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Film Commentary: The Redemption of Wes Anderson

January 16, 2010
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It’s easy, and popular, to write director Wes Anderson off as a hipster who offers nothing beyond quirk and the occasional funny line. But his films are really American versions of the French New Wave. by Justin Marble “He redeemed himself.” “Redemption? Sure. But in the end, he’s just another dead rat in a garbage…

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Boston Noir: A Grimy Ride Through the Dark Side of Beantown

January 15, 2010
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This enjoyable anthology of crime stories proffers a grimy ride through the murderous and creepy side of Beantown. Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane. Akashic Books, $15.95 Reviewed by Kate Vander Wiede In the introduction of Boston Noir, editor, contributor. and best-selling novelist Dennis Lehane explains that while Aristotle “mandated that a tragic hero must…

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Classical Music Review: Emanuel Ax

January 13, 2010
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By Caldwell Titcomb Jordan Hall in Boston was filled to capacity for the January 8 Celebrity Series recital by pianist Emanuel Ax. Now 60 years old, he has long harbored a reputation as a serious and thoughtful musician.

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Culture Vulture: Nothing Was the Same

January 11, 2010
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Though the writing in Nothing Was the Same is often beautiful and moving, the memoir failed to fully engage me. Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison, Knopf, 208 pp., $25 by Helen Epstein In 1995, a psychology professor named Kay Redfield Jamison took the unusual step of publishing an article in her local…

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Culture Vulture: In Search of Beethoven

January 10, 2010
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Filled with great insights, musical and other, Phil Grabsky’s wonderful documentary on Beethoven depicts “a man of huge intellect and huge heart.” In Search of Beethoven, a documentary by Phil Grabsky (UK, 2009, 139 min). At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Wednesday Jan. 13 at 3:05 pm, Thursday January 14 at 5:10 pm.,…

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Culture Vulture: 11 reasons to see “Broken Embraces”

January 10, 2010
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By Helen Epstein “Broken Embraces” at Kendall Square and Embassy Cinemas 1: Pedro Almodovar, one of the most interesting directorial sensibilities of our time, whose films probe our infinite varieties of experience in love and work 2: Penelope Cruz, an original who also incarnates the best of the many movie stars — American and European…

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Short Fuse: The History of Jewish Emancipation

January 7, 2010
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An engaging book from a London-based journalist that sets out to illuminate a challenging slice of Jewish history. “Emancipation: How Liberating Europe’s Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance” by Michael Goldfarb, Simon and Schuster, 408 pages, $30.00. Reviewed by Harvey Blume Michael Goldfarb is an American-born, London-based contributor to NPR (as well…

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Food Muse: WHAT’S FOR DINNER IN THE AFTERLIFE? ORYX ANYONE?

January 6, 2010
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Food was front and center in the here and hereafter. A sumptuous feast was in the offing. But what was for dinner in the afterlife? Chasing the whim of what food went with funerary art, after several blind alleys I landed at Oleana, the Inman Square restaurant invented by Ana Sortun, a Norwegian Seattle native.…

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Coming Attractions in Film: January 2010

January 6, 2010
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By Justin Marble

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Coming Attractions in Jazz: January 2010

December 28, 2009
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By J. R. Carroll If January inspires a desire for warmer climes and a trip to the tropics isn’t in the cards, you can still come in out of the cornstarch and dry your mukluks as musicians who’ve brought their traditions to Boston from around the world turn up the heat. Zili Misik and their…

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