The Arts Fuse Newsletter, June 24
Coming Attractions, Reviews of "28 Years Later," four films from the Tribeca Film Festival, Sexmob at the Regattabar, and an interview with opinionated jazz musician and historian Allen Lowe
More on the magazine this week: A trio of classical music album reviews from Jonathan Blumhofer, Peg Aloi explores the legacy of 28 Days Later, Tim Jackson reports from the Provincetown Film Festival, Ralph Locke on the first-rate studio recording (long awaited) of the 1857 version of Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra,"and Noah Schaffer is filled with hope at the Chicago Jazz Festival.
From The Editor's Desk:
HUZZAH! THANKS TO ALL who contributed or helped out with the magazine's Spring Appeal -- we made our $2500 goal and then some. The lights will stay on. In fact, they will blaze a bit brighter. Onwards ....
Why is the Boston-area artist community so complacent in the face of oppressive censorship and draconian budget cuts? One dismaying answer was provided by a recent opinion piece warning against autocracy on the march in the Commonwealth Beacon. It was signed by Michael Bobbitt, director of the Mass Cultural Council; Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities; Kayla Coleman, executive director of the New England Museum Association; and Emily Ruddock, executive director of MASSCreative. Unfortunately, those expecting fire in the belly will end up wondering if the pilot light in the oven is lit.
Here is the quartet at its fever pitch: “Our jobs often find us celebrating the successes that unfold in communities that embrace the arts and the humanities. Today, however, we must sound the alarm. In its first 100 days, the Trump administration took steps that represent a clear and present danger to the cultural vitality of the nation and, we believe, to our democracy. We call on the people of New England to respond proactively to these threats.” How are “the people,” particularly arts organizations, supposed to fight back? The piece doesn’t mention protest, resistance, activism, defiance, or mass demonstrations. Our leaders offer no concrete ideas or pragmatic suggestions about how “the people” are supposed to galvanize dissent. No demands are made that repertoire be changed or shaken up to confront the threat. The alarm bell is softly sounded — as if we are expected to keep on sleeping through it.
“We call on public and private supporters to honor the history of New England by celebrating our right to courageous dissent.” Celebrate? Throw parties? That is nonsense. People will join with an arts industry that is seen to be fighting for its survival. And that means the cultural powers-that-be must get off their privileged butts and encourage, organize, and fund protests fighting to preserve the arts and democracy, events that defy authority, that short-circuit business as usual. (Hint: check out our review of The War of Art: A History of Artists’ Protests in America.)
Decades of bureaucratizing and commercializing (every creator an entrepreneur) have turned the artistic community scarily obedient, trained to tumble robotically through hoops for the sake of garnering grants for officially approved advocacy and education goals. The muscles ordained for disobedience, for defiance, for screaming ‘hell no,’ have atrophied. The state’s arts leaders’ weak-kneed rhetoric is symptomatic of that paralytic anemia. The hour for battling back is growing late. New England’s cultural sector needs to snap out of it and tap into its rebellious muscle memory, to flex its brawn as art has done over the centuries when faced with a crisis. We need to bite — as hard as we can — the hand that refuses to feed us, that wants to steal our liberty.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk 2025
Coming Attractions Through July 8 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Film Reviews: Tribeca Film Festival 2025 – A Few Discoveries
By David D’Arcy
As always, the festival supplied some revelations, plus films from countries now prominent in the news.
Jazz Concert Review: Tight Like That — Steven Bernstein and Sexmob
By Jon Garelick
The whole band demonstrated an expressive variety of mark-making, as visual artists like to say: lines and squiggles and blotches, graceful or rude.
Musician Interview: Saxophonist, Composer, and Historian of Early Jazz Allen Lowe — An Invaluable Maverick
By Steve Provizer
Allen Lowe is a saxophonist, composer, and historian of early jazz and roots music who doesn’t think he’s getting a fair shake from jazz’s gatekeepers.
Film Review: “28 Years Later” — World War ZZZZ…
By Peter Keough
If ever there was a time for a brutal, dark, and satiric dystopian horror flick about a “rage virus,” it is now. Sadly this tepid, tedious, and weird film isn’t it.
Jazz Album Reviews: Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans — Two Indispensable Recordings
By Michael Ullman
Happily, these clean, bright Craft reissues make some invaluable music glisten.
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Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
