Recent Riffs

New York Theater

Vikings Finale

Arts

Road Trip

A three-day art excursion took us to Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio; Greensburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The impetus was the “Manet/Morisot” show at CMA that had been so well received in San Francisco earlier this year. It was exceptional, although too small-scaled to have merited the trip by itself. Fortunately, in the next gallery was a sensational survey of works by Martin Puryear–and, of course, the permanent collection at Cleveland is a pleasure in itself.
The M/M exhibit was unusual in making a case: here, that Morisot was not simply a protege of Manet, but that her experimental art influenced and loosened his later work.

Music

Billy Joel

From the Piano Man album in 1973 through Glass Houses in 1980, with a quick step back to 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor, each Billy Joel release was a marker in time in my Young Adulthood. Piano Man itself was wonderful, and was undoubtedly my introduction, but hearing Captain Jack and Ballad of Billy the Kid first on late-night radio then on my turntable hooked me, just as Bruce Springsteen had earlier the same year with Greetings from Asbury Park. (Living in Westchester County I felt equidistant from Billy’s Long Island and Bruce’s New Jersey.) Streetlife Serenade, Joel’s followup album, was a disappointment,

Movies

Top Ten ’25

How to pick a Top Ten–and what does “Top Ten” mean, anyway? I’m in no position to pick the “best” movies; so my choices must be personal favorites and, on a further level of subjectivity, on the particular day I saw them. Some would question how I could pick Americana., a film that was barely noticed and poorly reviewed, but not Sentimental Value, the kind of quiet, interpersonal film I usually champion, with award-worthy performances throughout. Here’s my explanation: I had heard so much positive chatter about SV before I saw it, and I had so loved Joachim Trier and Renata Reinsve’s previous collaboration

Sports

Minnesota Fans

It is well known that Minnesota sports fans expect the worst when it comes down to a big game for their team. Whether this stems from the Vikings’ 0-4 record in early Super Bowls or a general Midwestern lack of self-confidence, I don’t know. Nor do I know whether this defeatism is at all unique to Minnesota or is typical of small-market cities. I do know that, in contrast, New York fans expect championships from their teams, even when the Giants, Knicks and Yankees are clearly performing at sub-par levels. It was, therefore, a rare case of “euphoria,”