Category Archives: History

Off the Walls

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Mark Stern

The Museum of the City of New York’s exhaustive and fascinating new exhibit, “Art in the Open: Fifty Years of Public Art in New York,” brings the work indoors to examine how it transformed the five boroughs–parks, plazas, subways, empty … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art, History, Photography, Photos | Tagged , | 1 Comment

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Posted on September 20, 2017 by Mark Stern

The last print issue of the Village Voice, with a startlingly gorgeous ultra-tight crop of Fred McDarrah’s iconic image of Bob Dylan on the cover, rolled off the presses today. The first issue was published, with newsprint and ink, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Friends, History, Journalism, Photography, Photos, www.robinholland.com | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Working to Bend the Arc*

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Mark Stern

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 49 years ago today in Memphis, where he’d gone to support the striking sanitation workers. Today on the damp steps of City Hall, at the 11th Annual NYC Equal Pay Day rally, all of … Continue reading →

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War Ends but Peace Is Elusive

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Mark Stern

In a provincial German town, in the immediate aftermath of World War I, a lovely young woman (Paula Beer, perfect), deep in mourning for her fiancé, Frantz, killed in the trenches, encounters a well-dressed, melancholy French stranger at her beloved’s grave. Director and writer … Continue reading →

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Manifest Destiny, Israeli Style

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Mark Stern

In his powerful, exhaustive new documentary, “The Settlers,” writer and director Shimon Dotan traces the 50-year movement, begun by deeply religious Israelis after the Yom Kippur war, to fulfill Biblical prophecy by reclaiming/”redeeming” all of the land they believed was given to … Continue reading →

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Women’s March on NYC: I Had All My Sisters With Me

Posted on January 21, 2017 by Mark Stern

Brothers too (the march, like NOW,  for women/women’s rights, but not exclusively of women), and wonderfully, lots of nieces and nephews. Spitting distance from Trump Tower, the march ended, everyone routed east or west on 55th Street. A young guy (who had been inventing chants, … Continue reading →

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So Much More Entertaining Than Your Average Contemporary Political Power Struggle

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Mark Stern

Anthony Harvey’s multi-Oscar-winning second feature, “The Lion in Winter” (1968), soars with two great pros ferociously verbally duking it out about matters of love and royal succession. It’s Christmastime, 1183, and King Henry II (Peter O’Toole), is home for the … Continue reading →

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Happy 102nd Birthday, Norman Lloyd

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Mark Stern

This is a very different piece than what I had planned to post yesterday. I’ve trimmed my headline (gone: “And Congratulations, Madam President-Elect. OK Now to Exhale.”) I’ve deleted my excitement and that of two young women, 18 (a stranger at … Continue reading →

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All You Need Is Love

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Mark Stern

Nice sentiment, the above headline, romantic, true in an abstract way. But I imagined that that this young couple also needed a room of their own (likely they were sharing an apartment with older relatives–tough times in the GDR) and sought urban anonymity (which … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, History, Photography, Photos, www.robinholland.com | Tagged , | 2 Comments

When Paranoia Is the Appropriate Response

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Mark Stern

“The Russian Woodpecker,” Chad Gracia’s debut film, a twisty documentary about Ukraine and Russia’s troubled, often violent past and present, is as fascinating as any expertly scripted political conspiracy thriller. The film’s protagonist, Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich, was four during the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and for his … Continue reading →

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