ARTicles tag:www.najp.org,2008-01-28:/articles//1 2012-02-03T01:56:49Z The Blog of the National Arts Journalism Program Movable Type 4.25 The Prince of L.A. tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.817 2012-02-03T01:48:45Z 2012-02-03T01:56:49Z 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.... Mike Rogers 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.

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.816 2012-01-31T02:55:46Z 2012-01-31T03:05:15Z 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... Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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.

]]> Dance, "Pina," and Oscar tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.815 2012-01-24T19:08:04Z 2012-01-25T22:39:49Z Laura Bleiberg STILL 1.jpg
                                             © Neue Road Movies GmbH, photo by Donata Wenders

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.

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.814 2012-01-23T08:00:01Z 2012-01-23T00:27:29Z 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... Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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)

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.813 2012-01-17T01:53:08Z 2012-01-17T02:03:06Z Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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)

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.812 2012-01-09T08:00:01Z 2012-01-09T02:41:28Z 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... Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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) 

]]> Catarrh tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.811 2012-01-07T19:29:25Z 2012-01-10T05:10:56Z Wendy Lesser http://www.threepennyreview.com/ San Francisco Symphony concert seem to be suffering from horrendous, irrepressible winter coughs?

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. 
]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.810 2012-01-03T01:12:30Z 2012-01-03T01:36:52Z Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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

]]> Indiewire is looking for a news editor tag:www.najp.org,2012:/articles//1.809 2012-01-02T23:51:48Z 2012-01-02T23:53:26Z This might be a good job for someone out there: http://www.indiewire.com/indiewire-jobs... Steve Dollar

http://www.indiewire.com/indiewire-jobs

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.807 2011-12-20T02:47:57Z 2011-12-20T03:14:22Z 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... Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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)

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.806 2011-12-13T02:15:35Z 2011-12-13T02:39:37Z Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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) 

]]> The Future of Best Music Writing tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.805 2011-12-11T13:42:48Z 2011-12-11T18:09:12Z In late November, shortly after the Alex Ross-edited 2011 edition of Best Music Writing appeared, rumors that Da Capo had pulled the plug on the series began circulating. But remarkably soon after that came word that series editor Daphne Carr, on board since 2006 (the in-house editor has been Ben Schafer since almost the beginning) had decided it was too... Robert Christgau Best Music Writing appeared, rumors that Da Capo had pulled the plug on the series began circulating. But remarkably soon after that came word that series editor Daphne Carr, on board since 2006 (the in-house editor has been Ben Schafer since almost the beginning) had decided it was too late to stop now. So she proposed to continue the series as a self-published venture, and is seeking support of all kinds, including 30 grand in seed money that will buy you a 2012 edition (on which her labor of culling 2011 writing has surely long since begun) and testimonials from writers, editors, and fans. I'm all three myself, and just sent Daphne 50 bucks.

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.
]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.804 2011-12-05T08:00:01Z 2011-12-04T23:19:51Z 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... Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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)

]]> Collected Stories tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.803 2011-11-28T22:30:56Z 2011-11-28T22:44:33Z Laura Collins-Hughes http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference/ 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)

]]> Making a Career of It tag:www.najp.org,2011:/articles//1.802 2011-11-27T06:00:03Z 2011-11-28T22:30:37Z Robert Christgau "Pioneer Days," I began backgrounding compulsively as I invariably do. And so I pulled from my pending shelves a quasi-collection I'd begun and then put down in 2009: Robert Hilburn's Cornflakes With John Lennon. Given that I already had two meaty books to review, I didn't have room even to mention it in my essay; 400 words over my ideal length, although the online gods I'm accountable to are understanding about such peccadillos, I didn't even have space to quote any of the prose I wanted to make a stylistic point of. So I thought I'd give Hilburn more than a mention here.

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.
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