This and That by JL

What does Westchester County have in common with Chicago and Boston?  They are all robust creative centers having more than 5% of their businesses designated as belonging to the creative industry sector.  So says a report from Americans for the Arts (AFTA) which cites all three locations as places where designers, photographers, filmmakers, gallerists, musicians and artistic […]

        When I first met George Yancopoulos, I was dazzled… not by his good looks (although he is handsome by any measure)… not even by his scientific acumen (which is impressive by any measure). The thing I admired most about George is his left brain…his artistic side…his je ne sais quoi side… […]

    I must admit I was curious. Having gone for years to the very dated Bedford theater, I was sad to hear it was closing and then happy to hear it that was being rescued by community-minded folks whose fond memories of the vintage theater, like mine, lingered on. So off I went one […]

          Did you ever stumble on an intimate conversation between two people that you felt you weren’t supposed to hear but couldn’t stop listening to?  That’s how I felt watching the play Constellations, now on stage at the Whippoorwill Hall Theater.  In this production by the Hudson Stage Company, two awkward […]

Our exhibition, “Brick by Brick,” is inspiring stories as warm and loving as any brick fireplace. Diana Costello’s grandpa, Pietro Viscogliosi, sounds like the quintessential brick mason, just like Serafino Laboranti, my former neighbor in Queens and the only person I would trust to build a brick floor in my kitchen. Serafino was a master mason […]

    Many of us remember exactly where we were when John F. Kennedy was shot.  For me, the scene is emblazoned in my mind. I was in my kitchen spooning mashed banana into my toddler’s mouth. The radio soothed some Sinatra… perhaps it was The Summer Wind. From bliss, I went into panic mode […]

Can it be true that, in terms of size and production, the brick industry in the Hudson Valley was second of importance in our region to IBM? So George H. Hutton told us in his book The Great Hudson River Brick Industry. We can quibble with his hyperbole, but the truth is that in its […]

Every year, when the wind begins to blow and the leaves start to rustle, we hear strains of a ghost story called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  It’s a scary short tale written in 1820 by Washington Irving whose home, Sunnyside, is transformed annually by Historic Hudson Valley (HHV) into an adventurous dwelling. HHV is the keeper of […]