Harvey Blume

Movie Review: Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 — Scattered, Skewed, But Engaging

October 17, 2011
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This intriguing documentary, made up of first-hand footage about the Black Power movement, will air on WGBH’s Independent Lens this Thursday @ 10 p.m.

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Short Fuse Review/Interview: Trotsky’s Revolutionary Life

October 2, 2011
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Joshua Rubenstein’s succinct account of Leon Trotsky’s life rescues the Russian radical from a remoteness, positioning him at a useful distance for contemporary readers

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Short Fuse Book Review: “The Eichmann Trial” — Monster & Nonentity

September 7, 2011
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Author Deborah Lipstadt’s decision to confront a Holocaust denier in court prepared her, as little else might have, to appreciate and convey the vastly greater complexity and historical import of the Eichmann trial.

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Short Fuse: Eternal Recurrence — Freud, Marx, Mao Zedong Thought

August 8, 2011
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What I do suspect though, and find evidence for in BLOODLUST is that Freud is immune to any final dispatch or disproof, and will likely, through one portal or another, go on reinserting himself into our culture.

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Book Review: Violence, a la the Freudian and Biblical canon

July 28, 2011
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Short Fuse thinks Russell Jacoby’s “Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present” is an unconvincing mix of refurbished Freudianism and Genesis.

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Fuse Remembrance: Theodore Roszak (1933–2011)

July 22, 2011
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“The main idea I’ve been working with is what I call the longevity revolution.” — Theodore Roszak

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Short Fuse Book Review: A Doctorate in Chess Memoir Drag

June 26, 2011
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The theme of fading passion would have been enough. It is the theme of many a love story. It would have been enough for this chess story. But author Robert R. Desjarlais won’t let it be enough.

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Short Fuse: Of Henry Kissinger, China, Stink Bugs, and the Games that Shape the Mind

June 22, 2011
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“On China” boasts photos of Henry Kissinger’s numerous visits to China. In many you see him smiling hugely, brandishing chopsticks alongside the likes of Zhou Enlai. He’s enjoying making history — and the food.

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Fuse Movie Review: An Immensely Rewarding Cave of Forgotten Dreams

May 29, 2011
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The beauty and power of Chauvet’s art, at once primal and sophisticated, tempers director Verner Herzog’s passion for Homo Sapiens bashing. We do, after all, belong to the very same species as those cave painters. Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Directed by Werner Herzog. At various New England cinemas. By Harvey Blume. It was with some…

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Short Fuse Movie Review: “Bill Cunningham’s New York”

May 8, 2011
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I, personally, don’t care much about clothes, and was only prevented from turning off to the film by photographer Bill Cunningham’s elemental enthusiasm. It can be tempting to write him off as simple in some way, what with his bright, ready laugh. If so, he’s simple in the best way.

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