Applications are currently being accepted for the 2021 New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA). The four-week summer program will be held fully online to ensure safety during the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Tuition will be free for all students who qualify, fostering equity by allowing students who may not have been able to participate otherwise. Students will be able to experience intensive work and interaction with internationally acclaimed artists and performing arts companies. [Read more…] about New York State Summer School of the Arts
art
Circus Artists and the Flying Trapeze Metaphor
Equestrian artist Philip Astley was a pioneering entertainment entrepreneur. His demonstrations of trick horse-riding at London’s Royal Amphitheatre in 1768 constitute the origins of modern circus.
Astley performed his routine in a circular arena which would subsequently be referred to as the ring. He interspersed his displays with a variety of additional acts. Both in Europe and America other producers copied and expanded his new style of entertainment. [Read more…] about Circus Artists and the Flying Trapeze Metaphor
Life and Legacies of Spencer Trask
Spencer Trask awoke on the morning of December 31st, 1909 in the last compartment of the last sleeper car on the Montreal Express as it neared New York City on the D&H Railroad line.
Getting dressed, his thoughts may have turned to the three passions that dominated his 65 years. He did not know then that it would be the final day of his eventful life. [Read more…] about Life and Legacies of Spencer Trask
Poetry: Adirondack Seaway
Adirondack Seaway, Summer 1981
Before the finned
dinosaurs of the Icy
emptiness
were interrupted
by the early warships
of man
they cast their
love ballads
into the velvet abyss
waiting with hearts
as untamed and big
as school buses
for the memory of
their own answer
Profile: Bruce & Wendy Wasserstein and NYC’s Revival
Bruce Wasserstein, the financier and corporate takeover adviser, and his sister Wendy Wasserstein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author, were among the most accomplished and famous New Yorkers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Both died suddenly and somewhat prematurely — Bruce in October 2009 at the age of 61 of a reported aneurism and Wendy at the age of 55 in January 2006 reportedly of lymphoma, but not before they had reached the pinnacle of their chosen professions — Bruce in finance and Wendy in the theater.
Their success was achieved through a combination of shrewd insight and highly effective self-promotion, and the good fortune to live through a period of economic and social revival in New York City, in which they were active participants. [Read more…] about Profile: Bruce & Wendy Wasserstein and NYC’s Revival
Poetry: Father’s Breakfast
Father’s Breakfast
He ate a crustacean
every morning
the pure wild ones
He called the lobster
a sacrament and cleaned
his table with a napkin
his grandmother sewed
when she was 14 in Idaho
I watched him eat
and the embers from the stove
cooked into crystalline spheres
I once told him that I loved him
just loud enough
so he would not hear
Charles Evans Hughes Documentary Premiering Online
The new feature documentary, My Native Air: Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, co-produced by MDT Publishing and Snarky Aardvark Films, is premiering on-demand in a limited run from January 15th to February 15th, 2021. [Read more…] about Charles Evans Hughes Documentary Premiering Online
Frick Celebrates An 85th Anniversary
The Frick Collection is set to celebrate the 85th anniversary of its opening with a range of free content across its digital platforms. [Read more…] about Frick Celebrates An 85th Anniversary
Poetry: Memory Verse
Memory Verse
My extended family refers to bathrooms
as the “John,” because our old Adirondack
vacation cabin has a two-holer outhouse
we cherish despite its inconvenience —
keeping wood ashes and cured hay on hand
to dry the “payloads” and sweeten the mix
eventually raked out the back onto a dried-
hay carpet to be rolled-up like a rug to compost.
This may explain why super early this morning
as my wife returned from the bathroom — we ate
watermelon late last night — I awoke to interpret
our big-type digital clock as reading “John 3:16.”
Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker
Born in 1799, Clemente Bassano (the family name originates from the Veneto region of Italy) settled in London and started his career as a fishmonger in Soho. By 1825 he ran a warehouse from Jermyn Street, St James’s, importing almonds, oil, capers, and macaroni.
His daughter Louise was an opera singer who toured with Franz Liszt on his London visit in 1840/1. Her brother Alessandro became a high society photographer with a studio in Regent Street. His portrait of Horatio Kitchener was used during the First World War for an iconic recruitment poster. [Read more…] about Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker