returning, a little shy, but intrigued, wondering if this was the way out of my J. Crew-Gap-Thrift Shop-Army-Navy fashion esthetic. After all I’d become…

Current Affairs, My back pages, New York, Vespers, Writing

Summer’s Lease

August 30, 2012

The giveaway happened this morning. It came in the form of a sneeze—several, actually, all so forceful that my coffee flew out of my cup into my face. No burns, only embarrassed, accompanied by NY1’s confirmation of my suspicions: ragweed had launched its ugly spores into the air. Zyrtec, take me away. In this way…

Current Affairs, Dance, Film, Music, My back pages, Theater, Vespers

Why my heart doesn’t go dancing

April 28, 2012

Is April the kindest, or the cruelest month? The party line affirms the first: it’s the time of rebirth when saucer magnolias pop their tragic blooms, crocuses and tulips sprout, warm weather hints and Easter descends, toting tales of resurrection. I’m not feeling it, which makes me wonder if I ever have. Chocolate bunnies excepted,…

Film, Music, My back pages, Vespers

Dory Previn, Lyricist, 1925-2012

February 16, 2012

All ten year-old tragedians need a soundtrack. Mine was the Theme from Valley of the Dolls, that heartbreaking ballad from the film that starred Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate and Patty Duke. I had no idea that the song was meant to underscore the film heroine’s descent into pill addiction (I thought Parkins, Tate and…

Current Affairs, Film, Music, My back pages, Vespers, video

Where do broken hearts go: Whitney Houston 1963-2012

February 12, 2012

I heard the news last night before bed, and forgot about it. Then I woke up too early and, as I sat in front of the TV, the news scroll reminded me. Still it’s vague, I’m in denial until I walk down to my building’s lobby to pick up our Sunday Times. A tenant on…

Film, My back pages, Television, Theater, Vespers

Alan Sues, Comic Actor 1926-2011

December 4, 2011

There was Liberace, Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly and on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, Alan Sues. What a quartet of flamboyant personalities who blazed on prime time when I was coming of age. In the 70s their very names were punchlines, code for every euphemism of that other f-word even as the longhaired hippies and…

Current Affairs, Music, My back pages, Vespers

Jerry Leiber 1933-2011, Nick Ashford 1942-2011

August 23, 2011

Both were members of song writing teams that shifted the landscape of American popular music. The titles say it all: try to imagine a world without the Leiber-Stoller penned Jailhouse Rock, Hound Dog, Stand by Me, Yakety Yak, Kansas City, Is that All There Is? Everyone from Peggy Lee to Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen (check…

Film, My back pages, Television, Theater, Vespers

Jane White, Actress 1922-2011

August 9, 2011

“Who is that?” I recalled thinking as a child when I first saw Jane White in a television version of Once Upon a Mattress. As the imperious Queen Aggravain, her performance was a lesson in comedy and drop-dead stylishness; she was something special, and I looked forward to seeing her again. But sightings were rare—hers…

Books, Film, Literature, Music, My back pages, Television

Born on the 21st of July

July 21, 2011

Cat Stevens