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Film Review: James L. Brooks’s “Ella McCay” — A Clumsy Misstep for a Master of Ensemble Comedy

December 11, 2025
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The film skims across topical issues aimlessly; it strives for relevance but never achieves it.

Weekly Feature: Poetry at The Arts Fuse

December 11, 2025
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This week’s poem: Joanna Fuhrman’s “Aubade”

Children’s Book Reviews: Lighting Up Winter Holidays

December 11, 2025
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A trio of holiday stories— two celebrate friendship, one features a stagestruck chicken.

Classical Album Review: Fernande Decruck, Concertante Works, Vol. 2

December 11, 2025
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Though none of the works exhibit the stylistic flashiness of Fernande Decruck’s better-known contemporaries, they all suggest a musician of singular—and sometimes idiosyncratic—vision.

Short Fuse Podcast #82: Author Gish Jen Talks about “Bad Bad Girl”

December 10, 2025
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Host Elizabeth Howard talks to author Gish Jen about her most recent book, the genre-bending novel “Bad, Bad Girl.”

Locke’s List for 2025: Notable Operatic Recordings and a Few Non-Operatic Ones

December 10, 2025
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First recordings of major works and splendid recordings of some others, from Handel to Raff and from Boston’s Musicians of the Old Post Road to the astonishing operatic soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.

Classical Music Album: Vox Clamantis’ “And I heard a voice…” — Music of Arvo Pärt

December 10, 2025
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The Arvo Pärt compositions here showcase a composer of remarkable stylistic coherence—but never dramatic complacency or creative stasis.

Book Review: Rich Lives in the Musical Margins — “Dancing With Muddy” and “Before Elvis”

December 10, 2025
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Two good reads: Boston harmonica player Jerry Portnoy’s memoir is an unflinching look at life as a sideman musician; the other is a history that shows how, without the Black stars he heard in Memphis, there would have been no Elvis or rock ‘n roll as we know it.

Concert Review: Powerhouse Jessica Vosk “Sleighs” Boston Audience

December 9, 2025
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It turns out that singer Jessica Vosk’s personality is just as big and colorful as her voice. Add to that her zigzagging brand of comic spontaneity, and you had an evening filled with joyous holiday spirit.

Book Review: The “Night” Movies of Film Critic A.S. Hamrah

December 9, 2025
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Once again, critic A.S. Hamrah sheds perceptive light on our cinematic malaise.

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