Vespers

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Dance, Music, Television, Theater, Vespers

RIP: Smash

May 28, 2013

Ask any rabid television fan: the road to hell is paved with the carcasses of shows that are too out there, too cerebral, too genre, too tiny-demographic-by-way-of-special-interest-esoteric. You could go back as far as Adam’s Rib (a short-lived comedy series starring Blythe Danner and Ken Howard) or Honey West (Anne Francis as a karate-chopping private…

Film, Gay, History, Music, Vespers

Death Letters

April 10, 2013

No time for visits or pleasantries with friends. Not meaning to be rude, I am all in my head and heart, completely consumed, driven to record as much as I can before you fade from me. I know this behavior is futile. You are gone and my efforts will not bring you back but somehow…

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

Random Thoughts on Mortality

February 3, 2013

1) Woke up from a dream involving my ex. I and some friends and strangers found him sprawled on a divan in what seemed an abandoned office building. Like a pieta he was sprawled, and looked the way he had at the end of his life—thin, riddled with Karposi’s sarcoma, listless. 2) No surprise, but…

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…

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, Music, Vespers

How Deep is Your Love: Robin Gibb 1948-2012

May 21, 2012

First Donna Summer, now this. Curious, though, about the album he released this spring, his first toe-dip into classical music called Titanic Requiem. RIP, thanks for enhancing the soundtrack of my youth…

Current Affairs, Dance, Gay, Music, Race, Vespers

Last Dance: Donna Summer, Pop Vocalist, 1948-2012

May 18, 2012

Ah…love to love ya, baby… RIP, and thanks.

Books, Current Affairs, History, Literature, Vespers, Writing

Carlos Fuentes, “The Old Gringo” novelist, essayist, 1928-2012

May 17, 2012

“The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game . . . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns…

Art, Books, Gay, Literature, Museums/Galleries, Music, Vespers

Maurice Sendak 1928-2012

May 9, 2012

Check out the lovely Times obit here

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,…