Some historical moments generate extraordinary forms of critical and artistic reflection, reminders of writerly freedom, in which comedy provides the most daring kind of engagement.
Casting a wide net and moving quickly and a little capriciously across time and national boundaries, it sets out to examine some of the artistic reflections of our machine-haunted, technology-dependent era, especially in the second half of the last century.
One captures the artistic reflection of the start of the departmental motorcycle unit.
Bernstein's "Mass" is the best artistic reflection of the state of mind I find myself in, and which perhaps other Americans find themselves in, these days in the aftermath of of Sept. 11 and in the face of the so-called war on terrorism as we await the seemingly inevitable war with Iraq -- days that have called into question our faith in everything we hold dear.
Several photographs in the Turin show depict wild animals on a Paris street, an artistic reflection on the situation of the immigrant as an unwelcome guest in Europe.
And in an espresso cafe, a cup of homemade gelato, generously stuffed, costs $1. Arthur Avenue also signifies the Little Italy of the Bronx, and the Belmont, now in its 10th year, is its artistic reflection.
"They are everywhere in the internet and in the artistic reflection about it.
I admired this as an example of artistic self-reflection, which can provide so much personal insight.
According to him, it "remains among the most penetrating and innovative artistic reflections of its era", representing the Beatles' "finest single achievement".
The idea would be not to focus on individual events but "to create a dialogue across artistic reflections and to show the commonality of the experience".
