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  • Hungarian Cabernet Franc

    My Dad's Nickname Was 'Cab Franc'

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Jul 11th, 2020

    Everyone has a story to tell. Not all of us have wine stories. This is one about my Dad and why I went into the wine business.

  • Photographer Joseph Podlesnik

    About Provisional Painting

    By: Martin Mugar - Jul 11th, 2020

    In photography and painting perspective has often been the main visual tool that connects the human presence to the here and now which becomes place. The image created by the handheld camera establishes ipso facto a tight bond via the picture plane on the back of the camera to the environment. If it is parallel to the subject matter or at an angle to it, the way the eye is moved by the image can be quite different.

  • National Theatre Streams Rattigan's Deep Blue Sea

    Helen McCrory Stars; Carrie Cracknell Directs

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 17th, 2020

    National Theatre at Home streams Deep Blue Sea by Terrence Rattigan and Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. Remarkable productions keep theaters live when their homes are shuttered.

  • Michelin Star Cafe Boulud At Blantyre

    Blantyre Is a Berkshires Gilded Age Mansion

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Jul 19th, 2020

    Chef Daniel Boulud, a two star Michelin Chef at 'Daniel' in Manhattan has brought his crew to run his one star Michelin restauarant, 'Cafe Boulud' at the Gilded Age Mansion, Blantyre (Lenox, Massachusetts). The French inspired restaurant will remain open, Wednesday to Sunday, through mid-October.

  • National Black Theatre Receives Its First Obie

    Company in Harlem since 1968

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 20th, 2020

    The National Black Theatre (NBT) is one of the oldest Black theater companies in the country. It recently received its first Obie Award.The Obies recognize excellence Off-Broadway and Off, Off-Broadway. NBT's Obie comes after it received an Antonyo Award.

  • Amadeus Streamed by National Theatre

    What Salieri Saw in Mozart That Vienna Missed

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 21st, 2020

    Often it is suggested that Salieri was alone in his appreciation of Mozart. He saw immediately his extraordinary gifts. Enjoy Leonard Bernstein’s father’s response to a question about why he did not support his son’s musical aspirations. “I didn’t know Leonard Bernstein was Leonard Bernstein.” Viennese society did not know that Mozart was Mozart. No one did, xcept Antonio Salieri, writers’ observe, beginning with Puskin.

  • Fred Plotkin: Renaissance Man

    Renowned Expert on Italian food and Opera

    By: Jessica Robinson - Jul 23rd, 2020

    Fred Plotkin notes: “I am not a singer or musician, yet my working life has a lot of similarities in that most of my income is derived from appearing in front of audiences in places of public assembly. People buy tickets to what I do so, of course, that means that all of my contracts, all of my speaking engagements, have been canceled until November.”

  • The Weir by Conor McPherson

    Irish Repertory Theatre Screens Performance

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 27th, 2020

    The Irish Repertory Theatre has come up with the perfect play to stream. The Weir is a quintet, Four men living in a remote Irish country town are joined by a pretty woman from Dublin. Stories are told by four characters and the camera focuses on them during the telling. The scene broadens to include reactions. Sometimes Director Ciarán O’Reilly has an actor face the camera, deeply involving us in the drama.

  • BSO Cancels Fall Season

    Winter 2021 Will Be Announced in December

    By: BSO - Jul 30th, 2020

    For the first time in its 139-year history, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will suspend its fall season of performances at Symphony Hall, September 16-November 28. Plans for winter programming will be announced in September,

  • An Ode To Cafe Boulud

    Writing Poetry on A Menu

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Jul 31st, 2020

    There are certain time in life you must express yourself-at the moment you feel the passion. This poem about Cafe Boulud was one of those creative moments.

  • Will Stage-Dooring Disappear

    Union Makes COVID Recommendations.

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 31st, 2020

    Theatergoers may no longer be able to seek autographs after shows if union's recommendations are followed. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has drafted a 27-page document containing COVID-related safety guidelines for theaters. The union represents more than 150,000 members. They are employed in positions such as theatrical technicians and stagehands.

  • A Musical Wunderkind Joshua Turchin

    Teen Wows Audiences, Critics

    By: Aaron Krause - Aug 10th, 2020

    At age 13, Joshua Turchin has accomplished more than many performers do throughout their career. Joshua Turchin is now the youngest cast member, and only child, ever to perform in Forbidden Broadway’s 38-year history. The teen's award-winning musical, The Perfect Fit, is Broadway-bound

  • Lawrence Brownlee, Bel Canto

    National Sawdust Presents a Master

    By: Susan Hall - Aug 08th, 2020

    Lawrence Brownlee talked about music and our times with composers Helga Davis and Paola Prestini. The event was hosted by National Sawdust, an institution for our times, which is led by the super-energetic Prestini.

  • Howell Binkley at 64

    Award-winning Lighting Designer Succumbs to Cancer

    By: Aaron Krause - Aug 17th, 2020

    Lighting designer Howell Binkley has died of cancer at age 64. His work on the original Broadway productions of Jersey Boys and Hamilton earned him the Tony Award in 2006 and 2016, respectively. Binkley most recently designed the lighting for the world premiere of Fly at Southern California's La Jolla Playhouse.

  • Elektra by Strauss Live at Salzburg Festival

    Krzysztof Warlikowski's Wrenching Drama

    By: Susan Hall - Aug 16th, 2020

    Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Elektra opens the 2020 Salzburg Festival. An electrifying interpretation of the wild Richard Strauss opera based on the drama by Hans Hofmannsthal announced that Austria is alive and well.

  • Joe Thompson's Letter to Members

    Stepping Fown and Mass MoCA Director

    By: Joe Thompson - Aug 22nd, 2020

    With the decades long development of the MASS MoCA campus complete but for some loose ends director Joe Thompson is moving on. Since graduating from nearby Williams College, now in his early 60's it's the only job he's ever had. His work and MoCA development over the years has had enormous cultural and economic inpact on Northern Berkshire County.

  • Hancock Shaker Village

    A Special Invitation Sunday August 30

    By: Jennifer Trainer Thompson - Aug 26th, 2020

    Live from Hancock Shaker Village: Songs of Comfort will be broadcast live on WAMC and streamed online or on the WAMC app. This Sunday August 30 at 7 pm.

  • Without Gorky a Netflix Documentary

    Film by the Artist's Granddaughter Cosima Spender

    By: Martin Mugar - Aug 27th, 2020

    The artist of Armenian heritage, Matin Mugar, reviewed "Without Gorky" in 2012. Cosima Spender filmed the tragic story of her grandfather the surrelist/abstract expressionist artist Arshile Gorky. He came to America as a survivor of the Armenian Genocide in which his mother died from starvation. Growing up in Watertown as a young artist he took the name Gorky and denied his heritage remaining distant with little contact to relatives. His wife Agnes, then in her late 80s, convyed memories of terrible suffering and its impact on their two daughters.; particularly coming to terms with his suicide. Gorky was among the greatest artists of his generation. This superb and compelling documentary is now featured on Netflix.

  • Alex Ross on Wagnerism

    Wagnerism: The Superb Story of Culture Over 150 Years

    By: Susan Hall - Aug 28th, 2020

    Alex Ross has written a Wagnerian book about the impact of Richard Wagner on the culture and politics of his times, leading right up to our own. "Wagnerism". the term which serves as the title of the book, was used early on in English by George Eliot, one of the many writers who fell under Wagner's spell. It is used to define Wagner’s methods: his scope which spreads out to the edges of the Universe and beyond, his use of myths, and his tones which are often highly erotic and then some.

  • Hidden Figures a 2017 Gem

    Streaming This Month on FX

    By: Jack Lyons - Sep 02nd, 2020

    Set in 1961 “Hidden Figures”, centers around the true and factual story of three brilliant African-American female mathematicians who worked at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, during America’s odious Jim Crow Law era – from 1887 to 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally nullified the repellent second-class distinction Jim Crow law, by recognizing that all citizens of America are to be accorded full and equal protection under the law authorized by the US Constitution.

  • Permafrost Melts at MASS MoCA

    Blane De St. Croix: How to Move a Landscape.

    By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 02nd, 2020

    The art of Blane De St. Croix comes at the viewer via a multivalent attack on the staggering challenges posed by irreparable climate change. The diversity of this artist’s media and its ecological content — driven by a political mandate — evokes the tradition of Social Sculpture by the postwar German artist Joseph Beuys. The MoCA project How to Move a Landscape draws on dramatically different approaches to convey the rapid erosion and melting of permafrost in the Arctic.

  • Philippe David’s Happy Threads

    Textile Designs Inspired by Nature

    By: Jessica Robinson - Sep 02nd, 2020

    “I showed this fabric at an early stage of its existence to a professional in my industry. When he said, ‘you will never sell a yard of it,’ I knew I had a WINNER!” Textile designer Philippe David is referring to his bestselling creation – ever: “Bal d'Eté" (Summer Prom), a colorful and joyful silk fabric manufactured in India, the land of textile wonders.

  • Demi Moore as GI Jane

    An Oldie but Goodie

    By: Jack Lyons - Sep 09th, 2020

    When the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane” was released women in Israel were already hardened combat veterans. In the US. Military, however, women trying to integrate the male dominated ranks of combat soldiers were met with severe resistance from the heads of the armed forces. “Women will become a distraction and a liability in combat. Combat requires physical strength as well as stamina to handle the rigors of war and combat”.

  • How George Seybolt Changed the MFA

    Board President Initiated Business Concepts from 1968 to 1972

    By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 11th, 2020

    George Crossan Seybolt (1915-1993) was president and chairman of the William Underwood Company, best known for its canned Deviled Ham. He was recruited to the board of trustees by the director, Perry T. Rathbone. When be became president of the board there was constant conflict. Seybolt mico managed the museum and ousted Rathbone over the Raphael incident. His personal appointment for director, Merrill Rueppel, proved to be a disaster. He was fired after a Globe exposé. Seybolt went on to be a museum lobbyist and visionary. It's what we discussed in 1977.

  • Iris Love

    Unforgettable

    By: Jessica Robinson - Sep 11th, 2020

    The doorbell rang. I was in bed. It was about 9pm and I was a little hung-over from the birthday party I’d hosted the night before. Who could it be? Wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, I opened the door just enough to see who it was. OMG. It was Iris Love, dressed in her full Scottish clan regalia of plaid tartan kilt, white shirt, knee socks, and jacket with kilt pins and clan badges.

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