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Feb 1, 20205 min read
Silence is Golden
The Lodger, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927. Silent Hitchcock Retrospective, Harvard Film Archive, 2020. I have to confess that my interest...
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Feb 1, 20204 min read
Portrait of the Sculptor Friedrich, 1904
Oil on canvas, 1904, by Lovis Corinth (1858 ā 1925) The German artist Lovis Corinth was later to become another victim of Nazi censorship...
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Jan 29, 20203 min read
Notes on a Concert
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, Symphony Hall, Boston, January 28, 2020 1. You take the Number One bus to...
17 views


Jan 26, 20205 min read
Destructive Necessities
The Souvenir, dir. Joanna Hogg, 2019 Honor Swinton Byrne is Julie, a young sensitive woman raised in a loving and supportive middle-upper...
12 views


Jan 25, 20203 min read
Grazing Horses IV (The Red Horses)
Oil on canvas, 1911, by Franz Marc (1880 ā 1916) There is an entire gallery at the Fogg Museum which is designated to āArt in Germany...
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Jan 20, 20203 min read
The Power and the Light
The Lighthouse, dir. Robert Eggers, 2019 As a psychological thriller, The Lighthouse crawls under your skin in ways many other films in...
25 views


Jan 19, 20203 min read
Upper Deck
Oil on Canvas, 1929, by Charles Sheeler (1883 - 1965) I keep coming back to this painting, hanging in the modernist section of the...
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Jan 17, 20204 min read
In Defence of the Felines
Cats, by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and T.S. Eliot, dir. Trevor Nunn, Citizen Bank Opera House, Boston, 2020 There is no doubt about it that a...
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Jan 16, 20205 min read
Midsummer Madness
Midsommar, dir. Ari Aster, 2019 Hereditary, Aster's previous film, impressed me for its fine sense of characterisation and for what I...
16 views


Jan 12, 20205 min read
Ignorance is Bliss
The Farewell, dir. Lulu Wang, 2019 Lulu Wang's screenplay is perhaps one of the most impeccably crafted pieces of writing I have come...
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Jan 11, 20204 min read
Royal Tiger
Lithograph on off-white wove paper, 1829, by EugĆØne Delacroix (1798 ā 1863) I had heard of Delacroix mainly as one of the master painters...
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Jan 10, 20205 min read
Gothic Introspection
Dracula, devised by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat, 2019 Gatiss and Moffat's treatment of Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes legacy always...
22 views


Jan 9, 20206 min read
Real or Not?
Find Me, by Andre Aciman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019 Personally I would love to be a character in an Aciman novel. For one, his...
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Jan 7, 20203 min read
Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Snow
Oil on canvas, 1876, by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834 ā 1903) This dark, brooding, diffuse, near monochromatic canvas may seem an...
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Jan 5, 20205 min read
The Young Pretender
Daniel Lazokovich, violinist What right does an 18-year old, obviously comparatively inexperienced to fellow much older and seasoned...
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Jan 5, 20203 min read
The Devil in a Red Dress
In Fabric, dir. Peter Strictland, 2019 On first viewing, it's tempting to sum up In Fabric as a ludicrous indulgence of horror-noir...
21 views


Jan 3, 20204 min read
Can We Camp-Up Hitler?
JoJo Rabbit, dir. Taika Waititi, 2019 The first thing to say is that it's stupidly outrageous that a 10 year old kid can give such a...
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Jan 2, 20203 min read
Compact Power
Yuja Wang, Pianist Yuja has always been known as much for her daring stage attire as her brilliance as a virtuoso. Indeed, when she took...
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Jan 1, 20204 min read
A drug for our times?
Serotonin, by Michel Houellebecq, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019 While thoroughly un-PC to admit to this nowadays, I have to declare I'm a...
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Dec 31, 20193 min read
Dogs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bed Oak and pine veneered with mahogany; Ebonized pine; patinated bronze; gilded metal; modern upholstery, c. 1810, probably by Thomas...
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