Sunday, May 18, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

HomeArts & Entertainment

Arts & Entertainment

MAHLER FESTIVAL: First day, First Symphony

I came to Amsterdam to listen to all of Gustav Mahler’s 10 symphonies by some of the world’s greatest orchestras, one each day, consecutively, and his ‘Song of the Earth’, but especially the four movements that comprise his First Symphony.

A Tanglewood bestiary

The campaign to rid the Shed of starlings began in the 1940s with birdshot. Chemicals were tried in the ‘50s, and screening in the ‘60s. All to no avail.

Theatre of Freedom: A unique way to experience the Fourth of July

'The Theatre of Freedom' is a radical theatrical experiment in community, vulnerability and the meaning of freedom.

The Ballad of Purusha and Prakriti

A poem of the beginning of things, and what beginnings bring forth.

My first job: Writing in cubicle four

Wherein our theater reviewer, J. Peter Bergman, reveals how his writing career began, and how that beginning quickly ended.

Fiona’s Findings: Rock ‘n’ Roll reverie

If you can guess what legendary musicians are represented in Fiona's sketches, you might win one of Fiona's illustrations, customized to your sense of style.

‘Working on a Special Day’: A tour de force

This is theatrical art at its most unique. It is also moving, an emotional firecracker of a play with every element a first-time experience.

Loud, lewd and dancy: ‘Kiss Me Kate’ at Barrington Stage

All in all, this is a lively, sexy, glitzy, sophisticated example of the best that Broadway has provoked from its creative talent pool in the 20th century.

A poem: Continuous deathly worries

A poem by Matt Whalan, with an illustration by Alison Lee.

A stunning, remarkable performance: Kristin Wold as Anne Hathaway in ‘Shakespeare’s Will’

As Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, Kristin Wold triumphs in a role that is written out of imagination and history combined; she breathes life into a name without a face and a presence without presence.

A poem: In My Town

In my town the youth congregate to complain about their futures and Try their hand at drinking away their worries. They want more than their imaginings of the future can give them

Fiona’s Findings: Italians do it better

In Amsterdam, I was looking for an army green field jacket and came across a vendor selling military surplus from across the globe.

A Fable: Acts of the Devil

Herewith a fable for our time by the poet Kurt Kruger, on the wily schemes of the Devil: 'Long ago, when there was much more space than people, I would have gone to each isolated population, in turn, and convinced them that I was God.'

Review: Pooja Ru Prema’s ‘Endure’ lights up the Green River

Pooja has created a deeply personal aesthetic that mines ancient and modern forms. It is challenging and wondrous and a must-see.

Disaster (Man-made)

This jewel of an exhibit shows artists who are unafraid to burst the pretentious ego-inflated bubble of current artistic trends.

Fiona’s Findings: Summer style

Wherein Fiona Breslin explains -- and illustrates -- her summer fashion preferences.

Book Review: The surveillance state: No place to hide, really

Page after page reveals to us with ever increasing horror that we are the most surveilled and spied upon people to ever walk the earth. This is not fiction.