Arts

Arts

Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau: A Fine Bromance at the Mahaiwe

Perhaps it’s the macchiato. Singer/mandolinist and MacArthur “genius grant" recipient Chris Thile (at left), a musician for whom adjectives “tireless" and “extraordinary" spring to mind, drinks at least one a day. Rural Intelligence catches the thirty-two-year old in his East Village apartment, fresh off a

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Arts

The Wondrous Words of Junot Diaz

Novelist Junot Diaz exudes an otherworldly level of awesomeness. The author and 2012 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant recipient is on the phone discussing his third book, the linked short-story collection This Is How You Lose Her, which chronicles the relationship detonations in the life of Yunior, a brainy-yet-emotionally-clueless

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Arts

Todd Snider: Not So Little Rascal

Onstage and in conversation, acclaimed singer-songwriter-raconteur Todd Snider talks freely about potentially depressing subject matter like past incarcerations, poverty, and his ongoing struggles with addiction. Nevertheless, audiences tend to walk away from his shows feeling better than when they arrived. Because Snider, who hits the Helsinki Hudson stage for a

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Arts

The Bacon Brothers Sizzle

Acclaimed actor Kevin Bacon and his big brother, renowned film and TV composer Michael, do not care what gets you to Infinity Hall when they return as the Bacon Brothers on Monday, March 25. (The performance will be filmed for CPTV.) “If people come out because they want to see

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Arts

Brian Selznick: A Head Full of Secrets

(Photo by Jamey Mazzie) Having an imagination is hard work, especially if you're living inside 46-year-old Brian Selznick's head. The author of the Caldecott Award-winning children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret (which was adapted for the Oscar-winning 2011 Scorcese film Hugo) spends most

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Arts

Art by Serendipity: Isha Nelson Gallery Brings Light

Step one foot into the Isha Nelson Gallery on (Great Barrington's haute highway) Railroad Street and you will not want to leave — not too soon anyway. The gallery, which had a soft opening at the beginning of December, is an aesthetic amalgamation of bohemian chic meets pristine cathedral.

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Arts

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fame: Mary Gauthier at Towne Crier

What do Boy George, country music superstar (and co-host of The Voice) Blake Shelton, and R & B/gospel artist Candi Staton have in common? These disparate artists have each recorded the songs of restaurateur/chef/Americana troubadour Mary Gauthier (pronounced go-SHAY — it’s Cajun). Touring behind acclaimed new CD

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Arts

Women Writers Unite! (and Chat) at Berkshire Festival

At the risk of sounding like a self-help guru, I’m going to share with you my Moment of Personal Transformation. It happened about four years when I attended my first writing workshop in Hudson, New York. The facilitator was a short, sharp New York City author and teacher who’

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Arts

Ecstatic Truth Gumbo: Howard Fishman Quartet at Hudson Opera House

Singer-songwriter-bandleader Howard Fishman knows how to rock a venue — any venue. Since 1999, his unique folk-jazz-Americana has left its mark on New Orleans street corners, Lincoln Center, Manhattan’s tony Algonquin Oak Room, the French TV show Le Petit Journal, and countless clubs and halls. On Saturday, March 2, at

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Arts

Selected Shorts: Review of BSC's 10x10 New Play Festival

If you have to have a citywide arts festival in the dead of winter, you absolutely must have good theater somewhere, if not everywhere. And preferably of the kind that doesn’t strain the audience’s understandably frigid attention span. This is a hallmark of 2013’s 10x10 Upstreet Festival

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Arts

Deee-Lucius: A Cult Fave Comes to the Berkshires

When Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig sing together in their Brooklyn-based band Lucius, they create a third being, an ethereal presence greater than the sum of its parts, a voice haunting, playful, yearning, and sexy. Depending on the song, that voice can conjure kohl-eyed, bee-hived 1960s girl groups, Cocteau Twins

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Arts

Covering Duncan: Sheik At Infinity Hall

If you prefer your love odes on the bittersweet side, Duncan Sheik is your man, and his upcoming Valentine’s Day show at Infinity Hall is just the ticket for you and your date — or just you and a fantasy one. “I’ve written a lot of songs that are

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