Commentary

Visual Arts Favorites 2019

December 19, 2019
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Our critics sound off on some of their most striking visual art experiences this year.

Recommended Books, 2019

December 14, 2019
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An eclectic round-up of our favorite books of the year from our critics.

Book Review: “The Conservative Sensibility” — A Plea for a Return to Normalcy

December 10, 2019
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The very people that George Will is trying to appeal to are evidently quite happy to be drunk on the power that their brutishness has created.

Visual Arts Commentary: Pat Falco’s MOCK — A Resonant Statement about Boston’s Affordable Housing Crisis

December 6, 2019
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With MOCK, the artist has made made an exceptionally powerful statement, conceptually and physically, about Boston’s increasingly dire affordable housing predicament.

Critical Commentary: A Few Thoughts about John Simon

November 28, 2019
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Few critics proclaimed that the emperor was naked as a jaybird with as much savvy panache.

Music Commentary: Why You Should Buy 45s

November 25, 2019
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Let the unimaginative people diddle around with their baseball cards and stamp collections. This is the kind of irrational, eccentric passion that you will be remembered for.

Music Commentary: The Black Crowes — Redux?

November 13, 2019
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When have the Robinsons ever done what was expected on them? And when have they ever really cared?

Arts Commentary: MFA Boston — at 150

November 9, 2019
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There have been times in the MFA’s past when it hasn’t lived up to its educational mission, when it has pandered to the whims of the wealthy — particularly its fat cat benefactors.

Commentary/Interview: Boston Globe Union Negotiations — Anger and Resistance

November 8, 2019
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Those who value serious journalism (as well as the rights of journalists) should be quite worried about just how lethally Boston Globe management is attempting to undercut the newspaper’s union.

Literary Appreciation: The Late Harold Bloom — Pursuer of “Difficult Pleasures”

October 17, 2019
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“What is the function of literary criticism in a Disinformation Age? Read, reread, describe, evaluate, appreciate: that is the art of literary criticism for the present time.” — Harold Bloom

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