By Jeremy Kotin
1. PLAY Our Town
I was bored for the first two acts, riveted in the third and simply blown away heading out of the theater. This stunningly intense play runs just over two hours but presents 9 years in the life of a single town. These people are relatable at their most human base but distant in… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. MOVIE Please Give
I’ve always been a fan of Nicole Holofcener’s films, quiet but strong, light on narrative but still powerful. This newest entry into her canon is no different, anchored as usual by a fantastically subtle performance from Catherine Keener. Nothing really happens other than people live their lives in New York City, but that’s… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. CONCERT V.V. Brown at Bowery Ballroom
In a sequined mask and brandishing a drum mallet, V. V. is a spark of life, beating out the rhythms to her hyper-catchy songs and singing in a more raw but no less attractive voice than appears on her first album. Tearing through her set, she hits all of the… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. PLAY RED
If I turn off my brain and just let this play wash over me, it’s quite compelling. The minute my brain turns on, I see through the slim conceit which amounts to nothing much more than a Columbia College lecture on changing tastes in modern art with a protégé serving as nothing more than… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. MUSICAL American Idiot
Similar to the energetic fascination that was Spring Awakening, American Idiot takes the angst to a whole new level with Green Day’s fantastic album as basically the entirety of the production. Opening with a wealth of video that speaks directly to the ADD (or now ADHD) addled world I grew up in, flashes… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. EVENT An Engagement
The pain comes later: the organizing of the wedding, the epic battle known as an invite list, the joy of two families figuring out how to combine for at least one day and hopefully the rest of life. But first there’s the engagement, a moment of pure bliss for the couple and everyone… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
In place of my usual column of ten cultural events, I feel the need to take a pause and address something by far more important and culturally damning than any trifle I might have experienced this past week.
I have spent a good deal of the past couple of weeks reading the New York Times’ coverage of… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. CONCERT Miike Snow at Music Hall
A live show of electronic music has the potential to fail, I mean, wouldn’t it be better to just find a hopping club and dance the night away? Not so with this incredible live performance in which the entire venue was filled with smoke, the lights never stopped flashing and… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. FOOD De Santos
Delicious is the only word to describe this meal, rich in flavor but not overly decadent in style. The tuna tartar was a delightful balance between raw fish and avocado accompanied by a waffle cut crisp. The beef carpaccio was made beyond tasty with the addition of thick truffle gnocchi. But the… Read More
By Jeremy Kotin
1. LOCATION Las Vegas
Disgusting, overly opulent, excessive and quite possibly the best damn two and half days in recent memory. Whether wondering from overdone hotel to insanely themed hotel, beverage always in hand, sunning ourselves at the pool, losing money on penny slots and video roulette (one experience at an actual table was too horrifying to… Read More
Tomorrow marks 100 days since the BP oil spill in the gulf. I know they “successfully” capped it, but as long as that sucker is still leaking, I’m saying there is still an oil spill. But this disaster got me thinking a lot about the good old days of folk – when popular music regularly included anthems… Read More
Unless you have been living under a rock, you are quite familiar with the body (of work) of Isaiah Mustafa. Mustafa is a former wide-receiver in the NFL, and currently has a talent contract with NBC. He might be better known to you as The Old Spice Guy (heretofore known in this post as OSG). But just in… Read More