Words and Music

From the Food Vault Dept .: A piece I wrote just last summer, celebrating a trendy place in trendy Troy, NY, yet it’s a place with none of t...

I WON’T BE WATCHING THE OSCARS, but I usually don’t. A long-ago trauma put me off the show, which is really a case of blaming a blameless en...

From the Food Vault Dept.: There’s a small eatery on Schenectady’s Erie Boulevard that for many years – at least through much of the 1980s ...

From the Vault Dept.: Here’s one of the most unusual (for me) pieces I’ve cranked out over the years. Many years ago, a friend had taken a ...

From the Food Vault Dept .: I lunched at the Redwood Diner not long ago and am happy to report that it just as accommodating as it was when ...

WENDELL BERRY HAS BEEN THE CONSCIENCE of rural America for several decades, presenting a cohesive, considered response to the over-industria...

From the CD Shelf Dept .: The admirable show- and movie-centric label DRG reissued a pair of Noël Coward albums back in 2003 – albums origi...

This blog would like to take a moment to salute the 117th or 118th (there is a small, flickering dispute out there) birthday of Jascha Heife...

From the Smut Vault Dept. : Back in the glory days of the internet’s infancy, I wrote a computer-information column for a magazine called D-...

From the Back of the Fridge Dept .: Back when I was reviewing restaurants for Albany’s Metroland magazine, we enacted a policy whereby we di...

From the Vault Dept .: I treasured the six-record set of Lionel Hampton’s small-group recordings that was issued in the waning days of the L...

From the Classical Vault Dept .: Speaking of Borodin , I found an eleven-year-old review I wrote of the Albany Symphony in which that compos...

Guest Blogger Dept .: Let's revisit the poetry of P.G. Wodehouse, with an piece from 1901 that reminds us how little has changed.   ...

From the Vault Dept. : Having seen this ensemble perform in Troy, NY – and, as you’ll read below, having been very impressed – I was pleased...

From the Smoker Dept. : The reason I no longer get out to barbecue joints these days is because I’ve got my own smoker going in the backyard...

From the Wine Cellar Dept .: I attended and wrote about the Albany American Wine Festival for several years – here’s one such account – and...

NEARLY A HALF-CENTURY AGO, I celebrated the turn of the year (and a turn of the decade) with a trio of friends and a pair of boxes of pizza,...

Here's a peek -- shot during a very casual rehearsal -- at what'll be on tap when Malcolm Kogut and I bring our cabaret show to Stea...

From the Food Vault Dept.: It’s nice to report that Maggie’s Café and Sports Grill is still going strong. It’s not a place I’d visit regul...

From the Vault Dept .: This year, the Albany Berkshire Ballet gave its 43rd annual tour of “The Nutcracker,” which played at The Egg in Alba...