Review

Book Review: A Troubling yet Timely Screed — America’s Debilitating “Meritocracy Trap”

August 15, 2020
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Though its prose veers into academic rough patches, the volume does what it sets out to do, brilliantly portraying how the delusive demon of meritocracy has led America into its current socioeconomic quagmire.

Book Review: “Why Visit America” — Compelling Speculations on the Homeland

August 15, 2020
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It didn’t take long for this eminently readable and bingeable collection to draw TV adaptation attention.

Jazz Concert and Album Review: Guitarist Bill Frisell — Mingling the Sublime and the Stimulating

August 14, 2020
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Leave it to guitarist Bill Frisell — he always knows where the musical goodies are to be found.

Television Review: “An American Pickle” — Sour to a Fault

August 13, 2020
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Seth Rogen puts in double duty as an early 20th century Jewish immigrant and his modern great grandson in a comedy that starts off sweet but leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Classical CD Review: The Symphonies of Max Bruch — Getting the Attention They Deserve

August 12, 2020
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This is a conductor and ensemble that have the measure of Max Bruch’s style and voice well in hand.

Pop Review: Glass Animals Lose Their Voice

August 12, 2020
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The Oxford band’s third album dispenses with personality in favor of bland trap pop.

Film Review: “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” — A Contrarian View

August 12, 2020
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This is not a music documentary, it’s a kind of jaunty-artsy immersion in and around the Newport Jazz festival, including scenes of the host city Newport, the America’s Cup race, festival goers, kids in playgrounds, etc.

Film Review: “The Rabbi Goes West” — Jews Coddled in Big Sky Country

August 12, 2020
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This is a film for another moment in time, an imaginary if not necessarily utopian moment when being Jewish is less roiled and bedeviled from within and without.

Classical CD Reviews: A Roundup of Beethoven Symphonies

August 11, 2020
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Evaluations of a smorgasbord of Beethoven symphony recordings.

Book Review: “Difficult Light” — Words Are Amazing Things

August 11, 2020
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A supple, evocative novel that meditates on family and loss and art.

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