Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

It always makes me laugh when professional dancers, particularly in ballet, are portrayed as masochists by the “mainstream” media. The exact opposite is true; they’re if anything hedonists. Dancing is a great pleasure—perhaps a high that they can’t resist. Of … Continue reading →

In the great tradition of husband Bill–he who hard-wired Reagan’s revolution into the American circuitry–and lame-duck Barack. Trevor Timm at The Guardian asks why she is pretending that Trump’s ideas do not represent a reiteration of GOP dogma , why … Continue reading →

That bit of advice I issued the Met Opera came before I’d seen the new ad campaign they’re doing. I saw a poster in the subway station yesterday. There’s a picture of Netrebko doing her torch song diva act with … Continue reading →

It’s brought us Trump even being considered a possibility for public office. It’s brought us the spectacle of Bill Gates threatening to throw chickens down Bolivia’s way. It’s the idea that Sheryl Sandberg would be an appropriate secretary of the … Continue reading →

Obama seems to have lost even the most perfunctory interest in letting us delude ourselves into thinking he is what he is isn’t–and never was. Now his administration is working as an enforcer arm for Apple, fighting the European Union … Continue reading →

It occurred to me again, as  I read Richard Eskow’s takedown of Megan McArdle’s duplicitous, shoddily-reasoned defense of the health insurance industry, that we have an awful lot. . say, a glut?. . . of business writers in the “mainstream” … Continue reading →

One day the Minerva cafe on West 4th Street is bustling, the all-window facade connecting consumpters inside with street activity–and the next day, brown paper is shrouding those windows. Yes, another special Village place goes belly-up. . . I wonder … Continue reading →

He laid bare the sham of private charter schools: the way that the public  education system is allowed to rot, defunded of even basic building repairs, while TAXPAYER money goes to fund privatized education. Which pays CEOS a great deal … Continue reading →

But infinitely different — I’ve convened Richard Strauss week, listening to (s0 far) three Ariadnes, one Rosenkavalier, and one Arabella. Each stellar conductor/singer/(sometimes) orchestra makes you feel that that’s exactly the way it should be–no one could be better. And … Continue reading →

I thought, No, it couldn’t be. . . but it was. That kind of olive/Nile green linen slipover, placket midway-down-the-front shirt with purple knit collar– The one I wore a lot in 1988–visual documentation exists in that snapshot of me … Continue reading →