Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series

Customer Reviews:

Non Fiction.......2007-09-03

Ways of Seeing is about looking at art, if you get right down to it. However, it is about looking at it from a political point of view, or a cultural point of view, or a gender point of view. He takes a few different actual art pieces and writes about each of them, taking this sort of thing into account.

Dreck.......2006-11-10

Dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck,dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck, dreck,more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, more dreck, and more dreck, and more dreck, and more dreck . . . you get the idea?

Worth Contemplating.......2006-11-10

This is a hot little book well worth contemplating if you're aspiring to become a serious artist. For the student, novice artist, seasoned practioner or curious artlover, your money will be well spent to have this on your shelf.

Really a bunch of claptrap.......2006-08-17

After reading this iconic work, I felt as if I had been ripped off with only myself to blame. I should have known better. The book is SOOOOOOO 70's! I'll give it two stars simply because it's really so out-of-date it's almost campy.

Okay, early oil paintings depicted the upper classes with their "stuff" and the "stuff" of the upper classes. So? It's pretty elemental to figure out that those painters had to make a living and they painted for those who were able to pay them. Duh. Okay, women were depicted in oil paintings as possessions and, in turn, viewed themselves in the light of the value the possessor placed on them. Deep and enlightening, huh?

It gets worse. We get a healthy dose of the "capitalism is bad" philosophy and the hammering that advertising is meant to keep the masses enslaved to capitalism. Nineteen seventies style collectivism is so boring. Of course, Berger offers no alternative other than some passing reference to his vague definition of democracy.

Maybe it's just so out-dated, it's no longer relevant. Maybe it played better to the 1970's. Maybe we've heard this claptrap for so many years, it's no longer novel or meaningful. And, maybe, it's because we've matured enough to realize criticism without any offering of alternatives is simply disingenuous and superficial.

Not as out of date as some would have you believe.......2006-07-31

Several other reviewers say this book is out of date. In some ways, yes. But some of the most important points of this book still seem valid.

Specifically:
1.) Art is an artificial market whose value is talked up by art historians and gallery owners.
2.) The depiction of the female nude in art has always contained a exploitative voyeuristic overtone.
3.) The measure of man's power lies in who they can have power over.
4.) The measure of woman's power lies in who can have power over them.

It's small surprise his opinions were buried by academia and the art establishment. These were never popular opinions, but taken in the context of art history and the art market they provide a great counterpoint.

Even now, this book is a great way to demystify the art market for the art student.

Average customer rating:

Will There Ever Be A Definitive Shostakovich Biography?
Ease up a bit please!
"Scholarship" of this sort ----
An Injustice To A Great Man
Flat Earthers and deep denial

Shostakovich: A Life
Laurel Fay
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich
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Shostakovich

ASIN: 0195134389

Book Description

For this authoritative post-cold-war biography of Shostakovich's illustrious but turbulent career under Soviet rule, Laurel E. Fay has gone back to primary documents: Shostakovich's many letters, concert programs and reviews, newspaper articles, and diaries of his contemporaries. An indefatigable worker, he wrote his arresting music despite deprivations during the Nazi invasion and constant surveillance under Stalin's regime. Shostakovich's life is a fascinating example of the paradoxes of living as an artist under totalitarian rule. In August 1942, his Seventh Symphony, written as a protest against fascism, was performed in Nazi-besieged Leningrad by the city's surviving musicians, and was triumphantly broadcast to the German troops, who had been bombarded beforehand to silence them. Alone among his artistic peers, he survived successive Stalinist cultural purges and won the Stalin Prize five times, yet in 1948 he was dismissed from his conservatory teaching positions, and many of his works were banned from performance. He prudently censored himself, in one case putting aside a work based on Jewish folk poems. Under later regimes he balanced a career as a model Soviet, holding government positions and acting as an international ambassador with his unflagging artistic ambitions. In the years since his death in 1975, many have embraced a view of Shostakovich as a lifelong dissident who encoded anti-Communist messages in his music. This lucid and fascinating biography demonstrates that the reality was much more complex. Laurel Fay's book includes a detailed list of works, a glossary of names, and an extensive bibliography, making it an indispensable resource for future studies of Shostakovich.

Customer Reviews:

Will There Ever Be A Definitive Shostakovich Biography?.......2007-03-13

I have read 'Testimony' by Volkov, and followed much of the controversy about it. It is a fascinating read to be sure, but does it truly reflect Shostakovich the man? While this book by Fay does have it's limitations, I found it a valuable counter weight to 'Testimony'.

Shostakovich was a great composer, no doubt. His complacency within the Soviet system of the time can be looked at in different ways. What I have gotten out of both of these books is that Shostakovich was a man that in many ways was beaten by a repressive system. For those who did not directly experience those times, it is easy to criticize the man for some of the things he did. We must remember that it was literally a matter of life and death. Not just for him, but for his family too. It is no wonder that he became so secretive.

And it is that secretive nature that makes me wonder if there ever will be a definitive biography. We also must not lose sight of the fact that it is his music first and foremost that has attracted music lovers to him. Shostakovich wrote much music, with much of it of the highest quality. That he was all too human like the rest of us doesn't detract from that. That he could write so much music that touches the humanity of others while suffering under a repressive regime is remarkable.

I have been a Shostakovich 'fan' for a long time, and he has carved out a place in musical history as a great composer. As such, scholarship about his life and work will continue to provide more insights on both. I enjoyed this book, despite any shortcomings. There is much information and value within it. That is why I gave it 5 stars, and would recommend anyone interested in the man and his music to read it.

Ease up a bit please!.......2005-04-25

This is a fine book--well researched and well written. I had a great time with it as a casual on-the-sofa read and learned much from it about a composer I like. I recommend it. I'm a little stunned by the viciousness of some of the revues--failing to deify the composer is no crime; having opinions--even controversial ones--about what motivated the composer is just a biographer's job. Some of the really negative comments about the book, and more disturbingly, the author make me wonder if she's being brutally victimized a bit here--ironically, in an almost Stalinist way. I'm having difficulty imagining why the venom. Is there a Shostakovich cult?

If you are interested in learning about the man and his music the number of books available on the topic is surprisingly small--you might as well read them all. In contrast the controversies surrounding Shostakovich's life are absurdly large. The definitive book on Shostakovich won't be written until everyone who had anything to do with him is long gone and emotional involvement has settled a bit. Even then, well, no great composer, nobody in fact, ever gets consistent appraisals from biographers.

No, sorry, I don't think DS was the "greatest" composer of the last century, I'm not even sure he was the bravest. I'm not sure those words really apply at all to evaluating the creators of art music during that bizarre time. I think we lacked a single stand-out genius on the order or Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach but I'd argue the 20th Century had numerically more genuinely inspired and original composers than any other era. Mull over Bach, Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi and lesser lights of the first half of the 18th Century--then mull over Bartok, Stravinsky, Nielsen, Shostakovich, Strauss, Janacek, Puccini, Mahler, Elgar, Prokofiev and the long list that follows--up to mid-century when real problems start to show. No mediocities in their ranks but no Beethovens either. Something unprecedented was going on back then, maybe Western art music's Indian Summer. There's a good book in this I'm sure.

Irony is that during a time when so much compositional genius was floating around, the interest in art music began to decline--rapidly. This may in fact account for the diversity of the music of that time and, more importantly, the inconsistency of it. You can actually trace the careers of various composers as they create and then respond to the lack of response or to extramusical pressures that make a hash of their individual geniuses.

I'd say Shostakovich, then, was not the greatest 20th Century composer but he is the greatest example of the dilemma of the 20th Century composer.

"Scholarship" of this sort ----.......2005-03-21

-- reminds me of a line from "Apocalypse Now"

"You are an errand boy, sent by clerks to collect a bill."

To write 'from the library' as it were, and not interview those living who new the man and his work and the times first hand, is to perpetrate a fraud.

An Injustice To A Great Man.......2004-08-26

aDmitri Shostakovich (DDS) was probably the gretest composer of the 20th century. Unfortunately, a burning controversy has unjustly erupted around the perceptions of his personality and actions during his illustrious career regarding the question of whether he was a principled opponent of the totalitarian
Communist and Stalinist regime of the USSR, or whether he was a passive opportunist who used his talents to ensure a comfortable life for himself at the expense of his moral integrity. In 1979 Solomon Volkov published DDS's memoirs in the West. This showed DDS to be a bitter opponent of the regime, writing music that reflected this, while at the same time, castigating himself for the public face he had to show ostensibly in support of the system (just as everyone else had to do in order to survive especially during Stalin's terror, but also during other, more supposedly "relaxed" periods). The author of this book being reviewed, Laurel Fay, has devoted the last 25 years to a crusade trying to discredit Volkov and the image of DDS he presented to the world, saying that while DDS was a great composer, his music doesn't reflect any protest against the system which he willingly accomodated himself to. This biography is another contribution to this argument.
Unfortunately for her position, the fall of the Communist regime in the USSR has allowed many friends and relatives of DDS to speak openly for the first time and their view of him overwhelmingly strengthens the view of DDS provided by Volkov's book "Testimony" and rebuts Fay's point of view.
Fay seems to be oblivious to the terrible dilemmas that people faced living in the totalitarian regime that was the USSR and there was terrible pressure on everyone to conform. This book contains many quotations of what people call "source material" consisting of quotations from articles in Pravda (the USSR's official newspaper) and other "official sources". Fay accepts these basically uncritically, apparently unaware that these organs of communication did not exist in order to provide information to their readers, but rather to propagandize in favor the the regime, regardless of the truth. She does acknowledge in the book that articles that had DDS's name on them, supposedly indicating that he had written them, often were written by others and submitted to him for his signature, which he provided without even looking at the manuscript, but she then goes on to say that this doesn't necessarily mean that he DIDN'T
agree with what was written there. Fay does not bring any proof for this statement, and so the reader has no way of knowing which viewpoints expressed in the articles DDS supposedly agreed with. Perceptive people in the USSR ignored the propaganda entirely and didn't take what was written in these "official" organs seriously at all.
Fay also claims that DDS's composing his famous "From Jewish Folk Poetry" in 1948 which was rejected by the establishment musical authorities because of the the gathering "anti-Cosmopolitan" (i.e. anti-Jewish) campaign was the result of a pathetic attempt to please the authorities by writing music based on traditional folk music of the various nationalities of the USSR and it was just his "rotten luck" to choose a group that would soon be under attack. This claim of Fay's is nonsense because the the anti-Jewish attitude of the regime started already in 1942 and was accelerating in 1948. DDS had many Jewish friends and contacts with people in high places and was quite aware of what was going on. He wrote this piece as a protest against the regime's anti-Semitism! Fay is again oblivious to this.
Finally, Fay views DDS's joining the Communist Party in 1960 as another attempt to promote his personal interests, yet Fay has fallen for the prevailing myth that after Stalin died and the "Thaw" began under Khruschev, the regime stopped terrorizing the intelligentsia. In reality, there was still coercion, but it was done in a more subtle manner. Instead of threatening arrest and deportation to the Gulag, people could be threatened instead by refusing to allow one's children into good schools and jobs, or possibly, in DDS's case, refusal to allow decent medical care since his health was deteriorating. DDS castigated himself because he felt he had capitulated to the system, but it is probable that he had no other choice. As one gets older, it is harder and harder to keep up the frontal struggle.

In summary, a reader interested in the life of DDS would be better served by reading "Testimony", Elizbeth Wilson's "Shostakovich-A Life Remembered", Ho and Feofanov's "Shostakovich Reconsidered" and by looking at thewritings of the late Ian MacDonald on his "Music Under Soviet Rule" website.

Flat Earthers and deep denial.......2004-06-17

This is one of the small numbers of books on Shostakovitch which is almost completely unreliable. There is a type of intellectual (mercifully rare now that the Berlin Wall is history) who delighted in telling us how wonderful in every wayb the Soviet Union was, how much delight, life and freedom could be found there. Evidence - such as the experienmces of those who had the misfortine to live there - were dismissed as looney tunes or fascist propaganda or some such. Somehow these flat earthers would never dream of living there themselves.
This book is one such. Don't touch it with a barge pole.
But do get Semyon Volkov's Testimony instead
I am amazed that fifteen years after the end of communism in Europe this intellectually bankrupt book is actually still available. It should be in the Black Humour section. It is certainly not scholarship.

Average customer rating:

Mixes Humor, Tragedy, and Irreverence
Wonderful, funny, and very self-affacing
Worth Reading
Above and beyond truth
Better than expected...

My War
Andy Rooney
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1586481592
Release Date: 2002-10-15

Amazon.com

On July 7, 1941, a young Colgate University football player named Andy Rooney reported for U.S. Army training. He was, Rooney allows, not prime military material. He had a knack for enraging the drill instructors with his wisecracks, and for pulling harsh assignments as a result, and his shenanigans got him disqualified from officer candidacy. Still, Rooney survived boot camp and served for a time as an artilleryman until being reassigned to the daily newspaper Stars and Stripes. Lucky for him, too: in 1942 his old outfit ran into trouble in North Africa, fighting against Erwin Rommel, and although few of them were killed, Rooney writes, "there's a good possibility I would have spent all of 1943, 1944, and six months of 1945 in a German prison camp."

In My War, a fine and wholeheartedly irreverent memoir, Rooney--later to gain fame as a 60 Minutes commentator--recounts what happened instead. As a correspondent, he saw combat up-close while honing his craft alongside such fellow chroniclers as Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin. What he witnessed will perhaps not please some survivors and students of the war, especially those who revere Gen. George S. Patton--whom Rooney charges with having committed improprieties, injustices, and even war crimes in the quest to secure personal fame.

Though the book is a personal memoir, Rooney has taken pains to square his anecdotes with the historical record. However, he writes, "It is distressing for me to note how infrequently the facts concur with my memory of what happened." (In such cases, he adds, he assumes that the facts are wrong.) Affecting, occasionally disturbing, and thoroughly well-written, Rooney's memoir is a welcome addition to the literature of "the good war." --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The New York Times, USA Today, Book Sense, and Publishers Weekly bestseller, now in paperback in time for the holidays.

My War is a blunt, funny, idiosyncratic account of Andy Rooney's World War II. As a young, naïve correspondent for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney flew bomber missions, arrived in France during the D-Day invasion, crossed the Rhine with the Allied forces, traveled to Paris for the Liberation, and was one of the first reporters into Buchenwald. Like so many of his generation, Rooney's life was changed forever by the war. He saw life at the extremes of human experience, and wrote about what he observed, making it real to millions of men and women. My War is the story of an inexperienced kid learning the craft of journalism. It is by turns moving, suspenseful, and reflective. And Rooney's unmistakable voice shines through on every page.

Customer Reviews:

Mixes Humor, Tragedy, and Irreverence .......2007-02-18

This memoir by Andy Rooney of CBS of his army days during World War II mixes humor, cynicism, and tragedy. Rooney recounts how he was drafted into the artillery in 1941, and then transferred to the army newspaper STARS AND STRIPES. The author recounts his army experiences with a mixture of nostalgia, humor and sadness. The author admits his distaste for the military, and considers him self lucky to have drawn duty as a correspondent. Yet his service record was hardly risk-free. Rooney accompanied B-17 crews on raids over Nazi Germany, then infantrymen as they battled their way after D-Day. Rooney recounts much of the war's horrors and describes several friends and acquaintances that died in combat. The author's irreverent and at times cynical tone (particularly regarding General Patton) reflects both himself and many of the GI's that served in that deadly conflict. The book is generally very readable, although it does slow in a couple spots. Still, this moving 1995 memoir written half a century after Rooney's discharge is worth reading.

Wonderful, funny, and very self-affacing.......2006-06-02

This is a great book. Andy Rooney, who I hate, is likable here in his stories about the GReat War. He tells stories, and jokes, and rubs elbows with all sorts of famous people, and, yet, doesn't seem to be bragging as much as telling. Also, his descriptions of tanks running over bodies and the air war are heart wrenching, beautiful, and terrifying. This book isn't my favorite overall, but it is the biggest surprise I've ever read. I really did love it.

Worth Reading.......2005-10-24

My grandfather was in the Army Air Corp during WWII and would tell wonderful stories about his time in the war (the good and the bad). I think he would have liked Andy Rooney.

I found the book very interesting particularly his insights on Patton. I have an great uncle who served under Patton. His mind never was the same.

Above and beyond truth.......2004-07-26

Andy above and beyond potrayed his position in WW2 if anything played down. Yes he was a private that lucked out as many do in the service,but it seems he is able to tell the truth about it and feels no lesser for the facts. He tells of several heroes and some not so good officers. We have all known those. All in all I found the book very enjoyable and would highly reccomend it to all.

Better than expected..........2003-12-02

Andy Rooney has never been more to me than the nagging, faintly humorous, mildly eccentric curmudgeon that caps each 60 Minutes program. I've seen his newspaper column, but never read it. Indeed, had I not seen this book at a closeout bookseller, I wouldn't own it. But, the bargain price and my interest in WWII convinced me to give it a chance. I'm glad I did.

An enlisted reporter for The Stars and Stripes during the war, Rooney flew missions over Germany, accompanied the allies shortly after D-Day, and continued reporting until victory. In the contemporary catalog of WWII books, his vantage point as a reporter is unique, insightful, and conducive to extended durations of page turning pleasure.

As the title announces, this isn't a book about "the" war. It's about "his" war, his experiences, his opinion. And, in a departure from his 60 Minutes routine, he manages to avoid complaints about matters of trifling importance. Perhaps, this is because there is little of trifling importance associated with WWII. Nevertheless, Rooney faithfully relates the awe of having witnessed, first-hand, an epic period in human history.

In the end, I put down the book and realized, after all these years, that I can enjoy Andy Rooney. I commend this book's honesty and pragmatism, (even though I doubt this is the effect he was aiming for). I am also thankful that, like author's before him, Rooney introduced the general reader to many Americans who didn't come home.

His was a generation of sacrifice unlike anything those who came after are likely to see. Rooney believes them not special people, but people involved in special circumstances. This provides hope that every generation will rise with comparable bravery and commitment whenever liberty is seriously threatened. 4 stars.

Average customer rating:

Not your grandfather's vampire story - 10 stars
Dracula updated!
Hard Not to Put Down
Depressing Mish-mash
Very, very weird

Fangland: A Novel
John Marks
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 159420117X
Release Date: 2007-01-11

Book Description

An acclaimed novelist and former 60 Minutes producer grandly reinvents the Dracula epic in the halls of a certain television newsmagazine

In the annals of business trips gone horribly wrong, Evangeline Harker's journey to Romania on behalf of her employer, the popular television newsmagazine The Hour, deserves pride of place. Sent to Transylvania to scout out a possible story on a notorious Eastern European crime boss named Ion Torgu, she has found the true nature of Torgu's activities to be far more monstrous than anything her young journalist's mind could have imagined. The fact that her employer clearly won't get the segment it was hoping for is soon the very least of her concerns.

Back in New York, Evangeline's disappearance causes an uproar at the office and a wave of guilt and recrimination. Then suddenly, several months later, she's heard from: miraculously, she's convalescing in a Transylvania monastery, her memory seemingly scrubbed. But then who was sending e-mails through her account to The Hour employees? And what are those great coffin-like boxes of objects delivered to the office in her name from the Old Country? And why does the show's sound system appear to be infected with some strange virus, an aural bug that coats all recordings in a faint background hiss that sounds like the chanting of...place-names? And what about the rumors that a correspondent has scored an interview with Torgu, here in New York, after all? As a very dark Old World atmosphere deepens in the halls of one of America's most trusted television programs, its employees are forced to confront a threat beyond their wildest imaginings, a threat that makes gossip about an impending corporate shakeup seem very quaint indeed.

Written in the form of diary entries, e-mails, therapy journals, and other artifacts of early-twenty-first-century American professional-class life, compiled as an informal inquest by a very interested party, Fangland manages both to be a genuinely-in fact triumphantly-frightening vampire novel in the grand tradition and a, yes, biting commentary on the way we live and work now.

Customer Reviews:

Not your grandfather's vampire story - 10 stars.......2007-07-20

This is a new a completely new take on the old monster. Comparing this book to Bram Stoker's Dracula beyond the structure and a few scattered similarities is doing both a disservice. Certainly the author offers an homage to Stoker with certain story elements, as all vampire stories must do else there be no real reference for the casual reader to recognize. But this is a unique and uniquely modern novel in every way.

I will let other's summarize the book for you, but instead just give my take as a jaded, constant reader. This book is one of very few I would read more than once because a) it was so good the first time and b) I actually think that a second reading would be even more revealing and powerful given how the story so defied my expectations.

The author has written a very sophisticated and seductive work. It is very literate and very smartly done. The best thing about this book is that it takes the thread of an idea that has been so overworked and actually makes the idea riveting and fresh in a new skin. Fangland offers you many gifts as a reader: mounting, suffocating dread, truly shocking horror, likeable and hate-able characters, a mature and subversive sensuality and even moments of dark wit to name but a few.

Frankly, in hindsight, this is one book in which I would rather have not even read the jacket summary (it shouldn't have one because you can't convey the richness of it in a couple of paragraphs) and had just dove into the story and let it take me completely by surprise with no preconceived notions. Maybe the jacket summary could have simply said "The Silence of the Lambs meets Dracula meets The Office" and then let your mind take it from there. And while I would love to see this on the big screen, I can't think of a single living director who could tackle it. It would be destined as yet another case of "the book was better".

Do not miss this treat. You do not have to be a horror fan to love this book. You have only to be human.

Dracula updated!.......2007-05-19

Fangland can basically be described as an updated Dracula. In fact the main character, a young woman is named Evangeline Harker, just like Stoker's classic Jonathan Harker. There are even a few names that are re-used as well. Evangeline is a reporter for a TV show called the Hour. She is sent to Romania to interview a possible crime lord named Ion Torgu, who presumes the role of Dracula. Although it is never said if he is truly a vampire, he is something else that is not of this world however.

Similar to Stoker's tale, Evangeline remains too long on her trip and doesn't return at the appointed time, but for some reason someone is taking over Evangeline's life and sending emails in her name and shipping strange crates back to the office. Evangeline loses her memory of the duration of the trip and when she returns home her memories slowly return to her and the terror of them drives her insane. A horror has taken over the people of the Hour and Evangeline must do all that she can to defeat the monster.

Overall a very good book. If you've read Stoker's classic Dracula you'll love this modern new twist. As mentioned before there are a few names that are similar if I'm remembering correctly. A must read for all Dracula fans, you won't be disappointed.

Hard Not to Put Down.......2007-04-28

It's a good storyline and starts off just fine. Then, as it develops, every damn character goes elliptical and indirect and just unable to answer a question or articulate a clear thought. Plus, I'm pretty sure the chronology is off. The female lead seems to be one place in time, then another, when the conditions she describes seem to be reversed. Her name is Evangeline Harker (no kidding), and she describes, not unlike Jonathon, waking up in an abbey after her encounter with you-know-who. Except, after describing her time in the abbey (during she knows not who she is), she next describes the circumstances of escaping from you-know-who with total clarity. Then, the book moves into an overly long and 90% irrelevant monologue by another player, at which point I could no longer focus. Rather than just put the book down, I went to the end and read it, hoping I would find something there to inspire me to work through the rest of it. I didn't. I plan to offer it for sale as 'partially used.'

Depressing Mish-mash.......2007-03-24

I found it hard to be drawn into the book due to the format, for starters. The book is told from the viewpoint of several people, in the form of first-person narrative as well as emails, diary entries etc. Marks is one of those writers who likes to sketch things out roughly at times and use a stream of consciousness technique that left me wondering at many points what exactly had just happened--if anything.
I personally am not very interested in the petty inner politics of the typical newsshow, either. That takes up a huge amount of the book. To me, none of the characters was understandable or sympathetic.
Finally, the ultimate curse of the "vampire" is nonsensical. As another reviewer above noted, what is the author trying to say? I think it's summed up by a character's observation that we humans can only function because we have the capacity to put the horror of tragic death, particularly murder, out of our minds. If we are forced to dwell on these things, as the "virus" of the vampire compels us to do, we go mad. This would seem to make the vampire a sympathetic creature--he yearns to be free of this burden. Yet he himself murders and tortures, thus contributing to the unbearable weight of this sorrow. It is not clear that he is compelled to murder and drink blood---others infected in the book feel the thirst but do not indulge in human murder.
The ultimate feel of the book to me was one of hopelessness and nihilism. If that's acceptable to the reader, and you like books that are impressionistic and offbeat, then this is the book for you.
Marks can write. I just wish that he had written a different book following this intriguing premise.

Very, very weird.......2007-02-28

Gripping. Several times I thought I would not finish the book, but just had to read it to the end.

New Documentary: A Critical Introduction

Average customer rating:

New Documentary: A Critical Introduction
Stella Bruzzi
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415182964

Book Description

New Documentary provides a comprehensive account of the last two decades of documentary filmmaking in the US, Britain and Europe. Bruzzi discusses key genres, filmmakers, and issues for the study of non-fiction film and television. Bruzzi discusses the relationship between recent, innovative examples of the genre and the more established canon of documentary. She also explores how issues of gender identity, queer theory, performance, "race" and spectatorship are important to our understanding of contemporary documentary.

Good Times, Bad Times: Soap Operas and Society in Western Europe

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Good Times, Bad Times: Soap Operas and Society in Western Europe
Hugh O'Donnell
Manufacturer: Leicester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0718500458

MAKING IMAGES MOVE (Smithsonian Studies in the History of Film & Television)

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MAKING IMAGES MOVE (Smithsonian Studies in the History of Film & Television)
HORAK JC
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1560987448

Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

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Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
Arch Puddington
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Voice of America
Radio Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy: My War Within the Cold War

ASIN: 0813121582

Book Description

“A ground-breaking history of RFE-RL that is both erudite and a delight to read. . . . Should help rescue the radios from the `memory hole' to which their detractors are attempting to consign them.”—American Spectator

“Useful to anyone interested in the minutiae of American foreign policy in Eastern Europe after World War II.”—Washington Post Book World

“A fine telling of a little known U.S. project that prevented the evil empire from exercising a monopoly on news and opinion.”—First Things

Book Description

"Hodges. . . shows us a lover of language, a scholar, contradictory, big-hearted, as swift and many-sided as his libretti."—Publishers Weekly

Three of the greatest operas ever written—The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte —join the exquisite music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the perfectly matched libretti of Lorenzo Da Ponte. Da Ponte's own long life (1749-1838), however, was more fantastic than any opera plot. A poor Jew who became a Catholic priest; a priest who became a young gambler and rake; a teacher, poet, and librettist of genius who became a Pennsylvania greengrocer; an impoverished immigrant to America who became professor of Italian at Columbia University—wherever Da Ponte went, he arrived a penniless fugitive and made a new and eventful life. Sheila Hodges follows him from the last glittering years of the Venetian Republic to the Vienna of Mozart and Salieri, and from George III's London to New York City.

"Anyone with literary, biographical, musical, or historical interests will delight in this well-written and vivid portrayal of a multifaceted man."—John Greenhalgh, Classical Music

Customer Reviews:

What a life!.......2003-08-29

DaPonte was a bon-vivant; a scholar, a poet, a gentleman-rogue who was always disappointed that the world did not revere him for all the effort he put into Italian culture internationally. As librettist to Mozart (and Salieri and others), he initiated a brilliant new style of opera; as a book-publisher and friend of Casanova he lived life large, in Italy (where he was thrown out for his amorous adventures), in Vienna (where he had to leave because of court intrigue), in Trieste(where he had to leave because he was starving), in London (where he left because of theatrical machinations), in New York (where he left because of a lack of business), in Philadelphia (where he ran a grocery and book store)--he was eternally optimistic, eternally misused and misunderstood, but always the happy warrior. HIs autobiography, from which Hodges quotes extensively (and is a merciful editor to his prolix style), is sometimes a catena of complaints against his "enemies" -who were everywhere, apparently. A most interesting book. Anyone with an interest in theater or opera at the end of the 18th century will love it.

Da Ponte: librettist for 3 of Mozart's most famous operas.......2003-01-20

This work by Sheila Hodges is a biography of the man who was the librettist for three of Mozart's most famous operas: Le Nozzi di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte.

The book traces Lorenzo Da Ponte's life from birth in Ceneda, Italy in 1749 to his death in America in 1838. The material used in this biography include Da Ponte's own memoirs and various others letters and text that documented his life in Europe and America. In the back, the book list chronologically dates that of were of importance to Da Ponte, dates of his writings (poems, letters etc.) and finally dates of his libretti. There is also an extensive bibliography and a complete index of the names of people in the book who were part of his life.

The book deals extensively with all sections of Da Ponte's life including his growing up, his work in Vienna, (where he met Mozart and worked for Emperor Joseph), his life in London, and finally his last years in America. Among these segments we see a young man who could not resist the fairer sex; a gullible soul who repeatedly lent money to people and rogues that could not or would not repay him, thus leaving him in an almost constant state of poverty throughout his entire lifetime. As that saying goes "he was his own worse enemy".

Personally, I had hoped to gain some insight into the working relationship between himself and Mozart but there is apparently little record of their actual association. What did come out, that is intriguing, is the apparent sway Da Ponte's skill with the libretti had in determining the music that Mozart eventually wrote for the three operas mentioned above. This ability seemed to arise from his upbringing and his education as a young man, where eventually he developed his talent to write these fabulous Italian libretti: libretti that were not only used by Mozart, but by many other composers of the day, including Salieri and Martin Y Soler, just to mention a few. It appears plausable, that without Da Ponte's influence on Mozart, that these three masterpieces would be substantially different than what we know today.

The book is well written, generally easy to read and will be appreciated by anyone interested in Da Ponte, Italian opera or the political intrigues of life in 18th century Vienna. Certainly a special interest book, but one that is an fascinating read.

A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe

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Jim Europe, The Founder of the International Jazz Movement

A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe
Reid Badger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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James Reese Europe's 369th U.S. Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band
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Black Manhattan (Da Capo Paperback)

ASIN: 019506044X

Book Description

In 1919, the world stood at the threshold of the Jazz Age. The man who had ushered it there, however, lay murdered--and would soon plunge from international fame to historical obscurity. It was a fate few would have predicted for James Reese Europe; he was then at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, conductor, and organizer in the black community, with the promise of even greater heights to come. "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe," said pianist Eubie Blake. "He was the savior of Negro musicians...in a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King." In A Life in Ragtime, Reid Badger brilliantly captures the fascinating life of James Reese Europe, tracing a critical chapter in the emergence of jazz through one man's remarkable odyssey. After an early start in Washington, Europe found his fame in New York, the entertainment capital of turn-of-the-century America. In the decade before the First World War, he emerged as an acknowledged leader in African-American musical theater, both as a conductor and an astonishingly prolific composer. Badger reveals a man of tremendous depths and ambitions, constantly aspiring to win recognition for black musicians and wider acceptance for their music. He toiled constantly, working on benefit concerts, joining hands with W.E.B. Du Bois, and helping to found a black music school--all the while winning commercial and critical success with his chosen art. In 1910, he helped create the Clef Club, making it the premiere African-American musical organization in the country during his presidency. Every year from 1912 to 1914, Europe led the Clef Club orchestra in triumphant concerts at Carnegie Hall, winning new respectability and popularity for ragtime. He went on to a tremendously successful collaboration with Vernon and Irene Castle, the international stars who made social dancing a world-wide rage. Along the way, Europe helped to revolutionize American music--and Badger provides fascinating details of his innovations and wide influence. In World War I, the musical pioneer won new fame as the first African-American officer to lead men into combat in that conflict--but he was best known as band leader for the all-black 15th Infantry Regiment. As the "Hellfighters" of the 15th racked up successes on the battlefield, Europe's band took France by storm with the new sounds of jazz. In 1919, the soldiers returned to New York in triumph, and Europe was the toast of the city. Then, just a few months later, he was dead--stabbed to death by a drummer in his own orchestra. From humble beginnings to tragic end, the story of Jim Europe comes alive in Reid Badger's account. Weaving in the wider story of our changing culture, music, and racial conflict, Badger deftly captures the turbulent, promising age of ragtime, and the drama of a triumphant life cut short.

Customer Reviews:

Jim Europe, The Founder of the International Jazz Movement.......2000-02-23

In a true sense of the word pioneer James Reese Europe, brought the only true American Art form to continental europe in the early part of the twentieth century. Reid Badger has captured the essence of a time in history that brought jazz and the cultural attitudes of black America to the international scene.

The very detailed text is a wonderful read, that gives you a sense of the push and pull of being an American Black living in the early 1900's. The book reads as if it were an adventure tale with all the action one could wish for.

The author has done a wonderful job of putting together facts and photos in a fast moving easy to understand academic work. His understanding of the contribution that Europe made to the growth of Jazz is clear and compeling. The details of the stature of the man that was Jim Europe reveals his human and sometimes non perfect personality.

Of particular interest to all should be his tenure as the Band Master of the famous 369th Infantry "Hell-Fighters" band during WWI in Europe.

This a must read for any student of jazz or military history and all who read about contributions to African-American society.

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