The blog is going away but the reviews are not. You can find them here in the online print edition.
Home > ATLarts > Archives > 2008 > March > 04
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Phil Kloer - bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Phil Kloer has worked for the AJC for 22 years. He has been the Arts Editor, the television critic, a pop culture writer, an editor on ajc.com and is currently a feature writer. The only consistent thread is that he has reviewed books for the AJC all along. E-mail Phil
Permalink | | Categories: Authors
Wendell Brock - bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wendell Brock has been theater critic of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2001. He is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association. An honor graduate of the University of Georgia, he joined the AJC in 1982. Since then, he’s been an arts editor, food writer, feature writer and copy editor. His work has appeared in newspapers everywhere — and in American Theatre, Pointe and Saveur magazines. He loves cooking, gardening and collecting photography.E-mail
Permalink | | Categories: Authors
Memoirist busted: Condemn or forgive?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another memoir-writer has been busted for making up her life story, but I find this case strange and troubling.
Here’s the short version of the story, as reported by the Associated Press and posted on cnn.com.
Misha Defonseca wrote “Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years.” It wasn’t a big deal in the United States, but it was a best-seller in Europe, was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film. In the book, she claimed that her parents were killed by the Nazis when she was four years old, and that she set off on a trek across Europe, killed a soldier and lived with a pack of wolves.
Under increased scrutiny, she now admits she made up nearly all of that. Her parents were indeed taken by the Nazis, but she lived quietly with relatives in Belgium. She’s now 71 and lives in Massachusetts.
Defonseca said in a written statement: “This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving. I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a 4-year-old girl who was very lost.”
This isn’t the first case of a memoirist being unmasked as a phony, nor will it be the last. But do the circumstances change anything, that this girl was horribly traumatized at a very young age, and is now an old woman? Or should the truth, particularly since we’re dealing with the Holocaust, be the supreme value?
Should we forgive or condemn Misha?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Books
New venue, new season for the ASO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will open the first season at its new amphitheater in Alpharetta with a mixed bag of classical favorites, Broadway show tunes and an appearance by musicians from local high school marching bands.
Music director Robert Spano will lead the Saturday concert on May 10 at 8 p.m. in the 12,000-seat Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. Among the highlights: the Marcus Roberts Trio performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 “Ode to Joy” with the ASO chorus. Also on the program are Broadway songs by Bernstein and Rodgers and Hammerstein. The ASO also has invited 320 musicians from Alpharetta and Milton High School to perform “Seventy-Six Trombones.”
Also, there will be a family concert with Julie Andrews narrating “Simeon’s Gift,” a book she co-authored with her daughter. Score by Ian Fraser and lyrics by John Bucchino.
The outdoor concert venue announced in January that the Eagles will headline on May 14. Later in the summer, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rod Stewart and ’80s metal band Rush will appear. In addition to classical and popular concerts, the amphitheater is expected to be a hub for high school graduations, fund-raising events, high school music concerts and competitions.
The $35 million venue, operated by the ASO, is expected to be a big cash-generator for the symphony. It gives the ASO a third venue in which to perform, in addition to the 6,000-seat Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Buckhead and the 1,750-seat Symphony Hall in Midtown.
Among eight other classical concerts in the summer lineup:
_ An Evening of Beethoven. Spano conducting. June 28.
- A semi-staged concert performance of the Puccini opera “La Boheme.” Spano conducting. July 26.
-“ASO Connects,” a free concert conducted by ASO assistant conductor Mei-Ann Chan. Aug. 14.
Permalink | | Categories: Classical Music
