This past weekend I saw the current Broadway revival of Terrence Rattigan's play, "Man and Boy," at the American Airlines Theater on 42nd Street, as presented by Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by Maria Aitken, on Saturday night, and "Relatively Speaking: 3 One-Act Comedies" at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, directed by John Turturro, on Sunday afternoon. It was a very "filling" theater weekend, indeed.
"Man and Boy" is presented as a vehicle for Frank Langella, … <Read More>
An opinion by U.S. District Judge William Young (District of Massachusetts) issued on October 31, 2011, in Liberty Media Holdings, LLC v. Swarm Sharing Hash File & Does 1 through 38, 2011 WL 5161453, raises the issue whether anonymous defendants being sued for copyright infringement regarding gay pornographic films are entitled to maintain their anonymity while participating in the lawsuit, on the grounds of a right to avoid being "outed" as part of the litigation. … <Read More>
The Brooklyn Philharmonic has been reborn!
In recent seasons, the orchestra that used to give concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) faded from view, as finances and the inability to retain a music director put an end to those concerts and reduced the organization to sending chamber ensembles around to schools, churches and other such venues. But a core group of determined folks decided that Brooklyn should have a real orchestra again, and … <Read More>
Richard Peterson pled guilty to wire fraud and engaging in the business of insurance after having been convicted of a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust on July 19, 2005. He subsequently executed a Post-Plea Sentencing Stipulation, under which he agreed to forfeit to the federal government his ownership interest in two properties: a building on Clayton Street in San Francisco containing three apartments (in one of which he had resided with his same-sex … <Read More>
U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra has granted summary judgment in favor of a Florida beauty academy that was charged by an expelled gay student with violating Title IX, a federal statute that bans sex discrimination by educational institutions that benefit from federal funding. Judge Marra found that the insults suffered by Luis Rodriguez were not sufficiently severe to constitute hostile environment sexual harassment, and that the school had responded appropriately when issues were brought to … <Read More>
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the denial of a writ of habeas corpus sought by Andrew Lee Boyer, an Oregon man who was convicted of attempted aggravated murder (together with several other sexual offenses) in an Oregon state court upon evidence that, knowing that he was HIV-positive and had been diagnosed with AIDS, he had anally penetrated two teenage boys without using a condom. Although Boyer claimed … <Read More>
I got to hear the Irish Chamber Orchestra play their New York debut concert at Alice Tully Hall on Monday night, October 31. Despite the Hallowe'en observance, they were in normal concert dress. Their conductor for the occasion was South Africa-born Gerard Korsten. I had never previously heard of this conductor or ensemble, but was there courtesy of Peoples' Symphony Concerts, which offered tickets to their donors, for which I must thank them, because it … <Read More>
This afternoon the American Symphony Orchestra directed by Leon Botstein presented the first of this season's three Classics Declassified concerts at Symphony Space. The subject was Mahler's Symphony No. 1. As usual, the format was that Botstein gave a talk with some illustrative passages played by the orchestra, then they performed the entire piece, and finally there was a question & answer session with the audience.
I thought Botstein's talk was a bit incoherent at … <Read More>
I loved Jesse Eisenberg's performance portraying Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network." So when I heard that he had written a play and would be starring in it off-Broadway, I had to go. I attended yesterday's matinee with my regular theater-going companion. Just a brief comment here from the two of us – this play should still be in the workshop phase. There are some entertaining moments and some good performances, but the thing doesn't … <Read More>
Sometimes a new recording comes along that really just blows me away – and such is the new release by Norbert Schuster, the vocal ensemble amarcord, and the instrumental ensemble Cappella Saggitariana Dresden, titled "Jauchzet dem herren alle welt: Schutz und Italien," volume 2 of their series Musik aus der Dresdner Schlosskapelle.
This artfully assembled program takes one through the long career of the greatest 17th century German composer, Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672), interspersing samples of … <Read More>