I usually try to blog about a new case as soon as I hear about it, but last month was the time of year when I am on the lookout for final examination fact patterns, and so I have put off blogging about Stroder v. Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, 2012 Westlaw 1424496 (W.D.Ky., April 24, 2012), for almost a month, as I quickly decided to base a final exam … <Read More>
Jeremy Denk’s Recording-Release Event at Le Poisson Rouge
The brilliant pianist Jeremy Denk has initiated a relationship with Nonesuch Records, and celebrated their first release – a Ligeti-Beethoven recital – with an event this evening at Le Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village hot spot for music.
The recording showed up at J&R Music last week, and as a big-time Denk fan I had to acquire it, even though I knew I would be hearing him play must of the album tonight. It is … <Read More>
NYC Opera Concludes Truncated Season with Telemann Discovery
In 1978 the long-lost manuscript of Georg Philipp Telemann's opera, Orpheus, resurfaced. NYC Opera selected the neglected piece to close its 2012 season of wandering, coming to rest in the tiny auditorium of El Museo del Barrio on 5th Avenue at 104th Street. The venue was a discovery for me – and, in the end, a bigger discovery than the opera.
I generally enjoy Telemann's music. His concerti, sonatas, and sacred and secular choral music … <Read More>
A Fitting End for Peoples’ Symphony “Marlboro” Season
For its 2011-12 season, Peoples' Symphony Concerts celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Marlboro Music Festival by booking exclusively individuals or groups that have had the Marlboro summer experience. It was most fitting that this season ended with the participation of Peter Serkin, eminent concert pianist and son of Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin. Serkin joined with the Shanghai String Quartet for a rousing rendition of Dvorak's Piano Quintet. During the first half of the concert, … <Read More>
A Week of Dramatized Biography
This past week I attended three productions that were dramatizations of the lives of real people. On Tuesday, I saw "The Columnist," a play by David Auburn about Joe Alsop, the syndicated columnist who wielded outsize influence in the 1950s and 1960s. On Thursday, I saw "End of the Rainbow," a play by Peter Quilter, about Judy Garland's December 1968 visit to London to perform a series of concerts in an attempted comeback from drug … <Read More>
Maryland Court of Appeals Unanimously Recognizes Same-Sex Marriages Performed Out-of-State
Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled unanimously on May 18 in Port v. Cowan, 2012 WL 1758629, that a same-sex couple married in 2008 in California could get divorced in Maryland. Applying the state's common law comity rule for marriage recognition, the court held that recognizing the marriage was neither "repugnant" to the state's public policy nor specifically prohibited by the state's statutory ban on same-sex marriages.
The court is deciding this … <Read More>
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” at City Center Encores!
I attended the Saturday matinee performance of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", the 1949 Broadway musical (Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Leo Robin, Book by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields, adapted from Ms. Loos's novel of the same name), semi-staged by New York City Center Encores! as the last show of their 2011-12 season. It was a brilliant closing for the season, because this is an absolutely lovely show and all the elements came together for … <Read More>
6th Circuit Revives Gay Inmate’s Equal Protection Claim Against Prison Health Services
A panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment order that District Judge Robert Holmes Bell (W.D.Mich.) had issued in the case of Davis v. Prison Health Services, 2012 WL 1623216 (May 10, 2012), finding that state prison inmate Ricky Davis had alleged sufficient facts to raise an inference of anti-gay discriminatory intent in Prison Health Service's decision to remove him from working in an off-site public works program. The opinion … <Read More>
6th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for Employer in Gay Hostile Environment Case
In some ways, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' decision in Kalich v. AT&T Mobility, LLC, 2012 Westlaw 1623193 (May 10, 2012), is entirely unexceptionable. In compliance with existing precedents, the court agreed with District Judge David M. Lawson (E.D.Mich.) that Jeffrey Kalich was not entitled to a trial of his hostile environment sexual harassment claim under Title VII because, among other things, sexual orientation discrimination claims are not covered by Title VII. Neither Michigan … <Read More>
A Politically-Inspired Attorney General Opinion in Nebraska?
On May 3, the Office of Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who is a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, issued a written opinion over the signature of Assistant Attorney General Dale A. Corner, asserting that "political subdivisions" in Nebraska do not have the authority to "create protected classes not listed in state statute." The opinion was issued at the request of State Senator Beau McCoy, whose attempt to procure the enactment of a … <Read More>