Category: Uncategorized

I was on to Vampire Weekend before Kelefa Sanneh, before Sasha Frere- Jones, before Pitchfork. I wish I could say it was because I am too cool for school, but in fact it’s because the lead singer, Ezra Koenig, took a seminar I taught. Anyway, the band is completely great—catchy, sweet, inventive, and with a dry wit. Although you’ve probably read about them by now, you may not have heard them yet, because their first full-length album doesn’t come out until January. You can stream a few of their songs and download one on the band’s website, and the website Daytrotter has just begun giving away a four-song studio set the band recorded in late summer (including two tracks that weren’t on the band’s self-released CD-R, if you were lucky enough to get one of those). Highly recommended.

My sister, Abby Crain, is performing in "Everybody," a new dance by Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. In the New York Times this morning, Claudia La Rocco raves about the show:

[Gutierrez] and his dancers are beautiful to watch, but more important, they’re interesting. You can see them figuring themselves out, whether they’re staring into the rafters or hurling their bodies through the air in leaps both heroic and absurd. As various repetitions and endurance games play out, the dancers exhibit a virtuosity of a far more nuanced but no less dazzling sort than the orthodox understanding of the term.

I’m not surprised, and not merely because I have a blood relative in the production; their last show was something of a blockbuster. This one opened on Thursday night at the Abrons Art Center, at the Henry Street Settlement at 466 Grand Street on the Lower East Side, and continues until next Sunday, March 11. For tickets, which should probably be purchased soon, contact the Abrons Art Center (the dance is an offsite production by Danspace Project). Miguel talked about the dance with John Schaeffer of WNYC on 27 February 2007, and you can stream or download his interview.

Left: Looking down toward Atlantic Avenue from a courtyard two flights above it. Right: The vitrine of a store selling Islamic goods. Below: A prayer rug with a compass.

Reviews have started to come in for Only Child, to which Peter contributed a memoir-essay, "Postcards to Myself" (an excerpt is available at the Random House website), and a couple have singled out Peter’s essay in particular: Publishers Weekly recently called it one of the "gems" of the anthology, and this week Time Out New York wrote that it is "superbly and achingly sweet."

If an image of tranquility would assist in the survival of the holiday season, consider a visit to the webcam at Jigokudani, a hot spring in the snow-covered mountains of Japan, where snow monkeys visit daily for their baths. (Hat tip to Peter)