October 2011 Archives

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Robert Campbell on a remarkable Fay Jones house (The Boston Globe)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Eric Carle and his museum (The Boston Globe)
Laura Collins-Hughes on museumgoing for free in New York (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Katori Hall's "The Mountaintop" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Nicky Silver's "The Lyons" (The Village Voice)
Patti Hartigan on playwright Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro (The Boston Globe)
John Horn on "Paranormal Activity 3" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on Lynne Sachs' "Your Day Is My Night" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on Susanna Mälkki's CSO debut (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on "Design With the Other 90 Percent" (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein on Ha Jin's "Nanjing Requiem" (Obit Magazine)
Adam Langer reviews "The Journals of Spalding Gray" (The Boston Globe)
Glenn Lovell reviews Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell tells AMC Theaters to "Block Phones!" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on what's under Olympia's skirt at the Lyric (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Nancy Malitz reviews Chicago Symphony's MusicNOW (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Manny Mendoza on the college dance scene in North Texas (The Dallas Morning News)
David Streitfeld on booksellers fighting DC Comics' Amazon deal (The New York Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Margin Call" (Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth Turan reviews Aki Kaurismäki's "Le Havre" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on "Precarious Worlds" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer locates a pulse in commercial off-Broadway theater (Newsday)

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Martin Bernheimer reviews "Don Giovanni" at the Met (Financial Times)
Michael Feingold reviews Terence Rattigan's "Man and Boy" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Robert Wilson's "Threepenny Opera" (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on architectural disunity at LACMA (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on "The Adventures of Trashman" (Straight Up)
John Horn on Dennis Lee and "Fireflies in the Garden" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews "The Big Year" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Take Shelter" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson interviews Riccardo Muti, part 1 (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson interviews Riccardo Muti, part 2 (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on the political power of place (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell reviews Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews "The Thing" prequel (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz on buried treasure at the Chicago Symphony (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Nancy Malitz on "Follies" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Karen Michel on Ruth Gruber, 100-year-old extraordinary photojournalist (NPR)
Anne Midgette reviews Yumi Kurosawa and the Lark Quartet (The Washington Post)
Anne Midgette reviews Virginia Opera's ambitious "Aida" (The Washington Post)
Renee Montagne interviews Harry Belafonte (NPR)
Renee Montagne asks Gustavo Perez Firmat about writing in two languages (NPR)
Tom Moon on Jonathan Wilson's new album, "Gentle Spirit" (NPR)
Laurie Muchnick on the nominees for the National Book Awards (Bloomberg News)
Ann Powers on making retro-soul music (NPR)
Ann Powers on the Americana Music Awards (NPR)
Craig Seligman on Hector Tobar's "The Barbarian Nurseries" (Bloomberg News)
David Streitfeld on Amazon signing authors to publishing deals (The New York Times)
Calvin Wilson on the Martha Graham Dance Company (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews Katori Hall's "The Mountaintop" (Newsday)
Linda Winer on new plays about unhappy families (Newsday)

Vaginal Davis, performing on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo by Mike Rogers)

About a year ago, when I first heard about "Pacific Standard Time," the massive extravaganza of art exhibits organized by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles to celebrate the city's art production from 1945-1980, I was skeptical. I have a long-standing simple rule: Anything that requires a huge marketing blitz to get its message across probably doesn't have a message of any substance to begin with. And now I have a new rule: Any blockbuster museum show that partners with private galleries mounting officially sanctioned related shows is tainted by the obvious aim of selling artwork and lining a few people's pockets.

Although the constellation of "Pacific Standard Time" ("PST") shows which stretch from San Diego to Santa Barbara officially kicked off this month, several venues opened their "PST" shows weeks ago. I figured that now would be a good time to weigh in with a few observations.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Alicia Anstead interviews Lauren Molina from "Candide" (Harvard Arts Beat)
Alicia Anstead on "Nom de Plume" (WGBH Radio, Boston)
Martin Bernheimer reviews the NY Phil's John Corigliano premiere (Financial Times)
Laura Bleiberg on Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako at REDCAT (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Campbell on William Rawn's Wellesley temple (The Boston Globe)
Francis Davis on a banner year for tenor saxophonists' releases (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold on Lanford Wilson's "Lemon Sky" at Keen Co. (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold on Jeff Talbott's "The Submission" at MCC (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne on the death of Anthony J. Lumsden (Los Angeles Times)
Jan Herman on Steve Jobs, who loved computers and Bach (Straight Up)
Jan Herman on a book clerk who was more than a clerk (Straight Up)
Ann Hornaday on "The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday on Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez (The Washington Post)
Michael Kimmelman on remaking New York's public architecture (The New York Times)
Julia M. Klein interviews Wendy Lustbader on "Life Gets Better" (AARP.org)
Julia M. Klein on two books about the recession's impact (Columbia Journalism Review)
Glenn Lovell speculates on the appeal of the upcoming "The Grey" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews "The Ides of March" (CinemaDope.com)
Ann Powers on abandoning detachment to dance to Widespread Panic (NPR)
Ann Powers on protest music for the 21st century (NPR)
Craig Seligman on Mary Gabriel's Marx bio, "Love and Capital" (Bloomberg News)
Marcia B. Siegel on the Paul McCartney ballet "Ocean's Kingdom" (The Boston Phoenix)
Laura Sydell on Steve Jobs' impact on design (NPR)
Laura Sydell on Bjork and her new album/multimedia experiment, "Biophilia" (NPR)
Linda Winer reviews Terence Rattigan's "Man and Boy" on Broadway (Newsday)
Linda Winer on theaters' meaningful anniversaries and building projects (Newsday)

For the last few years, I've been occasionally writing for Art New England -- and I've always enjoyed the experience. It's a niche magazine, but one that is dear to the hearts of many artists and visual arts readers. The magazine is undergoing a leadership change and looking for a new chief. Here's the skinny for those looking to lead a magazine and work for (I assume, based on fees to writers) labor-of-love wages.

Last night I attended a brilliant concert at the Morgan Library & Museum, focusing on the music that mattered most to Marcel Proust, in his life and in his writing.  Organized by the Helicon Foundation and held in the gorgeously intimate Gilda Lehrman Hall, the concert featured songs by Reynaldo Hahn (Proust's sometime lover and longtime friend), Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Sonata No. 1, and César Franck's Piano Quintet in F Minor.  Both Saint-Saëns and Franck have been suggested as models for Proust's Vinteuil, composer of the famous "little phrase" that Swann treasured so deeply and associated with his love for Odette--though ultimately the phrase itself is as fictional as its composer:  it can't actually be found in any real-life music, but only in the marvelously descriptive words of its author.

The high point of the evening came when Richard Howard, noted Proust translator and excellent poet in his own right, read aloud the section of In Search of Lost Time in which Swann first discovered Vinteuil's "little phrase."  Howard read his own English translation beautifully, giving full poetic weight to each verbal phrase, but also giving comprehensible meaning to each sinuous and strangely conversational sentence.  And then, immediately after he spoke, Pedja Muzijevic (on piano) and Jennifer Frautschi (on violin) gave such a splendid and mutually complementary rendition of the Saint-Saëns sonata that I almost seemed to be hearing Proust's account all over again, twining within and around the music as they played.  The performance, that is, lived up to the matchless prose--and that is saying a great deal.

As I left the concert hall, invigorated by the whole concept as well as its flawless execution, I wondered if there were any other writers whose musical tastes could be celebrated in a similar way.  We could have Beethoven's Fifth played in conjunction with E. M. Forster's Howards End, or Thelonious Monk combined with Arne Dahl's Misterioso.  Last year's White Light festival gave us Samuel Beckett's prose mingled with the Schubert lieder he loved, and this year's will offer us T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and Beethoven's Opus 132.  But none of these combinations has the power of the Proust analogy, for the simple reason that none of these poets and novelists wrote in the manner of their favorite composers.  Only Proust accomplished this seemingly impossible task:  he turned language into music at the same time as he allowed it to retain its descriptive function.  And last night's concert did full justice to his achievement.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Martin Bernheimer on "Anna Bolena" at the Metropolitan Opera (Financial Times)
Laura Bleiberg on San Francisco Ballet's repertory program (Los Angeles Times)
Laura Bleiberg on San Francisco Ballet's "Romeo and Juliet" (Los Angeles Times)
Robert Christgau on Mates of State's "Mountaintops" (NPR)
Robert Christgau on "Note of Hope: A Celebration of Woody Guthrie" (NPR)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Tony Kushner and certainty (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold on the Pearl Theatre's "Bald Soprano" revival (The Village Voice)
Christopher Hawthorne reviews the West Hollywood Library (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on the movies as a growth industry in China (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Incendiary: The Willingham Case" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "50/50" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on the CSO's centenary of a centenary (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson reviews John Logan's "Red" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Julia M. Klein on "Making an Exit" (Obit Magazine)
Julia M. Klein interviews Ellen Schultz about "Retirement Heist" (AARP.org)
Julie Lasky does a Q&A with architect Jeanne Gang (The New York Times)
Glenn Lovell stumbles upon "Lion" Kinky (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews "Dream House" (CinemaDope.com)
Nancy Malitz reviews opening night at Chicago Lyric Opera (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Tom Moon reviews Wilco's "The Whole Love" (NPR)
Ann Powers on the music of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees (NPR)
Ann Powers e-interviews drummer Bill Rieflin (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Moneyball" (Los Angeles Times)