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Book Review: The Pale King– David Foster Wallace Finds the Magnificent in the Mundane

May 24, 2011
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If you haven’t before had the keen pleasure of reading David Foster Wallace, THE PALE KING is a fine gateway drug. Its 550 pages are broken into 50 sections, each digestible on its own without reference to the larger work The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. Little, Brown, 560 pages, $29.99 By Michael de…

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Book Review: A Puzzling Look at the West, Islam, and The Convert

May 21, 2011
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If you are going to write about this very charged subject, the West and Islam, why would you choose as a representative of that great and ancient culture a woman who is stunted emotionally, clearly unreliable, and probably mentally unstable?

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Visual Arts News: Gloucester Writer’s Center Celebrates Birthday

May 15, 2011
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Updated Local artist, curator and arts educator Susan Erony, whose text piece on silk “To Gloucester with Love” is a setting of a Charles Olson poem, gave a model of an arts center talk on the evolution of text as visual art.

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Film Review: Incendies — A Global Tale of Family, Fate, Conflict, and Tragedy

May 15, 2011
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Luckily, there’s plenty to this film besides it’s Middle Eastern setting. INCENDIES focuses primarily on relationships and human drama, while politics form the film’s periphery.

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Theater Review: Edward Albee’s Animal Talk

May 13, 2011
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The Zeitgeist Stage Company production has made me rethink Edward Albee’s HOMELIFE to the extent that the couple, well played by Peter Brown and Christine Power, generate a loving bond that adds some welcome tension (and humor) to the revelations of free-floating anxiety and confusion.

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Visual Arts Review: The Last Gesture Succeeds, Despite Cognitive Slurry

May 13, 2011
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The ostensible theme of the exhibit “The Last Gesture” might be best regarded, then disregarded, as critic Charlie Finch’s attempt to channel his roiling cognitive slurry. The work itself doesn’t need it.

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Coming Attractions: Beyond Jazz Week 2011—The Usual Suspects

May 11, 2011
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In the second of three articles inspired by Jazz Week 2011, the focus is on the full-time jazz venues that form the bedrock of the Boston scene.

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Fuse Dance Review: Walter Benjamin in Samoa

May 10, 2011
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Which suppests the quandary at the heart of choreographer Lemi Ponifasio’s work. Can sophisticated political critique be made outside the bounds of narrative? Can a poetic work without directionality enacted in a setting designed to be beyond specific time and place create an environment for redress, for action, for change?

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Classical Music Review: Maria Padilla and the indomitable Barbara Quintiliani

May 10, 2011
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The past week saw its New England premiere of “Maria Padilla,” and while it’s received mixed reviews in the press, no one could fault the singing. It’s just that it is a very strange opera, with all signs pointing towards a tragedy, but it all ends happily — for an opera, anyway.

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Visual Arts: Cleaning the Eighth Wonder of the World

May 10, 2011
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Before we hit the ground, I reversed my attitude and became a fan of the restoration of the Dutch royal palace on Dam Square, Amsterdam. I could not fault the decisions that had been taken.

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