The book is rich with the New York City setting, from exhibitions at the Public Library and the Whitney museum, to the office blocks and cafes across Fifth Avenue, through the Upper West Side. Hubschman really knows these streets.
A review of Just Kids by Patti Smith
The book is written simply, with a tender humility that shines the light on Mapplethorpe and other tragic geniuses of that era, tracing their guiding hunger, their successes, and ultimate failures. The book isn’t sad though—it’s transcendent. Smith is the survivor, her story extending well beyond the pages of the book.
A review of Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
Time’s Arrow is a brilliant work, in my opinion. In the first place, the time-reversal is done with great skill; and on this level, Time’s Arrow is certainly a tour de force. But I think the book is much more than that. The writing is powerful.
A review of Without Hesitation by Mark Rosendorf
Rosendorf has again crafted a properly delivered spine tingling work filled with twists and turns, characters who appear as they are not, and others who perform as expected. Locales are well detailed, action is intense, red herrings are tossed in to create some unexpected situations and turn arounds.
A review of The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh
I can honestly say that I’ve never had the experience of actually feeling as though this was happening as I read, as if there was much more left to discover within this story if I kept reading and peeling away more layers. Her prose is elegant, her plot simple yet complicated, and the twists and turns within the story keep the reader highly engaged as the events unfold, with a very unexpected ending.
Interview with Victoria Ufondu of Jotspeak
The creator of Jotspeak talks about her new writing site and why it’s different, why she started it, on the spoken word form, her marketing process, their charity gigs, a sneak preview on where the site might be headed, and lots more.
Private Music, Public Art: Oyo by Angelique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo listened to the music of Bella Bellow, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and other Motown artists, Miriam Makeba, Curtis Mayfield, and Otis Redding. She listened to all kinds of music, in different languages. Full of curiosity and enthusiasm, Angelique Kidjo was a girl whose singing was enjoyed by her community, but as she became a young woman that attitude changed—because women entertainers were viewed with moral skepticism—and Kidjo was criticized and taunted, but with her family’s support she continued to sing.
I Would Like to Call It Beauty: Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Sea
I had not known or remembered how talented Corinne Bailey Rae is; more than a unique singer—her voice can seemed to be held in the air, suspended by contemplation, savoring mood and sense—she plays several instruments, including piano and guitar (and glockenspiel, glass organ, autoharp). The first song on The Sea does not seem to end the silence that preceded it, but to extend that silence and then to slowly give it details, with Bailey Rae’s delicate voice and her piano and guitar.
Masterpiece; or, The Intimate Art of Song: Love is the Answer by Barbra Streisand
It is in Streisand’s inflections—her diction, pacing, and tone—that one can identify some of Streisand’s talent, as she remembers a love in the composition “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” which Frank Sinatra sang (it was written by Bob Hilliard and David Mann, and here has a piano solo by Diana Krall, who serves as Streisand’s producer for Love is the Answer). Streisand’s inflections, like that of Sinatra, return dignity and understanding to human experience.
Idol Rising (Toward Individuality): The Element of Freedom by Alicia Keys, with her Unplugged collection
(Yelling and screaming are what people who are incapable of eloquence or self-control regularly do; and artists have imitated that to indicate genuine feeling. Is that honesty, invention, or a crude, pandering sentimentality; or, is it, possibly, all of these? It is not art or craft as each has been long, traditionally understood: art has been about evolution, improvement, refinement. It is an irony that the twentieth-century modern era has used the primitive, the raw, the stupid, and the ugly as invigorating, persuasive powers; and many people are still convinced by that kind of power.)