Minnesota Boat Club/ Paul S. Kramer

August 16, 2026Museums, Minnesota, HistoryPaul Mason Fotsch

My mother gave me this signed print by Minnesota artist Paul S. Kramer (1919-2012). It is of the Minnesota Boat Club, a St. Paul rowing club, which dates back to 1870 and claims to be Minnesota’s oldest athletic institution. Their boathouse on Raspberry Island was built in 1910 and can be rented for weddings or other events.

Kramer’s original 1998 painting is oil on canvas, measures 28″ x 37″ and is part of the Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer collection. Shogren and Meyer’s collection focuses on twentieth century American art and has been featured at The Minneapolis Institute of Art. A beautiful survey of Kramer’s art titled Other Realities was published by Julie L’Enfant, who taught at the St. Paul College of Visual Arts before it closed in 2013.

Kramer grew up on a farm, first in North Dakota and then South St. Paul. After serving in Europe during WWII, he studied art in France then returned to St. Paul, where he took classes at the St. Paul School of Art with Clement Haupers. Next, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and spent more time in Europe, before returning to teach and become Director of Exhibitions at the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art, which is now the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

The museum struggled financially in the 1990s and early 2000s but seems to be thriving at its current home in the 1889-1890 Pioneer and Endicott buildings designed by Cass Gilbert and James Knox Taylor. The museum is also free and hopefully can be part of a revitalized downtown St. Paul cultural scene!

Noted at The Tank

July 26, 2026Music, NYC, Sundry ScansPaul Mason Fotsch

The program for Noted gave instructions on how to make a paper airplane.

Yesterday I went to The Tank--a nonprofit that provides free stage space to emerging artists–and saw a performance of The Back Pack Presents Noted. The tag line for the show is “A Fast Pace Movement Based Comedy Extravaganza.” It is also described as a “a live action cartoon…with over 400 hand-drawn images strapped to the performers.”

I had no idea what to expect but found the entire 90 minutes mesmerizing! Rather than a cartoon, I would compare it more to a comic book come to life. I was completely captivated and also impressed by the technical complexity and timing required. The show is going on to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a month long residency in August. What fun!

Broadway in Bryant Park 2026

July 24, 2026Music, NYCPaul Mason Fotsch

The polyglot crowd brought by Broadway in Bryant Park always highlights my summer. Musical theater geeks cheering the latest stage starlets mix with kids in football kits on their first big city trip. Thursday, July 23 featured hits from Hadestown, & Juliet, Just In Time, Maybe Happy Ending and The Lost Boys. Now in its 26th year, one thing I don’t remember when I saw Bernadette Peters sing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy in 2003 was the battle between certain audience members for a perfect view to record every single song on their phones!

As You Like It/ Sunset Park

June 27, 2026History, Music, Nature, NYCPaul Mason Fotsch

Every summer, tourists wait for hours at the chance to see Shakespeare in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. Fortunately, The Public Theater also brings their show on the road with performances in the outer boroughs. Last evening, I was lucky to see As You Like It in Sunset Park.

In the background, the eponymous phenomena shined over New York Harbor, and as I was leaving I caught the local Chinese ladies in their evening dance around the flagpole.

Evening Dance around Sunset Park Flagpole

Make Music NY 2026

June 23, 2026Music, Nature, NYC, Sundry ScansPaul Mason Fotsch

For this year’s Make Music New York I learned from past years and made a clear plan to use Citibike to hit as many gigs as stamina allowed.

I started on Tin Pan Alley–28th street between 6th Ave and Broadway–where in the early twentieth century songwriters pitched tunes to music publishers concentrated on this block. Sponsored by The NoMad Jazz Festival and the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project celebrated jazz vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli performed classics from the Great American Songbook.

Next I pedaled down to Tribeca where Flor de Massapê performed Brazilian Forro music while dancers spun around Bogardus Plaza.

After this, a jaunt up Hudson Street brought me to the West Village where the Renaissance Street Singers uplifted Christopher Street pedestrians before McNulty’s Tea & Coffee–a shop that dates back to 1895.

Back downtown I zip just in time to catch a tugboat called Shoofly outfitted with a ‘Hobophonium’ (made of salvaged tubas, ship horns, and bells) join a brass band of landlubbers led by Stefan Zeniuk and his bari sax for a brass blastoff.

A central aim of MMNY is encouraging music creation by all. For example, “Mass Appeal Guitars” invited guitarists of all skill levels to join a collective jam on Union Square.

And a few blocks up Broadway at Madison Square, PianoKosmos featured beginners to professionals exploring works from Bela Bartok’s Mikrokosmos to George Crumb’s Makrokosmos.

A brief break from keyboards came with a performance of William Kentner Anderson’s Amerarcana for three saxophones, guitar and vocals.

Finally, I crossed over to Brooklyn and found a seat in Park Slope’s Warren St. Marks Community Garden where the Brooklyn Treble Choir provided inspiring harmonies for an audience that included dapper feathered chickens.