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Archive for the ‘reseña’ Category

Zion become Gomorrah: Isaiah 1

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 23, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The first chapter of the book called Isaiah is best seen as an anthology of words of the prophet, collected here to lend the reader some glimpse of the tone and plot of the long, diverse book that follows. The book as such begins with the ‘second’ heading at chapter two, verse one. (more…)

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entre sombra y luz: Luz Casal, Como la flor prometida

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 22, 2007| Leave a Comment »

It would be possible for music lovers who do not know this Spanish diva-of-sorts to mistake Como la flor prometida as just another B-class Iberian cd whose best moments ought probably not fly too far from the Iberian peninsula. That would be dead wrong.

Luz Casal virtually stuns with an eclectic zig-zag from track that could almost be considered bizarre but which succeeds at every moment in revealing yet another facet of the lady’s artistry. Luz is a force to reckoned with. (more…)

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mais que palavras bonitas: Ricardo Arjona, 12 Grandes Éxitos

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on September 22, 2007| Leave a Comment »

This superb collection of the Guatemalan singer’s hits does justice to a musician whose fiercely loyal fan base considers that he sings more than just pretty words. Arjona’s presentation is often spare, which makes it all the more powerful when his orchestration pulls in the big guns (‘Si el norte fuera el sur’). (more…)

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You … and reality: Tracy Chapman, Telling Stories

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

For Tracy Chapman, ‘you … and reality’ are not synonymous. Rather, the aggrieved architecture of her lyrics claims that ‘there is fiction in the space between you .. and reality.’ (more…)

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This is how Uncle Herbie used to play Beethoven: Karajan, Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonies 2 & 7 (Deutsche Grammophon, Galleria)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

One feels sometimes as though the presence of the great ones still lingers about the house, bumping into things and taking their place at the family dinner. Having grown up with the music and images of Herbert van Karajan in the mix, it is not too difficult to allow the imagination to see the diminutive Austrian assuming an avuncular place in the proceedings. (more…)

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a gripping look at racism’s multiple victims: Athol Fugard, ‘Master Harold’ … and the boys.

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Hally does not know who he is. The single white character on stage in South African-born playright Athol Fugard’s one-scene work is the friend of his mother’s two black employees when they tend to St George’s Park Tearoom in her absence. But he is also their ‘Master Harold’-reluctantly but inevitably-when the stress of his crippled, alcoholic father’s homecoming impels him into an emotional space that one simply does not share with black folks. Perhaps is it the burden of dealing with human beings on the multiple levels that racism forces upon those who resent but ultimately accede to their required roles that embitters Hally beyond redemption. (more…)

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a wake-up call: Howard Dayton, Your Money Counts. The Biblical Guide to Earning, Spending, Saving, Investing, Giving, and Getting Out of Debt

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Two parts warning about the corrosive effect of debt, one part encouragement that such slavery can be overcome, Howard Dayton’s manual to a better way of living is an almost constitutional document in the Christian financial ministry movement. Dayton is the founder of Crown Financial Ministries, the benchmark institution in what has become an effort to counteract the personal indebtedness that increasingly pervades Western economies. (more…)

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buy ten copies and give them to your friends: Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem

Posted in denkschrift, reseña, tagged , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Friedman wraps up his book by talking about four dead men and what they must do if peace is to come to the troubled slice of land still fought over by Israelis and Palestinians. Yitzhak Rabin, Yasir Arafat, Hafez Assad, and Jordan’s King Hussein were very much alive a decade ago when Friedman wrote an appendix to this still-riveting work, though the shadow of Rabin’s assasin was almost upon him. This casts an eery veneer over Friedman’s sensible thoughts on shifting power and the need for all partners to ‘buy a ticket’ if peace has any hope of overcoming the region’s deeply etched pessimisms, even if one now needs to shift the burden of choice to the successors of these four men, only three of whom had the good fortune to die in their own beds. (more…)

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the music that elevates Cruise’s game: Minority Report (motion picture soundtrack)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

You only have to listen through John Williams’ intensely spooky score a few times to realize that it is the emotional potency of film music in the Williams style that makes Tom Cruise and his colleagues on this Spielberg sci-fi flick seem as edgy as they do. The acting without the music would be another matter, good but not great, tense but not heartstopping. (more…)

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It’s getting harder to sneer these days: Condé Nast Portfolio

Posted in reseña, tagged , on September 21, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Man, this is getting tough. It used to be so easy to pick up a thick glossy weighted down in Bimmer and Movado watch ads and get right down to the business of sneering at the vanity of it all. (more…)

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