Fiction and What Woment Wear

Some readers of my novella "Manhattan Morning" have wondered why my protagonist, Dan, spends so much of his time thinking about attire -- mostly female but not entirely -- as he walks around midtown.

His excuse in the book, if he needs one, is that his former wife worked in the fashion industry and that as a result, clothes were a constant topic of consideration and conversation. He has been conditioned to be observant.

"The Sympathizer:" A Perspective on the Vietnam War

Much has already been written about "The Sympathizer," a Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen that takes a different slant on the Vietnam war.

It wasn't on my reading list, but it was given to me and I was going on a trip that promised long waits in airport lounges and long hours on airplanes so I thought, why not?

The Art of The Deal & The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight

Time out for some important news from our Nation's Capital, otherwise known as Washington D.C., or in the words of the incumbent President, "the swamp."

Well what's been going on?

"The Donald" (that's our president) and most Republican legislators campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare.  It was going to be all so simple and in the words of the President, "everyone" would end up "beautifully insured."

Today in Congress, this critical issue -- getting rid of Obamacare -- came to a head. When all was said and done, they couldn't do it.

The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight (that's the majority House Republicans) met "The Art of the Deal" (that's The Donald) and the result was a continuation of Obamacare.

As the old cartoon character Pogo famously put it: "we have met the enemy and it is us." That, in a nutshell, was what is was all about for Trump and the Republicans.

What next?

Magical Realism as Deus ex Machina at Lincoln Center

I've mentioned or  written about "How to Transcend a Happy Marriage," a current play by Sarah Ruhl, in a couple of previous posts, which you can find here and here.  But I want to touch on one more aspect of the piece before moving on.

When Greek playwrights spun out complicated and seemingly unresolvable plots, they would sometimes call upon divine intervention to sort things out. A god would be typically lowered onto the stage  from somewhere above (deus ex machine) and employing super-human powers, bring about a happy ending.

Danspace Project: The Sun God Apollo and The Higgs Boson

Is there a connection between Apollo, the Greek and Roman sun god, and the Higgs Boson, an elusive element or aspect of particle physics?

Most definitely in the view of dancer Emily Coates and physicist Sarah Demers who have for the past few years collaborated on connections between science and the arts, and are currently in the process of co-authoring a book on physics and dance.

Was Rome Founded on the Basis of Fake News?

Well, if you believe Henry Purcell's only opera, "Dido and Aeneas," the answer is yes. The foundation of Rome definitely stemmed from a serious incidence of fake news.

Why bring this up now?  Well, fake news is definitely in the news and equally to the point, the Mark Morris Dance Group is currently performing Purcell's  opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music along with a short opera by Benjamin Britten called "Curlew River."

Handel the Merciful: His Last Oratorio, "Jephtha"

Despite the fact he never married, or perhaps because of it, no one to my knowledge has ever accused the baroque composer George Frideric Handel of being a misogynist. Quite the contrary, he frequently re-wrote parts of The Messiah so that sopranos in particular and other soloists could appear at their best.

Handel was definitely a "singer's composer."