ARTS

Concert Review: Valentine’s Day with Megan Hilty and the NJSO

Unless you’re a commuter, it takes compelling incentive for a Manhattanite to leave the island. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is one such reason. Megan Hility is another. One would think then, that this musical marriage would be nothing short of perfect for the Valentine’s Day Weekend; lush orchestral tones, a Broadway bombshell, fine direction by guest conductor Todd Ellison, and romantic standards all seem to be the essential ingredients for a perfect concert. Yet after venturing to the recently restored but acoustically challenged Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey last Friday evening February 12th, I returned to New York with a minor sense of disappointment.

Reviews: Broadway and the Bard, Snow White, & Rock & Roll Refugee

by Ryan Leeds

Broadway and the Bard

After recently sitting through eighty minutes of the inscrutable and insufferable Broadway and The Bard, I sheepishly turned to my guest for the evening (a fellow aficionado of entertainment) and asked his opinion. “Well,” he said, “I fell asleep for most of it and when I woke, I kind of just checked out and then remembered that I had to water my plants.” Such commentary does not support a compelling night of theatre. I wholeheartedly agreed with his assessment, though unfortunately, I remained awake for the ordeal.

TedxBroadway Turns Five Years Old

by Ryan Leeds

What are you doing one week from today? If your answer is: “Going to work”, you have made a noble, but terribly incorrect choice. The correct response is: “Calling off sick and going to New World Stages for the most exciting industry event of the year.” Here, non-boring brainiacs from surprisingly unexpected disciplines will share their insights and help answer the question, “What is the best Broadway can be?”

Concert Review: Alan Cumming at Carnegie Hall

by Ryan Leeds

Daniel Nardicio certainly gives tickets buyers their money’s worth. The nightlife extraordinaire has made quite a niche for himself in the last few years producing major concerts for celebs including Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Lady Gaga, and others. On Monday February 8th Nardicio managed to pack the house at Carnegie Hall with eager fans of Golden Globe, Emmy, SAG, and Tony Award winning performer, Alan Cumming.

From My Archives- A Beatiful, Snowy Photoshoot

by Mark Giarrusso

On occasion, I will go through some of my catalog of work and look back on certain periods of my work. Since we are in the last depressing months of this New York City winter I decide to pull out some photos I took a few years ago during a frigid, snowy photo walk. I remember this walk well since about half way through the telescopic focus on my lens broke.

I was trying to capture how New York life still goes on despite a horrible storm. Until my lens broke… I still was able to capture some photos but all in all, you might consider this an outtake collection.

An Interview with Anne Nelson, Playwright & Screenwriter of The Guys

by Ryan Leeds

Anne Nelson had tough choices to make. As an eager twenty-something from Oklahoma, she looked forward to seizing opportunities beyond the panhandle state, but questioned whether or not she had the fortitude to deal with traumatic events. She came to the conclusion that a choice to back away from life’s discomfort is not a healthy way of living and took the plunge into journalism. It took her to Central American war zones in El Salvador and Guatemala. In her position as a foreign correspondent, she would meet fellow journalists for coffee and days later, would learn that they had been tortured and killed by death squads. “Suddenly, I came back to New York and would attend dinner parties where I felt like the ‘weird one’ because I just wasn’t on the same wavelength,” she said during a recent phone interview. “Normalcy meant working my way back to a state where I’d be able to fit in.”

Great Clubs, Venues & More In The Heart of Long Island

by Ryan Shea

For all of the Manhattanites out there, we are always planning for something or going to something every weekend it seems. Albeit a great party, event, wedding, you name it. There is always something going on. So what happens when you want to plan an event, or just go out for the night with your friends at something a bit different from your run of the mill local place? Long Island actually has both of that and more, and we have found some really great locations for you to enjoy yourself at, whether it is something you are planning, or experience something completely different. Here is where we think you would enjoy yourselves at off the LIRR.

Catching Up With Amazing Artist Nicholas Contrera

by Ryan Shea

I for one am always super impressed by anyone who comes from a small town like I am and makes it big in a city like Manhattan, where millions of people are trying to leave some type of impressionable footprint before they leave this earth. To accomplish a lot of that footprint in your early 20’s just shows the type of drive and talent one must have to succeed. This can be said about one of the hottest rising stars in the art world, Nicholas Contrera.

Justin Hall & Dave Davenport’s “Hard To Swallow”- Get Involved

by Ryan Shea

What an exciting accomplishment it is to combine the forces of so many talented people in the LGBT comic business and create a special, one of a kind book to display just how amazing the people, stories and backgrounds are of each? That is what is happening this month with the launch of an amazing new Kickstarter campaign for a book called “Hard To Swallow”, a gay erotic comics anthology created by “No Straight Lines” Justin Hall and “Feral And The Ghostskaters” Dave Davenport. The campaign for this book to be released is going on now until March 1st, and for anyone in the LGBT community, this is something that you should really get involved in to help the art world and for these great people to showcase their work.
[Read more…] about Justin Hall & Dave Davenport’s “Hard To Swallow”- Get Involved

Nostalgia in Brooklyn- DUMBO Photography

by Mark Giarrusso

Any native New Yorker will tell you that there is a certain nostalgia that permeates through Brooklyn. Yes, we may reluctantly admit that hipsters have brought a certain “cool” back to BK however, for a lot of us that were raised in NY the essence of Brooklyn goes beyond a bad mustache, know it all attitude and skinny jeans. It’s where out fathers and grandmothers grew up and where our great-grandparents settled after coming through Ellis Island. Next time you take a walk through an area like DUMBO try to imagine it through the hardworking New Yorkers from all over the world that came to Brooklyn and are the original producers of BK slickness.

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