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Film Review: “Save Yourselves!” — A Very Likable Sci-Fi Screwball Comedy

October 6, 2020
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I am a champion of “C” movie effects, the cheaper and clunkier the better. So huzzahs for Save Yourselves! and its tacky monsters from another planet.

Jazz Album and Concert Review: The Sylvie Courvoisier Trio — A Tight-Knit and Adventuresome Threesome

October 5, 2020
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Serious but not somber would be a succinct way to describe this trio’s work as heard on disc and in a powerful recent live performance.

Film Review: “The Ground Between Us” — A Way Forward?

October 4, 2020
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Pitched in this era of hyper partisanship and sharp division, The Ground Between Us is notable because of the weight and balance it gives to the issues at stake.

Film Review: “On the Rocks” — Snooping Among the Upper Class

October 2, 2020
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Sofia Coppola’s flawed characters are part of the real world, engaged in authentic relationships struggling with universal dilemmas.

Book Review: The Threat of Thought — The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle

October 2, 2020
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The pathway to tyranny is paved by encouraging people to believe in the uselessness of science, logic, and expertise.

Jazz Commentary: Louis Armstrong as Negotiator

October 2, 2020
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Throughout much of his career, Louis Armstrong negotiated a balance between being a “popular” artist and a jazz artist.

Book Review: “Jack” — The Romance of Revelation

October 1, 2020
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A taboo interracial romance may not be groundbreaking material for fiction, but Robinson’s spare conflicts are only the means to generate intimations of the profound in the everyday.

Opera Album Review: Offenbach in a Spanish Mood, in a Top-notch First Recording

October 1, 2020
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Bravo to the Bru Zane folks for this latest triumph! I encourage opera lovers to get to know this treasurable Spanish (or faux-Spanish) work by the pioneering master of nineteenth-century operetta.

Book Review: “Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong” — The King of All Kings

September 30, 2020
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He may be extreme as a polemicist, but Ricky Riccardi shines when he sticks to jazz’s history. 

Television Review: “Filthy Rich” — Crass Warfare

September 30, 2020
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For fans of novellas, Filthy Rich will be a trashy guilty pleasure.

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