A song for New York, sung in one borough
By Sara G. Levin
Even for Mabou Mines, the 37-year-old experimental theater troupe whose directors delight in exploring unknown dramatic territory, producing “Song For New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting,” has been quite a challenge.

Koch on film
By Ed Koch
“Bothersome Man” (+) When I saw this film on a Sunday afternoon, there were five people in the theater including me. One reviewer quite accurately described the movie as a script that could have appeared on the television series “The Twilight Zone.” I agree with that comment and would also describe it as an unusual and disquieting short story stretched out to make a full-length film. 
“This is England” (+) In terms of acting and impact, this film is a gem.
The year is 1983 when Margaret Thatcher was in office. Graffiti on a wall refers to her as a twat. When the movie opens, we are introduced to 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) who is awakening in his bedroom to go to school.

Voices from the deep
By Jerry Tallmer
The Japanese slugged at least six torpedoes into her, maybe more, that Sunday morning, but when the USS West Virginia sank at her mooring on December 7, 1941, it was only into 40 feet of water, so the superstructure remained aloft, including the mast that would one day find itself installed as a memorial on the campus of the University of West Virginia at Morgantown.


Remembering Tribeca artist Elizabeth Murray
By Stephanie Murg
A little over a decade ago, the young daughter of painter Elizabeth Murray walked into her mother’s soon-to-open show at the Paula Cooper Gallery, looked around, and burst into tears. “What are these paintings doing here? You’re not going to sell these paintings!?” sobbed four-year-old Sophia to her mother. “Don’t give these paintings to Paula. These paintings are ours.” Anyone who has seen the work of Murray, much less enjoyed the privilege of living with it, can understand Sophia’s reaction.

Making lemonade out of a law degree
By Sarah Norris
“I used my law degree to start a food blog,” says Adam Roberts, 28, describing the inception of his popular website, amateurgourmet.com, in 2004. Feeling burnt out during his first year of law school at Emory, in Atlanta, Roberts found solace in cookbooks and the satisfaction of homemade meals — something he never had at home.

Take two of these, and don’t bother calling
By Steven Snyder
The intrigue starts with the title: Just who is self-medicating themselves, and why? In one corner of this searing family drama is Andrew (Monty Lapica, who also wrote and directed the film), a teenager on the road to the self-destruction.

Bringing new meaning to home movies
By Rania Richardson
In town last week, Austin-based film composer Kevin Bewersdorf explained the motivation behind working on a homemade film that has little prospect of commercial success: “You’re making it because you genuinely enjoy communing with the creative spirits of the universe and you want to hang out with other people who have good energy and see what will come. You think this is for each other, or maybe for a few more friends.”

Tuning into Radio Lab’s strange frequency
By Orli Van Mourik
At Café Lafayette, a modest, French bistro in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Jad Abumrad puts down his salmon burger and begins what is for him a typical conversation.