Mary Poppins dropped onto New York City’s Little Island last night in the guise of the ever-elegant Cécile McLorin Salvant, gloriously using the often pouring rain, her clear bucket umbrella, and yellow rain slicker as impromptu props. Talk about going with the flow! As the sold-out cheerful, anticipatory crowd got wet on the line waiting …
Be prepared to be delighted at the Met Museum’s “Musical Bodies” exhibit, on view through Sept. 27th. Be forewarned: It may leave you feeling randy. Near the end of our visit on the member preview Saturday night, with few people about, we literally danced on the floor keyboard, making music of our own bodies. From …
Anyone who was a music fan in NYC between February 12, 1974 and January 22, 2004 has their own Bottom Line stories. I get to share a few of mine in “Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York’s Iconic Music Club” (Backbeat Books), an oral history by Bottom Line co-founder (and already …
NYC friends: Muireann Bradley is playing Tuesday Sept. 16th at 8 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 199 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn (doors open at 7 p.m.). I’ll be there. You should be, too. Why? And who is Muireann Bradley? If you didn’t know Muireann Bradley was an 18 year old from County Donegal, Ireland, you …
The question strangers ask between sets at the Newport Folk Festival — and yes, strangers talk to each other at Newport! — is no longer “Is this your first?” The question is “How many have you been?” Since I’m older than most but not all of the attendees, I usually “win” noting that my first …
For the better part of 25 years, through 2013, I published and was executive editor of The Licensing Letter, an ad-free paid subscription newsletter about licensing — applying corporate brands, entertainment franchises and other intellectual property to generate brand extensions into apparel, toys, food and additional product categories for marketing purposes and profit. What would …
Excited to see my good friend Marty Porter’s book “Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios” hit #1 on amazon’s Pop Artist Biographies list, #1 in Music History & Criticism, and #4 in Popular Music (behind three Taylor Swift novelty books) following a phenomenal Bob Lefsetz review two weeks prior to publication! I can …
May 1, 10:40 a.m., Acquavella Gallery, 18 E. 79th St. Riva and I meet our friend (the almost-a-relative kind) Herb, an artist still active in his 90s who lives in NJ and takes public transportation to and from Manhattan to tour galleries. We have two of his large paper cuts hanging in our home. Herb’s …
BROOKLYN, NY Jan. 29, 2025—Seeking calm as you consider the last 10 days’ news? Glenn Gould’s Bach piano concertos and Simon Preston’s Complete Bach Organ Works (latter is 19 hours; links are Spotify) are my go-to right now. While I usually watch movies on the treadmill, the Kennedy HHS hearings this morning had me so …
The photo above is likely a not unusual bookshelf among my contemporaries. I periodically pull a book from one of many such shelves and read a random passage. This morning it is Umberto Eco’s, “The Name of the Rose,” first published in Italian in 1980 and in the U.S. in English in 1983. The year …
nightmayer 