“This side’s Friday,” vamp extraordinaire Mae West once quipped, pointing to her upper right thigh, then, pointing to her left thigh, “This side’s Sunday. Why don’t you come see me […]
FICTION
Twists of Fate That Aren’t Simple
Randi Triant’s new novel, What We Give, What We Take, traces the lives of a mother and son
“I’ve known women and men — it’s kind of genderless — who think they’re making the right decision, then realize it was one of the worst,” says Provincetown author Randi […]
MUSICIANS
Jon Richardson Composes an Ode to Gay Old Provincetown
Songs from his musical-in-progress, Jack of Hearts, will get a public hearing
“My first love is theater,” says Jon Richardson, a Provincetown musician known for his piano bar gigs at Tin Pan Alley and the Crown & Anchor. Or, perhaps, you may […]
INDIE SCREEN
A Mixed Bag of Oscar Hopefuls
Spanish moms, a pretender to the Scottish throne, and a child of deaf adults
As fans of Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodóvar well know, his films combine personal narrative obsessions and familiar stylized production design with a kind of raw, emotional reality that we all […]
WRITERS
For Shastri Akella, Telling Stories Is a Labor of Love
An Indian-born author finds his queer identity in his prose
Shastri Akella’s first novel, The Sea Elephants, begins with these lines: “My father left the country the year my sisters were born. He returned six months after I watched them […]
WRITERS
In His Poems, Eduardo Martinez-Leyva Discovers Who He Is
A journey from West Texas to Provincetown and back
“I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas,” says Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown who will give an online poetry reading on […]
INDIE SCREEN
Awards Season Movies Look Back in Angst
With nostalgia comes romance and regrets
As a filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson has been compared to Orson Welles, and there’s a grain of truth to that hyperbole: both are fiercely creative and indulgent. Anderson, who exploded […]
INDIE SCREEN
The Wild, the Innocent, and the 125th Street Shuffle
Streaming the highlights of an end-of-year season
The title of Jane Campion’s haunting new film, The Power of the Dog (streaming on Netflix), comes from Psalm 22 in the Bible, which reads (in the King James version), […]
INDIE SCREEN
A World on the Eve of Destruction
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner revive West Side Story
When Jerome Robbins — born Gershon Wilson Rabinowitz on New York’s Lower East Side — first came up with the idea in 1947 for what would become the musical West […]
PURSUITS
During Covid, Michael Hartwig Turns to Writing Gay Romance Novels
It’s just another creative outlet for the Provincetown painter and professor of sexual ethics
Michael Hartwig is not one to let Covid cramp his style. During the pandemic, he and his partner, Steve Ridini, who split their time between Boston and Provincetown, chose to […]
INDIE SCREEN
Midnight in the Cinema of Good and Evil
Three idiosyncratic new films explore human frailties and gumption
The 2016 movie Jackie, which stars Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and is directed by the Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, was an unexpected gem. It delved into the mind […]
GALLERIES
Chris Firger Gives Cape Landscapes an Early Modern Flair
Inspired by Canadian masters, he makes paintings that ‘jump off the wall’
“The root of a lot of what I do is the Group of Seven,” Chris Firger says, speaking by phone from his Salem studio after a long day’s work preparing […]
SCULPTORS
For Susan Lyman, Art Doesn’t Just Grow on Trees
Her new show is a surreal reflection of the natural world in distress
“I’m not a city person,” says the artist Susan Lyman, chatting in the far East End Provincetown home she designed and built in 1987 with her late husband, Doug Trumbo, […]
PUSH AND PULL
Rejecting ‘Pretty Pictures,’ an Artist Cuts a New Direction
Daniel Wagner slices up and reassembles his own paintings
“I think it grew out of my frustration as a painter,” Daniel Wagner says, looking around at the many canvases lying about his cluttered Provincetown Commons studio. “What do I […]
PRINTING
Vladimir Schuster Aims to Make a Distinct Impression
A master electrician launches a fine art printmaking studio in Provincetown
When we picture artists at work, we typically imagine them creating with their hands — drawing a figure, sculpting in clay. Printmaking brings the mechanical into the mix. That doesn’t […]
