Review

Jazz Album Review: Rich Halley’s “Fire Within” — Free, But Still Together

January 6, 2024
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This doesn’t sound like any other quartet I know.

Film Review: “Bitconned” — Digital Scamming

January 5, 2024
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In terms of documentary-subjects-you’ll-love-to-hate, “Bitconned”‘s reptilian Ray Trapani is at the top of the line of bottom feeders.

Opera Album Review: An Award-Winning Recording of Handel’s Most Comical Opera

January 5, 2024
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Mary Bevan, silvery soprano beloved in Boston, enchants anew in one of Handel’s most frequently performed and recorded operas.

Jazz Reviews and Appreciations: Sheila Jordan at 95 and Ran Blake at 88

January 4, 2024
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It is something of a miracle that we can still hear Sheila Jordan and Ran Blake in live performance, and those experiences should be treasured by their audiences because those opportunities are so precious.

Book Review: “Inside Knowledge” — Prison as Manufactories of Pain

January 2, 2024
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Prison doesn’t “fail” so much as it succeeds at missions nobody in authority wants to acknowledge: punishment, humiliation, and separation from the community beyond the walls

Film Review: “All of Us Strangers” — It’s a Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely World

January 1, 2024
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No spoilers here about what lies beneath the film’s dreamy layers of story, but some viewers will find the narrative pulling them helplessly forward, sucked into a maelstrom of pain and trauma and love and regret and memory.

Book Review: “Such Kindness” — American Quicksand

December 30, 2023
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Don’t underestimate the elemental power of a story that takes the reader inside the mind and heart of a good and decent man caught in a helpless situation.

Concert Review: Blue Heron Does “Christmas in Medieval England” Right

December 29, 2023
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In this performance, Blue Heron conveyed enough merriment for Christmastime and beyond.

Book Reviews: A Look at Five Recent Works of Fiction by Women

December 29, 2023
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Here is a composite review of some recent fiction by women. Some are more successful than others, but all are worth a look.

Book Review: “Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism” — A Man of Admirable Qualities

December 28, 2023
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Anka Muhlstein’s book is probably best read as a biography of a hard-working family man and not as a thorough assessment of Pissarro’s art.

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