The drummer, bass player, and guitarist from the punk rock band Luxury sat at a hotel bar in New York, laughing over some ridiculous Meat Loaf T-shirts someone handed to them in Times Square. They ordered ginger ale, cranberry juice, and water. 

“That’s a weird set of drinks,” said Glenn Black, Luxury’s drummer.

A New York moment: 

On a warm, rainy night last week, I took the train up to the South Bronx to join a room of mostly black and Hispanic church leaders listening to pastors Ray Rivera and Tim Keller talk about the future of the urban church globally. 

A New York moment:

Last week, Catholics, Mormons, Protestants, Native Americans in full ceremonial feather regalia, and others swished into the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue for Becket Law’s annual gala. The party celebrates an individual who has defended religious liberty in the United States—this year, Becket’s Canterbury Medal went to U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, who has been in his post for 16 years and opens each daily session of the Senate with prayer.

A New York moment:

I enjoy the Tribeca Film Festival because it gives more space to projects from film-world outsiders, unlike the New York Film Festival, which tends to showcase films from famous directors that already have theatrical distribution and Oscar prospects. Tribeca feels like a place where anything can happen, where you can find a documentary about a pastor in North Dakota or a feature film in Romanian. 

A New York moment: 

How does a musical make it to Broadway or to off-Broadway theaters (100-499 seats) in New York? Answer: It goes through extensive workshopping. I got a peek at one step in that process when I recently saw a workshop performance of a new musical, Medusa. 

A New York moment:

A New York moment: 

The Bodleian Library in Oxford loaned a trove of J.R.R. Tolkien’s sketches, doodles, and illustrations to New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, which calls it “the most extensive public display of original Tolkien material for several generations.” The exhibit closes May 12, and it has been packed in its final weeks, for good reason. Though the exhibit is contained in only two large rooms, I spent hours inside poring over Tolkien’s meticulous notes, maps, and paintings.