It’s not an unusual phenomenon for a couple of brothers and friends to form a band. It is unusual to be Ithacan, and perhaps even…
Posts published in “Arts”
The Venus of Urbino: A Domestic Deity
“There are pictures of nude women that suggest no impure thoughts—I am well aware of that. … What I am trying to emphasize is the…
Warning: Heavy spoilers for Season 1. The camera centers in on the sleeping face of Sarah Manning, our streetwise antihero, who lies slumped over…
Confronting Nostalgia
When I look back on this past fall, the memories I have are chock-full of moments that I can only describe as angst-ridden, indie-film quality:…
Your Spring To-Do List, Narrated in Song
“Mood Indigo” (1958): Nina Simone Get spring fever. Be overwhelmed. Be sad. Be moody. Be Mood Indigo. “I Think I’ll Call It Morning” (1971): Gil…
Minimalist Playlist
Minimalism (n). Music: a reductive style or school of modern music utilizing only simple sonorities, rhythms, and patterns, with minimal embellishment or orchestrational complexity, and…
Throwback Hits
When they hear a song from sometime around 2006, people usually say something along the lines of “OMG such a throwback, I haven’t heard this…
On My First Ithaca Underground Show
I followed the lonely sound of a glockenspiel coming from the main showroom of the Sacred Root Kava Bar to find a standing crowd of…
Movie Review: Where to Invade Next
When I took a seat at Cinemapolis’ cozy movie theater, I was unsure what to expect from the new Michael Moore movie Where to Invade…
What Happened at the Oscars?
Racism: discrimination based on racial or ethnic origins. While no one doubts that racism’s presence in the society of America’s past, people today have their…
The Forbidden Room: the Viewing Experience
Here’s something I’ve recently come to accept as true: it’s beautiful, euphoric even, to have a film morph and shift in and out of shape…
Wind-Up: Part 5
The room fell silent, all eyes on Winder. His face pale and shaken, he stared back at his rival detective with unbridled venom. “Krig,” he…
Hamilton: A Musical for a New America
What is there to say about Hamilton that hasn’t already been said? The hip-hop musical (although it might more accurately be deemed an opera) is…
Lyric Visions: When Artists Piggyback
On Valentine’s Day, the national day of love, I attended a joint poetry reading/art show at the State of the Art Gallery in downtown Ithaca.…
Dadaism: Celebrating the Centennial
A hundred years ago, it would have been very difficult for someone to conceive of going to a museum or an art gallery and seeing…
Czech This Playlist Out
Despite the modern-day stigma directed toward younger fans of classical music by their peers—let’s face it, you’re going to be called a nerd—it is our…
British Tunes for American Goons
Are Queen Latifah, the Lovin’ Spoonful, and Guns ‘n’ Roses sounding like a broken record? Are the Eagles, Drake, and Smokey Robinson just too familiar?…
Star Wars: The Force Wasn’t With Me on This One
Popcorn in hand, I sat down to Star Wars: The Force Awakens with high expectations. Although I was skeptical of the overwhelmingly positive reviews given…
An Interview with Cinemapolis’ Brett Bossard
Brett Bossard is the executive director of 7th Art, the non-profit media art organization that has worked with Cinemapolis since 2000 to bring Ithaca the…
A Tribute to David Bowie
“The stars look very different today.” This line from David Bowie’s 1969 “Space Oddity” flooded social media on January 10 as the world mourned his…
Creed Review
Creed is another film to add to Sylvester Stallone’s everlasting and successful Rocky series. The Rocky movies have featured acts of hard work and perseverance,…
Netflix Originals
Recently, I thought that there was no better way to watch TV while being mildly proactive than by writing a Tattler article reviewing some of…
Wind-up: Part 4
“Alright, just sit back and let me do the talking,” muttered Winder as we followed Gonzo down the dim hallway. “We shouldn’t be in any…
Percussion, Puppies, and Carly Rae Jepsen
I maintain that Carly Rae Jepsen concert-goers don’t go to hear artful live performances of quality songs, but to feel the same brightly-lit, rhythmic thrill that be found in any closely-packed venue with loud dance music playing from an iPod.
Binghamton Youth Symphony Orchestra
Every year, BYSO gives four amazing concerts. This year, BYSO is playing Tchaikovsky’s "Nutcracker," "Festive Sounds of Hanukkah" arranged by Bill Holcombe, and "The Most Wonderful Christmas" arranged by Robert Sheldon.
A Fall ’40s Playlist
A brief playlist for those crisp and windblown fall evenings; dreaming perhaps of fairer weather, or of the faded 1940s (excellent also for any suiting occasion).
Wind-Up: Part 3
Part 3 of the installment by James Park.