Celebrating Community
The genesis for many of director Susan Seidelman’s movies starts with scribbled notes on subway rides, capturing the essence of strangers who fascinate her. After observing people’s behavior, sketching their outfits and jotting down their words, she tucks these notes in a drawer, waiting for the right moment to use them. Out of this jumble, she crafts many fine films. […]
There are some movies that are such dumb fun they’re impervious to criticism. In fact, scratching too hard at them — tugging on this loose end or poking at that plot hole — does yourself a disservice more than it does the film. Why break the spell? Batman: The Movie (1966) is one such flick, in all of its “Some […]
Review of “For All We Know,” by Mike Fiorito Review by Michael Quinn Do you believe in UFOs? For some, the existence of aliens is a given, based on statistical probability or the (limited) evidence from photos and videos. Others swear they’ve had firsthand encounters, often shrouded in mystery. Years ago, I had a boyfriend who once, with terror in […]
Heirs to the Court of the Crimson King. Pardon my imprudence but I fail to get excited about one or two former members peddling again what a band they were in did 20 or 30 years ago. As crucial to my young listening as Talking Heads and XTC were, the Remain in Light and EXTC revival bands mean little to […]
On June 5, at 7:30 pm, Carroll Park was filled, as usual, with children playing and parents catching up, but on the eastern side of the park, twinkly lights were strung from the back of the Park House and a stage, painted to look like a pool deck, was surrounded by folding chairs. It was Smith Street Stage’s first preview […]
Here in New York City, the jazz capital of the world, hot summer nights mean not just jazz but free jazz. The very idea of Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler playing at Slugs’ Saloon fills me with the image of musicians on the bandstand in a hot, crowded club, the air conditioning failing to compete with the temperature outside, the […]
I went to see J.M. Clifford debut his new album Trains, Thinkin’ And Drinkin’ at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn, NY on June 7th, 2023. I was new to J.M. Clifford’s music, so prior to the show, I spent a few weeks listening to Trains, Thinkin’ And Drinkin’ and his prior album On a Saturday Night, released in 2021. I […]
There is nothing the least bit remarkable about Rita, the protagonist of Chronicles of a Wandering Saint. She lives in a desperately rural Argentinian town. Her job, as a cleaning lady in the desperately old church, is, like, her marriage, desperately mundane. As if to prove that cameras do capture souls, her Facebook profile photos are either underlit smears or […]
Red Hook Brooklyn has a tangled relationship with artists and musicians. A long time resident once confidently told me that he had found Herman Melville’s ink pot and coffee cup in an abandoned outhouse on Beard Street. Olga Bloom “discovered” these quiet shores while scouting a location for her Barge Music project from the deck of a tugboat she had […]
In this country there is no greater work of public art than the mural by Diego Rivera in the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Complex culturally and politically the grand fresco employs the Sistine Chapel sense of gravitas with narrative references to contemporary history and the sweeping saga of human life. It is a masterwork. Now The Red Hook Houses are the […]