Speak Out! recent blogs
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By Hillary Harvey 09/22/08
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By Hillary Harvey 09/04/08
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My Conversation with Laurie Anderson
By Sparrow 08/21/08
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"Blogging for Blood Cancer" event
By Puja Thomson 08/01/08
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By Sparrow 07/06/08
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Pretty Much the Most Important Thing
By Bethany Saltman 06/23/08
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How do I Assess Risks versus Benefits of Treatment Options?- 3
By Puja Thomson 06/16/08
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By Sparrow 05/23/08
Arts & Culture
Bang in the Berkshires
The Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival offers a full schedule of performances by composers from America and abroad, as well as workshops, live improvisation, children’s events, master classes, music business seminars, free gallery recitals, and more.
Blessed by the Bard“The aesthetic that we espouse, which is Shakespeare’s aesthetic, is that the language leads the action of the play,” Packer explains. “You have to be deeply connected to the play, always involving the energy of the audience. There is no fourth wall.” | 
Notes from UndergroundA dynamic of eternal fame is the subject of Glimmerglass Opera’s 2007 festival season, as it explores the ancient story of Orpheus in four operas and a concert spanning a period of four centuries through July and August. | 
Wheeldon on a RollChristopher Wheeldon has whipped up more excitement in the ballet world than any dance-maker in decades. | 
Zazen Poetics“The future of literary culture in this country is pretty much dependent upon the independent literary press. If we don’t do it, who’s going to? I’m a proselytizer for poetry. I’m passionate about it,” says Chase Twichell. |
Cool KatzThe people inhabiting Katz’s paintings are of a type—slender and white, crisp and clean, conveying a certain ease (if not affluence). They are, in fact, more object than subject. | 
July Portfolio: Stephen HannockAt a distance, his paintings look like traditional scenes of rivers, mountains, or city skylines. As you approach them, though, they envelop the eye in layers of visual and textual interplay. | 
July Portfolio: Mohawk Hudson RevivalThe show Douglas chose, while possessing the Regional’s usual variety, is perhaps more weighted toward craft than is usual for a contemporary art exhibit—craft, in this sense, meaning the expert use of materials as a defining element of the work. | 
Frankly Mr. ShanleyFor a luminous example of theatrical symbiosis, look no further than the two-decade relationship between playwright John Patrick Shanley and the Powerhouse Summer Theater program at Vassar College. |
Food & Drink
Food and Function
Local 111’s chef, David Wurth, uses the bistro’s close proximity to regional farmland to create new, rustic American cuisine that emphasizes local organic and grass-fed ingredients.
Books
Book Reviews: Varieties of Disturbance
Largely devoid of setting, definitive narrative structure, character development, and other familiar conventions, these 57 stories defy easy categorization.
Book Reviews: Varieties of DisturbanceLargely devoid of setting, definitive narrative structure, character development, and other familiar conventions, these 57 stories defy easy categorization. | 
Book Reviews: Nine Ways to Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from HereThe epigraph, a quote attributed to Heraclitus, best captures the essence of these essays: “You could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you.” | 
Subversive ComplicationsThe praise her first book received couldn’t match Kakutani’s exuberance over Eat the Document. Spiotta’s “stunning new novel,” the Times critic proclaimed, possessed “the staccato ferocity of a Joan Didion essay and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of a Don DeLillo novel.” | 
Dana Spiotta: _Eat the Document_ ExcerptFive state borders, and then she was handing over the cash for the room—anonymous, cell-like, quiet. |