Get ready for Valentine’s Day with an amusing discussion at 92YTribeca on Feb 12 on the myths and realities of aphrodisiacs! Francine Segan (Shakespeare’s Kitchen, The Opera Lover’s Cookbook) will cover the aphrodisiac properties in everything from deer horns (which you can buy in Chinatown), tree bark, vanilla and more.
Did you know that vanilla is a proven aphrodisiacs? Francine insists it works, and suggests putting a little behind your ear to see for yourself! There will also be an opportunity to sample a few classic aphrodisiac dishes.
You can purchased tickets here, and we have a special offer for our blog readers...use code TM15 for 15% of ticket prices.
No Problem (?) Nine Israeli Jewelers: Join curator Deganit Stern-Schocken, one of Israel’s leading contemporary studio jewelers, as she discusses the current milieu of jewelry design in Israel within a historical and cultural context.
Abraham Lincoln’s Dinner Table with Francine Segan. Take a historical tasting tour accompanied by a lively presentation on the food and dining customs of Lincoln’s time and the Civil War.
Salsa Fest: Join Jose Rosario and Yvonne Vasquez from Salsa-NY for an exciting evening of Latin dancing.
Sun, Feb 14
Sokolow Birthday Tribute: Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble celebrates the anniversary of Anna Sokolow’s 100th birthday by presenting a rare and special homage to this national dance treasure.
UPDATED: What You Missed: Comedy Below Canal™: Bro’In Out with Leo & Tony
L-R: Paul Rudd and Steve Schirripa
Somewhere between The Dick Cavett Show and After Dark with Hugh Hefner lies “Bro’In Out with Leo & Tony.” In this live talk/variety show, host Leo Allen, ‘sidekick’ Tony Camin and bartender Jawnee Conroy welcomed Paul Rudd, Jon Glaser aka The Dreamedian, Steve Schirripa and musical guests Supercute!. There are two more photos below, and you can check out the full photo set at 92YTribeca’s Flickr.
UPDATE:Now with video of Supercute! performing Not To Write About Boys
Joel Chasnoff graduated from university and entered into a career as a stand-up comic. The proceeding life of living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn and facing rejection from audiences was not what he had envisioned. So he enlisted in the Israeli army. The Jewish Daily Forward reports:
But from the moment Chasnoff signs up, he has fallen through the rabbit hole. During one interaction with a man at a dog tag machine, Chasnoff laments: “Hey, I think you misspelled my name.”
“So don’t die,” the man says, and shoos him out the door.
Chasnoff is 24 when he enlists, but his peers in the Armored Tank Brigade are 18. The difference in their maturity is a Grand Canyon-sized chasm, aggravated by the fact that Chasnoff has joined the Israeli military out of conviction, unlike his peers, who are there because of conscription.
On Apr 19, Joel Chasnoff and Anthony Swofford (Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War), with editor at large of Esquire magazine A. J. Jacobs as moderator, will discuss the sick—and, at times, disturbingly hilarious—culture of modern war, from the psyche of the American marine to the Israeli mission in Lebanon.
Another Social Media Week is winding down; Blackweb 2.0 and Mashable have posted full recaps of the Mashable NextUp NYC: The Future Journalist panel at 92YTribeca on Wednesday.
The gist of the talk was how to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world of journalism. Mashable quotes Joshua Micah Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo, who astutely noted: “It’s the people who are entering the profession right now that are going to create the editorial models, the publishing models, the business models, that define journalism in the 21st century.”
Sprouting up like weeds on a local level, you can see professional and polished examples of the models Marshall describes, with websites like Northampton Media in Western Ma and the New Haven Independent in Conn., operated not by newspapers but by individual “future journalists,” quickly and successfully moving into the vacuum created by traditional local news outlets unwilling or unable provide the content desired by local communities.
Ideas and tips discussed on the panel included becoming digitally-oriented and building a trusted presence online. The importance of business acumen was highlighted, being a voracious consumer of media, as well as using social media:
Being on deadline or in crisis mode is not the time to try and figure out new technology. When the plane lands in the Hudson, it’s too late to figure out Twitter. When your company starts layoffs, it’s too late to figure out LinkedIn. Start carving out time to learn new concepts and tools.
”For the optimists,” Mashable writes, “this is an exciting time of great opportunities, with more media being created and consumed than ever before.” Read the full post here.
Upcoming talks at 92YTribeca:
A New Job or Career After 50: What You Need to Know: Feb 10
In a New York Minute. That’s about all the time you will need to learn how to flat wash your watercolor canvas. 92Y instructor Wennie Huang walks you through the simple process in the video above, the latest in our 92Y How To video series.
RISK! True Tales Boldly Told Series Cast Announcement
92YTribeca has just finalized the line-ups for their upcoming Risk! shows, where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share, live on stage. The full list of shows and accompanying cast is so awesome, we will just post it here without commentary.
Guilia Rozzi (Stripped Stories)
Juliet Wayne (The Moth)
Peter Lubell (The Moth)
Mike Daisey (The Last Cargo Cult)
Mike Showalter (Michael & Michael Have Issues)
Andy Christie (The Liar Show)
Rachel Dratch (SNL)
Michelle Collins (Best Week Ever)
Andrea Rosen (Michael & Michael Have Issues)
Mark Allen (New York Times, NPR)
A.D. Miles (Late Show with Jimmy Fallon)
UNIQUE: I’m Not Like Most People: (Mar 11)
Hedda Lettuce (The Drag Queens of NYC)
Sara Barron (People Are Unappealing)
Kurt Braunohler (High Five with Kurt & Kristen)
Claudia Cogan (Best Week Ever)
Beowulf Jones (The Sitcom)
Matt Higgins (Centralia)
Margot Leitman (Stripped Stories)
Virginia Scott (The Glass Contraption Clown Theatre)
Marc Maron (WTF with Marc Maron)
Elon James White (This Week in Blackness)
REGRETS: If I Could Take It Back: (April 8)
Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show)
Eliot Glazer (High School Talent Show)
Carolyn Castiglia (Brown Ambition)
Joey Hood (The Moth, NPR)
Sara Schaefer (Late Show with Jimmy Fallon)
THE END: When Something, Anything, Is Over: (Apr 22)
Eliza Skinner (I Eat Pandas)
Leslie Goshko (Sideshow Goshko)
Martin Dockery (The Surprise)
Cyndi Freeman (Stories at the Creek)
Julie Halston (Hairspray, Gypsy)
Enjoy your celebration of Black History Month at 92YTribeca with a Shabbat Dinner on Fri, Feb 5. Afterwards, Joshua Nelson, “The Prince of Kosher Gospel Music,” will perform a special concert in our mainstage. Kosher gospel is a way for Nelson to claim both parts of his identity as a Black Jew.
On Wed, Feb 17, we invite to enjoy a free screening of The Quiet One, with a 16mm film print from the collection of the New York Public Library. Made in cooperation with the Wiltwyck School for Boys, at Esopus, NY, this docu-drama is an account of a 10-year-old emotionally disturbed boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.
And Sat, Feb 20 brings Nomadic Wax Presents African Underground, a full night of African Hip-Hop, film, conversation and live music featuring Meta and the Cornerstones. First, a screening of Fangafrika: The Voice of the Voiceless: A stylized look at the festival in Ouaga, in Burkina Faso, where Africa’s best and brightest rappers gather using hip hop to tackle the serious issues facing Africans everywhere.
At 8:30pm there will be panel discussion: Marketing African Media in the New Millennium: About the Intersection of Technology, Digital Media and its Impact on the African Continent.
And finally, Meta and the Cornerstones take the mainstage, featuring members from across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and fusing Afropop, reggae, hip-hop, and serious soul with a mixture of French, English, Wolof, and Fulani vocals. It’s a night of thought and celebration not to be missed. Purchase tickets here.
Oscar nominations were released, and Tablet Magazinepoints out that one of their own, contributor David Rakoff, helped write The New Tenants, a nominee for Best Short Film (Live Action).
Coming up in April at 92Y:The American Popular Culture of the Great Depression Era Lectures Series. Five lectures examine that time and the themes of survival, escapism, labor empowerment, questioning capitalism and family/traditional values. Save over 20% of the full cost of all lectures by purchasing a subscription, which also guarantees you a seat when they sell out.
We are happy to bring you the fourth installment of the 92Y Fridges video series. André Soltner of Lutèce fame and current Dean of Classic Studies at the French Culinary Institute invited us inside his Upper East Side abode for a peek inside his kitchen and refrigerator. You’ll see all the basics...fruit, chocolate, bread, cheese. But he also imparts a few secrets, such as his choices for salt, and why he does not bother to bring wine back from Europe, but instead, vinegar.
Soltner, originally from the Alsace region of France who has been cooking for 60 years, is known for his simple approach to food. He abhors using using frozen or canned goods and wisely advised: “I always say, you better [off] eat grated carrots which are fresh, then frozen caviar.” He doesn’t need or desire fancy equipment in his kitchen, and uses a small gas stove, the right knife for the right job, and a good pan. ”The fancy stuff, that’s for amateur chefs,” he told the New York Times in 2004, ”they need gadgets. I have 50 or 60 knives and I use just one.”
Tonight, join André Soltner at Doing What You Love, when he and other world-renowned chefs share about their passions and career paths. Panelists include Tom Colicchio, chef-owner Craft restaurants and co-host of Top Chef, James Beard Award winner Dan Barber of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, chocolatier Jacques Torres and moderated by French Culinary Institute founder and CEO Dorothy Hamilton. After the event, Hamilton will be signing copies of her new book, Love What You Do, a guide to culinary careers. A few tickets are available for your last minute plans, get them here.
For the latest video in 92Y MindCapsules™, we asked founder of Craigslist Craig Newmark for his life lesson in one minute. In a nutshell, he told us: “You want to treat people like you want to be treated. That is a pretty universal value. Following through with it hard.”
You can see all previous MindCapsules™ videos here.
Upcoming events at 92Y:
New York Times Editors: The Art and Science of Opinion Pieces: Feb 11
Ian Buruma: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents: Mar 11
The lutenist Paul O’Dette, who assembled the marathon with David Spelman, the festival’s artistic director, opened the afternoon session with the Lute Suite in A minor (BWV 995) in a delicate, fluid rendering that embraced both the free-spirited, almost improvisatory nature of the Prelude and the stylistic formality of the dance movements. Here and in his performance of the Sonata in G minor (BWV 1001, originally for unaccompanied violin), which opened the evening concert, Mr. O’Dette played with a crispness that overcame the gentleness of the lute’s sound and clarified the counterpoint within textures that, in other hands, often seem merely chordal.
Mr. O’Dette also performed two movements by Sylvius Leopold Weiss, a lute-playing friend and contemporary of Bach’s, partly as a way of setting up the one nonplucked performance of the evening, a robust account of the Suite for Violin and Harpsichord (BWV 1025) by the violinist Robert Mealy and the harpsichordist Avi Stein. The point here was that the harpsichord part in the Bach is, except in its opening Fantasia, a direct transcription of the Weiss sonata from which Mr. O’Dette played excerpts.
The other lutenist on hand, Nigel North, matched and at times surpassed Mr. O’Dette in textural clarity in his performance of the Cello Suite No. 4 (BWV 1010). Mr. O’Dette and Mr. North also joined forces to close the marathon with another Weiss work, the spirited, bustling Sonata in C for two lutes.
Two of the youngest stars of the guitar world, Jason Vieaux and Ana Vidovic, offered strikingly contrasting back-to-back performances during the afternoon concert. Mr. Vieaux gave the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro (BWV 998) a stately, sharply articulated and subtly driven reading, in which the closing Allegro gradually took on the exciting qualities of a perpetual-motion piece.
But you already knew that, didn’t you? With February 14th quickly approaching, we just thought to remind you. At 92YTribeca, we’ll be leaving a trail of rose petals from the front door to the stage, with candles lighting the path and a Fabio CD on the soundsystem. White doves will flutter about.
Haha, no we kid, we kid. But really, whether you’re swooning over the irresistible Paul Rudd, revisiting unrequited love and teenage love poems, learning about what foods will drive your partner wild or even how science can help you nab your sweetheart, 92YTribeca’s got you covered. And we’ll always return your calls. Check out some if what we have lined up for you achy breaky hearts:
This Thu, Feb 4, we will be Bro’In Out with Leo & Tony Featuring Paul Rudd and More for Comedy Below Canal™.
On Wed, Feb 10, try An Early Evening with Dear Old Love, Featuring Andy Selsberg, Emily Gould, Tom Shillue and Musical Guest Jeffrey Lewis. Have you ever wanted to tell the people you’ve loved (or liked) what you’ve always wanted to tell them but never did? That’s the concept behind Dear Old Love, the book and the website. Watch it come alive in an evening of reading, discussion and maybe even a song or two inspired by and dedicated to the people we’ve loved (or at least liked), requited and unrequited.
Fri, Feb 12, brings you Aphrodisiacs with Francine Segan. Explore the stories behind aphrodisiacs like frog saliva, rhinoceros horns, oysters, truffles and caviar with noted food historian Francine Segan.
Lastly, on Sat, Feb 13, we will screen Christophe Honoré’s film The Beautiful Person (La Belle Personne), an examination of amorous pursuit in modern day Paris.
92Y Podcast: From the Poetry Center Archive: Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid returns to the 92Y Poetry Center tonight to participate in “The Immigrant Experience: Becoming Americans”— an evening of readings from and discussion of the new Library of America anthology Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing. She will be joined by fellow contributors Jessica Hagedorn, Norman Manea and Gary Shteyngart, as well as the anthology’s editor, Ilan Stavans, who will moderate the conversation. Their readings will include the work of Edward Said, Edwidge Danticat and Joseph Brodsky.
Ms. Kincaid last read at the Poetry Center in January of 2009, and today’s featured recording is an excerpt from that program, when she read from the short story Wingless and the novel My Brother.
In an ongoing effort to share with our readers some of the great literary moments which the Poetry Center has presented across the decades, this blog has begun to feature regular postings of archival recordings by some of the best writers of our time—many of whom, like Jamaica Kincaid, are returning this season. To purchase tickets to tonight’s event, please click here. For more information about the rest of the upcoming season, please click here. And for access to other recordings from the Poetry Center archive, please click here.
Unterberg Poetry Center webcasts and access to our archive are made possible in part by the generous support of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation.
You can also download the MP3. [6 MB]
[Right-click and select "Save Target As:" or equivalent to download.]
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Get ready for Valentine’s Day with an amusing discussion at 92YTribeca on Feb 12 on the myths and realities of aphrodisiacs! Francine Segan (Shakespeare’s Kitchen, The Opera Lover’s Cookbook) will cover the aphrodisiac properties in everything from deer horns (which you can buy in Chinatown), tree bark, vanilla and more.
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But from the moment Chasnoff signs up, he has fallen through the rabbit hole. During one interaction with a man at a dog tag machine, Chasnoff laments: “Hey, I think you misspelled my name.”
The gist of the talk was how to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world of journalism. Mashable quotes Joshua Micah Marshall, founder of 
Oscar nominations were released, and Tablet Magazine 
The lutenist Paul O’Dette, who assembled the marathon with David Spelman, the festival’s artistic director, opened the afternoon session with the Lute Suite in A minor (BWV 995) in a delicate, fluid rendering that embraced both the free-spirited, almost improvisatory nature of the Prelude and the stylistic formality of the dance movements. Here and in his performance of the Sonata in G minor (BWV 1001, originally for unaccompanied violin), which opened the evening concert, Mr. O’Dette played with a crispness that overcame the gentleness of the lute’s sound and clarified the counterpoint within textures that, in other hands, often seem merely chordal.
