DNAinfo writes: “Hollywood royalty will kick off the 92nd Street Y’s fall lecture series. The season will start with Academy-Award winners Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sir Michael Caine and include visits with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
Hoffman, along with members of the cast, will screen his directorial film debut, Jack Goes Boating on September 15, two days before the film premieres in L.A. and New York. Tickets are available here.
Jeffrey Goldberg’s much talked about cover story for The Atlantic, The Point of No Return, assesses the possibility of an Israeli strike to cripple the Iranian nuclear program. Here Goldberg explains his task.
I have been exploring the possibility that such a strike will eventually occur for more than seven years, since my first visit to Tehran, where I attempted to understand both the Iranian desire for nuclear weapons and the regime’s theologically motivated desire to see the Jewish state purged from the Middle East, and especially since March of 2009, when I had an extended discussion about the Iranian nuclear program with Benjamin Netanyahu, hours before he was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister. In the months since then, I have interviewed roughly 40 current and past Israeli decision makers about a military strike, as well as many American and Arab officials. In most of these interviews, I have asked a simple question: what is the percentage chance that Israel will attack the Iranian nuclear program in the near future? Not everyone would answer this question, but a consensus emerged that there is a better than 50 percent chance that Israel will launch a strike by next July. (Of course, it is in the Israeli interest to let it be known that the country is considering military action, if for no other reason than to concentrate the attention of the Obama administration. But I tested the consensus by speaking to multiple sources both in and out of government, and of different political parties. Citing the extraordinary sensitivity of the subject, most spoke only reluctantly, and on condition of anonymity. They were not part of some public-relations campaign.) The reasoning offered by Israeli decision makers was uncomplicated: Iran is, at most, one to three years away from having a breakout nuclear capability (often understood to be the capacity to assemble more than one missile-ready nuclear device within about three months of deciding to do so). The Iranian regime, by its own statements and actions, has made itself Israel’s most zealous foe; and the most crucial component of Israeli national-security doctrine, a tenet that dates back to the 1960s, when Israel developed its own nuclear capability as a response to the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, is that no regional adversary should be allowed to achieve nuclear parity with the reborn and still-besieged Jewish state.
It’s a must-read (more on the debate here) which explores many angles and America’s role in it.
Goldberg brings his considerable knowledge to 92Y in September for a talk on “America & Israel: The Idea of Divine Election” with Tablet editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse to answer the questions: How has the idea of divine election shaped American and Israeli history? What challenges does it present for both contemporary nations? What divergent interpretations has it occasioned, and to what end?
Related Talks: Simon State of World Jewry Lecture: Tzipi Livni (Oct 3), George J. Mitchell, Special Envoy to the Middle East (Oct 19), Islam and Liberal Democracy Across Continents (Oct 25), The Jewish-Iranian Immigrant Experience: At the Threshold of Two Worlds (Nov 15), The Chosen Peoples and Their Enemies (Dec 20)
Film: Channel 101: NY Monthly Screening: During this monthly screening, new five-minute shows from the best young writers and directors in NYC battle it out for the right to be turned into a series.
Film: Meet the Lady: Pearl Bailey!: Join “Meet The Lady” website curator Tom Blunt and Joe’s Pub cabaret sensation Roslyn Hart on an expedition through rarely-seen clips of the star’s film and TV conquests.
Film: Law & Order (1969): Part of Red Channels’ summer Visual Liberation screening series, presented in partnership with The Brecht Forum. We look at non-fiction cinema’s early attempts at documenting the activities of the police in our cities. Discussion to follow screening.
Fri, Aug 20
Music: The Upperclass Men: Three MCs with in-the-pocket flow and undeniable wit backed by a high energy live band—the inevitable comment after seeing them live is “The Beastie Boys meets The Roots.”
Film: Xanadu Sing-Along: Don’t be bashful—we want you to belt out the tunes, including Magic and Suddenly—and we’ll start you off with a beer to loosen up those pipes.
GalleyCat notes that Jonathan Franzen, author of the award-winningThe Corrections, is the first living novelist to be featured on the cover of Time magazine in ten years. (Stephen King was the last in 2000.) The online edition is an abridged version of the full story so make sure to get the print magazine. Even better, see him in-person at 92Y on November 15 with the equally lauded Lorrie Moore.
This Friday [update: cancelled], join Karina Zilberman, Director of Jewish Arts & Culture at 92Y to squish, roll and braid your own challah to take home and bake! For children of all ages.
Pianist Jeremy Denk Takes The Wall Street Journal For A Walk Around Upper Upper West Side
Our favorite part of the Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog is their Walkabout videos, “an occasional feature about notable New Yorkers and their neighborhoods.” The latest video features pianist Jeremy Denk as they walk through the “Upper Upper West Side” and “classical music central.” Along the way, they stopping at Denk’s favorite bagel shop (Absolute Bagels) and bookstore (Bookculture).
Jeremy Denk is performing in recital with Steven Isserlis on December 9, and is leading the Family Music concert on December 12.
Pediatrician Dr. Jim Sears, ER physician Dr. Travis Stork, OB/GYN Dr. Lisa Masterson and cosmetic surgeon Dr. Drew Ordon are the engaging, highly credentialed and knowledgeable cast of experts on the Emmy Award-nominated CBS show The Doctors. They are appearing at the 92nd Street Y on September 16 to address one of the biggest obstacles to better health—time.
We’re giving you the opportunity to submit your questions to them now. Leave them here in our comments or on our Facebook page, and the guests will consider them on stage during the Q&A. You can also visit The Doctors website to submit your questions.
Tessitura 2010: Content is Queen. Community is King
Our colleagues are attending a Tessitura conference outside of Washington D.C. (That’s our boss on stage in the photo above!) Tessitura is an arts enterprise software used by arts organizations to manage their online activities and was originally developed by and for the The Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
A hashtag (#tlcc2010) has been established on Twitter to follow the live tweeting taking place. We’re eavesdropping right now, reading what people are saying about the 92nd Street Y. Vicki Allpress Hill took note of 92Y’s Facebook presence: “92nd Street Y has the most segmented Facebook approach I have seen – 17 official pages, 11K combined fans, 1-2-1 approach.” What can we say, we love us some Facebook and all our friends online! Join us on Facebook if you haven’t already. Here is a link to our main page and 16 others. Join any and all that fit your interests.
As Alan Levine of The Kennedy Center was quoted as saying: “Content is Queen. Community is King.”
Ex Brooklyn resident Shawn Wilk wanted to have a reunion of of his old playmates, many of whom had long since moved away from the neighborhood, himself included. With the help of two friends and online networks such as Facebook, they gathered over 30 people who came back last weekend to visit the streets in Brooklyn they used to call home. The NY Daily News was there to document the day:
“The street looks even more beautiful than when we lived here,” gushed Lila Leeds Vita, 81, who raised her three boys at 830 E. 57th St. in East Flatbush. “Look how big the trees got!”
[...]
Barbara Newman, a Manhattan advertising copywriter, burst into tears as she approached her old house, at 856 E. 57th St. It had been her dream to go back inside, to relive her childhood memories.
Newman, 56, got her wish. The current owners, Althea and Valentine Angus, invited her in. “Oh my God, you still have my mother’s mirror up! And there are the stairs my grandmother fell down and almost killed herself,” Newman said.
Emily Weinstein recently wrote about her flower arranging skills, or lack thereof to be precise. In her piece last week for The New York Times, Weinstein recalled the tulips she would buy herself on the way home from work:
Yet arranging flowers was something I avoided. As with baking sourdough bread or building bookshelves, I was too intimidated to try, especially since buying individual stems can be expensive. Easier to buy a bunch of the same flower, or two or three kinds at most, snip their stems and plop them in water, all while handling them as little as possible.
It turns out that I am not alone in wanting instruction: flower-arranging classes are on the upswing. Established institutions have long offered programs in traditional arranging, but newer schools, with a natural, free-form aesthetic, have begun popping up across the country, part of a swell of enthusiasm for things homemade.
Learn more about this “growing” trend at 92YTribeca on October 12, at The Art of Japanese Flower Arranging. Ikebana is an ancient Japanese art form that brings out the grace and beauty of even the most ordinary flowers. For beginning to advanced students. Sign up here.
As seen in the photo slide above, comedian Rory Scove and the Comedy Below Canal™ crew performed at 92YTribeca last Thursday with Sara Schaefer, Scott Moran, Andy Haynes and Nate Bargatze.
Comedy Below Canal™ returns this Thursday, August 7, with Hari Kondabolu, Joe Mande, Greg Walloch and Musical Guest Corn Mo. When we told a friend that Corn Mo would be there, he was all, “whose Corn Mo?” We were like, wha? In case you aren’t familiar with Corn Mo, you can get familiar below, with video of him performing Never Say Goodbye at the Canal Room.
Film: Soul Kitchen: Sneak preview screening with director Fatih Akin in person for post-screening Q&A moderated by journalist and filmmaker Bilge Ebiri.
Wed, Aug 11
Film: Tree of Wooden Clogs and a pre-screening discussion with acclaimed chef and restaurateur Marco Canora.
Part of the series Eat This Film! Co-presented by Edible and Reverse Shot.
New York Magazineprofiles Rosanne Cash, exploring her Twitter habits, (@rosannecash): “She tweets somewhere around 60 times per day,” her dreams of being a writer: “...fulfilled, to a degree, with the publication of her 1996 book Bodies of Water” and her father’s time spent in New York City: “It doesn’t fit the Johnny Cash legend, but he spent significant time in an apartment he owned at 40 Central Park South...”
The writer trailed her one night in New York City:
...we step out of the concrete heat and into La Grenouille. Cash breezes up to the bar and joshes with the bartender. Charles Masson, the manager, sends over a glass of Champagne and writes out a Bordeaux recommendation. Here she is, the daughter of a man who escaped the poverty of his Arkansas youth, happily at home in this East Side shrine to haute cuisine. “This has to be the most pleasant place in New York right now,” she says.
Cash is, by now, a fixture of the city’s culture elite. She is a member of the Century Association, the Stanford White–designed midtown clubhouse that began accepting female members only in 1988. And she has an absurd number of well-connected friends, including Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, New York Times op-ed deputy editor George Kalogerakis, Betsey Johnson CEO Chantal Bacon, and novelist Colson Whitehead.
“I have a real worker-bee mentality,” Cash tells me. She’s talking about how she built her career, but she’s really talking about everything else. This is her credo. “Just show up, just do it. Even if you feel like shit and you think you’re terrible and you’ll never get better and it will never go anywhere, just show up and do it. And, eventually, something happens.”
Steve Martin, Billie Joe Armstrong, Wangari Muta Maathai, Tony Blair, Diane von Furstenberg…
The above collage comes from the back of our fall catalogue and features upcoming speakers at the 92nd Street Y for the fall season. Steve Martin, Billie Joe Armstrong, Wangari Muta Maathai, Tony Blair, Diane von Furstenberg…
Silverman, who began to see the potential of industrial design during several residencies at the European Ceramic Work Centre in the Netherlands, conceived the exhibition, he says, as a corrective to the anti-industrial and anti-functional art schooling he and fellow baby-boom potters received. “It was very much an approach that played up the romance and power of expressive pots made by direct individual touch,” says Silverman. “But it also ignored the whole range of explorations and possibilities that industry and function had to offer.”
Silverman is director of the ceramics program at the 92nd Street Y. Upcoming classes with Bobby Silverman include a Wheel class beginning September 20, where you master the art of working on the potter’s wheel. As well, from October 2-12, he will lead a ceramic workshop in Tuscany, Italy, a 10-day soda-firing workshop at La Meridiana, the International Center for Ceramic Art, located in the southern part of Florence Province, in the town of Certaldo.
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Jeffrey Goldberg’s much talked about cover story for The Atlantic, 
New York Magazine 
