Category: Art

  • For Your Consideration – And They’re Off! Edition

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    By Jim Keller I maintain that the Oscar race can be likened to a horserace where each studio bets on its thoroughbreds and hopes that they can at least place at the end. The studio is the owner, the public relations department is the jockey, and the horse is the actor or film in the…

  • Selma – The Movie

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    By Susan Russo Ava DuVernay has made a movie, based on the true events depicting the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that still resonates today. With a cast led by David Oyelowo, a young British actor, playing the role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this movie is a testament not only to…

  • Into Africa: Spotlight on the Rockefeller University Employee Art Exhibition

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    By Qiong Wang Living in New York, most of us often find ourselves trapped inside concrete jungles, busy and occupied all the time. Sunshine and the view in the distance from our windows are often blocked bluntly by another building. On the subways, we look down, napping or playing with cell phones, avoiding eye contact.…

  • For Your Consideration – Ones to Watch, Vol. 3 Edition

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    By Jim Keller Ah, the Best Supporting Actor and Actress races, such tenuous categories where one can know everything one week and nothing the next. Take last year’s Best Supporting Actress race for example—who could’ve guessed that frontrunner Oprah Winfrey would be snubbed on Oscar nomination morning? The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), the…

  • Culture Corner

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    An interview with famed vocalist and vocal coach Dorian Holley (Part One of Two) By Bernie Langs Looking over the resume of Dorian Holley, one marvels at the long list of names of the biggest successes in popular music for whom he has served as a back-up vocalist, background singer, or studio recording partner. He…

  • The Peggy Rockefeller Concert Series

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    By Ben DiMatteo Now in its 56th year, The Peggy Rockefeller Concert Series is decidedly unknown to much of the campus community. But those familiar with the program know that some of the most accomplished musicians in the world played Caspary Auditorium as a live rehearsal for Carnegie Hall. Since its inception, the series has…

  • Culture Corner

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    Concert Review: Steve Winwood and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Madison Square Garden, Sept. 10, 2014 By Bernie Langs Suffice it to say I expect a lot from music, including filling the need for a communal experience of substance now that I’ve shed the tedium of liturgical gatherings of the established religions. Not only…

  • For Your Consideration– Ones to Watch, Vol. 2 Edition

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    By Jim Keller This month we examine the leading ladies of the Best Actress race. The category remains ever flimsy—especially with comparison to the number of men competing for Best Actor this year. It is sadly a sign of the times: there are not a lot of leading roles for women in Hollywood. But the…

  • Culture Corner: Chuck Berry and the American Songbook—An Appreciation

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    By Bernie Langs I saw Chuck Berry, the founder of the music genre of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, in concert in the midst of my life’s blur of the mid-to-late 1980s at a fairly small New York City concert venue. He was paired up that evening with Ronnie Wood, the second banana guitarist…

  • For Your Consideration – Ones to Watch, Vol. 1 Edition

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    By Jim Keller With the conclusion of last month’s Telluride Film Festival, it’s time to kick off our three-part “Ones to Watch” series. This year, I’m shaking things up a bit by beginning with the Best Actor race—primarily because there are about 44 men vying for five slots, currently more than in any other acting…