Madonna wasn’t drawn to New York City by tax breaks but by its cultural life, creative community, good transportation, and great bars. But if she arrived today, could she afford a place to live? Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development, sees the pop star as a business model, revealing the city’s … Continue reading »
Author Archives: Randy Cohen
Episode 152: Laurie Anderson
Life is constructed from the stories we tell, suggests this splendid musician, film-maker (and more). “What else is there but stories?” she asks. “Well,” I reply geriatrically, “there’s the truth.” Or is there? She has a more nuanced view (or perhaps just a darker one). A conversation about myth-making, with side trips to the Venice … Continue reading »
Episode 151: Renee Cox
Do happy artists produce better work than gloomy artists? Renee Cox contemplates her own work and says yes. I say: Beethoven. We considered the matter at the Interntional Print Center in conjunction with their exhibition Black Pulp. The featured musical performer was Norris Bennett of the Ebony Hillbillies, whose work made me so joyful … Continue reading »
Episode 150: Heidi Rodewald and Stew
Art often fails. Writers discard first drafts (and second, third, and fourth). Painters trash early sketches. And even when completed work enters the world, some is transcendent, but much is hopelessly earthbound. Or so I believe, but Heidi Rodewald and Stew, creators of the musical Passing Strange, demur. “I don’t think art is ever wrong,” … Continue reading »
Episode 149: Evelyn Stevens
2016 was a big year: she won three stages of the Giro Rosa, the most acclaimed race in women’s cycling; she rode on the US Olympic team at Rio; she set the one-hour time trial record, and at year’s end she retired from pro racing. She is a rational person, but during the one race when … Continue reading »
Episode 148: Jonathan Rose
What do we make of a person who acts dubiously for much of his life and then, after a transformative event (or retirement), does unambiguous good? Andrew Carnegie? St. Paul? The green developer Jonathan Rose examines this question in regard to his boyhood hero and fellow developer James Rouse, challenging both my conclusion and my … Continue reading »
Episode 147: Katherine Bradford
If an artist begins a work not with an abundance of ideas or an outpouring of emotion but only in puruit of a paycheck, is the work doomed? Painter Katherine Bradford took up this question at Planthouse Gallery with sharp analysis and grim personal experience – my favorite combination. Plus astute remarks about Philip Johnson … Continue reading »
Episode 146: Layli Miller-Muro
The founder and executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a non-profit that assists immigrant women fleeing violence, she notes that while we are influenced by people we admire, we are also shaped by those who “test” us, as she tactfully puts it. I call them jerks. And she’s right: we’re shaped by jerks. … Continue reading »
Episode 145: Patricia Marx
We – OK, I – look askance at those who claim to need an emotional-support animal to board an airplane, but we don’t mock those who take Prozac. What’s the difference? Patricia Marx, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has travelled with a support pig (research, not therapy), took up this question … Continue reading »
Episode 144: Maria Popova
Her blog “Brain Pickings” ranges across the past and present, the arts and sciences, steering her cohort to unexpected delights. In our conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society, she talked about a nineteenth century astronomer, a twentieth century elm tree, and a twenty-first century blight: people who walk down the street staring at their devices. … Continue reading »
Episode 143: Andy Borowitz
After creating the TV series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he did something radical: left TV, came back east, and returned to writing prose, to the delight of the fans of The Borowitz Report. In this episode, taped at JCC Manhattan, he riffs on Donald Trump, ponders why Cleveland produces great comics and bad ball clubs, and reads … Continue reading »
Episode 142: A. R. Gurney
This sly anthropologist of WASP ways is much admired for his plays The Dining Room, Love Letters, Sylvia, and more. We talked at the Flea Theater about fathers and sons, students and teachers, and most emotion-charged of all: dogs versus cats. Drama is conflict. Plus music from Duncan Wickel and Lily Henley, who got … Continue reading »