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Jazz CD Review: “Occupy The World” — Creatively Complicated Orchestral Music

July 7, 2013
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Over five extended compositions, composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith leads a new large ensemble, TUMO, creating a challenging but engaging world of sound that combines composed elements with strong soloists and group improvisation.

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DVD Review: The Decision on “Admission” — The Waiting List

July 7, 2013
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The film “Admission” resembles many of the rejected college applicants it portrays: likeable and clever, with a good story and the best of intentions, but not quite Ivy League material.

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Fuse CD Review: Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail” — More Miss Than Hit

July 5, 2013
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Those cynical about the album’s extravagant promotional campaign will be glad to hear that Jay-Z’s latest studio effort is very hit-or-miss.

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Pop Music Album Review: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s “Nandacollection” — Blissful Bubblegum

July 4, 2013
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Every moment of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s album “Nandacollection” exudes bliss and is a blast to listen to. It is bubblegum with more than a touch of brilliance.

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Short Fuse Book Review: A Fascinating Tale of “Strange Rebels”

July 3, 2013
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Author Christian Caryl ends “Strange Rebels” with the idea that “if the experiences of 1979 suggest one conclusion, it is that we should never underestimate the powers of reaction.”

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Film Review: Back from the Moscow International Film Festival

July 2, 2013
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Russian intellectuals privately grasp that they must seem like jackasses to the outside world with their primitive attitudes about homosexuality, aligning not with Western Europe but with Nigeria and Uganda and the Muslim world.

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Album Reviews: Killer Mike and El-P — A Hip Hop Match Made in Heaven

July 2, 2013
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With “Run the Jewels,” El-P and Killer Mike have turned out one of the most passionately rapped and impeccably produced hip hop albums in recent memory.

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TV Review: “Ray Donovan” — “Don’t Let The Wolf in the Gate.”

July 1, 2013
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All things considered, “Ray Donovan” is bad and only a Tootsie Pop-class sucker would consider tuning in for the second episode.

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Fuse Theater Review: Hooray for Captain Spaulding and “Animal Crackers”!

June 29, 2013
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The Williamstown Theatre Festival’s captivating staging of “Animal Crackers” provides two hours of great fun and near-perfect summer theater for the entire family.

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Book Review: “Left of the Dial” — Punk As Music and Philosophy

June 29, 2013
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In these interviews, David Ensminger goes beyond questions of biography and discography to explore some of these artists’ more unlikely influences and their philosophies on not just punk, but life.

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