Commentary

Short Fuse Commentary: Josiah McElheny and CERN — Researching the Possibilities

August 8, 2012
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Art and science rebuffed each other in this show. Visitors are unlikely to leave with either a greater understanding of cosmology or of Josiah McElheny’s art.

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Arts Commentary: “The New York Times” — Shouldn’t It Know the Purpose of Arts Criticism?

July 17, 2012
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Based on Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane’s recent New York Times column on arts criticism, he and others at the newspaper haven’t much of a clue regarding what a serious arts review is supposed to be.

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Cultural Commentary — Northrop Frye at 100

July 14, 2012
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Northrop Frye, inspired by the poet William Blake, demands that the critic be a warrior in a “mental fight,” articulating the liberating value of literature as a source of imaginative energy that generates possibilities.

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Book Review: The Survival of the Fittest Yarnspinner

July 12, 2012
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Reading “The Storytelling Animal” is akin to listening to a series of terrific humanities lectures given by a polymath professor with a P.T. Barnum streak.

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Fuse Commentary: WGBH — No Excuses

July 9, 2012
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WGBH is not even attempting to make any excuses, not bothering to put in the energy to explain why the station isn’t using funding from its supporters to hire first-class journalists or to create news programming that builds community and educates because it challenges, investigates, and digs deeper.

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Dance Commentary: In Short Order

July 3, 2012
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None of the Boston Dances Made to Order submissions dodged dance-on-camera cliches. There was a lot random dancing outdoors, body parts — especially hands and feet — shot in close-up, and random objects (mirrors, food) revealed by camera pans.

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Dance Commentary: Let’s Go iDancing

July 1, 2012
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This is the first of a series of occasional essays where Fuse Dance Critic Debra Cash will reflect on dances made for camera and new technologies. As they used to say, don’t touch that dial!

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The Arts Fuse Turns 5: The Future of Arts Journalism is Now. Help Us Make it Happen.

June 24, 2012
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As a long time arts critic for print, broadcast, and the Web, the potential for cultural coverage online strikes me then and now as exhilarating. The challenge for The Arts Fuse is to foster dialogue that articulates the value of the arts in our lives.

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Arts Commentary: Critical Rule #1 — Don’t Write Like a Publicist

June 17, 2012
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Early on I was given these words of wisdom by my friend, the late theater critic Arthur Friedman: “Criticism should not read as if it had been written by a publicist.

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Book Review: “Picturing the Book of Nature” — Empowering the Visual

June 6, 2012
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Given the flood of publications on early modern natural history over the last two decades, the detailed and strikingly illustrated Picturing the Book of Nature represents a herculean undertaking.

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