In some cultures, there’s a belief that death comes not when your heart stops beating, but when you’re forgotten. To remember something is to keep it alive, even if only in your heart. That idea is the key to A Few of Each, the collection of cityscape art currently on display at Gowanus Wine Studio on 3rd Avenue. The exhibition […]

I first met Vincent Coppola in 1961 when we were high school freshmen at St. Augustine High School on Park Place in the Slope. After a career in journalism and some notable books, he’s now ensconced in Savannah, a city which, like Vinny, acknowledges the presence of ghosts. The interview has been edited to leave out the boring bits. Full […]

I think it’s hard to be just a little interested in aliens. Either they don’t register, or they become an obsession. My first serious boyfriend was in the latter camp. Kevin believed he’d been abducted as a child, an experience he found terrifying. Sometimes he was afraid to go to sleep. He was an artist. Aliens made their way into […]

When Bill Evans died in the late summer of 1980, age 51, he was already the most influential pianist in jazz history. He wasn’t the first pianist to create the idea of modern jazz piano; Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Ahmad Jamal, and Bud Powell (the last two important influences on Evans) were all playing and building the ongoing context and […]

Sinners made $280 million during its run in movie theaters in America and Canada last year. At a rough average price of $14 per ticket, that means 20,000,000 saw it before it began streaming on HBO. That’s 20,000,000 people who, among other things, heard some real blues music—including “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” written by Geeshie Wiley, one of the most […]

Disquiet Riot. The Russian activist art collective Pussy Riot has never been needed more than they are now, and by “now” I mean in the 14 years since the feminist provocateurs occupied news broadcasts and computer screens with their 30-second performance of “Punk Prayer” at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, cut short by arrest and earning them […]

As a professional actress, Yvonna Russell thought she was used to rejection. But when she made the transition to writing, she faced some even harsher critics. After submitting a query about an early version of her novella Unfinished Business to a publisher, the editor wrote, “I don’t care if these characters eat, pee, or die.” Russell had started writing the […]

The slog days of summer. In the wake of a new Sunn O))) album and the second volume of the Lou Reed feedback tribute Metal Machine Music: Power to Consume (both in April) and reissues of the first two OM albums (last month), a person might think the season couldn’t get heavier. But to borrow from an even older song, […]

News from the neighborhood. Red Hook & Gowanus Subscribe to get the Star-Revue’s newsletters throughout the month. No spam · Unsubscribe anytime · Privacy policy If you go to Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus—that imposing, rust-red fortress dominating the canal—and make your way up to the second floor, you’ll find yourself confronted by a startling sight: a corpse, lying fully naked […]

News from the neighborhood. Red Hook & Gowanus Subscribe to get the Star-Revue’s newsletters throughout the month. No spam · Unsubscribe anytime · Privacy policy Sure, high school reunions can be a chance to reconnect with old friends and share some laughs over those woebegone glory days when the sun was rising on your future. But in the main, they’re […]

News from the neighborhood. Red Hook & Gowanus Subscribe to get the Star-Revue’s newsletters throughout the month. No spam · Unsubscribe anytime · Privacy policy The writer Harlan Ellison had a long, wide-ranging career that spanned science fiction short stories (such as “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”), television scripts (like the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of […]

News from the neighborhood. Red Hook & Gowanus Subscribe to get the Star-Revue’s newsletters throughout the month. No spam · Unsubscribe anytime · Privacy policy Shortly after author Sally Frances moved into Carroll Gardens in the early 1990s, a neighbor told her about overhearing a fight between an adult brother and sister in the backyard of their shared brownstone next-door. […]

News from the neighborhood. Red Hook & Gowanus Subscribe to get the Star-Revue’s newsletters throughout the month. No spam · Unsubscribe anytime · Privacy policy On a rainy weekday evening in Carroll Park, activity and mounting anticipation. Volunteers drag chairs into place across the plaza stones. Actors, not yet in costume, leap about on stage, practicing their swordfight choreographies. A […]