This and That by JL

What a weekend there is coming up. It’s a veritable feast of arts happening in the county. Every Tuesday morning at 8:20am, I get on the phone with T.J.McCormack at WVOX (1460AM) for a five minute chat about the arts. There was so much on the docket for this weekend that I couldn’t get it [...]

Beauty, we are told, is in the eye of the beholder. So for some beauty is a sunset.  For others, it’s a sports car or a diamond.  For Robert Wiener, Chairman of Maxx Properties and ArtsWestchester board member, beauty is a geode.  For more than 40 years, Wiener has been collecting geodes, some 2,000 of [...]

For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have this thing about the arts.  Call it an obsession? A calling? It’s hard to explain, but whatever it is, I found myself last week spending a rainy day in Albany asking for a mere $4 million dollars for the arts in a $142 billion state budget.  Feeling almost [...]

Auntie Mame has nothing on Mamie Duncan-Gibbs.  In fact, our Mamie is every bit as talented as the lady who made famous the name Mame.  Mamie Duncan-Gibbs is the Executive/Artistic Director of Youth Theatre Interactions (YTI), an organization dedicated to teaching children the importance of discipline, confidence and creativity through the performing arts. She is [...]

Years ago, when I was a kid, I received a gift of a handmade silk handkerchief case with my name hand stitched on it.  At the time, I was disappointed that it wasn’t something store bought. But, truth be told, I remember that gift more vividly than any other I ever received.  Funny the way [...]

The presidential election is less than two weeks away and American entrepreneurship is on the line.  We are told by candidates that 60% of all jobs come from small businesses. So, I thought I’d check in with Chris Wedge, who is the brains, the heart and the innovator of Blue Sky, an animation studio that produced [...]

Some people go to the theater to be inspired. Others want to be transported to another world. Then there are those who breathe a sigh of relief just to know that they are better off than the characters in the play. August: Osage County, playing October 5th through 14th at the White Plains Performing Arts Center (WPPAC) [...]

The can-can is a combination of high spirited dancing – sort of a gallop – and a peek at frilly underwear. It’s sexy, cheeky and provocative. At least that’s what I am told. The dancers step and kick, letting their ruffled bloomers all hang out. There are tales about a trick that dancers used to [...]