Commentary
These projects are more conventionally jazzish in their sounds than the four in the companion post, but that does not make their ambitions less worthwhile or less adventurous.
Four recent releases illustrate what can happen when the only limits are the imagination of the composer and the passion of the performers.
“American Purgatory” is the sort of book reactionary politicians and organizations are trying to ban. It’s full of evidence that many of the attitudes and conditions prevalent in this country from its founding were racist, bigoted, even genocidal.
“The book in many ways is a defense of liberalism. It’s a defense of the idea that that’s really what the government should do in a democracy. The liberal consensus is what happens when you actually let people vote.”
Two Chilean artists look at the death of democracy and the aftermath of the 1973 coup.
Book Appreciation: Celebrating Kate Atkinson’s “Life After Life” –The Best Novel of the 21st Century
In “Life After Life,” novelist Kate Atkinson has shown how boundless the imagination can be.
Gutting a venerable department – particularly a world-renowned one that, by all accounts, delivers – in the name of belt-tightening is shortsighted and foolish.
In the end, what strikes me most about “Vertigo” is its melancholy, its aura of grief, its mood of inevitable, irredeemable loss.
Robbie Robertson was born and raised in Canada but he seemed to understand the American myth better than most of his southern neighbors did.
Book Review: “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class”
Dan Canon provides not only the statistics but powerful stories to demonstrate the extent to which plea bargaining has bankrupted the justice system
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