ETIMOLOGIA PER I NOSTRI TEMPI
A REPORT FROM coronavirus-stricken Northern Italy contains a plea to eschew the time-honored Italian tradition of furbizia, the artful evasion of government directives of everything from income tax to traffic … Continue reading
MR. ZERO AND AI
WHAT WITH THE societal discontinuities of artificial intelligence, AI, for short, a drama of almost a century ago comes to mind. Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine was first staged in … Continue reading
I’VE GOT A SONG IN MY HEAD—BUT WHERE?
DIFFERENT REGIONS OF the human brain are occupied with different processes. Its right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and is the more artistic and creative hemisphere; the … Continue reading
TO BE OR NOT TO BE A METHOD ACTOR
SOMETHING OR OTHER got me thinking about the Method as it pertains to acting. Here are tidbits on the Method, gleaned from books around here and my usual Internet sleuthing. … Continue reading
JAGUAR XK-120—LEAPING BEYOND 120 MPH
THE 1948 EARLS COURT Automobile Show was Britain’s first after World War II. The country had yet to evolve from wartime austerity: Cars were fueled by 70-octane “Pool petrol.” Chocolate … Continue reading
LORENZO DA PONTE—A MULTIVARIATE CAREER PART 2
YESTERDAY, LORENZO Da Ponte assumed a bishop’s name, joined the priesthood, took a mistress, got banished from Venice, and worked with Mozart. Today, we learn more of one of their … Continue reading
LORENZO DA PONTE—A MULTIVARIATE CAREER PART 1
OPERA COMPOSERS get all the compliments. Seemingly, librettists either crib the tale from an earlier source or just come up with words that match the composer’s notes. But there was … Continue reading
THE INVISIBLE MAN—PAST, PRESENT, FANCIFUL AND SCIENTIFIC
I’M NOT INTO horror as an entertainment genre; I guess there is enough of it in real life. But the recent rave about The Invisible Man movie encourages today’s tidbits … Continue reading
SOAPY SMITH—19TH-CENTURY CON MAN, GANGSTER, POLITICAL BOSS PART 2
SOAPY SMITH CAME a long way from practicing the prize soap racket: He put politicos on the take and didn’t have to move around so much. Until, that is, the … Continue reading
SOAPY SMITH—19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN CON MAN, GANGSTER, POLITICAL BOSS PART 1
THESE DAYS, IT’S COMFORTING to learn that our country has survived earlier crooked politicians, gangsters, and conmen. Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith II is just such a character. Jeff practiced classic … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 