Dixie Chicks Go Pop, Brown Still Around, and The Grammy Goes To…

The Dixie Chicks are no longer country. Their un-country experiments titled ‘Taking The Long Way,’ bagged Five Grammy Awards at the 2007 ceremony. The Cowgirls are off the saddle, out of Yeeehaw Junction and heading for wide open spaces. They have crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. Texan gals, The Dixie Chicks attained international notoriety after Natalie […]

A Song For Woody

He who was once terrified of leaving Manhattan,  now he makes films in England. Here is a tribute to filmmaker and jazz man  Woody Allen.
“The curtain rises on a vast primitive wasteland, not unlike certain parts of New Jersey.”

Hey, Mr.Allen, Monroe Center is in New Jersey. Yes, he says things like that. Allen Stewart Knoigsberg. He put a […]

CASTRO Se Acabo, Amigo

Fidel Castro is dying. Words many have waited 48 years to hear. Wild fires sweep through Miami. Congas beat down 8th street at 3 in the morning. Hysterical dancing. Mucho Cerveza. People kneeling in the streets. Praying for his death. Petitions to Mother Mary. Let him die, now. Down in Little Havana’s ‘Calle Ocho’ crowds […]

Hillary Clinton has what it takes to become the most powerful woman in the world.

 
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton born October 26, 1947, is going to be the next President of the United States of America. And her Vice President will be Senator Barack Hussein Obama born August 4, 1961. The union will be a revolution in gender and a breakthrough in the color bar that will change the face […]

The Last Bus to Coltrane

He followed her husband’s sound in life; he followed her silent footsteps in death. There is something metaphysical about what happened on January 12 and 13. Alice Coltrane, wife of John Coltrane died, January 12. Saxophonist, Michael Brecker always wanted to be John Coltrane. He remains the only musician whose genius came close to the […]

Really, Are You Still Married?

Women don’t really need men anymore. Not in the traditional manner anyway. Men are not the sole financial earners that they used to be. Women don’t need men to bring home the bacon. They own the damn hog farm.
For the first time in the history of the United States, married couples are a minority. That […]

The Truman Show Screen Play by Harper Lee

The Monroe Center, Hoboken and  Monroeville, Alabama.
What’s the connection here?
Nothing.
Just a coincidence of names.
Just thought I would mention it, that’s all.
Something happened this month. Old Harper Lee, came out of seclusion after a long, long time. She is America’s most famous recluse. Harper Lee, all of eighty-years-old emerged from her tomb this January in […]

Even when the sun goes down

It’s morning at Monroe Center. There is a quiet buzz here, of creative minds producing great work. Artists walking the hallways, discussing ideas with artisans, while owners of varying businesses from pharmaceutical development to snowboarding apparel walk by to their studios. There is something here that goes beyond crass commercialism of a corporate set up. […]

Events for the Whole Self

Imagine spending a day meeting artists in their studios, talking with them about their work. The smell of turpentine and oil, the cans of paint, the works in progress all there for you to experience. It can be sort of transcendental. People who create have these secrets that they keep in their studios. Little indications […]