Review

DVD/Blu-Ray Review: “A Hard Day’s Night” — Still Fun After Five Decades

July 28, 2014
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A Hard Day’s Night stands as a landmark in rock history because it exemplifies the Beatles’s joyously innocent starting point — today it delivers an irresistible sonic joy that comes from listening to songs that still rock after fifty years.

CD Review: Shabazz Palaces’ “Lese Majesty” — Out-of-This-World Hip-Hop

July 28, 2014
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Some listeners are undoubtedly going to dismiss Lese Majesty as a collection of vignettes or motifs, formless for all intents and purposes. That would be a shame.

Book Review: An Evocative Biography of Zionist Agitator and Writer Vladmir Jabotinsky

July 27, 2014
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There’s room to wonder if Vladmir Jabotinsky would have accepted Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu as his legitimate Zionist heirs.

Jazz CD Review: Pianist Fred Hersch’s “Floating” – A Constant Delight

July 25, 2014
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Pianist Fred Hersch’s ballad playing is one of the special treats in contemporary jazz.

Movie Review: “And So It Goes” — A Synthetic Slice of Boomer Banality

July 25, 2014
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This kind of faux-inspirational drivel has Hollywood privilege written all over it.

Book Review: Know When to Fold ’em — Colson Whitehead Explores “The Noble Hustle”

July 24, 2014
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The Noble Hustle gives talented novelist Colson Whitehead an opportunity to spelunk in some of the gnarlier corners of the American dream, in this case the Tropicana in Atlantic City.

Theater Review: “The Granite State” — Good, Not Great, Entertainment for a Summer’s Eve in New Hampshire

July 24, 2014
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Charles Morey’s new comedy focuses on the trials and tribulations of aging writers. Most of its humor revolves around the past, while its plot hinges on the present and future.

Book Review: “The Shelf”‘s Splendid Ambition — to Burst Open the Literary Canon

July 23, 2014
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Like me, Phyllis Rose frets about the zillion fine books out there that nobody bothers with. Why their neglect? She reasons that it’s because no one pedigreed has championed them.

Visual Arts Review: “Turner & the Sea” at the Peabody Essex Museum — A Grand Performance

July 23, 2014
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Some of J.M.W. Turner’s most personal, experimental, and enigmatic works have been selected for this show. They are also among the most fragile and least often shown.

Theater Review: Richard Snee and Paula Plum Make for a Rewarding “Auld Lang Syne”

July 22, 2014
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Local playwright Jack Neary always captures the frisson of nostalgia and resentment familiar to Catholic school graduates of a certain era, teasing gently without ever offending.

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