John Steinbeck, chronicler of the Depression-era common man, has created many indelible characters, but few resonate with us with the impact of those odd couple drifters, George Milton and Lennie Small, in Of Mice and Men. A symbiotic team where most migrant workers are loners, scrappy, parental George is unusually protective of hulking, slow-witted Lennie. For quite … [Read more...]
Sundays: The call of the wrecking ball
By Myles Ludwig Scoff as you may, but I’ve been musing on the meaning of Miley. I‘ve come to think the emergence of this self-described “bad bitch that I am” from the animatronic cocoon of Disneyworld, sanctified by SNL and Fallon, sanitized by Ellen, glorified by Rolling Stone and celebrated with a way-pre-tour promo video on MTV, this tall, pig-tailed, lizard-tongued … [Read more...]
The View From Home 53: High school vérité, a horror classic and Bergman & Bergman
The We and the I: The We and the I (Virgil Films, $16.22) is another masterpiece from Michel Gondry, and it’s a film that goes a long way toward rendering irrelevant the distinction between fiction and documentary. Mostly putting his fevered visual imagination on the back burner, Gondry takes a vérité approach in this study of Bronx high schoolers on a real-time bus ride … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in Palm Beach County art
The new art season in Palm Beach County will deliver some surprises as well as “safety objects.” There are some firsts (see Norton’s pick for its RAW series) and there is the repetitious (the influence of Warhol, the legacy of Flagler), but I have to believe even these announcements are good news, for a museum never brings back shows that act as audience repellents. Let us … [Read more...]
Sundays: The sound and the fury
By Myles Ludwig Ladies and gentlemen, the government has left the building. Thank you and good night. It’s times like these that make us glad to see a punky Miley Cyrus embarrass herself on the VMA, then make an amusing, self-conscious effort to redeem herself on SNL by slutting up Michele Bachmann, wearing an ironic throwback jersey and a lacy transparent hoodie jumpsuit … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in opera
The two 200th-birthday boys of 2013, Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, have been staples of the world’s opera houses since middle of the 19th century, and nothing’s changed today. Each of the three area opera companies will feature work by Verdi in the 2013-14 season, and one of them will offer Wagner: Sarasota Opera is mounting The Flying Dutchman. Florida Grand Opera, under … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in classical music
The 2013-14 classical season offers its usual overstuffed bounty for South Floridians, and this time there is a continuation of the new energy and innovation we saw last season, with a good deal of stress on new composition, orchestras widening their reach, and some of the leading performers of the newest generation making their area debuts. Here is a look, by genre, at the … [Read more...]
The troubled vintage of fathers and sons
It cannot be a spoiler to say that Paul de Marseul (Niels Arestrup), the hulking and obstreperous central figure in You Will Be My Son, dies. It’s not a spoiler because the very first scene is Paul’s casket sliding, with graceful elegance, toward its incineration in a crematorium. Paul’s milquetoast son Martin (Lorant Deutsch) watches with disbelief, his face a harsh map of … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in jazz
As the sweltering South Florida summer temperatures drop, and listeners decide they can survive leaving their houses wearing more than just shorts and T-shirts, so the often equally-sweltering area jazz season begins. The big news last year was the unfortunate suspension of the annual concert series by the West Palm Beach-based Jazz Arts Music Society (JAMS), a trend that … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in Miami-Dade art
By Colleen Dougher Miami-Dade museums and cultural centers offer their usual array of diverse offerings for the 2013-14 season, from the big-fat art fair that — if pronounced correctly — rhymes with nozzle, to shows that ooze masculinity, help save stadiums and question this affair we're having with technology. Art Basel Miami Beach The oft-mispronounced Art Basel … [Read more...]