Book Description
View the
Table of Contents. Read the
Prologue.
”Sharpley-Whiting's book does not suffer from the sort of cowardice one too often hears from black academics who genuflect to hip hop in order to stay current with the tastes of the students who provide them with whatever power they have on college campuses. Sharpley-Whiting calls them as she sees them and wisely quotes the offensive material when necessary. Her book is high level in its research and its thought, and those looking for adult ideas about the subject should look it up.”
—Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News
”Sharpley-Whiting gets at the heart of the paradox . . . and puts the discussion on the turntable.”
—Washington Post
”Sharpley-Whitting's uncommon perspective is one that deserves to be examined more often.”
—Bitch
”For B-girls who embrace both the brashness of Lil' Kim and the pro-feminism of Lauryn Hill,
Pimps Up, Ho's Down is an intellectual look at the intricate, diverse attitudes of young black women within the hip hop community. Sharpley-Whiting combines thought-provoking text with interviews that range from the `rich' (see Trina) to the `regular' (everyday women), giving a voice to today's complex and contradictory females within hip hop.”
—The Source Magazine
”Through provocatively titled chapters such as `Sex, Power, and Punanny' and `Strip Tails: Booty Clappin', P-poppin', Shake Dancing,' Sharpley-Whiting provides a sobering analysis of women's participation in the hyper-sexualized black American, urban youth culture known as hip hop. . . . This book delivers a riveting portrayal of hip hop, from the thumping rap music that serves as a soundtrack for America's strip clubs to the predatory groupies who relentlessly pursue rap stars.”
—Ms. Magazine
”Probing. . . . A canny study. . . . Sharpley-Whiting brings both street smarts and sophisticated cultural analysis to her subject.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
”Clear and well written. . . . It serves as a decent jumping-off point to discussions of young black women in our current society. . . . Sharpley-Whiting has opened up the dialog, offering a source for research in a burgeoning area of study.”
—Library Journal
”Sharpley-Whiting provides interesting anecdotes about the ways in which women are portrayed (and often used) within hip hop. . . . [Her] insightful analyses [include] a particularly interesting discussion of the intersections of race, class, and capitalism in strip clubs.”
—Bust Magazine
Pimps Up, Ho's Down is an in-depth look at hip hop's effect on young black women. Sharpley-Whiting discusses topics such as light-skinned black (or ethnically ambiguous) females getting more love in hip hop videos, unreported sexual abuse within black communities — even the fact that most hip hop groupies do not consider themselves groupies. She successfully ties these trends into the mainstream hip hop culture of today.
Pimps Up, Ho's Down provides an intellectual look at how hip hop views and affects the young black women of this generation, most who are oblivious to what is actually going on. Sharpley-Whiting's uncommon perspective is one that deserves to be examined more often.”
—URB
“Offers a bracing, brilliant, and provocative take on how hip hop has affected young black women. Sharpley-Whiting manages the difficult task of being critical of destructive elements of hip hop culture without being dismissive of its edifying dimensions. This lucidly penned manifesto in defense of the intellectual spaces between hip hop and feminism will undoubtedly inspire heated debate and fruitful conversation about gender, black identity, and conflict between the generations."
—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Know What I Mean?
“In
Pimps Up, Ho's Down, Sharpley-Whiting's razor-sharp analysis turns an illuminating spotlight on the dark, complicated intersection where feminism and hip hop meet.”
—Joan Morgan, author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
"
Pimps Up, Ho's Down provides a vital critical assessment of the sexual exploitation of women and girls all too prevalent in hip hop culture and in our larger society. This intelligent and sensitively written study is mandatory reading for those of us who must stop the violence."
—Darlene Clark Hine, co-author of A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America
“In this bold critique of popular culture's stereotypical representations of hip hop, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting never wavers from her end goal of empowering the hip hop generation.
Pimps Up, Ho's Down takes this discussion beyond the ivory tower and into the lives of everyday people.”
—Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation
"This compelling, well-researched-and alarming-account of how hip hop culture has impacted the lives and shaped the identities of young black women should be read by women and men of every generation."
—Paula Giddings, author of When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America
“Tracy Sharpley-Whiting's groundbreaking book makes central the harsh sexist and racist realities that hip hop generation Black women face on a daily basis.”
—Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Producer/Director of NO! (The Rape Documentary)
Pimps Up, Ho's Down pulls at the threads of the intricately knotted issues surrounding young black women and hip hop culture. What unravels for Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting is a new, and problematic, politics of gender. In this fascinating and forceful book, Sharpley-Whiting, a feminist writer who is a member of the hip hop generation, interrogates the complexities of young black women's engagement with a culture that is masculinist, misogynistic, and frequently mystifying.
Beyond their portrayal in rap lyrics, the display of black women in music videos, television, film, fashion, and on the Internet is indispensable to the mass media engineered appeal of hip hop culture, the author argues. And the commercial trafficking in the images and behaviors associated with hip hop has made them appear normal, acceptable, and entertaining-both in the U.S. and around the world.
Sharpley-Whiting questions the impacts of hip hop's increasing alliance with the sex industry, the rise of groupie culture in the hip hop world, the impact of hip hop's compulsory heterosexual culture on young black women, and the permeation of the hip hop ethos into young black women's conceptions of love and romance.
The author knows her subject from the inside. Coming of age in the midst of hip hop's evolution in the late 1980s, she mixed her graduate studies with work as a runway and print model in the 1990s. Her book features interviews with exotic dancers, black hip hop groupies, and hip hop generation members Jacklyn "Diva" Bush, rapper Trina, and filmmaker Aishah Simmons, along with the voices of many "everyday" young women.
Pimps Up, Ho's Down turns down the volume and amplifies the substance of discussions about hip hop culture and to provide a space for young black women to be heard.
Customer Reviews:
insightful, well-written take on misogyny in popular culture.......2007-05-08
Sharpley-Whiting's accessible prose style and unique insight make this a must for anyone interested in popular culture, hip hop and rap, women's issues, Black popular culture, and youth. In all my years researching the topics of rap music, hip hop culture, gender and violence, I have never encountered such a unique and much needed approach. While much has been said about the sexist and homophobic nature of rap lyrics, very little has been done to understand how our sexually repressive, yet permissive, society including rap music has negatively affected Black girls and women. Sharpley-Whiting tackles this issue from a variety of angles demonstrating how the misogyny and sexual obsession in rap music impacts girls' and women's sense of self, how sex and rendering women as sexual objects in rap music affects Black women erotic dancers, video dancers, and groupies, and related topics.
Dr. Sharpley-Whiting broke it down! .......2007-03-23
Dr. Sharpley-Whiting has contributed a necessary and extremely timely analysis to the surface-level discussions surrounding hip hop and its impact on young black women. The exploration of complex contradictions within hip hop music and culture is both scholarly and sincere. This book is a necessary read, as it departs from the easy criticism of lyrics to the difficult and largely un-had conversations regarding sexual abuse, constructions of beauty, and the relationship between hip hop and the flourishing sex tourism industry. I learned about the prophetic warnings and relevance of Franz Fanon, I laughed about the similar and stark realities I share with the writer, and I learned, once again, that I love and am hip hop--contradictions and all!
Average customer rating:
- Not Just A Geek, but an Author, too!
- A Peek Inside...
- Please don't shut up, Wesley!
- Hollywood is missing out, but at least we have this book
- Good stories, not enough details...
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Just a Geek
Wil Wheaton
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ASIN: 059600768X |
Book Description
Wil Wheaton has never been one to take the conventional path to success. Despite early stardom through his childhood role in the motion picture "Stand By Me", and growing up on television as Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", Wil left Hollywood in pursuit of happiness, purpose, and a viable means of paying the bills. In the oddest of places, Topeka, Kansas, Wil discovered that despite his claims to fame, he was at heart Just a Geek. In this, his newest book, Wil shares his deeply personal and difficult journey to find himself. You'll understand the rigors, and joys, of Wil's rediscovering of himself, as he comes to terms with what it means to be famous, or, ironically, famous for once having been famous. Writing with honesty and disarming humanity, Wil touches on the frustrations associated with his acting career, his inability to distance himself from Ensign Crusher in the public's eyes, the launch of his incredibly successful web site, wilwheaton.net, and the joy he's found in writing. Through all of this, Wil shares the ups and downs he encountered along the journey, along with the support and love he discovered from his friends and family. The stories in Just a Geek include: - Wil's plunge from teen star to struggling actor - Discovering the joys of HTML, blogging, Linux, and web design - The struggle between Wesley Crusher, Starfleet ensign, and Wil Wheaton, author and blogger - Gut-wrenching reactions to the 9-11 disaster - Moving tales of Wil's relationships with his wife, step-children, and extended family - The transition from a B-list actor to an A-list author Wil Wheaton--celebrity, blogger, and geek--writes for the geek in all of us. Engaging, witty, and pleasantly self-deprecating, Just a Geek will surprise you and make you laugh.
Customer Reviews:
Not Just A Geek, but an Author, too!.......2007-08-29
Like Mr. Wheaton's other book, I was very pleased with this one as well. I could relate to the "geekness", being a recovering geek myself.
Wonderful book.
A Peek Inside..........2007-05-13
I bought this book because I started reading Wil Wheaton's blog and some of the articles he's been writing for various internet sites and found them to be very funny. So, I thought I was going to get a funny, behind-the-scenes look at Star Trek:TNG. I didn't get that. What I got was excerps from his blog over the past 5 years or so. And it really wasn't all that funny. I actually cried (yes, cried) a lot more than I laughed. But you know what? I wasn't disappointed. It turns out to be a peek inside WW's head and his journey from seeing himself as a washed up actor to being happy being a writer, family man, and "Just a Geek." It's really a much more human story that the average person can relate to (I know I did!) instead of being a gossip-fest.
Wheaton writes in an easy, conversational style sprinkled with interesting, occasionally brilliant descriptive turns of phrase. Is he the next F. Scott Fitzgerald? Probably not. But it is an easy, enjoyable read about a guy coming to grips with his life taking a big left turn that he didn't intend to take. Even if you don't know Wil Wheaton from Adam and have never seen a Star Trek episode in your life, you will enjoy this book, because it's not about being a Trekker. It's about being a human.
Please don't shut up, Wesley!.......2007-04-01
"Just a Geek" by Wil Wheaton is an incredible book. Wil has proven himself not only a gifted actor, but a gifted writer. The book is raw and revealing. You feel every emotion right along with him. Tears well up when he does not land that role. You feel his love for his wife and stepsons. You experience the joy he finds in doing Star Trek conventions, meeting fans, and writing his blog. You will roll with laughter at the fireworks story. You see Wil, not as an untouchable Hollywood actor, but a real man, complete with all the trials, tribulations, and joys that all of us experience. My only complaint is with the foul language. This is not a book for kids, unless it is filtered by a parent, but it is a must-read, especially for the Gen Xer and Trekkie.
Hollywood is missing out, but at least we have this book.......2007-02-24
I laughed, I cried, but more than that, Wil Wheaton made me feel part of his life and shared struggles I had also experienced.
Snubbed by Hollywood execs since he quit Star Trek his audience has had to follow him via his blog or his live comedy performances. It's a big loss to the movie industry but our gain as it is unlikely he would've written such a brutally honest account of his transition from struggling actor to writer if he had still been caught up in the Hollywood madness.
I can't wait for the next book.
Good stories, not enough details..........2006-04-06
Wil is all over the map in this book, but understandably so since it's mostly expanded versions of posts from his blog and his commentary on making them. It's good material, however it doesn't go into deep enough detail in many of the stories, leaving you thinking "That's good, but is that really it?" The material could use more spicing up, or at least some deeper thoughts on the subject. He could have made the book twice as long and used smaller print without it seeming like too much, really. A for effort, B- for execution. Still, very much worth reading.
Book Description
The partition of India into two countries, India and Pakistan, caused one of the most massive human convulsions in history. Within the space of two months in 1947 more than twelve million people were displaced. A million died. More than seventy-five thousand women were abducted and raped. Countless children disappeared. Homes, villages, communities, families, and relationships were destroyed. Yet, more than half a century later, little is known of the human dimensions of this event. In The Other Side of Silence , Urvashi Butalia fills this gap by placing peopleâtheir individual experiences, their private painâat the center of this epochal event.
Through interviews conducted over a ten-year period and an examination of diaries, letters, memoirs, and parliamentary documents, Butalia asks how people on the margins of historyâchildren, women, ordinary people, the lower castes, the untouchablesâhave been affected by this upheaval. To understand how and why certain events become shrouded in silence, she traces facets of her own poignant and partition-scarred family history before investigating the stories of other people and their experiences of the effects of this violent disruption. Those whom she interviews reveal that, at least in private, the voices of partition have not been stilled and the bitterness remains. Throughout, Butalia reflects on difficult questions: what did community, caste, and gender have to do with the violence that accompanied partition? What was partition meant to achieve and what did it actually achieve? How, through unspeakable horrors, did the survivors go on? Believing that only by remembering and telling their stories can those affected begin the process of healing and forgetting, Butalia presents a sensitive and moving account of her quest to hear the painful truth behind the silence.
Customer Reviews:
the only book of its kind.......2007-09-17
a lot of the criticism regarding repetition is fair, yes. But it misses the point. Ms. Butalia has done something that really no other author has: record first-person accounts of the partition violence, from a population that is rapidly dwindling due to age. It is regrettable that more of such work has not been done. Of course she has her own agenda-- she is angry, and especially towards the violence visited on women-- but at no point does she make an attempt to HIDE this bias. You've got to be blind not to know that there is a personal pain and anger driving all this, and what is the matter with that. Stop criticizing her for tangential stuff and focus on the unique scholarship here.
Cheap sensationalism.......2006-07-09
This book reads like the sensationalist columns of a cheap eveninger. The authoress has listed a number of supposed to be eye witness accounts of mass murders and other brutalities and passed it off as an intellectual work of great merit. I totally agree with many other reviewers view that the book is extremely repetitive. The current trend in the world of arts and literature especially in south Asia appears to be one of playing to the galleries of the west. Shock their ( west ) sensibilities about what is happening in the east and good readership and fame and name is assured .The book lacks any kind of depth and analysis. The work is shoddy at its best.
One important criticism about this work stands out: The author repeatedly blasts the mass suicides of the desperate victims of these riots. Does she mean to say that the invading armies of the rioters are nobleness and kindness incarnate ?
The hapless victims in the face of imminent slavery in the hands of the satanical mobs have little choice. Though unfortunate , suicide appears to be the only alternative. This practice has stood the test of time. From the times when the marauding armies of Mahmud of Ghazni swept the plains of Punjab, the helpless civilian populace knows what to expect and what fate awaits them in the hands of their brutal conquerors.
And this author has the cheek to question and criticize these practices...The author has chosen to turn a blind eye to these pages in history books. Or is it mere ignorance ? With this the author has hurt the sentiments of the victims of these riots. She has desecrated the memories of these victims and insulted the history of partition. This book is of little literary value and lacks penetrative opinion.
This book ought to be avoided like the plague. It gives a skewed understanding of the history of partition.
Unfortunately there is no way to give 0 or negative stars or I would have certainly given negative stars.
Book in need of an editor!.......2006-03-26
I ordered this book because I am extremely interested in the
untold stories of the Partition of India even though the
reviews told me not to. I wished I had heeded the advice. The book is incredibly repetitive--to the point of being unreadable. I learned very little. Not worth the time to read or money to purchase.
The other side of silence..........2004-05-06
I have read this book, Mr. Moon's "Divide and Quit", Mr. Khosla's work, "Stern Reckoning" amongst others on the subject of the Partition. Ms. Butalia's work is so saturated with her personal opinions and idealogy, that it almost ceases to be a work on history than the airing of one's thoughts and mindset. Almost a diatribe, if I may. I will agree with what john_galt_who has written. I think he has hit the nail on the head. I did not consider this book worth either the money or the time.
A waste of your time and money.......2004-02-23
The amount of matter which the author has repeated again and again if you minus all that repeated matter, the book would hardly be of about a 100 pages .. Don't even borrow to read it ..
Book Description
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book.
A musicologist and cultural critic as well as a professional musician, Robert Walser offers a comprehensive musical, social, and cultural analysis of heavy metal in Running with the Devil. Dismissed by critics and academics, condemned by parents and politicians, fervently embraced by legions of fans, heavy metal music attracts and embodies cultural conflicts that are central to our society. Walser explores how and why heavy metal works, both musically and socially, and at the same time uses metal to investigate contemporary formations of identity, community, gender, and power.
Customer Reviews:
Heavy Metal Gets Its Due.......2004-12-08
I'm currently taking a class on cultural anthropology right now, and as a huge music buff / budding musician, I found this gem while searching the racks at my university. Not only did it help me to realize the cultural biases surrounding a type of music that I am fond of, but also expand my mind in terms of musical application, song construction, and the true inspiration for some of Heavy Metal's greatest classics.
Walser knows exactly what he's talking about, from the perspectives of a particpant in the culture, a trained and educated musician, and a cultural anthropologist. Great reading, would make a great reference for any study on cultural misunderstandings about music, or even something interesting to give you a break from working through all those instructional books and tablature.
Fundamental.......2001-06-20
This is one of the best books about popular music I have read. First of all, Walser avoids cliches: he is good at interpretation, and like all people who are good at interpretation he checks his ideas against the ideas that people who make and listen to the music have. PMRC supporters watch out. Second, he knows what he is talking about: the analysis is grounded in a good understanding of musicology, social theory, literary theory and evidence. So when he tells us where heavy metal "fits," we can believe him. All this, of course, is aside from the question of the reader or anybody else "likes" the music or not. As a model of how to do context-informed analysis of a genre, it rocks.
Heavy Metal art-form explained through social & artful view........1998-09-25
As many people in the general populus consider Heavy Metal as more entertainment than art, this book tends to bring to light more of the social & artful aspects of the music. As the title suggests, there's much to do with sociological issues of power, gender, and emotional views. But there was also a large undercurrent of the musical talent and influences of those who make H.M. music. Moreover, the view that H.M. is/not dominantly popular due to lyrical content alone was another interesting topic discussed (among other topics). It is true that some of the topics lack the proper explaination they ought, but for the most part, the details given are good & helpful. If you are a musician, this is a MUST HAVE book! For those trying to understand H.M. (parents, teachers, etc) - open your mind and open this book. Includes indepth looks at musical styles of: Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes, and others.
Overcomprehensive, yet a needed study........1998-02-11
Walser attempts to cover too much ground in this book. Still his treatments of gender and madness as content of Heavy Metal lyrics are worthwhile. He covers music and some imagery; these tend to distract from his central ideas rather than add. Yet, this may be the academic reference book on HM that others are judged by, simply because it has primacy and is comprehensive. It was a needed work in the field. A major criticism is that he does not adequately account for the various sub-genres of the music.
Book Description
When it was originally published in 1991, Feminine Endings was immediately controversial for its unprecedented intermingling of cultural criticism and musical studies, an approach that came to be called "the New Musicology." Through case studies of works ranging from the canonical-operas by Monteverdi and Bizet-to the contemporary-the performance art of Diamanda Galás and popular songs by Madonna-Susan McClary focuses on the ways music produces images of gender, desire, pleasure, and the body, and explores the gender-based metaphors that circulate in discourse about music. The now classic work features a new introduction that discusses the critical reception it received and the debates it has inspired.
"A major book . . . [McClary's] achievement borders on the miraculous." Village Voice
"McClary writes with a racy, vigorous, and consistently entertaining style. . . . What she has to say specifically about the music and the text is sharp, accurate, and telling; she hears what takes place musically with unusual sensitivity." New York Review of Books
Susan McClary, professor of musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, specializes in the cultural criticism of music, both the European canon and contemporary popular genres. Her most recent book is Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form (2000).
Customer Reviews:
A Joy.......2005-07-18
Though I often wished she would pause more on her musical excerpts, this book is very wise, and anyone interested in understanding meaning in music intellectually must read this book.
Read Conventional Wisdom.......2002-11-13
This book changed me from a Stravinsky-like "music has no meaning" stance. I still don't think that music is sad or happy or like a day in the country, things are more complicated than that, but I no longer feel that music is an empty if beautiful vessel. Instead music, like all actions (and non-actions), is political. I only give it a four because I would recommend her next book far more.
ENLIGHTENING BOOK.......2001-08-27
I assigned this book to my WOMEN AND MUSIC class when I taught at the University of Tennessee. It opened their eyes and ears. They have an entirely new and valuable perspective. A must read for any musician! Dr. Benjamin Boone, California State University Fresno
because it IS awful.......2001-02-14
It's a very strange thing when "extremely harsh criticism" is cited as evidence of value. Is it just possibly that this book was harshly criticized because it deserves to be, because it is a very sorry excuse for a work of musical--and, for that matter, sociological--scholarship? I think it IS possible. I think it is more than possible; I think it is quite likely. It is "readable" for non-musicians not in spite of its "scholarly content", but only in that it lacks "scholarly content"; it is not particularly well written. Obviously, it has its partisan proponents--the sort of people who don't like having to think subtly or deeply but who still want to be taken seriously, the sort of pseudo-intellectual people who want to have it both ways--, but this is no recommendation.
Controversial Milestone.......2000-08-01
In Feminine Endings, Susan McClary went "outside the box," critically examining a lot of the unquestioned conventions of traditional musicology. This was a groundbreaking book, attempting to talk about "the semiotics of desire" and how composers/performers construct meaning through the creation and manipulation of musical pleasure. McClary received extremely harsh criticism for her rethinking of "classical" composers and musicology, the vehemence of which was, at times, shocking. This in itself indicated that Feminine Endings had touched a sensitive nerve (McClary herself characterizes her inquiry as one of Bluebeard's wives daring to open the forbidden door). While the musicology establishment mostly viewed McClary as a misguided heretic, many other scholars and critics found Feminine Endings brilliant, liberating, and a breath of fresh air (I'd vote for all three). While criticism of this book, published in 1991, still hasn't stopped, McClary indeed opened a door with Feminine Endings, providing a critical space for a variety of subsequent music criticism, including even traditional musicology, which found Feminine Endings too important to ignore. This book is aimed at a scholarly readership, though undergrad students (music majors and non-majors alike) can also get a lot out of these essays, which are very readable considering the scholarly content.
Book Description
The Beatles have profoundly touched the lives of millions. But have you ever wondered why? Why did they become the most powerful artists in history and one of the twentieth century's major symbols of cultural transformation? Meet the Beatles answers those questions and more as it examines the ways the lives of John, Paul, George, and Ringo were inextricably tied to the cultural revolutions their music helped inspire. From their long hair and interest in India to their drug use and admiration for strong women, the Beatles changed the way we look, the way we feel, and even the way we think. This is the book for those who have always been infatuated with the Beatles, as well as those who want to learn for the first time what it all really meant.
Customer Reviews:
Beat the Meetles........2007-03-15
This is yet another biography of the Beatles. This particular one tells the story of the Beatles while explaining the influences that shaped them, and also the ways that they helped to shape culture, especially the women's movement and the youth movement. The author does a particularly good job in discussing "the boys" childhoods, and how that influenced the men they became. It's true that John and Paul are mentioned much more than George and Ringo, but then again, they were the "leaders" of the group and thus of the most influence to society. Overall, I found the book to be quite interesting.
Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band .......2006-03-27
this book is good. It is not excellent, but it is good. It does touch on the background of the fab four and I would say that it is intrresting to read. I have tons and tons of books on the Beatles and I saw them on stage "live" twice back in 1966, the last year that they stopped touring on stage.
I would recomomend this book to anyone who wanted to know their background .
Overall, good, but not enough about Ringo & George.......2006-02-11
I literally couldn't put this book down once I started it. That hardly ever happens to me.
Having only been 4 when the Beatles exploded on the U.S. scene in '64, I have only vague memories of the early Beatles--I do remember skipping across the playground at Our Lady of Providence School, circa '66, and singing "She Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah" with playmates. And I remember circulating the riddle du jour: "What did the boy octopus sing to the girl octopus? I wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand..."
If you're already a fan who knows every bit of minutiae about the Fab Four, this book probably isn't for you. But this is THE book to read if you're a new fan or if you were too young for the Beatles Experience when it was happening or especially if you question WHY the Beatles became a virtual religious experience when no other bands did.
My only complaint is that author Stark far too often overlooks my two fave Beatles -- George & Ringo. They receive precious little ink with regard to their own biographies. In that respect, the book should really be titled _Meet Paul & John_.
Not having read any other Beatles books, I've been recently informed that this is typical of books about the Beatles. That's really too bad. Perhaps it's because (as I learned in this book) George had the most normal and loving childhood of the four and was the only Beatle with a fully intact family in which a parent neither fled nor died. Maybe that's why Stark gave us so little info. about George. Perhaps George was too boring because of this--too few sensational stories.
(Do read the new, '06 biography of Harrison, _Here Comes the Sun_ if you long to know more about him.)
As for Ringo, God love him, the little that is in the book helps one understand his incredible "everyman" appeal and also why he's always seemed the most empathic of the four. It's because he was an only child who spent most of his childhood sick, in bed, at the doctor, and/or in hospital. But his mum was quite steadfast and loving (dad wasn't around), and little "Richie" seems to have coped by developing quite the sense of humor as well as a sensitivity to the downtrodden "little guy" which he both figuratively and literally was in the Beatles. (Though he got the most fan mail, much of it from children.)
Overall a great read. I just hope Stark writes another book that focuses on the two "economy class" Beatles (George Harrison's term, not mine.)
GREAT BOOK! HERE'S ANOTHER..........2005-11-07
After finishing this tome, be sure to pick up the book TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN by Andru J. Reeve. It's the true saga of the story behind the infamous "Paul-Is-Dead" hoax of 1969, when millions believed a persistent rumor that Beatle Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash, his death kept a secret while the Beatles replaced him with a lookalike and planted "clues" to his death on subsequent Beatles albums. It's an amazing story and Reeve explores the who-what-and-whys of the story, explaining how this hoax was perpetrated and who was behind it. One of the most talked-about books of the year -- and it's available right now, right here at Amazon.com !!!
"An Amazing Book! I couldn't put it down!" -- Dr. Heritage Smith, folklorist and urban legends historian
Doesn't Measure Up.......2005-09-23
While I do agree with some of the author's insights, the book for the most part doesn't live up to his own stated goals in the introduction: to tell the "why" of The Beatles phenomenon as opposed to the "what". Mr. Stark definitely wastes far more paper on the latter rather than the former.
After reading halfway through the book I am exhausted by the too many instances of over-indulgent and sloppy writing (Donovan's "Catch The Wind" a protest song?, "Anytime At All" is a dark and honest song?, "She's A Woman" displays rock's traditional attitude to women?, etc., etc.) and faulty fact-checking.
I've said it before in my other reviews and I will keep saying it: the book publishing industry desparately needs more editors.
Average customer rating:
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Listening to an Earlier Java: Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music of Wayang in Central Java
Sarah Weiss
Manufacturer: KITLV Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
In "old-style" Central Javanese wayang, still known to many shadow-puppet performers and musicians in Java today, the male dhalang and his female accompanist are gendered embodiments of an aesthetic that has its origins in early Java. Analysis of the musical style known as "female style" grimingan makes it possible to "listen back" to and reconstruct aesthetics for Javanese performance that can be felt in literary sources as early as the twelfth century. This study is the first large-scale treatment of gender issues in Indonesian music. Integrating the analysis of gender and music with that of aesthetics, this study of the musical synergy between the puppeteer and his female accompanist describes the ways in which shifting gender constructions have helped to shape and change Central Javanese music and theatre performance practice while throwing new light on the history of Javanese gender relations and culture, as well as on the aesthetics of Central Java shadow-puppet theatre.
Book Description
The first collection of gay and lesbian work in musicology. Contributors cover a wide range of subjects from analysis of the work of gay composers to queer readings of Schubert's `Unfinished Symphony.'
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommended.......2005-04-14
I love this book. The style is approachable and dynamic, and the ideas are still exciting ten years after the book was published. The authors cover a wide range of topics both historical and contemporary and come from different theoretical stand points. The articles not only focus on composition and performance but also on listenership and the gendered power relationships involved in that. As a first year postgraduate student involved in gay and lesbian studies of music I found this book inspirational and invigorating because of the high quality of scholarship involved. Queering the Pitch is a much more interesting read than several more recent collections of queer musicology because of the strength of the ideas involved but especially energetic and transparent writing styles which avoid the stogyness that musicology can often suffer from.
A good start for an exciting new field.......2000-05-23
Queering the Pitch is the first anthology to be published in the new field of queer musicology (although it does draw from works like Solie's "Musicology and Difference" collection.)
The quality of the fourteen essays here varies greatly. Some, like Philip Brett's "Musicality, Essentialism, and the Closet" are absolutely earthshaking-provacative, well-written, and inspiring. Other essays seem a bit out of place, and show how much work their needs to be done in this field. It occasionally feels as if the editors had to scrape around to find enough material for the collection.
The three editors, all well-known musicologists, are to be commended for this effort. The book is already something of a classic, and has certainly helped to legitimitize this field of inquiry.
Book Description
The complex status of Chopin in our culture--he was a native Pole and adopted Frenchman, and a male composer writing in "feminine" genres--is the subject of Jeffrey Kallberg's absorbing book. Combining social history, literary theory, musicology, and feminist thought, Chopin at the Boundaries is the first book to situate Chopin's music within the construct of his somewhat marginal sexual identity and to explore how this should figure in our understanding of his compositional methods. Through this novel approach, Kallberg reveals a new Chopin, one situated precisely where questions of gender open up into the very important question of genre.
Customer Reviews:
Sand was a killer!!!.......2007-04-18
For instance, Aurore Dupin, pseudonym George Sand, the French novelist - later Baroness Dudevant - who wrote in masculine genres, was grotesque in her absurd ideas of love and she tortured the Polish Chopin who mainly composed in feminine styles.
Chopin must have felt her mind was a region utterly difficult to penetrate under the best of circumstances (she was six years his senior) hence the approaches he made to her daughter Solenge.
Chopin, fearing to be in the shadow of the strong willed George Sand of aristocratic lineage (through her father) and a distant relative of Louis XVI, would have none of it. Both were unhappily powerless.
FINALLY.......2000-05-17
....we are all aware of the greatness of chopin. a few are privy to the greatness of george sand. here finally we learn a little of the chemistry which flowed between these two giants of the artistic paris in the 1840's. also importantly, the details, clearly presented, of the questions concerning chopin's music of the last years. this is a calm and reasoned book, showing the author's comprehensive knowledge of the subject. this is not a biography, rather a set of vignettes on particulars of chopin's life and gorgeous music. if you want some brilliant and clear-headed discussion of his gender ambiguity as a person and as expressed in his nocturnes, i encourage you to read this fine work.
Book Description
Since it first emerged from Britain’s punk-rock scene in the late 1970s, goth subculture has haunted postmodern culture and society, reinventing itself inside and against the mainstream. Goth: Undead Subculture is the first collection of scholarly essays devoted to this enduring yet little examined cultural phenomenon. Twenty-three essays from various disciplines explore the music, cinema, television, fashion, literature, aesthetics, and fandoms associated with the subculture. They examine goth’s many dimensionsâincluding its melancholy, androgyny, spirituality, and perversityâand take readers inside locations in Los Angeles, Austin, Leeds, London, Buffalo, New York City, and Sydney. A number of the contributors are or have been participants in the subculture, and several draw on their own experiences.
The volume’s editors provide a rich history of goth, describing its play of resistance and consumerism; its impact on class, race, and gender; and its distinctive features as an âundeadâ subculture in light of post-subculture studies and other critical approaches. The essays include an interview with the distinguished fashion historian Valerie Steele; analyses of novels by Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Nick Cave; discussions of goths on the Internet; and readings of iconic goth texts from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to James O’Barr’s graphic novel The Crow. Other essays focus on gothic music, including seminal precursors such as Joy Division and David Bowie, and goth-influenced performers such as the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Gothic sexuality is explored in multiple ways, the subjects ranging from the San Francisco queercore scene of the 1980s to the increasing influence of fetishism and fetish play. Together these essays demonstrate that while its participants are often middle-class suburbanites, goth blurs normalizing boundaries even as it appears as an everlasting shadow of late capitalism.
Contributors: Heather Arnet, Michael Bibby, Jessica Burstein, Angel M. Butts, Michael du Plessis, Jason Friedman, Nancy Gagnier, Ken Gelder, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Joshua Gunn, Trevor Holmes, Paul Hodkinson, David Lenson, Robert Markley, Mark Nowak, Anna Powell, Kristen Schilt, Rebecca Schraffenberger, David Shumway, Carol Siegel, Catherine Spooner, Lauren Stasiak, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Customer Reviews:
Through The Glass Darkly.......2007-08-05
A reviewer above wondered how self proclaimed Goths might take this book and some of the views on Goths it expounds. As an old schooler, I completely welcome it. I think resistance to a anyone taking a dead on 20/20 look at any subculture or scene (which as the book points out are not the same) is usually brought about by some older members out of a certain sense of defensiveness. Similar to the reaction parents might have of someone critical of their baby. There is now and always has been a certain elitist (Gother than thou) mindset to some members of the community, and as they tend to be quite vocal, I think those outside the community perceive us all as being that way. Which is a shame as one of the earliest, cardinal trademarks of a Goth was someone who could laugh at themselves.
I loved the book. I loved that fact that it hoisted some dearly held beliefs on their own petards. The look at commercialism and Goth so cracked me up. It's true, we are all of us, in love with our baubles. While many may decry this fact it is the truth. The look at how the gender blurring of men comes at the expense of women I found a bit of a reach but to each their own. I particularly loved the take on gothic literature allowing young women to explore the alternative worlds of sexuality (fetishism, B+D, bisexuality) as it really rang true to me as someone who was there.
Good for history and trivia.......2007-07-17
Goth: Undead Subculture is a voluminous collection of essays commenting on the subculture, mostly by academics, though there are a few essays written mainly from the point of view of self-identified goths. It made for interesting reading for someone who's high-school experience with goth can be summed up by the t-shirt slogan "I'd be goth but I can't afford to shop at Hot Topic." The discussions of "authenticity" are fun to read from that point of view. The academics seem to aspire to say something profound, but never do, and when the ooze reverence for the pseudo-intellectuals that dominate literary criticism, their writing can be painful. However, as collectors of history and cultural trivia, the academics do quite well, and that's really what makes the book worthwhile. If you're up for 400+ pages of cultural infosnacks, the book is worthwhile (though I must admit I didn't buy it, and only checked it out from the library because it was sitting in the "new arrivals" bin).
Gothic Scholarship Discovers Goth.......2007-07-05
The best way of tackling a subject that sprawls across disparate academic disciplines is to engage the services of a collection of experts in the fields involved. Previous studies of Gothic have been either scattergun takes on the whole genre by generalists, or focused investigations of this or that topic, usually literature. Goth: Undead Subculture is the first to break the trend and, even more admirably, actually tries to do so from the viewpoint of the Goth-on-the-dancefloor.
Of course, what you end up with is academics - mostly, there is the occasional exception - discussing their favoured topics, but a good few of them could be characterised, as Trevor Holmes so wonderfully puts it, as `a goth-identified subject [with] an interest in things horrific and gloomy, in a postromantic decadent aesthetic overdetermined by punk, in embodiment through gender transitivity'. There's a certain amount of that breathy Stateside academic-speak, but in actual fact most of the essays in this collection sparkle a good deal. In fact, Trevor Holmes's is a good instance of the collision between the personal and the subcultural with his account of life as, er, a professional dancer cavorting gothically in an LA gay club, morphing into a debate on the slipperiness of gothic gender generally. Kristen Shilt writes a lovely account of the Austin Faerielanders in their `liminal enclave', and Rebecca Schraffenberger owns up to her own Goth development.
Throughout the book there seem to be two twin and allied efforts which set it apart from anything attempted before. Firstly, there's a serious intention to think, and discover where possible, exactly how `gothic' cultural products function in the Goth community, how they are used and processed in sifting and developing a sense of identity. Secondly, there's an openness to considering in that task all sorts of cultural products. We expect such interdisciplinary boldness of Catherine Spooner, also represented in the book (albeit by an old essay), but everyone has a go. Michael Bibby, for example, is a professor of English, but has a go at analysing the role of the post-punk band Joy Division in formulating early Goth, looking at their work (lyrics, production, music), stage performances, and visual image promoted through album artwork. This is more than he has any right to know about.
This is marvellous, if you can do the work of ploughing through the four hundred intimidating pages. There is nothing that can really do justice to the fissiparous and contradictory beauty of modern Goth, but this book does better than anything to date. My only wonder is whether Goths themselves will welcome such microscopic analysis; at least it comes not-entirely from the outside.
Books:
- PLAYING WITH THE ENEMY: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams
- Pouring Light: Layering Transparent Watercolor
- Pride and Prejudice: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
- Real Time UML: Advances in the UML for Real-Time Systems (3rd Edition) (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)
- Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2007: The Travel Skills Handbook (Rick Steves)
- Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways (Road Trip USA Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways)
- Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, Seventh Edition
- Silver on the Tree (The Dark is Rising Sequence)
- Solo Guitar Playing/Book 1 with CD (Classical Guitar)
- Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories
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