No Kind of Dancer
It was Robert Earl Keen who sang, on his debut album No Kind of Dancer, “I tried hard to tell you I was no kind of dancer,” and I have always felt I was no kind of one either. Dance was always the one art form I looked at and thought, “I can’t do that, but wish I could.” Maybe it was inhibition. Maybe it was growing up in Texas as a white kid assuming I wasn’t given a dance gene. But that hasn’t dampene...
A Neighborhood Divided
The documentary Battle for Brooklyn, co-directed by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, follows community activist Daniel Goldstein as he fights to preserve his community in the face of the massive Atlantic Yards development that threatens to carve up Prospect Heights. The proposed project would displace many lifelong residents as well as those new to the charming Brooklyn neighborhood. However, not all of Goldstei...
Tiny Poetic Vessels
“That was epic!” This is what contemporary teenagers often exclaim after experiencing something impressive, whether the epic in question is a blockbuster film, a huge fantasy novel, a multi-state road trip, or a resounding crash by an accident-prone friend. From the Greek epic to the haiku, the tragic drama to the sonnet, poetry has spanned the history of literary scope as well as of social and linguistic c...
61 Local: the Profits of Virtue
The buzz of Brooklyn’s BoCoCa neighborhood is a cacophonous mix of old-meets-new. Throw-back butchers, all-the-rage restaurants, inviting art spaces, all- too- proud Brooklyn bars, art installation converted dumpsters, yarn stores that serve alcohol, educational centers, community gardens, and the list goes on. Each establishment possesses its own characteristic quirk. But one spot is a little harder to nail down. ...
My Mother Versus Modern Art
My mother and I walk into an art museum. Already, this sounds like the set-up for a joke, and really it is. You could call it a small miracle that my mother was even willing to step foot inside a building with something called “art” on its walls. Probably the last time we entered the National Gallery together was for my class field trip in fifth grade when, just to be nice, she signed up to be a chaperone. We ...
A Fantastico Heritage
Some people are cultured. So are bacteria. From this comes cheese, hundreds of varieties of cheese, some bitter and bold, others putrid and slimy. The nobility of any particular cheese is mostly a matter of personal taste, though serving a slice of American at a wine tasting would be unthinkable. American cheese doesn’t belong in high society. On the other hand, if you were to find yourself before a little silver t...
The Tyranny of Taste
George Eliot once said, “I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.” She would have loved our modern era. It seems that we have more music available to us, and more music being produced, than ever before. iTunes has over 20 million songs for sale, and as of October 4, 2011 had sold its 16 billionth song. Spotify, the latest trending digital music source, has a 15 million ...
