In the age of COVID-19, Arts Fuse critics have come up with a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, and music — mostly available by streaming — for the coming weeks. More offerings will be added as they come in.
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Latest in Visual Arts
Visual Arts Review: “Seeing Silicon Valley” — Our Future Dystopia?
This is an important book, a powerful account of the decline of California as America’s paradise.
Latest in Music
May Short Fuses – Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Latest in Dance
Classical CD Review: A Ballet of Human Sacrifice — Set in Ancient Mexico or Post–World War I Germany?
Egon Wellesz’s Weimar era critique of the cruelty of nations that are victorious in war still rings hauntingly true.
Latest in Television
Documentary Review: PBS’s “Hemingway” — Inside an American Legend
If you love fiction you should devote several hours to watching Hemingway. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have brought a special tenderness to this series, something deeper and more compelling than previous Burns documentaries.
Latest Podcast
Short Fuse Podcast #39: “Seeing Silicon Valley”: The Fraying of Life in America
Host Elizabeth Howard talks to Fred Turner and Mary Beth Meehan about their book Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America, a photographic study of income disparity.
Latest in Books
Book Review: “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell” — The High Price of Fracking
This is an excellent deep dive into the ways fracking mirrors the many problems we face as we try to change the way we think about energy, individual choice, and climate change.
Latest in Theater
Theater Review: “TJ Loves Sallly 4 Ever” — Scattershot Satire
An exciting, subversive idea animates TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever.
Latest in Film
1971 Project Film Commentary: “The Andromeda Strain” — Science Is the Enemy?
The Andromeda Strain’s anti-intellectualism is rooted in Cold War paranoia: a distrust of science, of academia, and of the press.
Latest in Food
Book Review: “Cheese, Wine, and Bread” — On the Menu, Confession and Fermentation
The current rage for inserting the personal/confessional in everything from cookbooks to literary criticism can go too far.
Read the Latest
Film Review: “A Reckoning in Boston” — Muckraking and Heartbreaking
A Reckoning in Boston demonstrates that fifty years after the bussing-era failures to improve the lives of Black people, there is, in James Rutenback’s telling words, “No justice, no truth, no reconciliation.”
Jazz Album Review: A Splendidly Spiritual Conversation — “Promises” with Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders
Dedicated to experimentation and creative collaboration, Promises delivers an otherworldly, dreamlike experience.
Television Review: “Shrill” Season 3 — Concluding on an Unsatisfying Note
Has Annie learned anything? Life can indeed be frustrating, and our insecurities do often get the best of us, but dealing with our limitations contribute to our eventual maturity.
Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Music (May Entry)
Arts Fuse writers continue their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and this month’s list includes The Temptations, Janis Joplln, John Hartford, Carole King, and The Carpenters.
Jazz Album Reviews: James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer — Discoveries and Searches
New discs from James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer merit serious attention from admirers of improvised music.