The unofficial title of “World’s Greatest Living Electric Guitarist” automatically eliminates late American contenders like rocker Jimi Hendrix, blues man Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the inimitable Frank Zappa. So the crown likely boils down to several prominent British veterans who’ve dipped at least a toe into challenging progressive music. Among them is the 1960s Yardbirds rock … [Read more...]
In ‘The Attack,’ a gritty look at depth of Middle East divide
How’s this for a premise most filmmakers wouldn’t touch with a pole the size of the Gaza Strip: An Arab surgeon who has become fully acclimated in Israeli society receives a career-crowning award from the nation’s medical establishment. The very next day, a bomb explodes in an Israeli café, killing 17 people and maiming many others, including children. The suicide bomber who … [Read more...]
Kornbluth finds career — and religion — in monologues
Josh Kornbluth is the original Red Diaper baby, a fact that’s given him much material for his work as a monologuist. Raised in New York by Communist parents, Kornbluth moved to Boston in his early 20s and took a job as a copy editor for the alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix. He briefly attended Princeton University but dropped out before graduating, and only recently … [Read more...]