The celebrated young guitarist brought humor and drama as well as exquisite musicality and dazzling technique to a trendy new venue in Williamsburg.
Read More »Jon Sobel
Music DVD Review: Mika – ‘Sinfonia Pop’
Mika's songs lend themselves naturally to orchestral treatment. His voice is an instrument of precision and sparkle as well as range, dancing between a supple tenor and a relaxed falsetto; with masterful vocal control, he sings with subtle power and finely tuned sensitivity against the orchestra and background singers.
Read More »Music and DVD Review: Pete Seeger ‘Pete-Pak’: ‘pete’ and ‘Living Music Festival’ with Paul Winter Consort
In his old age Pete Seeger was a towering near-deity to the Hudson Valley folkies I know, those who'd had the opportunity to know or at least run into the man whom I've come to think of as folk music's Great Integrator.
Read More »The U.S. National Park Service Turns 100 This Year
The National Park Service oversees not just vast spaces and natural wonders, but historic sites like Alexander Hamilton's home in New York City.
Read More »Theater Review (NYC): A New Twist on Zombie Apocalypse in ‘Rizing’ by Jason Tseng
Flux Theatre Ensemble executes Tseng's brash post-zombie-apocalypse premise with equal parts psychological grace and horror-story panache.
Read More »Theater Review (NYC): Rupert Everett in ‘The Judas Kiss’ by David Hare
Hare has written dialogue for Wilde that measures up to the man's legendary wit, while Everett achieves that elusive theatrical magic of a larger-than-life yet utterly believable performance.
Read More »Language Matters in Life and Business: Redundancy
The worst thing about redundancies is they aren't effective in the way people seem to think they are. "Last and final" isn't a stronger call to action than just "last" or just "final." Either one is sufficient.
Read More »Theater Review (NYC): ‘The Pelican’ by August Strindberg
Late in his career, August Strindberg wrote four short works he called "chamber plays" for his own new theater, which opened in Stockholm in 1907 with this weird one-act influenced by the playwright's studies of Swedenborg and incorporating his interest in the occult.
Read More »DVD Review: ‘Janis: Little Girl Blue’ – Janis Joplin Documentary Bio
We see a few scenes of Janis and fellow musicians hard at work in the studio, and plenty of performance clips, but where the film excels is in showing us how her life fed her performances.
Read More »Music Review: Matthias Goerne and Christoph Eschenbach – ‘Vier Ernste Gesänge,’ Lieder by Johannes Brahms
Both singer and pianist here display exceptionally soulful (as well as wonderfully compatible) senses of rhythm and timing, and timing is so important in conveying the spirit of these sublime songs.
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