cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
I am thrilled to be in the beautifully produced 382-page glamorous coffee-table book BAM: The Complete Works, edited by Steven Serafin and published by the Quantum Lane Press, in celebration of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 150th anniversary. My contribution is a brief sidebar essay on Laurie Anderson that gets its own spread (pp. 164-165), alongside pieces by the likes of Joan Acocella, Deborah Jowitt, Susan Yung, Roger Oliver, Peter Brook, and Meredith Monk.
Jason
Brad
Bill
Larry
Roger
Kai
Henry
My review of David Henry Hwang’s new Broadway comedy Chinglish has just been posted online at CultureVulture.net. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The very good cast includes Gary Wilmes (above right), a downtown actor I’ve admired in productions by Richard Foreman and Richard Maxwell, and a bunch of terrific Chinese-American actors new to me, most notably Jennifer Lim (above left). As I say in the review, “Anyone who’s spent time clicking around the website Engrish.com will be well-prepared to enjoy David Henry Hwang’s new play…a culture-clash comedy about language, manners, business, politics, reputations, time, and romance. Some of it is predictable, but much of it is not. I left the theater entertained, thoughtful, and wondering ‘What kind of crazy play was that?’ which is a combo I like.”
You can read the whole review here.
“Penetration,” Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network OS)
“Little Kids,” Kings of Convenience
“All We Ask,” Grizzly Bear
“This Love Affair,” Rufus Wainwright
“A Good Place,” Grizzly Bear
“Soldier of Love,” Sade
“Plastis Wafers,” Of Montreal
“Ramona,” Beck
“Do You Mutilate?” Of Montreal
“I Zimbra,” Talking Heads
“Heart Like a Wheel,” Kate & Anna McGarrigle
“What Is it About Men,” Amy Winehouse
“Sweet Old World,” Lucinda Williams
“My Will Is Good,” Port O’Brien
“Sanfoninha Choradeira,” Luiz Gonzaga & Elba Ramalho
“Alone,” Celine Dion
“Come the Wild Wild Weather,” Sutton Foster
MUSIC
That’s the problem with singing in rock music, the sincere school of criticism, the need for everything to have to have personal meaning and emotion, that the psychological intention of the singer is the most important thing. I would love to see critics write about what the drummer is doing as though it is as important as what the singer is singing, which it usually is. It’s at least as significant as the lyrics to a song how one chord becomes another. You can view the rock song through the prism of the words, but you can also view it through lots of other prisms.
— Brian Eno
another eye opens 