notanotherbookreview

La Prensa Review of the book and the ballet commissioned for the Biennial in Cuba http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3833251&I temid=1 From Cuba Presentation on the book by Madeleine Plonsker & Nelson Ramirez AND http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/cuban-artists_n_7343460.html From Huffington Post a great link! New Yorker Review of Mann Exhibition of THE LIGHT IN CUBAN EYES http://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=119142&startpage=page0000028#folio=22 http://www.wsj.com/articles/aipad-photo-fair-features-cuban-artists-plus-one-training-for-outer-space-1429120096 PBS ArtBeat interview http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/opening-cultural-doors-through-cuban-photography/ LISTEN TO INTERVIEW ON THE LOPATE SHOW ON NY'S WNYC RADIO http://www.wnyc.org/story/shining-light-cuban-photography/ http://www.robertmann.com/upcoming/ Gorgeous Provocative Photography Exhibition...

http://maglomaniac.com/breaking-hard-health-care-industry-might-consider-divorcing-insurance-industry/ POLITICS AND NEWS 0 Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Why Our Health Care Industry Might Consider Divorcing The Insurance Industry BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: Why our health care industry might consider divorcing the insurance industry–a marriage of great inconvenience. A contrarian look, as the deadline nears for the new year of the health insurance marketplace. It was always an uneasy marriage, brokered by the Nixon Administration, when its patrons in the life insurance […] Written by:  Susan Weinstein 2014/12/15 5:20 AM BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: Why our health care industry might consider divorcing the insurance industry–a marriage of great inconvenience. A contrarian look, as the deadline nears for the new year of the health insurance marketplace.It was always an uneasy marriage, brokered by the Nixon Administration, when its patrons in the life in...

DOROTHY AND OTIS: Designing the American Dream by Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel (Harper Design, November) includes over 330 four-color prints of seminal design art by people I never heard mentioned in art school. As amazing as the discovery of this work, is the text that accompanies the book. Instead of dry art book prose. Hathaway and Nadel, who had access to the couple's archive, were able to conjure both the idiosyncratic personalities of Dorthy and Otis and their excitement at creating a visual language for their America--1920-1940. The book begins with Otis "Shep" Shepard, a poor Midwest boy, who teaches himself to draw. He leaves home at 14 to work odd jobs, including itinerant actor and set designer, and free-lance sign painter. Young Shep even meets Jack London in San Francisco and learns about carousing. Still in his teens, he gets into the real fight of  World War One and draws vivid scenes from an air balloon and down in the trenches. Shep's portraits of...

POLITICS AND NEWS 0 The Making of A.D.D./A.D.H.D. I want to offer another perspective on the origins of this much diagnosed disorder, besides the Savannah analogy and the effect of technology, both old “saws” recently offered in an NY Times Opinion piece.  The Savannah theory holds that the DNA of those with the disorder is really a genetic throwback to hunters, whose”hyper” qualities […] Written by:  Susan Weinstein 2014/11/11 8:46 AM I want to offer another perspective on the origins of this much diagnosed disorder, besides the Savannah analogy and the effect of technology, both old “saws” recently offered in an NY Times Opinion piece.  The Savannah theory holds that the DNA of those with the disorder is really a genetic throwback to hunters, whose”hyper” qualities enhanced survival. The effect of technology, speeding up young minds, an occasion for hand-wringing, has no change in sight. I want to underscore some practical history....

Maira Kalman is a phenomenonal author/illustrator, painter, whose work is loved by both adults and children, with the categories often overlapping. Whether her story's about a fireboat or the Alphabet, she narrates the fantastic in the everyday world. In MY FAVORITE THINGS (Harper Design) she paints scenes that tickle our imagination with an ironic wit and affection for the secret lives of objects. What a brilliant idea for The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum to invite her to choose objects from the Museum's more than 200,000 pieces for its inaugural exhibit. Kalman chose more than 40 objects which can be viewed in the Music Room of The Carnegie Museum. Her book weaves these objects into a story of Kalman's life made vivid with more than 50 paintings. Maira Kalman begins with her family's fairy tale story. Her painting shows her mother drowning in a river in a Russian village  She's saved by her father's very long beard. That same wonder and fear is p...

In poet Richard Blanco's funny and heart-wrenching memoir, THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS: A Miami Childhood (Harper Collins) young Riqui is a Cuban American boy in the Miami of the 1970-80's. He wants to fit in but knows he's faking it at home and in school.  In school, he's the smart "hoosky" (as his mother says) kid, who's good at writing and art. When he helps his teacher decorate for Easter, he finds just the right color combinations and cotton for bunny tails. But praise of his creativity elicits derision from his peers. At home his Abuelo, his grandmother, knows creative equals "muchaco," a word more insulting than gay. So young Riqui learns to hide his talents. Naturally, Riqui is conflicted about his Abuelo, who acts like his worst enemy but can be most generous. He admires her clever frugality, the penny pinching that enabled his family to get out of Cuba. In Miami, she turns bargains into cash and works as a bookie. When his working moth...

DOWN UNDER by Sonia Taitz (McWitty Press, Nov.11) is a farcical look at serious romance. Jude Pincus is not a heroine for the faint-hearted middle-ager. She's the Joan of Arc of bustiers and stilettos, a martyr for true love. Sadly, the man of her dreams, and the man who shares her bed, are equally missing from her life.  Judy teaches creative writing part-time and has two twin teen-aged sons, so she's not exactly idle but there is time on her hands. She's trying to figure out how she arrived at this place in her life, where she's not essential to those she cares about.  Without that connection, she thinks, what is she but a pathetic creature alone with her worries?  Among these is her husband, busy rebuilding his fortunes with the perfect tubular pasta. His import business allows him to gallivant all over Italy with brief sojourns at home. Then there's her twins The popular outgoing son is in boarding school, while his studious brother at home never leaves his r...

HALLOWEEN! (originally published in Maglomaniac) It Started In The Primeval Ooze Of My Father’s Ancient PC In some way, I think it was my fault. I’m twelve and sick of the idiotic “nanny cam” he got to watch me, thinking I don’t know he’s a paranoid idiot who wants to know what his daughter’s doing all the time. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, he said, “but sometimes I wonder ..."  Written by:  Susan I. Weinstein 2014/10/24 5:39 AM In some way, I think it was my fault. I’m twelve and sick of the idiotic “nanny cam” he got to watch me, thinking I don’t know he’s a paranoid idiot who wants to know what his daughter’s doing all the time. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, he said, “but sometimes I wonder if you’re getting any sleep, staying up all night on that laptop your mother got you in a fit of insanity.” Okay if my grades weren’t just passing, I might have had more clout. But if he hadn’t been so lame as to confuse nanny programs with ...