It's a Harrowing Drive On the Learning Curve

By N. R. KLEINFIELD
Published: July 22, 1992

"O.K., start the engine, put your foot on the brake and put it in D for dumb," Bob Kousoulos said.

Ely Quezada, terror etched on her face, did as instructed.

"Now, remember, I don't know anything," Ms. Quezada said.

"O.K.," Mr. Kousoulos said, "the first thing is, don't pull out when cars are coming. The results are usually disastrous."

"I am so scared," Ms. Quezada squeaked.

As she eased away from the curb, a pickup truck nearly sliced off the front end. "Oh my God," Ms. Quezada said. "Did you see that?"

It was just another rewarding afternoon of work for Bob Kousoulos, Manhattan driving instructor. [more ...]

Photo: "I feel you can teach them all," said Bob Kousoulos, an instructor with the Model Driving School who has worked full time since 1972 teaching people to navigate the streets of Manhattan. He held the wheel in a lesson with Mica Koslov. (Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)(pg. B1); "In this city, you should never relax too much," said Bob Kousoulos, left, a driving instructor at Model Driving School in Manhattan. Mr. Kousoulos, who teaches cars, trucks, buses, tractor-trailers and motorcycles, taught Garrett N. Harris how to drive a bus on West 14th Street. (Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times)(pg. B2)

An Old Idea About Genius Wins New Scientific Support

By NATALIE ANGIER
Published: October 12, 1993

As long as there have been poets to pierce the darkness with their diamond songs, and painters to capture rays of sun shattering on cool cathedral stone, and artists of all persuasions to consort with the gods and articulate the union, there have been social critics to notice that an awful lot of these creative people are mentally unsound.

"Why is it," Aristotle asked in the fourth century B.C., "that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?" Three hundred years ago, the English poet John Dryden wrote,

Great wits are sure to madness near allied;

And thin partitions do their bounds divide," a sweet couplet that has since degenerated into the sorry cliche "There is a thin line between genius and madness." ...

Photos: Virginia Woolf (The New York Times); Robert Schumann (Culver Pictures) (pg. C1); Herman Melville, left, the 19th-century author, and Robert Lowell, the American poet, emerged as masters despite and perhaps because of the manic depression they are believed to have suffered. (Bill Potter) (pg. C8) Graph: "Mapping Madness and Genius" shows the quantity, if not the quality, of the composer Robert Schumann's output varied strikingly with episodes of depression or mania and the relatively benign periods between. (Source: E. Slater and A. Meyer, "Contributions to a Pathography of the Musicians," Confinia Psychiatrica, 1959. Reported in "Touched With Fire" by Kay Redfield Jamison.) (pg. C8)

Scientists Trace 'Voices' in Schizophrenia

By Daniel Goleman
Published: September 22, 1993

Hearing voices, the hallmark symptom of schizophrenia, occurs when there is a heightened activity in the same part of the brain people use when they speak or think words, new findings suggest.

The results support a leading psychological theory of auditory hallucinations, which proposes that when people with schizophrenia hear voices, they are unable to recognize them as their own thoughts, and so perceive them as words spoken by someone else. ...

Diagram: "Looking for Voices in the Brain" New research on the auditory hallucinations common in schizophrenia has tracked the blood flow in the brain that reflects the neural activity of people as they hear such voices. The greatest activity was found in Broca's area, the brain's speech center. It is also activated when people who do not have schizophrenia silently talk to themselves. An earlier study of auditory hallucinations also found an increase in activity in Broca's area and reduced activity in Wernicke's area, which is associated with hearing. The new study also found a slight increase in the left temporal lobe, site of the auditory cortex, where the meanings of sounds are recognized, and in the left anterior cingulate cortex (not shown), associated with emotions. Diagram shows locations of Broca's area (speech center) and Wernicke's area (hearing center)

Civilization and Sail, An Ancient Marriage

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: July 3, 1992

THE first people to gather on the shores of New York Harbor and gaze out on the grace and beauty of the sailing ship were Indians. The date was April 17, 1524, and the ship was La Dauphine, commanded by the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano.

One ship was all they had for Operation Sail 1524, and not a single clever promoter to coin such a name for this encounter between people not only of different worlds, but also of different technologies. [more ...]

Photo: Celebrating the Columbian Quincentenary, replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria sail into New York Harbor for Op Sail '92. (Keith Meyers/The New York Times) (pg. C24)

Artists Learning By Doing

Published: April 16, 1994

Life drawing, once the art student's entrance ticket to the mythical world of canvas and paint, of chisel and stone, of masterpieces scribbled feverishly on napkins, of berets, garrets, mistresses, poverty, drugs, wine, death and, ultimately, fame, is now an entrance to -- well, no one seems to be sure anymore, but probably something bleak, like painting portraits of corporate executives for a living. Certainly it is no longer an entrance to anything very fashionable, or, in the opinion of many, artistically credible.

At the Project of Living Artists, a basement drawing studio on Greene Street in SoHo, the study of life drawing, fashionable or not, continues. Several nights a week, as many as 30 artists, ranging widely in age, gather to draw from the figure. For the visitor, what is striking is the concentration in the room, to which the model, diligent but somewhat bored, provides a quiet counterpoint. [more ...]

Photo: In a basement SoHo studio, a class at the Project of Living Artists keeps the study of life drawings alive. (Waring Abbott for The New York Times)

Actors Vying To Be Bruce Stay Within the Lines

By BRUCE WEBER
Published: July 24, 1992

The stream of consciousness was oddly familiar. So was the wicked irreverence. And even the performer, restlessly stalking the stage, a compact dark young man with a shadowy beard, stirred the memory.

"What could you do to build a girl singer?" he asked. "The chick that comes out that makes them all go, 'Look at that! Gown they've done, hairstyle they've done, voice they've done. What could you do?"

The words were those of the Titan philosopher-comic Lenny Bruce, [more ...]

Photo: "I used to do all of Lenny's routines when I was a kid," said Dave Mazzeo, one of 15 men auditioning on Wednesday at the Top of the Gate for the chance to be Lenny Bruce. (Arlene Gottfried for The New York Times); A poster for Lenny Bruce's midnight show at Carnegie Hall in 1961, a highlight of his career.

In the print version Dave Mazzeo is in the lower right photo; an unidentified actor is in the lower left photo. Above those two photos is a photo of Lenny Bruce. The photos' complete caption is: 'On a wintry night in 1961, the legendary comedian Lenny Bruce gave a performance at Carnegie Hall many considered to be his greatest. An effort to recreate part of that night is bringing would-be comics to audition at the Top of the Gate in Greenwich Village. One participant, Dave Mazzeo, lower right, said, "I used to do all of Lenny's routines when I was a kid." There were a total of 15 aspiring Lennys.'

Romping About, Jazzily and Snazzily

By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: May 13, 1995

David Parsons is a wonderfully likable and gifted performer. He has assembled a troupe of nine first-rate dancers. And the spirited, high-energy gala program he presented on Tuesday night at the opening of a two-week season at the Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea) brought many in his audience to their feet to cheer the company. [more ...]