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The BQE, Sufjan Stevens (2007)
The ambition of Sufjan Stevens! How many composers would attempt a symphony about an expressway? Much less pull it off—BQE is musically varied, hilarious, sometimes stirring, and ultimately…
4 min read
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A Brief History of Time, Hawking (1988)
A Brief History of Time is clear, precise, and (indeed) short. Other books about cosmology are perhaps clearer (From Eternity to Here) or more precise (Black Holes &…
4 min read
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PlayTime (1967)
Jacques Tati’s PlayTime was, famously, a flop. Tati built an enormous stage on the outskirts of Paris, at great cost. Audiences didn’t come and critics were divided. Over…
4 min read
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Elena Knows, Pineiro (2007)
Claudia Piñeiro is one of Argentina’s most successful authors. She’s also a pro-choice activist, having lent her voice to the successful effort to legalize abortion in Argentina. Elena…
4 min read
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Being Upright, Anderson (2001)
The Bodhisattva precepts are not commandments. They are descriptions of the world as it is. That we humans don’t see that, or don’t quite believe it, is why…
4 min read
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Troubadour, K’naan (2009)
K’naan hasn’t released an album in thirteen years, and that’s only if we’re counting 2012’s mediocre Country, God or the Girl. But the Somalian-Canadian MC’s first two albums,…
4 min read
