Category: reviews
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New Review of Barbie Chang
Poets & Artists recently published my review of Victoria Chang’s new poetry collection Barbie Chang, which I enjoyed and admired a great deal. We first meet Barbie Chang, the character whose life and thoughts populate most of Victoria Chang’s fourth collection, at a conference, when everyone stands to give the speaker a standing ovation except Barbie,…
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The Art is the Artist: a Consideration of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (contains spoilers!)
I just said it, but it bears repeating: this post contains spoilers, so please do not read ahead if you are sensitive to things like that. What is the relationship between the art and the artist? That is the central question of Black Swan, a trippy psychological thriller that pits Nina (Natalie Portman) against the…
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Because I Wanted To
Last night I finished reading Mary Gaitskill’s Because They Wanted to, at long last. I’ve been working through it for a few weeks, stealing chances to read now and then. I enjoyed it about as much as I enjoyed Don’t Cry, which was a lot. Gaitskill’s narrators tend to have a detached objectivity, which I…
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Quickster movie review
Over the weekend, I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I actually went to see The Young Victoria, but for some reason the 7:05 showing was sold out 45 minutes in advance in Bethesda. Only in Bethesda are people clamoring to see a two-month-old movie during the dinner hour, I…
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My Favorite Albums of 2009
ALBUM OF THE YEAR Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s BlitzMusic Math: New Order + Garbage / Smashing Pumpkins + Scissor SistersBest Tracks: “Zero,” “Heads Will Roll,” “Shame and Fortune,” “Hysteric”Representative Lyrics: “Shake it like a ladder to the sun / Makes me feel like a madman on the run / Find it never, never far gone…
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Dear Diary
Okay, I admit it. The Vampire Diaries is the best new show this fall. (That I’ve watched. I need to get in touch with Modern Family and Cougar Town, though.) How do I love The Vampire Diaries? Let me start by saying I did not want to love it. I did not need to watch…
Charles Jensen | Writer 