Words and Music

From the Tech Vault Dept. : The X-10 company is still around, now positioning its products more for home security. Back in 1996, when I sca...

Guest Blogger Dept .: More verse by P.G. Wodehouse, proving that even a century ago we lamented the lost art of chit-chat, and with no elect...

From the Vault Dept .: Itzhak Perlman comes to Schenectady’s Proctors Theater on Saturday, which prompted me to check the archives for prev...

What’s for Dinner? Dept .: Let’s check in with this week’s Metroland review.                                                              ...

From the Vault Dept. : They drew audiences of varying size, these silent movies at Proctor’s in Schenectady, and the series limped along for...

"We're the voices in your head . . . " Clockwise from bottom left: Lincoln Mayorga, Lora Lee Ecobelli, Byron Nilsson, And...

Playing with Bacon Dept. : Last fall I was asked to contribute a short play to a festival of one-acts on the theme of bacon that was present...

SIXTY YEARS LATER, the sought-after amount seems even more pitifully tiny, but the pursuit of that stash of cash has lost none of its plausi...

From the Sock Drawer Dept .: While strip joints have proliferated in the Albany area since I wrote this piece in 1986, the Harwood House (ru...

Guest Blogger Dept. : It’s Robert Benchley time – and who better to comment on a current and very annoying preoccupation?                 ...

From the Vault Dept. : Back in the prehistoric days before Albany’s Metroland magazine officially became an alternative newsweekly, I was ab...

What’s for Dinner? Dept. : This week’s Metroland food piece revisits a chef about whom I’ve written a few times before – and I’ve appended o...

Photo by B. A. Nilsson | 15 February 2014

And tonight, for me, it's show time . So I'm indulging in a re-run, referring you to my previously blog-published piece about the sn...

Caffe Lena , Saratoga Springs, 8 PM, Valentine's Day. Love to see you there! Malcolm Kogut, Amy Prothro, Byron Nilsson Photo by Lil...

"Ten from 'Your Show of Shows'" was my introduction to the amazing art of Sid Caesar (although I did see "It's a ...

From the Vault Dept. : My interview, such as it was, with the legendary Natalia Sats is here . The relationship between her Moscow Musical T...

Guest Blogger Dept .: It was quite the scandal in 1925 – at least as far as New York’s theatergoing public was concerned. One “dirty” show a...

From the Vault Dept .: I got a lot of mileage out of a train trip I took to Minneapolis in 1990, spending a week with friends when a show I ...

Day at the Opera Dept .: Opera has always been juicy, reworking the bloody moments of classic drama into entertainment all the more satisfyi...