Sumthin Differen

Last week, Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom opened to rave reviews at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn. I fell in love with Walsh’s work reading his first play, Disco Pigs, while living in Cork City, Ireland. Walsh isn’t just a playwright, but [...]

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You’re invited

Say you’re from the future, a future in which time machines exist.  Why not take a trip back to the good old 21st century? And join us here at WNYC on Tuesday, November 17, as Kurt hosts the live taping of our show all about time travel.  You’ll meet some of [...]

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Seeing Double

This week New York welcomes “Performa ‘09“, the third biennial of performance art to hit the city. The event features more than 150 artists over three weeks, and one of whom has me very excited.
I was lucky enough to experience South African artist Candice Breitz’s video installation “Legend” a few [...]

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Returning to El Barrio

New York City’s El Museo del Barrio has reopened after a well-deserved multi-million dollar renovation.
The museum was started 40 years ago by performance artist Rafael Montañez Ortiz in a public school classroom with the mission of highlighting Puerto Rican artists. Since then, it’s grown into an important cultural institution with a collection of more [...]

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Jung’s Beautiful Midlife Crisis

Carl Jung, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, had his own very fraught and very formative “confrontation with the unconscious.” He meticulously documented the experience. But his journals have remained unpublished and shrouded in mystery — until now. Bound as a single volume, The Red Book will be released [...]

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Dear Diary — It’s Paul’s Alter

Have you been acquainted with a Mr. Elyot Vionnet?

You may not think so, but he’s actually someone we have all experienced at one time or another. For instance, remember the time when that woman with the cell phone and the couture shopping bags slammed right into you on the sidewalk and then gave you [...]

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Transforming the Sound

“And here in New York City, we heard that awful sound…”
– Papa Dish, “The September 11th Song.”
Today, artists across the country are commemorating the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Here in New York City, I’ll be heading to the September 11th Memorial Sing, tonight 5-7:30pm. Organized by the Brooklyn Arts [...]

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So You Think You Can Dance

Last weekend on the show, we heard from Paulus Berensohn — a sculptor based at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and a man of strong opinions when it comes to things clay. He believes clay is the source of life on this planet, that there is movement everywhere, and that it’s important [...]

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Let’s Take A Ride

They Might Be Giants is just about my favorite working band, and not just because they’re also the only band — apart from the Byrds, many many years ago — with whom I’ve actually worked a show onstage and back stage. TMBG are smart and good and nice and funny. And live in Brooklyn. Really: [...]

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Kehinde Wiley’s Gorgeous Portraits

Kehinde Wiley creates big, bold paintings of young black men that are a throwback to 18th century classical portraiture. His sitters strike regal poses against vibrant, ornate patterns, wearing colorful T-shirts, caps and baggy jeans. It’s like Baroque gone day-glo. Opening today at the Deitch Projects gallery in New York is a new [...]

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