Though O’Brien’s Joyce is a flawed character indeed, often abusing others with a self-confidence that borders on narcissism, he remains both fascinating, and oddly likeable. For those of us, like O’Brien, who are deeply in Joyce’s literary debt for what he’s created, who can’t imagine the world of literature without the linguistic play his writing has allowed, this is a joyful book, full of fun, interest and great imagination. I suspect that Joyce himself would have approved.
A review of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
I don’t think any of the characters emerge as really unique individuals. In the case of Rudkus, I get the feeling that he is deliberately being put into as many different situations as possible, the better to elucidate all the abuses of the system. It did not seem likely, as I was reading, that one individual would really to through all of this … and the catalogue of horrors almost slips into parody at times, things being so bleak in so many different ways.
Flowers for Nat: David Murray Cuban Ensemble Plays Nat King Cole En Espanol
There is strong ensemble playing in the downbeat, sad “No Me Platiques,” in which the saxophone blares and also creates small, intricate patterns; and an emotional intensity emerges, with long, plaintive saxophone lines near the end. “Black Nat,” the one song David Murray wrote for the collection, mostly fits with the other music here, and has a lot of energy, though its wildness seems a bit beyond Cole’s customary cool control.
Bright, Dark Herald: Concerto in One Movement, and Symphony in E Minor by Florence Beatrice Price, performed by the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble
I suppose that I was surprised by that antique quality—a particular sweetness, a setting of the strings—as Florence Beatrice Price is an African-American artist, and I often associate that with immediacy, modernity. In fact, I can hear in her concerto a melody that sounds familiar, possibly bearing some relation to what one might hear in the American songbook of the twentieth-century’s first half: something beautiful and firm but perhaps too accessible, too slight.
A review of Strindberg’s Star by Jan Walletin
When Don meets up with her, they both get to experience some of Don’s grandmother’s experience firsthand. But then the chase is on, far to the north aboard a Russian ice cutter. The story has elements of horror, especially when Don gets to visit a graveyard and elements of mystery in the search for the artifacts as well as good Nazi historic facts. It makes the mystery a quick read.
After Conflict, Understanding: Big Grenadilla and Mumbai by Evan Ziporyn, with Sandeep Das, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose
Before Headley was apprehended as a criminal, he was mapping out a proposed attack in Copenhagen. Years later, the American, experimental classical musician Evan Ziporyn has created and made public a musical work, Mumbai, inspired by the violent assault in that great, troubled city, partnered with another composition, Big Grenadilla, a clarinet concerto.
Laughter, Love, Loss, Legacy (The Music Remains): Leaving Eden, a song collection by the Carolina Chocolate Drops
One of the most significant statements on Leaving Eden is fiddler and singer Rhiannon’s song “Country Girl,” an affirmation of the family, work, and natural resources to be found, nurtured, and relished in country life. “All day I dream about a place in sun, kind of like the place I’m from,” sings Rhiannon, in a song that I believe will be returned to again and again by different singers.
Different Ingredients, A Lot of Flavor: Twenty Dozen by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Southern funk is like a floating spore that carries no poison but can land and flower on any surface, in a cane field or a kitchen, on a baseball diamond, a parade float, or a fishing boat, in a church pew, a bingo hall, or on a dance floor, at a baby’s christening or a backyard barbecue—anywhere. It sprouts with the knowledge that pleasure, like purpose, does not have to be confined to predictable activity.
Inspiration and Instruction: Doc Tate Nevaquaya’s Comanche Flute Music
On Comanche Flute Music, Doc Tate Nevaquaya describes listening at night to nature and communal youth meetings, listening to the chants and the laughter. When Doc Tate was a young boy, he heard an instrument—and remembered it—and was later told it was a flute playing a courting song.
Playful and Sensual, Seductive: The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates
The two men met at Temple University in Philadelphia, where they both were students in the late 1960s, and some of their early music was folk rock—and they moved to New York in the mid-1970s. Their albums include Whole Oates, War Babies, and Bigger Than Both of Us, Voices, Beauty on a Back Street, Along the Red Ledge, Private Eyes, H-2-0, Rock N Soul Part 1, Big Bam, Boom, and Ooh Yeah!—and songs from some of those albums are included on The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates.