Month: May 2011

Theater Review: A Dreamy and Acrobatic Hedda Gabler

May 8, 2011
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Henrik Ibsen’s rejection of the everyday drives this compelling take on “Hedda Gabler” – the production generates a theatrical arena that is simultaneously acrobatic and surreal.

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Film Review: “13 Assassins” — A Blood-soaked Homage to Swordplay of Yesteryear

May 7, 2011
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“13 Assassins” is an affectionate salute to old-fashioned swordplay films, just as occasionally artful as it needs to be, and ultimately, it’s a highly-satisfying romp through and through. Is there really anything wrong with that?

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Fuse Poetry Commentary: Verse Into Verse — “Poetry” Awards Poetry a Prize

May 6, 2011
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In the future, when a literary historian looks at the long-forgotten Lilly Prize and wonders what did its selection panels get right, it will be recognized that it had been sensitive and intelligent enough to realize the beauty of David Ferry’s poetry, an oeuvre which is sure to grow in stature. By Daniel Bosch. In…

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Visual Arts: Pythagoras Returns — Sound Sculpture at Kendall T Stop Chimes Again (Revised)

May 5, 2011
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What the artist didn’t count on was the popularity of the Kendall Band, coupled with its fragility relative to the strength and number of its users, would result in frequent breakdowns. The Kendall Band was the only interactive piece of public art in the MBTA’s “Arts on the Line” program, and the agency had no…

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Movie Review: Bobby Fischer Against the World

May 4, 2011
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The Bobby Fischer that the documentary portrays is both a creature of the Cold War era, shouldering that burden, and a peculiarly American hero. It airs this Monday, June 6, on HBO Bobby Fischer Against the World. Directed by Liz Garbus. By Harvey Blume ( Also in The Arts Fuse: Harvey Blume’s thoughts on Fischer’s…

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Short Fuse Commentary/Review: A Social Problem

May 4, 2011
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I feel like such a nag, but someone ought to be able to point out a 300 lb gorilla in the room when it knuckle walks, glowers and pounds the walls. I will be that very nag and shortly name the ape accordingly. Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall—from America’s Brightest Prodigy to the…

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Movie Review: Beware the Tire From Hell

May 3, 2011
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That Rubber fails to accomplish much of interest is really a shame. Call it a waste of potential: this film is, perhaps in spite of itself, sharply current—an ideal cinematic concept of the Internet age, self-consciousness gone a muck. Rubber. Directed by Quentin Dupieux. At Kendall Square Cinema. By Taylor Adams French director Quentin Dupieux’s…

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Coming Attractions in Film: May 2011

May 3, 2011
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Summer is quickly approaching, meaning big comedies and even bigger action. May gives us a sampling of what’s to come this summer season with Thor and later this month, The Hangover Part II. In addition, Boston’s LGBT community hosts its annual film festival, the ICA focuses on rising stars in the animation world, and the…

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Coming Attractions: Jazz Week 2011 — Spreading the Word

May 2, 2011
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Jazz host Eric Jackson

Thirty years of Eric in the Evening, jazz in public spaces and libraries, jazz ensembles and their social networks, and getting the word out about jazz. (First of a three-part series for Jazz Week.)

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Book Review: Of Childhood and State Terror

May 2, 2011
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Set in the beginning of the “Dirty War” of Jorge Rafael Videla’s military junta in Argentina, a period characterized by assassination and disappearance, “Kamchatka” is a superb novel that refracts public, political events through the sensibilities of everyday life. Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras. Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne. Black Kat, Grove/Atlantic, 311 pages…

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