Summer 2024: Entertainment and Recreation

July 18, 2024
It's hot! Brooklyn is blazing right now and I am baking in this atmospheric energy. Fortunately I have enjoyed ample time off and have ensconced to cooler climes frequently over the past month. Our annual Taylor convention in Maine is always a highlight and while our general itinerary is the same; great company of siblings, parents, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and cousins, fantastic food, boating, fishing, island camping in Casco Bay, hiking in Acadia and relaxing at the cabin, we somehow manage to improve it every year and enjoy it even more as the nine cousins rise in…

Renewal

June 17, 2021
Last night, we had a movie date: dinner and "In The Heights" at the local Nitehawk Cinema. We have watched countless movies at home during the pandemic, but returning to a theater was monumental! Sharing the experience with strangers, laughing and cheering while being served delicious food and beverages, felt like a real return to the community that I love and missed over the past 15 months; I look forward to more concerts and theatre in the near future! I have shifted into summer mode, with reduced work schedule and expanded travel plans. Vaccination rates are high and COVID levels…

Sufjan Stevens at BAM Again!

January 25, 2015
A few years ago, I witnessed a performance that still ranks as the most incredible live event I have ever attended. Sufjan Stevens' BQE at BAM: video of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway with a live score performed by large ensemble and hoop dancers. It was such a unique and special event and I cherish it as an inspiring and beautiful demonstration of audio-visual possibilities. Last night, he performed his newest piece, Round-Up, with slow-motion rodeo footage and an entrancing score performed by Sufjan and quartet Yarn/Wire. It was phenomenal. The music was layered and textured, with a propulsive Steve Reich feel,…

Philip Seymour Hoffman

February 5, 2014
His death is haunting me. Since the moment I read of his demise, I have been wrestling with the grim details and vividly imagining his final moments. I do not follow celebrity news, but for all his fame, he seemed like a true man of the people. I have seen him around town at various theater events and he was dedicated to that world--one that most movie stars abandon entirely or dabble in only occasionally. He was immersed in the craft and pursued it completely; it is obvious he had a true passion for the work and his career is…

Zero Dark Thirty

January 29, 2013
We all know how this movie ends; there is no possibility that the bad guy gets away to set up a sequel. Spanning 10 years, from the frantic 911 calls on 9/11 to the raid on Bin Laden's compound last year, we watch the inside of the story that we lived during that time, and despite the fact that we can anticipate all the major events of this drama, it is one of the most suspenseful and compelling movies I've ever seen. I passionately hate war, torture, terrorism and murder, but I sat through all of it without judgement; I…

Amour

January 23, 2013
It is hard to think of a less fun movie than "Amour". It had its chuckles here and there, but they were just brief respites from the pain and suffering of the film. In entertainment, one of life's great escapes, we generally choose easy/painless and happy/fun. This seems like a reasonable choice, but misses out on some of humanity's heaviest emotional responses. Without sorrow, would there be joy? As I sat through this film, I was uncomfortable and depressed, but also perfectly aware that I was in the presence of great art. Interestingly, the most profound aspect of the movie…

Kraftwerk

April 17, 2012
I'm pretty sure I laughed when I first heard "The Robots" for the first time in 9th grade. It was... ridiculous. I had never heard anything like it before and it truly seemed like a parody, yet there was something ingenious about it that I couldn't quite comprehend. When I finally came around and really started listening to electronic music ten years later, it dawned on me that Kraftwerk were true pioneers and far ahead of their time. I saw them perform seven years ago and they absolutely blew my mind with a triptych of video projections at Hammerstein Ballroom,…

Buster Keaton and Guitars

January 18, 2012
Buster Keaton films are the very definition of classic; they are time machines to an era of simplicity and authenticity, and I am always struck by how real it all seems, despite the obvious ridiculousness of the plots and slapstick. This was filmmaking in its purest magic, before special effects became the attraction. It is the characters and the core of their actions, be they brutal physical comedy or tender facial expressions, that hold our attention and connect with an audience a century later. Thia week I attended two evenings of the New York Guitar Festival featuring seven Buster Keaton…

The Last Lions

March 8, 2011
Real drama is always more interesting to me than scripted drama, and documentaries are the most likely to blow my mind in a movie theater.  When I stepped into The Anjelika to see National Geographic's The Last Lions, I experienced some of the most intense fear, relief, heartache and joy I have ever felt in a dark box with flashing lights. This drama unfolds in Botswana and follows a tiger family going through a period of extreme trauma and the stark choices they must make for survival. There is a script to this movie as well, narrated by Jeremy Irons,…

Beautiful Losers

February 5, 2011
I watched a great documentary called "Beautiful Losers" about a group of artists who redefined popular art in the 1990s, including Mike Mills, Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine, Ed Templeton and Margaret Kilgallen. Their work came out of graffiti and skateboard culture and brought art to the masses in a Do-It-Yourself and independent style as the visual equivalent to the indie scene in music and movies that burgeoned in that period. The interviews with the artists are fascinating, allowing a glimpse into the minds of these incredibly creative people; they discuss their process and evolution of the art world, from being…