Short Fuse
“The main idea I’ve been working with is what I call the longevity revolution.” — Theodore Roszak
Read MoreThe theme of fading passion would have been enough. It is the theme of many a love story. It would have been enough for this chess story. But author Robert R. Desjarlais won’t let it be enough.
Read More“On China” boasts photos of Henry Kissinger’s numerous visits to China. In many you see him smiling hugely, brandishing chopsticks alongside the likes of Zhou Enlai. He’s enjoying making history — and the food.
Read MoreThe beauty and power of Chauvet’s art, at once primal and sophisticated, tempers director Verner Herzog’s passion for Homo Sapiens bashing. We do, after all, belong to the very same species as those cave painters. Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Directed by Werner Herzog. At various New England cinemas. By Harvey Blume. It was with some…
Read MoreI, personally, don’t care much about clothes, and was only prevented from turning off to the film by photographer Bill Cunningham’s elemental enthusiasm. It can be tempting to write him off as simple in some way, what with his bright, ready laugh. If so, he’s simple in the best way.
Read MoreThe Bobby Fischer that the documentary portrays is both a creature of the Cold War era, shouldering that burden, and a peculiarly American hero. It airs this Monday, June 6, on HBO Bobby Fischer Against the World. Directed by Liz Garbus. By Harvey Blume ( Also in The Arts Fuse: Harvey Blume’s thoughts on Fischer’s…
Read MoreI feel like such a nag, but someone ought to be able to point out a 300 lb gorilla in the room when it knuckle walks, glowers and pounds the walls. I will be that very nag and shortly name the ape accordingly. Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall—from America’s Brightest Prodigy to the…
Read MoreFor a film in which politics are of such moment, “Miral” longs to be apolitical — or just sublimely fuzzy. Schnabel wanted to make something warmhearted, beautiful, and decent, something that would give you a hint of how history — roughly from Partition to the Oslo accords — looked from the Palestinian side, and he has
succeeded …
Boomers: part 1 By Harvey Blume. ** He lay there watching names scroll by in his head. Credits on screen, white on black background. Last Waltz Boomers Class Reunion Names. He thinks of names of dogs he had known, also cats, goats, ex-lovers. Most things ex by now, most everything ex. Ex-bladder control. Ex-cardiac tissue.…
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Book Review: Violence, a la the Freudian and Biblical canon
Short Fuse thinks Russell Jacoby’s “Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present” is an unconvincing mix of refurbished Freudianism and Genesis.
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