Print Edition - May 16, 2011
Previous Edition
By The Editors | May 10, 2011 | 7:28 pm
It's not as though he didn't warn us. When Mayor Bloomberg stepped to the podium to deliver his bad-news budget the other day, the only people who seemed surprised to learn about massive teacher layoffs and other painful cutbacks were members of the City Council, who reflexively denounced the Mayor's difficult decisions. That is their right. But it is their responsibility to provide reasonable alternatives. The Council's track record on this score is not encouraging... MORE >
By The Editors | May 10, 2011 | 7:29 pm
Israel celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence on May 10. As usual, the occasion was marked by celebrations, remembrances and official greetings from Israel's allies. But this year's commemorations had a special significance, for they took place in the midst of extraordinary unrest in the Middle ... MORE >
By Maika Pollack | May 10, 2011 | 7:08 pm
I happened to visit Glenn Ligon's midcareer retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum, provocatively titled "America," the day Barack Obama released the long form of his birth certificate to the press. It was a fitting coincidence. The president and the artist, both black and (indisputably) American, were born only a year apart--Ligon in 1960 and Obama in 1961. As children, they witnessed the struggles of the Civil Rights movement, and both have addressed the... MORE >
I've seen many performances of Elijah Moshinsky productions at the Metropolitan Opera, but according to Elijah Moshinsky, I have never seen an opera actually directed by Elijah... MORE >
You could say that City Ballet's opening "all black and white" week was a marketing gimmick, and you'd be right. But you could also say it was a highly instructive, even impressive, event, and you'd be right again. On the most basic level, it gave us seven programs with absolutely no dross--no second-tier Robbins or third-tier Martins (they're coming); no Susan Stroman (it's coming back--duck!). This entire season is loaded with Balanchine, from La... MORE >
By Noya Kovahi | May 10, 2011 | 7:16 pm
Jose Freire was nowhere to be found. It was the inaugural night of his second Team gallery, on Wooster Street in SoHo. The space, filled with stenciled paintings by David Ratcliff, was teeming with guests waiting to congratulate him. Finally, Freire materialized--standing nervously behind a metal dog leash that served as a velvet rope to the back room. "Look at him," said artist Banks Violette, represented by Freire, to a friend. "There's sheer panic... MORE >
By Julian Niccolini | May 10, 2011 | 7:37 pm
This week everyone was celebrating the arrival of spring at the Grill. Henry Kissinger and Michael Korda were seen noshing together. Michael Ovitz came in with a man wearing very fancy shoes (I always notice these things), and Georgette Mosbacher was here with a good-looking woman ... muy caliente, as they say in Spain! Arne Glimcher and Marc Glimcher were here on the same day, but ate at separate... MORE >
On a sun-kissed Thursday afternoon, Gerard Kiley arrived at Grubb & Ellis' new Manhattan headquarters. It was the broker's first visit to the Avenue of the Americas office, but it certainly wouldn't be his... MORE >
There are certain signs that spring has arrived in New York City: pudgy, pale Wall Street bankers start running along the West Side highway, hipsters sip iced coffee in the park and the seersucker suit makes its first appearance on the fashion circuit. Hamish Bowles, European Editor of Vogue, wore a moss-colored seersucker suit with an olive-green shirt and purple tie to the "A Posh Affair" fashion fundraiser, which benefits the Lighthouse Foundation.... MORE >
The name of the play--By the Way, Meet Vera Stark--is only the first of many subtle, clever bits of writerly business in Lynn Nottage's clever, funny and ultimately thought-provoking new comedy about race, gender and the unattractive machinations behind the glamour of Old Hollywood. In the play, which opened Monday night at the Second Stage... MORE >
James Franco looked moderately maniacal. The actor-cum-renaissance man arched his eyebrows and leaned on his knuckles against a table at the Stella Adler Studio on Sunday as he explained to the Transom his goals for the first performance of his experimental theater piece "Collage." Pounding on the wooden surface, he cited Rancière, Brecht and Artaud-playwrights who aimed to "break up expectations of what a theatrical experience should be... MORE >
By Maureen Tkacik | May 10, 2011 | 7:20 pm
The amygdala is a region of the temporal lobe of most vertebrate brains that acts as a gatekeeper to the long-term memory, assigning priority to memories on the basis of the emotional intensity that accompanies them and in the process molding our emotional reflexes. Anyone who has been in combat or a car accident or read Dostoyevsky's fictionalized account of his astonishing mental clarity in the minutes leading up to his near-execution should get... MORE >
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has come a long way from his blank-eyed zombie look in lifeless early flops like Brick and Halloween H-20. But he remains unpredictable. One minute, he's an appealing, fresh-faced romantic lead in 500 Days of Summer. Turn around and he's covered with tattoos, wearing filthy rags, sporting long greasy hair and blabbing obscenities in the title role of a horror like Hesher.... MORE >
If we are what we eat, then our only hope for longevity is to start eating grass. According to Forks Over Knives, a funereal documentary by Lee Fulkerson, we're all committing suicide, one hamburger at a time. We are a planet of bloated, self-indulgent apes who do not want to be lectured, hammered, ridiculed or shamed into eating tofu and cottage cheese. The average American carries 23 extra pounds, leading to diabetes, hypertension, chronic... MORE >
With eyes closed and jaw firmly set, concentrating hard enough to break a blood vessel, I cannot think of a movie more incomprehensible, moronic, pointless or abominable than a load of trash called The Big Bang. Torrents of blood splatter the opening credits, preparing you for what's to come--a droning farrago of violent stupidity written by Erik Jendresen, who watched Joel Coen's sub-mental The Big Lebowski too many times and doesn't have a clue... MORE >
