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Brave New World — Tatiana Maslany’s Performance Lifts “Orphan Black” to a Higher Level
Friday afternoon I’m sitting in a parked car in south Philadelphia reading about the Spanish Civil War. It’s easy to imagine dark deeds brewing on a cold grey December afternoon…
“The Soul of All of Us Together” — Scheide, Schubert, Bach, and the Dance of the Organist
Once you reach a certain age, your catalogue of associations is so extensive and so many-sided that it’s possible to discover a personal connection to virtually any worthy subject that…
When the Purpose is “High and Strong” — Mike Nichols and “The Graduate”
An audience is a ruthless, heartless, and unruly monster, and if it doesn’t sense purpose then get out of its way, because it’s going to be difficult …. But when…
On the Streets of Philadelphia — Discovering the Noir Universe of David Goodis
A nondescript sign hanging above an uninviting door on a street in Philadelphia says ART, BOOKS. The door opens easily and what you see on the other side makes it feel…
Poe’s Precipice of the Perverse: Hitchcock Takes the Plunge in “Vertigo”
I suggest that Hitchcock belongs —and why classify him at all? — among such artists of anxiety as Kafka, Dostoevsky, and Poe. —François Truffaut According to a 2012 critics poll…
“Too Young To Have Ever Lived” — Fliers Sporting With Life and Death in the Great War
As Princeton resident and professor emeritus Samuel Hynes demonstrates in The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War (Farrar Straus and Giroux $26), the romance of being a…
On Being Haunted: Jack Bruce, Jack Huston, and the “We’re Going Wrong” “Boardwalk Empire” Blues
People are so in love with Richard, but he’s killed like 89 people! —Terence Winter on Boardwalk Empire’s Richard Harrow What’s haunting me this Halloween season is the singing of…
John Berryman Joins Dylan Thomas in Life and Death: A Double Centenary
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. —Dylan Thomas…
Michael Brown Was a Cardinal Fan — A Celebration of October Baseball
In spite of Thursday night’s season-ending loss to the Giants in San Francisco, St. Louis Cardinal fans enjoyed their share of baseball ecstasy in the 2014 post-season. With the glorious…
As the Power Goes Out, Salinger’s “Franny” Puts the Dinky On the Map
Here are two thoughts about the power outage that occurred around 11 p.m. Monday night as I was writing about Princeton’s role in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, a first…
