Word: criticism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Erlendur is, in fact, fictional. He's a sullen detective created by Arnaldur Indridason, 47, a former film critic who started writing crime novels a decade ago. Indridason has attracted a huge following in Iceland and increasingly abroad, ever since the German version of Jar City came out in 2003. He's now translated into 36 languages, and has sold more than five million books worldwide. Indridason is currently working on his 10th Erlendur novel. The most recent, Arctic Chill, was published in September. An Icelandic movie of Jar City came out in 2006 and a Hollywood producer has already...
...Lowdown Pitchfork 500's reviews have been pleasantly stripped of their supercilious phrases (well, for the most part - one critic sounds like a high school student thumbing through a thesaurus when he deems the 1983 hit "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Fellini-esque") and its tributes to popular songs are exquisite. The review of Brian Eno's "1/1," tells how the bedridden singer's inability to reach the volume knob on his stereo led to the creation of an entire genre of "ambient music," and provides eager but inexpert music fans with a greater understanding of pop music...
...their calls for a proper opero-tragic suicide. "He doesn't want anything to do with that Valhalla tradition celebrating tragedy, pain and death," says Teodori. "And neither do I." It's one of the opera's more effective conceits, and Nieve's arias shine with what one applauding critic called "a true musicologist's reflection on the themes of Bizet, Bellini and Puccini...
...moving, ethereal intermezzos by onstage jazz instrumentalists improvising over the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. While Le Monde had little appetite for this musical "soup", the Journal de Dimanche was eager for more. "In the breach between rock-pop and opera, [Nieve] invented something new," said the paper's critic. "Despite its faults, this innovation, far superior to all the musical comedies in the works, deserves to be saluted...
...Cambridge don was right: he had a journalist's mind to go with a diplomat's gifts of persuasion and tact. In the '30s he talked himself into a job as the BBC's movie critic. Soon he was doing political reportage and a kind of social commentary, never taking sides (even his children didn't know whom he'd voted for). In these stints, as in his Masterpiece Theater introductions, he'd often sketch out a speech, then deliver it without script or teleprompter, trusting his memory and high-wire poise. He was as much an improv master...