Friday, September 9, 2016
The horrific events of September 11, 2001 were, you must admit, a triumph of planning: time, resources, personnel, organization. And for the most part, the perpetrators achieved what they se…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:22AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of James Maurice  “Jimmy” Barry (1868-1940). Barry was originally from Boston; his father was a harness-maker who immigrated from Ireland.  Jimmy s…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:18AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 8, 2016
Today is the birthday of character actor Frank Cady (1915-2012). Cady was a distant cousin of mine through my maternal grandmother Ruth Cady. While he grew up in California and Oregon, hi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:45AM[SHARE]I will take it as a sure sign of the un-momentousness of the news in our headline when (as they inevitably will) people respond to this when I post it with remarks like “What-? When di…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:39AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Everey Tuesday and Wednesday in September, Turner Classic Movies will be showing some of the finest silent comedy and slapstick classics (and documentaries thereon). Here’s what’…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:44PM[SHARE]Hugh O’Brian died earlier this week at the age of 91. While Baby Boomers and older probably know him best as the title character in the smash tv series The Life and Legend of Wyatt …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:09AM[SHARE]Today is the 100th anniversary of the release date of the Charlie Chaplin comedy The Count (1916). This movie shows Chaplin at the top of his game as a straight up comedian, chock …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:33AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Tonight on TCM: a menu of lesser-known but (for the most part) important silent comedy classics: 8:oopm (EST): The Golden Age of Comedy (1957) The first of Robert Youngson’s numerous a…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:37PM[SHARE]Filed under: Brooklyn, Contemporary Variety, Indie Theatre, PLUGS, SOCIAL EVENTS Tagged: benefit, Big Sky Works, BROOKLYN, flood, Louisiana, vaudeville
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:22AM[SHARE]Filed under: BROOKLYN, Burlesk, Contemporary Variety, PLUGS Tagged: Broadway Brassy, Burlesque at Bedford Hall, House of Noire, Perle Noire
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:20AM[SHARE]Monday, September 5, 2016
Today is the centennial anniversary of the release date of the D.W. Griffith film, Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916). Perhaps the most spectacular motion…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:25AM[SHARE]Today is the anniversary of the release date of the 1931 Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Caught Plastered. In this one, the boys play a couple of failed vaudevillians who decide to help a l…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:25AM[SHARE]Sunday, September 4, 2016
I much enjoyed the play Spinoza’s Ethics at Theater for the New City last night.  As I mentioned in this earlier post, the book this play references both solved and saved reli…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:46AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Today is the birthday of Wheeler Dryden (George Dryden Wheeler, Jr, 1892-1957). It was tempting to include him in both my Stars of Vaudeville and Stars of Slapstick series, but Dryden was ad…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:31AM[SHARE]Monday, August 29, 2016
A thoughtful agent friend noticed the growing snowball of posts on Travalanche about American history and my family’s role therein. As she intuited, I have been posting this raw materi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:18AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 28, 2016
I headed out to nearby Green-wood Cemetery for the annual Battle of Brooklyn Commemoration. Some snaps I took while I was there: Filed under: AMERICANA, BROOKLYN, HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVALS/ MEMORI…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 06:55PM[SHARE]Today is opening day of Theater for the New City’s annual Dream Up Festival. It’s great to see this festival still going strong after several years now. Many of the shows look in…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:21AM[SHARE]Friday, August 26, 2016
Yet another post triggered by working on The Iron Heel, this one less political than autobiographical and (quite literally) philosophical. One of my characters in the ensemble of the current…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:09AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 25, 2016
My new feature about the Lightship Lilac and her current exhibition just hit this week’s Downtown Express. Read all about it here. As a bonus, here are are extra stray photos I took wh…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:25AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Today is St. Bartholomew’s Eve. Funny — despite having worked on this post for several days, I was thinking to myself only yesterday that August doesn’t really have a holid…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 02:45PM[SHARE]Monday, August 22, 2016
Today is the birthday of the great George Herriman (1880-1944). I almost just called Krazy Kat the greatest comic strip of all time — surely no strip has ever been greater — but …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 03:25PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 18, 2016
“Why do Beft Always Go to the Left?” — Dr. Seuss Tonight, we plunge back into performances of The Iron Heel after a hiatus of several days and so it seemed a good ti…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 01:31PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Just heard that Arthur Hiller has passed away at the age of 92. I had been planning a post on this interesting director for a while. It occurred to me a few months ago that certain of his…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 07:42PM[SHARE]Great fun last night at the Chinatown Soup gallery for the gala opening of the one-week re-appearance of Rev Jen’s Troll Museum. The Museum (which contains more trolls than you will fi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 10:49AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Davy Crockett (1786-1836). Because he has been so heavily mythologized I think there has been an unfortunate tendency to regard this important American figure as a t…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:44AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Today is the birthday of Fess Parker (1924-2010 — how did I not notice that he died so recently?) I would have been thrilled as a child to have known that I am distantly related to thi…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:02AM[SHARE]Monday, August 15, 2016
Was saddened yesterday to hear that Fyvush Finkel has passed at age 93. When a show biz figure dies at that age it is not unusual to be  surprised to learn that they are still alive, for …
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:07AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 14, 2016
Today’s Bob Woolsey’s birthday. Typically what I’ve done on the past on this day is re-post my blog on Wheeler and Woolsey, a neglected comedy team who’ve grown on…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:48AM[SHARE]Today is the birthday of Francis Ford (Francis Joseph Feeney, 1881-1953). Born in Portland, Maine to parents from Galway, Feeney served briefly in the Spanish-American War before bumming aro…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 09:40AM[SHARE]Friday, August 12, 2016
It’s that time again! The Jazz Age Lawn Party returns to Governor’s Island this weekend. Flappers! Hot Jazz! Hip Flasks! What’s not to love? Yet I think the people who actu…
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 12:10PM[SHARE]Filed under: PLUGS, VISUAL ART Tagged: art models, Brickhouse Brewery, burlesque, drawing, Patchogue, sideshow sketch night
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 11:09AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
