Posts

Book Review: “American Radicals” — Unrecognized Champions of 19th-Century Protest

July 9, 2020
Posted in , ,

American Radicals is as revealing, riveting, and well-researched as any work of history that I have read in recent years.

Visual Arts Commentary: “Placemaking” — Thoughts on the Virus and Our Current Public Environment

July 9, 2020
Posted in , ,

Today, our perception of the environment has become narrowed, defensive: the outside world has become worrisome, dangerous, aspirational, and changing.

Television Review: Delightfully Revived “Baby-Sitters Club” — More Than ’90s Nostalgia 

July 8, 2020
Posted in , ,

During a period when we are facing a ferocious pandemic, the biggest Civil Rights movement since the ’60s, and the possibility of flying snakes, it is the perfect time to remake the cheery The Baby-Sitters Club.

Jazz Album Review: “Ballads for Two — Chet Baker and Wolfgang Lackerschmid”

July 8, 2020
Posted in , , ,

The playing on this 1979 album, which would generally be considered as flawed, is part of the singular (mature) Chet Baker gestalt.

Film Commentary: Fellini at 100 — How the Mighty Have Tumbled

July 7, 2020
Posted in , ,

It seems evident that hardly anyone knows about the centenary of a moviemaker who, in earlier days, was universally revered, whose hallowed name was synonymous with art-house cinema.

Book Review: “How to Be an Antiracist” — A Helpful Step in Overcoming America’s Racial Divide

July 7, 2020
Posted in , ,

A more accurate title for Ibram X Kendi’s engaging and compelling book might be:” How I learned to think like an antiracist and how you can too.

Jazz Album Review: Dave Pietro’s “Hypersphere” — Complexity, Made Clear

July 7, 2020
Posted in , ,

Dave Pietro is a fine, distinctive composer, an agile, precise saxophonist, and a band leader to be trusted.

Arts Commentary: “Hamilton” — Streaming on Disney Plus,  Feeling Like You’re in the Room Where it Happened.

July 7, 2020
Posted in , , , ,

The opportunity to see the culture-changing Broadway phenomenon Hamilton on Disney Plus, sucked up all the arts oxygen over the Fourth of July weekend.

Film Review: “WBCN and the American Revolution” …. The Revolution Continues

July 6, 2020
Posted in , ,

‘BCN left behind some big shoes, but they can be filled. And there are inspiring signs that the kids, not the grizzled veterans of last century, will do the filling.

Film Review: Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance” — Schmaltzy, Small, and Soft

July 6, 2020
Posted in , ,

Family Romance, LLC is a wrong-headed, inferior Herzog movie. Wake up, Werner! Oh, for a jolt of Klaus Kinski.

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives