92Y Video: Violinist Jennifer Koh Discusses the Bach and Beyond project
World-renowned violinist Jennifer Koh talks about the innovative program she is presenting at 92Y on January 30, mingling Bach Partitas for Solo Violin with contemporary works, as part of the Distinguished Artists in Recital and Sunday Afternoon series.
“The genesis of the project came out of the celebration of Bach’s 325th birthday in the year 2010…Basically I wanted to explore why Bach’s music, which is over 300 years old, is still so relevant today, why his sonatas and partitas still influence compositions.”
Two of the new works are included in her new recording, “Rhapsodic Musings: Twenty-First-Century Works for Solo Violin,” which just received its own rhapsodic review in The New York Times.
The end of another lovely summer is approaching, giving way to a beautiful fall season in New York City.
Register for fall ceramic classes at the 92nd Street Y now. You can also call 212.415.5562 for information or to visit our facility prior to registration. The full fall catalog is available online in PDF form here.
“All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.” - Molière
Study dance in the same spaces where Ailey, Cunningham, Graham, Humphrey, Joffrey, Sokolow and other pioneers got their start. The world is counting on you!
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. For access to other recordings, 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. [32 MB]
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Elektra Records Founder Jac Holzman on YouTube, Blogs and the Future of Music
Jolie O’Dell of Mashable talks to Elektra Records Founder, Jac Holzman, about YouTube, Blogs and the Future of Music. It’s an enlightening discussion and she notes, “He founded Elektra Records in 1950, and his experience and worldview sound like those of the most successful tech entrepreneurs of today.”
He’ll be appearing at 92Y in October to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Elektra with Jackson Browne, Natalie Merchant and Lenny Kaye. In addition to them, Elektra has been home to artists including The Doors, Judy Collins, Queen, Carly Simon, Tom Rush, The Cars, Metallica and many others. One of our personal favorites is Warren Zevon’s 1976 debut (often called the best California rock album of the decade) for Asylum Records, which merged with Elektra in 1972. Check out their 60th Anniversary microsite and get lost for hours.
Look good? Yumsugar has a recipe for it, Grilled Bass With Green Tomato and Watermelon Salsa. Oh my, indeed. If you’re serious about enjoying fruits of the sea and garden, Russell Moss, executive chef at 92YTribeca, is hosting a Culinary Happy Hour: Tomatoes, Watermelons and Striped Bass on Wednesday. Sample the chef’s creations and enjoy a specialty cocktail (or glass of wine) with other foodies. A fun evening treat for anyone looking to beat the mid-summer heat, socialize and learn cool cooking secrets.
“To celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Maria Bethânia, Caetano Veloso’s sister, Salvador de Bahia decreed four days of festivities that culminated in a spectacular concert. This film is considered one of the most authentic documents on film about the life and art of the great female singer.”
—Rome Film Festival
Oxford Dictionary of English Adds Over 2000 Words Including Bromance, Staycation And Steampunk
Have you been to a Tweetup lately? Defriended anyone on Facebook? What did you do during your staycation? Maybe you saw a bromance musical? If these strange sounding words are not yet part of your lexicon, pick up the newest Oxford Dictionary of English, which has added these and more than 2,000 other new words and phrases.
Catherine Soanes, head of online dictionaries for Oxford University Press, told NPR:
Well, I think computing and the Internet has been really fast-moving area of language development for 10 to 15 years, at least. And the way we track words within that subject area is the same way in which we track words in any subject area.
We actually have a huge database of about two billion words, so we can see words as they come into the language. And if we have enough evidence that a word isn’t just being used by one person on one website, it’s being used by a community of users across quite a large spectrum, then those words become candidates.
For a truly delirious late summer experience, try the double feature being offered Saturday night at the 92YTribeca. Josef von Stenberg, the master of exotic visuals, directs his muse and sometimes lover Marlene Dietrich in “Dishonored’’ (1931) and “Shanghai Express’’ (1932) neither of which is legally available on DVD in this country.
The lesser-known “Dishonored” casts Dietrich as an Austrian prostitute who is recruited as a spy by the wonderfully-named Gustave von Seyffertitz. The very Irish Victor McLaglen plays the Russian spy bewitched by Agent X-27, but the real point of the movie, which Sternberg also wrote, seems to be showing off Marlene in feathers, veils and sequins. And her firing-squad scene is nothing to sneeze at, either.
The justly celebrated and very pre-Code “Shanghai Express’’ contains Dietrich’s most famous line of dialogue—“It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily!” This is uttered to a former boyfriend (Clive Brook), a British army doctor she encounters on a train traveling through a turbulent China. Also aboard are Warner Oland (taking a break from Charlie Chan as a villain fond of branding his victims), Seyffertitz, Eugene Pallette and the immortal Anna May Wong, who incidentally played Oland’s vengeful offspring—daddy was Fu Manchu—in “Daughter of the Dragon.’’
92Y Video: Rabbi Krause Explains The Dressing Of A Torah Scroll.
The High Holidays are almost upon us. At the 92nd Street Y, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services are led by Rabbi Jen Krause and Cantorial Soloist/Musical Director Josh Nelson. 92Y also has family services with Karina Zilberman for those who are more comfortable bringing their small children to a child-centered gathering. You can read more and purchase tickets here.
You can’t say your sister drives you crazy (well, maybe a little) because researchers from Brigham Young University recently found that loving sibling relationships, particularly sisters, have lasting positive effects on children’s behavior and mental health.
Laura Padilla-Walker, assistant professor in BYU’s School of Family Life, told USA Today that this closeness encourages traits like kindness and generosity and helps protect against wrongdoing and depression.
“Siblings are people that a child lives with every day and yet we haven’t really seriously considered their influence,” James Harper, another professor in the School of Family Life, told USA Today.
Dr. Daniel Carlat, AOL Health’s mental health expert, said that psychiatry has realized for a long time that siblings have lasting and significant effects on mental health, often more so than parents or outside friendships.
“It has always been clear that our close friends shape our identities as we grow up,” he told AOL Health. “Siblings are, in a sense, our very closest friends if only because we are around them all the time.”
Photo L-R: Derek Walcott, Shirley Hazzard, W. S. Merwin
Ever read War and Peace on your phone? The New York Timeswants to know. “A little haiku, on the other hand? A snippet of e.e. cummings? Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” even?”
“Smartphones,” The Times continued, “are arguably the best thing to hit poetry since the printing press, as even the most casual lovers of verse can read a poem whenever the spirit moves them...”
What are your thoughts, do you agree?
If you would rather listen to, than read poetry, the Virtual Poetry Center is the right place for you. You will find archival recordings of great literary moments that took place at the 92Y Poetry Center, featuring some of the best writers of our time. There are currently over 50 recordings you can enjoy at no cost, including Cynthia Ozick, Richard Wilbur, A.S. Byatt, W.H. Auden and many more. See them all here. Our full Audio & Video archive can be accessed here.
Eliza Griswold: Where Muslims and Christians Drew Lines in the Sand
“The most impressive thing about The Tenth Parallel is that Eliza Griswold lived to write it. “
That’s how Mark Oppenheimer opens today’s New York Timesreview of Griswold’s new book which details her seven-year journey along a faith-based fault line running nearly 9,000 miles through Africa and Asia. He continues:
Traveling the latitude that describes the borderland of Islam and Christianity in much of Asia and Africa, where warlords, missionaries, aid workers and profiteers battle for oil as well as for souls, Ms. Griswold dodges attack dogs in Nigeria, leaves an office building in Somalia hours before it is hit by a suicide bomber and departs the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, the morning before an earthquake that killed 5,000 people.
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Have you been to a Tweetup lately? Defriended anyone on Facebook? What did you do during your 
