Words and Music

31 May 2015 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

28 May 2015 | Photo by Susan Whiteman

Guest Blogger Dept. : We visited the work of William Dean Howells in “ A She Hamlet ,” his discourse upon Sarah Bernhardt’s performance in t...

From the Back of the Fridge Dept. : This was the last of the handful of reviews I wrote in exchange for a fully-comped meal. In order to ina...

From the Cellar Dept .: Here’s an account of one of my more embarrassing moments, when I was invited, as part of a select group of local pre...

24 May 2015 | Prep and photo by B. A. Nilsson

From the Vault Dept. : Twenty-eight years ago at this time of year I traveled from Chicago, where my parents then lived, to spend Memorial D...

State of the Stage Dept .: It was a pleasure to interview actor John Rubinstein, both because of his brilliant way with a story but also bec...

From the Food Vault Dept .: A friend recently dined at Parillo’s Armory Grill in Amsterdam and wondered if I’d ever been there. Let’s go ba...

What’s for Dinner? Dept. : Having been a fan of Casa Visco products for as long as I’ve lived in the Capital Region, a profile of the family...

11 May 2015 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

Working in Coffeeshops Dept .: There’s a spectacularly ugly child sitting at a table not far from me. So hideous is his aspect that I’m tryi...

From the CD Shelf : I was asked to provide liner notes for a Dorian release that would collect tracks from eleven previously released albums...

Guest Blogger Dept. : Another from the pen of George Ade, a Chicago Newspaperman who Gave the Lie to the Notion that the Middle-West was a b...

Remembrance of Restaurants Past Dept : Casa Oaxaca was a charming little eatery close to Albany’s downtown, a place that never achieved the ...

Better for Verse Dept .: Doggerel written while I was on a business trip (during my computer magazine-writing days), sitting in a hotel bar ...

THE CONCERT FINISHED ABRUPTLY, in mid-phrase. The players lowered their instruments and it became clear to the puzzled audience that, for wh...

From the Classical Vault Dept .: Wish I’d actually seen this concert. The description is enticing enough (at least to my taste) that I must ...

Guest Blogger Dept .: Booth Tarkington already was a best-selling novelist by 1916, from his 1899 debut with The Gentleman from Indiana thr...

When you perform for a living, breathing audience, the crowd offers a number of signals to signify their reaction to your work. Applause, of...