Public Opinion
What started as an editorial assignment to document public opinion about the US invasion of Iraq turned into a project examining how people are misinformed and confused by news and governmental spin on the war.
One Heck of a Hootenanny
Dan Zanes is not afraid to employ lap steel, trombone, saxophone, tambourine, mandolin, accordion, balalaika, tuba, tin whistle, fiddle, or anything else that helps step up the fun.
Waxing Poetic
The encaustic boom is going strong. “Encaustic Works 2007,” R&F Encaustic’s biannual juried exhibition, was chosen from approximately 3,000 entries, by the artist Joan Snyder.
The Good Word
Spoken-word performance, the artform so identified with Manhattan’s East Village of poverty, drug addiction, and AIDS, has once again inched its way up the Hudson.
Witness to History
Ron Haviv’s photo of a Serb militiaman kicking a dying Muslim woman in the head—published a week before the fighting started—became one of the most enduring images of the Balkan conflict.
Living Blues Treasure
Not only is Honeyboy Edwards alive, kicking, and sharp as a fresh toothpick, he’s on the road, making a rare and not-to-be-missed stop at the Rosendale Cafe on September 8.
Letter to the Editor: The Great Elixir
When grown men dress as nuns and do a dance, the usual forum is the asylum.
First Impression: The Tree Fort
I was in love with a blond girl named Cynthia. Blond is the best description I can give because I never saw her close up.
Bacon #1
Grady prefers to call these pieces “big heads” rather than portraits, explaining that a portrait often involves defining a psychological aspect of a person and conveying that through the painting.
Editor’s Note: Sardines/Oranges
This exchange reminded me of a poem long buried in my memory, about a poet visiting a painter’s studio and watching him paint (while drinking, of course).
Portfolio: Richard Merkin
The great thing about being an artist is this: All the things you’ve done, all the pictures you’ve made, they’ll stay and say what you wanted to say.
Poem: The Trees
Trees do not walk. Because if trees could walk I would teach them to run. Put them to work. Make them do things.
Poem: A New Love
Empty. No one quite able to plug the holes in this protector’s heart left by my own desertion, AWOL by choice and damned for it.
Poem: STOP!
don’t you know what its like to be on the brink?
brink of age brink of love brink of magic brink of the cliff.
Poem: Mike Loves Gail, In a Poem
Mike is marrying Gail this weekend writer, and I’d like to tell you why no catastrophes no truths no what life is about stories.
Poem: Amsterdam
Don’t judge me For looking in a lustful way And not feeling the least bit sorry For the third-world woman in the window In the sin-red panties Smoking a cigarette.
Poem: A Retiree’s Journal
I look forward to a knock on my door; be it from a friend passing by, or a witness for Jehovah.
American Portrait Project
“American Portrait Project,” Deborah DeGraffenreid’s examination of the nation’s polyglot face, will be exhibited at the Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art through September 29.
CD Review: The Christine Spero Group
Whether your thing is jazz, pop, or Brazilian/Latin grooves, Christine Spero’s _My Spanish Dream_ will transport you to a loftier place.
CD Review: Ratboy
In Ratboy, their signature lyrical and harmonic twist-up shows such influences as Beck (the urban pop country-esqe “Falling Up”) and Lou Reed (the haunting “El Futuro”).
CD Review: The Powder Kegs
The Powder Kegs are ace players on fiddle, guitars, doghouse bass, banjo, and mandolin, and still manage to deliver all of their chosen tunes with a subtext of contagious joy.
Gutter Rock Girl
Weird isn’t the word for this spectacle; the Laura Pepitone Show and her infinite energy are almost too much—dizzying, inspiring, funny, and extremely entertaining, in one surreal serving.
The Future of an Illusion
Documenta 12 has been subject to some of the most scathing criticism I’ve ever seen for a major art exhibition (aside from a few editions of the Whitney Biennial).
The Cream of the Crop: A Guide
Make like the black bear (who can feed up to 20 hours per day preparing for winter) and take advantage of the smorgasbord sure to be provided by one of this year’s many food and drink festivals.
Spiritual Inventory
When Jeff Cuiule and Audrey Cusson bought Mirabai, a holistic bookstore, there were many naysayers. But their store has doubled its income in the last three years alone.
Omega Rising
A center for wellness and personal growth, Omega is a mecca of spiritual ideas and methodologies and a platform for many of the world’s foremost thinkers.
Book Reviews: Land of Stone: Breaking Silence Through Poetry
Karen Chase begins her preface by calling _Land of Stone_ “a story of silence and kinship.” It is also a story about love, healing, and the redemptive power of poetry—and it is unlike anything you’ll ever read.
Book Reviews: Russian Lover and Other Stories
A well-done short story feels miraculous, the selection of just the right moments and details to create an entire reality in a bite-sized handful of pages. Woodstock author Jana Martin gets it right.
Book Reviews: Trashed
_Trashed_ is a delightful romp through the sordid and deliciously sleazy world of the Hollywood tabloid media machine and the seriously neurotic, occasionally psychotic stars who feed it.
Perennial Voyager
There are few laudatory adjectives that critics haven’t applied to John Ashbery’s 26 books of poetry; “dazzling,” “sublime,” and the like become shopworn.
It’s an Ed Thing
The first thing to know about the band Eddie from Ohio, is that, yes, there is an Eddie but, no, he’s not from Ohio.
Joshing Around
Today the Great Josh Billings RunAground draws more than 400 teams made up of one, two, three, or four people, most of them wearing spandex and sporting state-of-the-art shoes, bikes, canoes, and kayaks.
River Keeper
Annea Lockwood has created an “aural journey” from the river’s source—the beautifully named Lake Tear of the Clouds, in the high peaks of the Adirondacks—to its terminus in New York harbor.
Irish Symphony
n 1607, a pair of powerful Irish noblemen fled Ireland to seek help against the tightening grip of English domination. Robinson McClellan used the earls’ travels and travails to structure his piece.
The House Strained Peas Built
The centerpiece of the collection is a first-rate group of Winslow Homer paintings and watercolors, followed by a strong collection of works from the “Ash Can School,” urban realists working in the early 20th century.
La Vie En Rose
The Real Food Film Series takes a turn from the political to the sublime on September 7 with _Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers_, director Les Blank’s 57-minute-long ode to garlic, the “stinking rose.”
Creating From Your Center
Jeff Davis is running the first longterm study of yoga’s effects on students’ creative productivity, with students from the Masters of Fine Arts program at Western Connecticut State University.
Classical Homeopathy: Alive and Well
When David Kramer’s chronic allergies were eliminated by homeopathic treatment, he knew there was something remarkable afoot in this approach.
Getaway from Cliche
Take your honeymoon down the road less traveled: Get inspired to forge a journey that reflects who you are as a couple by considering these suggestions.
Dream a Little Theme
Celebrity weddings, along with a barrage of magazines, television shows, and websites geared toward brides-to-be, have accelerated a growing trend in the industry—the theme wedding.
Drive On
Chris Stain’s art is a way of coming to terms with a life he is no longer part of. As an adolescent, he says, he knew he wanted to escape a blue-collar existence.
Esteemed Reader
One of Woody Allen’s most oft-repeated quotes is, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Which begs the question: Even if I am showing up bodily, how much of me is truly showing up?
Local Luminary: Philip Morris
Everyone who’s lived in the Capital Region over the past five years has noticed the wave of rapid changes here, but it’s unlikely anyone has observed them more intimately than Philip Morris, the burly CEO of Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.
Art Review: Idyll Rich
To think that a rich, young American couple could have inspired great art in a variety of media on two continents through the sheer force of their personalities and lifestyle is almost beyond imagination.
Portfolio: Judith Linhares
From a distance, Judith Linhares’s paintings are pure candy-coated fantasies. The colors strike you first, pinks and purples, phosphorous greens, aqua- and ultramarines.
Hold the Bread on that Sandwich, Please
Gluten is the probable main culprit in celiac, an autoimmune disease that can damage the small intestines and makes it difficult for people with the illness to absorb nutrients from other food.
Parting Shot: Daisy Chung
Chung is a food service worker in Albany who took part in a nationwide project that provides cameras to union workers as an opportunity to document their lives.
Beinhart’s Body Politic: Secrets
Common sense, certain events, and most of the great theoreticians make it seem self-evident that secrets are crucial in war.
Stories of the Displaced
Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Iraqis are fleeing their homes per month, according to Rana Sweis, spokesperson for the Jordanian office of the UNHCR.
CD Review: Lee Shaw Trio
Venerable jazz pianist Lee Shaw simply shines with her nine-song CD of self-penned compositions Originals, the first release of her own tunes in a lengthy career.
CD Review: The Tequila Mockingbirds
The Tequila Mockingbirds take a rather quirky approach to the songs they cover, and their sound is energetic, sometimes even catchy.
CD Review: Los Straitjackets
Yet the existential question remains: Is this contextual reframing a creative fusion of cultural flavors, or just a generous helping of Mexican pizza?
“Everything is Okay, We’re in the Song”
One is a venerated Capital Region jazz legend, while the other is one of the most compelling young artists to come out of upstate New York in years.
The Cream of the Crop
Make like the black bear (who can feed up to 20 hours per day preparing for winter) and take advantage of the smorgasbord provided by one of this year’s many food and drink festivals.
The Time is Ripe
While the coming of fall heralds changes in schedules and climates, it also provides a wonderful opportunity to experience locally grown melons.
Sometimes You Want to Go
The Blue Plate Restaurant is one of those rarities that possess a definitive but indescribable essence—what’s known in Latin as genius loci, or “spirit of place.”
Editor’s Journal
I had already figured out that the course of events there was being charted by men no honorable person could emulate: men with names like Westmoreland, Calley, and Nixon.
Cannes Do
Since it was launched in 2000, the Edwood Film Festival has become the Capital Region’s preeminent annual film event.
Never Look Down
Instead of taking the role of armchair critic, sitting back and celebrating his own good taste, Harith Abdullah decided to get out and put his experience to use and start a record label.
Book Reviews: When Madeline Was Young
_When Madeline Was Young_ is conceptually imaginative and potentially haunting, yet Madeline’s unique world failed to materialize in that ethereal transit zone between page and heart.
Book Reviews: The Family Diamond
Schwarzschild’s new short story collection provides real emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic nourishment, never offering simplistic resolutions to complex situations.
Short Takes
Reviews of books by Dr. Lewis Marola, Naton Leslie, Jon Katz, Paul Grondahl, and Bruce Piasecki.
Writing His Way Home
Like the disadvantaged tooth fairy in his latest novel, hatched parentless in an old tin can, author Gregory Maguire had a rough start.
