HOW NOT TO READ A BOOK

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, January 29th 2007 at 6:56

    My little book club, which was founded before book clubs became fashionable, assembled yesterday to discuss Crime and Punishment. This was part of an unusually social weekend, during which, at a dinner party, I actually uttered the sentence “There’s no metaphysics of pragmatism.” I can’t decide whether this ...

THREE PLAYS AND A CONCERT

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, January 25th 2007 at 6:48

    Welcome to the new, streamlined, hyper-efficient me as theater critic. In the latest Tucson Weekly, I cover three plays in the space of two reviews, accessible via a single link!

    Three highly recommendable plays currently on the Tucson boards happen to deal in quite different ways with the complexities of ...

WORD TO THE UNWISE

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, January 24th 2007 at 6:46

    If you really want me to respond to your questions or comments, don't send them to me under a phony name and dummy e-mail address. Why should I take you seriously if you don't think enough of your own ideas to put your name behind them?

JOIN THE CLUB

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, January 24th 2007 at 6:42

    Colleague Mike Serres has forwarded this “Jargon Watch” item from Wired:

CLASSICAL CLUBBING n. A new trend in orchestral music, classical clubbing mixes woodwinds and brass with vodka and tonic. As concert hall audiences dwindle, young instrumentalists are moving the classical repertoire into bars and interlacing J. S. Bach with ...

TRYING TOO HARD

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, January 24th 2007 at 6:40

    Last night, after a long afternoon of radio fund-raising, I met my wife and two of our friends for dinner at a restaurant we’ve patronized for many years. The place has changed hands several times, although the food remains fairly consistent, and a new regime seems to be in ...

LIGHT AND LEAN

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, January 18th 2007 at 8:10

    Two completely different approaches to “theater lite” this week. First, there’s pure froth at Invisible Theatre:

    Jerry and Molly Schiff feel like the unluckiest people in the world. They're people who hate people who are overrunning their Malibu neighborhood on this fine July day en route to the ...

MET AT THE MOVIES

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, January 16th 2007 at 10:34

    Last night, my wife and some friends attended the Loft Cinema’s screening of the Met’s high-definition “theatercast” of The Magic Flute. Here in Tucson, we’re on the frontier, which means it takes a few days longer for these newfangled innovations to reach us. Telegraph wires have limited ...

GAY CABALLERO

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, January 11th 2007 at 6:48

    Today in the Tucson Weekly, I review a show in which an actor modestly outperforms a playwright:

    On opening night of Arizona Onstage Productions' Talk of the Town, Brandon Kosters held the stage for 85 minutes as Johnny, a small-town Texas teen coming to terms with his homosexuality, his adoration ...

NUTS ABOUT SCHUMANN

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, January 10th 2007 at 7:38

    Every year, cellist Harry Clark and I mastermind the Arizona Cultural Forum, which will be occupying my attention this weekend. Read about it here (but note that it’s Harry’s photo next to my bio). Our topic this time is Robert Schumann, Creativity and Mental Illness. We’ll have ...

UNASKED QUESTIONS 4

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, January 9th 2007 at 6:47

    Both the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen today report on the University of Arizona’s computer security breach, as detailed in a memo e-mailed to the campus community yesterday by UA executive VP and provost George Davis. Wrote the provost, in part:

    Last week, The University of Arizona ...

CHINESE LEFTOVERS

From the desk of James Reel on Monday, January 8th 2007 at 12:06

    For weeks, I've been forgetting to post this, but here we go now. Tucson Guide asked me to write an article about the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, and the history of Chinese immigrants in Tucson. That article appears in the current issue (not available online). Now, the rule of ...

DOWN BY THE RIVER

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, January 5th 2007 at 7:15

    Jessica Duchen goes to Vienna for New Year’s and reports that “the strangest thing is that you can spend a happy holiday in Vienna without setting eyes on that famous river even once. If you want to see the Beautiful Blue Danube at its finest, go to Budapest.” Yes ...

BITTEN BY THE OPERA BUG

From the desk of James Reel on Friday, January 5th 2007 at 7:14

    We in Tucson have long held that Phoenix is Arizona’s own Hellmouth, and here’s further evidence: A soprano engaged by the Phoenix Symphony for a concert opera is savaged by an army of bedbugs at the Hilton, no less. This is no place for entomologists; time to call ...

TWO HAMLETS, OUT OF JOINT

From the desk of James Reel on Thursday, January 4th 2007 at 6:57

    One review and a two-in-one preview from me in the current Tucson Weekly:

    Here's the secret to an effective portrayal of Hamlet: Put a potato in your codpiece.
    Or so claims John Barrymore. Of course, he's been dead for decades, and his notions are rather old-fashioned. Then again ...

RESOLUTE

From the desk of James Reel on Wednesday, January 3rd 2007 at 7:02

    Violist Charles Noble has posted his New Year’s resolutions. Now, this fellow is a member of a very busy orchestra and a string quartet, but he’s issuing directives to himself that include “‘perform’ more” and “better integrate music into my life.” What he’s vowing, essentially, is that ...

COMFORT ZONE

From the desk of James Reel on Tuesday, January 2nd 2007 at 6:49

    Because we don’t have enough relief announcers to provide full relief during the holidays, I wound up working on New Year’s Day. At least I didn’t have to come in for my usual morning shift, after an evening of quiet but rather late celebration; instead, I got ...