ROUND-UP SEPTEMBER 4-7, 2017

Hello readers! This week I wrote for The Young Folks, Paste, Whitehot Magazine, and for Curbed Philly for the first time!

• "Book Review: Lisa Maxwell’s 'The Last Magician'." The Young Folks, September 4, 2017.

"The lack of ending in The Last Magician is a shame, because it pretty much dampens my enthusiasm for what was otherwise a pretty charming and well-paced novel. While it did take me a few chapters to get fully hooked on the story and become invested in the characters, once the story falls into its rhythm and establishes the stakes, I couldn’t put it down."

• "The Queen of Spain." Paste Magazine, September 5, 2017.

"It eventually becomes clear that The Queen of Spain is trying to position itself as Singing in the Rain by way of Armando Iannucci. Making a film about filmmaking is nothing new, so the political context of the claustrophobic, frightening nature of the government’s control over nearly every part of life in Spain is meant to add some kind of urgency and tension to the proceedings."

• "Exploring Flowers, Tolstoy, and The Wifi on Mount Olympus with Lola Rose Thompson." Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, September 2017.

"In other works (both two- and three-dimensional), Thompson’s art-historical and literary interests declare themselves loudly and with intent. Her watercolor “Venus Admiring The Results of Extensive Personal Training” directly lifts and re-situates Velazquez’s “Rokeby Venus,” stranding the once-proud figure of Venus looking at herself in a mirror in a sea of white paper, the fullness of her form in the Velazquez now diluted into the ephemeral and fragile-looking watercolor. Where we admired Velazquez’s Venus, in Thompson’s interpretation we see her rendered small and unsure, and find ourselves pitying her."

• "Philly is the main stage for jam-packed fall arts season." Curbed Philly, September 7, 2017.

"Philly’s arts scene has long been a cornerstone of the city. But it’s about to experience one of the most jam-packed fall arts seasons ever, moving from inside rarefied venue walls to the streets of Philly."