Posts in Essays and Reviews
Not Our President: New Directions from the Pushed Out, the Others, and the Clear Majority in Trump’s Stolen America

          It is as we zoom past literal interpretation to arrive at a deeper truth that we appreciate the title Not Our President. It marks the profound disconnect between the aims and practices of the Trump regime and the aspirations of those who think like the forty-two artists, intellectuals, and cultural workers collected under the phrase.

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Where Language Moves Like Paint: The In-Betweens of Randee Silv’s Wordslabs

          Randee Silv’s new chapbook, Farnessity (dancing girl press 2018) introduces us to a classification-eluding language event that she calls wordslabs.  A first read-through can feel both seductive and disorienting.  The content and rhythm of the first sentence or two might seem, often enough, to signal narrative, perhaps even fiction, but very soon afterwards, the threads start shifting so much that one has to wonder just what this writer’s up to. 

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Homofuturism Deferred

Walking into Galerie Bucholz one sun-soaked Saturday afternoon in January, the effect was in equal turns overwhelming and energizing. Crammed so full with artworks and historical objects, the gallery resembled something closer to a kitsch-filled antiques store than a typical art show, tasteful as it was.

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AGAINST WRITING

In Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, there is a poignant exchange between the nameless master of the novel’s title, and the everyman-poet Ivan Bezdomny:

“What, don't you like my poetry?” asked Ivan with some curiosity.
“I hate it.”
“Which poems have you read?”

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Nijinsky

 The National Ballet of Canadian performance of John Neumeier’s Nijinsky opened last Tuesday April 3 for its short run at the S.F. Opera House, through Sunday April 8, at 2:00, and it’s not to be missed. While I love ballet, I don’t go that often. Yet I followed my intuition and bought balcony tickets for the premiere and I have never been so grateful for my 6th sense as I stood with the crowd calling bravo as the curtains billowed and the dancers made their final bows. 

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feast long day - Review of Jim Feast, Long Day, Counting Tomorrow (Brooklyn: Autnomedia, 2017)

          I must praised Feast for his depiction of me or, at least a character modeled on that wayward waif, Steve Dalachinsky. At that time, I had not fully acquainted myself with the book and find that the Steve character doesn’t have much of a role in the story.

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An End to Repetitions: the violence of the breaking of the ice Review of The Death of Stalin

The Death of Stalin, the tremendous new film directed by Armando Iannucci and based on the comic book of the same title by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, begins in Moscow with a performance of a Mozart piano concerto, performed superbly by the pianist Maria Veniaminovna Yudina (Olga Kurylenko), conducted by Spartak Sokolov (Justin Edwards) and transmitted through the radio by two highly
competent sound engineers (Paddy Considine and Tom Brooke).

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Black Panther is Not An American Hero

Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan are the only men in film who are making movies about and for black boys. Their latest installment in this campaign, Black Panther, is a psychedelic adventure tragedy.

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Cries and Whispers

In light of the month-long centennial retrospective of Ingmar Bergman’s films at Film Forum, I am excited to share a piece I wrote as an undergraduate on Cries and Whispers as seen through a prism of Feminist Literary Theory.

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Marvel Comics 'Black Panther' Draws Audiences with African Royal Storyline, Tops $700 Million Worldwide in Second Week

African superhero Black Panther brings movie magic into reality with sold out theaters and record-breaking box office sales around the globe.

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Zedd to Gentrifiers: Drop Dead

That was a nice time to come. In the mid-70s it was quiet and it was very cheap to live. And there was no hype. But I found it very depressing. Then later everything started moving. I think cheap apartments are an essential element in the creation of a counterculture. I think so And landlordism is an enemy of art. It's an enemy of civilization, really.

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