Table of Contents > Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thursday, December 10, 2009

cover by: Danny Hellman
View Larger

Super friends

Move over, Clark Kent. All over New England, mild-mannered citizens are suiting up and doing their part to play the hero.
THWAK! I swing with my right fist, trying to connect with my opponent's face. In a smooth motion, he deflects my punch with his forearm, which is protected with a black and metallic-plastic arm gauntlet. I swing with my left fist, and am again knocked away effortlessly. I can see my reflection in his sunglasses, framed in white.

By: TEA KRULOS | December 11, 2009

Arts

Fast and loose
Robert Altman's movie life

Good Fela! beats Nigerian drum
Boston and Broadway

Joyful noise
Best of Both Worlds rocks The Winter's Tale

Photos: Yone’s Hot Tokyo nights (NSFW)
Yonehara Yasuma, Japan’s photographic poet of sleaze, brings his erotic landscapes to Boston

Play by Play: December 12, 2009
Plays from A to Z

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust
Gift books to savor

Wild about Harry
Trailblazing along a narrow path

Food

Drink like Don
Whiskey drinks for people who don’t like whiskey. Yet.

Indian Dhaba
Mumbai street-food novelties and worthy fusion cuisine

Myung Dong 1st Avenue
Can a Korean dive bar serve the masses? Certainly, with alcoholic melon drinks.

What Would Joan Do?
Jackie or Marilyn, Pete or Roger — they are what they eat. So, who are you?

Life

A dollar less for two-day shipping?
Failure

A JP Christmas
What's the purpose of this holiday, anyways?

Atheist holiday traditions
Big Fat Whale

Gift guide galore 2009
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad season

Mad Men on Mass Ave
How to make your carpets match the Drapers

Parting the (green and) Red Sea
Hoopleville

Sterling-Cooper sells the season
Behind the scenes of the Phoenix' s Gift Guide, starring the cast of Mad Men

Super friends
Move over, Clark Kent. All over New England, mild-mannered citizens are suiting up and doing their part to play the hero.

Tech Support
Stereo equipment is so passé. This year's unnecessarily awesome gadgets will stir coffee and turn T-shirts into guitars.

Movies

Blu Christmas . . . without DVD
Kick your films into hi-def this season with those other shiny silver discs

Documentary Man
An interview with Frederick Wiseman

Review: Armored
Flat-footed Tarantino-esque hodgepodge misfires

Review: Brothers
Maguire, Gyllenhaal go deer hunting

Review: Everybody's Fine
It's . . . fine, we guess

Review: Four Seasons Lodge
A full-bore "Jewish" cinematic feast

Review: Invictus
Clint shows team spirit

Review: Irene in Time
Some actors improv better than others

Review: La Danse: Le Ballet de L'Opéra de Paris
Tough love from Frederick Wiseman

Movies Continued

Review: Me and Orson Welles
Richard Linklater casts a spell

Review: The Princess and the Frog
Disney becomes slightly enlightened?

Review: The Slammin' Salmon
The Lizard is broken indeed

Music

Big Star | Keep an Eye on the Sky
Rhino (2009)

Election controversy rocks and roils Boston bluesmen
Blues Clues Dept.

Elvis Presley | Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight
RCA/Legacy (2009)

Epic Win
The Martyrdom of Junius

Graduate studies
The learning curve of Lissy Trullie

Injustice for all
Getting serious with Star Fucking Hipsters

Miles Davis | The Complete Columbia Album Collection
Columbia/Legacy (2009)

New edition
Masspike Miles, Lisa Bello, and the little R&B scene that can

Photos: Boston Music Awards 2009
Boston Music Awards 2009, live from the Liberty Hotel, December 2, 2009

Photos: Passion Pit, Phoenix, and Spoon at Orpheum
Live at WFNX's Miracle on Tremont show on December 4, 2009

Review: Lady Gaga at the Wang

Review: WFNX's Miracle on Tremont Street 2009
Passion Pit, Phoenix, and Spoon, live at the Orpheum Theatre, December 4, 2009

Robert Wyatt | Box Set
Domino (2009)

Same old song
Reissued and remastered CDs give classic releases a fresh face

The Big Hurt: Lambert works it, 50 blows it, Moz ends it
The Big Hurt: Music news in brief

The Doors | Live in New York
Rhino (2009)

The Rolling Stones | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
ABKCO (2009)

Wanting more
The Borromeo and Emerson String Quartets, Dohnányi with the BSO, and Yiddish operetta at Harvard

News

Coffeenomics
The meteoric rise and startling fall of Starbucks is emblematic of the contemporary American dream — just ask the history professor who's been to 425 branches

Missing in action
The legislature vacations while crisis looms

Sin tax
Letters to the Boston editor, December 11, 2009

State of flux
Inside the Massachusetts State House, a forecast of political chaos for 2010 promises extreme gridlock

The Globe's biggest union expels its head
Union Blues Dept.