Short Reviews
Reviews of the novel Exception to the Rule, and Lady Gaga’s album Artpop.
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Blog Posts
Elton Discovers Mortality
The Diving Board by Elton John Capitol/Mercury Records THOMAS WOLFE was right: you can’t go home again. That’s the sad-but-true wisdom at the heart of “Home Again,” the…More
… Not That She Ever Went Away
Closer To The Truth Cher Warner Bros. Records WELL, our über-goddess is at it again. Defying all industry expectations, the Lazarus of pop has a new album, Closer…More
Ziggy Stardust Memories
WHETHER you’re a Bowie fan or not, chances are you’ve heard about the sudden return of the Thin White Duke in the form of an album, The Next Day.
MoreArt Briefs
Reviews of the play Hit the Wall, and the albums OUTlaw and One True Thing.
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Frank Ocean’s Sexual Healing
EARLIER THIS YEAR, Frank Ocean hit the 55th Grammy Awards like a tsunami. Nominated for six awards, Ocean took home two; and performed a down-tempo love song to a guy named Forrest Gump. …
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Short Reviews
Reviews of the books Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall, Secrets and Strangers, and A Long Day’s Evening, the play My Big Gay Italian Wedding, and the album “The Beatles” by AG.
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‘Girl Gone Wild’
Madonna, still the patron saint of scandal, has lost none of her power to piss people off.
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On Being on the Road
The anthems of Yes I Am still verge on the overblown, which is why 4th Street Feeling strikes the right chord by hitting the brakes just a bit. With the help of producers Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones) and Steve Booker (Duffy), Etheridge plays all the guitars without overpowering the production.
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Rufus Maximus
YOU MAY NOT NEED Kirk Lake’s recent biography of Rufus Wainwright to learn that the singer-songwriter has a penchant for peacocks. …
[and Kirk] Lake’s portrait of Wainwright, titled There Will Be Rainbows, is the perfect complement to the Canadian-American’s loud and lavish œuvre and, with its references to Tennyson, Wilde, Kubrick, and Barthes, …
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