my review of Big Brother

Big Brother is one of the most vacuous shows I have ever seen on television. It is a classic example of what Newton Minow referred to when he said, "I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland."

The show consists of about a dozen people who live together in a house (for over 90 days) and they scheme and make frivolous and childish "alliances" to remain in the house week after week without being "evicted" so that they can get to the end where one person wins $500,000. They also have to perform in various competitions which can keep them safe until the next week or save them if they are "on the block." And a few have tedious "showmances."

Other than that, the show is totally devoid of content. The house guests seem to never engage in thought provoking conversations or to even discuss anything interesting. They don't talk about art, history, politics, theater, classic films, or books. But, they sit day after day talking about nonsense that almost never moves beyond who should "go home" next or who should be "back doored." The show is an excruciating insult to intelligence.

Yes, I can change the channel and not watch... but you have to wonder what Bill Paley would think of this hot mess.

Oh, How We Laughed

Gladys ran the show at Coldwaters. She still runs the show, only now it is up at The Comic Strip. I remember being so excited when my name appeared in the Sunday COMEDY listings in the NY Daily News.

Check out these videos and my interview with Gladys: 

on YouTube

another on YouTube

at marjorie-digest

Summertime, and the Living Was Easy...

It was 1998, and late one night in some obscure LI nightclub I sang like there was nobody listening. And... nobody was.

Babe Ruth Lived Here

in the NYPost

My Day Trip to The New York Botanical Garden

Trevi, Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy

1971:

about 43 years later:

John Singer Sargent at the Met

Portraits of Artists and Friends    coming soon!

in the NYDailyNews

  at the Met

"An Out-of-Doors Study," 1889

"La Carmencita," 1890





"Mrs Hugh Hammersley," 1892

"Madame X," 1883

at the New York Botanical Gardens

The New York Botanical Garden has remade Frida Kahlo’s Mexican gardens! coming soon!

in the NYPost

Frida Kahlo, ART.GARDEN.LIFE

Global Fashion Capitals at FIT

"The globalization of fashion has given rise to new fashion cities that now annually host hundreds of fashion weeks around the world. Each city’s cultural identity and particular economic, political, and social circumstances combine to elevate its designers to international attention. Global Fashion Capitals explores the history of the established fashion capitals—Paris, New York, Milan, and London—and the emergence of 16 new fashion cities."

Lie Sangbong, Christopher Kane, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada:

Mapping Folk City

FOLK CITY: NEW YORK AND THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL at the MCNY

Today I went to:

in the NYPost

at the Museum of the City of New York

a Bob Dylan concert poster (left) and a Pete Seeger banjo (right) 

Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to “Masters of War”

Whitney Museum of American Art

These are some of the photos I took of the magnificent views from the terraces of the museum: 

The "306"

about Jacob Lawrence at the Whitney Museum of Art

the "306":

One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series and Other Works

Today I went to MoMA to see: at MoMA

in the New York Times 

the New York Times review

the exhibit
  the detailed exhibit
  an interview with Jacob Lawrence

A Missed Photo Op

Frank Sinatra's daughter and one of his granddaughters were at Saks Fifth Avenue this evening. Nancy and her daughter, Amanda Erlinger, were there on July 23 from 6 PM to 8 PM.

On view was what Saks calls the Sinatra Collection: a group of rare vintage photographs of Ol’ Blue Eyes. There was also a special preview of the limited-edition photography book “Sinatra,” published to celebrate the tenor’s centenary.

This edition is limited to 1,000 copies and will include a previously unpublished photograph and a certificate signed by the Chairman of the Board’s three children.

I was unable to attend... and a few great photo ops got away...

The space:

The Long Island Gold Coast

Falaise, Eagle's Nest, the Gatsby Mansion, Beacon Towers, Oheka Castle..... coming soon!

in the NYPost

Falaise

Eagle's Nest

Gatsby mansion

Beacon Towers

Oheka Castle