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Visual Arts Review: Ansel Adams — Water as Motion and Time

July 20, 2012
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By using water as a lens to explore Ansel Adams’s artistry, this exhibition makes his fascination with motion and time crystal clear.

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Book Review: A Documentary Biography of Irving Berlin

July 18, 2012
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Irving Berlin fans will be pleased to see such items as the complete Jerome Kern letter, (written in 1925!) in which Kern writes: “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. HE IS AMERICAN MUSIC.”

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Arts Commentary: “The New York Times” — Shouldn’t It Know the Purpose of Arts Criticism?

July 17, 2012
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Based on Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane’s recent New York Times column on arts criticism, he and others at the newspaper haven’t much of a clue regarding what a serious arts review is supposed to be.

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Concert Review: Tanglewood’s 75th Birthday Shindig — Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Guests

July 16, 2012
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After several years of frustrating cancellations and artistic challenges, Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra seemed to be saying that there’s still much to celebrate. And they were right.

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Cultural Commentary — Northrop Frye at 100

July 14, 2012
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Northrop Frye, inspired by the poet William Blake, demands that the critic be a warrior in a “mental fight,” articulating the liberating value of literature as a source of imaginative energy that generates possibilities.

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Book Review: The Survival of the Fittest Yarnspinner

July 12, 2012
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Reading “The Storytelling Animal” is akin to listening to a series of terrific humanities lectures given by a polymath professor with a P.T. Barnum streak.

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Arts Commentary: Monologuist Mike Daisey — No Apologies

July 11, 2012
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The issues raised by Mike Daisey’s infraction, his fall from grace, and now his return, are many, but chief among them is the privilege of illusion, the birth-right of the artist.

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Poetry Review: The Lyrical Restraint of Mel Kenne’s “Take”

July 11, 2012
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Poet Mel Kenne, like a desert ascetic, has pared away everything that is not essential -— no words have been wasted in the making of this collection.

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Classical CD Review: Groundbreaking Bach on the Mandolin

July 10, 2012
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Avi Avital, a young virtuoso determined to expand the repertoire, is the first mandolinist ever to be signed to a contract with Deutsche Grammophone. His recording of Bach for the label is an important milestone for the mandolin.

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Fuse Commentary: WGBH — No Excuses

July 9, 2012
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WGBH is not even attempting to make any excuses, not bothering to put in the energy to explain why the station isn’t using funding from its supporters to hire first-class journalists or to create news programming that builds community and educates because it challenges, investigates, and digs deeper.

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