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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Artists of ‘Harlem Renaissance’ at Metropolitan Museum

June 15, 2024 by Jan Herman

Glad I got to the Met for a glimpse before it becomes hotter ‘n hell.  Although the museum was jammed, the show itself was comfortable. It was also much larger than I expected. I hadn’t realized how many accomplished painters there were among the Harlem group. For example, I had never heard of Archibald Motley Jr. who I thought pretty much sets the exquisite tone of the show, though by no means exclusively.

New York City Opera
Outdoor Puccini Celebration in the Heart of Manhattan

June 2, 2024 by Jan Herman

Huge crowds turned out for two boffo evenings of concert excerpts from Puccini’s operas. It was part of Bryant Park’s free, summer Picnic Performances. Music was provided by New York City Opera, “famously dubbed ‘The People’s Opera’ by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at its founding in 1943.'” I attended on a beautiful, balmy Saturday evening.

Here to Entertain You

May 14, 2024 by Jan Herman

My staff of thousands is curious to know whether the music is actually being played or dubbed.

Recalling the Fierce Beliefs of Oriana Fallaci

May 11, 2024 by Jan Herman

Oriana Fallaci

The widespread episodes of pro-Palestinian antisemitism on American college campuses calls to mind an old blogpost about European antisemitism.

“I find it shameful,” Fallaci begins, “that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the swastika, incite people to hate the Jews. …”

Downtown Scene
Reclusive Artist Elsa Rensaa Spreads Her Wings

March 17, 2024 by Jan Herman

The New York gallerist James Fuentes is presenting Elsa Rensaa’s paintings in a two-part exhibition: OUT OF THE WILDERNESS AND INTO THE BLUE. “Her paintings, rendered with meticulous applications of thin acrylic washes,” he says, “bring forth lush, syncretic visual portals. They draw from a vast and visionary range of references, including Ancient Nordic, Egyptian, and Eastern imagery, in addition to Renaissance, Art Nouveau, and Dada art movements, with a Lower East Side iconography that is distinctly recognizable as Rensaa’s own.”

Make of It What You Will
Other Minds Always Offers a Musical Change of Pace

February 24, 2024 by Jan Herman

Thirty-one years after its founding, Other Minds, the brainchild of Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman, is still going strong as a presenter of experimental contemporary music with an emphasis on “the most original, eccentric, and underrepresented creative voices.” Here’s a presentation of Linda Bouchard and the Ensemble TriOcular+.

Mashup of Amanda Gorman and Bach at Carnegie Hall

February 18, 2024 by Jan Herman

If I had been asked who would be the main attraction of Saturday night’s Carnegie Hall mashup between the poet and the composer, my guess would have been Amanda Gorman. I would not have guessed it would be the cellist Jan Vogler. As it turned out, however, his performance of three of Bach’s cello suites, more or less interrupted by Gorman’s rap-inflected poetry, made him the star of the show.

Nikki Haley Does ‘Patton’

January 30, 2024 by Jan Herman

If ever there were a question that political posturing is show biz, Nikki Haley settled it at a rally in South Carolina. She was doing an anemic imitation of a mesmerizing George C. Scott in the opening scene of “Patton.” Missing were the medals and martial music, thank god, which contributed mightily to Scott’s classic performance. Of course Trump has been doing his stale imitation for years.

Age Is No Obstacle: Annie Fischer Plays Like an Angel

January 19, 2024 by Jan Herman

She’s also smoking a fag, as a Brit might say. Her touch — feathery and liquid both — is sublime. When I listen to her trills, I hear birds singing.

Monet Pays a Visit by iPhone to the East River

January 9, 2024 by Jan Herman

Dancing lights at night as photographed from the window.

Can Books Provide an Agenda for Mass Murder?’

January 4, 2024 by Jan Herman

That is a key question posed by Jascha Hannover’s “The Books He Didn’t Burn,” a documentary to be featured in its U.S premiere at the Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 15 at Lincoln Center in New York. Its relevance to the beliefs of today’s white supremacists and rightwing Christian nationalists is stunning.

‘What a Piece of Work Is a Man’

December 23, 2023 by Jan Herman

‘… and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?’

The end of the dismal year 2023 brings Hamlet’s soliloquy to mind.

A True Poet’s ‘Great Balls of Doubt’

October 29, 2023 by Jan Herman

The world Mark Terrill sees is “essentially forlorn, if not absurd, if not entirely hopeless. But his poetry is far from hopeless.” — Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Walter Isaacson on the Craft of Biography

October 10, 2023 by Jan Herman

‘My road to biography began at TIME magazine.’

He titled his lecture ‘Lessons About Living with Geniuses.’ His latest biography is about Elon Musk. His previous biographies were about Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Jennifer Doudna.

A Different Kind of Mushroom Cloud

July 20, 2023 by Jan Herman

Recalling the first Trinity nuclear blast, which is being memorialized by the new Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer,” I couldn’t help thinking of the last collage that Norman O. Mustill made and his first using digital tools.

A Proper Obituary for Jay Jeff Jones (1946-2023)

July 15, 2023 by Jan Herman

Jay Jeff Jones was born in in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1946. His parents, Nelson and Lila Fay Jones, both hailed from Cherokee ancestry. Raised in and around San Francisco, Jay joined the Hell’s Angels in the early 1960, riding his Harley Davidson around the city. As a teenager, he hung around North Beach, acting with the Mime Troupe, later working as a copy boy for the San Francisco Examiner. Frank Herbert, author of “Dune,” was one of his bosses.

Tugboat Tillie

June 29, 2023 by Jan Herman

Straight Up has moved house and is taking a vacation break.

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Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

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