Somewhere between the restless whispers and silent promises, before this war even reached the homeland, ex-lovers lingered like replases and fractured friendships staggered like fresh brush strokes distorting the unfinished canvas of collaboration My art has become casualty to a tained struggle over land unholy I have been left blinded by the stillness of abstract portraits of pleasures past Intoxicated by the fumes of jealousy My...

Honestly, I just re-subscribed to The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago after being away from it for a few years.  Just didn’t have the time to keep up, such long articles and all.  But if I’d not already done so, coming upon Alex Ross’ “Love on the March” from the November 12 issue would probably have been enough to get me back as a subscriber.  There may be no music journalism better than...

It sounds like a late-night parlor game:  pick two artistic geniuses of the 20th century that you’d like to hear share a conversation in the great beyond. Michael Century had no trouble coming up with a dynamic combination:  experimental composer John Cage and classical pianist Glenn Gould.  He’s paired them up in an unusual concert happening Saturday night at EMPAC and presented by the iEar series. Actually “happening”...

A central city is males up. A central city’s a cluster of corporate cocks and capital’s pride.* Video is the ejaculate of the gleaming corporate cocks; by video they assert  & cum inside your home to breed their money-fodder   *right now Chicago’s Mr. Sears has the biggest one. from Joys & Perplexities (1992, The Jargon Society) 

Cabaret sometimes includes more than just theater songs, but it seems to always mean nostalgia. References to the past — movies, musicals, celebrity biographies — were laid on thick by Charles Busch during his new solo show Sunday night (11/11/12) at Club Helsinki. It was part of the venue’s successful new Broadway series. Appearing in drag, Busch offered a mostly scripted but still free flowing mixture of monologues...

Saturday afternoon the Met’s Live in HD broadcasts features Thomas Ades’ “The Tempest.”  The composer conducts.  Here’s a sampling of reviews of the production starring Simon Keenlyside and directed by Robert Lepage, who seems to have redeemed himself among critics who scorned his staging of The Ring.  Also, some video excerpts and a discussion with Lepage. The work got the royal treatment...

The Times’ Op Ed online pages ask Todd Oldham to do a ballot make-over.  There’s no big revelations here.  Clear design=easier voting. Bad design=George W. Bush.  What’s surprising is what a shaggy dog dear Todd has become. What’s with the beard and the aviator glasses? Still love your work, watch for it on eBay and wish you’d get back to making men’s wear, Todd. But is it hunting season...

Within this restless, hurried, modern world We took our hearts’ full pleasure – You and I, And now the white sails of our ships are furled, And spent the lading of our argosy. Wherefore my cheeks before their time are wan, For very weeping is my gladness fled, Sorrow has paled my young mouth’s vermilion, And Ruin draws the curtais of my bed. But all this crowded life has been to thee No more then lyre, or lute,...

It’s time again to ♥ NY.  That wasn’t the case a week or so ago when I interviewed Milton Glaser.  It was just because two shows of his works were coming to Albany…. Designer Milton Glaser is the man who made the heart symbol into a verb, with the I ♥ NY logo. But over the course of his 50 years as a designer, he’s created many other images that have permeated our culture. Simultaneous exhibits...