It’s never a good time to be diagnosed with cancer, but June 10th, 2020, was among the worst. By that day, 7,454 people had died of COVID-19 in my state of Massachusetts.
Commentary
Author Remembrance: Writer Pete Hamill — Sane, Liberal, and Literate
The blogosphere might be very useful as propaganda or as therapy. But it’s not journalism.
Critical Commentary: The Shaky Life of a Film Critic
Cinema reviewing exists as a respected profession only as long as the traditional role of the critic is honored.
Visual Arts Commentary: The Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
An appreciation of a footbridge that intertwines nature with our humanity.
Arts Remembrance: Director Alan Parker — A Sensitive and Versatile Master of Film
It gradually became clear to me by the mid-’80s that Alan Parker films were, more than those of any other filmmaker, an integral part of my identity as a film lover.
Jazz Commentary: Ornette Coleman — An Outsider Cracks the Egg
The final, ineluctable quality that Ornette Coleman brought to the table was that he had an individual “voice,” which is the sine qua non and preeminent ethos in jazz.
Arts Remembrance: Old-Time Radio Announcer Frank Gallop — A Wonderful Set of Pipes
Feisty, funny, frightening when necessary, Boston’s Frank Gallop classed-up the airwaves.
Critical/Theater Commentary: Slapping Sleeping Media Outlets A “Woke”
Taking action on even a modest number of these suggestions will undoubtedly shake up the current puerility of much of American theater criticism.
Arts Commentary: Reviewing Music, Re-viewed
Our opera-loving reviewer contrasts his own pieces, written 48 years apart, on the same Offenbach operetta.
Performing Arts Series: Stories of Surviving COVID-19 — Non-Event
What lies beyond COVID-19 for the arts community?