A better movie than The Dark Knight Rises would invite discussion of its content, but interpretation (“What’s that?” say Avengers fans) isn’t even required of this third entry in Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise. A film of empty spectacle, its actual content (formulaic violence, humorless dialogue, unvarying solemnity) runs second to the blatant process of supplying 
By Joel Lobenthal Béatrice Massin is a specialist in Baroque dance. She was co-choreographer of Lully’s Atys when the opera was presented by Les Arts Florissants at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last fall. She has choreographed for several films and directs her own dance troupe, Compagnie Fêtes Galantes, and school, the Atelier Baroque. She 
Melillo enables artists and audiences By Elena Oumano Responsive and initiating in just the right proportions, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), at 38 Lafayette Ave. in Fort Greene, seems inextricably linked to its home borough, with BAM’s offerings—all the performing arts, cinema, a café, even hosting Memorial Day weekend’s sprawling outdoor African bazaar—radiating and 
The Philharmonic’s New Yorky Fourth The New York Philharmonic gives an annual Fourth of July concert, and this year the orchestra gave it three times. I attended on July 3. As usual, the concert was conducted by a Brit, Bramwell Tovey. He is one suave and talented Brit, too. I have always called him “your 
Barbarian art mocks religion By Maureen Malarkey Is religion the new pornography? DC Moore Gallery, pitching its group exhibition of “American (ir)religiosity” in the exhibition Beasts of Revelation, hopes so. Censorship battles over sexually explicit imagery have been won. That old X-rated thrill is gone. Nowadays, organs and orifices are as transgressive as your parish 
Downtown Alliance’s Kelly Rush lets us know what’s opening and closing I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday. I spent the day at the beach because it was much too hot to stay in my apartment all day and watch my cats, who pant and generally look even hotter than I feel. 
