No year is the same as any other year, but this fall the New England foliage has been kind of odd. Somewhat muted, for one thing. And we’ve had lots of rain, which always means that the early, more brilliant … Continue reading →
“Concerto Barocco” is a Balanchine ballet that was created in 1941 as an exercise for his students. But it is an indisputable masterpiece that seems nearly as fresh today as when it was choreographed. It has the dancers interpreting and … Continue reading →
When I was young, ticket scalping was against the law, at least that was my distinct impression and my distinct memory. It also wasn’t so easy to do. Tickets had to be bought either at the box office or with … Continue reading →
I love this guy. Love, love, love. I once took about eight voice lessons before I quit in despair, and maybe if he’d been my voice teacher I would have improved rather than gotten worse over the course of my … Continue reading →
This new book by Jonathan Haidt seems very promising. It’s entitled The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. Now, I’m not sure the people coddling the American mind … Continue reading →
[Part I here.] I have come to conceptualize many of the people who are drawn most powerfully (and obsessively) to these extreme activities this way: they don’t want to live without them. And for some of the most extreme practitioners, … Continue reading →
One of the places I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time is Siena. And yesterday, when I finally got there, I wasn’t disappointed. One of the nicest things about the city is the fact that its hilltop location can … Continue reading →
She had a troubled life in certain ways, but boy could that woman ever sing. Most people think of “Respect” as Aretha Franklin’s anthem, and I suppose it was. I liked a great many of her songs very much—including that … Continue reading →
..keeps on…trucking. I never had a taste for whatever it is she does. But anyway, she’s still doing it. At nearly 60.
Continue reading →It was only 1984. And it was racial humor. But this Saturday Night Live classic is so much more gentle than today’s humor, and I think it’s genuinely funny. Murphy is mocking white people here, for sure, but he’s also … Continue reading →
I’m a lover of poetry, as you can probably tell from the number of posts listed in that category on my right sidebar (as I write this, it’s 161). But the poetry of the last twenty or thirty or even … Continue reading →
I’ve never read anything by Bret Easton Ellis before. One reason is that I don’t like fiction all that much unless it’s fabulous, and I definitely don’t like violent fiction, which by all accounts American Psycho (Ellis’s most popular novel) … Continue reading →