About
I decided to start a blog for three reasons:
1) People felt that there should be a part of the Threepenny website that was available only online, not in the printed magazine.
2) Some of the things I wanted to write about seemed as if they would benefit from a slightly more timely response than our usual quarterly publication permitted.
3) I was seeing and hearing so much interesting art — especially in the areas of dance and music, though also in literature, theater, and the visual arts — that I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say into The Threepenny Review without taking over the whole publication. And if you are not Diderot or Karl Kraus (and I am certainly neither), it is never a good idea to write the whole magazine yourself. But I figured the rules of blogs would allow me to monopolize one of those.
I struggled to come up with a good title for the blog and at first resisted using my own name, feeling (as those named Lesser are bound to feel) that diminishment is not necessarily a selling point. But then I figured that if people named Grudge or Drudge can use their names on websites, I should certainly not be abashed at calling this The Lesser Blog. So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it.
Wendy Lesser
Editor, The Threepenny Review-
Recent Posts
Archives
- December 2024 (3)
- November 2024 (1)
- October 2024 (3)
- June 2024 (1)
- May 2024 (2)
- April 2024 (3)
- March 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (1)
- December 2023 (1)
- November 2023 (1)
- October 2023 (1)
- September 2023 (1)
- July 2023 (1)
- June 2023 (1)
- May 2023 (1)
- March 2023 (1)
- February 2023 (1)
- October 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (1)
- November 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (1)
- October 2020 (1)
- June 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (2)
- February 2020 (2)
- January 2020 (1)
- November 2019 (1)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (1)
- July 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (1)
- November 2018 (1)
- October 2018 (1)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
- July 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (1)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (2)
- December 2017 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (2)
- September 2017 (1)
- July 2017 (1)
- May 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (1)
- March 2017 (2)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (2)
- September 2016 (2)
- July 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (1)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (2)
- January 2016 (1)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (1)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (2)
- January 2015 (2)
- November 2014 (1)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (2)
- August 2014 (2)
- June 2014 (3)
- May 2014 (1)
- April 2014 (4)
- February 2014 (2)
- January 2014 (1)
- December 2013 (2)
- November 2013 (4)
- October 2013 (1)
- September 2013 (2)
- August 2013 (3)
- July 2013 (3)
- January 2013 (1)
- May 2012 (1)
- March 2012 (1)
- October 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (1)
- January 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (2)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- September 2009 (1)
- April 2009 (1)
- December 2008 (1)
- October 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (1)
- February 2008 (1)
- November 2007 (1)
- June 2007 (1)
- March 2007 (1)
- January 2007 (1)
- October 2006 (1)
- September 2006 (1)
- July 2006 (1)
- June 2006 (1)
Author Archives: Wendy Lesser
Music Audiences
After many visits to Avery Fisher Hall, I’ve decided that the real problem with the New York Philharmonic lies neither with the orchestra nor with the performance space, but with the audience. (There may be a secondary problem involving the conductor, … Continue reading
A Month of Performances
It occurred to me that it would be useful to chronicle the live performances I saw in New York during just the past four weeks. March 2007 was not an unusual month, in that the number of events I attended … Continue reading
Teaching the Arts
This past fall I taught a course called “New York and the Arts” at Hunter. My students were freshmen in the CUNY Honors College, which meant that, on the basis of their academic promise, they had all been granted a … Continue reading
Dream Opera
There is something about Handel’s operas and oratorios that stimulates an astute inventiveness in modern-day directors. Or so it seems, at any rate, from the five fully staged productions I’ve attended in the last three years. Of these, one was … Continue reading
A Different Kind of Reality Show
Last night I saw a rather amazing movie called Paper Dolls. If I told you it was a documentary about Filipino transvestites taking care of old people in Israel, you would think you didn’t want to see it. But you would … Continue reading
Javier Marías’s Dance and Dream
This past week I’ve been reading Javier Marías’s Your Face Tomorrow: Dance and Dream, the second volume in his projected trilogy, which New Directions, his regular American publishers, are bringing out in this country. If you’ve never read any Javier Marías, … Continue reading
Mark Morris and the Idea of Camp
I would never have thought to put the two together. But that is my point: we hardcore admirers of Mark Morris’s choreography see nothing at all campy about it, and yet many other viewers (including some people who like his … Continue reading