Words and Music

From the Cookbook Shelves Dept .: I made the lasagna recipe from the book Laurina’s Kitchen , and it’s amazing. Fluffy and flavorful, a perf...

YOU’RE SURROUNDED BY BEES. They move with a purpose, settling on a hive’s landing board abulge with yellow pollen, or clustered on a hive fr...

Get Your Tickets Now Dept. : Interviewing Patricia Kelly was like talking to an old friend. It didn’t hurt that I discovered the magic of Ge...

From the Vault Dept. : Jin Kim took the baton of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in 2000, an ensemble I’d been trying to pay attention to f...

Shepherd across the river, You are not afraid; Sing baïlèro lèrô I am not afraid, and you, too, can sing Baïlèro lèrô. Shepherd, t...

It’s been a year since novelist Thomas Berger died. His beautifully crafted novels were a tremendous influence on the development of my own ...

From the Vault Dept .: My first of three reviews of a now long-gone restaurant that thrived in a time before the Food Network destroyed any ...

From the Vault Dept .: As it happens, I’m married to a Whiteman from New York’s Columbia County who believes that the Colorado Whitemans – f...

From the Vault Dept .: Here’s a look back to the opening concert of Union College’s 2007 season, when pianist Richard Goode burned up the St...

3 July 1989 | Watercolor by Gerian Williams

“ ET IN ARCADIA EGO ” is inscribed on one of the trompe l’oeil stones forming the backdrop to Cato’s encampment in north Africa. “I am in Pa...

What’s for Dinner? Dept .: I made a brief return to the restaurant-review business this week so I could extol an out-of-the-way place called...

COULD IT BE A MASTERPIECE? Is it possible that this thing, fashioned from whole cloth by one or more creative souls, has achieved a rare lev...

From the Recorded Vault Dept .: Back in 1989, we still were looking for significant recordings from the LP era (and earlier) to make their w...

YOU CAN COUNT ON THE BARD MUSIC FESTIVAL for textural extremes. Last Saturday’s programs ran a gamut from a charming sonata for guitar and h...

Glen, NY | 12 August 2015 Photo by B. A. Nilsson

From the Food Vault Dept .: Here’s my account of my first review of Sam’s in Albany, an institution well deserving of its solid reputation. ...

NATURE IS SHAMELESS about offering its beauty, leaving it up to us to interpret the aesthetics. It’s easy to take it for granted—to stop loo...

Provincetown, MA | 3 August 2015 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

WHEN SAINT CATHERINE ADDRESSES the audience in Jane Anderson’s new play Mother of the Maid , it’s with the easy familiarity of someone verse...