The Arts Fuse

At 90, writes Lauren Kaufmann, Boston’s The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston revisits nine decades of boundary-pushing art, institutional reinvention, and a willingness to take risks. artsfuse.org/336556/visua...

Henry Carrigan talks to Meghan O’Gieblyn about her new book "Will and Attention": in it, the essayist explores addiction, faith, and the divided self—and asks whether lasting change begins not with willpower but with attention. @doubledaybooks.bsky.social artsfuse.org/336567/autho...

At 90, writes Lauren Kaufmann, Boston’s The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston revisits nine decades of boundary-pushing art, institutional reinvention, and a willingness to take risks. artsfuse.org/336556/visua...

Lauren Daley talks to Grahame Lesh about growing up Dead, #bobweir, Bravo’s “Real Housewives,” #terrapincrossroads, and why the Dead will never die. Grahame Lesh & Friends's Halloween-week performances: Boston on October 29 and Nantucket on October 30 and 31. artsfuse.org/336533/music...?

An enchanted forest, a stolen child, and a battle for survival, Peg Aloi writes that #TravisKnight’s stop-motion fantasy film #Wildwood is as emotionally rich as it is visually dazzling. artsfuse.org/336476/film-...

Our expert critics -- Peg Aloi, Peter Walsh, Tim Jackson, Noah Schaffer, Paul Robicheau, Matt Hanson, and me -- supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in. artsfuse.org/336270/comin...

From Peter Quinn’s Civil War New York to Dvorak’s New World, writes Joseph Horowitz, imagined lives can deepen our understanding of the past — and restore the arts to the teaching of history. artsfuse.org/336497/arts-...

Igor V. Satanovsky on "flutterrudderbutterfly": in poet Heller Levinson’s exuberant verbal universe, words acquire bodies, punctuation takes command, and a sustained interrogation of love gives linguistic experiment an emotional charge. Black Widow Press artsfuse.org/336317/book-...

A selkie romance, a dubious life coach, and three couples in crisis. Peg Aloi says that love took some strange turns at this year’s @woodstockfilmfest.bsky.social. artsfuse.org/336403/woods...

Jason M. Rubin writes that, on the album "To Oscar With Love," jazz vocalist Amber Weekes brings warmth, wit, and a fresh perspective to twelve songs by an underappreciated master storyteller. artsfuse.org/336424/music...

This month marks the 300th anniversary of the publication of the greatest satire in the English language-- #JonathanSwift's "Gulliver's Travels." @allenmichie.bsky.social pays homage to a classic that remains oh-so relevant. artsfuse.org/336110/book-...

@callinamagician.bsky.social on #LeeChangdong's film "Possible Love": A filmmaker’s interest in a laid-off worker draws two couples into an intimate, uneasy tangle of money, power, and desire. #Netflix artsfuse.org/336247/film-...

Michael Marano on the film "Clayface": A brutally nasty Gotham revenge tale turns a minor #batman villain into the stuff of a major body-horror surprise. artsfuse.org/336371/film-...

Adeena Karasick's "SONIC WARFARE" is this week's poem. And you can hear her, and other poets, read at the Writers vs. AI event, presented by The Arts Fuse on Saturday, Oct 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House in Harvard Square. artsfuse.org/336345/weekl...

Bill Marx reviews Barrington Stage Company's one-person version of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." Mark H. Dold brings force and sensitivity to this compelling, uneven production, but the solo format undercuts Chekhov’s psychological complexity. artsfuse.org/336261/theat...

Matt Hanson finds Marlon James's novel "The Disappearers" to be a sprawling, richly layered, sexually frank, and often harrowing story about the enforced secrecy of gay life in Jamaica. artsfuse.org/336305/book-...

Preston Gralla talks to Katy Doughty about her non-fiction book for young adults, "How to Survive the End of the World": Catastrophe is only part of the story. There’s also human resilience—and the possibility of making things better. @candlewickpress.bsky.social artsfuse.org/336081/local...

Lauren Kaufmann writes that In "A Dead White," Wendy S. Walters blends memoir and cultural history to question the ubiquity—and presumed innocence—of white paint. @simonandschuster.bsky.social artsfuse.org/336094/book-...

Reunited after 30 years as the trio Sugar, writes Paul Robicheau, Bob Mould, David Barbe, and Malcolm Travis delivered a triumphant Roadrunner set that balanced melodic hooks with cathartic fury. artsfuse.org/336207/music...

Ahead of “A Nightmare Before Halloween” at the Paradise Rock Club, Big D and the Kids Table’s frontman Dave McWane talks to Rob Duguay about collaborative songwriting, animated adventures, and keeping new music in the works while on the road. artsfuse.org/336224/music...

The Short Fuse Podcast returns! Elizabeth Howard talks to Ruchira Gupta to explore her friendship with #GloriaSteinem, the influence of India and Gandhi on Steinem’s activism, and their shared commitment to women’s freedom. artsfuse.org/336239/short...

The newsletter links to a review of the installation “Cemetery of the Nameless" and other critiques. My column is a head's up for the magazine’s upcoming poetry reading—a small protest against the AI brain-freeze. artsfuse.substack.com/p/no-cognitv...

For Neil Giordano, #GlobeDocs (Boston Globe Events) and a standout screening at the Somerville Theatre offer an inviting week of documentaries about mortality, justice, community, and a divided nation. artsfuse.org/336164/film-...

Robert Israel writes that Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s bawdy, bighearted romp "Bark of Millions" raised the Paramount Center's roof, but its sprawling celebration of queer history cries out for a firmer editorial hand. ArtsEmerson artsfuse.org/336180/theat...

Peg Aloi writes that from haunted islands to Gilead and outer space, four TV series -- :Widow’s Bay," "Half Man," "Star City," and "The Testaments"-- keep the scary season alive. artsfuse.org/336191/watch...

Jonathan Blumhofer writes that on his third recording of Benjamin Britten’s three solo cello suites, the Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, brings lucid intensity to their knotty arguments and haunting lyricism. artsfuse.org/336040/class...

Jason M. Rubin on a new collection of unreleased demos, live performances, and studio recordings that puts Marshall Crenshaw's enduring pop gifts in the spotlight ahead of his November 11 appearance at Boston CityWinery. artsfuse.org/335603/album...

Mary Sherman writes that in her haunting installation "Cemetery of the Nameless" at @goetheinstitut.bsky.social Boston, Pınar Öğrenci contemplates displacement, anonymous deaths, and the cruelties that recur across borders and centuries. artsfuse.org/336136/visua...

In this ambitious Czech novel, Radka Denemarková's "A Contribution to the History of Joy," a detective’s inquiry into an apparent suicide becomes a meditation on violence against women, historical memory, and the possibility of joy. From @coffeehousepress.bsky.social artsfuse.org/336031/book-...

Neil Giordano on "Misty Green": A stellar Rosalind Eleazar anchors this sour Hollywood parable, but Chris Rock’s performance and an overstuffed screenplay undermine its bite. artsfuse.org/336060/film-...

For Steve Provizer, singer caroll vanwelden’s "Shakespeare Revisited" brings a flexible voice and adventurous textures to the Bard's sonnets, but its melodies and production too often overwhelm the poetry. artsfuse.org/335918/jazz-...

David D'Arcy at the New York Film Festival: Julia Loktev’s six-hour portrait of exiled TV Rain journalists, a tale set in Andrey Zvyagintsev’s corrupt provincial Russia, and Emmanuel Marre’s understated study of collaboration under Nazi occupation. artsfuse.org/336014/film-...?

For Michael Londra, "An Anthology of the Berkeley Renaissance, edited by Ben Mazer and Blake Campbell gives long-overdue shape to an influential but unjustly forgotten chapter in twentieth-century American poetry. #MadHatPress artsfuse.org/335831/book-...

Thomas F. Connolly writes that in her book In "Stalin’s Apostles," a gripping, clear-eyed account of the infamous Cambridge spy ring, Antonia Senior dismantles the mythology of the gentleman spy, exposing the murderous loyalties behind the old school tie. artsfuse.org/335956/book-...

Jonathan Blumhofer writes that Rebekah Heller’s new album, "Righteous Rage", celebrates the power, agility, and surprising expressive breadth of the bassoon. @cantaloupe-music.bsky.social artsfuse.org/336004/class...

Mark Favermann on the Andres Institute of Art: the organization celebrates the marriage of art and nature each year, with three international artists adding new granite works to the New Hampshire sculpture park. artsfuse.org/335888/visua...

In Alex Gibney’s exhaustive but important documentary, writes @pkeough1.bsky.social, Elon Musk emerges as a visionary, a menace, and a man determined to escape the world he has helped imperil. artsfuse.org/335995/doc-t...

Jon Garelick writes that, at Harvard, the 82-year-old composer-saxophonist Henry Threadgill joined Vijay Iyer and Dafnis Prieto for a taut, wide-ranging evening of angular melody, open space, and rhythmic surprise. artsfuse.org/335934/conce...?

Ed Perkins’s doc "Clown Panic" deals with a fascinating cultural phenomenon -- America’s 2016 creepy-clown craze -- but @sarahminaosman.bsky.social says the film buries it beneath sweeping analogies and frantic editing. #hulu artsfuse.org/335878/film-...

Ed Symkus hails the restoration of "The Devils," Ken Russell's provocative 1971 study of politics, religion, and sex in medieval France. It is back on the big screen—with its long-censored footage reinstated. artsfuse.org/335901/film-...

The poem of the week: JosetteAkresh-Gonzales's “Cop City” artsfuse.org/335948/weekl...

Michael Morano on #nathanfielder’s #youcanseeeverything: This head-spinning documentary turns the #theranos saga into a revelatory, Philip K. Dickian inquiry into artifice, identity, and truth. #ElizabethHolmes artsfuse.org/335866/film-...

@pkeough1.bsky.social on two compelling documentaries in the Boston Palestine Film Festival: one looks at critic #EdwardSaid’s intellectual awakening, the other the unfinished search for justice for Alex Odeh. artsfuse.org/335855/doc-t...

This week's newsletter contains links to Debra Cash's remembrance of Dance Umbrella founder Jeremy Alliger, Roberta Silman's appreciation of F Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night." My editorial asks how well—or how badly—have our media covered documentaries, literature, and art about Gaza.

@dankennedy.net on the "The People’s Paper: The Rise and Fall of the New York Daily News." Founded as a sensational tabloid with right-wing, racist sensibilities, the city’s white working-class voice tried to go upscale — and lost to Rupert Murdoch’s sleazier competitor. artsfuse.org/335819/

Noah Goldstein writes that Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner "Fjord," asks whether understanding others requires seeing their side—or questioning our own. At @thecoolidge.bsky.social artsfuse.org/335806/film-...

The Dublin post-punk experimentalists Gilla Band bring songs from their dark new album to Brighton Music Hall. Guitarist Alan Duggan talks to Rob Duguay, and he reflects on the troupe’s evolving creative process and his personal connection to Boston. artsfuse.org/335784/music...

For Jeremy Ray Jewell, Asio Liu’s probing documentary "Strangers and Their Babies" uncovers the forgotten history of unlisted Vietnamese “boat people” refugee camps in the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. artsfuse.org/335742/film-...

Ahead of two Massachusetts shows with Dan Bejar, Neko Case talks to Blake Maddux about producing the album "Neon Grey Midnight Green," writing her memoir, composing a "Thelma and Louise" musical, and the toll of streaming on working musicians. artsfuse.org/335696/music...?

"Slam Frank" is a satirical entertainment that imagines a progressive regional theater company remaking "The Diary of Anne Frank" as an intersectional, genderqueer, Afro-Latin hip-hop musical. artsfuse.org/335678/theat...