Commentary

Arts Commentary: Internet Archive Under Attack — Cultural History Under Threat

October 17, 2024
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The Internet Archive’s struggles highlight the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations operating in a digital world dominated by commercial and geopolitical interests.

Book Review: “The Miró Worm and the Mysteries of Writing’ — Pursuing Creative Inwardness

October 16, 2024
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The ascendancy of digital life is acknowledged as unshakable, but in these essays Sven Birkerts offers useful insights into how serious writers can carry on.

Arts Remembrance: Maggie Smith

October 1, 2024
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Maggie Smith’s finest and most memorable roles drew on her genius for dramatizing the emotional complexity of outsiders.

Arts Remembrance: Saxophonist/Composer/Arranger Benny Golson –“I Remember Benny”

September 24, 2024
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Benny Golson’s accomplishments were enormous and lasting.

Concert Review and Commentary: Music Worcester’s The Complete Bach & In Memoriam, Richard Dyer

September 23, 2024
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Music Worcester’s ambitious project, which will involve multiple Boston-area music groups, is slated to run the next eleven seasons. The goal will be to present every note the great man wrote. And a homage to the late Richard Dyer, the chief classical music critic of “The Boston Globe” for three decades.

Book Reviews: Joan Acocella and Andrea Marcolongo — Writers Who Think Fearlessly

September 19, 2024
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Joan Acocella is more than a critic. She is a thinker, writing at a time when thinkers are not valued much, when exegesis in places other than scholarly journals sometimes seems like a lost art.

Visual Arts Commentary: Sunshine and Shadows — Sundials, Where Art and Technology First Met

September 11, 2024
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Considered the earliest integration of art and technology, sundials of various types have been around for 4000 years or so.

Arts Remembrance: To Sérgio with Love — Sérgio Mendes, 1941–2024

September 7, 2024
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Sergio Mendes, the man who ignited my own love affair with Brazilian music, has passed, at the age of 83, from complications of long Covid.

Book Review: Neoliberal Soup for the Fledgling Capitalist Soul — “The Algebra of Wealth”

August 12, 2024
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Serious individuals of all stripes seeking candid yet pragmatic life, career, and financial guidance will find much to savor in this book.

Film Commentary: Looking Sharp, Leatherface! “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” Turns Fifty

July 23, 2024
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No 4k DVD, Blu-ray, theatrical digital, or streaming version of the movie improves on the visceral electricity of the original “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.

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