Celebrating Community
The mysterious multi-media project known as “The Residents” has long been big on reinvention. In the 1980s—already a decade and a half into the anonymous collective’s shared career—the outfit released albums reinterpreting the music of James Brown, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa and Hank Williams, turning masters of American music into catchy, ugly, digital ditties. They’ve also been big on […]
Prince was never lacking for fans. Years after he was getting regular radio play, his albums were still charting and his concerts selling out. While existing largely outside the music industry (or within the micro-industry he built), Prince maintained a substantial and remarkably faithful fan base. There aren’t many musicians who can play Madison Square Garden without a record contract. […]
Last month, I expressed pessimism over the future of live jazz in New York. I’m still unsure how many venues are going to survive into Phase 4 of the COVID-19 reopening, much less after, but some of the leading names have been trying to present live music to remote audiences, with the biggest name, the Village Vanguard, starting up their […]
As the number of daily COVID-19 cases declines, a return to semi-normalcy continues to take shape in New York City – especially for the restaurant industry. However, before eateries could implement outdoor dining on June 22, some local establishments participated in the Great American Takeout (GAT) on June 11. This day was a nationwide call for customers to support their […]
A few weeks ago, I went shopping at Caputo’s Bakery Shop, and Court Street Pastry in my old Carroll Gardens neighbourhood. During these hard times, there is nothing like ciabatta bread and sweet delicious pastries to bite back on that locked-in feeling. Thankfully, bakeries are considered essential businesses. Stopping in at Caputo’s first, I recognized a neighbour, Lorraine, who had […]
The New York City art scene has been finding ways to thrive in the middle of this pandemic. Kentler International Drawing Space, which has been on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook since 1990, has figured out ways to continue to dialogue with the public. Their latest show, In Reflection: Selections from the Kentler Flatfiles went live on their website […]
The Brera Library, as known as Braidense, is the Italian national library, founded in Milan in 1770 by the Hapsburg empress Mary Therese when Italy was not united and Lombardy was under Austrian control. Today it is one of the main book depositories in Italy as it collects all the publications printed in Milan, where the majority of Italians books […]
Review of Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski James Baldwin, the late black, gay, American writer, used his work to boldly explore racial and social issues. According to Baldwin, his 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room (about an American man in Paris who falls in love with an Italian bartender) was “not so much about homosexuality, it is what happens if […]