The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence
If you've seen Pleasantville--the story of teenagers who are magically transported from 1990s reality into 1950s television--you know that its writer-director, Gary Ross, has a...
Jul 31, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Paint It Black Paint It Black
If the idea of monochrome painting occurred to anyone before the twentieth century, it would have been understood as a picture of a monochrome reality, and probably taken as a ...
Jul 31, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
Soul Man Soul Man
Pop music's eternal appeal can be found in one instance out of many: "This Magic Moment," a 1960 song by The Drifters.
Jul 31, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Armond White
Badlands Badlands
It's always good fun to see a boy wax romantic over the first girl to give him a handjob--and if the boy should be a black-hatted Jew, the fun is only improved.
Jul 17, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Miles Davis Miles Davis
Most of what we know about the life of Miles Davis is either anecdotal or a matter of official record, and thus not absolutely reliable; but by all accounts, most pertinently h...
Jul 2, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Lucius Shepard
The Girls of Summer The Girls of Summer
This Independence Day, the symbolic struggle being waged on thousands of screens across the Empire pits Reese Witherspoon against Arnold Schwarzenegger, gooey-sweet girl agains...
Jul 2, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Woody Guthrie Woody Guthrie
When Bob Dylan took the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, all leather and Ray-Bans and Beatle boots, and declared emphatically and (heaven forbid) electrically that he w...
Jul 2, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Steve Earle
Our Man in Jazz Our Man in Jazz
Not many people can say they changed the world and make it stick. In Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, George Wein does.
Jun 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro
Candid Camera Candid Camera
I have often been asked the difference between movie reviews and film criticism; and after much thought, I've decided the answer is about one week.
Jun 19, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Playing the Field Playing the Field
"In society the homosexual's life must be discreetly concealed. As material for drama, that life must be even more intensely concealed.
Jun 19, 2003 / Books & the Arts / David Kaufman