Frayed is an Australian/British comedy, and its refreshing sense of gallows humor draws on the pessimism in both cultures.
Review
Jazz Album Review: Jimmy Heath’s Final “Love Letter”
The disc mixes classics and originals in a set of tunes perfect for late-night reveries or for anytime sojourns to a place of unhurried passion.
Book Review: Why Listening to Community Voices Could Help Revive Local News
If a new generation of community news organizations is to grow and thrive, then we need a renewed sense of civic engagement. And in order to foster that civic engagement, we need journalism that doesn’t just report the news but also listens and collaborates.
Rock Album Review: New Fries — Surfing On and Off the No Wave
New Fries’ latest effort never fails to stimulate: the band has crafted a record that challenges the idea of what a pop song is and can be — in two very different ways.
Book Review: “The Boy in the Field” — A Brilliant Coming-of-Age Fable
The Boy in the Field is the latest novel from Margot Livesey, a prolific writer with a keen eye for the interiority of her characters, a skill that enriches her novels with a rare intimacy and immediacy.
Film Review: “Summerland” — Dreams Delayed
While there’s plenty of wistful romance and character-driven conflict to keep Summerland rolling along, the narrative isn’t exactly plausible.
Book Review: “Chasing the Light” — The Agitated Life of Oliver Stone
Filmmaker Oliver Stone’s memoir is an exhilarating primer for anyone who wants to understand his reputation as a writer and director.
Opera Album: A Deliciously Grisly “Comic Opera” from 1789 — the Year the French Revolution Began
Grétry’s Raoul Barbe-Bleue — the story of the original lady-killer, Bluebeard — receives its world premiere recording and it’s splendid.
Book Review: “Pew” — Someone Truly Out of This World
In no way a ‘tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing’, Pew is instead a kind of reverie, a wide-eyed spin on the Southern novel.
Book Review: “The Atomic Bomb on My Back” — Witness to Apocalypse
Reading Sumiteru Taniguchi’s book brought back my memories of meeting a man who had witnessed the unimaginable.