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.
Main Content
Latest in Visual Arts
Visual Arts Commentary: Digital Media — Public Art Is a Bridge to Our New Normal
In a time when everyday seems like Wednesday, creative use of new media is a visual and experiential bridge to our new and hopefully innovative normal.
Latest in Music
Jazz Remembrance: Ira Sullivan
In no way was the recognition that Ira Sullivan received commensurate with his skill.
Latest in Dance
Dance Feature: The “Table of Silence Project 9/11” — Reimagined
“We will step to the edge of our humanity, expressing the commonalities that we all share, the threads that bind and connect us all.”
Latest in Television
Television Review: “Pen15” — Season Two Amps up the Angst of Adolescence
Considering how dark 2020 is, it is a good time for a lighthearted remembrance of things past, before the pandemic.
Latest Podcast
Short Fuse Podcast #28 –The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards with Deanna & Hailee
Be warned! This episode is no standard award show recap.
Latest in Books
Arts Remembrance: Critic Stanley Crouch — Jazz as a Metaphor for Democracy
“I’m trying to get people to be at ease with the incredible amount of variety in the United States.”
Latest in Theater
Theater Commentary: Boston Stages — Running from Reality?
Are our theaters indifferent, craven, or complicit? Take your pick.
Latest in Film
Film Review: “I Carry You With Me” at NYFF — An Immigrant’s Epic Story of Sacrifice and Love
The delicious cheekiness of the film is to present a story about two gay immigrants as a swooning romantic epic spanning years.
Latest in Food
Food Commentary: The Chicken Sandwich Wars — Political Food Fight Revisited
I confess that I was one of those schmucks who tried (and failed) to stay vigilant in my high-minded refusal to eat at Chick-fil-A.
Read the Latest
Film Review: “Cuties” — Girls Just Wanna Have Smartphones
The real problem is the obsessive engagement with social media platforms that encourages attention-seeking behavior, and rewards it.
Folk Album Review: Tyler Childers’ “Long Violent History” – An Appalachian Murder Ballad for Breonna Taylor
The Kentuckian’s message is one of both heritage and empathy — and the necessity of both.
Jazz Album Review: “Monk: Palo Alto” — An Unlikely But Welcome Discovery
This 1969 concert by the Thelonious Monk Quartet was produced by a high school student and recorded by his school’s janitor. It presents this particular group at its optimistic best.
Arts Commentary: “The Death of the Artist” — Culture Workers Unite!
The shared baseline of these conversations is that there are no good old days to go back to. If the cultural sector in the United States returns to the ways things were organized in February, 2020, with all the inequity and unsustainability that implies, we will have failed.
Jazz Album Reviews: Mesmerized By Vinyl — Newvelle, Louis Armstrong, and Stan Getz
Playing vinyl involves holding something in your hand, putting a needle down and, at least on my high end system, listening to sound quality that can mesmerize.