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Film Commentary: “The Artist” — Rooting for Simplicity

February 19, 2012
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“The Artist” works on two levels: the audience in the film and the audience watching the film are entertained by the same things. And it’s that simplicity – the era when silent movies were all they had and it was good enough – is the real protagonist.

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Theater Commentary: A Complex View of Life, Death, and Combat in Israel — “At Night’s End”

February 18, 2012
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A staged reading of an illuminating play by Motti Lerner about the devastating impact of war on men and women in Israeli society.

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Book Review: “Three Weeks in December”

February 15, 2012
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Some fiction can, literally, have the smell of too much research. And so, although I admire the ambition and scope of Audrey Schulman’s new novel, “Three Weeks in December,” I also feel that she made things harder for herself than she needed to.

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Jazz Feature: Pianist Jason Moran Repays It Forward

February 15, 2012
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From James P. Johnson to Thelonious Monk to Jason Moran, inspired mentors carry the past into the future.

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Classical Concert Review: Emmanuel Ax and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Jaap van Zweden at Symphony Hall

February 15, 2012
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To judge from the all-around energetic playing of the BSO, it seems conductor Jaap van Zweden has struck a good rapport with the players and I, for one, look forward to hearing more from him in coming seasons.

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Jazz Review / Commentary: David Sanborn at Scullers – The Craftsman Cometh

February 13, 2012
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Art with a capital A has been put on such a pedestal that Craft with a capital C has been downgraded to a shabby or rustic sort of activity of which the practitioner should be a little ashamed. ’Tain’t so.

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Theater Review: An Underwhelming Staging of “Wit”

February 12, 2012
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Although I was disappointed in this Manhattan Theatre Club production, I am, however, very glad to have seen “Wit” — it is a contemporary classic.

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Jazz CD Review: The Dominique Eade Quartet at Scullers & Ran Blake / Dominique Eade CD, “Whirlpool”

February 11, 2012
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Dominique Eade’s two greatest gifts are her clarity of musical thought and her courage as an improviser. She does not try to be a cabaret-style interpreter or a ring-a-ding-ding swinger.

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Theater Review: The Immortality of The Addams Family

February 10, 2012
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What more could you ask than that a musical comedy version of The Addams Family cast a kooky spell?

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Book Review: Unearthing the Lost Culture of Mathematics

February 9, 2012
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Elegantly written, cogently argued, and filled with trenchant artistic analyses, Alexander Marr’s book exemplifies interdisciplinary studies at their best.

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