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July Short Fuses – Materia Critica

July 9, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

Classical Music Album Review: Randall Goosby’s “Roots” — Profound and Accessible

July 9, 2021
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Violinist Randall Goosby’s Roots tells a singular story, one that grows and deepens on repeated listening.

Television Review: “Schmigadoon!” — Sending Up the Great White Way

July 8, 2021
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Schmigadoon! is both an enjoyable love letter to classic Broadway musicals and a good-natured spoof of their now antique conventions.

Rap Album Review: MIKE goes “Disco!”

July 8, 2021
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Disco! feels like the culmination of what will be seen as an early stage in MIKE’s career –– stylistic mastery achieved, a mountain summit reached.

Dance Review: Paris Opera Ballet’s “Body and Soul” — Dark and Potent Boogie

July 8, 2021
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Body and Soul generates a whirligig of passions — joy, frustration, pleasure, and rage.

Author Interview: Aaron S. Lecklider on the Forgotten History of Homosexuality and the Left in American Culture

July 7, 2021
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The reader comes away from Love’s Next Meeting with an awareness of the rich history of homosexual culture existed long before the Stonewall riots in the summer of ‘69.

Book Review: “Divine Images” — William Blake’s Imagination as Mankind’s Saving Grace

July 6, 2021
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The author’s aim is to render William Blake’s complex vision understandable to novices. It is a lucid effort, though the book presents a disappointingly conventional overview of the artist’s achievement.

Visual Arts Review: Virgil Abloh Is Bringing in the Outside at the ICA

July 6, 2021
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“Figures of Speech” is a kind of aesthetic/political injection: its messages are put across by pieces that seamlessly blend a number of genres, including sculpture, music, graphics, and film.

Classical Album Review: “Americans” — Bernstein, Ives, Barber, and Crawford

July 6, 2021
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Americans is a winningly-programmed, strongly-realized effort.

Album Review: Juan Cirerol’s “Punk Feeling” — Mexicali’s Poet of Poverty Returns

July 5, 2021
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Jaun Cirerol has been accused of idealizing desperation. He disagrees. “I am well-anchored,” he responds.

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