Times Square Gossip

**** THE GLORIOUS CORNER Story By:: G. H. HARDING **** James Taylor TAYLOR RETURNS --- Forty-five years after debuting on the Billboard 200 chart, James Taylor is set for his first No. 1 album. Industry prognosticators suggest the singer/songwriter’s new studio effort, Before This World (his first in thirteen years), could sell around 75,000 units in the week ending June 21. The album is his first studio set since 2002’s October Road. The new Billboard 200’s Top 10 will be revealed on Wednesday, June 24. Taylor has previously logged eleven Top 10 albums, including seven Top Five efforts. His highest charting set to date has been 1971’s Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (Taylor’s third album), which then spent a month stalled in the No. 2 slot behind Carole King‘s break-out second solo album, Tapestry. (Taylor and King would later collaborate for the 2010 set Live at the Troubadour, which reached No. 4 in the album charts.) We saw Taylor...

**** THE GLORIOUS CORNER Story By: G. H. HARDING **** Elizabeth Moss Time Zones --- Mad Men’s final-split season kicked off this past weekend with an episode that certainly ranked among its best ever. Don’s still out at SC&P, but still collecting a paycheck; but, he’s feeding his brilliant wares, this time through ex-employee Freddy Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld opens, and galvanizes the show, with the words "Are you ready? Because I want you to pay attention. This is the beginning of something." Ironically, the pitch he gives is to Peggy (Elizabeth Moss) and it’s typically Draper-brilliant, as Peggy replies, “It’s a home run.” MM-creator Matthew Weiner wrote the show and delivers some of his best moments ever. The best Mad Men-episodes have always been slow, nuanced performances and this one , which brings all of the characters back into focus, couldn't have been better. There are two brilliant-moments from Weiner using some terrific music...

**** The Metropolitan Room 34 West 22nd St. New York, NY 10010 212.206.0440  **** Marcus Goldhaber Critically acclaimed jazz-pop singer-songwriter MARCUS GOLDHABER has decided to dedicate his  performance tonight at the Metropolitan Room in New York City to raising funds and collecting non-perishables for the American Red Cross to help his fellow New Yorkers and the rest of the tri-state area victimized by Hurricane Sandy. The "wonderfully imaginative" (JazzTimes) artist, whose acclaimed new CD of all original standards, ALMOST LOVE, is getting radio airplay in a number of major markets around the country, including WBAI in New York, is donating a portion of proceeds from ticket sales and all CD sales at the event to the American Red Cross. He also will be collecting non-perishables: coats, gloves, scarfs, toothbrushes/toothpaste, canned food, plastic bins, backpacks, batteries, flashlights, and the like. "After a crisis, our im...