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Fun Days in the PARC: Remembering Jacob Goldman

December 24, 2011
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How did it come about that a manufacturer of office equipment developed–and then largely abandoned–the first personal computer?

Classical Music Review: Stile Antico Enchants Singing Tudor Music for Christmas and Advent

December 22, 2011
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Most importantly, there were the amazing, booming acoustics of St. Paul’s, which favored the soaring soprano voices that were, for me, the reason to see this excellent ensemble.

Book Review: Flann O’Brien at 100 — An Enduring Comic Genius

December 20, 2011
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There is no way that The Arts Fuse was going to miss celebrating the 100th birthday of one of the greatest satirists of the 20th century — Irish genius Flann O’Brien.

Short Fuse Review/Commentary: Steve Jobs and the Digital Acid Trip

December 19, 2011
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No doubt too much can be made out of Steve Jobs’s tripped-out youth, but also, too little. Jobs himself said: “Definitely, taking LSD is one of the most important things in my life.” He never recanted when it came to psychedelics, or disowned their influence.

Poetry Review: Henri Cole’s “Touch” — Love Thy Neighbor, Like Thyself

December 18, 2011
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Is it true that if I love my neighbor I can, or will, like myself? This question cuts to the heart of the poems in Heni Cole’s volume “Touch,” and the answer is yes.

Theater/Book Interview: Ben, We Hardly Know Ye — Donaldson on Jonson

December 17, 2011
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Ben Jonson is one of the great unknown geniuses of the English theater and of western literature. Ian Donaldson’s new biography of the playwright/poet successfully makes the case that he deserves to be better known.

Book Commentary: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Jonathan Lethem’s Influences

December 16, 2011
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For all of his claims to being a subversive termite, Jonathan Lethem the puffy white elephant appears more often in this collection, trudging down a much safer, much happier road — leave the negativity to the snotty aristocrats.

Book Review: Mahmoud Darwish — Palestinian Poet of Heritage and Exile

December 14, 2011
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Mahmoud Darwish, who died in 2008 at the age of sixty-seven, was best and heroically known for his complex perspective on political and spiritual borders — as both a poet and a spokesman for his Palestinian people.

Silent Film Feature: Soviet Masterpiece “Battleship Potemkin” Steams into Town with a New Score

December 14, 2011
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As the Occupy and Tea Party movements attest, this is a time in America of social action and political upheaval -– not to the degree that we see in “Battleship Potemkin,” but significant nonetheless –- and this classic silent film has resonance today in that regard.

Concert Review: An Uneven Aviv Quartet at Houghton Chapel, Wellesley College

December 13, 2011
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As nicely played as the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky were, I left feeling that there was something distinctly anticlimactic about the Aviv Quartet’s programming choices. I would much rather have heard the Erwin Schulhoff close the evening –- or at least heard it sandwiched between the Romantic selections.

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