<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Philip Kennicott</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/music/philipkennicott?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><description>Philip Kennicott</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[The Man in the Ivory Tower]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54826-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54826-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A silver-haired woman, sitting in the gleaming glass lobby of a Harvard University science building, notes the arrival of university President Lawrence Summers. "That <em>car</em>," she says, and then rolls her eyes.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In Need of  Some Tuning]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23990-2005Apr3.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23990-2005Apr3.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA["The Magic Flute" returned to the Washington National Opera  in an inventive and uneven production.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Symbol of Emptiness]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17140-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17140-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In the end,  most Americans were never really on a first-name basis with Terri Schiavo. She was Terri to the Florida politicians who passed "Terri's Law," later ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, and she was Terri to the protesters who gathered outside her hospice. She was Terri to Jeb Bush, who used all his powers as governor of Florida to keep her alive, and she was Terri to men like Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who led an extraordinary legal intervention in her case. But to most of America, she never became "Terri," even as the electronic media kept up a remorseless "Terri" death watch, pretending intimacy because that's how television makes difficult stories feel personal.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Antares': Trysts and Turns]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64671-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64671-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[There's a particular quality of feeling that comes after fraught sex, say, sex you shouldn't be having because you're married to someone else, or you know the person too well, or too little, or there's been no understanding between the partners as to the future and meaning of it all. Two people, intimate just a moment before, are strangers in the same room, and the room feels gray and empty. You pull on your clothes and walk out the door and wonder how did I, an adult with a full complement of self-respect, end up in this fascinating, tawdry situation?]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Display of Two-Dimensional Patriotism]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58608-2005Mar22.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58608-2005Mar22.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The  governing principle behind the exhibition "Faces of the Fallen," a homage to Americans killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is that art adds value.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Waiting for a Clear Picture to Emerge]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50275-2005Mar19.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50275-2005Mar19.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[After two years and more than 1,500 U.S. casualties in a war that has been perhaps the best documented in history, no single photograph from the hostilities in Iraq has emerged as iconic. Images arrive, vie for our attention and are contradicted or superseded by other more immediate images. The red glare of shock and awe, the orange haze of sandstorms in the early weeks of war, the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein, the speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier  --   all of these moments, captured in photographs or video, belong to what feels like a prehistory of what we have now, a long grind with continuing destruction and a failing attention span for the daily death toll. Only a few images from the prison scandal at Abu Ghraib have forced themselves repeatedly on our attention, and even those have faded (here) as our attention turns elsewhere and the U.S. government prosecutes a few low-level offenders.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In So Many Words, Ken Burns Backs the Arts]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35746-2005Mar15.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35746-2005Mar15.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Ken Burns, who made a 19-hour film about jazz that reintroduced the flagging art form to PBS viewers four years ago, speaks in a light, articulate, conservative jazz style. In his films, and in the speech he gave last night to the annual gathering of Americans for the Arts, he starts with a few big themes, presents them clearly, allows soloists to enliven them with a few riffs and repeats his basic material with hypnotic, and sometimes mind-numbing, frequency. He entertains. He inspires.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Zydeco Hero]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53471-2005Feb25.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53471-2005Feb25.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[In the low-budget "Schultze Gets the Blues," director Michael Schorr introduces an unlikely film star.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Religious Face of Iraq]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33388-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33388-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[The  Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most revered Shiite leader in Iraq, seems through the prism of the Western media to be an elusive character. He has not met with coalition leaders directly, and he doesn't speak to reporters. His views on current affairs are known through statements made by those who surround him, which makes the ayatollah appear a remote,  oracular, figure. Although he has avoided jumping directly into the political process, election results announced this week make his Shiite supporters the dominant force in the new government, and Sistani has proved in the past that he can muster tens of thousands of protesters to influence the course of the new Iraq. His impact on U.S. efforts to remake Iraq has been enormous. And yet he remains in many ways an enigma, an unseen hand and a powerful force guiding the country who knows where.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Flaws That Refresh: A Risk-Taking Renee Fleming]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31084-2005Feb16.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31084-2005Feb16.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Perfection  always makes us a little suspicious. The politician with the perfect suit, the Bill Frist hair, the dimpled tie, the fluorescent smile, who greets everyone in the room, drawing names, as if by magic, out of the depths of the inner Rolodex -- don't trust him.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[WETA Board Approves Switch To News-Talk Format]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15840-2005Feb10.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15840-2005Feb10.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ WETA-FM listeners who had hoped to prevent the widely anticipated decision by the public broadcasting station's board of directors to drop classical music programs left its Shirlington offices disappointed last night.  By an overwhelming majority, the board approved a resolution to focus on news and public-affairs programming.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Artist as Art]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62310-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62310-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Henry Darger worked in total obscurity his entire life and has emerged since his death in 1973 as one of this country's best-known "outsider" artists.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Simplified 'Merchant' Still Generates Interest]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43151-2005Jan27.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43151-2005Jan27.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Almost two centuries ago, Charles and Mary Lamb published their "Tales From Shakespeare," storybook reductions of the great plays, in simple prose. Most contemporary film adaptations of Shakespeare, including the new "William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" starring Al Pacino, follow the Lambs' form -- a good, swift overview of the plot, with a little bit of the magnificent language thrown in. Such is the loss of currency of Shakespearean language that the reading level of the 1807 "Tales," intended for children, is about all that works in an art film today, even one intended for a sophisticated adult audience.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Opera and Film]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56556-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56556-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Their relationship is certainly long-standing, but has it been fruitful?]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Diva Who Paid Her Dues]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56555-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56555-2005Jan7.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[There isn't always a clear claimant to the title Great American Soprano, and those who do hold it are not necessarily great sopranos at all. It is a name-recognition thing, a personality thing, a marketing thing, and only secondarily a musical thing.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Will Be Essential in  2020?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40151-2004Dec31.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40151-2004Dec31.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[If you're one of those people who use this season to clean up and throw out the accumulated baggage of another year, just take stock of how deeply a basic optimism pervades the house. In the kitchen, a little bit of desiccated saffron waits for the proverbial blue moon when you decide to color a pot of rice. On the bookshelf, Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain" still inhabits its two inches of precious space, waiting for a long, undistracted summer to be given its due. In the closet, your youth hangs in between old winter coats and forlorn ties, waiting for the new you that will emerge from the gym and a regimen built on tofu and greens.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Guerrilla': Revolutionary Has-Been]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38000-2004Dec30.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38000-2004Dec30.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Watch Robert Stone's new documentary, "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst," and try to care about the little rich girl who may have been brainwashed by her gun-toting captors.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bush's Capital, And Its Costs]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9478-2004Dec17.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9478-2004Dec17.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  President Bush could have used other metaphors to describe the opportunity his reelection gave him to pursue his agenda. He could have said that he had the wind in his sails, or a little breathing room; or that he was anticipating another honeymoon, or the chance to call in some favors. He could have talked of his legacy, his gift to the people, his place in history. Instead, he used a metaphor borrowed from the realm of finance and economics.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[American Idols]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53680-2004Dec9.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53680-2004Dec9.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   LIBERTY AND FREEDOM<br>   A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas]]></description><author>Reviewed  Philip Kennicott</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In 'Notre Musique,' Going to Hell and Back]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53802-2004Dec9.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53802-2004Dec9.html?nav=rss_style/music/philipkennicott</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2005 7:51:42 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[One by one the nation's newsweeklies have taken up the question of Christianity in Europe, the crisis of declining church attendance, increasing secularism, empty cathedrals and godless governments. Perhaps they've been looking in all the wrong places.]]></description><author> Philip Kennicott</author></item></channel></rss>