February 2, 2012
When I was in art school in Los Angeles in the 1990s, my mentor, artist Mitchell Syrop, occasionally told stories about Mike Kelley. He and Mike had been roommates when they were attending graduate school at CalArts in the late 1970s. Mike and a handful of other CalArts students became famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s, putting L.A. contemporary art on the map, at least as much as and possibly more than a previous generation of L.A. artists--including Ed Ruscha and Robert Irwin--had done in the 1960s. Kelley's work was high and low at the same time. It was funny, in-your-face, accessible, and also cerebral. Growing up working-class in Detroit, Kelley never talked down to his audience, despite the work's sophistication. Years ago, I remember seeing a series of sculptures that he made out of wood, which looked like strange riffs on high school shop-class projects. How could conceptual art be so folksy and yet so smart? I'm still not sure. Mitchell liked to say that while one of his most famous CalArts classmates turned out to be an asshole, Mike was and always would be a gentleman.
On November 19, I met Kelley for the first and last time. The occasion was an opening in L.A. of a show based around the former Detroit band, Destroy All Monsters, whose members first included Kelley and another L.A. artist, Jim Shaw. Kelley was standing against a wall wearing a black trench coat and black work boots. I went over, introduced myself, and told him how Mitchell used to call him a gentleman. Mike seemed touched, said that he hadn't seen Mitchell in years and asked that I send him his regards.
Then he got a bit gloomy. He said that he wasn't always nice to people, and that, in fact, he was often an asshole. He said that he constantly had to remind himself not to be an asshole. "See?" he said, holding up the back of his hand two inches in front of my eyes. I could see that he had written his first name in thick black ink across his knuckles. Below his name was smaller writing. But I was not wearing my glasses and could not read it. He said, "This is to remind me not to be an ass. Young people who are assholes can get away with it. But old men who are assholes are just pathetic grouches."
In the hours since Mike Kelley died, much has already been written about him and been digitally disseminated around the world. He obviously touched thousands of people through his remarkable work. Who knows what he had left to say? I'm sure Mitchell would agree that there won't be many more like him coming along anytime soon.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer on Thomas Hampson and "Song of America" (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on "Götterdämmerung" at the Met (Financial Times)
Laura Bleiberg reviews La La La Human Steps and "New Work" (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Christgau on Bhi Bhiman and "Bhiman" (NPR)
Michael Feingold reviews "The Road to Mecca" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Kevin Spacey in "Richard III" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on Peter Zellner's Matthew Marks Gallery (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on "Hugo" and the other Oscar contenders (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on Liam Neeson in "The Grey" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday on Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Aida" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Muti's "Carmina Burana" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on housing projects' architectural lessons (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell reviews Liam Neeson in "The Grey" (CinemaDope.com)
Mark Mobley writes a Philip Glass birthday tribute (NPR)
Renee Montagne on "Consent of the Networked" author Rebecca MacKinnon (NPR)
Ann Powers on Lana Del Rey (NPR)
Ann Powers on the Bob Dylan tribute "Chimes of Freedom" (NPR)
Craig Seligman reviews Cullen Murphy's "God's Jury" (Bloomberg News)
Marcia B. Siegel reviews Monica Bill Barnes and Company (The Boston Phoenix)
Calvin Wilson on Ensemble Español (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on Signature Theatre Company's new four-stage complex (Newsday)
Linda Winer on Cynthia Nixon as Vivian Bearing in "Wit" (Newsday)
And in books:
Will Hermes' "Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever" (Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus & Giroux) was published in November.
Wim Wenders' feature documentary "Pina," about the life's work of the late Pina Bausch and the dancers who dedicated their own artistic lives to her vision, got an official Academy Award nomination this morning. I saw the film in 3D at the Hollywood Cinerama Dome a few weeks ago and was dumbfounded by what Wenders and the cinematographers have accomplished.
The mesmerizing performance of Bausch's controversial "Rite of Spring" (pictured above) was what got me. Wenders and Alain Derobe (a specialist in 3D technology who provided critical technical support) had managed the impossible. They had bridged the uncrossable divide separating cinema and live performance. The one will never be the other, of course. But at many points, this film feels like a live dance event. It's those emotional sensations, which watching live dance provokes, that regular cinema has heretofore never been able to duplicate.
"Pina" gives the viewer a wider depth of field. You can see the dancers up close, and yet still see the full stage. The physicality is palpable and thrilling to experience, just as it is. Pumping it up with nauseating quick editing cuts and jerky camera moves would be foolish and is unnecessary. A prickly, twitchy sense invades your own body as you watch, a natural reaction of associating with the kinetic action onstage. It is amazingly pure.
Of course, not every director is as sensitive and visually brilliant as Wenders. I cheer for "Pina," despite the movie's flaws. (Wenders' individual portraits of each dancer contribute less than watching the segments of Bausch's choreography.) But I am genuinely excited about the potential of 3D and dance. Here is a tool that can truly capture this elusive art form, making it available -- thrillingly so -- to a much wider audience.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Robert Campbell on Frank Gehry's house and its AIA award (The Boston Globe)
Francis Davis compiles the Rhapsody jazz critics' poll (Rhapsody)
Michael Feingold reviews "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" (The Village Voice)
Matthew Gurewitsch on Swedish soprano Katarina Dalayman (The New York Times)
Matthew Gurewitsch on a prime, unrecorded Wagnerienne (beyondcriticism.com)
John Horn does a roundtable with Scorsese, Clooney et al (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (The Washington Post)
Julie Lasky goes desk shopping with Arthur Phillips (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell reviews "Red Tails" and "Haywire" (CinemaDope.com)
Renee Montagne interviews "Red Tails" screenwriter John Ridley (NPR)
Ann Powers on Bruce Springsteen's "We Take Care of Our Own" (NPR)
Ann Powers on (still) watching "American Idol" (NPR)
Craig Seligman on Adam Johnson's "The Orphan Master's Son" (Bloomberg News)
Marcia B. Siegel reviews Wim Wenders' "Pina" (The Boston Phoenix)
Laura Sydell on the shutdown of Megaupload (NPR)
Laura Sydell on legality and illegality at Megaupload (NPR)
Linda Winer on major revivals for three women: Edson, Vogel and Howe (Newsday)
And in print:
Mark Rozzo on the reopening of the Met Museum's American Wing (Town & Country)
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer reviews "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" (Financial Times)
Laura Bleiberg on the lives of several concert dancers (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Christgau on the music of 2011, with Dean's List (Barnes & Noble Review)
Michael Feingold reviews "The Peony Pavilion" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews "How the World Began" (The Village Voice)
Matthew Gurewitsch reviews videos of the Vienna Phil with opera stars (Opera News)
John Horn on Oliver Stone's "Savages" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews "The Iron Lady" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday on Roger Corman and "Corman's World" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Diane D'Aquila as "Elizabeth Rex" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Chailly's quick and sure Beethoven (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Mark Wahlberg in "Contraband" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell on the best, worst, most overrated movies of 2011 (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on the Berlin Philharmonic's streaming ways (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Ann Powers on Tim McGraw's "Emotional Traffic" (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Pina" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on musicians continuing John Coltrane's legacy (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on Athol Fugard on the New York stage (Newsday)
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer on the N.Y. Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall (Financial Times)
Laura Bleiberg on three faces to watch in dance in 2012 (Los Angeles Times)
Larry Blumenfeld on Jonathan Batiste and jazz on the subway (The Village Voice)
Robert Campbell on a long-ago neighborhood's enduring unity (The Boston Globe)
Patti Hartigan on using theater to teach social skills (Harvard Education Letter)
Patti Hartigan on designing "God of Carnage" (The Boston Globe)
Christopher Hawthorne on the death of Ricardo Legorreta (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Pariah" (The Washington Post)
Michael Kimmelman on parking lots as architecture (The New York Times)
Craig Seligman reviews "Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion" (Bloomberg News)
Craig Seligman reviews a trio of royal biographies (Bloomberg News)
David Streitfeld on Amazon and used Kindles (The New York Times)
Laura Sydell on Rick Santorum's stubborn Google problem (NPR)
I guess it was the program. I have long since noticed that disgruntled audience members use coughing as their way of making their opinions known. They may not know that this is what they are doing--the reflex may be unconscious. But that "reflex" is clearly preventable, for these same annoying coughers always manage to hold off when they like the music. Unfortunately, the audience at Friday's SFS concert did not like Ligeti.
We were being treated this weekend to the San Francisco premiere of Ligeti's Violin Concerto, with the complicated, delicate, nearly impossible solo part undertaken by the matchless Christian Tetzlaff. Michael Tilson Thomas must have sensed that there might be difficulties: just before he picked up his baton, he spoke for a few minutes to introduce the audience to the piece, something he only does when he thinks it's really needed. Alas, his intervention did no good. Practically from the beginning of the five-movement work (Ligeti's 1992 revision of his three-movement concerto from 1990), the natives grew restless. They not only coughed during the quietest and tenderest parts of the music; they also rustled their programs, retrieved drinks and snacks from their purses, whispered to their companions, and otherwise made their presence felt. One gent a few rows behind me even spoke a few incomprehensible words aloud--whether because he was having medical problems or hating the music was not clear--and then left his seat mid-movement.
Because the instrumentation for this work is small-scale and weird (a sprinkling of strings and flutes, a small array of brass, a larger array of percussion and keyboard instruments, and a few wild cards like ocarinas and slide whistles), and because the solo part so often descends to near-silence in its complex scurryings and retreats, the audience interference really interfered. I have never failed to enjoy a Tetzlaff concert, and I was glad to hear him at this one, but I had to strain to do so. Strain is of course part of what Ligeti intended here--we are not supposed to be entirely comfortable with this music that sometimes sounds like players tuning up, at other times verges on Romany-style ecstasy, and frequently mingles tones that don't really go together harmonically--but I don't think he quite pictured the degree of strain that the San Francisco naysayers imposed on their fellow listeners. I was ready to hit the woman next to me, who coughed loudest during Tetzlaff's most extended and compelling solo.
That such coughing was by no means an irrelevant mistake, a mere by-product of illness, became clear during the applause, when fully a third of the audience sat on its hands or tepidly brought its fingers together. However loudly the rest of us may have clapped and roared (and we enthusiasts called Tetzlaff back to the stage four times), we could not disguise the fact that the people on either side of us hated and resented the piece.
Where does this intense resentment stem from? The work was listed on the program; the concert-goers knew in advance that they were going to get Ligeti sandwiched in between their Liszt and their Tchaikovsky. Yet they acted as if they had been surprised unfairly. They also behaved as if something were being rudely taken away from them--as if this "modern" music threatened to rise up from its seat, grab away the kind of music they liked, and destroy it on the spot. They seemed to feel, that is, that the romantic melodies of Tchaikovsky and the stark disharmonies of Ligeti were at war, and they knew which side they were on.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. MTT had cunningly designed the program so that Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, which came after the intermission, could be appreciated anew through the conjunction. The Ligeti work, in a way that went beyond its own virtues as a piece of music, served to elaborate and explore some of what was going on in its nineteenth-century predecessor. After hearing Ligeti's gypsy rhythms and off-tuned arpeggios, for instance, I was much more alert to similar derivations from folk music in the Tchaikovsky; and after watching the instruments stand out as soloists or pairs in the Ligeti, I was much more likely to notice such moments of relative quiet in the symphony, which has a surprising number of places where many of the musicians just sit silently by. Unusual combinations (of flute with strings, of pizzicato background with arco foreground, of deep-throated brasses matched with equally deep basses) caught my eye and ear in the Tchaikovsky because I had just seen them elucidated in the Ligeti. And of course the virtues that Ligeti did not possess, and probably did not even aim for--the youthful enthusiasm of those final clashing cymbals, the galloping impulse of the repeated musical motifs, the sweet familiarity of the whole thing--stood out even more clearly in the Tchaikovsky symphony than they normally do.
Ligeti cannot hurt Tchaikovsky or Bach, just as Beckett cannot hurt Dickens or Shakespeare. On the contrary, the modernist who truly understands his forebears can show us their virtues anew, even as he begs to differ with their approach to reality. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, those old-fashioned comforts may no longer be available to us in immediate, unadulterated form: too much death and despair separate our present composers from their past masters for the musical forms to remain the same. But we can still have the whole range of musical experiences, whole and undestroyed, if we are alert and open enough. Nothing that is new will wipe out the past; the old stuff is still there for the taking. Yet we can only take it in fully, in a way that makes sense to (and of) our time, if we also listen to what the music of the present is telling us.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer on "The Enchanted Island" at the Met (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (Financial Times)
Larry Blumenfeld on bassist Richard Bona (The Wall Street Journal)
Robert Christgau on 10 books about the subprime-etc. crisis (Barnes & Noble Review)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Mike Daisey and New Year's Eve (The Boston Globe)
Francis Davis on 2011's musical bounty (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews "Lysistrata Jones" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Molly Smith Metzler's "Close Up Space" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold envisions Theater Yet to Come (The Village Voice)
Bill Goldstein interviews Stephen Sondheim about "Look, I Made a Hat" (NBC)
Matthew Gurewitsch introduces his Wagnerian Twitter series (beyondcriticism.com)
Matthew Gurewitsch salutes Eye on Dance at 30 (beyondcriticism.com)
Christopher Hawthorne on nature, urbanism and LA's Plaza (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne on books that examine LA as it is or was (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on Ed Sanders's new memoir, "Fug You" (Straight Up)
Ann Hornaday reviews "The Artist" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "We Bought a Zoo" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "War Horse" (The Washington Post)
Michael Kimmelman on Madrid Río and urban transformation (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein interviews Jeffrey Kluger about "The Sibling Effect" (aarp.org)
Glenn Lovell reviews "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (CinemaDope.com)
Karen Michel on the dissolution of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (NPR)
David Streitfeld on HybridBooks (The New York Times)
David Streitfeld ventures to Best Buy for a Kindle (The New York Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews "In the Land of Blood and Honey" (Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews "The Adventures of Tintin" (Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on "Ghost Protocol" director Brad Bird (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Also:
Matthew Gurewitsch has started a yearlong commentary on Wagner's "Ring" on Twitter: @Ring366
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer on "Peter and the Wolf" at the Guggenheim (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on "La Fille du Régiment" at the Met (Financial Times)
Michael Feingold remembers Vaclav Havel (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Jordan Harrison's "Maple and Vine" (The Village Voice)
Matthew Gurewitsch reviews Jamie James's "Rimbaud in Java" (beyondcriticism.com)
Christopher Hawthorne on Occupy's architectural symbolism (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne on the Esther McCoy revival (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on Christopher Hitchens going off into the wild blue yonder (Straight Up)
Jan Herman on Clayton Patterson and "Legends of the Lower East Side" (Straight Up)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "A Dangerous Method" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Salonen's Mahler Sixth (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on "A Christmas Story, The Musical!" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Nancy Malitz on Anonymous 4's "Secret Voices" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Renee Montagne interviews Diablo Cody (NPR)
Laurie Muchnick on the year's best books (Bloomberg News)
Ann Powers on the best of the year's Top 40 songs (NPR)
András Szántó on American art museums' mission statements (The Art Newspaper)
Kenneth Turan reviews Roman Polanski's "Carnage" (Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Mission Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on Adam Sage and Missouri Ballet Theatre (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews Molly Smith Metzler's "Close Up Space" at MTC (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews "Lysistrata Jones" on Broadway (Newsday)
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Laura Bleiberg on "Debbie Allen's Hot Chocolate Nutcracker" (Los Angeles Times)
Laura Bleiberg on Pennington Dance Group & Yorke Dance Project (Los Angeles Times)
Larry Blumenfeld on Trombone Shorty (Jazziz)
Larry Blumenfeld on the Curtis Brothers (The Wall Street Journal)
Robert Christgau on Frank Ocean (MSN Music)
Robert Christgau on The Roots (MSN Music)
Michael Feingold reviews "Bonnie & Clyde," the Broadway musical (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Zoe Caldwell in "Elective Affinities" (The Village Voice)
Patti Hartigan on a new "Snow Queen" at the ART (The Boston Globe)
Christopher Hawthorne on Ice Cube and the Eameses (Los Angeles Times)
Will Hermes on Jeff Mangum (OccupyWriters)
Ann Hornaday on David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday at the Spy Museum with Gary Oldman (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on "Elizabeth Rex" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Julia M. Klein reviews "Charles Dickens at 200" (The Wall Street Journal)
Julia M. Klein on "The Collector" (Obit Magazine)
Glenn Lovell reviews Michael Fassbender in "Shame" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on "Follies" Broadway babies then and now (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Nancy Malitz on Everding's 25-year-old Chicago "Flute" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Tom Moon on The Roots' "undun" (NPR)
Ann Powers on her top 10 albums of the year (NPR)
Ann Powers on the new crop of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (NPR)
Marcia B. Siegel on reimagining contemporary dance (The Boston Phoenix)
Laura Sydell on the professionalization of online video (NPR)
Calvin Wilson on jazz saxophonist Greg Osby (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews "Once" at New York Theatre Workshop (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews Lydia R. Diamond's "Stick Fly" on Broadway (Newsday)
Whether she can make this happen, of course, remains to be seen. Her concept is to eliminate the series editor concept, dividing the pre-reading she does (and has been paid to do) among a 10-person editorial board that will presumably, as per tradition, winnow a vast number of possibilities down to a manageable 100-something that will then be further winnowed down to 30 or 40 by a guest editor who also adds his or her personal selections to the mix. In the past, most guest editors have been grateful to have a field to choose from and not added all that much of their own. That was my approach. But I know of at least one case in which the guest editor's selections were probably predominant. How all that would sort out under this plan remains unclear, as of course it must at this point. Also unclear is the eternal problem of indie projects: distribution. Knowing almost nothing about the book business myself, my special concern would be library sales. The great thing about the Best Music Writing books is that they help interested high school and college-age readers locate stimulating writing about music beyond the welter of online overproduction and the manifest limitations of Rolling Stone and the hip-hop press. I've enjoyed some editions more than others. But I know, for instance, that Holly George-Warren bases her course in music writing at SUNY New Paltz entirely on the series. It's been invaluable in an undervalued field. Please do whatever you can to help it continue.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Alicia Anstead on "The Brother/Sister Plays" (WGBH)
Martin Bernheimer reviews "Faust" at the Metropolitan Opera (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on "The Enchanted Island" at the Met (Promenade Magazine)
Robert Christgau on Nile Rodgers' "Le Freak" (The New York Times)
Michael Feingold reviews Pearl Theatre's "Richard II" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold on the Metropolitan Playhouse's "Jazz Singer" (The Village Voice)
Jason Gross' Electronic Music Survival Guide (Perfect Sound Forever)
Christopher Hawthorne on SFMOMA demolishing its Botta stairs (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on George Clooney and his Satellite Sentinel Project (LA Times Magazine)
John Horn on selling "Shame" with an NC-17 rating (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Steve McQueen's "Shame" (The Washington Post)
Michael Kimmelman on Alexander Garvin and public spaces (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein on Biltmore (The Wall Street Journal)
Julia M. Klein on two memoirs of madness (Columbia Magazine)
Adam Langer reviews Peter Nadas' "Parallel Stories" (The New York Times)
Julie Lasky interviews the authors of "Unassisted Living" (The New York Times)
Renee Montagne interviews Harvey Weinstein (NPR)
Ann Powers on the Grammy nominations' Kanye snub (NPR)
John Rockwell on Kenneth Gross' "Puppet" (The New York Times)
Mark Rozzo profiles writer Nik Cohn (The New York Times Magazine)
Kenneth Turan reviews Steve McQueen's "Shame" (Los Angeles Times)
Linda Winer on "Elective Affinities" and site-specific theater (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews Stephen Sondheim's "Look, I Made a Hat" (Newsday)
Douglas Wolk on McPhee and Orenstein's "Infinite Jest" (The New York Times)
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Laura Bleiberg on Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Campbell on postmodern architecture's new moment (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Jonathan Lethem (The New York Times Book Review)
Robert Christgau on Ellen Willis and Paul Nelson (Barnes & Noble Review)
Michael Feingold reviews J.T. Rogers' "Blood and Gifts" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews "Wild Animals You Should Know" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on designing the London Olympics (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne recommends modernist holiday gifts (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "The Swell Season" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on the new play "Burning Bluebeard" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on housing designed for the lives we live (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell reviews Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on postage-stamp Pinter at Writers' Theatre (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Ann Powers on holiday pop music as a force for good (NPR)
John Rockwell on Martha Clarke's "Angel Reapers" (The New York Times)
John Rockwell on conductor René Jacobs (The New York Times)
Calvin Wilson on jazz trumpeter Jeremy Davenport (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on a year of "Spider-Man" (Newsday)
And in print:
Mark Rozzo on Keith Richards' family: Patti Hansen and their daughters, Theodora and Alexandra Richards (Town & Country)
For a long time, Hilburn was the most powerful rock critic in the country. He and I have been friendly for many years, largely because he's such an engaged and agreeable guy, and ultimately those qualities are the secret of his success. Though it's tempting to attribute his power totally to his position as chief critic at the biggest paper in the capital of the music industry, the L.A. Times, that really doesn't explain it. The book makes clear that he was aware of who he was expected to please when. But he's also at some pains to point out times he didn't. And though lots of people I know have resented him over the years, I've never heard anyone characterize him as Machiavellian, interested in power for its own sake. His secret was his genuine enthusiasm for the most high-minded kinds of conventional rock--a basic taste set he shared with Nelson, except that Nelson was much pickier--and his appetite for personal contact with the people who made it. This Nelson also shared, only without Hilburn's social skills and indefatigable energy. Hilburn was the biz's idea of what a quality critic should be.
The reason I'd originally stopped reading Cornflakes With John Lennon is that neither Hilburn's prose style nor his critical insights were worthy of his enthusiasm. What the best daily critics do is convey basic information to the general reader in a way that will also offer some kind of new perspective to the more knowledgeable fan. As far as I'm concerned, this means avoiding generalized boilerplate like "looking bravely at their own deepest fears and grandest dreams," like "Jerry Lee has always been as brash as he is talented," like "you couldn't deny the artistry of Cube's words and Dre's exquisite beats," like "a raspy, soulful voice that captured beautifully the poignant quality . . ." I wasn't learning enough, so I moved on.
I'm glad I picked the book up again, though. Cornflakes With John Lennon isn't a collection per se. It's a memoir of Hilburn's career that relies heavily and sometimes verbatim on his previously published words. And its cumulative effect is actually damned impressive. Because he was who he was as a person as well as a professional, including a workaholism that he implies ruined his first marriage and I'm not convinced he ever entirely controlled, Hilburn achieved unmatched access and conducted more major rock-star interviews than anyone ever. And these interviews were never fluff jobs--they examined artistic choices and artistic meanings. It's true and regrettable that he had no taste for pop proper even when the artist was as slippery deep as Madonna. Nor did he feel funk's exquisite beats. And he was too drawn to heroes, which means the book is shot through with Springsteen, who he was on early, and Bono, who once told him, "Look, I'm sick of Bono, and I am Bono." Nevertheless, he was always and still remains not just a believer, but a critical one. When you choose to make a life out of arts journalism, that's plenty--in its own way, more than either Nelson or Willis found it worth their while to do.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Martin Bernheimer on "Dark Sisters" at Gotham Chamber Opera (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" at Carnegie Hall (Financial Times)
Timothy Cahill on Roko Belic's documentary "Happy" (Art & Document)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Lydia Diamond and "Stick Fly" (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold on "The Blue Flower" at Second Stage (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold on "Standing on Ceremony" at the Minetta Lane (The Village Voice)
Patti Hartigan on "The Nutcracker" as drama, not dance (The Boston Globe)
Christopher Hawthorne on the proposed NFL stadium for L.A. (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on Richard Sargent's décollage billboards (Straight Up)
John Horn on Martin Scorsese and "Hugo" (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on "Top Chef: Texas" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on the role of Hawaii in "The Descendants" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday on this holiday season's crop of movies (NPR)
Julia M. Klein on "Anonymous" (Obit Magazine)
Julia M. Klein on the Dublin Writers Museum (The Wall Street Journal)
Glenn Lovell reviews Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on Contempo's matchmaking with jazz fans (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Renee Montagne interviews Diane Keaton (NPR)
Ann Powers on Kate Bush's "50 Words for Snow" (NPR)
Ann Powers on "Michael Jackson: Immortal" (NPR)
Craig Seligman reviews Colson Whitehead's "Zone One" (Bloomberg News)
Laura Sydell on Google's music store vs. iTunes and Amazon (NPR)
Linda Winer on Hugh Jackman bringing Vegas style to Broadway (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews Theresa Rebeck's "Seminar" (Newsday)
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Gina Arnold on drum circles at Occupy Wall Street (Sounding Out!)
Laura Bleiberg on dancing against climate change (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Kirsten Greenidge's "Milk Like Sugar" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews David Ives' "Venus in Fur" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on LA enshrining its recent heritage (Los Angeles Times)
Christopher Hawthorne on "Eden by Design" (Los Angeles Times)
Alan Hess reviews LACMA's "California Design 1930-1965" (The Architect's Newspaper)
John Horn on Alexander Payne and "The Descendants" (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on an Oscar campaign for "The First Grader" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Werner Herzog's "Into the Abyss" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (The Washington Post)
Hillel Italie on plagiarism in Q.R. Markham's debut novel (The Associated Press)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Stéphane Denève's Chicago SO debut (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on bicycling New York (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein reviews Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens biography (Obit Magazine)
Dennis Lim on Paddy Considine and "Tyrannosaur" (The New York Times)
Nancy Malitz on original "Boris Godunov" at Chicago Lyric (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Tom Moon reviews R.E.M.'s "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage" (NPR)
Ann Powers on "Stairway to Heaven" at 40 (NPR)
Ann Powers on Drake's "Take Care" (NPR)
Laura Sydell on Disney making original content for YouTube (NPR)
Calvin Wilson on Mario Vargas Llosa (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Calvin Wilson on White Flag Projects (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on theater's obsession with "landing a celebrity" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on Sam Waterston as a fragile King Lear at the Public (Newsday)
And in book news:
Sandra Heerma van Voss' first book, "Familiealbum," a collection of interviews about family histories that she wrote for Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, has just been published.
This week's links to NAJP members' work:
Laura Bleiberg on Diavolo Dance Theater's Music Center residency (LA Weekly)
Larry Blumenfeld on Wadada Leo Smith (The Wall Street Journal)
Larry Blumenfeld on jazz pianist Henry Butler (The Wall Street Journal)
Robert Campbell on a contemporary building in a landmark district (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Jeffrey Lewis' "A Turn in the Dream-Songs" (NPR)
Laura Collins-Hughes on the Eichmann-in-Argentina play "Captors" (The Boston Globe)
Steve Dollar on Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (GreenCine Daily)
Steve Dollar on Jonathan Demme's "I'm Carolyn Parker" (The Wall Street Journal)
Michael Feingold reviews Jesse Eisenberg's "Asuncion" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews David Henry Hwang's "Ch'inglish" (The Village Voice)
Matthew Gurewitsch on family resemblances among Wagner's Wälsungs (Opera News)
Matthew Gurewitsch reviews a wacko "Troyens" (Opera News)
Patti Hartigan on Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland and "Moby Dick" (The Boston Globe)
John Horn on Cameron Crowe (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on the European Union Film Showcase (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Like Crazy" (The Washington Post)
Julia M. Klein interviews Michael Lewis about "Boomerang" (AARP Bulletin)
Julia M. Klein on Trevor Cole's "Practical Jean" (AARP The Magazine)
Glenn Lovell reviews Eddie Murphy in "Tower Heist" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews the UK thriller "A Lonely Place to Die" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on violinist Hilary Hahn's self-marketing ways (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Renee Montagne interviews Mindy Kaling (NPR)
Claude Peck profiles Chuck Palahniuk (Star Tribune)
David Streitfeld on the Kindle Owners' Lending Library (The New York Times)
David Streitfeld asks whether Amazon will reshape publishing (The New York Times)
Calvin Wilson on Drake Doremus (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Calvin Wilson on "Ralston Crawford and Jazz" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on political theater and its capacity to effect social change (Newsday)
And in print:
MJ Andersen on "Candide" and Occupy Wall Street (The Providence Journal)
The program (part of a Perspectives series that Schiff is curating on Bartók and his legacy) began with two Bartók works, the lively, brief Hungarian Peasant Songs and then the lengthy, complicated Second Piano Concerto. For both, Fischer had arranged his Budapest musicians in an unusual manner: the orchestra wore its belly outward and its pelt inward, so to speak, with two rows of woodwinds and brass surrounding the conductor at the center of the semi-circle, so that they were seated in front of rather than behind the evenly divided strings. This made for a bright, clear sound that suited the Bartók songs beautifully--and since there were more than enough strings to hold their own, it didn't in any way damage the balance. When Schiff entered the scene for the piano concerto, this seating seemed to make even more sense, for it gave his emphatic playing something solid--something that emphasized the piano's percussive rather than string-like qualities--to stand up against. As the concerto modulated from its frenetic, overpowering opening to its more complex echoes and patterns, one was able to sense how fully Schiff understood this music. The pianist seemed to combine inspired madness of manner with utter sanity of control, much in the way the conductor did with his instrument, the orchestra--proving once again (if such proof were needed) that you can never have too many wild Hungarians onstage at once.
For the second half, which consisted of Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, András Schiff sat in the audience (I could see him, right across the aisle from me, as he sat and listened attentively, occasionally rubbing his hands against each other to relax them from their prior exertions) and Fischer took over completely. For this performance, he moved the trumpets and French horns back to their usual position and left only a single row of woodwinds at the front. I have been steadily and passionately listening to this symphony since 2003, when I first heard Simon Rattle rehearse it and then conduct it with the Berlin Philharmonic; I probably play Rattle's excellent recording at least once a month, at home. And yet it wasn't until last Saturday night that I realized exactly how the lead oboe and the lead clarinet function in the music--how they alone start up each new theme, and then proceed to take over each other's parts, sometimes twining together as a pair, sometimes enlisting their fellow woodwinds, sometimes leading the whole orchestra into a larger sound. It was Fischer's brilliant seating arrangement that showed me this. (And it was equally brilliant of him to keep the horns at the back, so that their haunting, mournful sound could seem to come at us from a great distance.) Iván Fischer is that rare item, a choreographic showman who is also a great conductor--and what Saturday night proved to me, once again, is that both these aspects of his personality are essential to the Budapest Festival Orchestra's consistently marvelous performances.
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