Ring in Summer!

If it's not quite summer for you without a little bit of Wagner to go with your fruity cocktails and pastel shirts, you're in luck. Lincoln Center Festival and the Met are presenting the Ring Cycle, performed by the Kirov Opera. It kicks off at 8 p.m. tonight, and — though we know virtually nothing about opera — we can assure you the performance includes a singing women inside what looks like an oversize spun-sugar dessert. At least yesterday's dress rehearsal did. Kirov Ring Cycle 2007 [MetOpera.org]

Posted 07/13/07 in Daily Intel : Photo Op

Tags: germany, lincoln center, metropolitan opera, opera, photo op, photos

Beverly Sills Has Sung

Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn gal born Belle Silverman, died of cancer yesterday at 78. She was a quintessentially American diva — a quin- tessentially New York diva, even — who bridged the high and low worlds of grand opera and American pop culture as a charismatic broad who could get things done. New York's Christopher Bonanos offers an appreciation at Vulture. Beverly Sills Dies at 78 [Vulture]

Posted 07/03/07 in Daily Intel : Vulture

Tags: beverly sills, death, lincoln center, opera, vulture

The Randy Opera Singer

Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors are doing behind doors left slightly ajar. Today, the Randy Opera Singer: female, 35, Upper West Side, married, and polyamorous. DAY ONE 9:30 a.m.: Got up briefly, went back to bed and spooned up against my husband's back, pressing up against him naked. Started feeling horny but still sleepy. 10 a.m.: Hubby rolled over on his back. I grabbed his morning stiffy; unfortunately, no time for sex because I had an audition. So I masturbated, trying not to wake him up. 1:30 p.m.: Admired a cute ass in jeans on the subway. 6:00 p.m.: Sent my boyfriend a text message telling him that I can't wait to satisfy all his pent-up desires when he returns in a few days. He's been gone a while. 6:30 p.m.: Told my husband he should surprise me sometime in his hot pants. I nuzzled, kissed, and licked his neck. 10:55 p.m.: Chatted with a platonic friend who is into BDSM and asked him why he wasn't out at a dungeon. I told him how excited I am to have my boyfriend — who will be very horny after a month without sex — return. 1:30 a.m.: Another text message to the boyfriend.

Posted 06/18/07 in Daily Intel : Sex Diaries

Tags: opera, sex, sex diaries, upper west side

But How Does He Feel About Trans Fats?

• In the no-brainer firing of the year, the Health Department has divested itself of the inspector who gave a passing grade to the famously ratty KFC–Taco Bell. The shuttered place, meanwhile, became a locus for some fun public art. [NYT] • Underreported amid the possible culprits of yesterday's Wall Street carnage — China, Cheney — were horrendously timed technical glitches at the NYSE: At some point, trades were done via paper tickets. [NYP] • Add a federal investigation to the list of JetBlue's headaches: The U.S. Transportation Secretary is calling for an official look-see into the recent snowstorm stranding of passengers on the JFK tarmac. American Airlines will get its own probe for a similar incident in Austin. [amNY] • The Thurmond-Sharpton Roots-on-acid miniseries continues to play out: The senator's biracial daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, is reprimanding the reverend for "overreacting," saying "[my father] did many wonderful things for black people." [NYDN] • And meet Gerard Mortier, new director of the New York City Opera, whose farewell production on his previous job was a staging of Die Fledermaus with cocaine, incest, suicide, and Nazis. Welcome!!! [CBS News]

Posted 02/28/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line

Tags: al sharpton, dow jones, food, health, jetblue, nyse, opera, rats, strom thurmond, taco bell, the morning line, wall street

Bollards and Gribbles and Photogs, Oh, My!

• NYPD and DOT realize, after five years, that concrete bollards don't actually protect us from terrorism. They do, however, teach us new words like "bollard." [NYT] • The Dolans really want to take Cablevision private. So much, in fact, that they'll be happy to absorb $11.3 billion in debt (the company is valued at $7.9 billion). [WCBS] • Yanks bask in the ultimate humiliation: throwing the postseason to the Tigers and getting outlasted by the Mets. Steinbrenner is likely to fire Torre and replace him with Lou Piniella. [WNBC] • The city's operas try to freshen up their crowd by offering $20 or $25 orchestra seats. Giving quotes like "We were all amazed that out of the woodwork these people came roaring up" does not help the populist cause. [NYT] • In a textbook case of good news, bad news, cleaner water in the Hudson nurses back to life an array of disgusting critters like shipworms and gribbles. Bring back the pretty petroleum slicks! [IHT] • And finally, city photojournalists, sounding surreally combative ("We are not a group to be trifled with"), demand rights to shoot in Port Authority facilities. Once you've seen the Christopher Street PATH station at dawn, you'll understand. [AMNY] [Ed. note: Apologies, by the way, for the late start. The Morning Line should post about two hours earlier than it did this morning, assuming in the future we can figure out how to use Movable Type.]

Posted 10/09/06 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line

Tags: cablevision, culture, dolans, environment, hudson river, joe torre, nypd, opera, port authority, sports, terrorism, the morning line, yankees