Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Happy Anniversary, newcritics

One day a year ago, not long after I had launched M.A.Peel, I got an e-mail from Tom Watson. He had read my post about Joyce and Epiphany, and asked if I wanted to post at newcritics, which he had newly launched. Suddenly, I wasn’t such a tiny boat in the gigantic blog ocean. I was connected to Blue...
              

Monday, January 28, 2008

Out, Out, Damn Cold

I've succumbed to The Cold. Bad timing, since I had two performances of the Bach B Minor Mass to sing this weekend. Much steaming and Mucinex got me on my feet, and while my voice didn't have the power it usually does, the music was powerful enough itself. The performances went very well.Maud, also down with The Cold, offers a recipe for a medicinal hot tod...
         

Friday, January 25, 2008

Bachin' in the New Year

In December a soprano I have sung with asked me if I wanted to sing the Bach B Minor Mass with a small chamber orchestra and chorus.Oh, yes. Bach scholarship tells us that his pieces were never meant for the large oratorio societies of 100 voices—-which is usually how Bach is performed in the city--but for a group of 25 or so voices, and that’s what this experience would be.It’s hard in our world...
              

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Heath Ledger, Pax Vobiscum

In a world where almost nothing shocks anyone, the news of the 28-year-old actor's death has stunned us.I had no idea he was so young. I watched Brokeback Mountain on HBO just last week, and was again swept away by the depth and magnitude of his performance. How could he be SO knowing about all the extraordinary angles of that role?As I click around to all the blogs with posts for him, I am chilled...
              

Saturday, January 19, 2008

39 Steps and 1 Very Scary Blow

At Christmas I went with the time-honored tradition of buying my mother theater tickets for a Saturday matinee, with lunch included. That is how we came to be walking through the Amtrak part of Penn Station, en route to brunch at an Irish restaurant on 8th Avenue and 33 street late on a Saturday morning.The...
              

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Important Search for New Leadership

Oh, you ask, is this another blog post about Hillary, tears, polls, and pundits?No, it’s not. My neighbors have that very well covered, particularly Mannion, Swift, and Wolcott.Someone's got to handle the other big page-one news yesterday, that Phillippe de Montebello is retiring. Now that’s something...
              

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Q.Q.F. File: Alan Sepinwall's Strike Survival TV Club

I find the writers strike very inspiring. It gets to the very core of our entertainment industry: they who have the words set the world in motion. When they are silent, it all stops.Although it’s true that the creative endeavors of film, television, and theater are maddeningly symbiotic. The writers...
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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Turning Over a New Leaf and Seeing Pink Elephants

The film T.E. Lawrence: "Nothing is written."The film Sherif Ali: "Truly, for some men nothing is written unless THEY write it."And so we come to another new year. Time to turn the page, as they say, to turn over a new leaf. For we Readers, and that’s with a capital “R,” the idea that life is a series...
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