Words and Music

Guest Blogger Dept. : Robert Benchley takes a gamble here to write about luck, our conceptions of which we can safely characterize as supers...

From the Tech Vault Dept .: Another of those mystery pieces that leap into my lap from time to time, in this case as I searched for somethin...

YOU WILL COME AWAY from this book with no doubt about Alex M. Stein’s love for his favored music. In fact, no matter how fervent a music-lov...

AS A LIFELONG CAT PERSON, I am most comfortable when my beast of the moment is snoozing on the nearby chair or prowling the house and yard f...

From the Food Vault Dept .: It’s the 25th anniversary of the review posted below, a review of a restaurant in Amsterdam, NY, that had been i...

EUGENE YSAŸE was one of last of the virtuoso violinist-composers who dominated the late 19th century, but unlike Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps, ...

Art Isn’t Easy Dept. : Just when you thought that the late John Updike had once and for all dropped his pen, along comes yet another weighty...

From the Tech Archives Dept. : I found this pair of pieces in my archives and had a terrific laugh at the enthusiasm with which I celebrated...

HAVING TOILED IN THE TRENCHES of journalism for over forty years (albeit the more rarefied trenches of classical music, theater, and other c...

THE MAVERICK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CONCERT is an annual event that recently welcomed the Caroga Arts Ensemble as its resident ensemble, a fittin...

Mark Twain Dept. : Twain tinkered with storytelling techniques throughout his life as he transitioned from scrappy journalist to grand old m...

THE PORTRAIT OF BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ that emerged during a day of Martinů-related events at Bard College was uniquely unusual. He was a Czech-bo...

From the Food Vault Dept .: It’s the time of year when I should be schlepping to the Berkshires to frolic amongst the theaters and eateries ...

POOR TOM RAKEWELL! He’s a lazy fellow looking for easy money, trying to hang onto his fiancée Anne Trulove even as her father disparages his...

YOU’RE SAVVY ENOUGH to wish to dine responsibly. You visit farmers’ markets in season; perhaps you cultivate a vegetable plant or two. You’v...

PUBLISHED IN 1984, the novel The House on Mango Street became a best-seller for author Sandra Cisneros, selling over six million copies and ...

THE 1985 PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING MUSICAL “Sunday in the Park with George” makes its Glimmerglass Festival debut in a handsome, enthusiastic, ...

JEALOUSY AND DESIRE: Two emotions that provoke nearly all the pain we suffer and the pain we inflict. Each is a confluence of component emot...

MANY OF THE SONGS we choose to sing spring to our lips because they’ve been drilled into our brains by corporate profit-fueled repetition, c...

Happy Independence Day. As we continue to move through the most fraught, dangerous era in American history, let me offer some advice culled ...