Review

Visual Arts Review: “Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth” — Overwhelming the Clichés

September 3, 2023
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Edvard Munch was very far from a one-hit wonder. His career was a long narrative of restless creativity.

Film Reviews: The Criterion Collection’s “The Ranown Westerns” — Absolutely Swell

September 2, 2023
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Cinephiles revere a group of movies, known as the Ranown cycle, that starred Randolph Scott and were cannily directed by Budd Boetticher.

Book Review: “Dead Men Cast No Shadows” — A Thriller That’s an Act of Political Courage

September 2, 2023
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Dead Men Cast No Shadows is an enormously entertaining novel about responses to perfidy in high places by one of the most prominent writers in the Spanish-speaking world.

Jazz Album Review: A Creative “Synergy—Bobby Kapp Plays the Music of Richard Sussman”

September 1, 2023
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The arrangements seem to emerge organically from the structure and feel of the compositions and harmonies, like leaves unfolding from the stem of an exotic plant.

Film Review: “The Mother and the Whore” — Not By Words Alone

September 1, 2023
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“The Mother and the Whore” is a film about failure: its characters are pushed towards misery not only by their own flaws, but by the failure of the ‘60s to deliver a promised revolution.

Jazz Album Reviews: Three from the Golden Age of Jazz Recording

August 30, 2023
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Three re-issued albums reinforce the claim that jazz recordings hit their peak from 1956 to 1964.

Dance Review: Compagnie Käfig — Virtuoso Hip-Hop Goes State of the Art

August 29, 2023
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While the experience is new and otherworldly, it was daunting to realize that it had taken over a decade for Compagnie Käfig’s exercise in cutting-edge art and technology to reach the hinterland of Jacob’s Pillow.

Classical Album Review: Andrew Manze Conducts Vaughan Williams

August 29, 2023
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The album is a welcome appendix to the conductor’s admirable symphonic cycle with this orchestra, as well as a timely reminder of Vaughan Williams’ compositional range.

Children’s Book Reviews: Stories for Kids about Empowerment, Protest Movements, and Multiculturalism

August 28, 2023
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A trio of books for kids about combating injustice.

Poetry Review: John Mulrooney’s “Spooky Action” — The Primal Playfulness of Existence

August 28, 2023
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“Spooky Action” succeeds at its ‘unreasonable’ mission — to supply poetry that sears the mind, charms the heart, and uplifts the spirit.

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