I hope you are all well and keeping safe and healthy. In these anxious times, it is both uncomfortable and comforting to be talking about art, books, music, but since others are better positioned [...]

This one deserves a post of its own. Hamlet at St. Ann’s Warehouse.  Hamlet means a lot to me. It was my father’s favorite play. He taught the play for years to his English classes. We saw many [...]

In this edition, an interview, another late-ish show, a play and a museum. And I have a question about a book and a film recommendation. Kwame Anthony Appiah interviewed by David Remnick at the [...]

For the latest in Quick Thoughts/Short Takes, a few museum shows, two music performances, and a surprise on Broadway. Artistic License; Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection at the Guggenheim. I [...]

The next installment of Quick Thoughts, Short Takes, holiday edition. This time, some great performances and a few books. Lionel Loueke.  We saw the great young Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke [...]

This is the second of my Quick Thoughts/Short Takes series, this time a concert, a museum and some great eating. Messiah…Refreshed! On a nasty, cold and rainy Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks [...]

This is a new feature of my site. In this section, I will post—regularly, I hope—short takes on things happening, shows seen or heard, other items I hope you find interesting. I am still working [...]

First, a bit of shameless self-promotion. I have had a few pieces published recently, one, in LitHub, on reading Jane Austen during the pandemic, [...]

A short note. So much has transpired over the past few months. Progress out of the pandemic is slower than anyone would like but is picking up steam with the addition of a third vaccine and [...]

As I have mentioned in my prior posts, I love live jazz, live music in almost any genre, so I felt a particular sense of loss when I got news that the Jazz Standard, one of New York’s premier [...]

Another Veterans Day (see my post of November 14, 2018). But not like any other in my lifetime, or yours I would bet. Still a day to remember all of those who risked everything to do what was [...]

I hope this post finds all of you safe and healthy. In these strange and frightening times, I would like to say I have used every spare moment to read. But there do not seem to be many spare [...]

I am excited to share with you three wonderful works of non-fiction I have read recently. Check them if you have not done so already.   Solitary, by Albert Woodfox.  You [...]

As we left our apartment to take our son to his ride to school recently, my wife asked him whether he leaves a tie in his locker at school, just in case.  His school has a strict dress [...]

Does your reading come in pairs? Books with a common theme, narrative device, use of language, or subject matter? I am not sure this has always been the case for me but several months ago, I [...]

I recently returned from a few days in London, visiting my daughter, who was finishing a semester abroad.  I arranged to stay at a wonderful flat in the Bermondsey area.  I [...]

My son and I went to the Veteran’s Day parade on Sunday.  It was a sunny, crisp, cusp  of winter day in New York. As we stood at the corner of 28thStreet and Fifth Avenue, watching the many [...]