Phil Jamison Hoedowns, Reels and Frolics: Roots and branches of Southern Appalachian Dance University of Illinois Press (For Sing Out! magazine) Alex Ross wrote recently in the New Yorker that “when classical-music fans hear that a new Hollywood production has a scene set at the opera or the symphony, they reflexively prepare to cringe. Typically, such scenes giveContinue reading “Rethinking Appalachia”
Category Archives: Book Reviews
What we eat
Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat by Harvey Levenstein Chicago Press, 2012 by Glen Herbert Whenever we talk about food, whether it’s just that or a broader discussion of nutrition, we’re actually talking about a lot more than we think we are. Food is culture and identity. It’s also…
The Chrysalids at 60
(for Patriarch) Sixty years ago this year, John Wyndham published a post-apocalyptic thriller about, well, you know, kids with telepathy. Which sounds funny, because as much as that’s true, the book has resonated with readers ever since not because of the telepathy, or the apocalypse — in the book it’s called the tribulation — or for beingContinue reading “The Chrysalids at 60”
Reading disability
(for CanChild Connect) It’s discouraging to think that, since the Wizard of Oz was released as a feature film, the foremost image in North Americans’ minds of dwarfism has been the lollipop kids. Comical, childish, awkward, short—it wasn’t wrong to cast those roles as the filmmakers did, rather it’s regrettable that no alternate images of achondroplasia haveContinue reading “Reading disability”
Fearing food
Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat by Harvey Levenstein Chicago Press, 2012 Whenever we talk about food, whether it’s just that or a broader discussion of nutrition, we’re actually talking about a lot more than we think we are. Food is culture and identity. It’s also science andContinue reading “Fearing food”
