A PETTY GANGSTER PART 1
THANKS TO TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, MY VIEWING of ’30s and ’40s gangster flicks leaves definitive impressions of the genre’s bad guys. Movie gangsters were cruel, conniving, and ruthless. However, rarely if … Continue reading
STEAMPUNK—PASTS AND FUTURES
WAY BACK IN THE LATE AUGHTS, Robert Wright defined Steampunk as “a subculture that encapsulates the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and … Continue reading
RENÉE’S COSÌ—AND OTHERS PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE RECALLED SEVERAL PRODUCTIONS of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte ranging from the traditional to the A.I.-robotic. Today, we learn what star soprano Renée Fleming has in mind as a … Continue reading
RENÉE’S COSÌ—AND OTHERS PART 1
MOZART’S COSÌ FAN TUTTE HAS BEEN TRANSLATED “WOMEN ARE LIKE THAT, but the famous soprano Renée Fleming is out to correct this opera’s misogynous implications. Here, in Parts 1 and … Continue reading
CABLING ELECTRICITY UNDERSEA
“ELECTRIC POWER IS NO LONGER THE HUMDRUM INDUSTRY IT USED TO BE,” writes Stanley Reed in “How The Deep Sea Cables That Power The World Are Made,” The New York … Continue reading
OPERA—PARK AND BARK, VERISMO, BUT ALWAYS RIDING THE RAZOR EDGE OF ABSURDITY
IN HER A MAD LOVE: AN INTRODUCTION TO OPERA, Vivien Schweitzer describes “park and bark” singers as those “who mostly stand immobile, or limit themselves to stock gestures, as was … Continue reading
CBS—THE BEST, THE LAMENTABLE, THE MIDDLING PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1 WE SAVORED CBS RADIO WORKSHOP and enjoyed entertaining CBS corporate suits through the R&T slalom. Today, lamentably enough, we recount CBS actions that seemingly replace freedom … Continue reading
CBS—THE BEST, THE LAMENTABLE, THE MIDDLING PART 1
I’VE KNOWN COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, now a division of Paramount Global, at its best, its lamentable, and—first hand—its middling. Let’s briefly recount the best and middling of these and then … Continue reading
“A SILENT AND ABSOLUTELY TRACTABLE” BUGATTI
PERHAPS THIS TITLE BRINGS TO MIND THE ROYALE, the 12,760-cc straight-eight Golden Bug only six of which left Molsheim. No, actually these tidbits are gleaned from the British Autocar Road … Continue reading
REPARTEE ON AND OFF STAGE AND SCREEN
ENOUGH WITH POLITICS; THERE HAS BEEN PLENTY of great dissing in other areas. Dr. Mardy Grothe has a fine collection in Viva La Repartee, tidbits from which are offered here … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 