Sweet Maryjane how she rambles and rains/ down from the rooftops dropping her pain/ she looks like a photograph/ she looks like a photograph/ she looks like a photograph again BACK IN 1977 when all the headbanging began for me, New York was a city of rooms: The Factory, the Bunker, The Punk Dump, Mickey […]
In a storefront like any other on Avenue C, between a burger joint and a convenience store, sits the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MORUS). Though many museum curators stay shut up in their offices when not hunting for new acquisitions or donors, the same cannot be said about Bill Di Paola, the museum’s founder.
Keeping it real on the Lower East Side, by J. Barnes Read More »
There’s something I’ve said frequently while writing about classical music for the last couple decades, which is that there’s no such thing as difficult music. Sure, there’s some music that may have less general appeal than others, but that doesn’t make it difficult. What “difficult” means in music is that it is unfamiliar in some
Jazz: Ancient Stories, by George Grella Read More »
The New York–based performance team of Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland (billing themselves simply as “Xhloe and Natasha”) has — over the past four years — made tsunami-like splashes at the famed Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The duo has been feted in Scotland for their compelling two-hander dramas, which bring clown play to original texts and
A Friday afternoon coffee in my neighborhood, Gramercy Park, a little subterranean joint on Irving. It’s a gorgeous day, with the early, flat Fall sun making everything glimmer, camera-ready. I sit on the bench outside the shop, latte in one hand a novel called “Sweetbitter” in the other. But then I hear a voice behind
So Maybe It’s Natalie Portman, by Joe Caccamo Read More »
On Saturday March 29, ACT UP staged a powerful protest as hundreds of angry New Yorkers marched through the streets of the West Village and the Meatpacking District. Billed as ACT UP 38th Anniversary Action: Death by 1000 Musk Cuts, the event started with a rally at the AIDS Memorial Park, where a speaker led
ACT UP Protests Musk Read More »
One frigid afternoon in late December, many years ago, my brother and I hopped on a train headed for Grand Central. Upon our arrival, we marveled briefly at the constellations and the narrow walkways between the high windows, before transferring to a downtown express. We couldn’t stifle our grins and the train couldn’t hurtle past
Food: A holiday tradition with a long history Read More »
Sweden is a place of plenty of holiday celebrations. My American friends usually say midsummer with the fertility pole and the wacky dances when I tell them about Swedish holidays, but to me — and I’d wager few Swedes would argue against this — no holiday is as anticipated as Christmas. Further, I would argue
Celebrating Christmas in Sweden Read More »
Over the years I’ve spent a whole lot of time at our two Village library branches, and as a result I sometimes end up making friends with the librarians. Lately I’ve gotten to know head librarian Emil Allakhverdov, who’s been at Hudson Park since 2017. He’s an Armenian who grew up in Ukraine, and he
Unassuming repositories of history Read More »
The New York Public Library is really bringing it all back home with its small but stunning exhibit Becoming Bohemia: Greenwich Village, 1912-1923. The tightly curated show, open until February 1, fills two rooms on the first floor of the flagship location on Fifth Avenue. If you love the Village and its history, don’t miss
A paean to the Village Read More »
