Touching memories from the woman behind the Blkdrama blog:
Meet Hilda, Pearl, Trudy, Florence, Diana, Freide and Rena, my 92nd Street Y Ladies of Rockland County who joined me for 15 years, as we finished work on Mondays and made our way into New York City for an evening of great food, passionate conversation and for dessert, the Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y for readings by the leading writers, poets and playwrights of the moment, before Barnes and Noble had yet to “borrow” the idea.
We could have it all and still be home before the 11 o’clock news…
I remember the first time I met “the group”. With the Jewish holidays coming on the heels of the new school start, Hilda thought that I might like some of her famous honey cake at the party she threw annually on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. The holiday fell out in the middle of the week and it was too hard to get home. I graciously accepted that year, and every year since.
Hilda, Pearl, Trudy, Florence, Diana, Rena and Freide, threw me a lifeline 22 years ago and they continue to enrich my life.
Front: Ted Rosenthal / piano, Middle (L to R): Jon Gordon / alto saxophone, Peter Washington / bass, Bill Charlap / piano, Brian Lynch / trumpet, Kurt Elling / vocals, Kenny Washington / drums, Back: Jimmy Greene / tenor saxophone
Last night, the Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall was sold out for an amazing Jazz in July kick-off performance, “Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein.” Vocalist Kurt Elling and a host of other leading jazz musicians performed songs from Bernstein’s West Side Story, On the Town, Candide and Wonderful Town. Don’t miss out on the remaining shows in this highly acclaimed series.
In this edition of the 92nd Street Y's Tell Me Why podcast, host Julian Fleisher talks with Deborah Grace Winer, the new series artistic director for the Y's long-running Lyrics & Lyricists concert series. Tune in for a great discussion on legends of the American songbook and why "words matter."
You can also download the MP3. [15 MB]
[Right-click and select "Save Target As:" or equivalent to download.]
Add this podcast feed to your RSS news reader or iTunes and have future Tell Me Why podcasts delivered automatically.
One of the big news stories today is the New York Times rejection of Senator John McCain’s essay defending his Iraq war policy, an intended response to Senator Barack Obama’s op-ed that the paper published last week. From CNN:
In an e-mail to the McCain campaign, Opinion Page Editor David Shipley said he could not accept the piece as written, but would be “pleased, though, to look at another draft.”
“Let me suggest an approach,” he wrote Friday. “The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans. It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece.”
In a statement released Monday, The New York Times said it is “standard procedure on our Op-Ed page, and that of other newspapers, to go back and forth with an author on his or her submission.”
You can read McCain’s rejected piece here. Want to learn how all of this works firsthand? David Shipley (pictured) will be at the Y in January with his Times colleague, letters editor Thomas Feyer, to discuss “The Art and Science of Opinion Pieces” and to share the secrets of getting your opinion pieces published.
On June 5, the 92nd Street Y was the scene for a great discussion on "The All-American BBQ." (Pork you say? Don't worry, it's still kosher to talk about.) On hand were Danny Meyer of Union Square Café who founded the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, Food Network star and chef Bobby Flay and Chris Lilly, vice president of Big Bob Gilson BBQ, widely regarded as the best barbecue in Alabama. Listen to a lively excerpt above, moderated by WNYC's Leonard Lopate, to get the lowdown on where to find the best pulled pork, ribs and other regional specialties.
You can also download the MP3. [3.6 MB]
[Right-click and select "Save Target As:" or equivalent to download.]
Related: Enter the 92nd Street Y Mega Bites Recipe Challenge for big prizes. Food celebrity judges include: Marc Murphy, Gael Greene, Mike Colameco, Arthur Schwartz and Rozanne Gold.
Subscribe with iTunes or add our podcast feed to your RSS news reader and have future 92nd Street Y podcasts delivered automatically.
Kay Ryan has been named the country’s 16th poet laureate. From the New York Times:
Known for her sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes, Ms. Ryan has won a carriage full of poetry prizes for her funny and philosophical work, including awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1994, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, worth $100,000.
Still, she has remained something of an outsider.
“I so didn’t want to be a poet,” Ms. Ryan, 62, said in a phone interview from her home in Fairfax, Calif. “I came from sort of a self-contained people who didn’t believe in public exposure, and public investigation of the heart was rather repugnant to me.”
But in the end “I couldn’t resist,” she said. “It was in a strange way taking over my mind. My mind was on its own finding things and rhyming things. I was getting diseased.”
Hanna Arie-Gaifman, Director of the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, and renowned Israeli musician Pinchas Zukerman
Equally respected as a violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue and chamber musician, Pinchas Zukerman is indeed a master of our time. We honor him today, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, for his musical genius and prodigious technique that have long been a marvel to critics and audiences worldwide. He has performed at the Y over 30 times, the first being in 1976. The Zukerman ChamberPlayers Series is an annual favorite and in the upcoming season, he adds a special recital with pianist Marc Neikrug in February. Hanna Arie-Gaifman, Director of the 92nd Street Y Tisch Center for the Arts, writes:
In your first contact with Pinchas Zukerman, you are reminded of the prickly pear cactus, which can be found all over the deserts of Israel. Its fruit is called the sabra, which is also the nickname for Israeli-born children. The sabra is prickly on the outside and a challenge to handle, but once you peel away the tough exterior, inside is a delicious, juicy fruit that has been one of my personal favorites all my life. Pinky is very much the same way. When you first meet him, he has a commanding presence and an intimidating, even prickly personality, just like the “sabra” that he is. But once he picks up his violin or viola and makes music, all that peels away, and he touches your soul. And as I have gotten to know him, he has become my favorite “sabra.”
Zukerman was recently featured in The Strad and KBYU-FM in Salt Lake City is doing a tribute to him all week. Below, listen to the Zukerman ChamberPlayers perform Mozart String Quintet in C, K.515, II. Menuetto: Allegretto from their 2006 release, Brahms, Mozart: String Quintets.
Join Speaker Pelosi at the Y on July 29 for a candid conversation about the opportunities and choices that have brought her—and our country—to this time and place.
CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer writes this week that presidential campaigning needs to come to a grinding halt.
We’ve been treated to endless conversation, speculation and analyses of all these pertinent topics, to the point that a friend of mine said the other day that he thought Obama and McCain would be better served if both of them just suspended all campaigning until Fall, after the nominating conventions.
Just shut it all down - the surrogates, the press conferences, the talking points, the conference calls, all of it. Give all of us a rest.
It’s not my idea, but I wish it were! What we’ve been hearing from both sides lately isn’t helping them, or us.
Join Schieffer, who has been covering the news for more than 45 years, when he comes to the Y on September 11 to discuss his new book Bob Schieffer’s America— in bookstores on September 9—and current events with WNYC’s Leonard Lopate.
Jazz in July Spotlight: Kurt Elling and Dr. Billy Taylor
Video: Kurt Elling, “Easy Living” with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in April 2008.
For two weeks this summer, Jazz in July at the 92nd Street Y will swing with the sounds of George Shearing, Billy Strayhorn, Leonard Bernstein and Brazilian jazz. You can witness the thrilling performances of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dr. Billy Taylor, Kurt Elling, Freddy Cole, Fred Hersch and many others.
Over the past ten years, Kurt Elling has earned seven Grammy nominations for six recordings, spent six consecutive years at the top of the Down Beat Critics and Jazz Times readers’ polls, won three Jazz Journalists’ Association Awards for Best Male Vocalist and received the Prix Billie Holiday from the Academie du Jazz in Paris. His quartet has toured the world to critical acclaim, and has appeared at jazz festivals and concert halls across North America, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he was a 2006 artist-in-residence. With a range of four octaves, Elling has also recorded and/or performed with artists including Terence Blanchard, Dave Brubeck, Al Jarreau, David Liebman, Marian McPartland and The Bob Mintzer Big Band. As composer and lyricist, Elling has written for The Steppenwolf Theater and dozens of his own works. His current Grammy-nominated CD, Nightmoves, is on Concord Records. He performs Tuesday, July 22 in Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein.
The distinguished ambassador from the world of jazz to the world at large, Dr. Billy Taylor has served as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz since 1994. His show, “Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center,” was broadcast over NPR for eight years. In 2001, he donated his personal collection to the Library of Congress, the largest jazz archive ever acquired. Born in Greenville (NC), Dr. Taylor spent the ‘40s playing with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and more, before becoming house pianist of Birdland. Since then he has mostly performed with his own trios and has amassed some 50 recordings and 300 songs to his credit. Now Dr. Taylor is perhaps the foremost jazz educator of our time, creating grass roots efforts such as Jazzmobile, leading master classes across the country, and writing definitive books on the subject. He plays Wednesday, July 23 in Piano Jam.
Anthony Bourdain and a panel of accomplished chefs shared their early cooking experiences and talked about what influenced their cooking styles at the Y on October 23, 2006. Bourdain was the executive chef at New York's Brasserie Les Halles and is host of TV's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. The panelists are Gabrielle Hamilton, chef/owner of Prune; and Eric Ripert, chef at Le Bernardin. Food writer Michael Ruhlman, known for his collaboration with American chefs, moderates. You can listen to an audio excerpt above and if you want the full experience, watch the entire program now available as a video webcast .
You can also download the excerpt. [5 MB]
[Right-click and select "Save Target As:" or equivalent to download.]
This is the last year the New York Mets will be playing in Shea Stadium and the memories are pouring in from all over. Here are blogger Lou Di Falco’s thoughts on the game between the Mets and Chicago Cubs on July 9, 1969:
The starting line up for the Mets that evening had Tommy Agee leading off and playing center field. Bobby Pfiel at second, Cleon Jones in left, the recently acquired Donn Clendenon at first, the “glider” Ed Charles at third, Ron Swoboda in right, Jerry Grote catching, Al Weis at short (Bud Harrelson was on military reserve duty and had to miss the game) and of course Seaver pitching.
Shea stadium was packed, over 50,000 in the house. The ballpark was still relatively new and shiny. The Mets took the field, the crowd cheered as Jane Jarvis played the organ (I miss that organ). Everyone stood for the national anthem and back then you saw that on television. For me, I remember it being in living black and white.
In September, you can join Mets legends Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Ron Darling and play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen for a sneak peek of the documentary Shea Goodbye: 45 Years of Amazin’ and a special night of sharing memories at the Y.
Did you catch Michelle Obama on The View a few weeks ago? If not, you can watch her segments in the video above which includes a nice shout-out (OK, it’s not really a fist bump as the title of this post suggests) around the 14-minute mark from Barbara Walters about her appearance at the 92nd Street Y the night before with Frank Rich. The issue is pantyhose. You’ll just have to watch.
Walters is a Y regular and she returns in September to chat with Edgar M. Bronfman—the leading man of Jewish philanthropy—about his life, remarkable career and vision for the future of Jews in America.
One of the big news stories today is the New York Times rejection of Senator John McCain’s essay defending his Iraq war policy, an intended response to Senator Barack Obama’s op-ed that the paper published last week. 
Kay Ryan has been named the country’s 16th poet laureate. From the New York Times:
CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer writes this week that presidential campaigning needs to come to a grinding halt.
Over the past ten years, Kurt Elling has earned seven Grammy nominations for six recordings, spent six consecutive years at the top of the Down Beat Critics and Jazz Times readers’ polls, won three Jazz Journalists’ Association Awards for Best Male Vocalist and received the Prix Billie Holiday from the Academie du Jazz in Paris. His quartet has toured the world to critical acclaim, and has appeared at jazz festivals and concert halls across North America, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he was a 2006 artist-in-residence. With a range of four octaves, Elling has also recorded and/or performed with artists including Terence Blanchard, Dave Brubeck, Al Jarreau, David Liebman, Marian McPartland and The Bob Mintzer Big Band. As composer and lyricist, Elling has written for The Steppenwolf Theater and dozens of his own works. His current Grammy-nominated CD, 
The distinguished ambassador from the world of jazz to the world at large, Dr. Billy Taylor has served as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz since 1994. His show, “Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center,” was broadcast over NPR for eight years. In 2001, he donated his personal collection to the Library of Congress, the largest jazz archive ever acquired. Born in Greenville (NC), Dr. Taylor spent the ‘40s playing with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and more, before becoming house pianist of Birdland. Since then he has mostly performed with his own trios and has amassed some 50 recordings and 300 songs to his credit. Now Dr. Taylor is perhaps the foremost jazz educator of our time, creating grass roots efforts such as Jazzmobile, leading master classes across the country, and writing definitive books on the subject. He plays Wednesday, July 23 in 
This is the last year the New York Mets will be playing in 
