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Stage Door: Love Letters, Port Authority
The premise of Love Letters, a chamber piece now on Broadway, is simple: Two people begin writing each other at age 8. Over the next 50 years, from the late 1930s onward, two upper-class WASPS chart...
View ArticleCzech's Mix Part 3: Clarinet Factory (VIDEO)
Czech's Mix Part 3: Clarinet Factory from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo. One of the surprising performances at the Crossroads Festival (part of the Colours of Ostrava Festival) in Czech Republic, was from...
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California, the Arts and the Creative Economy
For the state that is home to Silicon Valley and high tech invention, to Hollywood and the single largest export in the world: theatrical films, it has always been a mystery why so few dollars were...
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Project 24: A Portrait of Millennial Artist Andrew Kaminski
This is the second installment of Project 24, a series that documents the lives and work of millennial artists based in New York City. As a collection, these portraits explore how the latest generation...
View ArticleMephistopheles in Your Living Room
When I mention to non-aficionado friends that I've been to the opera--most recently, to San Francisco Opera's wondrous Norma, by Vincenzo Bellini, with the dazzling, "once-in-a-generation" soprano...
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Finding a Long-Lost Ancestor on the Streets of Chicago
I have an autograph book that belonged to my maternal grandmother. Written on the inside cover is "Anna Gustavason, 162 Townsend Street, Chicago, Ill." I can't find 162 Townsend on any map, nor can I...
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All Eyes on Los Angeles
Peace Angels Project Peace Sign sculpture, 2014 Created from ICBM nuclear and high grade stainless 3' x 6" x 6" The Peace Angels Project was created in 1992 as a contemporary sword to plowshares art...
View ArticleHalfway (Or So)
This week the New York Times talked about distinguished writers banding together in protest against Amazon. Listed were names of some men and women who could inarguably be called distinguished....
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Lovers Behaving Badly
Once upon a time (and not so very long ago), one's relationship status was simply described and easy to understand. The basic choices were: Single Married Divorced Widowed However, with the rise of...
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Jill Soloway, "Transparent" Creator is Brilliant
Transparent is great! Jill Soloway, the show's writer and director/creator is brilliant. If Amazon's book-selling success scares some writers imagine what lovers of Netflix and HBO will do now that...
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"@Large" and Absent, Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
With Wind, installation. Photograph by Lori Zimmer. All images courtesy of FOR-SITE Foundation. The United States' most storied island prison, Alcatraz, is a fitting home for artist and activist Ai...
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"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time": Nine Red Cars
The world of autism is vastly different from any world the non-autistic can ever know. For one thing, all the signposts are written in a different language. To Christopher Boone, for example, passing...
View ArticleLydia Davis: All I Get Out of Three Cows
"I would like to try to understand them and see how they exist in the world. Their existence is just as important to them, as ours is to us." Acclaimed writer Lydia Davis has been observing three cows...
View ArticleOpen Every Day? Oh Mon Dieu! That Is a Revolution!
The French government has had enough of its workers not tolling on weekends, and so decided this week that the three most popular museums in the city will soon remain open every day. Be modern, be...
View ArticleWilliam Kentridge: How We Make Sense of the World
"There is a desperation in al certainty. The category of political uncertainty, philosophical uncertainty, uncertainty of images is much closer to how the world is," says South African artist William...
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New Film Questions The Meaning Of 'Women's Work'
Women have made great strides in the workplace since the sixties, but we are still making 78 cents for each dollar a man earns, and there's still a discrepancy in what's considered "women's work"...
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Steven and William Ladd: Intricate and Intimate
Artists and brothers Steven and William Ladd, are collaborators on a body of work manifested in the realm of reconstructed existence. The brothers, who hail from St. Louis, Missouri and now live and...
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Happy 125th, Moulin Rouge: Vintage Color Photos From the Cancan Mecca
In the world of show business, few addresses carry the cachet of 82 Boulevard de Clichy in Paris' Quartier Pigalle. It is there, after all, that the Moulin Rouge--the model for a certain type of...
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How to View Art: However You Want to
After reading art critic Philip Kennicott's article in the Washington Post this weekend, I felt like I was being punked (does that still happen?) Someone is actually telling people how to view art? And...
View ArticleBrian Dennehy Speaks Intimately About Two Women, Two Loves
Later this week, famed actor Brian Dennehy will say goodbye to his life-long love in exchange for another woman, both of whom are named Melissa. To be specific, it's on stage where Dennehy will make...
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