Words and Music

From the Classical Vault Dept. : It was a rare treat to see and hear the Golub-Kaplan-Carr trio perform in 1984. They were a top-notch group...

From the Tech Vault Dept. : Here’s another tech oldie, my how-to about compiling a videotape from your existing footage by using a 1994 soft...

From the Culinary Vault Dept .: Twenty years ago I was well into a barbecue craze that had me buying a succession of smokers and perfecting ...

From the Operetta Vault Dept. : Looks like the Bard Summerscape Festival will be back on its feet this summer (2021), and I look forward to ...

FIRST THERE’S A SMALL SENSE OF BETRAYAL. Mark Bittman’s cookbooks are reliable foundational items for any culinary collection, offering sati...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : While poring through old pieces to post here, I play a game with myself: What did I venture out to review 2...

MY SCARLATTI ODYSSEY began with LPs of Ralph Kirkpatrick’s recordings – on the Odyssey label, in fact – after which I was lured to the piano...

From the Theater Vault Dept .: Given my reaction to some of the recent musicals that I’ve been sent to review – recent to me meaning post-19...

Guest Blogger Dept. : Indiana-born George Ade sprang to fame with the publication of Fables in Slang, which first appeared serially in the C...

From the Culinary Vault Dept. : We’ve been very loyal to Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In, the one-of-a-kind burger joint in Scotia, NY, which is ope...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : Contemporary classical music has had a strong area champion in the Dogs of Desire, an Albany Symphony-based...

From the Theater Vault Dept. : This review speaks for itself, exposing me as the stick-in-the-mud that I am, a man whose early diet of Gersh...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : It’s no secret that the classical-music audience in New York’s Albany area is laughably small. There used t...

From the Theatrical Vault Dept. : Wasn’t I the bitchy little critic here! Not that I’ve changed; I’m simply more inclined to avoid the shows...

From the Classical Vault Dept .: What was the classical-music world like in the Albany, NY, area before Covid? Let’s go back 34 years to fin...

Guest Blogger Dept. : Hey, here’s Stephen Leacock again, this time with an essay about health, a topic very much on our minds in these wanin...

  From the Food Vault Dept .: In 1986, after I’d been writing for Albany’s Metroland Magazine for a couple of years, I proposed that we star...

WHAT WOULD MOZART HAVE DONE? We have so much evidence of what he did do that it’s almost unnecessary to ask, but there is a handful of fasci...

From the Classical Vault Dept. : Here’s a piece I wrote about a youthful vocal ensemble that made its debut recording for the Dorian label i...

WE’RE FEELING THE HORRIBLE EFFECTS of a global climate crisis. We’re wracked with guilt over the lousy food we consume – or we should be. Th...