Opinion
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WBCN Legend Charles Laquidara
Pairs With Matt Siegel for Benefit Event
By: - Sep 07th, 2023“An Afternoon with Charles Laquidara & Matt Siegel,” moderated by Joyce Kulhawik, is a fundraiser for the Paul “Tank” Sferruzza Scholarship Fund. The late Sferruzza was a sports director at WBCN and WZLX. The event is at City Winery Saturday, September 9.
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Williams '62 Center Season
Performances Open to the Public
By: - Sep 15th, 2023The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance unveiled its nineteenth season of extraordinary theatre, music, and dance programming for the Williams College community and beyond.
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American Tenor Stephen Gould Dies at 61
His Performances Were Always A Treat
By: - Sep 20th, 2023Berkshire Fine Arts was fortunate to hear Stephen Gould sing Parsifal in Bayreuth two years ago. He retired from Bayreuth this summer when he was diagnosed with incurable cancer.
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Jane Hudson’s Tarot
Vernissage and Reading
By: - Sep 23rd, 2023Last night I sat for my first ever Tarot reading. Well, Kindah. Not a full reading but just one card and a brief analysis. The format was devised to accommodate many visitors. Jane Hudson became energized explaining the significance of The Tower.
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Jimmy Carter and The Cairo
Looking at Old Snapshots
By: - Dec 05th, 2023Now a Berkshire resident Steve Nelson and his wife Jan resided high above D.C. when Jimmy Carter became president. This piece was inspired by looking at vintage snapshots.
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Jeff Koons Kills Brooklyn Rail Article
Chilling Impact on Arts Criticism
By: - Dec 17th, 2023As the New York Times reported on December 17, “When (Romy) Golan arrived at Koons’s 10th Avenue studio in New York last winter for her interview, she said she was asked to sign a filming release giving the artist the right to “view and approve any footage, still images and/or promotional material that are proposed for use.” Golan had no plans to film her interview or take photographs but signed the release." Koons effectively killed the story in Brooklyn Rail.
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Plagiarism, Its Permutations, and How to Avoid Them
There Are Few Clear Guidelines
By: - Jan 09th, 2024Plagiarism has been very much in the news. Even the recent president of Harvard has been under the gun. And yet there seems to be no firm guidelines to instruct non-academics and even academics as to how to spot evidence of plagiarism. What follows is a meditation on plagiarism and how to avoid it.
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Squirrels, Taiji and Stillness
By: - Feb 27th, 2024The squirrel comes each day to eat peanuts with me on one of the benches in the meditation garden that surrounds my training and teaching deck. Sometimes she will sit in my lap, sometimes she will sit on the cushion beside me, and sometimes she just sits on the cinder block armrest. But she comes every day, and several times at that.
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Blue Heron's Stillness
By: - Mar 03rd, 2024The blue heron, a majestic bird with piercing yellow eyes and a spear-like beak, embodies a unique paradox. It is a creature of both profound stillness and lightning-fast action. But it is the heron’s stillness that truly captivates, a quality that has enthralled artists, writers, and philosophers for centuries. This stillness isn’t just an absence of movement; it’s a potent force, a language of patience, focus, and a deep connection with the environment.
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Conflating Lovecraft, Mugar and Houellebecq
iterary Sources for an Artist’s Work
By: - Mar 18th, 2024Of course my painting is not in the realm of the noxious monsters of Lovecraft but the eventual push of the visual event off the surface seems to speak to a similar aggressive desire to reach out and engage the viewer. It also begins to abandon the pleasant color field that had dominated my work from the beginning of the millennium.
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Power of Stillness
Present Moment Awareness
By: - Mar 21st, 2024One exercise I suggest to my students is a “slow by slow” day each week: walk just a little slower than you usually walk; speak just a little slower than you usually speak; eat just a little slower than you usually eat. Not slow motion, and not so anyone else would notice, but slower than usual.
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Unhurried Grace
Patience of a Forest Stream
By: - Mar 31st, 2024While offering instruction in the various taiji forms I teach, I often refer to a forest stream and urge my students to become it, ever-flowing, to find and then move at the pace of their breath, ever-flowing, just as the stream finds its pace. The stream does not move from one place to the next; there is no line of demarcation between places. The stream simply flows.
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Marjorie Minkin Recalls Clement Greenberg and Kenworth Moffett
Mentoring of an Emerging Artist
By: - May 08th, 2024I first met Clement Greenberg after Ken (Moffett) invited me to go to Toronto in the summer of 1981 where he and Greenberg were on a panel discussion at the Toronto Art Fair. I accompanied Greenberg and Moffett on their visit to at least 20 artists’ studios in Toronto. It was the best art education of my life!
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The Duality of Breath Yin and Yang
Cultivating Inner Power
By: - May 13th, 2024The core concept in Daoist understanding of the breath is Qi (pronounced “chee”). Qi is not simply oxygen, but a subtle energy force believed to permeate all living things and the universe itself. It is the dynamic interplay of Yin and Yang, the fundamental polarities that govern existence. Deep, mindful breathing is seen as a way to cultivate and refine Qi, leading to improved health, inner peace, and a deeper connection to the Dao.
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The Unclouded Mirror
Reflecting The Wu Wei in Daoism
By: - Jun 03rd, 2024In the vast tapestry of Daoist thought, the mirror emerges as a potent symbol, not for vanity, but for cultivating a state of unclouded perception. Unlike a typical mirror, the ideal Daoist mirror reflects only what is truly present – the here and now, unfiltered by desires or judgments.
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The Flow
By: - Jun 17th, 2024Wu Wei is a lifelong journey, not a destination. It’s about cultivating a sense of ease and harmony in the face of life’s complexities. By embracing its principles, we can learn to flow with the current, navigate life’s rapids with greater grace, and find a deeper sense of peace and fulfillment along the way.
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The Eight Immortals
Pantheon of Tao
By: - Jun 25th, 2024Lu Dongbin, also known as Lü Dongbin or Lu Tung-Pin, is a towering figure in Chinese mythology and religion. As one of the Eight Immortals, a revered pantheon within Daoism, he transcends the boundaries of a mere historical figure. He embodies wisdom, benevolence, and mastery of the Dao (the Way), leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire generations. This exploration delves into the life, legends, and significance of Lu Dongbin, the scholar-immortal who wields both sword and wisdom.
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Surrealism. Earth. Dreams.
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Northern Berkshires Blockbuster Arts Summer
From Warhol and Wilco to van Gogh and Inge
By: - May 14th, 2015Now in his final weeks as director of the Clark Art Institute Michael Conforti hosted a media event promoting a blockbuster season for Northern Berkshire County. There were presentations by Joe Thompson for Mass MoCA, Tina Olsen for the Williams College Museum of Art, and Mandy Greenfield for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Notably absent from the media event were North Adams based arts presenters Downstreet, The Eclipse Mill Gallery, The Rudd Museum of Art and the fall annual Williamstown Film Festival.
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Calm But Alert
Martial Arts and Stillness
By: - Oct 12th, 2020Alan Watts once said that trying to define who you are is like trying to bite your own teeth; one of my Zen Buddhist masters used to say it was like trying to see your own eyeballs.
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Classical Music for Fun
Tom and Jerry and a Roller Coaster
By: - May 10th, 2020If you need a bit of levity, try opening the music below!
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MFA Cancels Programming
Suspended Through August 31
By: - Apr 04th, 2020Responding to the pandemic the MFA has issued this letter to its patrons.
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Music and the Virus
Pitching In
By: - Mar 25th, 2020Many organizations are offering wonderful streaming. Reports suggest that music with videos is doing better than sound only. Atlanta Opera, led by Tomer Zvulun, may be providing the most useful help.
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Donald E. Lacy's Colorstruck
Theater for the New City Mounts Premiere
By: - Mar 01st, 2020Colorstruck and its creators come to us from the San Francisco Bay area where they have been involved in radio, theater and film. They are also participants in community outreach in the arts. Lacy has crafted a one man show which straddles a gap where tears laughter and anger resolve. On an empty stage, Lacy emerges from darkness, a black man in black clothing. He speaks for 75 minutes, lighting up our hearts and minds.
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Recalling Sighting John Updike
The A&P of the Mind
By: - Jun 09th, 2018Summering in Annisquam Martin Mugar, like the Ipswich based author, John Updike, became aware of distinct difference of class and culture. Thre were the easy, self confident debutantes who shopped at the A&P in their bathing suits. And the townies, like Sam, who unnoticed lusted for them. Recently, Mugar was reminded and inspired by watching the author crossing a street ages ago. Here he spins the yarn of old.
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