Happy New Year! Can this be my first post since October 3, 2019? It can be, and it is. It's a rainy day in paradise, so I guess I've got my work cut out.
But not because I've been idle. In the meantime, there have been seven features in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the latest of which was published this morning. It's a review of "The Woodworker's Journey: Concept to Creation," a superlative show now on view at the Schafer International Gallery in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.
I'll be posting that one momentarily. Over the next several days, the other half dozen will follow. Subjects include a carver of ornamental fishhooks who no longer has the option of working in whalebone; auditions for the Maui Matilda; our Nutcracker with a difference; and the secret garden of the remarkable octogenarian Tom Sewell, master of the arts of living, ex of Minneapolis and Venice, California, whose story is a Netflix series waiting to happen. That last one is long-form.
In addition, I've been dancing as fast as I can for airmail.news, Graydon Carter's spiffy online news platform that's everything you'd hope for from the mastermind of New York's late, lamented Spy magazine and the last, best quarter century of Vanity Fair. As the classical-music specialist for the Air Mail's Arts Intel Report, I cast a worldwide net for the most exciting events in that category, generating nanoessays on dozens upon dozens of them each month, on subjects from Salieri's Scuola de' Gelosi ("The School of Jealosy") to Terry Riley's Sun Rings. In addition there;' a steady stream of ccasional Highlights I'd describe as minifeature, on subjects like Sendak's Magic Flute and DiDonato's Winterreise.
Think of all this as my aspirational Pechés de vieillesse, in honor of Rossini, whose albums leaves collected under that title were predicated on an unceasing flow of fresh invention.
I'd love to share the listings ("blurbs") and posts with you, but they're best served as tapas, not as a grande bouffe. What's more, they're paywall-protected! But we of the Air Crew (so listed on the masthead!) are very much encouraged to spread the words, so I make bold here to share teasers.
And if the rain holds up, I may even get to fill you in on the last quarter's adventures on "Catch of the Day." Stay tune, and thanks, always, for reading.