Muse House

Review: Juniot Díaz's "This Is How You Lose Her"
By Lucia Camargo Rojas
March 28, 2013 - 2:36pm
In his latest publication, Díaz returns to a familiar character and once again explores loneliness with his trademark style and humor.

Junot Díaz’s latest book explores the loneliness that comes after losing a beloved person. Yunior, the author’s well-known character in Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, returns in This is How You Lose Her. His girlfriend has broken up with him after she discovers he was unfaithful to her. He makes efforts to keep her, but every attempt is a failure, and he knows it.

The Art of Love
By NewsHouse Staff
February 13, 2013 - 12:46pm
Arts Journalists pick some of their favorite art representing notions of romantic love.

Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

Happy Valentine's Day from TheNewsHouse.com

NYC Immersion Roundup : "Inventing Abstraction" at the MoMA
By Zach Marschall
February 10, 2013 - 10:54am
Review: The recent exhibition "Inventing Abstraction" at the Museum of Modern Art foreshadows the tumult of World War II.

“Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925,” currently at the Museum of Modern Art, leaves discussion on abstract art incomplete by ending its exhibition eight years before the demise of the Weimar Republic. It addresses the genre’s ascension and zenith without understanding the collapse of the 20th century’s would-be new social order.

Review: Stone Canoe annual exhibition
By Greg Cwik
February 4, 2013 - 1:15pm
Visual arts exhibit at the Community Folk Art Center is full of complex thoughts and expressive images.

On January 26th, the Community Folk Art Center opened the Stone Canoe annual exhibition, featuring work from 29 artists with connections to the Upstate New York region. The show is curated by Amy Cheng, professor of art at S.U.N.Y. New Paltz and visual arts editor for the 7th issue of Stone Canoe, a journal of arts, literature and social commentary, published annually by University College of Syracuse University.

NYC Immersion Roundup : "Candid” at the Rubin Museum
By Eesha Patkar
January 24, 2013 - 11:21pm
Review: Photography exhibit showcases legendary photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla's career, and her intersection with India's formative years.

In a time where pioneering photographer Margaret Bourke-White jumped right into the horrifying aftermath of the Partition of India into two nations in 1947, her contemporary Homai Vyarawalla’s pristine photographs of pre- and post-independent India appear passive and privileged in contrast. 

Ghostbusters 2: The most overlooked holiday film
By Joseph DiDomizio
December 12, 2012 - 2:51pm
Review: The ghost-hunting comedy hits all the right notes to make it an unlikely yuletide classic.

There comes a time when all the Christmas movies have been watched, and while it would be awesome to watch Scrooged for the fifth time, it might be nice to unearth a different film for a change of pace.

Halloween movie classics for scaredy cats
By Paige Cooperstein
October 27, 2012 - 12:02pm
Review: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Hocus Pocus" bring the girl power.

Joss Whedon’s 1992 teen flick Buffy the Vampire Slayer laid the ground work for his television show of the same name. The most popular girl in her high school, Buffy must move from vapid cheerleader to vampire hunter. In every age, one teenage girl is chosen to defend humanity from the vampires. When one slayer dies, the next is summoned.

"Thirst": The blood is love
By Greg Cwik
October 26, 2012 - 7:11pm
Review: The South Korean vampire flick is gorgeous, gory and carnal.

Park Chan-Wook, the filmmaker almost singlehandedly responsible for exporting South Korea’s manic, audacious brand of cinema to the States, flirted with the horror aesthetic for almost a decade before he made Thirst.

Playlist: Studying for Midterms
By Greg Cwik
October 16, 2012 - 4:21pm
Arts journalism grad student Greg Cwik muses on music selections that complement his studying.

When the realization of midterms’ looming presence finally becomes a bitter reality— that inevitable convulsion of clarity a splinter in your mind you’ve been picking at for five weeks but only now grasp, and you descend upon the library with your fellow classmates in droves, long serpentine lines of sweat pants three-days worn and iPhones fast-tracked to Wikipedia shimmering in the sun and headphones planted in ears with the dependency of pacemakers, and every study room is...

The moody "Everybody Has A Plan" thrills at a lurching pace
By Joseph DiDomizio
October 12, 2012 - 2:46pm
Piterbarg's directorial debut is a tense, engaging exploration of identity.

From the black of the first frame, there is a hum as the patient reveal of buzzing honeybees culminates with the replacement of a hive queen. The placidity and the sound build an anxiety in this opening sequence that sets the tone for the film. Someone is going to get stung.

In Everybody Has a Plan first time director Ana Piterbarg creates an engaging, swampy-noir thriller that balances an unhurried pace with a quickly unraveling lie.