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Why Preserving Pakistan's Cultural Heritage Should Matter to the United States
We walked beside the now dusty wash that once contained the mighty but ever shifting Indus River, puzzling out the names of long-deceased members of royal dynasties now barely remembered. I was...
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Stage Door: A Month in the Country
Chekhov, like Flaubert, was a fan of Ivan Turgenev, a 19th-century Russian writer whose short stories about the feudal system first put him on the literary map. He was keen on the psychological life...
View ArticleFirst Nighter: Schilling, Dinklage, Edwards Spend 'A Month in the Country'
If you go by Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, revived at Classic Stage Company, you might conclude the revered Russian literary man was more of a city lover. As we used to say to someone stating...
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Tanya Habjouqa's 'Occupied Pleasures': Keeping Our Humanity
"...there are two types of people: those who cast their suffering and sins into the streets so they can sleep and those who collect the people's suffering and sins mold them into crosses, and parade...
View ArticleA Fly on the Wall in the Last Days of Chivalry
Since my 'Anjou Trilogy' takes place at the French court in the first half of the 15th century, I thought I would try and describe what you might see, were you a fly on the wall. Despite continual...
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Imagine Yourself as an Asteroid: Olafur Eliasson's Contact, at Fondation...
Olafur Eliasson, Touch, 2014. All images courtesy of Fondation Louis Vuitton, Photo: Iwan Baan. "First imagine that you are an asteroid," Olafur Eliasson's voice intones purposefully. "Focus on the...
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Gisela Colon at Ace Gallery: Light & Space Art Gains Content
The best art works on many levels. Gisela Colon's recent solo show, entitled Pods, at Ace Gallery reminded me of this fact. Her bulbous vacuum-formed plastic wall sculptures are painted with a...
View ArticleMet Opera: Love and Obsession in 'Iolanta' and 'Bluebeard's Castle'
At first thought, the heroines of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle wouldn't seem to have a lot in common. But as the Metropolitan Opera's snow-delayed opening of those two...
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The Man Who Drew Jaws
_____________________________________________________________ As an '80s kid, there are three or four movies that still stick with me to this day; The Karate Kid, Back To The Future, and JAWS. I can...
View ArticleNight Will Fall: Film Review
I have been wanting to write about Night Will Fall, aired last week on HBO. It's a documentary about a documentary. The original, produced by Sidney Bernstein for the British Psychological Warfare...
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Coping With Class Distinctions
Despite all the hopes and dreams of finding one's own true love, the cynics among us know that love can wreak havoc on our lives. Contrary to Erich Segal's assertion in his 1970 romance novel entitled...
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American Sniper
What's a hero? Odysseus is one of the most famous heroes in literature and the complexity of his return might be said to be a metaphor for the perils of the calling. As you may recall when Odysseus...
View ArticleFrom Myanmar, With Love: An Ancient Buddha's Historic Journey to New York City
Asia Society Museum's history-making exhibition, Buddhist Art of Myanmar, opens February 10, 2015, in New York. Exploring Buddhist narratives and regional styles, Buddhist Art of Myanmar is the first...
View ArticleThe Elephant Man; A Portrait of Dignity
Bradley Cooper's stupendous rendering of Joseph Merrick in director Scott Ellis' Broadway production of The Elephant Man is painful to watch -- both literally and figuratively. Merrick suffered from...
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CD Review: "The Great Escape" by The Great Escape
Album: The Great Escape Artist: The Great Escape Style: Alternative, Pop Released: October 17, 2014 Reviewed by: Christopher Zoukis In today's world, most bands attempt to search for, and lay claim...
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CD Review: "I Am Love" by I Am Love
Album: I Am Love Artist: I Am Love Style: Folk, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock Released: January 20, 2015 Reviewed by: Christopher Zoukis and Randy Radic I Am Love just released a self-titled album...
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Finding Solutions to Ballet's Diversity Problem
Dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem. Photo courtesy of FLATT Magazine/Christina Lessa. Looking at its history, it's no surprise that ballet today is still very racially homogeneous. Ballet was born...
View Article14 Rules for Being Friends With a Writer
Being friends with a writer comes with a certain set of caveats, or rules if you will, that you simply must accept if you're going to really appreciate the relationship you have with your writer...
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A World Without Tolerance
Coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau and seven decades after the end of the Second World War, I was humbled to take part in this year's United Nations Holocaust...
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Feminism Awakens In Himalayan Buddhist Art and Meditation
On the left is Mahapajapati Gotami, the Buddha's stepmother and aunt and the first woman to request and receive ordination from the Buddha. In the mural seen here and immediately below she is...
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