Reviews & Articles

Nader conveys that eliminating our toxic mindset begins with identifying whether we operate our lives with humility or hubris. Humility allows us to admit our weaknesses, accept our strengths, and live truthfully. Conversely, hubris is a life filled with deception. Nader’s readers are encouraged to choose whether they lead a life of hubris or humility; the outcome is in your control, depending on which way you live.

Symphony Space at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, sponsored a delightful evening event entitled Selected Shorts: The Best American Short Stories 2022.

Hallelujah Junction featured nine company ballerinas and danseurs draped in the sartorial elegance of black and white attire metaphorically linked both to the keys of a piano and the musically rich, cyclic intones of Adams's oeuvre.

Wendy Moten ascended to the Birdland stage with a smile and charm that lit up the room. From her first words and the comfortable swing tempo of her first song, All of Me, Moten emerged as a poised, expressive, and consummate artist. She conveyed her passionate insights with a beautiful, clear voice and through her ability to command any genre she desired.

For the first time in 35 years, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts returned to the stage. Envisioned initially by Ellington as a “Festival of Grace,” provenance for Sacred Concerts is informed by a broad spectrum of jazz, classical and choral music, spirituals, dance, gospel, and blues. Ellington’s compositional product in this venue consisted of a triptych of 34 songs originally recorded in 1965, 1968, and 1973 respectively. It can be argued that an august ...

The rich baritone voice of raconteur Frank Zilinyi launched Radiotheatre’s deliciously macabre exordium of The Haunting of 85 East 4th Street, a dark, spellbinding tale of New York City history, horror, mysterious sounds, ghosts, curses, cannibals, occult, exorcisms, diablerie, and doom. Zilinyi and his partner Zero Boy were our able cicerones, guiding us through a hypnotizing tale of gripping suspense and almost unspeakable dread.

Readers should know Roger Deakin and Robert MacFarlane have written essential pieces of literature that boil it down to this; they share the vision that it's safer in the water. There's shelter from harm when communing with the environment; the top of a mountain provides sanctuary for many. Through their well-written prose, Deakin and MacFarlane's stories will transport you on a personal voyage.

Blake Allen’s Insomnia is a cerebral, enigmatic, and mystifying artistic creation chronicling a night of an insomniac narrator. Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Sleep and Waking” (1934), Allen mobilizes the power of music to dramatize and intensify the import of the conflicting tensions of the restive, lone sufferer.

Benjamin Franklin the man emerged as a frowzy, flawed, and crafty roué, relentlessly attempting to seduce the married Mme Brillon. Franklin deftly engaged and modified his façon de parler and wits to enamor the charming Brillon while also initiating, to no avail, games of chess with personal stakes to tarnish Brillon’s marital honor.

Maestro Botstein and The Orchestra Now demonstrated their capacity to express powerful rich intones, frenetic fugatos, and exquisite, intense subtleties.

Wendel's songs are strikingly original, expressive, and extraordinarily inventive. His ideas and improvisations are freely chromatic, virtuosic, and organic, and he employed subtle be-bop idioms when it suited him. His facility is so commanding that he regularly reaches into the stratosphere of the tenor saxophone's extended range. Notably, he can express ideas with the restraint of Lester Young while employing the pyrotechnics of Charlie Parker.

It was a great meal and tour! We learned about the Chinese Gangs and Mafia Dons and what became of them. We walked to Washington Square Park and learned about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the hanging tree in the Park, and a tragic partying event in the Arch that sits in the park at the base of Fifth Avenue.