Saturday, April 19, 2014

"In Your Easter Bonnet," Judy Garland and Fred Astaire

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I never saw the movie Easter Parade , which was made two years after I was born, but I've always imagined this Irving Berlin song being ...
Sunday, April 13, 2014

Mega-yacht Topaz arrives in New York

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On my morning walk I spotted this enormous yacht sailing from New York Harbor into the Hudson River. I guessed it must belong to some Russia...
Saturday, April 12, 2014

"All Glory, Laud and Honor."

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The traditional opening anthem for Palm Sunday services, as performed at King's College, Cambridge, last year. The tune is "St. The...
Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Bluegrass hot, cool, and dreamy

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I first knew of Tony Trischka as part of Country Cooking, whose album 14 Bluegrass Instrumentals  I acquired some thirty years or so ago. ...
Monday, April 07, 2014

Karen Shaw proves Mies and Browning right ...

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...at least in fifteen out of nineteen languages. Ms Shaw's (photo above) art is based on a simple premise that yields a plenitude ...
Monday, March 31, 2014

Mets lose opener. Is this a good sign? Probably not.

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At the treaty of Kilmainham Parnell threw it all away, It was the turning point in his career and he turned the wrong way, And the revo...
Monday, March 24, 2014

Ken Radnofsky and Damien Francouer-Krzyzek play the third movement, "Christopher Street," of David Amram's Greenwich Village Portraits.

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I've been fortunate to know David Amram since my Bells of Hell and Lion's Head days. Last month he presented a performance of his...
Monday, March 17, 2014

Stout standoff: Guinness vs. Brooklyn Dry Irish

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A few weeks ago I noticed Brooklyn Brewery's "Dry Irish Stout" on a shelf at my local supermarket. This piqued my curiosity...
Saturday, March 15, 2014

Locks of love on the Brooklyn Bridge.

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In my walks across the Brooklyn Bridge and back over the past year or so, I've noticed that couples have been writing their names on p...
Thursday, March 13, 2014

Aaron Copland, Clarinet Concerto, L.A. Philharmonic with Benny Goodman

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This morning, I thought I heard a DJ on WQXR say, "Today is the birthday of Aaron Copland ." Either he was misinformed, or I mishe...
Saturday, March 08, 2014

Billy Bragg & Wilco, "She Came Along to Me," lyrics by Woody Guthrie.

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Today is International Women's Day, and I'm marking it by posting a video of a song done by a bunch of guys. The lyrics were writte...

Coney Island Brewing's Mermaid Pilsner

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A couple of weeks ago I tried Coney Island Brewing Company's "Seas the Day" India Pale Lager . Now I've also had their M...
Monday, February 24, 2014

I'm no great Picasso fan, but I'm glad his threatened curtain at the Seagram Building got a reprieve.

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Here [in 21st century New York], art is never spoken of in moral terms, and most aspects of everyday life--food and drink and bathroom fix...

Coney Island Brewing's "Seas the Day" India Pale Lager

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India Pale Lager? I've long been a fan of India pale ales, or IPAs as they're usually called. I like their intense hop bitterness ...
Friday, February 14, 2014

Frank Zappa, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow."

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Appropriate music for the weather we've been having here on the East Coast, and a dire warning to those who do violence to baby seals. T...
Sunday, February 02, 2014

Photo and iPod log: January 27, 2014.

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I've been doing these for a while:  see here for my most recent example. What follows is a log I made of what I was listening to and se...
Saturday, February 01, 2014

Lou Reed and Sharon Jones, "Sweet Jane"

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Once again, Eliot Wagner of Now I've Heard Everything comes through with a great video, this one courtesy of Connie Lynchitz , of Lou R...
Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Pete Seeger, 1919-2014

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Pete Seeger, who died yesterday at 94, was an inspiration to the generation of folksingers who were popular during my high school and col...
Monday, January 27, 2014

J. Press gets the New York real estate squeeze; Gray's Papaya in the Village goes down the hatch.

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This post is about two New York City institutions--although the first is principally a New Haven institution and my first contact with it...
Monday, January 20, 2014

Claudio Abbado, 1933-2014.

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Claudio Abbado, one of the greatest orchestra conductors of the past half century, died today at the age of eighty. He was at various tim...
Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Impressions, "We're a Winner."

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A week ago I attended a "Free the Slaves" concert at Plymouth Church. The headline act was The Impressions, and they opened their...
Wednesday, January 15, 2014

John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925.

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John Singer Sargent is remembered as a portrait painter, mostly of elegant women elegantly posed and dressed, like The Wyndham Sisters . ...