Author Archives: dannyashkenasi

About dannyashkenasi

I'm a composer with over 40 years experience creating music theater. I'm also an actor, writer, director, producer, teacher and general enthusiast for the arts.

PARK SLOPE HALLOWEEN

Posted on October 28, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

I almost called this post “Park Slope Skeletons”, because these bony brethren are by far the dominant theme of this year’s decorations in my neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Including Pirate Skeletons and Knicks Skeletons (NBA champions this year, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Notes in the News, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged brooklyn, decorations, ghost, Halloween, jack-o-lantern, Knicks, New York City, Park Slope, photography, porch, pumpkins, quicksand, skeleton, skeletons, spider, tombstone | Leave a comment

October 25 – Our Half / Legal Anniversary

Posted on October 25, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Today is Ed and my “Half-Anniversary”, AKA our “Legal Anniversary”. As I have already detailed in a 2015 blog post when Marriage Equality finally went national, Ed and I got married April 25, 1998, the fifth anniversary of our meeting. … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, Notes in the News | Tagged anniversary, April 25, Edward Elder, family, Gay, gold, jeweler, jewelry, Love, marriage, marriage equality, Michael R. Dekker, October 25, photography, Rick Pantaleoni, ring, same-sex marriage, sculpted, wax, wedding, ying yang | Leave a comment

GREECE – The Acropolis

Posted on October 20, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Ed and I spent three fantastic weeks in Greece this August. Providing in photos and videos a wealth of eye candy for a series of blog posts. Surely it makes sense to make the famous Acropolis in Athens the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Acropolis, Amphitheater, Athens, Carmina Burana, Catherine Gayer, Dionysos, Erechtheion, Eumenes, Greece, history, Lord Elgin, Mount Lycabettus, Odeion, Parthenon, photography, Stoa, travel, West Gate | Leave a comment

DANCE ON THE VOLCANO – a Revue

Posted on October 13, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Last Thursday I had the privilege and pleasure to perform in “Dance on the Volcano“, a revue covering the tumultuous years of the Weimar Republic, the short time of democracy in Germany between the end of World War One and … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, Live! On Stage, Melodies Linger On, Notes in the News | Tagged Alfred Döblin, art, Berlin, Berlin im Licht, Berliner Luft, Bertolt Brecht, Cabaret, Catherine Gayer, Elysium, Erich Mühsam, Erwin Piscator, Frau Luna, Georg Grosz, Gergorij von Leitis, Germany, Italy, Jeannie Im, Klaus Mann, Kurt Weill, Leo Baeck Institute, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Lahr von Leitis, Michael Protacio, operetta, Paul Lincke, Samuel Kardos, Teresa Stratas, Valeska Gert, Weimar Republic | Leave a comment

Looking Up in New York 4

Posted on October 6, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Exclusively vertical views this time, while walking down Central Park West and 8th Avenue.

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged 42nd Street, 8th avenue, Central Park West, Columbus Circle, column, Manhattan, New York, perspective, photography, reflections, skyscraper, windows | Leave a comment

Deconstruction of my own personal NEW YORKER CARTOON captions

Posted on October 1, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Homo Barbershoptus went extinct in the late Tinpanalleycene. And we are back for another six-pack (plus one alternate caption). This is the 26th edition! Every installment of the full series can be most easily located in the literary lyricism archives. … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News | Tagged All By Myself, Barbershop Quartet, caption, cartoon, checkers, Ed Sheeran, gasoline price, marriage, New Yorker, Nixon, Oedipus complex, pig, pop chart, popsicle, Science, T-Rex, Wolves | Leave a comment

Sunset on 42nd and 8th, last night

Posted on September 26, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged 42nd Street, 8th avenue, Clouds, colors, Manhattan, New York, Orange, photography, purple, sky, skyscraper, sun, sunset, Times Square, yellow | Leave a comment

ARTSY MINIATURE GOLF

Posted on September 21, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Attending the Drachenfest on the Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin I came upon a delightfully innovative miniature golf field called the Nuture Mini Art Golf: The above sign perfectly explains the conceit behind this unique miniature golf course. The photos below … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Notes in the News, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged aesthetic, art, Berlin, game, golf, Jaws, maze, Mini, Mini Golf, miniature, Nuture, oil barrel, rubber chicken, rube goldberg, sculpture, steam punk, Tempelhofer Feld | Leave a comment

DRAGONS (Kites) in BERLIN!

Posted on September 14, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Drachen in German means dragon. It also means kite. September 12 thousands of Berliners congregated in the Tempelhofer Feld to celebrate the “Drachenfest” – the dragonfest-, I mean the Kite festival. The Tempelhofer Feld (Field of Tempelhof) is a park … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, Notes in the News, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Airlift, airport, Berlin, clown, Drachen, dragon, festival, floats, Flughafen, Funko Pop, Gabby's Dollhouse, Harry Potter, hedgehog, kite, kites, Luftbrücke, nature, photography, Pokemon, Slimer, Tempelhof, Tempelhofer Feld, Volksfest, vortex | Leave a comment

RAVEN SCREENSHOTS

Posted on September 7, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

“The Raven – a musicabre“, the third of my Edgar Allan Poe short film musical adaptations, may be recently completed, but won’t be playing festivals until 2027. Still, I can whet the appetite by releasing the first set of screenshots … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Poe Musicabres | Tagged adaptation, cameo, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Elder, festival, film, Hitchcock, horror, Masked Man, movies, musicabre, musical, narrator, Poe, screenshot, short film, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, Virginia Poe | Leave a comment

MORNING LIGHT

Posted on August 31, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Traveling. Sleeping in an unusual bedroom. Waking up in the morning to sunlight making its way into the room; direct, shadowed, reflected, refracted… A cloud, apparently, darkens the sunlight … But not for long…

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings | Tagged bedroom, cloud, curtain, green, light, morning, photography, pink, reflection, refraction, shadow, sunlight, Wall, White, window | Leave a comment

Looking Up in New York 3

Posted on August 24, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Up Broadway from 23rd to 40th In this “special edition” of the “Looking Up in New York” series (see here and here and here), we look up along Broadway from around 23rd to around 40th streets. To be honest, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged 23rd Street, Broadway, building, Empire State, Flatiron, Haier Building, Marlboro Building, Met Life Tower, New York, New York City, photography, reflection, skyscraper | Leave a comment

Looking Up in New York 2

Posted on August 16, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

The chin-up photo collection continues The “Looking up in New York” series continues. This is the second installment looking up in Manhattan, but you can catch me looking up in Brooklyn too. In fact, I have so many pics gathering … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged blue sky, building code, Central Park West, Columbus Circle, Empire State Building, flags, loop-hole, New York, oligarchs, photography, skyscraper, statue, sunset, traffic light | Leave a comment

Resurrection of my own personal NEW YORKER CARTOON captions

Posted on August 10, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

He got him from a breeder in Vienna. And we’re back with the 15th installment of my own personal New Yorker cartoon captions. Having exhausted all possible biblical book titles, I must now cast about elsewhere for inspiration in naming … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged camping, caption, cartoon, catamaran, dung beetle, Elephant, Game of Thrones, ghost story, hot dog, in the room, Iron Throne, kayak, New Yorker, Resurrection, sausage, snail, subway, Vienna | Leave a comment

The Picture is Locked

Posted on August 3, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

“The Raven – a musicabre” is completed I signed off on the final version and my editor Stolis Hadjicharalambous sent me the files: “The Raven – a musicabre”, the third in a series of Poe musicabres, short film musical adaptations … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Cinema Scope, Notes in the News, Poe Musicabres | Tagged adaptation, classic, Edgar Allan Poe, Editor, musicabre, musical, poem, poster, short film, short story, Stolis Hadjicharalambous, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart | Leave a comment

COMPANY XIV’s PETIT ROUGE

Posted on July 27, 2026 by dannyashkenasi

Company XIV are still at it. Eleven years ago I marveled at their cheeky blend of circus and burlesque, opera and pop, corsets and tassels when they presented Cinderella at the Minetta Lane in Manhattan. The company now has their … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Live! On Stage, Melodies Linger On | Tagged Big Bad Wolf, Billie Eilish, brooklyn, burlesque, Can Can, cheesecake, Cinderella, Company XIV, corsets, fairy tale, Lady Gaga, Little Red Riding Hood, Lunch, Monster, Petit Rouge, tassels, Three Little Pigs, Wolves | Leave a comment

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