Celebrating Community
ON DECK The Unstoppable Sweetness of Being. Progressive rock isn’t known for being particularly fun-loving. It’s more often than not overly complicated, egg-headed eccentricism aimed at impressing disenchanted beard-strokers. Prog-punk pilgrim Tatsuya Yoshida has been banging his head against that wall of pomposity since the 1980’s, primarily with his mad duo Ruins (and its many offshoots). A wave of cartoonishly […]
Richard Mock: The Cutting Edge is an exhibition at Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook. The show includes edition prints from Kentler Flatfiles along with a large installation of prints documented by artist and printmaker Dennis McNett of Wolfbat Studios. There are more than 300 linoleum block prints and most of them are making a statement, whether it’s satirical, […]
Jazz is always on the move, and that’s why it is the music closest to my heart. I care about living in society, the world around me, the people around me, I’m interested in what they do and think and how they work together. Put that together with the rhythmic bril-liance, the incredible musical skill, the beauty of hearing ideas […]
I came across this free movie on YouTube when I was looking for films with Woody Harrelson. I used to think Woody just played himself. A cool, funny, stoner type. Then I saw him in Out of the Furnace. He played a scary badass. A guy you would hate, and be terrified of. He’d beat the hell out of you. […]
Peter Nicks’ exceptional documentary Homeroom, which debuts on Hulu August 12, is the third film in a trilogy focused on the residents of Oakland, California, and their fraught relationship with public institutions. The first, The Waiting Room (2012), centered on health care, specifically Highland Hospital; The Force (2017) was concerned with policing. Homeroom tackles education — Nicks admits to being […]
Review of Mona by Pola Oloixarac, Translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris Review by Michael Quinn Waking up on a Palo Alto train station platform, covered in blood, with no memory of what happened or how she got there, Mona, the title character of the third novel by Argentinian writer Pola Oloixarac (translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris), […]
Pretty much since the start, there’s been a debate over just what jazz is. The etymology of the term is itself unclear. Jazz was first called “jas” and “jass,” and those look to be connected to the mid-19th century slang “jasm,” (yes, you know what that is) transmuted in a 1916 article in the Daily Californian to “jaz-m.” Close by […]
Review of Marvelous Manhattan: Stories of the Restaurants, Bars, and Shops That Make This City Special by Reggie Nadelson Review by Michael Quinn. Now that the city’s opening up, where are you looking forward to going? Should you be willing to venture across the river, author Reggie Nadelson has some swell suggestions. Her new book, Marvelous Manhattan: Stories of the […]
I saw the movie “The Age of Adaline” and we are blessed to have this. This is why movies can touch us so deeply. It stars Blake Lively. Blake is a she if you didn’t know. She plays Adaline. A beautiful young woman cursed to be alone forever. I loved her in this. Do you know who else loved her? […]
Rock epicness is a tricky proposition. Rock is, or should be, in opposition to all pretension. Epicness, on the other hand, invites pretension. They’re like oil and water—they don’t mix but can be combined, one spreading into a thin, almost invisible film across the other, rendering it unusable. Drinking large amounts of pretentious epic rock can kill you. Rock epicness […]