Something Different!

October 26, 2010
Last night at the Bell House was one of the most exciting musical nights I've ever experienced. Headlining the three act bill was HOTTUB from Oakland, including some friends of mine that I see too rarely. The three-lady MC team put on a ripper of a show and work the crowd into a lathered frenzy of sweat while cooling them off with beer showers... One of the girls, who made no bones about her hefty 150 lbs, coaxed me into hoisting her on my shoulders and parading her around the crowd while she bucked and rapped with no fear of…

Vimeo

October 18, 2010
Internet video has come a long way in a short time and it seems clear that as bandwidth expands, so expands our consumption of web media. Some of this includes Hollywood fare, but a lot (most?) of it is made with a camcorder at zero cost and distributed worldwide at zero cost by hosting sites like YouTube. Vimeo offers the same service but with a culture difference; you could call it a high brow/low brow thing but it seems more like just a caring and encouraging community that appreciates artistic expression. The first annual vimeo awards festival attests to that…

Now Circa Then

September 30, 2010
I saw a great show at Ars Nova last night. Now Circa Then is a play that takes place at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side and concerns the two actors (or the people inhabiting the roles of two 19th century Prussian immigrants in a reenactment) who engage in a relationship both outside and in their stage lives. The play is simple in it's structure and conceit, yet manages to cleverly illuminate the joys and perils of our existence. It is funny, sad, tender and sweet; a play within a play that leaves us searching for our own…

Radiohead Knows

September 24, 2010
In reading a Wall Street Journal article about why so many artists hate videophones (accept it already!), I came across the quiet news that Radiohead fans at a concert in Prague last year culled together a full concert HD video from 60 fans with flipcams. The band not only gave the project approval, but the soundboard recording. The result is incredible. It is Everyfan's view, and the object of his obsession is the most exciting rock band making music today. Obviously it is Radiohead, the first major act to sell their work as pay-what-you-wish download, offering a free concert video…

Awesome Entertainment!

September 23, 2010
The past week has been full of good fun. Friday night was Ween at Central Park: these guys pack a party and serenade the masses with every genre of music imaginable. Saturday evening was my first encounter with Brooklyn Bowl and I love it. Great food from Blue Ribbon and a rawkus stage and pit (with a fun boom box show by Javelin) with a backdrop of balls and lanes make this LEED-certified building a very happening spot. On Sunday I was treated to a dress rehearsal of BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON on Broadway and was so unbelievably excited to…

Fear of Weather

September 16, 2010
I have never been so terrified of weather conditions as I was this afternoon. At about 5:00, it began thundering intensely and incessantly, no rain, but loud and windy, and then, at about 5:30 it hit. It was like a wave crashing into my home. The wind was so violent that rain was coming up into my windows, and took out several plants on the balcony. And it was purple dark... branches torn, trees uprooted and cars crushed. It was phenomenally intense and by 5:50 it was over, leaving only destruction behind. While I have lived through some wild hurricanes,…

Fear of Islam

September 14, 2010
For months now, we have been subjected to a manufactured controversy over a proposed mosque "near" the site of the World Trade Center so I was almost relieved to hear that France's parliament just passed a law prohibiting burqas in public: it's not just our country but the whole world that's gone mad! What is wrong with you people? I can not conceive of a single legitimate reason why anyone would oppose either a mosque in lower Manhattan or a veil covering the face of a devout Muslim. It is completely insane. Sure, I've heard the "reasons" for not wanting…

Maine

September 7, 2010
From Cape Cod to Maine for the final leg of my summer travels... Portland has been blessed by the arrival of Andrew and Rachel last summer. Rachel is involved in the art community there and I attended a vibrant outdoor fair in which she and other local artists set up booths to display and vend their wares, while bands rocked the stage in beautiful weather. We then hit up Hugo's Restaurant, where Andrew is Chef de Cuisine and indulged in gastronomic delight with his absurd tasting menu. Both of them are incredibly creative and passionate artists and have settled into…

The Cape

August 26, 2010
As a tyke, my summers were spent in glorious Cape Cod, so I can't be sure just how much of my love for this place is nostalgic, but darn if it isn't a perfect place to be today! This weekend was an amazing Taylor family reunion, with MomMom and her four sons and daughter-in-laws, plus 10 of the 12 cousins (myself included) and their wives/fiancees/boyfriends congregating in Osterville for beach and beer pong... It isn't often that I see my extended family, but every time I am reminded how awesome this family is; we have our mini-dramas for sure, but…

The Capeman

August 16, 2010
Theater is typically immune to foul weather, but when the venue is Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, The Doppler Radar is the main tool for determining a show's viability. At 8pm, when Paul Simon's Capeman was scheduled to start, standing umbrellaless was a mistake so Alaina and I huddled under the one we had and waited the next hour until it was closer to mist than storm and we filled our seats in the quarter-bowl. Before the head of The Public Theatre, Oskar Eustis, gave his introductory thanks and acknowledgments (calling the Delacorte "the greatest theater in the greatest city…