Through a Chinese friend, I had the luck to discover the remarkable “Dali Dreamstone” exhibition this week at TK Asian Antiquities in New York City. Dali Dreamstones are marble slabs of smaller or larger size, which are mined, cut and... Continue Reading →
Book review: Robert D. Kaplan, “In Europe’s shadow: two Cold Wars and a thirty-year journey through Romania and beyond”, New York: Random House, 2016, 269 pp.) Robert D. Kaplan’s last chapter in this engrossing European history of Romania begins, “From... Continue Reading →
Film critique: “Anomalisa” (co-directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, 2016) A review of a review: is Anthony Lane correct about ‘Anomalisa’? This is an unsolicited review of noted New Yorker magazine film critic Anthony Lane’s own review of the striking... Continue Reading →
Arthur Miller, Mark Strong: ‘A view from the bridge’ (Lyceum Theater, Manhattan, dir. Ivo van Hove, until Feb. 21) Catharsis. The London Young Vic’s revival production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge (1956) is a mesmerizing theater experience... Continue Reading →
“Smoke” — the Upper West Side place on Broadway at 106th — is surely the most genuine, congenial and best-run jazz club in the city. It’s an intimate jazz/supper club that seats about fifty people for dinner at tight tables... Continue Reading →
Documentary: “Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue” (2015) Janis Joplin: “Who you are is what you settle for, you know?” Janis Joplin was my generation. Born in 1943, she was found dead at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood at twenty-seven... Continue Reading →
Rec.: Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe Patti Smith, now in her late 60s, began as a punk singer and celebrity of in the 60s and 70s, who blossomed into a noted writer and is still rocking, a cult personality. Her... Continue Reading →
“Best of enemies” (documentary film, 2015, Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon). Early reviews of “Best of enemies” miss the hidden-in-plain-sight point of this documentary on the infamous, mesmerizing television 1968 TV debates between the arch, off-the-reservation left-wing intellectual, Gore Vidal... Continue Reading →
If competition fosters outstanding performance, the Van Cliburn piano competition shows this works in the arts as well as the economy. “Virtuosity,” a documentary on the 2013 Cliburn competition, is directed by Christopher Wilkinson. The beautiful cinematography is the work... Continue Reading →
Tiersky's Viewpoint 