New York

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Art, Museums/Galleries, New York

Eating Art for Lunch

January 6, 2013

Best Saturday ever: first, Ann Hamilton’s installation at the Park Avenue Armory, then the George Bellows retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ann’s from Lima, OH; Bellows hails from Columbus. As a Cincinnatian, nice to know that our state’s renown extends beyond it being a swing state, and a conservative bastion. If either work…

Current Affairs, My back pages, New York

Did she jump or was she pushed?

December 31, 2012

It’s every commuter’s nightmare. Though actually there are several: the train stops just outside the station and sits for what seems like hours. Someone pulls the emergency cord. You discover that you’re trapped in a car from 125th to Columbus Circle with a religious zealot spewing a bottomless pit of bigotry laced with profound stupidity….

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…

Current Affairs, Music, New York, Television, Vespers

Autumn Highs and Lows

September 30, 2012

The week that was ended as it began, with one of those happened-upon moments that are as indigenous to Manhattan as is Mitt Romney to an off-shore banking account: strolling up Broadway near Lincoln Center I was on a cell phone call when I heard the familiar strains of Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. The tune…

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…

Art, Current Affairs, Gay, Museums/Galleries, New York, Politics

Too much to see dept…

January 19, 2012

From Gayletter: Above: Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935). Dancing Sailors, 1917 Slideshow: Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990). Unfinished Painting, 1989.

Criticals, Dance, Film, History, Literature, Music, New York, Short Cuts, Television, Theater, video

Season’s Dreams

November 23, 2011

A reason for the seasons was what I got when, in grade school, I was taught the myth of Demeter and Persephone; the idea that a spell could be cast to wither grass and leaves made a stronger impression than the myth’s true focus: a mother’s longing for a daughter she could only see six…

Architecture, Art, History, Museums/Galleries, New York

Opening Doors, on Fifth Avenue and in Harlem

September 17, 2011

It’s the comeback of the year. Pardon my exaggeration, but the National Academy Museum has always held a fond place in my heart since I first visited in the mid 1990s. A block or so north of the Guggenheim, it’s one of those unsung jewels that, because of its size, tends to get overlooked on…

Current Affairs, Dance, New York, Theater

Mourning Songs for a Theater, in a City Still Reeling

September 14, 2011

This week in Manhattan, Ground Zero isn’t the only repository of grief and longing. At the Marriott Marquis Theater in midtown, you’ll find a different kind of mourning going on. Before the curtain rises on the current revival of Follies, Stephen Sondheim’s 1971 elegiac musical, the audience is treated to a scene familiar to that…