This week I was reminded once again how hard it is to sell 3,800 seats to an opera most people haven’t heard of. Let me backtrack to two weeks ago, when I thought it would be a fun idea for my mother and me to try to nab two of the Metropolitan Opera‘s $20 rush [...]

Today’s blog is the first installment of my 2010 resolution to cover only New York performances for $20 or less per ticket. Happily, this SundayArts column coincides with the opening of one of the most important parts of the revamped Lincoln Center: a discount-ticket booth, located in the same spot on Columbus Avenue/Broadway/63rd Street where [...]

What do you do when it’s time for a TV commercial break? If you’re like me, you check your e-mail, brush your teeth, grab a cookie, throw some laundry in the drier, pay some bills—anything but watch the darn thing. And of course, though I’m too technophobic to learn how to use it, TiVo (DVR) [...]

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m cheap. Back in the days when I didn’t get up before noon on weekends, I used to drag myself out of bed on Saturday at 8 a.m. after a friend told me about a Cambridge, Massachusetts shop called Dollar-a-Pound. On weekends only, the store cleared out its [...]