Art

Douglas Turner Ward, Pioneering Black Theater Artist, Dead At 90

A writer and director as well as an actor, he wrote a 1966 New York Times Op-Ed titled “American Theater: For Whites Only?” that inspired the Ford Foundation to fund the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company, with Ward as artistic director. Both he and the troupe amassed nominations and awards, and the NEC counts some of the world’s most admired Black actors as alumni. Ward was also a playwright, and just last year published his magnum opus, a trilogy titled The Haitian Chronicles. – The New Yo...
Tags: Art, People, NEC, Ford Foundation, Ward, New York Times Op Ed, Negro Ensemble Company, 02.22.21, Douglas Turner Ward Pioneering Black Theater

Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging

Reporting to the President of New England Conservatory (NEC), the Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging (CEB) will lead the establishment of NEC’s Center for Cultural Equity and Belonging to foster inclusivity, equity, and belonging in every aspect of the NEC community. In alignment with NEC’s mission, the Director will provide leadership and coordinate the development of community-wide plans and programming. The Director serves as the institutional and educational resource for guiding NEC’...
Tags: Art, Jobs, NEC, CEB, New England Conservatory NEC, Cultural Equity and Belonging CEB, Center for Cultural Equity

Negro Ensemble Company: A Brief History Of A Pathbreaking Theater Group

The NEC’s roots lay in a drama workshop for Harlem youth that founder Robert Hooks ran in a makeshift theater in his apartment until the landlord found out. The professional company was born in 1967 with a Ford Fourndation grant, and it went on to become perhaps the most successful Black theatre group in the world, with a Pulitzer, two Tony Awards, more than a dozen Obies — and more than 4,000 alumni (including quite a few famous names) who learned acting, directing, and theater tech there. – A...
Tags: Art, Theatre, NEC, Harlem, Robert Hooks, Negro Ensemble Company, 01.13.21, Pathbreaking Theater Group

Connecting Learning Music With Medical Workers

In a six-week pilot collaboration between New England Conservatory and Massachusetts General Hospital this fall, the Boston Hope Music Teaching Project connected teaching fellows from NEC with frontline health care workers for weekly private music lessons. The goal wasn’t to teach them skill or technique, but to provide a refuge from day-to-day life on the COVID ward. – Boston Globe
Tags: Art, Music, NEC, Massachusetts General Hospital, New England Conservatory, 01.06.21, Boston Hope Music Teaching Project

Actor Charles Weldon, Director Of Negro Ensemble Company, Dead At 78

“Following a short but successful singing career as the lead singer and singer-songwriter with the chart-topping Paradons, Weldon turned to acting in the 1960s. … [He] joined NEC in 1970 … [and] succeeded [Douglas Turner] Ward, co-founder of NEC, as artistic director in 2005.” — Playbill
Tags: Art, People, NEC, 12.14.18, Charles Weldon, Negro Ensemble Company Dead, Paradons Weldon, Douglas Turner -RSB- Ward

New shaver offers the best of electric and traditional

I really like the shaver I spoke of in a past review the Panasonic but I have another shaver that I think you will love. It is called the Phillips Norelco OneBlade. I received this today from Amazon and it only cost $34! So I should say that I have tried many different brands and types of shavers and I think for the price, this OneBlade can’t be beat. The benefits start with the ease of use. One of the disadvantages of electric shavers is that they tend to take more time than traditional razors....
Tags: Amazon, Work, Art, Usa, Review, Opinion, Face, Age, Love, Time, Nes, SM, Use, ADE, Like, New

Having problems with Office 365?

I used a great tool today to fix an Office 365 problem. I wanted to share it with you so that it might help you if you have Office 365 issues. You can click on the link above and it fixes things in 5 categories of Office 365 problems. It fixed a problem really quickly that I had worked on for a half hour. It was a nice experience and something I would use again. Microsoft has many issues, but sometimes they have a tool that fixes the job perfectly. This tool fixed the problem. Of course it woul...
Tags: Work, Art, Business, Gmail, Email, Microsoft, Opinion, Office, Age, Time, Interesting, Lp, Nes, Use, ADE, Like

Opportunity isn’t enough

Opportunity isn’t enough. Justice and fairness requires a level playing field for everyone. Why am I talking about this? I read that the language of the new health care act talks about “opportunity”. Meanwhile a new independent study confirms today that 14 million people will go without healthcare, and even more in the future. This is not a better system. I am not arguing for the ACA or for the new health care act. I am arguing that when we use language that promises opportunity, it isn’t enough...
Tags: Health, Security, Social, Food, Art, Family, Law, Opinion, Life, Study, Clothing, Age, Future, Employment, America, Old

Real life superhero in NYC giving to others

This is a touching story about a real life superhero in NYC giving to others. Why am I sharing this? It is touching that the values of sharing and caring for others cause people to do these kind of things. We can help in our own way. It is neat that he took something that may people consider a negative or problem and turned it into a positive. One of the things that he has said in other documentaries is that he gives and goes out and helps people when he doesn’t have work. He works as a video pr...
Tags: Work, Art, Video, Money, NYC, Opinion, Life, Time, Value, Sharing, Lp, Nes, SM, Use, ADE, App

How much is enough?

One of the questions I often ask myself is How much is enough? For example, I have been fortunate to have jobs that have enabled me to buy a car I enjoy. What I have seen myself doing over the years is buying better and better cars. I enjoy cars and the technology they have, but at some  point it has to stop. I just can’t continue to spend money on better cars or I won’t have money for other things that are more important. Don’t misunderstand. I am buying cars that I can easily afford and that a...
Tags: Work, Food, Art, Technology, Jobs, Money, Opinion, Life, Youth, Time, Women, Cars, Tech, Information, Interesting, Research

Are you living in your own Holodeck?

If you are familiar with Star Trek you know that the Holodeck is an area where anything you want can be true. It allows the user to experience anything they can imagine, and with all the reality of it actually happening. The only thing close to the technology now is just our dreams. However I was thinking about Holodecks, and I think that people live in their own Holodeck. Here are the reasons why. The Holodeck is a place where you create your own reality. Don’t we all create our own reality? Y...
Tags: Art, Technology, Opinion, Life, Future, Fantasy, Belief, Tech, Lp, Use, ADE, App, Like, Look, Looks, Stand

Is the TV show Colony the future of the US?

I was watching a TV show on Netflix called Colony and it seems like it could be the future of the US. Why would I say this? Elements of this show are what many US citizens want, and it surprises me. For one it has a wall surrounding LA. Then as if that isn’t enough, an overwhelming military force to enforce martial law. Mysterious disappearances by the military, along with undefined detention. Just like Guantanamo and other examples that currently happen. It has food and labor shortages. The dis...
Tags: Health, Home, Coffee, Food, Art, TV, Guantanamo, Law, Opinion, Age, Future, US, Poverty, Author, Watch, App

Playstation desperate for sales

Playstation desperate for sales. A friend bought a game for $40 directly from the Playstation store. It was Final Fantasy 15. Without the cost of distribution or cd production it was much lower price than past versions. In the past FF cost $80 at game stop. I haven’t actually been to Game Stop for 5 years. There has been no reason to go since you can easily download the games on your PS4. Part of the reason is that places like Game Stop were always bad experiences. They were always small, crowde...
Tags: Art, Gaming, Books, Games, TV, Marketplace, Game, Children, Internet, Time, Fantasy, Sales, Book, Download, SM, Use

LinkedIn changes less user friendly

I was given access to the LinkedIn new interface and I think the changes are less user-friendly. I can understand why they would want to change the interface. The website looked stuffy and dated, and it wasn’t modern. The new website looks more modern, but it also looks generic like Facebook or twitter. I don’t think that having very similar interfaces help brand things for customer’s mind. For example, when you ask someone to connect to you a pop up window comes up and obscures the next person...
Tags: Work, Home, Art, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Face, Bt, Age, Book, Social Media, Linkedin, Website, Old, Lp, SM

Macs in an enterprise environment and an unusual AD change

I worked at a place once that had macs in an enterprise environment and an unusual AD change. What does that mean? Well AD stands for Active Directory and it is what most companies use to provide security on the network. They had changed the names on the accounts to make them compatible with Office 365. So what that meant is that the Macs that were setup under the old name needed to be changed to work with Office 365. In order to do this, I had to unbind and rebind the mac to the domain controll...
Tags: Security, Work, Design, Mac, Server, Opinion, Office, Windows, Environment, Information, Interesting, Old, Nes, Use, ADE, Stand

The biggest problem in business is Communication

The biggest problem in business is Communication. Every company I have worked at has had this challenge, and it continues to surprise me. People think that technology is the edge that gives business victory. It does not. In many ways technology just confuses people and overwhelms them with data. So that instead of the intuitive decision-making of the past, it is discussed to absurdum. For example, the technology team is often asked to do things that are perceived to increase productivity. This ...
Tags: Work, Productivity, Ipad, Notes, Art, Books, Business, Tools, Technology, Keyboards, Writing, Opinion, Age, Time, Book, Communication

Stories from my Past: You need new tires

If you drive used cars, you usually end up learning about car repair. Learning about cars can be interesting if you are a technical or curious person. For the most part, I don’t mind learning about different cars and how they work. However at some point the weakness in having a used car is that you have to trust a mechanic, and that doesn’t always work out. I had a ten-year old car that had been reliable but suddenly started to have lots of expensive issues. I fixed those issues, but was left wo...
Tags: Decisions, Work, Art, Business, Learning, Opinion, Cars, Tech, Interesting, Research, Old, Nes, Use, ADE, App, Like

Airwatch Vs. MobileIron: Which is better for small business?

I am helping a client decide between Airwatch vs. MobileIron. The answer isn’t as obvious as it seems. I had used MobileIron in the past and it was a pain in the neck with its constant updates. It also had lots of bugs and didn’t support new Operating systems quickly. Even now it has a problem supporting the new iPhone 7 which is disappointing. I tried the trial period of both softwares and it was a mixed bag. Airwatch has a superior user interface, but MobileIron was easier to actually get setu...
Tags: Iphone, Ios, Android, Work, Updates, Art, Mobile, Droid, Business, Email, Review, Small Business, Bugs, Opinion, Face, Time

Have an older iPhone like iPhone 5? Update to iOS 10 and get a better battery life.

Have an older iPhone like iPhone 5? Update to iOS 10 and get a better battery life. I read articles of people who have updated to iOS 10 and with older phones like the iPhone 5 the battery lasts longer. I shared this with a coworker and he confirmed it was true today. So if you have an older device its a nice bonus. I remember when I had an iPhone 5 and the battery life was difficult for me and for many people that I knew. Apple always pushes the edge of technology and they probably pushed it to...
Tags: Iphone, Apple, Ios, Work, Art, Technology, Resources, Life, Face, Love, Time, Value, Articles, Tech, Old, Lp

Want the highest levels of website security? Get an EC certificate

I helped a client secure their VPN with a certificate, and it turns out that for only 10 times more money they could get a more secure certificate! Here is what happened. Cisco Anyconnect has the ability on firewalls that are at a certain level of OS, to negotiate a higher level of security. That is called an Elliptical curve certificate. With this certificate which costs about $1000 from Symantec you can get a TLS 1.2 level of security. This is far better than a normal certificate that only cos...
Tags: Security, Work, Design, Legal, Budget, Money, Internet, NYC, Opinion, Mba, Age, Time, Fire, Clients, Risk, Cisco

Teamviewer 9 suddenly stops working-fix

I had a friend who told me that TeamViewer 9 suddenly stops working. I found a fix for her. She said that someone was connected to the machine and he was working and it suddenly stopped. The error message it gave is that it had network problems connecting and failed to reconnect. Nothing had changed on the machine. The only difference was that the network had a slight change in rebooting one of the routers in the meantime. I could not understand how that would cause this problem. I tried changin...
Tags: Work, Updates, Art, Tools, Design, Networking, Organization, Arts, Microsoft, Free, Mac, Opinion, Windows, Age, Time, Download

Verizon Safety Mode slow but helpful

If you have Verizon wireless you know that they are perhaps the best network, but the worst at features for the money. However they are finally catching up, and that is appreciated for those of us who have a Verizon device. I had a friend give me a Verizon iPhone so I have kept it. I had used AT&T primarily before and they were terrible in every way. I tried to go with T mobile but they couldn’t get their act together, and my experience with Sprint was a disaster. So out of the group Verizon see...
Tags: Iphone, Health, Work, Art, Mobile, Verizon, Music, Money, Email, Free, Safety, Internet, Opinion, Life, Government, Love

Looking for WiFi for your office or home? Consider Engenius

I had written before how I thought that Ubiquity was the best WiFi for business. I have since gained experience and now consider Engenius to be a better option. I recently setup the ECB1750 and an Engenius 8 port POE switch. A POE switch for non IT people is a device that had electricity as part of an ethernet connection. It allows you place devices without the need for power adapters. Very convenient for many businesses and high-end homes. Many reasons why this device was purchased. I talked to...
Tags: Reviews, Security, Work, Home, Art, Business, Review, Mac, Opinion, Failure, Office, Age, Time, Clients, Research, Cisco

Windows 8/8.1/10 don’t make me want to purchase

Do you remember how exciting it was to get Windows95? Yes I am showing my age. It was supposed to be so much better than Windows 3.11 and in many ways it was better. I’m not sure if it was the frequent Windows upgrade cycles or just the disappointment in Windows in general, but I haven’t been impressed with Windows since Windows 7. 8/8.1/10 just don’t make me want to purchase it. Sure the computer hardware is better and who doesn’t want a light and fast laptop or whatever? However I am still us...
Tags: Work, Home, Art, Business, Games, Hardware, Game, Microsoft, Mac, Opinion, Life, Windows, Age, Time, Support, Recession

Use WordPress? Auto update your plugins and save time

If you use Auto Update Plugins WordPress plugin, you will never have to manually update your plugins. I looked for this plugin because for the third time in less than a week a plugin asked to be updated. I understand fixing issues, but that kind of frequent update schedule is exhausting and frankly ridiculous. Very few people are going to update something every time a plugin asks to be updated. Everything that is a strength is also a weakness. I appreciate that authors are so responsive and are ...
Tags: Security, Art, Microsoft, Mac, Law, Opinion, Windows, Wordpress, Time, Support, Author, Nes, SM, Smart, Use, App

Somewhere Street is a fun show on NHK

Somewhere Street is a fun show on NHK. It features a person walking around and you see the world from his point of view. You don’t hear the person ask questions but you do hear them respond. It is just like being there and it is relaxing and satisfies your curiosity. You can read another opinion of the show at this blog. When I first watched this show I couldn’t believe what I saw. The person was walking around and being treated very respectfully by the locals. It was places that I would probab...
Tags: Ios, Work, Art, Video, Podcast, Media, Audio, Opinion, Time, Future, Blog, Vote, Amazing, Intel, SM, Watch

Want to stream from your laptop to your TV?

There are many ways to do this and I learned another one for PC users. On the mac this is easily done if you have an Apple TV. It works very well. However if you have a PC you have to buy either a laptop that has the Wi-Fi display standard and a Microsoft Wi-Fi adapter, or something like this Diamond USB to WiFi adapter. You can read a review of it here. I mostly agree with the review. This is a good solution for home users who only have a short distance that need to span. If the distance betwee...
Tags: Apple, Work, Ipad, Photos, Home, Art, Business, TV, Review, Microsoft, Mac, Opinion, Wi-fi, Environment, Nes, Use

Visiting bank branches is almost something from the past

Have you noticed that visiting bank branches is almost something from the past? I have simple financial needs. I just need somewhere to direct deposit my check and use my debit card to make most of my payments. I have tried a variety of banks and they all had unacceptable service. They made errors, they didn’t keep promises, they wasted my time. My best experiences where with credit unions that I joined. I have joined 3 different credit unions. The first was because it was in the building where ...
Tags: Apple, Security, Work, Credit Cards, Art, Money, Wallet, Opinion, Cards, Banks, Nsa, Love, Time, Future, Support, Risk

Interesting documentary Tony Robbins: I am not your Guru

I watched this documentary this weekend and I have mixed thoughts about it. Here is my issue with Tony Robbins. He seems to be a sincere, honest and well-intentioned person. It is clear that he has some great instincts, and can easily connect with people. No doubt he helps many people and probably saves lives as well. He specifically asks people who are thinking about committing suicide, and works with them in some way. However with all that said, there are some problems that this documentary sh...
Tags: Psychology, Decisions, Work, Art, Learning, Documentary, Opinion, Suicide, Life, Face, Bt, Age, Gift, Tech, Tony Robbins, Interesting

Fun Flash game: Star Trek: Alien Domain

I have been enjoying a free flash game Star Trek: Alien Domain. It is a free game that you can play here. It takes a while to understand since there are many aspects of it. If you have played an MMO before then you will probably easily understand it. I like the fact that there isn’t a determined way to play it. Isn’t it fun when there are many ways to achieve the goal in a game? Why am I sharing this? Kongregate has some fun free games and they work great with Safari. As I said earlier Safari w...
Tags: Apple, Work, Updates, Home, Art, Mobile, Games, Game, Free, Mac, Developer, Writing, Opinion, Wi-fi, Time, Download