Gingrich fever or mass hysteria?

February 6, 2012 Commentary

Last week proved that political news can provide the same satisfaction as any so-called weird news round-up. This comes thanks to Newt Gingrich with his plans for a moonbase, an announcement that makes him the most appealing Republican candidate ever for those of us with a love of the absurd. It was pointed out on [...]

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Profile: Sanford Biggers

February 6, 2012 Art

For his new installation at Mass MoCA, artist Sanford Biggers draws on the concept of “Afrofuturism” and mixes that with his own family’s creative past with a jazz-like precision, to conjure a three-dimensional puzzle for museum visitors to wander through. “The Cartographer’s Conundrum” opens at Mass MoCA on Saturday. Upon entering Building 5, visitors will [...]

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Review: A Dangerous Method

February 6, 2012 Film

The old aside states that therapists are crazier than their patients, and while this might not always be true, I think we can all settle on a happy medium in regard to the issue. Shrinks are likely to be as crazy as their patients and, in the case of “A Dangerous Method,” shrinks may possibly [...]

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Review: Robin Hood – The People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero by Paul Buhle

February 6, 2012 Books

It’s doubtful there has been a rebel that has endured longer than Robin Hood, and part of his longevity is certainly attributable to the fact that, as a fictional and somewhat mysterious character, he is entirely malleable to fit the needs of any age. In “Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero,” Paul Buhle takes [...]

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Review: Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim

February 6, 2012 Books

This coming-of-age tale that stares directly into the face of stunted growth was the debut graphic novel from the acclaimed Derek Kirk Kim, originally published thanks to a Xeric Foundation grant in 2004. Using the Tom Waits’ song “I Don’t Wanna’ Grow Up” as it’s central theme — though I suspect The Ramones’ version of [...]

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Profile: Nick Zammuto

February 2, 2012 Music

For the last decade, Nick Zammuto has achieved recognition as one-half of the innovative duo, The Books. Now Zammuto is saying goodbye to that project and moving into a more personal realm musically. Zammuto will perform with his new band at Mass MoCA on Friday, Feb. 3, at 8 p.m. “The Books went so far [...]

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Profile: Emily McMehen and Geoffrey Sautner “Achante”

February 2, 2012 Film

Two filmmakers seeking to capture the world of Haitian voodoo — or Vodou — found something unexpected in the community they sought to film — community. “Achante,” a short documentary film by Emily McMehen and Geoffrey Sautner, will screen at Mass MoCA during the concert by Zammuto at Mass MoCA on Friday, Feb. 3, at [...]

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When Democrats listen to Hollywood lies

February 2, 2012 Commentary

A recent Berkshire Eagle column accused the Internet of throwing a tantrum with last week’s blackout protests, as if the Internet is not us and as if what it protested — bills like SOPA and PIPA — were good for anyone other than an industry that is attempting to use law enforcement to curb the [...]

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The end of the world news

January 24, 2012 Commentary

The hardest thing about writing a regular column is revealed in those weeks where you notice a lot you’d like to say a little about, rather than the one important thing that you want to rail on. If nothing else, it makes it awful hard to give the column a pithy, cutesy, newspapery title. You know [...]

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Profile: Denise Markonish and Susan Cross / Mass MoCA

January 24, 2012 Art

Some might ask “What do museum curators do all day?” but for Mass MoCA curators, the question might instead be, “What don’t they do all day?” With positions that require them to realize the visions of people on the cutting edge of the contemporary art world — and that sometimes means helping art get made [...]

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You are what news you eat

January 24, 2012 Commentary

The problem with consuming the news from one news source — I’m staring point-blank at you, Fox viewers — is that the only way to understand the news in any effective way is to stretch your brain a little and connect some dots. News — hard news and even news analysis — is only the [...]

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Profile: Yoav Potash / Crime After Crime

January 24, 2012 Film

Director Yoav Potash’s documentary “Crime After Crime” started out as a portrait of an incarcerated woman and ended up as a life-calling for everyone involved. The film screens at Mass MoCA on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. In 1983, Deborah Peagler was imprisoned for 25 years in a California prison after being convicted of murdering her [...]

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When the children grow up

January 17, 2012 Commentary

In 2012, the panic is already showing in the religious right — at least in New Hampshire and Indiana where, yet again, we see those who can’t differentiate between over a century of research in the pursuit of actual knowledge and the fairy tales we tell children so life doesn’t start out seeming as complicated as [...]

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Will 2012 be the new 1984?

January 17, 2012 Commentary

The one positive thing I can say about Big Brother is that he infringes on everyone’s rights — he’s a nonpartisan dictator. No wonder prominent Republicans are starting to register as up in arms about Big Brother’s latest manifestation, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), as any liberal. Heritage Foundation [...]

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Profile: Melissa Mendes

December 24, 2011 Comics

Cartoonist Melissa Mendes’ new book, “Freddy Stories,” mixes autobiography with the history of children’s comics as a springboard to a promising future. The Hancock native’s book stands as the end result of a five-year process, beginning with the creation of the character Freddy, who takes her through her college years and into her professional life [...]

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Last minute Christmas downloads

December 24, 2011 Music

Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler — “This Is Christmas” (Infectious) Hong Kong-born and London- based Emmy the Great teams up with her boyfriend, Ash vocalist Tim Wheeler, for this collection of energetic and unpretentious — and sometimes very goofy — pop carols. Opening with the boppy, happy “Marshmallow World” and following with the sweet pop balladry [...]

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Review: Mush: Sled Dogs With Issues by by Glenn Eichler and Joe Infurnari

December 24, 2011 Comics

Framing a workplace comedy with interpersonal drama scattered throughout within the dynamic of a team of sled dogs might sound like the typical cheesy fodder of some animated film with the voice talents of Burt Reynolds, but in the hands of a writer like Glenn Eichler, it’s like a particularly dark and affecting episode of [...]

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Review: Adventures of Herge by Jose-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromenthal and Stanislas Barthelemy

December 24, 2011 Books

The very high profile “Tintin” movie is being advertised as from “the two greatest storytellers of our time,” but that’s disingenuous at best and smug at worst. The number should be three, since it should count Georges Remi, known by his pen name as Herge, the man who created the character and saw him through [...]

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Profile: Michelle Cuevas

December 24, 2011 Books

A new chapter book for kids by a Berkshires native channels lyrical work from the past in order to pave a promising future in the field. Michelle Cuevas is a Lee native and Williams College graduate. Her debut book, “The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant,” published by Farrar Straus Giroux and with illustrations by Caldecott [...]

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Fight the Power for Christmas

December 24, 2011 Commentary

Rick Perry’s recent video that confusingly links the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with a made-up conspiracy to stop children from celebrating Christmas is absurd, to say the least. It does do one thing well, though — it evokes the spirit of Christmas as a tribute to revolution. The revolutionary nature of the holiday [...]

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Occupy the GOP

December 16, 2011 Commentary

There’s one Occupy effort I haven’t seen suggested and I would humbly like to do so here. That is Occupy the GOP, a mass movement of liberals to become registered Republicans in order to vote in Republican primaries this election cycle. Is that a crooked, unethical thing to do? I don’t know. Perhaps. It’s not [...]

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Review: Habibi by Craig Thompson

December 16, 2011 Books

If religious belief is a sphere, then it’s one that is flanked by two poles that dominate the way societies approach it during any given time in history. On one end is the pole that demands all scripture is entirely true — on the other is that which sees scripture as merely a collection of [...]

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Profile: Maya Beiser

December 16, 2011 Music

A 10-day residency at Mass MoCA will result in the debut of a portion of cellist Maya Beiser’s cello opera, which investigates the end of the world through a multi-media surrealist lens. Beiser’s “Elsewhere,” to be performed Saturday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m., promises to be an electric and mysterious mix of dance, video, music [...]

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Right wingers getting beastly

December 16, 2011 Commentary

The National Defense Authorization Act has been getting a lot of ink in the liberal press lately. This is mostly because of the controversial section that could allow the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and brush away the detainee’s civil rights while doing so. Of less concern are other provisions contained within which cover [...]

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Review: Kathryn Calder – Bright and Vivid

December 6, 2011 Music

Canadian Indie rocker Kathryn Calder made a sublime achievement with her 2010 debut album “Are You My Mother?” The latter day member of the New Pornographers recorded the work while caring for her sick mother — it was not released until her mother’s subsequent death from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. While being pre-sold as a departure [...]

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Review: The Death Ray by Daniel Clowes

December 6, 2011 Comics

M. Night Shyamalan’s second film “Unbreakable” offered something different on movie screens with its vision of what a superhero would be like in the real world. As portrayed by Bruce Willis, it was a grim vision, steeped in crime noir trappings. Daniel Clowes’ new graphic novel does much the same thing, but instead of machismo, [...]

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Profile: Stephanie Rothenberg

December 6, 2011 Art

Artist Stephanie Rothenberg may not be Max Headroom — she’s much more articulate and doesn’t stutter — but her talk show effort mines similar territory as it exists between two worlds — the digital and the analog. Rothenberg’s “Best Practices in Banana Time” takes place at Mass MoCA on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. [...]

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The Blackest Friday Yet

December 6, 2011 Commentary

If last Friday — or, more correctly, Black Friday 2011 — showed us anything, it’s that Americans love a good deal more than almost anything else. In the ongoing societal effort to make sure “Wall-E” is the most prophetic movie ever made, Americans will descend upon box stores and swarm around looking for the pittance [...]

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DoublePlus Good news! It’s an OrWorld!

November 29, 2011 Commentary

It’s been a science fiction week for me — that is, the feeling that the world’s gone all science fiction on me. But not the fun kind with time travel or martians. I’m talking about the George Orwell kind — dystopian, as the current craze in young adult novels points out. It starts with the [...]

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Review: The Tree

November 29, 2011 Film

In this gentle and mature fable of the destruction of loss and clinging to the past, Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a widow in Australia who, following the sudden death of her husband, must negotiate a delicate situation with her daughter. As Dawn, Gainsbourg has a pristine life in the Australian outback with four children and a [...]

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