Words and Music

From the Vault Dept. : Here’s another in a lengthy series of workaday pieces I churned out over the years, a preview of such arts events as ...

From the Food Vault Dept .: In the restaurant business, Mother’s Day is the busiest while Father’s Day typically is a walk in the park. Rest...

THREE CHORDS UNDERLIE the Blues, the same three chords that inform much of the more popular examples of western music. In a Blues song they ...

IN 1959, THE DAY AFTER my third birthday, my father flew me from our home in Cincinnati to visit his parents in Astoria. We traveled on a D...

26 May 2016 | Photo by B. A. Nilsson

Welcoming You to the World Dept .: When I wrote the piece below, my wife was beginning her seventh month of pregnancy with our only child. B...

From the Vault Dept.: I suspect that, like bagpipers and Barack Obama, barbershop quartets inspire only the most extreme opinions. I took a...

From the Vault Dept .: I’m revisiting old technology. More specifically, I’m digitizing cassettes that seem worth keeping, cassettes that ha...

THERE’S A MYTH OF HEROISM handed down to young men that seems especially attractive as the teenaged years set in. It suggests that there’s a...

From the Nostalgic Dining Vault: Of the several review visits I paid over the years to Jumpin’ Jack’s, Scotia’s venerable seasonal burger m...

BY THE TIME THE PIANO MAKES ITS ENTRANCE in Brahms’s Concerto No. 1, we’ve been through a great deal of tumult. The piece is in D minor, emp...

From the Restaurant Vault Dept .: We’re only going back three years for this one because it’s important for you to celebrate the warming wea...

From the Recorded Vault Dept .: It appears now that most of the big-time record labels have run out of reissues. Boxed sets used to rain upo...

From the Culinary Vault Dept .: Are you in the mood for some hot dogs? The secret of the little wieners we’re talking about is both that the...

From the Back of the Vault Dept .: Thirty-some years ago, composer Tom Savoy and I wrote a musical titled Presenting Lily Mars , based on a ...

IT HAPPENS WHENEVER I ENTER a convenience store or restaurant or laundromat or – really, any place where two or more people are gathered. It...

From the Musical Vault Dept .: During the past few days, we heard from composer Vincent Plush and violinist Stephanie Chase as they prepar...

From the Vault Dept. : Yesterday’s post reprinted my 1989 interview with composer Vincent Plush, who had enlightening and envy-provoking th...

From the Vault Dept .: The issue of America’s musical identity has dogged this country since its founding, and, more than any other topic, h...

From the Food Vault Dept. : The seasonal eateries are coming back to life, which means that you can crowd into Kay’s on Burden Lake where th...