What emerges from even a cursory study of Anna May Wong’s life is that her complexity and depth were rarely acknowledged but she used her intelligence to control the narrative as much as she could.
Commentary
Book Review: “The Constitution in Jeopardy” Wrong Diagnosis and Solution
This is the Catch-22 of American constitutional politics. We the people are free to propose any structural reform we want except that they’ll all suffer the same fate: strangulation at the hands of petty politicians in Washington or the state capitals.
Rock Remembrance: Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine will be most remembered for Marquee Moon, both the album and title track, which alone would be enough to seal any legacy.
Music Perspective: The Context of Wadada Leo Smith’s 12 String Quartets
Wadada Leo Smith is among the most prolific composers of string quartets in the modern era, the only Black composer to have written so many, and one of the most adventurous writers of quartets in terms of his notation system and the distinctiveness of his musical language.
Book Review: Two Powerful Books from Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa — A Liberal Citizen of the World
Engagingly written by a limpid stylist, The Call of the Tribe marshals a corps of sparkling intellectuals who have in common first-hand experience of dictatorship, a commitment to individual freedom, a belief in reasonably regulated free-market economies, and a rejection of the political zealotry of religion or the doctrinaire left and right.
Arts Remembrance: David Crosby — One More Link to Rock ’n’ Roll’s Golden Era Lost
When I glorify or romanticize an artist like David Crosby it is because the performer has a gift for alchemizing songs into something huge, powerful, spiritual, and communal.
Arts Commentary: We Will Have to Eat Our Spinach — And Like It
Given that the Climate Emergency will grow more challenging over time, we (including literary novelists) shouldn’t be so cavalier about not eating our spinach.
Theater Commentary: George Takei’s “Allegiance” — Taking Yanks to Task
George Takei’s musical, Allegiance, projects American democracy as it might have become.
The 17th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll — My Poll Without Me
This most recent poll also proves the worth of the poll itself — that it doesn’t so much confirm consensus as create it.
Looking Back at the Francis Davis Jazz Poll: Winners 2006-2022 and Memoirs of a Pollwatcher
There exists a worldwide community of journalists and critics who depend on each other to keep tabs on the ever-expanding universe of jazz and it’s more-or-less-affiliated fringes and fusions, and this poll is one of our most effective — and most anticipated — resources.