Author: Max Ross

For summer reading, Barnes & Noble recommends The Diary of Anne Frank. So here’s the presumed scenario: The sun is out, you’re under your candy striped umbrella at the beach, children in the near distance are making sandcastles on the shore, and you are immersing yourself in the magical world of WWII-era Amsterdam, through the…

Employing a tactic I’m pretty sure I’ve picked up from the current presidential administration, I’ve decided to take a new approach to truth. Namely, I’m going to make it up. And make it up in such a way that justifies every decision I decide(r), and in such a way that makes me feel better about…

Originally written for Realbuzz Never has an entire decade of music been so thoroughly consolidated within the confines of a single album. Because we’re talking about the 1980s here — or more precisely, 1983-1993 — this can be viewed as either a good or bad thing, depending very much on your personal taste. If you…

Originally written for Realbuzz  There’s something deliciously lame about Clay Aiken’s new album, On My Way Here. On all his previous outputs, Aiken’s milked his boyish, Pee-Wee-esque persona, happy to satisfy both the teenie-boppers and their wannabe moms. On this release, though, young Clayton is trying to mature. Sadly, it seems he’s playing dress-up in…

It could have been so good. That was the biggest disappointment – not how bad it was, but the discrepancy between its actual and potential levels of quality. I’m speaking (writing) of The Ballad of Josef K, a puppeted interpretation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, on stage now at the Illusion Theater. When reviewing (or…

Employing a tactic I’m pretty sure I’ve picked up from the current presidential administration, I’ve decided to take a new approach to truth. Namely, I’m going to make it up. And make it up in such a way that justifies every decision I decide(r), and in such a way that makes me feel better about…