ALBANY—Here's a signed and sworn affidavit by State Senator Frank Padavan saying it is "absolutely fraudulent" to claim he can be counted present and voting on measures in the still-hobbled State Senate.
Padavan does admit to walking through the chamber, "to obtain a cup of coffee from the member's lounge," but Read More
We don’t have much to add to this excellent item from Portfolio‘s Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici, except to say that if knowing Shakespeare quotes on sight is the new standard by which media writers are measured, we’ve got some some cramming to do.
Mr. Bercovici quotes The New York Post‘s Adam Buckman’s Read More
It’s getting ugly out there. So ugly, that Wharton Property Advisors has taken to quoting Shakespeare to attract office tenants. The firm’s most recent release, detailing 10 available spaces, opens with:
"Exit, pursued by a bear."
William Shakespeare, "Winter’s Tale"
(Act III, scene iii, stage direction)
It’s a graceful use of Read More
Wherefore art thou…socialite? Yes, add to the list of things that make you love New York (or cringe over the fact that you live here) an Upper East Side adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. The Capulets, nouveau riche; the Montagues, old money. Can you feel the drama?! Despite this modern frame, Theater Read More
SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE
By Bill Bryson
Atlas/HarperCollins, 199 pages, $19.95
According to Bill Bryson, “The amount of Shakespearean ink, grossly measured, is almost ludicrous. … The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., contains about seven thousand works on Shakespeare—twenty years’ worth of reading if read at the rate of one a Read More
A word in the deaf ears of Oscar Eustis, the new artistic director of the Public Theater:
When you produced Macbeth in Central Park last summer, your claim that it was a timely war play for “our divided and war-torn nation” was made, I can only imagine, in the spirit of over-exuberance. The theme Read More
F. Murray Abraham’s performance as Shylock for Theatre for a New Audience touches greatness in every aspect of an immensely challenging role. The magnificent veteran actor inhabits Shylock’s soul in ways that had me riveted.
The key that Mr. Abraham has unlocked is Shylock’s humanity. Yet he does so without a trace of the Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension.
Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down!
Although Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension.
Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down! Read More
O.K., here’s my idea: Maybe it’s time for Bob Dylan to shift from writing more songs to writing more books. Chronicles, the first volume of his memoirs, was brilliant; Modern Times, the new album, a wildly overhyped disappointment. I don’t want him to stop singing and playing, just spend more time writing Chronicles-level prose rather Read More
