Saturday, November 30, 2013

Sam Edwards, "In the Last Days of the Empire."

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Sam Edwards, I'm told, was a bartender at "55," the joint next door to the Lion's Head . I seldom went into 55; whenever I...
Thursday, November 28, 2013

e.e. cummings, "i thank you God," by The Western Wind.

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I posted this e.e. cummings poem two years ago on Easter. Yesterday I found this version set to music by Elliot Z. Levine, a member of the ...
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

iPod and photo log from a short walk around Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

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Yesterday morning I took a walk down the Brooklyn Heights Promenade , across the pedestrian bridge to Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park , aro...
Sunday, November 24, 2013

Marshall Chapman does songs from her album Blaze of Glory at Hill Country, New York City.

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Last Wednesday night I went to Hill Country NY a restaurant, market, and music venue, to see and hear my old friend Marshall Chapman , wh...
Friday, November 22, 2013

Richard Nelson's Apple family plays at the Public Theater

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Tuesday night we saw a preview of  Regular Singing, the last in Richard Nelson's series of four Apple family plays. Last year we saw S...
Saturday, November 16, 2013

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright: one of his few designs in New York City was demolished.

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The space behind these papered-over windows at 430 Park Avenue, between 54th and 55th streets contained an interior designed by Frank Lloy...
Monday, November 11, 2013

The Wall

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My old Civil Air Patrol buddy Steve Scrivener's name is there, as are those of several soldiers I helped to train during my Fort Polk ...
Saturday, November 02, 2013

Update on Lou Reed: his Grace Church connection (thanks to Binky Philips).

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I damn near vandalized my briefs when I read the first sentence of  Binky Philips'  Huff Po  piece : I first met Lou Reed at the Hol...
Thursday, October 31, 2013

Classics IV, "Spooky"

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I've marked other Halloweens with some obvious choices: "Night on Bald Mountain" and "The Monster Mash" , and a les...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Reading Arthur Danto on the Subway

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You took me past the Brillo boxes to the Sistine ceiling; there you died. I'm not sure about the boxes. I need to retrace my ro...
Sunday, October 27, 2013

Lou Reed

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This past June I posted the good news that Lou Reed had undergone what appeared to be a successful liver transplant. Today the news turned ...
Monday, October 21, 2013

Just plain Bill's.

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Back in 1970, during my first year as a New York City resident, my roommate and I brought dates to this place on East 54th Street.  At the...
Sunday, October 20, 2013

It's 1967 again...at least in baseball. Red Sox vs. Cardinals.

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From 1960, the year the "Beat 'em Bucs" Pirates took the measure of the big, bad Yanks, until 1967, I didn't pay much at...
Monday, October 14, 2013

Zagat's fifty state sandwich survey: beef on weck gets its due, as does the Connecticut lobster roll.

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When I was an associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb , "fifty state survey" was a dreaded assignment. It meant going to the library (no Lexi...
Saturday, October 12, 2013

Baseball: down to the final four.

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You can see clearly where my loyalty lies, now that my old home town team (Rays) and team from my native region (Pirates) have been elimin...
Thursday, October 10, 2013

Giuseppe Verdi, 1813-1901

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Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi , perhaps the greatest pop tunesmith of the nineteenth century. The video abov...
Monday, September 30, 2013

Mets realize my modest hope.

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They did it. They finished third in the NL East, not fourth, as they did the preceding four seasons. They did it with a record identical t...
Saturday, September 21, 2013

Goodbye, Black 47

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I got to know Larry Kirwan back in 1978, when he and Pierce Turner , as Turner & Kirwan of Wexford, were the house band at the Bells of...
Sunday, September 15, 2013

Some interesting, if obscure, ceiling art at Grand Central Terminal.

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Mention ceiling art at Grand Central and the immediate response is likely to be "Oh, yes! The backwards painted zodiac on the ceilin...
Saturday, September 14, 2013

Tania Grossinger, Memoir of an Independent Woman

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Don't let the title Memoir of an Independent Woman make you think this is strictly chick non-fic. Most women will, I think, find it in...
Saturday, September 07, 2013

"Gift" is a noun, "gifted" is an adjective, "give" is a verb.

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I'm on my usage high horse again. It isn't all that high. As I've said before , I'm not some fusty pedant who worries abou...
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Monday, September 02, 2013

Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013.

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I confess to having read very little of Seamus Heaney's poetry, just snippets quoted here and there. They were enticing; Heany is one ...