Year: 2006
Well-crafted fiction about the politics and psychosis of the sixties is becoming a growing industry. The Last of Her Kind, by Sigrid Nunez (Farrar Straus and Giroux); “Eat the Document: A Novel” by Dana Spiotta (Scribner) By Harvey Blume The legacy of the sixties keeps coming at us. By now, even President Bush might have…
Read MoreBy Adrienne LaFrance Picture an alternate 2006 in which the internet slave trade in America is an integral part of the economy, only white men have the right to vote, and culture is devoid of jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and countless other things. Head to Fenway and you’ll hear the national anthem, “Dixie,” played before…
Read MoreThe current kings of sly-clown fox-rock, Eagles of Death Metal and Electric Six know how to put the fun back into rock and roll. The Eagles of Death Metal, “Death by Sexy” (Downtown); Electric Six, “Senor Smoke” (Metropolis Records) By Milo Miles Rock and roll used to be a joke. The most dangerous joke in…
Read More“Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity” by Hal Niedzviecki. (City Lights) By Adrienne LaFrance A word to the mohawked and tattooed, to those who reject cell phones and popular music. Yes, you, the self-proclaimed non-conformists: You’re not special. Or maybe more aptly, you’re just as unique as the droves of people trying…
Read MoreA consumer guide for those who want the low-down on the best of the recent crop of music fundamentalists.
Read MoreThe Italian composer’s famous masterpiece “La Traviata” receives a production that is worthy of the opera’s enduring artistry. By Mark Kroll The Boston Lyric Opera has just begun a nice long run of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” and this is a good thing for Boston’s opera lovers. “La Traviata” finds Verdi at the height of…
Read MoreFull disclosure: my mother died of lung cancer, brought on by a decades-long addiction to the product satirized in the new film “Thank You for Smoking,” directed by Jason Reitman (son of Ivan Reitman) from a novel by Christopher Buckley (son of William F. Buckley). So maybe I’m not the right person to be reviewing…
Read MoreBy Adrienne LaFrance EVERLY, Mass.— Those with messy desks and piles of clutter take note; things aren’t out of place, they’ve simply found their natural congruency. At least, that’ s what artist Kiki Smith, 52, told a group of about 325 people on Wednesday, March 29 at Boston University’s second-annual Tim Hamill Visiting Artist Lecture,…
Read MoreThe composer turns 250 this year and everyone is trying to cash in on the worldwide party. By Mark Kroll You might not know if 2006 is the year of the dog or the dragon in the Chinese calendar, but you couldn’t have possibly missed the news that this year marks the 250th anniversary of…
Read MoreBy Lindsey McCormack View Gallery BEVERLY, Mass.— From 1924 until his death in 1976, Baldomero Alejos was the premier photographer of Huamanga, a provincial capital in the remote Andean region of Ayacucho. His studio was a magnet for locals who wanted to record a life event — a romance, marriage, birth, or death — or…
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