Review

Film Commentary: Drive-Ins May Save Our Sanity this Summer

May 22, 2020
Posted in , ,

The sensory delights of drive-ins have been pretty well forgotten in an age when watching movies has meant never leaving the comfort of your living room.

Book Review: “Marking Time” — Documenting the Visual Arts in American Prisons

May 22, 2020
Posted in , ,

Marking Time explores how the creation of art in prison can disrupt institutionalized patterns of dehumanization. The book’s larger narrative comes with an overt political aim: “to envision and help create a world without human caging.”

Book Review: “Cleanness” — Eroticism as a State of Being

May 22, 2020
Posted in , ,

The embrace of existential uncertainty in Cleanness enhances the reading experience because it helps us to understand what’s vitally important to the narrator.

Pop Album Review: Hayley Williams’s “Petals for Armour” — A Compelling Solo Adventure

May 21, 2020
Posted in , , ,

On her solo debut, the former Paramore lead singer undergoes a startling transformation.

Jazz Commentary: Sinatra — Myth, Reality, and a Critic Standing in Line at Arby’s

May 21, 2020
Posted in , , ,

A review of the 60th anniversary reissue of Frank Sinatra’s album Nice ‘n’ Easy. Though not without a few rounds with the Sinatra mythology — not the complicated man, but his music.

Television Review: “Circus of Books” — The Cultural Importance of Adult Bookstores

May 21, 2020
Posted in ,

Circus of Books is a hilarious film about a gay porn book store and its owners, “heartwarming” even, and it’s all true.

Jazz CD Review: “The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays Vince Guaraldi and Mose Allison” — Paying Exciting Homage

May 21, 2020
Posted in , , ,

The interpretations of the covers in this beautifully realized tribute album will bring back memories of the originals in a way that is enlivening rather than nostalgic.

Television Review: Hulu’s “The Great” — Russian Tyranny for Laughs

May 20, 2020
Posted in , ,

In The Great, Tony McNamara proves that period pieces that pit conniving yet sympathetic women against tyrannical men can make for a kind of refreshingly cathartic entertainment.

Poetry Review: “The Mother House” — Poems with the Demeanor of Nuns

May 19, 2020
Posted in , ,

In these poems, contemplation, serenity, and service are the order of the day.

Music Documentary Review: “Up From the Streets” — New Orleans’ History of Oppression and Creativity

May 18, 2020
Posted in , , , ,

Up From the Streets is no New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival — but it tries.

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives