The Talk of the Town Beat by Amy Clyde. Talk story about a "Drum Party" in a loft apartment (formerly a club called The Toilet) on 9th Ave at 15th St. Pat Blashill is throwing the party as a sendoff for Ed Greer and two other guys in his band, Miracle Room, which is about to go on a...

The Talk of the Town Librettist by Lisa Miller. Talk story about Al Grand, who writes Yiddish librettos for Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Grand learned Yiddish as a child by listening to his parents and a radio station, WEVD which was, at the time, all Yiddish. In 1970 he landed a role in a Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera...

Fiction Consolation by Richard Bausch. Milly Harmon, her sister Meg, and Milly's baby have travelled to Philadelphia from Illinois to see Milly's in-laws. Her husband, Wally, a firefighter, died on the job. She sees the Harmons, but the visit was tense, and the Harmons were not hospitable. She, Meg and the baby are at...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Bo Knows Fiction by David Racine. Whimsical account of megatalented, football/baseball star Bo Jackson's entry into his latest sport--professional writing. The story is set up like a boxing match. Bo enters Madison Square Garden to roaring crowds. Marv Albert and Joyce Carol Oates provide the stroke by stroke coverage of the event for National...

A Reporter at Large DECENT EXPOSURE by Michael Stern. A REPORTER AT LARGE about nudism. Tells about two trials of women who were members of the Rochester-area Coalition for Topfree Equality, in 1986 and 1989. The women attended Topfree Equality Picnics, where both sexes removed their shirts. Police arrested the women for exposing their breasts. Profiles Mary Lou...

Comment by Ronnie Dugger. Comment about a demonstration held a week before free elections in Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia. Authorities had tried to squealch the demonstration with threats of violence on the TV. The writer pays a pack of Marlboros for a cab ride to Gorky Park, where 50-100 thousand people had gathered...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. In perhaps the first public display of a disagreement between them, Bush and Reagan, meeting in Los Angeles in the middle of last week, took differing positions on what is to become of the Contras... It should be no surprise that Reagan may be out of touch with what's going...

Comment COMMENT, Pt. II by Richard Brookhiser. Comment on the "New York Times" obituary for Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, who had been, successively, the daughter, wife, mother-in-law and mother of four "Times" publishers. The writer is surprised, not at the length and prominence of the obit., which got more column inches and a comparably sized photo...

Profiles OPEN, AVAILABLE, USEFUL by Calvin Tomkins. PROFILE of artist Siah Armajani, He is an American citizen, naturalized in 1967, but he was born & raised in Teheran, and, like many Iranians, he often makes his points by telling stories. One summer evening in 1960, when Siah Armajani was in his last year at the Presbyterian missionary...

The Theatre BECKETT AND HAVEL by Edith Oliver.

Poetry Through Two Windows by Brad Leithauser. Comforting, in its way, how wherever you may be...

Poetry World's End by Robert Mazzocco. On the last day of exile...

Poetry Anton Bruckner by Adam Zagajewski. At daybreak, the smell of clover rises from low meadows...