The Yes List – The Most Soulful Documentary of the Year
Each week, The Daily Beast scours the cultural landscape to choose three top picks. This week, a brilliant Bill Withers documentary, and a photography show of bohemian Paris, and remembering the stories of J.D. Salinger.
The Most Soulful Documentary of the Year
If you are lucky enough to live close to an art house theater that has picked up Still Bill, go now. The documentary about soul singer Bill Withers (from young San Francisco filmmaker Damani Baker) is not only full of timeless songs, but it is as enlightening a portrait of an artist as you’ll see this month. Eddie Cockrell of Variety writes that the film is “as steadfast as the smooth grooves and eloquent lyrics Bill Withers ceased sharing with the world nearly a quarter-century ago.” Those grooves he mentions include Ain’t No Sunshine, Lean on Me, and Just the Two of Us, among others. See what we mean by timeless?
Classic Parisian Photography
Enamored of Paris? Twilight Visions a new exhibition at the International Center for Photography, explores surrealism in the City of Light through the lens. With work from the greats like Man Ray, Ilse Bing, and Hans Bellmer, guest curator Terry Lichtenstein shows how Paris in the 1920s and ‘30s was both real and imagined, a fantasy world and a gritty one, and more than anything, a playground for authentic artists at their prime. Read The Daily Beast’s Phillip Gefter’s take on the show at Art Beast.
Remembering Salinger Through His Words
As far as American literary figures goes, few loomed as large as J.D. Salinger, whose classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and reclusive lifestyle made him as much of a legend and household name as a writer can ever be. He passed away on Thursday afternoon at 91 in Cornish, New Hampshire, rounding out a week of literary deaths (including historian Howard Zinn). Fortunately for those who want to remember him, The New Yorker has made an archive of Salinger’s stories available to everyone, regardless of subscription or password status. Enjoy them here.
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