by sumac | Dec 9, 2016 | Artistic apologies
A nice factlet about Julie Murphy. Around 2010, she was a librarian who did the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) thing that happens every November. The YA novel she wrote was Side Effects May Vary. Which eventually got published and became a NYT bestseller. So...
by sumac | Oct 10, 2016 | Artistic apologies
Poet Jane Hirshfield suggested we do an apology analysis of William Carlos Williams’s short poem “This Is Just To Say.” We were honored and delighted by the idea. We hadn’t done it before, because the poem’s still under copyright, so we can’t...
by sumac | Dec 18, 2015 | Artistic apologies, Celebrity Apologies
At a Deerhunter concert at the Orange Peel in early December, lead singer/guitarist Bradford Cox told a long rambling story about the first time Deerhunter appeared at the Peel in 2007. Smashing Pumpkins had a week-long run there, and then-obscure Deerhunter opened...
by snarly | Sep 19, 2015 | Artistic apologies
This is a 2007 piece called Forgiveness, by artist Dan Attoe. I don’t know what it means. And it’s art, so your interpretation’s as good as mine. It’s made of neon light, wire, a transformer and controllers. Here it is in a well-lit room at the...
by snarly | Aug 19, 2015 | Artistic apologies, Musical Apologies
The music festival Rototom Sunsplash apologized today for disinviting the American Jewish singer Matisyahu from performing. The apology was…not so good. Backstory: Under pressure from the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel) movement, the festival had...
by snarly | Aug 10, 2015 | Artistic apologies, Religious Apologies
As you may have heard, a romance novel between a Jewish prisoner and an SS Commander, set in a concentration camp during World War II, is stirring up some mishegas. It came to a head when an author and critic, Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, shared her...