Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:31:19 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Adam Baer :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Adam+Baer istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/baumbach-lands-on-family-island/66275/ Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST In Noah Baumbach's new-era family drama, "Margot at the Wedding," a paramour of the title character (an author played by Nicole Kidman) mentions how Margot's estranged writer husband (John Turturro) could never tell stories in a linear way. He could never "play the game," he says. In any other major release, such a self-referential, writerly concept might evoke an insufferable fiction seminar at Columbia's MFA program. But "Margot" — a beach house nuptials weekend mash-up of two small family... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/garlin-wont-curb-his-appetite/61673/ Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:00:00 EST LOS ANGELES — Smoked fish for Jeff Garlin is one big bowl of tasty. At least that's what he implies while he sips a milkshake (his version of "a salad") as we chat at a Jewish deli one morning in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City, a haven for working actors and comedians just north of the Hollywood hills. "I just ordered the lox platter," Mr. Garlin says, looking trimmer than his likeness on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the show he produces and stars in as Larry David's friend and... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/blog-tube/17209/ Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST Andy Milonakis, a 29-year-old Lower East Side comedian, scored a development deal with MTV in a very unusual way: He made homemade videos of his sketches, then posted them on his blog. Writers at the ABC late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" contacted him - they found his work hilarious. Soon enough he got the invite to take his comedy from the Web to the tube. Video blogging is still a relatively new field. A few people have gotten book deals because of their popular, text-based blogs, but this... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/mysteries-of-the-cremonese-luthiers/11711/ Tue, 5 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Antonio Stradivari: The name sends shivers down the spines of violinists, as it should of anyone interested in craft, music, and performance. He was the Cremonese luthier whose 2,000 instruments turned violin-making upside-down. Born in 1644, he lived into his 90s, but little is known about his life. And no one knows what makes his (now multimillion-dollar) fiddles sound so fantastic. Is it the wood? The varnish? The devil? Mystery is his milieu, and those interested in dispelling it should... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/would-you-take-poker-lessons-from-this-man/6230/ Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST "There is, strangely, a narrative to a Texas Hold'em game," said the host of Bravo's zeitgeisty hit series "Celebrity Poker Showdown," Dave Foley. "You become involved with the characters, the dynamic between them, the drama and comedy. Especially when you know what they're holding." The show, part of the spate of poker programming that has filled the airwaves in recent years - ESPN and other network's have televised Binson's World Series of Poker, and the Travel Channel now regularly features... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-acolytes-at-the-school-of-mozart/528/ Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST She bopped and she spun, she craned left and right, but the young girl in Row T didn't know who to listen to. On the left of the stage a lithe, bouncy fiddler sang with a limber, white-gold tone. Next to him was an assertive violist, the work's harmonic puppet-master. Unfolding was Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, the repertoire's most beloved double concerto of its kind, and the best explanation for the proliferation of stereo sound. The performers: violinist Christian... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/back-to-basics/327/ Mon, 16 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST Mostly Mozart Festival music director Louis Langree has done a remarkable job altering the talent and morale of his orchestra.With each passing concert, it's becoming harder to remember that only three years ago the band was at an all-time low. Friday's program of Haydn, Schumann, and Mozart was so finely etched it outshone Dutch cello star Pieter Wispelwey, who himself was fresh off a remarkable week performing the complete Bach cello suites.Friday's concert wasn't about the soloist or the... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/late-lovely-nights/270/ Fri, 13 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST The Mostly Mozart Festival has latched onto a successful formula: Leave them wanting more.With its program Wednesday of Dutch master Pieter Wispelwey performing just two of Bach's six solo cello suites - amid complimentary wine at cocktail tables in Lincoln Center's glass-walled Kaplan Penthouse - the festival presented the most tantalizing, relaxed, and qualitative concert to hit New York in recent years. The idea, I think, was to dressdown Bach and make it part of a "special evening." Lincoln... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/thwarted-by-extremes/138/ Tue, 20 Jul 2004 00:00:00 EST Music critics take pleasure chronicling the eccentricities of the pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin: his chemistry-teacherlike appearance; his wonkish fervor for the overlooked composerpianists of the late-19th and early-20th centuries; his penchant for letting his spiderlike fingers make mincemeat of the most virtuosic piano runs as he keeps his upper body still. But while Mr. Hamelin is quirky, he has a particular love and talent for playing mainstream music of the standard repertoire, especially... ADAM BAER http://www.nysun.com/arts/hazards-of-perfection/81/ Sun, 18 Jul 2004 06:55:14 EST Classifying the quirky personalities that feed the unique world of Virtuoso Piano Wonkdom - White loner physicist-types, obsessive packs of Asian graduate students, eccentric trustafarians ripped from the script of "The Royal Tenenbaums" - could make for an interesting program of psychological research. For those interested in making their own investigation, an annual migration of the species is currently under way to Mannes College of Music. The fourth International Keyboard Institute and...