Education is the Bermuda Triangle of America’s bureaucracy—a black hole in broad daylight, where good intentions, together with the funds that fuel them, tend to vanish without a ripple. The role call of those who have tried, and failed, to upraise the American school system is as disheartening as it is august. Presidents have been Read More
When I was working recently on a profile of the baritone Sanford Sylvan for this newspaper, I watched a DVD recording of one of the performances that brought him widespread acclaim in the opera world. It was in one of the iconic productions of the 1980s: Peter Sellars’s version of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
The Read More
A two-story carbon fiber frame, draped with shimmering black mesh, hovered over a throng of people who were drinking champagne and laughing. It was crowded, and some of the people were spilling through the iron railings onto the downtown street.
This was the BMW Guggenheim Lab opening party, held last night in First Park, Read More
In the days after the same-sex marriage law was passed, a group of friends hatched a plan.
“We got really excited and said, ‘Let’s do free weddings, it’s the least we can do,’” Bex Schwartz, one of the creators of Pop-Up Chapel, told The Observer. She was still bubbling with excitement when we Read More
Tonight in West Chelsea, 125 galleries will stay open until 8 p.m. for the second annual Chelsea Art Walk. Unfortunately, many of the neighborhood’s blue-chip galleries will not be participating. (Arrive before 6 p.m. to catch them during normal business hours.) Nevertheless, The Observer sorted through Read More
Last week The Observer reported that Judy Garland’s TV oeuvre is screening at the Paley Center for Media. If that doesn’t sound like enough exposure for the little lady, then never fear: last night The Walter Reade Theater began its retrospective of all her film work, which runs through August 9. Well, almost all Read More
There are one million linear feet of scaffolding erected in New York City at any one time, Jordana Zeldin, the director of the nonprofit public-art group ArtBridge told The Observer in her tiny Chelsea office earlier this week. In 2009, Ms. Zeldin continued, her organization used about 400 feet of Read More
