iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Matias Tarnopolsky loves going to the office: “All of us who work there are thrilled and pinch ourselves every day.” He’s CEO of the New York Philharmonic; he does not work at the White House. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Matias Tarnopolsky, CEO of the NY Philharmonic, on their new conductor, Gustavo Dudamel: “He doesn’t know a world without music.” And soon, vice versa. Sort of. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The head of the NY Philharmonic recalls: “When we performed the theme from Star Wars, the audience went absolutely bananas.” In a good way. Presumably. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Mark Train made bold remarks about Frederic Church, says Victoria Johnson. “”Twain thought what Twain thought, but he was a dear friend of Frederic Church.” Sounds like trouble to me. Hear what Twain thought: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Victoria Johnson recalls that “Frederic Church was working on this painting throughout the events that will result in the American Civil War.” The name of that painting: Happy Party Fun Time. No no: Twilight in the Wilderness. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Victoria Johnson says, “Frederic Church charged twenty-five cents to see one of his paintings, and twelve thousand people lined up.” And that was in 1860, when 25 cents was a lot, and 12,000 people were like, oh, a zillion today. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Ben Furnas @bfurnas.bsky.social of @TransAlt.org defends reading on a Kindle instead of a book (not that it needs defending): “It keeps me from looking at my phone.” And burglary keeps me from murder, he did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Ben Furnas @bfurnas.bsky.social leads @TransAlt.org, whose advocacy improves public space and is valuable in itself: “Any activity that brings people together is a lovely thing.” Excluding Ed Sheeran concerts, he did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

For Ben Furnas @bfurnas.bsky.social of @TransAlt.org “It is all these different communities overlaid in one place trying to figure out how to live together.” Planet earth? The Prospect Park loop drive. Sharing public space. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: I am downgrading Lake Superior to Lake Barely Adequate.

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Historian Harold Holzer recalls that Lincoln was once challenged to a duel. “As the challenged party, Lincoln chose the weapon, and he chose broad swords.: Hear how it played out: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

If you asked Lincoln in 1860, when he thought slavery might end,” says Harold Holzer, “he would probably say 1900.” And he’d predict flying cars by the same year. Great president, poor prognosticator. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Lincoln wrote his own speeches, notes Harold Holzer—pretty good stuff. “Harriet Beecher Stowe said his words deserve to be inscribed in letters of gold.” To be fair, Donald Trump probably knows who Harriet Beacher Stowe is. (No, he doesn’t.) personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social is a sci-fi fan because this genre is not just about the future but the present, and “our present is always about the past.” My head is spinning. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Social scientist Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social enjoys Octavia Butler’s work. “It’s a reminder to not just read the news but read fiction.” Or do both simultaneously by watching CBS News, she did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

It was worth the price of admission just for her Place: my head is still spinning. My thanks to her, the Armory, and my neck doctor.

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Ophthalmologist Herb Gould pioneered intraocular lens surgery. What made it possible? One word: Plastics. Hear why: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

As a young Air Force doctor, Herb Gould would go out for beers with Werhner von Braun. “I don’t care about the politics; I only care about the rockets.” That's Herb, not Werhner. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

James Snyder of the Jewish Museum on Paul Klee: “He was the first artist in Germany declared degenerate by Hitler. He was treated like a Jew even though he wasn’t a Jew.” Equal opportunity in reverse. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Would James Snyder, director of the Jewish Museum, have recognized the portrait of Mrs. Aaron Lopez as a Gilbert Stuart? “Absolutely not.” Hear why (not): personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The director of the Jewish Museum, James Snyder mounted an exhibit capturing 3,500 years of Jewish life. “It’s identity, frailty, migration, and memory.” Where’s alienation? What about my needs? Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

For Countess Markievicz, say Alan Klein and Sandy Neubauer, “Everything came back to getting freedom for Ireland. And having a good garden.” A green revolutionary. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

An irony of the Irish Proclamation of Independence of 1916, say Alan Klein and Sandy Neubauer: “It’s addressed to both Irish men and Irish women. However, it’s signed by seven men.” Irony is one word for it. There are others. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Alan Klein and Sandy Neubauer tell the Grolier Club about Countess Markievicz: “She liked marching guys up and down in military regalia, and practicing shooting, and arming themselves.” Or maybe it was Laura Loomer. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Experts on the revolutionary war in New York City, historians Peter Aigner and Ted Knudsen tell @GothamCenter.bsky.social, “Looking at it from the African American perspective, the British are undoubtedly the good guys.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Historians Peter Aigner and Ted Knudsen of @GothamCenter.bsky.social note that cheers for liberty in revolutionary era New York, “were perhaps a little ironic in a city where one out of six or seven people were enslaved.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Historians Peter Aigner and Ted Knudsen tell @GothamCenter.bsky.social that in 1770, “New Yorkers commissioned this great big golden statue of King George III.” Make up your own Trump joke. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

He photographs old subway repair shops, Christopher Payne tells @NYTransitMuseum.bsky.social: “I’m one step ahead of the wrecking ball. It’s heart-breaking.” Presented with MTA Arts and Design. @mta.info. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Christopher Payne tells @NYTransitMuseum.bsky.social he loves photographing factories: “When I walk on that floor, I feel the democratic spirit. It gives me hope.” Presented with MTA Arts and Design. @mta.info. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

A supervisor helped Christopher Payne photograph @MTA.info power plants, he tells @NYTransitMuseum.bsky.social: “He gave me skeleton keys that could open any substation in the city.” Sounds like a Batman movie. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Abe Lincoln, portrayed by ChatGPT—AI-braham Lincoln—reflects on a colleague: “Grant was a brilliant general, but once in the White House he often seemed out of his depth.” As observed from heaven, I guess. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Abe Lincoln, portrayed by ChatGPT—AI-braham Lincoln—on Shakespeare’s military figures: “From Macbeth to Coriolanus, these men may be brilliant on the battlefield, but their grasp of courtly intrigue and governance falters.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

A conversation with Abraham Lincoln as portrayed by ChatGPT: AI-braham Lincoln. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Marta Aznavoorian says, “It takes over your soul. It’s almost like a trance or a spell. It’s like a religion.” MAGA? Music! A conversation with a pianist. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Pianist Marta Aznavoorian looks fabulous on stage. Does that make people take her less seriously as a musician? Not at all. “It is a show, and people listen with their eyes as well.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Marta Aznavoorian grew up in a musical family: “It was all about the violin. The violin was the king instrument.” She is, by the way, a pianist. And a fine one. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

“I actually love paying my taxes,” says Katrina Foster, Lutheran bishop of New York, “because the return on that investment is so extreme.” Rendering unto Caesar. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Lutheran bishop Katrina Foster says hope is not only a Christian virtue, it is a practical necessity. “Somebody who has no hope is the most dangerous human being you will ever come across.” Even worse, hopeless with a handgun—American style. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Bishop Katrina Foster of New York’s Lutheran synod: ‘I do liturgical drag now like crazy. I have the miter, I have the cloak, I have the chasuble, I have the crozier; I’m fabulous walking around.” She’s fabulous sitting and talking, too. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

“It’s a postcard of perfection, “says Katrina Foster, Lutheran Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod, of the view from the Brooklyn Bridge. Clearly, you can’t see my apartment from there. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

When Katrina Foster, Lutheran Bishop of New York, married a woman, and they had a child, “The church did not recognize my family, and I could have been defrocked for having one.” Happily, she’s still frocked. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Katrina Foster, Lutheran Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod, says, “I want Job to turn around to God and go, ‘Don’t bitch about it, because you made it.’” Not spite, theology. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

“In the veterinary profession, we have a relationship with death that many professions don’t,” says Dennis Slade. Cleary, he hasn’t met my ex-wife’s divorce lawyer. Comedy with a capital K. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

“Legally, I don’t think I’m allowed to touch a monkey,” says Carly Fox. Me neither. But she and Dennis Fox are veterinarians, and I’m, well, it’s complicated. And the cops are such liars. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

New York permits pet chinchillas but not pet ferrets. “I prefer ferrets,” says veterinarian Carly Fox, “They have more personality than chinchillas.” And more humanity than Stephen Miller, she did not add. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Paul Taylor didn’t talk a lot when lighting designer Jennifer Tipton worked with him. “I assumed if he didn’t say much he was in agreement with me.” I would not extend that assumption to one’s personal life. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Lighting designer Jennifer Tipton worked with both gels and LEDs and is uneasy about the latter. “It’s difficult to use the non-full-spectrum colors.” Almost a metaphor for DEA. If the president heard it, he’d shut her down. And he’s such a dance fan. Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

From the start, lighting designer Jennifer Tipton considered more than how a stage will look: “I learned how light, certain light, felt, so that I knew how the dancers felt.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

When Jennifer Tipton lights a performance, does she imagine it from the perspective of the audience or the dancers? “I’m thinking of it from the perspective of me. That’s all I have: these eyes.” Listen: personplacething.org

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Randy Cohen @randycohen48.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Early influences on @HelenShaw.bsky.social, chief theater critic of the NY Times, were not Shakespeare or Stoppard but Star Trek. “The little cake topper on our wedding cake was a plastic figurine of Captain Kirk and a plastic figurine of Captain Piccard back to back.” Listen: personplacething.org

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