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Book Review: “The Virtues of Poetry” — Fascinating But Frustrating

April 20, 2013
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James Longenbach’s ear for the nuances of diction, tone, stress, and the material aspects of poetry is so good, and his grasp of context and biography so assured, one wonders why the essays so often tie themselves into semantic and logical knots.

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Book Review: Females on the Frontier of Medicine — Healers in Early Modern Germany

April 19, 2013
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In her groundbreaking study, Tufts University professor Alisha Rankin essentially revises the history of medicine by showing that women, presumed to be marginal in the development early modern medicine, were actually major players.

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Theater Review: “She Kills Monsters” — A Delightful Celebration of Geekery

April 18, 2013
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“She Kills Monsters” provides a constant stream of creative, amusing, and outrageous moments.

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Jazz News: Thoughts on Wadada Leo Smith’s “Ten Freedom Summers” — Pulitzer Finalist in Composition

April 18, 2013
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Ten Freedom Summers is a masterful, supple series of compositions that has the gravitas of a major work that also, from time to time, it swings dramatically.

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Fuse News: NEC Celebrates a Legendary Partnership

April 18, 2013
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Pianist Randy Weston and arranger Melba Liston will be honored in a celebratory concert at the New England Conservatory.

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Fuse News Film Review: “Blancanieves” — Silent Film Redux

April 18, 2013
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“Blancanieves” is not quite as charming as “The Artist,” but it’s less of a parlor trick, more sincerely a work of true silent cinema, 85 years after the dawn of sound.

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Film Review: A Not So “Fierce Green Fire”

April 18, 2013
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This documentary plays like a didactic high school civics lesson. I agree totally with its politics while abhorring its unimaginative political correctness.

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Book Review: A House of Many Doors — Gish Jen’s Tiger Writing

April 17, 2013
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Moving restlessly between independence and interdependence in style and content, the lecture captures the changeling quality that Gish Jen associates with those who must creatively manage multiple cultural influences.

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Book Review: “The Wanting” — Ambitious and Audacious Fiction about the Middle East

April 16, 2013
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There are so many characters to root for in “The Wanting” that you tend to read with your head swimming, and with an increasing sense of urgency as the senseless is revealed to have a logic of its own.

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Jazz Review: Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau At The Berklee Performance Center

April 16, 2013
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The wizards of mandolin and jazz piano were in perfect sync, blending styles and breaking barriers.

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