12,225 stories from Trav S.D.
Three cheers to the Morbid Anatomy Museum, which dusted itself off after Hurricane Sandy (or rather wrung itself out) and has emerged more glorious than ever by an order of magnitude. I hadn…
Today at 4pm (EST) Turner Classic Movies will be showing the terrific 1954 western Vera Cruz. Directed by Robert Aldrich, Vera Cruz was co-produced by Burt Lancaster, who co-sta…
Tonight starting at midnight, Turner Classic Movies will be screening several classic silent movie shorts, some of which are downright pivotal in American comedy history. Just click on links…
Originally posted on Augury Books:From Owen Jones’ Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867), courtesy of the Public Domain Review Parachute Literary Arts, an organization that celebratesÂ…
Filed under: Contemporary Variety, Dixieland & Early Jazz, Music, PLUGS Tagged: NYC Hot Jazz Festival, Players Club
Well, it’s May the first, May Day, International Workers Day, so here’s a post for all you goddamn rotten, stinkin’ commies. Today we acknowledge the vaudeville shows that …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the 1915 Keystone comedy Mabel’s Wilful Way [sic]. In this ensemble comedy a young lady (Mabel Normand) is eating with he…
Filed under: Music, PLUGS, Rock and Pop, Singers, Women Tagged: concert, Irving Plaza, Night of 1000 Stevies, Steve Nicks, tribute
Filed under: BROOKLYN, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: Barge, BROOKLYN, Pirate Ball, Red Hook, Waterfront Museum
Today is the birthday of Junius Brutus Booth, Sr. (1796-1852), founder of an acting dynasty. Himself named after the assassin of Julius Caesar, he was also the father of the man who assassin…
Great news, classic film fans! The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, Scott Eyman’s definitive 1997 chronicle of Hollywood’s changeover to sound, has just be…
Tonight starting at 8pm, Turner Classic Movies will show no less than six back-to-back, wildly divergent movies touching on the legend of Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (although one of them i…
Today is the birthday of the late Oliver Albee “Pete” La Farge (1931-1965). With protest roiling all around it seems timely to contemplate folksinger/ songwriter La Farge’s…
Filed under: Burlesk, PLUGS, VISUAL ART Tagged: burlesque, Lefty Lucy, sketch night, Society of Illustrators
Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date  of the Charlie Chaplin Essanay comedy By the Sea. One doesn’t often get a chance to say this, but this is one of Chaplin’s …
We had a pleasant and educational time last night at the Drama League’s Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley Studio Lab. Pal West Hyler, whose shows I have reviewed here, here and here…
To follow up some on the rant that began here and continued here…because we just can’t let go. First I realize I need to apologize to the nice lady who invited me to see the show…
Today is the anniversary of the release of the great Keystone ensemble comedy Caught in a Cabaret (1914), directed by Mabel Normand, written by and co-starring herself and Charlie Chaplin…
We had a blast at Mob Jews on Saturday night, a collaboration between Jonny Porkpie’s Pinchbottom Burlesque and the Schlep Sisters. And I’ll cut to the chase, I saw nothing to al…
Through the good graces of a Twitter friend we know only as BronxDawn, a volunteer at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, we got a grand tour of the grounds yesterday, with a special concentr…
Tonight (tomorrow morning at 1:30am) Turner Classic Movies will show the Buster Keaton silent comedy short The Sacrecrow (1920). The Scarecrow is one of Keaton’s most perfe…
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harry Langdon comedy short Remember When (1925), directed by Harry Edwards. It starts out at an orphanage where Harry and a girl (Natal…
Today is the birthday of Dorothy Dwan (Dorothy Ilgenfritz, 1906-1981). Â Today she is best known (when she is known at all) as the leading lady and wife of Larry Semon, although the majori…
An adverse reaction to a review I posted here a couple of days ago convinces me of the necessity of this public declaration that I hope will make one thing abundantly clear: unless you have …
Tonight (tomorrow morning really) at 2:15am (EST), Turner Classic Movies will be showing the early Bob Clark film Deathdream, a.k.a. Dead of Night (1974). The under-rated Cla…
