JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND’S “LOVE IS CRAZY” and “THE DRIFT” From that gloriously damaged, ad-libbing, self-medicating songstress of Kiki and Herb fame to author of the remarkably randy memoir “TANGO: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels” to a nuanced cover artist (the “Silver Wells” CD) to the dead-on turn as the title character in Scott read more here »

BY MICHAEL LYDON  |  A decade or four ago I was a jazz-mad college kid, and anytime I had an extra dime in my pocket I’d bus down to the Big Apple to hear my heroes live in smoky hole-in-the-wall Village clubs: Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond rocking the nearly empty Jazz Gallery on St. Mark’s read more here »

BY SCOTT STIFFLER    Whether from just across the border or the other side of the world, they come to America, wanting — needing — to find a better life, and often find themselves working subsistence jobs amidst unsafe conditions. Two plays in the Theater:Village Festival, set a century apart, bring that plight into sharp read more here »

BY PUMA PERL  |  Last November, while on a West Coast poetry reading tour, I stayed for a few days at my friend Beverly’s San Francisco home. Beverly loves books more than anyone I know. Floor to ceiling shelves line every inch of available wall space, and there are additional cartons in the garage and read more here »

BY SCOTT STIFFLER  | HUDSON PARK LIBRARY’S MEL BROOKS FESTIVAL Hudson Park Library’s free film series spends every Thursday in September paying tribute to what’s arguably the very best of Mel Brooks’ cinematic output — bookended by a pair of 1974 classics (“Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein”) that made it very difficult to ever again take westerns read more here »

BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN  |  (stephaniebuhmann.com)  |  ERNEST COLE:  PHOTOGRAPHER  Born in 1940, Ernest Cole was one of South Africa’s first black photojournalists. In 1958, when working as a darkroom assistant at DRUM magazine in Johannesburg, he began to acquaint other young black journalists, photographers, jazz musicians and political leaders in the burgeoning anti-apartheid movement. After becoming read more here »

BY REV. JEN (rev-jen.com)  |  When I saw the envelope that had been slid under my door, a chill ran up my spine, the kind I get when I see a massive water bug or some other gross thing unwelcome in my apartment. I knew what it was. Since having my unemployment cut off, I have read more here »

BY YANNIC RACK  |  If you’ve ever been to an ER, you know it’s not the most enjoyable place to be. Bad injuries, doctors and nurses rushing in and out, distressed relatives looking for patients — and possibly a few freaks as well. Go to your nearest ER right now, though, and you probably won’t read more here »

BY LIZ RICHARDS  |  “More fringe shows should include a cocktail,” I told a friend the week before seeing “The Imbible” during its recent FringeNYC run. This show greets you in the lobby with one, a mixed drink of the playwright’s own invention called a Rusty Ale: India Pale Ale with a shot of Drambuie read more here »

BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  VOICES OF SWORDS  |  Rapidly aging members of Generation X and their somewhat younger (but by not necessarily youthful) Gen Y counterparts might find that the subject matter of Kari Floren’s latest play cuts a little too close to the bone — but they’ll be better off considering its implications sooner read more here »