EXPLORING THE BEAUTY OF IRIS DEMENT’S ‘SING THE DELTA’ To hear Iris DeMent is to be moved. She sings so close to her emotions—and with such artistry—that her meanings can be understood even if the lyrics are soaked in Southern and Midwestern dialect. Her new albumSing the Delta evokes experience and wonder—life, death and very complicated 
CRAFTS, ART FAIR AND OFF THE MAIN IN NYC By GREGORY SOLMAN Roosters never sleep—especially if they’re the colorful, kinetic steel cocks-of-the-walk sculpted by Fredrick Prescott. “I used to show at Art Expo, but this show is different,” says Prescott, who tells CityArts that the two-ton wild animal sculptures sent from his two-and-a-half-acre Santa Fe studio to Manhattan, 
AN ‘ELIXIR’ WITHOUT FIZZ AND A MODEL ‘CARMINA BURANA’ The Metropolitan Opera opened its 2012-13 season with a new production of The Elixir of Love, Donizetti’s offbeat romantic comedy. For 20 years, the Met had a production by John Copley: goofy, whimsical, endearing—like The Elixir of Love. It looked like an old-fashioned Valentine’s Day card. At the 
By Angela Barbuti Ed Asner is still acting in his eighties. But his quick wit and unique outlook on life make him able to transcend the age gap. An entertainer for all generations, he has played endearing roles for the younger set such as Santa Claus in Elf and Carl in Up. But others will 
Wegman Throws Sincerity A Bone Irony is one the most overused conceits in contemporary art. So much so that the term “ironic hipster” has become part of our current lexicon. I’m tired of ironic hipster art, minimal drawings coupled with what are meant to be pearls of wisdom encapsulated in a tagline. The current show 
‘WON’T BACK DOWN’ CONTRIBUTES TO THE EDUCATION CRISIS A dyslexic child looks into the camera at the end of Won’t Back Down and correctly pronounces a word she had previously stumbled over: “Hope.” Thank God for the smart-aleck in the audience who loudly responded: “Boo!” Whether or not that raspberry came from a member of 
THE TRICK AND TREAT OF HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN Tim Burton reaches the outer limits of creepy in Frankenweenie, the 3D remake of his 1984 animated short about a boy who plays Frankenstein and brings his dead dog Sparky back to life. That’s why it was a relief to step from that gothic cliché to the more 
Best Bike Lane West Side Highway Bike Lane Try as they might, no other Manhattan bike lane can hold a candle to the West Side Highway bike lane, which runs along the east bank of the Hudson River from Chambers Street all the way to 125th Street. A clear day affords beautiful views of the 
Tracy Letts Takes on his Mentor Edward Albee in New Production By Ben Kessler Edward Albee’s classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? returns to Broadway in a 50th-anniversary production from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Tracy Letts and Amy Morton will appear in the iconic roles of George and Martha, a middle-aged married couple locked in terminal, 
Keanu Reeves—who better?—Parses the Digital Revolution by GREGORY SOLMAN Chris Kenneally’s Side by Side represents the rare “industrial” that’s not promoting any particular point of view, and should give pause to cinephiles as well as visual and dramatic artists with only a passing interest in that moribund art form, the movies. It curates a thoughtfully chosen collection of 
