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TV Review: “Mad Men” Mid-Season Finale — Enjoyable, But Part of an Annoying Waiting Game

May 27, 2014
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It’s sort of like someone snatching the epic novel you’re a few chapters from the end of out of your hands and subsequently run off cackling into the sunset, only to allow you to finish it in a year.

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Theater Review: An Enigmatic “Abyss” — A Crime Drama About Serbs in Germany

May 26, 2014
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Does the distrust of (even a little) narrative ambiguity by North American dramaturgs and audiences mean that international plays must be made more ‘cinematic’ when they are produced here?

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TV Review: “The Normal Heart” — A Decent Update of an Aged Polemic about AIDS

May 25, 2014
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Most of HBO’s “The Normal Heart” is a pretty decent adaptation of the 1985 stage script, with some good things added, including an effective pre-credit section set on Fire Island in 1982.

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Fuse Coming Attractions: What Will Light Your Fire This Week

May 25, 2014
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Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, film, theater, visual arts, author readings, and dance that’s coming up in the next week.

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Album Review: Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories” — Going Through a Rough Patch

May 25, 2014
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Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories” is not a fun or a happy listen, but it is a worthwhile one.

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Concert Review: “The Monkees” — Pop Heavyweights Still Guaranteed to Raise a Smile

May 24, 2014
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Michael Nesmith’s proto-Americana songs had aged the least—listen to the jangly guitar and stream-of-conscious lyric on “Tapioca Tundra” and you’d swear that was where R.E.M. got the idea.

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Film Review: “Teenage” — What it Was Like to be Young and Restless in the 20th Century

May 23, 2014
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Like the Jon Savage book it is based on, “Teenage” avoids gooey nostalgia; the documentary’s enjoyable to watch, and refreshingly not tongue-in-cheek.

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Stage Review: Hershey Felder’s “Abe Lincoln’s Piano” — Hits Some Wrong Notes

May 23, 2014
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“Abe Lincoln’s Piano” does not evoke in us the same sense of astonishment that Hershey Felder feels toward his antiquarian discoveries.

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Book Review: “The Poets’ Wives” — What Does it Mean to be Married to a Poet?

May 23, 2014
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Taken as a whole, “The Poets’ Wives” is a fascinating, brave novel whose love of poetry breathes through all three sections.

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Coming Attractions in Jazz: Festival Preview 2014

May 22, 2014
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The big “destination” jazz festivals are major events, but aficionados making vacation plans will be missing out if they don’t at least take a look at the musical offerings of the smaller festivals.

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