Commentary

Arts Commentary: When Books Become Evidence — Hong Kong’s Raids and the New Global War on Dissent

July 19, 2026
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Every bookshelf becomes a latent crime scene: China’s all-too-familiar totalitarian playbook to encourage self-censorship.

Arts Commentary: Notes on Bob Dylan

July 18, 2026
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A skeptical listener finds phrasing, groove, and quiet authority in an 85-minute Boston set.

Visual Arts Commentary: “America at 250” — Art and Commerce at the MFA

July 17, 2026
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A sprawling 250th‑anniversary display sidles up to hot‑dog branding and influencer playfulness.

Arts Commentary: The Kennedy Center and the Boston Symphony Orchestra — A Tale of Two Crises

June 18, 2026
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A court-ordered reset in Washington and a self-inflicted rupture in Boston expose deeper failures of leadership, transparency, and trust.

Arts Commentary: What Might the Kennedy Center Best Become?

June 14, 2026
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A reconsideration of the Kennedy Center’s unrealized national mission—and what its future could yet hold.

Cultural Commentary: Death by Incorporation — Why Do Bean-Counters Run Arts Boards?

June 7, 2026
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When corporate thinking dominates cultural institutions, the art often pays the price.

Arts Commentary: In Memoriam, Michael Tilson Thomas (1944-2026)

June 6, 2026
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Early promise, enduring vision, and a lifetime of well-timed reinvention.

Design and Visual Arts: Affordable Housing, By Design

June 5, 2026
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Revisiting the Eameses’ modular dream at a moment when policy, economics, and architecture are under pressure to deliver.

Arts Commentary: The Last Laugh — Stephen Colbert, Comedy, and Cultural Resistance

May 31, 2026
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How Stephen Colbert’s late-night run became a casualty of corporate power, political retaliation, and the thin skin of America’s oligarch class.

Arts Remembrance: Sonny Rollins, Jazz’s ‘Saxophone Colossus,’ Dies at 95

May 27, 2026
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To appreciate Sonny Rollins is to marvel at the casual ordinariness of his blazing genius.

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