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Movie Review: The Deliciously Deceptive Practices of Ricky Jay

May 31, 2013
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The filmmaker is annoyingly passive and star-struck, as the documentary’s subject, Ricky Jay, speaks to his chosen agenda: a wish to tell stories about his mentors and favorite magicians.

Coming Attractions in Jazz: Festival Preview 2013

May 31, 2013
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[Updated June 21] Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to summer. Beaches reopen, and the jazz festival season follows close on their heels. Indeed, the first major festival kicks off this Friday, before June has even begun.

Rock Review: Making Art Out of Homelessness — “Drifters/Love Is the Devil”

May 30, 2013
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After the critical success of 2011’s “Badlands,” Alex Zhang Hungtai returns with the release of “Drifters/Love is the Devil” — a double album that expresses trauma in two devastating ways — the direct and the atmospheric.

CD Reviews — “Martin Boykan: Orchestral Works” and “Reza Vali: Toward That Endless Plain” (BMOP Sound)

May 29, 2013
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Two new albums from BMOP Sound reflect the considerable artistry and vision of Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

CD Reviews: Isabelle Faust plays Bartók; Wolfgang Rihm’s Symphonie “Nähe fern”; Tokyo String Quartet plays Dvorak and Smetana; Thea Musgrave’s Chamber Works for Oboe (Harmonia Mundi)

May 29, 2013
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A round-up review of new releases from Harmonia Mundi — an invigorating crop of albums.

Film Commentary: “The Hobbit” in Print and in Film — A Quick Guide on How to Put the “Faux” in Folklore

May 28, 2013
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Director Peter Jackson in his film adaptation of The Hobbit abandons the intimate scale of the original wonder tale and mistakenly blows it up into mythic proportions.

Theater Review: The Music and Dance of “In the Heights” — Pure Energy

May 28, 2013
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Like the great immigrant musicals, “In the Heights” touches on the tension between old and new cultures and generations, finding home, families and their expectations.

Book Review: “The Woman of Porto Pim” — Riding on a Brilliant Train of Associations

May 28, 2013
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Antonio Tabucchi’s “travel book” transcends conventional literary forms: his stories occupy an attractive space between fiction and non-fiction, poetry, biography, short story and journalistic travel piece.

Poetry Review: Nobel Prizewinner Vicente Aleixandre—The Poetics of Kissing

May 27, 2013
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This translation of “Poems of Consummation” is important for several reasons, one of which is that the 1977 Nobel prizewinner—despite the award—has long been insufficiently preeminent in our Anglo-American view of twentieth-century Spanish poetry.

Film Review: “What Maisie Knew” — Henry James’ Dark Screwball Comedy

May 27, 2013
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The astute filmmakers, Scott McGehee and David Siegel, seem not at all intimidated by Henry James’s formidable prose.

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