Commentary

Children’s Book Review: “Discovering” Thanksgiving

November 17, 2022
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Many Thanksgiving myths are dispelled, but the effort to reverse decades of misinformation leads to oversimplification at times.

Arts Remembrance: Art and Technology Guru George Fifield

November 13, 2022
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The new media advocate, curator, and artist mentor passed away at the age of 72.

Book Review: Three Splendid Volumes Filled with the Cool, the Wicked, and the Amazing

November 10, 2022
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It’s hard to convey what a benison these books have been to me, as I’ve read them in my narrow, monkish bed late into the night.

Book Review: “Realigners” — Stuck in the Middle

November 7, 2022
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In the end, the historical cavalcade Timothy Shenk presents doesn’t tell us much about how America ended up in such straits or how it will pull out of them, if at all.

Book Review: “Folk Music — A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs”

November 3, 2022
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At points Greil Marcus’ digressive style can seem like nervy brilliance, at others, idle whimsy. What ennobles the book is the critic’s love for his underlying subject: the soulful search for a truer America.

Classical Critic’s Notebook: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2

October 20, 2022
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Whatever Rachmaninoff’s conflicted feelings about writing symphonies were, there’s nothing ambiguous about the content of his Second Symphony. From start to finish, it’s a marvel of melodic freshness and brilliant instrumentation.

Arts Commentary: The Power and Perils of Copyright– Andy Warhol, Lynn Goldsmith, and the Prince Print

October 19, 2022
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Whatever the Supreme Court determines will alter the world of artists, writers, and musicians for decades to come, a world that has already been dealt a financial blow by the economic pressures of the internet.

Visual Arts Commentary: Branded in Boston — Logos by Any Other Name

October 5, 2022
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What’s up? Several public and private agencies have changed their graphic identities and even names.

Culture Commentary: World War II Was a Race War, and It Isn’t Over

October 1, 2022
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It isn’t exactly news that the genocide of Native Americans was a model for Hitler, but it hit with fresh force in The U.S. and the Holocaust.

Book Review: “Dinners With Ruth” — Always Nice But Rarely Incisive

September 30, 2022
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Like a Hallmark movie, Dinners with Ruth is an engaging and entertaining story, with episodes of great pathos. It is an upbeat, easy-to-read gift book, which is undoubtedly what its publisher intended.

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