November 2010 Archives

Museum professionals would likely feel obliged to defend National Portrait Gallery if the feds try to shut down its show.

Snapshot

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See Patti LuPone sing the opening scene of Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock."

Free for the asking

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The University of Chicago Press offers e-book readers an unbelievable Anthony Powell-related bargain.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Anthony Powell on fiction and life.
Take no chair for granted
My video tour of restoration-in-progress with director Griswold...followed by my irreverent photo essay on the finished product!

Just because

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See Nat King Cole, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, and the Oscar Peterson Trio perform "Stompin' at the Savoy."
What Happened When The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Opened Its Galleries On Thanksgiving?

Yap Away's Anatomy

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Shonda Rhimes is working on PR crisis management drama for ABC.
Brief thoughts on kamikaze creativity in public places

Memories on the walls

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We haven't hung any of our pictures yet, but when we do, this Jane Wilson watercolor will be one of the first.

Government Money

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Time to rethink it?

Almanac

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Today's entry: P.G. Wodehouse on betrayal.
Is there any point in writing about an arts event after the fact?
Collecting-by-clicking? You should not buy art in your pajamas (unless you've seen the non-digitized version first).
Two Curators, Five Days, A Dozen-Plus Art Fairs = An Exhibition Opening Ten Days Later. Mission Impossible?
Astute analysis of artworld follies from the guy who once owned Christie's record-breaking Lichtenstein. Needed: Identification of who's real.

In the 1980s

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What did we talk about / when we stayed up all night?
It's Dutch treat for the big award

Recent Listening: Brad Goode

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Goode has serious fun exercising his trumpet virtuosity
The Bush Foundation has announced the end of its long-standing artist fellowship program.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Ian Fleming on suffering.
Why I'm concerned about the use of dynamic pricing by nonprofit performing arts organizations.

An Art Divided

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What might an article on the MFA vs NYC divide in literary culture tell us about the future of music composition?
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks.‬
The Museum of Art & Design's Global Africa Project Explored In My NYT Arts & Leisure Feature

Here nor there:

Dances around New York this month reminded Foot that postmodernism not only invites odd combinations, it also risks unbridgeable gaps.
This is the buoyant Lester, before his depressing experience in the Army
The 1956 recording of the first Broadway production of "Waiting for Godot," starring Bert Lahr, is back in print.

An O.K. "Oklahoma!"

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Arena Stage's "Oklahoma!" and Neil LaBute's "The Break of Noon" reviewed.

Almanac

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Today's entry: H.L. Mencken on the melancholy of freedom.
Alex Ross could be sitting on a goldmine
A Decades-Old Experiment In The Hudson River Valley Tells A Cautionary Tale. On The Other Hand.
Voices giving thanks, among other sentiments
A ten point plan to rescue funding in a time of restraint
There's meat floating by
Here's my weekly theater guide.

Almanac

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Today's entry: George Bernard Shaw on the blessings of beauty.

Giving thanks

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Happy Thanksgiving to all, with thanks for so many warm and supportive comments!
On the way life is

Snapshot

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Dame Margot Fonteyn dances Frederick Ashton's "Salut d'amour," set to the music of Edward Elgar.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Henryk Górecki on political music.

All the rage in Virginia

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A fight at the opera yields some ugly bite-backs

MPs to slash Mahler?

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Recent Listening: Tarbaby

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Tarbaby is not afraid to go wacky, nearly unhinged...or to plumb the romance and lyricism of a Fats Waller ballad.
A fresh take on the old world
With thorough cleaning, relighting and reinstallation in the original building, director William Griswold puts the "Morgan" back in the Morgan.
With thorough cleaning, relighting and reinstallation in the original building, director William Griswold puts the "Morgan" back in the Morgan.
Toronto's master of the laid-back pitches a press-type fit
The Guggenheim Museum Takes Another Step Toward Being A Corporate Billboard

Hooray for Handicrafts

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A brief look at the current fiber/DIMENSIONS exhibition in The Presidio

Don't do it online

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Why you shouldn't start promoting a new project by doing something online.
Words of gratitude, and more. It's the week of Thanksgiving, after all.

Almanac

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Today's entry: H.L. Mencken on boredom.
Progressive politics does not equate to progressive art

Intertext

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Schumann tropes Schubert? It's not a matter of history. Texts intersect and overlap.
From Curtis Steiner to Gregory Blackstock

A School Play

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On the amateurish qualities of the west coast premiere of David Greenspan and Stephin Merritt's musical adaptation of Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Launching guerilla jazz-video initiative w/ b'day cheers to "creative musicians"

Good Experiences

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What makes an experience good?
And Makes A Good Exhibit: Detroit Institute Of Art Comes Clean On Its Fakes And Forgeries
"Elling" reviewed.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Robert Herrick on ungrateful readers.
Can we be principled and practical - or by choosing the latter, do we forsake the former?

Winter Solstice No. 1

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November's rolling along toward December and the Winter Solstice, it's already twilight by four o'clock, and the news of the world is not good. In these dark times (both literal and figurative), people--at least those who still have jobs and roofs over their heads
How do styles of expression evolve? Are there inevitabilities in schools and styles and genre? Is art directed? Convergent?
Kelly insists on inevitability to argue against throwing up cautionary roadblocks
A professional ensemble's amateurish first foray into video
Her image is more T. S. Eliot than Andrew Marvell

Cure For The Blues?

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Counter-Programming: Wintertime In New York Means Everything's Coming Up Roses
Someone with just a bit more relevant education background, combined with the Bloomberg required corporate credentials could have avoided much of what is happening at this very moment.
A novel with art writer as narrator? Can I write the screenplay? Next time, Steve, spell my blog's name right!
When the smartphones develop a taste for blood
Subject matter is never enough

A Brubeck Birthday Concert

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...and the story of Darius Milhaud's square foot in Brubeck's house

Politically Incorrect?

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Let's Consider That "Deaccessioning" Decision At Denver's Clyfford Still Museum
"A Free Man of Color" on Broadway and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in Arizona reviewed.

Almanac

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Today's entry: August Wilson on the blues.
Low-key rollout for the big announcement at local Doubletree Convention Center. Bentonville is new home for Corcoran's Benjamin West.

VoiceBox: A Poem

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A bit of fun at the first ever VoiceBox fundraiser courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik
Sometimes Kelly's book made me nervous, like trapped on a speeding train nervous.
From the brilliant - Harry Shearer - to the bad - the artist team of SuttonBeresCuller.
The piece is Haden's "Hello, My Lovely." Alan Broadbent conducts and plays piano. Tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts outdoes himself.
Awards ceremony for 15 just-announced recipients will bring together some strange bedfellows. Sports stars, heads-of-state, cultural figures.
But Should We Toast Its Exhibition About The "Wine Culture" Or Drink To Forget It?
There WAS some previous public discussion of the deaccessions-in-disguise (some 10 months after the original "collection-sharing" announcement).
In a consumer culture, who are the real art innovators?
Anderson of Indianapolis Museum twits MOCA's Deitch. What's the real A-list---celebs or art? Channeling Chanel and Cary Grant.
Technology wants whatever we want it to want--even what we might not like to admit that we want.

Tribute

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In homage to Niki Pollard (nee Gladstone) -- choreographer, dancer, thinker, friend

Thanking your new audience

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A conductor at the University of Maryland shows how to do it.
An excerpt from Laurel and Hardy's "The Music Box."

Almanac

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Today's entry: H.L. Mencken on the consolation of laughter.
It is true that too many choices may induce regret, but "no choice" is a far worse option.

Holy Handel

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A smattering of upcoming Bay Area Messiahs
That Brody Bequest, A Year Ago, To Top $100 Million-Plus; Here's How It Will Be Used
When is collection-sharing not collection-sharing? When it's also collection-selling (but not described as such). Where's the transparency?
Is there any more comfortable way of avoiding having to deal with the darker impulses of human nature?
For all leaders and soon-to-be leaders -- important.

Creative in Oklahoma

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Thinking Of Danny Barker

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This is neither the anniversary of Danny Barker's birth nor of his death. I need no special occasion to write about Danny.
See Jimmy Rushing sing "Goin' to Chicago Blues."

Almanac

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Today's entry: H.L. Mencken on competence.
Struggling Taubman Museum Redefines Itself As An "Arts Center" Dependent On Community
On the pros and cons of making art when you probably should be in bed with a hot water bottle and a steaming bowl of your mother's chicken soup
The (entirely hypothetical) evolution-like course of the development of musical instruments is something I've been especially interested in.
ArtInfo's report on Warhol purchase notwithstanding, hedge fund mogul isn't MoMA trustee...at least, not yet. His "pause that refreshes."

More Maryland success

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A Maryland conductor applies the ideas we're working on, with powerful results.

Day trading

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We want musicians to improve. But, how quickly?
"Zampano / You'll have to take / Your travelling flea circus / Elsewhere!"

Christopher Alden's staging of Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place suggests that an ingenious production can fundamentally improve an opera -- and also that George Steel's New York City Opera is a company with fresh ideas and the capacity to make them matter.

Who's In And Who's Out In The Art World According To Lucas Samaras In "Poses"
"The Merchant of Venice" reviewed.
Mrs. T and I are striking our tents and moving a hundred blocks north.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Kierkegaard on comedy and suffering.
$166.2 billion is a big number but does it matter if audiences, contributions, and finances continue to trend downwards?
Diane Ragsdale shares thoughts on the arts and culture sector in her new blog, JUMPER ...
This isn't about chocolate or vanilla, folks. This is the future of evolution.
Vocalist extraordinaire McFerrin communes with 40 voices on VOCAbuLarieS
Vocalist extraordinaire McFerrin communes with 40 voices on VOCAbuLarieS
The astonishing account of an entirely satisfactory call for technical help

My mother must have had a decent command of French. Sometimes, as I was growing up, she'd refer to it, though always briefly and casually, as if the subject had little importance. All I ever found out was that she had taught elementary--perhaps even intermediate

On Rufus Wainwright's world premiere at the San Francisco Symphony
Jazz website, pr firm, presenter, record label, strategic marketer unite for business's sake
A trailer has only a couple of minutes to capture a story line, and aural cues are often the most powerful--if not the most subtle--hook.
Join (via video) the pre-demolition banquet at Ai Weiwei's doomed Shanghai studio. "The harmonious society is eating river crabs!"
Which Allows Me To Make Points On The Endowment And Sustainability On WBUR Radio
An artist-driven organization of sonic individualists thrives in NYC, Chicago and beyond
In a feedback system not lacking in irony, jazz degrees do not pave the way to making a living

No, you can't

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Are geniuses made, not born? Yes and no--but mostly the latter.
"Play Dead" and "The Pee-wee Herman Show" reviewed.

Almanac

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Kierkegaard on irony and earnestness.

Lessons In Fundraising

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The MFA-Boston Scores Again: Its Fundraising Campaign Was One For The Books

Measha

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A Canadian soprano makes her recital debut in San Francisco
See clips from the first workshop runthrough of "Danse Russe," my new operatic collaboration with Paul Moravec.
Confidence and strong prices are returning to the market for contemporary art by well established names. Lindner's big night.
Here's my weekly theater guide.

In memoriam

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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays the funeral march from Chopin's Second Piano Sonata.

Almanac

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Today's entry: George Santayana on war.
"Diana" Exhibition Isn't Art; Ticket Pricing Adds Insult To Injury
His short "Stardust" solo with Shaw was famous. This one is longer and, some say, better.
What about the Tut tomb-related objects that were recently displayed in the Met's permanent-collection focus exhibition, "Tutankhamun's Funeral"?
A very robust result. Why did Sotheby's have to misleadingly try to make it seem even stronger than it was?

Snapshot

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This week's video: Skip James sings "Devil Got My Woman" at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Martin Buber on the nature of life.
Three CDs, a DVD documenting the birth of a piano, a book about a brass phenomenon. See "Doug's Picks."
Cai Guo-Qiang Vs. Ai Weiwei -- How They Differ.
Trying to shame Getty's former curator by unfairly prolonging her trial, Italy shamed itself and its so-called justice system.
When potentially interesting negative commentary on an artist's work isn't interesting
Atheists don't have no songs...

Almanac

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Today's entry: Edmund Burke on hypocrisy.

The Dangers Of Success

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VMFA Exhibition Of Sally Mann Photos Attempts To Go Beyond Her Early Reputation
When is "voluntary" enrichment not? When it's done to get into a better university. Inside Chinese school.for artistically talented.
It's the players, they won't like you

Chita

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Age cannot wither her nor custom stale her infinite variety

Just because

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See Van Cliburn play Liszt's Twelfth Hungarian Rhapsody in Moscow in 1962.

The Met's new Das Rheingold and Boris Godunov reinforce nagging questions about Peter Gelb's new regime.

Taking the test

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Are you a member of the New Elite? Am I?

Almanac

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Today's entry: Edmund Burke on law, power, and hope.

European Import

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Whether a matter of finance or zeitgeist, the European presence in dance is uptown, downtown, as well as at BAM.

Bilbao In Biloxi

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Mad Potter's New Museum Opens; It's Dancing With The Oak Trees, Per Guess Which Architect?
Mocking the propagandistic government buzzword, "harmony" (which also buzzes in the Met's Yuan Dynasty catalogue). Images of Ai's Shanghai studio.
Public v. Private; 501c3 v. LLC?

Gimme Shelter

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Three doors, phantasmagorically mismatched, open onto an empty room. The paint on its walls has peeled away in jagged fragments to reveal two previous colors. This derelict

Vale, Shirley Verrett

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Book Sex

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"1724: Birth of the Cunt" and "sonorama," a 1950s multimedia magazine, at The NY Art Book Fair, MoMA P.S. 1.

PDFs of my writing here

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How you can get my series on the audience, all the posts together in a single PDF. Plus more.

Audience excitement

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Last installment of my series on energizing audiences.

Holly's

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Notes on a new comedy club in town
And what do these have in common? Chock full o' Nuts.
And what do these have in common? Chock full o' Nuts, of course.

Fight or Flight?

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In a world where political rallies double as performance art, public funding for the arts is once again a hot topic of discussion.
Chinese dissident artist is playing a clever but very dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. Where's the party?

A reward for real merit

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Neil MacGregor gets the OM
CareFusion ends jazz-related marketing after 2 years financial support for Wein, Chicago

Reason to be nervous

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"Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" reviewed.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Vladimir Nabokov on memories of childhood.
Most Money Raised, Tax Credits Assured, Groundbreaking Nearly Set -- MOCA

A happy correction

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If you're in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon, come hear a workshop performance of my new opera.
Court says Fisk can use only $10 million for "viability." Remainder would become a collections endowment. More Walton largesse offered.
Surely there are better ways to show civic pride than this?
Arts Council rolls out its job protection plan

James Moody

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The news about James Moody is not good. He has been aware of it for some time, but kept it private until this week.
Here's my weekly theater guide.

Almanac

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Today's entry: Vladimir Nabokov on thinking in images.
Pianist Inon Barnatan unknowingly disproves evolution with a Mozart performance.
20 Months After Closing, Minnesota Museum of American Art Still Has A Long-Term Dream

Musical Lunch Break

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On the etiquette of lunchtime and commuter hour concerts

Inégales

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Unequal beats in music by Bartok and "Embraceable You"
Good topic; weak show? Plus old rules for reviews and Perreault's new rules.
Arts Council produces another paper mountain
Some of the best work of US artists is done for labels that record stores --the few remaining--are unlikely to stock.

Snapshot

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This week's video: the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra plays "The Groove Merchant" in 1968.

Almanac

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Today's entry: J. Robert Oppenheimer on discipline and serenity.
Its Take, From Two Pictures, Is Probably Around $38 Million; New Modigliani Record -- $69 Million

Behind the Music

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Composers Lei Liang and Christopher Theofanidis each dig into how they found musical freedom.
Why do singers who perform patriotic songs at sports events always feel the need to sound like Whitney Houston?
A New Book Provides A New Look At Dominque and John de Menil, And Houston
He "celebrates" with "River Crab Fest" for supporters on Sunday. Shanghai's six-month construction moratorium ended with World Expo's close.
See me talking about "Danse Russe," my new operatic collaboration with Paul Moravec.

Almanac

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Today's entry: George Orwell on foreseeing the future.
NYCO Celebrates With Visual Arts, And Chicago's Mayor Helps Get Attention; Where's The Rest Of Us?

Ponderosa Ranch

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Halloween is always better when there's no one else around
My aborted video of what may (or may not) have been a demonstration at site of 1989 pro-democracy protests.

Ted Sorensen, R.I.P.

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He was a real mensch.

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from November 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

October 2010 is the previous archive.

December 2010 is the next archive.

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