Book Description
Justin Bua creates cool art. His wiggly–armed D.J. intently scratches vinyl on a turntable, head and shoulder wedging in place a set of headphones that he is too cool to wear, while surrounded by the tools of his trade. In another painting, two bald, shirtless basketball players on a city playground rise into the air as the backboard and pole snake ever upward towards surrounding tenement buildings. In the background, a third player stands by in awe, mouth agape, Afro Pick at attention in his hair, while their earthbound buddies are a study in attitude. In "1981," a breakdancer spins on his shoulders, Adidas–clad feet in the air–a collection of characters from the uptown 'hood circling him to marvel at his amazing moves. These are just a few of the pieces included in The Beat of Urban Art, which showcases a motley cast of jazz musicians, homeboys, street hustlers, and neighborhood toughs–from the heavy–lidded "Piano Man" in his cubist yellow jacket to the slyly romantic "El Guitarrista," strumming his acoustic guitar and peering lazily out of his bedroom eyes; from the exuberant nighttime craps players of "Green Street" to the joyously sneaky grafitti artist entering the subway yard through a hole in the fence in "The Artist."
Customer Reviews:
The Beat of Urban Art.......2007-09-26
Justin Bua is not just a talented artist but he is prolific as well. His stylistic caricatures and illustrations with there amplified perspectives and edgy stylings bring the urban street scene to life in a poignant and entertaining way. He presents a diary of his life on the streets. He shows a cast of characters that resonate with energy and rhythm created by his skills at applying line, color and texture. Awesome! Justin Bua is a poet with a paint brush!
Good Artist...Interesting Read...Great Book.......2007-08-27
If you like Justin Bua...you'll love this book.The artwork is beautiful and he provides a detailed outline of his life,his inspiration, and his direction for each of his pieces... The layout is beautiful, the design is lovely, and the art is brilliantly Bua. It's a great book to share with others too.
a beautiful book telling an important tale..........2007-05-19
I bought this book as part of research for a 15 min adaptation of a play Marisol (Jose Rivera) for my drama class. Bua's artwork is stunningly beautiful, with a great portrayal of a city that brings so much awe, culture and mystery...NYC (where marisol is staged).
his telling a story through art is an amazing feat, the colors are great and a few really nice quotes about progression in any artform is in need of skills, as the book states:
As one of my teachers Glenn Vilppu put it: "if you think of all the possible visual elements that you must learn as keys on a piano, the more keys you have, the wider the range of possibilities you can enjoy. Of course, you can make music with just a few keys, but that should be based on choice, not limitations."
Eloquent in his words and thoughts (and his teachers words for that matter), and passionate about his artform, i found the book a great story into the heart of new york.
great find!!.......2007-03-19
I put this book in the must have catagory. I have followed Justin bua's art the last few years and have found this book a great source of info on his methods and background info on his work. I have a book by ernie barns and I put this one right up with his. This book is a must have for any Bua fan or fan of black or urban art.
A relevant art book.......2007-03-14
Finally an art book that is relevant to our times, humorous, political and thoughtful; wrapped into one powerful package. I never thought that art could be so easily embraced. The book speaks volumes of urban life in America. There are plenty of criticisms throughout the book about our society and the urban ghettos that plague our cities. However, what I found captivating was how the book captures the essence of hip-hop culture and shows how it has profoundly influenced American urban life by bringing inspiration, pride and hope to even the darkest alleys.
Book Description
Despite having created one of the most important musical cultures of the last fifty years, hip-hop composers who use digital sampling are rarely taken seriously as artists. But hip-hop deejays and producers have collectively developed an artistic system that features a complex aesthetic, a detailed array of social protocols, a rigorous set of ethical expectations and a rich historical consciousness.
Based on ten years of research among hip-hop producers, Making Beats is the first work of scholarship to explore the goals, methods and values of this surprisingly insular community. Focusing on a variety of subjects--from hip-hop artists' pedagogical methods to the Afro-diasporic roots of the sampling process to the social significance of "digging" for rare records--Joseph G. Schloss examines the way hip-hop artists have managed to create a form of expression that reflects their creative aspirations, moral beliefs, political values and cultural realities.
Customer Reviews:
It made me slightly smarter! n/m.......2005-12-22
.
Quality Material...................................2005-07-08
Quality Material............................
If I Have To Say What is Lacking I'd Have to Say Some Example Pics..But Not Much Else...
The Sampling Ethics are GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Diggin Info is GOOD ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The DJ History/Info is KOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Very Well Spent $20-----
Trust That!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally someone gets it right.......2004-12-01
I'm usually pretty skeptical of books written about hip-hop by authors with PhD's. Most of the time, they don't get it. They aren't hip hop heads, although they might own a few Cd's. Mike Dyson, Tricia Rose, et cetera.
I think this book gets it right.
But the title of this book is misleading. It's not a how-to book on making hip hop beats.
It's an ethnographic study on hip hop producers, most of which are underground/college radio hip hop makers.
So chances are most Amazon customers won't know the names of the producers, or even be able to recognize any of their songs.
But if you know names like Paul C, Diamond D, Showbiz, Pete Rock, Premier, Dilla, Marley Marl, Supreme, Soulman, Dj Muro - this book is really good.
There are a lot of insider issues that producers talk about between themselves, but never really get into the main hip hop discussion, and so it has no chance of getting into the mainstream.
Joe decided to look at producers and ask these questions. He interviewed folks like Dj Kool Akiem (of the Micranauts), Vitamin D, Domino of Hieroglyphics, and he asks questions like
- Why do you need to sample, why not just replay the sample?
- What's the big deal with reissues?
- Producers who didn't start out as Dj's
- Will you sample from a rap record?
If you're just a hip hop head, the quotes from producers are probably the most interesting part of the book. You really get to look into 1 school of thought on how to make beats.
If you're an academic, it's got plenty of footnotes, and lots of support for his ideas.
For me, I think the best part of the book was the literature review. He looks at a lot of the bigger books on the subject of hip hop and breaks them down as to why they don't make sense.
The only problem I really see with the book, is that it focuses on a certain type of producer. Sample based, means sampled from vinyl. You won't find a "keyboard" producer. You won't find producers that make g-rap type beats. (Mannie Fresh type of producer). It's very biased towards an underground, old east coast sound 89-93 era, aesthetic. Which is all the more interesting since he's based on the West Coast.
Book Description
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when large companies and powerful governments reigned supreme over the little guy. But new technologies are empowering individuals like never before, and the Davids of the world-the amateur journalists, musicians, and small businessmen and women-are suddenly making a huge economic and social impact.
In
Army of Davids, author Glenn Reynolds, the man behind the immensely popular Instapundit.com, provides an in-depth, big-picture point-of-view for a world where the small guys matter more and more. Reynolds explores the birth and growth of the individual's surprisingly strong influence in: arts and entertainment, anti-terrorism, nanotech and space research, and much more.
The balance of power between the individual and the organization is finally evening out. And it's high time the Goliaths of the world pay attention, because, as this book proves, an army of Davids is on the rise.
"George Orwell feared that technology would enable dictators to enslave the masses. Glenn Reynolds shows that technology can empower individuals to determine their own futures and to defeat those who would enslave us. This is a book of profound importance-and also a darn good read."
-MICHAEL BARONE, senior writer at
U.S. News & World Report and author of
Hard America, Soft America
"Blogger extraordinaire Glenn Reynolds shows how average Americans can use new technologies to overcome the twin demons of corporate greed and incompetent government. Reynolds is a compelling evangelist for the power of the individual to change our world."
-ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, author of
Pigs at the Trough and
Fanatics and Fools
"A smart, fun tour of a major social and economic trend. From home-brewed beer to blogging, Glenn Reynolds is an engaging, uniquely qualified guide to the do-it-yourself movements transforming business, politics, and media."
-VIRGINIA POSTREL,
Forbes columnist and author of
The Future and its Enemies and
The Substance of Style
"A student in her dorm room now commands the resources of a multi-million dollar music recording or movie editing studio of not so many years ago. The tools of creativity have been democratized and the tools of production are not far behind (Karl Marx take note). Glenn Reynolds's beguiling new book tells the insightful story of how an 'army of Davids' is inheriting the Earth, leaving a trail of obsolete business models not to mention cultural, economic, and political institutions in its wake."
-RAY KURZWEIL, scientist, inventor, and author of several books including
The Singularity is Near
'Must-read,' 'gotta have,' 'culture-changing' . . . I am suspicious of blurbs with such overused plugs. But Glenn Reynolds's An Army of Davids is in fact a must-read new book that you gotta have if you are going to understand the culture-changing forces that are unleashed and at work across the globe.
-HUGH HEWITT, syndicated talk radio host and author of
Blog and
Painting the Map Red
"Glenn Reynolds has written an essential book for understanding how technology and markets are creating a bottom-up shift in power to ordinary people that is changing business, government, and our world. Packed with fresh ideas and adorned with graceful prose, An Army of Davids is a masterpiece."
-JOE TRIPPI, author of
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
"I cannot think of a better book for the average reader to understand just how the Web and other digital technologies are reversing the polarities of modern society-restoring many features of daily life lost with the Industrial Revolution, while at the same time inventing powerful new cultural institutions. And for those of us who make careers out of watching this transformation, no book to date so well summarizes all of the diverse trends in a single narrative."
-MICHAEL MALONE, "Silicon Insider," ABC News
"Reynolds' highly informative book-a must-read if you want to have some idea of the direction things are taking-is about a lot more than the effect of blogging on Big Media. Its theme is 'the triumph of personal technology over mass technology,' which is a trend Reynolds believes is only 'going to strengthen over the coming decades.'"
- FRANK WILSON,
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Instapundit's book reads fast. . . It's just one big idea after another, like a Hollywood thriller that piles on the plot rather than stopping to tie up the loose ends. . . He's fearless. . ."
-MICKEY KAUS,
Kausfiles
"The book covers everything from home-brewing beer to space travel, but all the themes are connected by Glenn's faith in human imagination and creativity. It's a must-read for anyone interested in where technology is taking us."
-JIM MEIGS,
Popular Mechanics
"Reynolds comes across as a good-humored, reasonable and even modest fellow, so it is astonishing to realize just how ambitious
An Army of Davids really is. A hundred years ago, nobody could accurately explain or predict just where the Industrial Revolution would take us. Now, Reynolds attempts nothing short of explaining and predicting where the Information Revolution will take us. . . I will make a prediction-in December, when lists of the most important books of the year are drawn up, this one will be near the top."
- JAMES L. MERRINER,
Chicago Sun-Times
"Reynolds argues that we are undergoing a sea change. The balance of advantage-in every aspect of society-is shifting from big organizations to small ones. . . Reynolds presents his case with verve and wit."
-ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE,
Wall Street Journal
". . . crisp and readable. . . "
-
The Economist
"Glenn Reynolds isn't just the author of
An Army of Davids. He's a living, breathing embodiment of the book's attractive and persuasive thesis. . ."
-NICK GILLESPIE,
New York Post
Customer Reviews:
Interesting book.......2007-07-11
This book got me thinking. It brings up some really interesting ideas that I am not sure I have truely digested all of them. But it got me thinking about creating my own website for my ideas and realizing it may be a success.
Entertaining and Insightful.......2007-07-06
This is an entertaining and insightful read. While it doesn't claim to be a business book, it certainly has great applicability to businesses great and small. If you are looking for political commentary, this book really doesn't fit the category as some commentators have suggested. Still, this is a book about the empowerment of the individual, something that is inherently pro-liberty. The thought of the rise of individualism clearly is scary to some.
As a lawyer, Reynolds is a trained "issue spotter." He does not purport to know all of the answers, but the recognition of an issue is the first step to understanding it and capitalizing on it. An Army of Davids does a great job of raising a lot of issues that society, businesses and the "establishment" must grapple with over the next twenty years.
Instapundit Groupie Approves.......2007-01-03
As an instapundit loyal reader and groupie - this is an outstanding book with an incredibly positive view of an individually powered world.
Worthless.......2007-01-03
A worthless and superficial book, politically biased. The Author's open sympaties for the Republican Right shouldn't have him forget some of the basics of his issues: to write about bottom-up use of technology without even quoting once the case of Wikipedia is an herculean albeit dubious achievement. But embracing a future invasion of Mars (and supporting the not so wise war in Iraq) borders on pure craziness
Buy this book..........2007-01-03
An Army of Davis provides the reader insight into the future. I was drawn to the book by reading the UT law professor's wonderfully detailed book on space law. This book devotes a chapter to space but it is much more rounded in its approach to technology and society. It was a fun and easy yet worthwhile read. It is my hope that the good law professor will some day soon do a new edition to his space law book, however. In the meanwhile, this book is worth the money and the time.
Amazon.com
So you want to write a movie! You could consult Robert McKee's influential Story, Syd Field's rather schematic Screenplay, which extrapolates lessons from famous films, or novelist-turned-screenwriter Meg Wolitzer's literate Fitzgerald Did It, inspired by her own experience.
But the script you pour your soul into won't be read by a single soul you've ever heard of. If a star or mogul reads anything about your story, it will be in the form of "coverage," a brief report reducing your screenplay to a one-sentence summary, with a very few pages of synopsis and ratings of your characters, dialogue, and plot. That report is written by a Hollywood reader, who is likely to be a smart woman desperate to find something she can recommend to her boss--someone like Jennifer Lerch. If her eyes glaze over, you're dead.
Your eyes won't glaze over reading Lerch's 500 brisk mini-lessons. How many pages can you turn in? Not over 120. How crucial are the first 30 pages? Utterly. How many big, climactic moments do you need in those 30 pages? Two. How many scenes do you need in the dramatic opening sequence? Three to five. How many parenthetical comments directly addressed to the reader can you include? One or two per script. How about your favorite passages, where you plumb your characters' inner depths? Throw them away: "If the character doesn't say it, wear it, or do it, delete it." How do pros write? "Staccato. Economical." That's how Lerch writes. And if you want to get anywhere in Hollywood, you'll have to please someone just like her. Know your enemy--and make her your best friend. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
If Your Screenplay Can't Get Past the Hollywood Reader, It Can't Get to Hollywood
This ultimate insider's guide to screenwriting is designed to get you past the fiercest gatekeepers in Hollywood: the Hollywood script readers. This small army of freelancers will be among the first to read and evaluate your script and then to recommend it -- or not -- to the studios, directors, and stars.
Designed for quick and easy access, these 500 points are a step-by-step recipe. They cannot guarantee success, but failure to follow them can almost certainly guarantee failure. Tips include:
* Get your foot in the door: 23 ways to make a good first impression on the Hollywood Reader
* Screen talk: why it is essential to write dialogue that looks good on the page
* Your goals in each act: how to make your story unputdownable from beginning to end
* Specific genre issues: writing a romance? a mystery? a thriller? Learn their special requirements and pitfalls
* The final scenes: how to go out with a bang that will wow the Hollywood Reader
* Still didn't get positive coverage? Inside info on what to do and how to do it
Written by an industry insider who has recommended scripts that have sold for as much as one million dollars, this is the only book to show you what the Hollywood Reader wants to see. Clear, smart, and completely authoritative, 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Script Reader is by far the simplest, most practical book ever to hit the entertainment shelf.
Customer Reviews:
Cuts to the chase!.......2006-03-23
I have bought this book 12 times as a gift for various friends who aspire to be screenwriters. This book is deceptively easy to read and at first glance, it's easy to dismiss the content as "phoned in". Once you begin reading the 500 suggestions, you begin to see the structure and form of "Drama" come through. I keep referring to this book over and over as I write because One writes to be read. What Jennifer Lerch accomplishes is the gentle reminder that screenplays are literary experiences before they are visual experiences. That in order to get produced, the screenplay must sell the story and create a reasonable expectation in the reader's mind of what the audience will experience once the film is made. I've read all the other screenplay books and taken the seminars and all that and this book is the one I keep around because it reveals more information the more times you read it and take it's lessons to heart.
Fast and easy..........2006-01-27
As I surfed Amazon.com looking for good books to improve my craft, I came across this book and each time I saw it, I decided NOT to purchase it.
For some reason...it just seemed cheesy. Perhaps it's the cover or the title.
Well, now that I am ¾ finished my screenplay, I decided to come back to this book. And I must say...it isn't as what I thought it would be. Each one of the ways she listed it good information of what to look for within your screenplay to see if you've minimized any mistakes that would stand out to a Hollywood Reader.
The book is written in simplistic terms. It's fast and easy to read. Yet it packs a lot of good insider information that will assist even a novice of how to get their script read instead of flipped through.
I recommend this book as a secondary resource.
A Great checklist for improving your screenplay.......2005-09-05
Many of the reviews I've read of this book I feel seem to be missing the point of this book. This is not the one and only book on screenwriting that anyone should read. Not even Robert McKee's "Story" or Chris Vogler's "The Writer's Journey" can claim to be that. There are books to teach you structure, books to teach you about format, and books to teach you about character and plot development. This book is none of the above.
I see this book more as a reference guide. The first 200 or so tips are for complete newbies who have never written a script in their life However, when you get to Part 2 of the book, which covers tips for Acts 1 through 3, that's the real meat of the book and the real reason to buy it.
While writing your screenplay or even while plotting your outline, read this book. It is no more and no less than a 500-point checklist of what you should and shouldn't be doing in your script.
Sure, some tips would make more sense if they were combined with others. And yes, some tips are reworded versions of previous tips, but that's what it took to reach the 500 number.
On the positive side, I have lost count of the number of times I have found a hole in my plot or realized that I could eliminate or scene or two without damaging my story thanks to one or more of the tips in this great book.
So, if you're reading it hoping it will explain the awe and mystery that is screenwriting, you'll be sorely disappointed. If you use it as a checklist, you should find it quite valuable. I know I did.
500 Reasons You Should By This Book.......2005-07-27
Forget the bad reviews; this book is a WINNER. It may not teach detailed structure or delve into the intricate process of creating a solid concept, but I don't think that's the point. IMHO, this is more of a book for *quick* starters, or intermediates / pros. Once you already know you have a good story and know the ins and outs of structure, read this book and it'll put you over the top. For one, it forces you realize that you are writing for an audience, who is expecting to see certain things. In this respect, Lerch's perspective is invaluable. After reading Rob McKee's Story, Trottier's Screenwriting Bible and also books by Seger and more, I think that this book's exploration of 'Act Goals' is a superb resource that I haven't seen anywhere else. I imagine that I'll constantly refer back to these gems as I write. To sum it up, DO NOT PASS this book. The best $12 I've spent all year.
Quick. Interesting. Informative.......2005-06-02
I enjoyed this book. I am not much of a reader (of literature and stuff) but I have read quite a few screenplay books. This seems to have all the right info (i.e. brevity and purposeful details only). But I felt I learned a few new things too. I agree that this isn't the only book to read. Writing the Picture is the closet I have come to finding that. But this is an important one for new screenwriters to read.
Book Description
The second volume in the acclaimed series that brings to life the groups of avant-garde writers, artists, and patrons who were keystones of what has come to be called Modernism, this book sheds new light on the hard-living, maverick poets and novelists--William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others--who coalesced into the Beats. Illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Great guidebook to the early Beats.......2005-12-21
There are few literary movements in American history that have been as influential as that of the Beat Generation. Together they expressed discontent with life in postwar America and decried the literary traditions of their age. Their subjects were their very own lives, particularly their relationships, their travels, and their experimentation and use of mind-altering chemicals, all of which was in defiance of the social norms of their times.
In this book, Steven Watson chronicles the formative years of the movement, from their initial encounters in 1940s New York to the publication of Burroughs's novel "Naked Lunch." In this, Watson follows an outline of the history of the Beats once articulated by Allen Ginsberg, starting with how they came together as a group and then moving on to describe the writing of their key works, their struggles against censorship, and their eventual success and notoriety. While his focus is primarily on the major figures - Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Herbert Huncke - and their influences on one another, his scope is wide-ranging, and includes examinations of the San Francisco Renaissance, the avant-garde Black Mountain College, and the subsequent commercialization of the Beats by the end of the 1950s.
Watson describes all of this in a brisk and informative narrative. Generously illustrated, the margins are peppered with quotes, definitions of Beat terminology, and lists of people, books, and traits that define the movement. Together it makes for an invaluable guidebook to the Beats; while no substitute for the writings themselves, it is an excellent resource for understanding the origins and development of the Beat movement.
By Far the Best.......2002-07-04
This is by far the best book about the Beats that I have read to date. I really enjoyed the entire book. Its a quick read, has fun anecdotes, quotes and definitions printed in the margins of every page, and delivers a tremendous amount of information about the Beat Generation. I was impressed by the amount of history covered for the main Beat characters, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Carr, and Burroughs. I especially enjoyed the in depth looks at their first meetings with one another and the focus on what each one was reading during the early years. The aforementioned writers are definitely the focus of this book, but there is also a decent amount of time dedicated to minor characters involved in the generation.
You really can't go wrong with this book, rather this will be your first introduction to the Beats or your a veteran of Beat lore, you will definitely gain something from reading this text. This book also includes an awesome year to year run down of important events in the Beat movement shown in correlation with important social and political events of the time. If you enjoy this book you may want to check out 'Rolling Stone's Book of the Beats' also, another great addition to the Beat fan's bookshelf.
A good book for so many reasons...........2000-08-29
This is a great book for a numer of reasons. I'm going to list a number of them and then write a bit in conclusion.
1. It deals with many of the 'Beats' rather than focusing, as is typical, on Kerouac and Ginsberg and forgetting the rest of them. It provides an illuminating portrait of Burroughs (who is definately a key figure), Neal Cassidy (who is also), and alot of the girls, etc. who were around them. 2. It provides reading lists, etc. of what they were reading. This is HUGE if you want to understand the bitterness/despair that is found in Burroughs and Ginsberg... as well as insight into how they interpretted their life and times (i.e. because they read these books, they in a dialogic sense would interpret things along such-and-such lines.... as a psychologist would interpret a 'vision of God' one way and a believer a second.... 3. Lots of minutia/trivia that is just fun.
It's a really good book and more stimulating than one would expect from a book that is in the shape of a square. It would not suffice as a literary biography of any of the authors contained in the 'movement' nor could it supplant any social history book. But, it suppliments them and is fun to read: sort of an academic version of 'Seventeen' at points. I really love this book. I'd definately recommend this book to anyone who wants to become first among their band of friends if all their friends want to do is read a little bit of 'On the Road' and 'Howl' (and then think they know about this time period....
For the New Beat Reader.......2000-06-06
Steven Watson does an admirable job of bringing together the various strands of Beat history through an engaging, storyteller-like style. Though he doesn't cover much new ground, his treatment of the Beat Women, Black Mountain Poets and the San Francisco Renaissance will be particularly helpful for those who are just beginning to explore the ancillary figures of the Beat movement. However, anyone already familiar with the lives of Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac will find nothing revelatory here.
One point of concern is Watson's often overzealous descriptions of Beat sexuality. While sexual liberalism was certainly a significant tenet of Beat existence, it was not, in my estimation, the raison d'etre for Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac, etc. It could be argued that Neil Cassady illuminated the sexual experience for core Beats, but his contribution as an iconic figure should not be devalued by presenting him as merely the sexual driving force of the Beats. Moreover, Watons implies that Ginsberg's homosexuality was the primary facet of his literary development. This is more than debatable. Certainly, Ginsberg's supernatural visions of Blake and his relationship with his mother served a much more profound purpose.
Though Watson should be commended for his thoroughness, the result at times is an overemphasis on the sexual side of the Beats. In Watson's book, this serves to lessen the importance of the Beats' dramatic contributions to literature and poetry.
From Birth to Death the Beats..........1999-12-29
The most unbiased and honest writing on the beats I've read to date. Steven Watson stears clear of glorification and awe, and brings you inside the little worlds of these real life characters. Swings you around to the outside looking in observing these dark lost drug induced literary masters. I especially appreciate the in depth look at Joan Vollmer Burroughs, an often overlooked main character of the Beats.
Book Description
"Called ""the world's most original action auteur"" by the Village Voice, Takeshi Kitano is already legendary in Japan, where he is known both for his inventive films and for his legendarily caustic alter ego, comedian Beat Takeshi. In the United States, his stylishly noir aesthetic has both influenced and been admired by such directors as Martin Scorcese and Quentin Tarantino. His emotionally intense yet lyrical films have won him worldwide acclaim and honors, including the Grand Prix for Hanabi [Fireworks] at the Venice Film Festival. Now, the long-awaited Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano offers a collection of essays on the internationally acclaimed film director by Casio Abe. Despite his impact on contemporary cinema, very little critical work on Kitano's films exists in the United States. Abe's book, originally published in Japan, combines a detailed look at Kitano's filmography with an incisive critique of the consumerist culture which Kitano's films play against. It is also purportedly Kitano's favorite book on his own work. This translation of Abe's writings on Kitano has been updated with articles that discuss Kitano's most recent releases, up to and including Dolls (2002), as well as extensive appendices and footnotes. Abe is one of Japan's preeminent cultural critics, and his book gives a rare and insightful look into the workings of one of the largest media cultures in the world. This will be the first book devoted exclusively to Kitano's work to be published in the United States. Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano is the first volume in Kaya's ""Wicked Radiance"" series, which examines the work of a new wave of Asian filmmakers who are reshaping contemporary cinema."
Customer Reviews:
Beat Takeshi, Takeshi Kitano, we never knew ye.......2006-05-31
I'm a big fan of Takeshi Kitano and I picked this book up without even thinking about it when I saw it. It is a very nice paperback; small but well bound with a great cover photo.
The book is very well written but that may be the book's one flaw as it is very wordy and reads like a thesis. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, this simply isn't a book to pick up for a casual read as it is a bit demanding intellectually speaking. It does present some very interesting theories and insight into Kitano's work, both in film and in television. I really enjoyed reading the author's dissection on the nature of the Beat Takeshi/Takeshi Kitano relationship in his films and his take on television culture in general, which he crucifies more than once throughout the book.
Also, like with other books of this nature, I can't help but feel like the author sees way too much into Kitano's work, probably more than Kitano himself. Kitano doesn't strike me as the type to meticulously plan every tiny detail in his films as the author insinuates in this book. Kitano seems to me to be more of an instinctual director who works more off of intuition. While I do appreciate that this is an analytical essay on the subject, some of the theories and points are just way out there, probably enough to make Kitano himself scratch his head in a perplexed state.
The book covers everything up until "Dolls", which is a shame since Kitano has filmed "Zatoichi" and "Takeshis" in the past few years and I would've loved to read what the author had to say about those films.
If you'd like a nice, concise reading on Mr. Kitano's work (and who wouldn't?), I strongly recommend this.
The Two Halves of a Most Unique Filmmaker Meticulously Discussed.......2006-01-07
The seemingly split personality between international film auteur Takeshi Kitano and TV personality/movie actor "Beat" Takeshi has intrigued me since I saw his wondrous 2000 road movie, "Kikujiro", right after one of the ridiculously dubbed episodes of his game show, "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" (a.k.a. "Takeshi's Castle"). What appears common between the two selves is the unpredictability of his technique and his quirky sense of humor. Film critic Casio Abe has done a thorough job in examining both halves of the man in question with a series of meticulously written essays that illuminate Kitano's artistic motivations and the native culture that embraces him wholeheartedly. "Kikujiro", as it turns out, is something of an anachronism in Kitano's filmography since he is known by Westerners for developing his own film noir aesthetic with its stylized violence and narrative idiosyncrasies. You can tell from the book why his approach is revered by directors such as Martin Scorcese, John Woo and especially Quentin Tarantino, who seems to follow similar themes in his films.
As a true Japanese film connoisseur, Abe tends to get didactic in his meticulous descriptions of scenes and character motivations within Kitano's movies. For example, his comments about Kitano transcending Beat Takeshi move toward a philosophical discussion that borders on pretentious. The author's praise sometimes gets a little too effusive, but it's a forgivable indulgence since only the most serious fan of Kitano's work would read this book. Regardless, it's fortunate that this work has been translated into English since Kitano's worldwide audience has been building steadily for the past decade. Abe includes several excerpts from Kitano interviews and paints as complete a portrait of the filmmaker as possible. Originally published in 1994, the graphically pleasing softbound book has been augmented with a series of more recent magazine articles that focus on his most recent work. This is an excellent overview of Kitano's work for those who have been lucky enough to expose themselves to his artistry.
Quite Good.......2005-10-02
The first Kitano Takeshi film I watched was Kikujiro in one of my Japanese classes. Entranced by the delightful film, I decided that I wanted to watch other works by this comedic director. Hoping for a similar sense of enjoyment that I experienced while watching Kikujiro, I purchased A Scene at the Sea and Fireworks. Let me say that what I experienced watching these two films were quite different than the one I had watching Kikujiro. A Scene a the Sea is probably one of the most minimalist films that I have ever seen in both dialogue and action, but watching it was like being in a quiet meditation for one-hundred minutes and small parts of the film, such as when Takako folds Shigeru's clothing or when the "Orange Woman" repeatedly asks a number of people to peel her fruit, are quite heartwarming. The ending of the film left me a bit melancholy, but it was tinged more with nostalgia than sadness. I then watched Fireworks which is a film that must be experienced more than once because the duel stories of Nishi and Horibe overlap more than one thinks upon the initial viewing.
Since then I watched several other Kitano Takeshi films and have enjoyed each in a different way be it the aesthetic beauty of Dolls or the ribaldry of Getting Any?. However, besides reading some short articles by Beat Takeshi that were, of course, more for fun than scholarly intent, I had yet to read a scholarly tome concerning Kitano's body of work. Therefore I was very pleased to read the announcement that Abe Casio's study Beat Takeshi vs. Kitano was going to be released in English. This was back in 2002 and so I waited and waited for the book to be released and after quite some time had passed, I forgot about it. However, one day, while randomly surfing the Internet, I came across the book and saw that it had been released, so I quickly ordered it and read it. It is quite good and I believe that both Kitano enthusiasts and Japanese film fans and scholars should read it.
Abe's book is separated into two halves. Being that the book was originally released in 1994 and Kitano had only directed four films, Violent Cop, Boiling Point, A Scene at the Sea, and Sonatine, so the book at first glance seems to be less than comprehensive work, however, with ample information concerning Kitano's work as an actor, Many Happy Returns, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and his television work, Abe fills this supposed void. At any rate, the second half of the English edition of the book contains a number of articles concerning Kitano's later films, Getting Any?, Fireworks, Kikujiro, Brother, and Dolls.
As made obvious by the title, Abe contrasts the dueling personalities of the larger-than-life comedian Beat Takeshi and the more subdued, almost gloomy persona embodied within the filmmaker Kitano Takeshi. Much of the earlier parts of the book mainly consist of Abe's diatribes against Japanese television which he views as nothing more than a vapid waste of time consisting of little more than talk shows, travel shows, and cartoons. However, he also writes that television is dangerous because of its collective desire to homogenize a nation. It is within this miasma of pop-culture vacuity that the former manzai comedian Beat Takeshi raised to stardom, but he, along with his comic troop the Takeshi Gundan, or Takeshi Army, was able to prevent himself from being homogenized by his refusal to play along by television's rules. However, because it is a tremendous force, Takeshi was not able defeat television, so when opportunity to direct Violent Cop knocked, Takeshi jumped upon it. Without worrying if his films would be hits, it was nearly impossible for any Japanese film to do well during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kitano, as a director, was able to put his thoughts on screen, especially his relentless fascination with suicide.
Quite wordy and academic in nature, the names Walter Benjamin, Kierkegaard, Orikuchi Shinobu, etc. pop up quite often, one sometimes has to wage battle with Abe's words to find his main ideas, but the book is a valuable and welcome edition to ones Japanese film bookshelf.
Book Description
Music in Brazil is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visit www.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. As the largest nation in Latin America, Brazil is home to some of the most celebrated music in the world. Music in Brazil covers a wide spectrum of this music, including samba, bossa nova, Tropicalia, and MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira); regional traditional and popular music; Brazilian rock, rap, and electronica; and such genres as sertaneja (similar to country-and-western music) and brega (sentimental pop). Music in Brazil is organized the themes of unity, diversity, cosmopolitanism, and verbal artistry. It shows how Brazilian music expresses the unity of the country's culture, discussing, for example, how samba plays a major part in annual Carnaval celebrations and provides a focus for nationalist sentiment. In contrast, the book also demonstrates how music represents the diversity of Brazilian culture, describing how each of Brazil's regions is home to unique genres of music, and how the audiences for various types of music reflect class distinctions. In addition, author John P. Murphy presents examples of cosmopolitan Brazilian music and emphasizes the connections between music and other aspects of Brazilian culture, especially language and gender. Enhanced by vivid illustrations and guided listening activities, this book is a captivating introduction to the music of Brazil. It is packaged with a 60-minute audio CD containing examples of the music discussed in the book, many of which are taken from the author's field recordings.
Average customer rating:
- The Beat Generation in various forms
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Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965
Lisa Phillips
Manufacturer: Whitney Museum of American Art
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Amazon.com
Now that Francis Ford Coppola is making a film of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the beats--Kerouac, Ginsberg, Whalen, Cassady, and others, some gone but not forgotten--are due for another in a series of periodic rediscoveries by the mainstream media. This heavily illustrated book does the work of several tomes. It analyzes beat culture from a historical viewpoint, showing its growth in the Cold War as an expression of alienation on one hand and utter artistic joy on the other. It also charts the rise of a postwar African American intellectual movement whose influence remains strong; examines the effect of beat sensibilities on the hippies who followed a decade later, and on youth culture generally; and traces the path of beat ideas in the arts, especially film. Most of all, it makes you want to turn to Desolation Angels and Howl for the first or the hundredth time for a righteous dose of bebop delight.
Customer Reviews:
The Beat Generation in various forms.......2000-03-28
This catalogue has excellent photographs that gives one a sense of the attitude of the Beat Generation. Everyone is familiar with the writers of the period, but not everyone knows about art generated during those years. This catalogue gives a review of art, film, and writing being created at the time. Not only that but it devotes a chapter to women and a chapter to minorites working during the time period. A good source of information for anyone interested in the 1950's to the early 1960's.
Book Description
This collection of scholarly essays reassesses the Beat Generation writers in mid-century American history and literature, as well as their broad cultural impact since the 60s from contemporary critical, theoretical, historical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. The traditional canon of major writers in this generation is expanded to include women and African Americans. The essays offer critiques of media stereotypes and popular cliches that influence both academic and popular discourse about the Beats, connect the literature of the Beat movement to music, painting, and film, and ultimately open new directions for study of the Beats in the 21st century.
Book Description
A long-overdue paean to the predominant musical form of the 70s and a thoughtful exploration of the culture that spawned it
Disco may be the most universally derided musical form to come about in the past forty years. Yet, like its pop cultural peers punk and hip hop, it was born of a period of profound social and economic upheaval. In Turn the Beat Around, critic and journalist Peter Shapiro traces the history of disco music and culture. From the outset, disco was essentially a shotgun marriage between a newly out and proud gay sexuality and the first generation of post-civil rights African Americans, all to the serenade of the recently developed synthesizer. Shapiro maps out these converging influences, as well as disco's cultural antecedents in Europe, looks at the history of DJing, explores the mainstream disco craze at it's apex, and details the long shadow cast by disco's performers and devotees on today's musical landscape.
One part cultural study, one part urban history, and one part glitter-pop confection, Turn the Beat Around is the most comprehensive study of the Me Generation to date.
Customer Reviews:
Concise history of disco.......2007-08-17
I teach a history of popular music class at the college level and am always looking for extra source material to augment my own notes. Thanks to Shapiro's book, I learned more about disco in the first chapter than I have since I started teaching the class. His research is thorough, including specific names of pioneering individuals, groups, and songs, along with vivid descriptions of related places and events. I appreciate the documentation, which includes at the back of the book, insightful end notes, a bibliography of interesting sources, as well as what every history teacher loves - a time line! I will admit, with so many names I actually took notes so I could keep up with all the personalities. I'm glad I did; I also purchased the DVD Disco: Spinning the Story [[ASIN: B0007X1NVU]] and my list helped me recognize and realize the significance of the interviewees. I wish this book had a soundtrack, but since it doesn't, the DVD is the next best thing.
The story of a music genre born from the social and economic turmoil of the 1970's.......2006-02-07
Turn The Beat Around: The Secret History Of Disco is the story of a music genre born from the social and economic turmoil of the 1970's. Blending elements of post-civil rights African-American culture, the newly out-and-proud gay movement, and the syncopation of the recently developed synthesizer, disco became a craze that flared brilliantly in its time, then fell by the wayside to fond memories and derisive scorn as its pop-culture peers of punk and hip-hop rose in its place. Chapters of Turn The Beat Around explores New York, where disco originated; disco's links to sexuality, its feverish era of popularity, its movement underground, and its legacy today. Turn The Beat Around is a thoroughly researched, plain-terms, no-holds barred scrutiny, recommended for ordinary disco fans and music students alike.
The story of a music genre born from the social and economic turmoil of the 1970's.......2006-02-07
Turn The Beat Around: The Secret History Of Disco is the story of a music genre born from the social and economic turmoil of the 1970's. Blending elements of post-civil rights African-American culture, the newly out-and-proud gay movement, and the syncopation of the recently developed synthesizer, disco became a craze that flared brilliantly in its time, then fell by the wayside to fond memories and derisive scorn as its pop-culture peers of punk and hip-hop rose in its place. Chapters of Turn The Beat Around explores New York, where disco originated; disco's links to sexuality, its feverish era of popularity, its movement underground, and its legacy today. Turn The Beat Around is a thoroughly researched, plain-terms, no-holds barred scrutiny, recommended for ordinary disco fans and music students alike.
blown away.......2006-01-31
I am a child of the Seventies and a lover of the disco sound. I was into dressing up, going out and dancing in the clubs back in the day. So when I saw this book in an article, I had to get it. It is very good and the author is very thorough when he is going over this era. Those times were fun to me, so I am definitely reminiscing. It's a great topic with great information.
Superior history of disco -- maybe the best of the lot.......2006-01-17
Who knew that disco would ever become respectable enough for a wave of books about it? By the time disco had transitioned from minor club scene to worldwide phenomenon in the late `70s, punk had also arrived, and the two styles were like armed camps, with disco dissed as "gay music" (like that's a bad thing) and punk extolled as raw and real. I guess those sad, grim, grungy straight punks couldn't stand the image of all those queer party boys, mindlessly writhing on the dance floors of every major urban center with their black brothers and sisters, dressed in chiana and sequins and waving fans and feathers while the fog machines cranked and huge speakers thumped out trancelike beats and diva shrieks at earsplitting levels. Punks declared "death to disco" and mounted record-burning campaigns but could do little to stop their least favorite musical form.
Author Peter Shapiro, who appears to be straight, seems to know more than any non-queer should about disco, and says it with panache in what is probably the best of the recent slew of books on the subject. Shapiro expertly ties the emergence of the form to the new gay freedom mixed with an increasingly empowered African-American community - the perfect musical marriage between queers and blacks as both consumers and creators of the joyous soundtrack to liberation. The author has obviously done deep research to uncover the personalities behind all those obscure sounds. The dates, personnel, even studio locations are all here. This was no small task; no musical genre has ever been as faceless as disco, with many of the "groups" simply studio musicians hired for a session or two by the real creator, the producer. But Shapiro casts his net much wider, weaving such elements as DJ culture and its superstars, disco's influence on hip hop, legendary venues like Studio 54 and the Paradise Garage and even gay bathhouses, and much more into this rich portrait of a music-based culture pulsing with creativity. A detailed discography, an amusing photo section of period disco performers and fashions, a useful song index, and a notes section round out this wonderful read.
Books:
- The Big Book of Breasts
- The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record (Dover Architectural Series)
- The Design of Everyday Things
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- The Film Developing Cookbook (Darkroom Cookbook)
- The Great American Pin-Up (Midi)
- The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Mermaid Chair
Books Index
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