Stephen Sondheim died last week at the age of 91. His incredible career spanned six decades. He shook up Broadway by breaking the mold of the ‘Happy Ending Musical”. Sondheim was a believer that great art should explore characters and culture in a deeper way. He was never satisfied with his work and always looked at each revival of his many show …
I am. But I have surprised myself. I really thought I would be back in stores this holiday season but I still find myself drawn to online options. Don’t get me wrong. I did spend some time in stores this past weekend (masks fully in use) but I found myself back to looking at online sales by the time I was home. Are you shopping yet? Have y …
If you could see my current Instagram feed, you would see a plethora of ads for podcasts. I started investigating podcasts a few weeks ago and now I’m inundated with ads. To me, podcasts seem analogous to radio broadcasts. You look for a topic you find interesting and see whether the podcasts captures your attention. I have also seen choosing a …
After Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it often signals the start of the holiday sounds on the radio; some years the tunes populate radio and various "elevator juke boxes" before Thanksgiving. With Chanukah starting this eve it makes sense to release the updated Happy Holidays In Song today. Some eight years ago, I started this open source holiday …
Getting ready for my family...In the image, my fire pit, smoker (with ducks), and turkey fryer. The fourth was in the fireplace inside the house. First time I had four fires cooking. BTW, ended up smoking the two ducks this year. Tried something new! I used a simple dry rub before putting them on then basted them with maple syrup through the coo …
One of my favorite “getting to know you” conversational tools is to ask a person to tell me their life story in 5 minutes or less and then listen intently for reusable nuggets. An ancillary benefit is, if the person is worthy, he or she would then ask me to tell mine. Try it. You’ll like it :)
Happy Thanksgiving to the Gotham Family ! Whatever you are doing and whomever your are sharing with..... Take at least one moment to be thankful ...and be safe
I returned to Broadway last Wednesday, November 17. It was a little more than 20 months since I saw my last show, days before Covid shut down Broadway. I saw The Lehman Trilogy, a deep dive into the 164 history of the famous family business. The crowd was wowed by the 3 plus hour show and the standing ovation was well deserved. It is back on Br …
Every year, on this very same day one of my close friends reminds me of a photo of our boys together in Kindergarten. It is from the elementary school Thanksgiving celebration. They are both proudly wearing their hand made turkey costumes and smiling broad smiles – smiles which screamed “Mom take that picture already.” Both of those boys are ab …
Recently I was asked to provide my high school yearbook to be scanned for a preservation project. The request brought me back to a very painful memory. One, I do not believe I truly processed as an adult. I immediately thought of something that had been written in my yearbook. Someone else had written it but, yet, I was embarrassed and ashamed. An …
I am excited. So is Friday’s blogger. So is my co-NotY (from 2011) and “my” GC. GOtham GREEN® announces the 2021 Gotham Green Awards® this week. Yes, in advance of Thanksgiving, Tuesday, November 23 at 4:00 p.m. we will present an eclectic and diverse group of winners. While we know who, you have to join the Zoom to find out. Gotham Green Awar …
You know, you learn something everyday and today I learned that flamingos like doughnuts and coffee. No joke. The Granby Zoo in Quebec, Canada, reported that a pink flamingo escaped last Wednesday and was found a short time later loitering in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons. Karl Fournier, director of animal care at Zoo, said "To reassure everyo …
The following is based upon a student interviewing someone he considers “Successful” for a class assignment. The interview question was “How do you define success?”I was struck by so many of the following responses which were packed with what I consider valuable, sage, advice:Each point of your life you think about success in terms of the next obj …
Days (of the week) and dates (of the month) - oftentimes a single day can be labeled with two identities. Do you focus on the day or the date?A few weeks ago, we received an invitation from our friends for an event on “Friday, 11/11”. Without realizing the error that the day and date didn’t match, we entered the event for 11/11 on our calendar.We w …
The Beatles exploded into America in the fall of 1963. I want to “Hold Your Hand” hit number one on the all important singles chart. The Beatles and their management knew that they could come to the USA riding that success and catapult to the top. Their performances in February of 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show were ratings blockbusters. The firs …
