Arts

Arts

41 Richards St.

Community Board 6 held a meeting on landmarks and land use on Nov. 30, which included an application for rezoning 41 Richards St. in Red Hook, between Sebring St. and Commerce St. “The Proposed Action would facilitate the development of a seven-story plus cellar, 113,557 gross square foot mixed-use building with 41 parking spaces,” said the Department of Environmental Conservation […]

Arts

Taking a voyage through a large expanse of Red Hook art, by Roger Bell

The work of five American artists, mainly New Yorkers and five German artists, mainly Berliners, is the subject of the exhibition titled International Waters which opened recently as part of the Red Hook Open Studios program in The Wall Gallery. The Wall Gallery is an artist-run space which specializes in exchanges between Brooklyn New York and Berlin Germany. International Waters […]

Arts, Books

Books: This One Will Put You to Sleep, Review by Michael Quinn

Hearing someone tell you about a dream they had can make your eyes glaze over. It could be because dreams follow their own logic, unique to each of us. Dreams can feel specific, urgent and compelling after we’ve experienced them, but vague, meandering and uninteresting in the retelling. Cartoonist Roz Chast understands this completely—but she still wants to tell you […]

Arts, Music

Music: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

A step ahead at looking back. In April, I wrote about Joe Jackson’s 1981 album Jumpin’ Jive in a review of Taj Mahal’s recent album of early jazz songs. Since then, Rickie Lee Jones has issued a respectable collection of crooner tunes, and countless rockers-of-certain-ages have done so before, generally with far lesser results than Jackson, Jones and Mahal (special […]

Arts

On Jazz: Bucking the Tide, by George Grella

In art music (meaning music not designed for mass commercial success), there used to be a general consensus about forms and styles. That’s obvious when you look at classical music, but also things like folk music (in the English speaking world) and the blues; things were generally done within certain guidelines and outliers were less revolutionaries than eccentrics and avant-gardists, […]

Arts

Dispatch from the New York Film Festival: Of Documentaries and the Civic Need for Movie Theaters, by Dante A. Ciampaglia

At this year’s New York Film Festival, the marquee documentary event was the American premiere of 93-year-old Frederick Wiseman’s latest opus, Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros. La Maison Troisgro, a three-star Michelin restaurant in central France, is at the center of the film, which radiates outward to explore the supply chain of farms that provide much of the place’s food and the […]

Arts

Quinn on Books: Pollyannish Propaganda

Review of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (Riverhead Books; 2023; 386 pages; $28) Reviewed by Michael Quinn Two kinds of people live in Chicken Hill, Pennsylvania: immigrant Jews and Blacks. These two groups eye each other warily, thinking they have nothing in common. Neither is especially thrilled to be there. It’s a rundown place, cut off […]

Arts

Music: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

Who says a jazz band can’t play rock music? That question was implied, if not directly posed, within the lyrical permutations of Funkadelic’s 1978 “Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?” Genre lines might be a bit blurrier 45 years later, but they’re still there to be crossed. Bassist Hannah Marks has worked for some highly regarded jazz bosses (Terri […]

Arts

Jazz: More Is Less, by George Grella

What does it mean to make an album in 2023? They’re still being made, Billboard magazine still tracks their sales, but just what is that thing itself, the album, and why are they made as albums? The subject on this page each month is jazz, but these thoughts apply to all kinds of music, and are especially relevant to popular […]

Arts

Dispatch from the New York Film Festival: Hollywood Headliners, Intimate Indies, and Hunting for Experiences, by Dante A. Ciampaglia

The New York Film Festival hits at a strange moment in the calendar. By the time the 61st edition opened on September 29, Cannes, Venice, and Toronto had all hosted their festivals (in May, August, and September, respectively). Many of the year’s banner titles — Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Hayao Miyazaki’s […]