About

My Photo

In Memoriam

Worthy of Mention

  • Spoon -

    Spoon: Girls Can Tell
    This is a great, understated album that merits repeated plays. Spoon have made a literate, rocking, breakthrough record that occupies a funny place--the songs are not unconventional, per se, yet they're somehow really special. Girls Can Tell displays the emotional resonance and big rock power of, say, Thin Lizzy and Mott the Hoople; the sonically referential, indie-rock smarts of a band like Versus; and amazing hooks that recall Colin Blunstone of the Zombies. Like Jennyanykind, Moviola, and the Lilys, this Austin, Texas, trio has chosen to work on perfecting their craft without paying much heed to mainstream or trends. In spite of (but mostly because of) wrenching breakup-centered lyrical material delivered in a very real, matter-of-fact way, Girls Can Tell is one of those life-affirming pop albums you know you'll return to in years to come. --Mike McGonigal (*****)

Books

  • Michael Hardt: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

    Michael Hardt: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
    Empire (2000)—the surprise hit that made its term for U.S global hegemony stick and presciently set the agenda for post–9/11 political theory on the left—was written by this same somewhat unlikely duo: Hardt, an American political scientist at Duke University, and Negri, a former Italian parliament member and political exile, trained political scientist and sometime inmate of Rome's Rebibbia prison. This book follows up on Empire's promise of imagining a full-blown global democracy. Though the authors admit that they can't provide the final means for bringing that entity about (or the forms for maintaining it), the book is rich in ideas and agitational ends. The "multitude" is Hardt and Negri's term for the earth's six billion increasingly networked citizens, an enormous potential force for "the destruction of sovereignty in favor of democracy." The middle section on the nature of that multitude is bookended by two others. The first describes the situation in which the multitude finds itself: "permanent war." The last grounds demands for and historical precursors of global democracy. Written for activists to provide a solid goal (with digressions into history and theory) toward which protest actions might move, this timely book brings together myriad loose strands of far left thinking with clarity, measured reasoning and humor, major accomplishments in and of themselves. (****)

« Big Ideas, Small Results: "Hip" MOMA Party Sounds Way Lame | Main | "Alice In Wonderland Is Like 150, Well Past The Age Of Consent" »

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Wit Editor Makes Pedantic History

History_of_glamour_5Our film The History Of Glamour is included in Prentice Hall high school art history text books. Short excerpt below:

"Collaborating with animator Jeremy Blake, Duncan created a hybrid 'pseudo-rockumentary' that explores the nature of American celebrity....Its heroine, teen singer-songwriter Charles Valentine, from the fictional backwater of Antler, Ohio, storms Manhattan intent on achieving fame and fortune. But the lyrics of her songs increasingly reflect the emptiness of the cult of celebrity: 'I got a call from a magazine yesterday, I think it was called Interview, I said Thursday's out, but how about never? Is never good for you?' In the end, she becomes a reclusive writer, chucking 'glamour for grammar'."

This is required reading in tens of thousands of our nation's high schools, mon ami. Who needs children, brothers and sisters of the Staircase, when so many are already yours?

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 in Art, Film |

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451baf569e200d8356691d669e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Wit Editor Makes Pedantic History:

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.