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March Short Fuses – Materia Critica

March 1, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief bursts of criticism.

Book Review: “Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch” — Nosh Nirvana?

March 1, 2021
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Jake Cohen is “modern” in that he takes a contemporary approach at spreading the gospel; he is an expert at using social media.

Film Review: Nicholas Jarecki’s “Crisis” — Death, Opioids, and Corporate Greed

February 27, 2021
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Crisis takes on the opioid crisis – which has killed more people than the war in Vietnam — and gives corporate villainy (Big Pharma) the Hollywood treatment.

Classical CD Review: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven’s Ninth

February 27, 2021
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Manfred Honeck’s one of the finest and most exciting Beethoven conductors around, but his interpretive decisions result in an account of the Ninth’s climactic sequence that comes over as episodic and mannered.

Film Review: “I Care a Lot” — Vague Villainy

February 27, 2021
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The problem with I Care a Lot is that, despite its intimations of reality, there are tropes and story elements that come off as melodramatic for melodrama’s sake.

Film Review: “Jumbo” — Love with the Proper Object

February 27, 2021
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Jumbo is one of the most magically affecting and visually enthralling romances I’ve seen in quite some time

Music Profile: Violinist, Teacher, Composer, and Arranger Mimi Rabson — Making a Life in Art

February 26, 2021
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The life of a working musician is not a second-class life, and Mimi Rabson’s is Exhibit A: “I try to get past the limits of the definitions and get to the joy.”

Book/Film Interview: Leslie Epstein on “Casablanca” and “Hill of Beans”

February 25, 2021
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An interview with Brookline’s own Leslie Epstein on his new novel, the inexhaustible freshness of Casablanca, and the need for truth in historical fiction.

World Music Album Review: Michael Wimberly’s “Afrofuturism” — Journeying Forward Through Diversity

February 25, 2021
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We need more recordings like this. This is a diverse and imaginative album that draws on a wide range of influences: rap, old-school funk, Afropop, traditional West African music, and R&B jam sessions.

Jazz Album Review: Kemp Harris’s “Live at The Bird SF” — An Infectious Hybrid

February 24, 2021
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This live performance recording showcases the Boston-based singer/pianist Kemp Harris’s merrily eclectic approach — it is a thought-stirring and animated musical excursion.

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