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Those uncomfortable with Wilson’s eccentricities suggest he should be admired, but dutifully, like a Roman statue stuck in the far corner of the lawn.
Read Moreby Harvey Blume Ex-Catholic nun Karen Armstrong has, in her long, productive second career as scholar, written 21 books, including A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and engaging, balanced biographies of Buddha and Muhammed. I interviewed her about the Buddha biography when it came out in 2001 and enjoyed…
Read MoreDoris Lessing has always been massively and productively incorrect, and splendidly fulfills the mandate of a great writer by being so.
Read MoreIs it a sign of the times? On October 5, the New York Sun updated yet another art authentication controversy that’s been simmering since earlier this year. Like the better known Pollock Matter Affair (see past posts in Fuse Flash and Anonymous Sources), this one involves a filmmaker, art work that may or may not…
Read MoreBen Ratliff, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Reviewed by J. R. Carroll During an interview in Japan in 1966, John Coltrane was asked what he would like to be in ten years. Coltrane replied, “I would like to be a saint.” Lewis Porter, author of the definitive study John Coltrane:…
Read MoreThe Harvard Crimson has waded into the treacherous controversies swirling around the “Pollock Matters” exhibition currently on view at Boston College’s McMullen Museum (see previous posts here in “Anonymous Sources.”)
Read MoreWho cares how the chairs are arranged or even who sits on them on the deck of the Titanic-“Globe”? As the popularity of online publications and blogs grows, the “Globe”’s tepid cultural coverage has become increasingly superfluous.
Read Moreby Bill Marx The schizophrenia is instructive if somewhat dizzying. At the Calderwood Pavilion, the Huntington Theatre Company kicks off its season with “The Atheist,” a cynical exercise in scatological anti-heroism about a sleazy reporter who blackmails his way to fame. On its main stage at the Boston University Theater the HTC wallows in PG…
Read MoreCould a longstanding debate over copyright law add yet another dimension to the long-running Pollock Matter Affair? There are signs it might, though the media haven’t yet understood just how broad the implications might be.
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Theater Commentary: The Story of O
The weakness of the play is so shockingly transparent –- the love birds spend most of the play orating their (occasionally) steamy letters to the audience –- that the explanation must be that Brand Shakespeare has struck again: companies figure that anything about the Bard will draw a crowd. by Bill Marx I wanted to…
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