Biography: arts and entertainment Books

Book SynopsisComposer, performer, instrument builder, teacher, and writer Gordon Mumma has left an indelible mark on the American contemporary music scene. A prolific composer and innovative French horn player, Mumma is recognized for integrating advanced electronic processes into musical structures, an approach he has termed ''Cybersonics.'' Musicologist Michelle Fillion curates a collection of Mumma''s writings, presenting revised versions of his classic pieces as well as many unpublished works from every stage of his storied career. Here, through words and astonishing photos, is Mumma''s chronicle of seminal events in the musical world of the twentieth century: his cofounding the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music; his role in organizing the historic ONCE Festivals of Contemporary Music; performances with the Sonic Arts Union; and working alongside John Cage and David Tudor as a composer-musician with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In addition, Mumma describes his collaborations witTrade Review"What counts here is the spirit of it, the inventiveness springing from an independence of imagination as well as the willingness and financial necessity to work outside the given conditions of the time. Mumma shows us how that spirit is in fact crucial and, always, of essential value."--Christian Wolff, from the foreword"An excellent and engaging book that can take its readers to a dizzying array of places, real and metaphoric. It is an admirable introduction to the mind and spirit of Gordon Mumma as well as a vivid and loving remembrance of an amazing time in the history of music."--ARSC Journal"The firsthand histories flowing from this book are precious, provided by one of the unsung heroes of the American electronic music scene, Gordon Mumma... A valuable resource."--Neural"Mumma's energetic perspectives on so many topics--as a scholar, inventor, technician, performer, composer, photographer, historian, and documentarian--richly enhance our perspective on this period of rapid change and fruitful innovation. A beautiful and much-anticipated achievement."--Amy C. Beal, author of Johanna Beyer and Carla Bley"Widely known as a multi-talented composer/performer and inventor of handmade circuits and various forms of electronic wizardry that revolutionized live electronic music, Mumma is far more than the prototypical American 'maverick.' His fierce dedication to his own artistic vision has always been coupled to a voracious interest in the work of the pathbreaking composers, performers, dancers, architects, and visual artists who inhabit his music world and with whom he has often collaborated. This elegantly edited and annotated book is thus not only an invaluable overview of Mumma's extraordinary creative output and ideas, but also an intimate insider’s telling of the history of experimental music during the last half century."--David W. Bernstein, editor of The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde"A treasure trove of primary source material on American, and to a lesser extent Latin-American, music, especially of the experimental kind. The reader is repeatedly struck by the genuineness of Mumma's writing; whether in passages from his diary or accounts of now-significant events, he writes with the authority of one who was actually there."--Bob Gilmore, editor of Ben Johnston's "Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music"A very wonderful collection of essays, with its first-person witnessing of a scene that was critical for the development of the music technology we have today, and I highly recommend it."--Soundbytes"A wonderful resource for music and the arts, the book can be read as narrative or used as reference. Highly recommended."--Choice "As all great books about music lead you to do, I couldn't help but reach up to my CD shelves, where various Mumma discs releases on lables like New World and Tzadik are housed."--Gramophone "Part memoir of a remarkable life at the center of 20th and 21st century American experimental music, and partly a collection of Mumma's thoughtful, provocative, and influential essays, the book introduces this pioneer to a new generation of sonic explorers"--Electronic Musician "A contemporary history of a particularly fertile and disruptive time in the advanced arts. . . . Mumma's book bears articulate witness to how this flexible discipline played itself out in concrete situations over the decades."--Avant Music News

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTimothy White Award for Musical Biography, ASCAP Foundation and Virgil Thomson Foundation, 2016 "Mr. Rimler tells an important story, and he presents musical analysis of Arlen’s compositional style in nonacademic terms, so that all readers can grasp how inventive Arlen really was."--Wall Street Journal"An endearing yet clear-eyed assessment of Harold Arlen. . . . For lovers of the Great American Songbook and for anyone who ever dreamed beyond the confines of practicality."--Library Journal "Highly readable, this could easily count as the perfect biography, well-researched but never overladen with detail, the always modest Arlen’s ‘bittersweet life’, in critic John Lahr’s words, elegantly conveyed.”--Peter Vacher, Jazzwise"To the point, simple to grasp, and an engaging read. I was fully drawn to Arlen the man and Arlen the songwriter and by the end sad to relinquish his acquaintance."--Stephen Banfield, author of Jerome Kern"There is still room for a short, stylish book aimed at general audiences, and Walter Rimler's The Man That Got Away: The Life and Songs of Harold Arlen fills that bill as well as it could possibly be filled. The author . . . offers pithy and readable accounts of Arlen's personal and professional lives. If you want to know what Harold Arlen was all about, you'll find it here."--Terry Teachout,The Weekly Standard"Required reading for those interested in American song. Recommended."--Choice"Rimler's study ensures that Arlen's story and his contributions to music will not be forgotten."--Publishers Weekly"Reading Mr. Rimler's sympathetic but unflinching account of Arlen's travails gives one an enhanced admiration for his productivity and the grit and determination that enabled him to produce such jewels amid such turmoil."--Washington Times “Fascinating. . . . Rimler provides countless pieces of information not previously known. . . . Rimler's work remains refreshingly unacademic and is a real pleasure to read."--ARSC Journal "The title of Walter Rimler's study of songwriter Harold Arlen's life and work says it all! Yet, despite Arlen's elusiveness as a man and an artist, Rimler does a fine job of conveying an appreciation for and the context of the composer's memorable musical output. In meticulously researched, cool, readable prose, the author admirably recreates the historical milieu of Arlen's world, placing the composer in the context of the 20th century Broadway and Hollywood songwriting traditions."--Fanfare "Walter Rimler's biography is not only chock-full of information, but with intimate, carefully researched, and heretofore unknown details, making it one of the most entertaining and readable portraits of the wizard Arlen--one of songdom's greatest composers--that has ever been written. This book does a remarkable thing--it allows words to describe music."--Martin Charnin, Tony Award–winning creator and director of Annie "Refreshingly down to earth. The Man That Got Away does what no other single volume has done: it combines a succinct account of Arlen's life with a nontechnical but useful description of his idiosyncratic songwriting style."--Larry Hamberlin, coauthor of Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Let's celebrate the many dimensions of Agnès Varda as one of the greatest artists working today. Conway succeeds in capturing her curiosity, ingenuity, wit, and new storytelling to confirm her status as the indefatigable pioneer of European cinema."--Hans Ulrich Obrist"Kelley Conway builds upon a vast array of archival research to forge this insightful study of Agnès Varda's distinct approach to filmmaking. Conway concentrates on Varda's experimental production strategies and Varda's engagement with her audience across a truly amazing career."--Richard Neupert, author of A History of the French New Wave Cinema, second edition"Drawing on privileged access to the filmmaker's archives, Kelley Conway expands our understanding of Agnès Varda in several new and eye-opening ways. Offering welcome insight into Varda’s working methods, revisiting the production, distribution and reception of the filmmaker's classics from La Pointe Courte and Cléo de 5 à 7 to Les Plages d'Agnès and her recent multi-media installations, Conway illuminates the astonishingly varied, yet coherent, life-long creative output of one of the key figures in world cinema."--Ginette Vincendeau, coeditor of The French New Wave: Critical Landmarks"A breakthrough text on Varda's trajectory from photography and film to video, digital media, and installation projects. Conway's pages on the reception of Cleo from 5 to 7 are stunning. Her take on The Gleaners and I, The Widows of Noirmoutier , and The Beaches of Agnès is astute." --Steven Ungar, coauthor of Popular Front Paris and the Poetics of Culture"Conway writes in an easy, conversational manner, conveying a good deal of information and numerous insights… Varda remains one of the least-examined figures of the French New Wave, so this book is especially welcome. Highly recommended."--Choice"The meticulous archival research, and the author's personal connection to her subject combine to make Agnès Varda an engaging, helpful read for scholars, students, and laypersons alike."--French Review"An excellent, in-depth study of the major works of the pioneering French New Wave auteur Agnes Varda, who not only preceded and helped to found the movement, but also became one of its most outstanding figures. . . . Agnes Varda is an outstanding work, not to mention a labor of love, and this love is evident in the scholarly care and expertise tendered to understanding Varda's working process and her life's work."--Film Matters

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Book SynopsisProdigy. Iconoclast. Genius. Exile. Orson Welles remains one of the most discussed figures in cinematic history. In the centenary year of Welles's birth, James Naremore presents a revised third edition of this incomparable study, including a new section on the unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind. Naremore analyzes the political and psychological implications of the films, Welles's idiosyncratic style, and the biographical details--both playful and vexing--that impacted each work. Itself a historic film study, The Magic World of Orson Welles unlocks the soaring art and quixotic methods of a master.Trade Review"The most perceptive study of Welles's art.--Andrew Sarris "Naremore's book, with its wealth of background and close commentary, is certainly the best study of Welles."--Tag Gallagher, Film Comment"Naremore is not simply pandering to the movie buff's passion for unconsidered and inconsiderable trifles, but revealing that it's possible to go on where most Wellesian researchers have stopped."--Sight and Sound"It may, along with a small handful of other books, help to change the standards of scholarship and critical sophistication we apply to writing on film. It is patient, intelligent, scrupulously researched, and yet it is never solemn. Absolutely compelling on the more technical aspects of Welles's films."--Michael Wood, Washington Post"Naremore's book, with its wealth of background and close commentary, is certainly the best study of Welles."--Tag Gallagher, Film Comment"The most perceptive study of Welles's art."--Andrew Sarris"The Magic of Orson Welles remains one of the important works that notes the frisson the world experienced with him."--afterimage

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Dr. Snyder is a good storyteller. Her words flow easily across the page and assure the reader that a rewarding journey lies ahead. . . . Snyder is to be congratulated for her biography of "this grand old man," and her efforts demand the immediate attention of readers."--The American Organist"The definitive biography of Burleigh, unlikely to be superseded in the near future."--Thomas Riis, author of Just before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890–1915"In prose that is both accessible and detailed, Snyder has written a biography that will appeal not just to musicologists and Burleigh specialists, but also to anyone wanting to learn more about the contributions of this historically significant musician, mentor, and activist."--Notes"The definitive biography of Burleigh. . . . worth reading for anyone interested in the cultural life of African American communities in the “Promised Land” after the Civil War. . . . a worthy addition to any library, personal or institutional, that collects information about black music and important figures in African American history."--Black Grooves"In addition to a detailed account of Burleigh's relationships with his contemporaries, his complex marital life, and his successful performing career, Snyder provides valuable musicological analysis of Burleigh's compositions and arrangements. Highly recommended."--Choice"Jean E. Snyder's brilliant encyclopedic evaluation of the life and legacy of Harry Thacker Burleigh reveals an intriguing lode of personal and professional detail about the iconic singer whose seminal influence in American compositional history is appreciated today by precious few."--George I. Shirley, Grammy Award winner and Director of the Vocal Arts Division, University of Michigan"By incorporating the unique perspective offered by members of Harry T. Burleigh's family, Jean Snyder makes a valuable and much-needed contribution to the literature on one of the greatest African-American musical figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Moreover, Snyder's work is timely since it coincides with the Burleigh sesquicentennial celebration."--Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., author of The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States

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Book SynopsisBalancing sophisticated melodies and irresistible rhythms with lyrics by turns cynical and passionate, Cole Porter sent American song soaring on gossamer wings. Timeless works like 'I Get a Kick Out of You' and 'At Long Last Love' made him an essential figure in the soundtrack of a century and earned him adoration from generations of music lovers. In A Cole Porter Companion, a parade of performers and scholars offers essays on little-known aspects of the master tunesmith''s life and art. Here are Porter''s days as a Yale wunderkind and his nights as the exemplar of louche living; the triumph of Kiss Me Kate and shocking failure of You Never Know; and his spinning rhythmic genius and a turkey dinner into 'You''re the Top' while cultural and economic forces take 'Ev''ry Time We Say Goodbye' in unforeseen directions. Other entries explore notes on ongoing Porter scholarship and delve into his formative works, performing career, and long-overlooked contributions to Trade ReviewCertificate of Merit for Best Discography, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), 2017 "Recommended."--Choice"As part of the 'Music in American Life' series, this book is an essential introduction and study of the music of one of the greatest American composers of the twentieth century." --The Journal of American Culture"Is there a need for a book like this, a compendium of essays by scholars and experts in musicology, music history and sundry ancillary specialties? The answer is an emphatic yes… To return to Irving Berlin, 'ya don’t need any larning' to appreciate this most sophisticated and well educated of American songwriters, but the huge amount of detail and analysis packed into this book enhances that appreciation."--The Washington Times"A Cole Porter Companion is an important addition to scholarship on American musical theatre and popular music. . . . This is a good introduction to scholarly examinations of the work of one of the most beloved American composers."--Indiana Magazine if History"Though centered on one person and his undeniable talents, the compilation explores many different avenues and subtopics, keeping the subject fresh and enjoyable throughout."--Notes"A Cole Porter Companion is simply an indispensable, unadulterated joy of a book--required reading for anyone who loves music, lyrics, the theater, and of course the inimitable Cole Porter--from the non-music-reading fan to the most sophisticated and scholarly musicologist. A landmark volume, bridging the gap between academe and the general listener with a bubbly élan worthy of the master himself."--Maury Yeston"Anything goes?--not in the ruthless world of Tin Pan Alley. Of all the great American Songbook composers, Cole Porter is perhaps the hardest to fit into Broadway's 'Golden Age.' This fine guide suggests how best to do it."--Tim Carter, author of Oklahoma! The Making of an American Musical

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Book SynopsisWith his trademark mandolin style and unequaled tenor harmonies, Curly Seckler has carved out a seventy-seven-year career in bluegrass and country music. His foundational work in Flatt and Scruggs''s Foggy Mountain Boys secured him a place in bluegrass history, while his role in The Nashville Grass made him an essential part of the music''s triumphant 1970s revival. Written in close collaboration with Mr. Seckler and those who know him, Foggy Mountain Troubadour is the first full-length biography of an American original. Penny Parsons follows a journey from North Carolina schoolhouses to the Grand Ole Opry stage and the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, from boarding houses to radio studios and traveling five to a car on two-lane roads to make the next show. Throughout, she captures the warm humor, hard choices, and vivid details of a brilliant artist''s life as he criss-crosses a nation and a century making music.Trade ReviewCertificate of Merit for Best Historical Research in Recorded Country Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards (ARSC), 2017 Named Bluegrass Print/Media Person of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), 2016 "A front row seat to bluegrass history."--Charlotte News & Observer "What emerges from Parsons' narrative is a fascinating life of a performer who deserves to be well known to all scholars and fans of bluegrass music."--ARSC Journal"Those who are interested in the history of bluegrass and old country music must by and read this wonderful book."--Bluegrass Today"Let us shower Penny Parsons and Curly Seckler with roses for their wonderful collaboration on Foggy Mountain Troubadour . Curly Seckler is one of the most beloved and revered of all the first generation country and bluegrass music pioneers. Ms. Parsons not only illuminates Mr. Seckler's storied life but also reports rarified accounts that offer us insight into the humanity that underscored the people, songs, live performances, recordings, and travels surrounding what is now considered to be one of the most mythical bands ever to play: Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Penny Parsons is not only an authentic biographer, she is also a first-rate musical detective."--Marty Stuart"Anyone who has followed the life and career of Curly Seckler will have a hard time putting this book down. . . . [Penny Parsons] has done an amazing and masterful job in documenting the life of one of the great sidemen in Bluegrass."--Country Sales Newsletter"A must read for anyone who would like a window into the world of the American South, the rise of our country music and its early stars, and especially to gain an appreciation for an American musical treasure--Curly Seckler."--Randall Franks, Southern Style"Foggy Mountain Troubadour offers a fascinating look at a long and storied life in music. Bluegrass is one of America's defining art forms, and Parsons uses spirited prose and anecdotes drawn from her adept research to illustrate how Seckler witnessed and helped shape it from the beginning."--Greensboro News & Record"Penny Parsons's well-mined research and articulate journalistic style reveal never-before-documented history that should be of interest to all fans of country and bluegrass music's golden era. Written with Mr. Seckler's full cooperation, this educational and entertaining biography explores the compelling journey of a legendary musical statesman. Along the way, he endured both triumph and tragedy with determination, unshakable faith, kindness, generosity, and humor. This book truly does justice to his amazing legacy."--Eddie Stubbs, WSM Grand Ole Opry announcer "This carefully researched and richly detailed account of Seckler's life and career provides a new perspective on the work of his primary employers--Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Parsons's labor of love has produced a good read and an invaluable reference."--Jay Orr, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Cristi Puiu is, undoubtedly, the most important filmmaker in contemporary Romanian cinema. His masterpieces have made their mark not only in the national film industry, but also in the European film culture. Monica Filimon's book, the first comprehensive analysis of all of Puiu's works until now, provides a thorough overview of the inner mechanisms of a complex and influential cinema-maker."--Doru Pop, author of Romanian New Wave Cinema: An Introduction"An original and highly competent investigation."--Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews"Monica Filimon's concise and helpful study of the director's oeuvre, background, and aesthetics is such a welcome publication. . . . Apart from her highly readable and well-argued accounts of Puiu's films . . . Filimon offers a convincing account of the director's evolution."--Cineaste"Monica Filimon offers an enlightening and engaging portrait of the larger-than-life personality that forms a core part of the New Romanian Cinema." --Studies in European Cinema

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A readable and insightful analysis of a vital contemporary filmmaker . . . Highly recommended."--Choice "A decisive account of Anderson's movies, alive to their obvious charms, undaunted by their limits, and dedicated to activating their hidden potentials. This slim volume is both a sure introduction to Anderson's cinema and an authoritative reframing of the critical consensus. Anderson is the cinematic collector par excellence, and in this beautifully written study, Kornhaber plunges into the causes and consequences of that obsession in new and trenchant ways."--J. D. Connor, author of The Studios after the Studios: Neoclassical Hollywood, 1970–2010

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Book Synopsis From cradle to great, the comprehensive real story of Bill MonroeThe Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe was a major star of the Grand Ole Opry for over fifty years; a member of the Country Music, Songwriters, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame; and a legendary figure in American music. This authoritative biography sets out to examine his life in careful detail--to move beyond hearsay and sensationalism to explain how and why he accomplished so much.Former Blue Grass Boy and longtime music journalist Tom Ewing draws on hundreds of interviews, his personal relationship with Monroe, and an immense personal archive of materials to separate the truth from longstanding myth. Ewing tells the story of the Monroe family''s musical household and Bill''s early career in the Monroe Brothers duo. He brings to life Monroe''s 1940s heyday with the Classic Bluegrass Band, the renewed fervor for his music sparked by the folk revival of the 1960s, and his declining fortunes in tTrade Review"Insightful . . . [Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man] presents bluegrass history as it happened, as well as a fresh look at 'this extraordinary individual.'" --Wall Street Journal "A fair, objective, and entertaining chronicle."--Publishers Weekly "A detailed, decade-by-decade, almost moment-by-moment chronicle of the Father of Bluegrass. Because of its thoroughness, it will be the standard biography."--No DepressionTable of ContentsCoverTitleCopyrightContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsPrologueChapter One. 1892–1919Chapter Two. 1920–1929Chapter Three. 1930–1939Chapter Four. 1940–1949Chapter Five. 1950–1959Chapter Six. 1960–1969Chapter Seven. 1970–1979Chapter Eight. 1980–1989Chapter Nine. 1990–1996EpilogueAppendix: Blue Grass BoysNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisLana and Lilly Wachowski have redefined the technically and topically possible while joyfully defying audience expectations. Visionary films like The Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas have made them the world''s most influential transgender media producers, and their coming out retroactively put trans* aesthetics at the very center of popular American culture. Cáel M. Keegan views the Wachowskis'' films as an approach to trans* experience that maps a transgender journey and the promise we might learn 'to sense beyond the limits of the given world.' Keegan reveals how the filmmakers take up the relationship between identity and coding (be it computers or genes), inheritance and belonging, and how transgender becoming connects to a utopian vision of a post-racial order. Along the way, he theorizes a trans* aesthetic that explores the plasticity of cinema to create new social worlds, new temporalities, and new sensory inputs and outputs. Film comes to disrupt, rearranTrade Review"His attention to the sensorial and material--traced vividly through his method of close reading--are necessary approaches for scholars working to account for how race and gender intersect within trans* cinema." --Transgender Studies Quarterly"An admirable, focused study of the Wachowski sisters, best known for their postmillennial science fiction films, especially The Matrix franchise....makes a case for considering their work alongside the canon of new queer cinema, despite their exclusion from that corpus at the time of its formation. Highly recommended." --Choice"This book is a revelation! Leaving behind the more pedestrian methods of examining cinematic narratives of transgender lives, Cael Keegan goes one huge step beyond. With this book on Lana and Lilly Wachowski, we have in our hands the first book to consider the transgender content of the Wachowskis' massively influential cinematic practice. The trans* cinema of the Wachowskis is, according to Keegan, not just disruptive and wildly imaginative, although it is definitely that, it also represents an expansion of the popular imagination and a very different sense of life in and beyond the matrix. Keegan gives a masterful account of the Wachowskis' world and drops his readers down the rabbit hole of a trans* altered reality. Bon voyage."--Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal"Keegan approaches trans* in the Wachowskis' cinema not in terms of literal, figurative representation but rather as a lens through which new forms and narratives may be evinced. Trans* thus becomes at once an ideological critique, method, and sensory experience." --Film Quarterly"A beautifully poetic--detailed and elaborate, yet at the same time cohesive and linear--work of trans* inquiry and critique. At its heart, Keegan offers a 'loving' and critical technology of sensing, a somatechnical disposition with which one may be immersed in the Wachowskis' offer to sense differently, through the trajectories of gender and cinema." --Somatechnics"This captivating book does more than argue persuasively for the centrality of the Wachowskis' oeuvre in the recent history of cinema: it demonstrates how their embodied transgender experience is a central component of their aesthetic vision, and how transgender experience has become paradigmatic of visual semiotic practices in the increasingly ubiquitous digital media environment. Keegan offers lucid close readings of the entire Wachowski filmography, while also mapping generative points of overlap and intersection between cinema studies and trans studies. It makes a significant contribution to both fields."--Susan Stryker, founding coeditor, Transgender Studies Quarterly

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Challenging, probing, illuminating, Jonathan Rosenbaum's work is a beacon for other cinephiles. His new collection shows him engaging with an exhilaratingly wide range of films and filmmakers throughout the world and causing us to think about them in fresh ways."--Joseph McBride, author of How Did Lubitsch Do It?"Like a well-composed musical score, Rosenbaum’s magnificent Portraits and Polemics erupts with fresh, incisive, and dynamic sketches of essential cineastes and their works, interlacing tales, energetic rhythmic effects, and vibrant poetic matches: bold, impassioned, cadenced, dialectical, always surprising."--Tami Williams, coeditor of Global Cinema Networks "An excellent collection. Highly recommended." --Choice"Rosenbaum has passed a lifetime of cinephilia to me. A few scribbles in the margins I return." --Cineaste

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Rarely are sequels better than the originals, but Blues Before Sunrise 2 is a happy exception. Cushing delivers another truly significant contribution to the blues literature."--Edward Komara, editor of Encyclopedia of the Blues "In this entertaining and informative collection of interviews, [Cushing] showcases many facets of the Chicago blues scene." --No Depression"By asking insightful questions and letting the artists speak for themselves, Cushing manages to bring to life the excitement of by-gone eras, and shines a light on the impact of obscure artists as well as known legends across several musical genres . . . Highly recommended!" --Blues Blast Magazine

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Journalists discovered Lucrecia Martel with her last film, but scholars like Gerd Gemünden were already paying attention to her extraordinary body of work. Now, Gemünden analyzes the complexities of the Martel universe with a combination of cinematic precision and historical knowledge, unpacking her references and delineating her acute specificity of place. A welcome volume and likely an instant classic."--B. Ruby Rich, editor, Film Quarterly "In a superb and richly documented in-depth reading of Lucrecia Martel's filmic oeuvre, Gerd Gemünden places her firmly within the context of Argentina's vibrant New Cinema of the last twenty years, while also making a convincing case for her to be considered a leading filmmaker of our time."—Jens Andermann, author of New Argentine Cinema

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Friedman's passion for Spielberg films is contagious. Reading Citizen Spielberg makes you want to revisit old favorites like Jurassic Park (1993) and less familiar gems like Empire of the Sun (1987), both to appreciate Spielberg's artistry and assess Friedman's arguments. " --Australasian Journal of American Studies"Essential . . . Perhaps Friedman's greatest achievement is deciphering--in remarkably entertaining fashion--why every Spielberg film is vital to understanding his entire career." --The Film Stage"Citizen Spielberg is an indispensable study of outstanding scholarship and criticism about Steven Spielberg's life, work, and place in American film and cultural history. Friedman writes with commitment and conviction, opening new channels of understanding into Spielberg, his films, and his times."--Sam B. Girgus, author of Clint Eastwood's America"Friedman claims to have penned the first comprehensive analysis of [Spielberg's] films, and he may well be right."--Library Journal"Friedman's treatment is an exhaustive and necessary catalog."--American Interest"There is [a lack of] an exhaustive overview of the components of Spielberg's corpus, the issues which animate his most significant works, the roots of his immense popularity amongst audiences, and the influence his vast spectrum of imaginative products exerts on the public consciousness. Friedman fills that void with a systematic analysis of the various genres in which the director has worked and concludes that Spielberg's films present a sustained artistic vision combined with a technical flair matched by few other filmmakers, and makes a compelling case for Spielberg to be considered as a major film artist."--Screening the Past"Citizen Spielberg does a service to a monstrously influential director and an oeuvre whose investigations of emotion -- especially constrained masculine emotions -- have received insufficient book-length study."--Bloomsbury Review"Friedman seeks a more nuanced approach to Spielberg's cinematic output as director; taking readers through an analysis of his films and responding to the critical assessments of others, Friedman asserts that 'Spielberg is a far more complex, sophisticated, and wry filmmaker than most mainstream critics and academic scholars appreciate.’”--Shofar "Encourage your brightest students to investigate Citizen Speilberg. It's the sort of book that by eschewing jargon but employing serious critical analysis could have a profound effect."--Splice"There is [a lack of] an exhaustive overview of the components of Spielberg's corpus, the issues which animate his most significant works, the roots of his immense popularity amongst audiences, and the influence his vast spectrum of imaginative products exerts on the public consciousness. Friedman fills that void with a systematic analysis of the various genres in which the director has worked and concludes that Spielberg's films present a sustained artistic vision combined with a technical flair matched by few other filmmakers, and makes a compelling case for Spielberg to be considered as a major film artist." * Screening the Past *"Citizen Spielberg does a service to a monstrously influential director and an oeuvre whose investigations of emotion--especially constrained masculine emotions--have received insufficient book-length study." * Bloomsbury Review *"Friedman seeks a more nuanced approach to Spielberg's cinematic output as director; taking readers through an analysis of his films and responding to the critical assessments of others, Friedman asserts that 'Spielberg is a far more complex, sophisticated, and wry filmmaker than most mainstream critics and academic scholars appreciate.’” * Shofar *"Encourage your brightest students to investigate Citizen Speilberg. It's the sort of book that by eschewing jargon but employing serious critical analysis could have a profound effect." * Splice *"Friedman's treatment is an exhaustive and necessary catalog." * American Interest *Table of ContentsPreface ixAcknowledgments xxiii1 The Fantasy and Science Fiction Films 12 The Action/Adventure Melodramas 653 The Monster Movies 1174 The War Films 1735 The Social Problem/Ethnic Minority Films 2436 Imagining the Holocaust 311Filmography 341Works Cited 351Index 369

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Book SynopsisThese previously unpublished lectures by Elliott Carter date to the summer of 1967, when the acclaimed composer taught at the Contemporary Music Workshop held by the University of Minnesota. Leading an introductory course on orchestra repertoire, Carter gave nine hours of lectures covering principal topics like how to live with the musical present and whether the symphony orchestra was a relic of the past or a possible active force for new music. But Carter''s observations and prompts by audience questions broadened the discussion into areas ranging from electronic music to analyses of works by other artists and himself. Laura Emmery presents the complete text from each session alongside introductions, commentary, and annotated examples that provide valuable context for readers. Expansive and essential, Elliott Carter Speaks opens up the artist''s teaching and introspection to new contemporary perspectives on his thought and art.Please note that the order and arrangemeTrade Review"An exciting new contribution to Carter scholarship that documents one of the most important voices in concert music of the modern era. Audiences of contemporary music, musicians, and scholars of this era will find a rich new vein of material that reveals how Carter perceived his role in the musical history and culture of his time--along with a broad collection of analyses of compositions from Debussy and Bartók to Nono, Varèse, and Penderecki."--Douglas Rust, University of Southern Mississippi

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Book SynopsisFilms like Shoplifters and After the Storm have made Kore-eda Hirokazu one of the most acclaimed auteurs working today. Critics often see Kore-eda as a director steeped in the Japanese tradition defined by Yasujiro Ozu. Marc Yamada, however, views Kore-eda’s work in relation to the same socioeconomic concerns explored by other contemporary international filmmakers. Yamada reveals that a type of excess, not the minimalism associated with traditional aesthetics, defines Kore-eda’s trademark humanism. This excess manifests in small moments when a desire for human connection exceeds the logic of the institutions and policies formed by the neoliberal values that have shaped modern-day Japan. As Yamada shows, Kore-eda captures the shared spaces formed by bodies that move, perform, and assemble in ways that express the humanistic impulse at the core of the filmmaker’s expanding worldwide appeal.Trade Review“Marc Yamada reveals how Kore-eda’s films connect to global audiences through their focus on figures like children suffering from neglect and families surviving at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Yamada provides new approaches towards understanding Kore-eda’s work in terms of a broader critique of neoliberalism.”--Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, author of Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s"A close read of the works of one of the world’s most deeply human writer-directors. The section studying 2018’s Shoplifters is especially strong. But his entire corpus is shown to be well worth analyzing. " --Film StageTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Shared Spaces of Filmmaking Beyond Ozu and Loach: Kore-eda Hirokazu in Japanese and World Cinema Nonorganized Labor and Shared Spaces of Collaboration in Kore-eda’s Early Documentaries Grifter Families and Networks of Exchange in Shoplifters Reimagining Masculine Bodies in Hana; Like Father, Like Son; and The Third Murder Body Moving: The Dynamics of Placemaking in Our Little Sister, Still Walking, and After the Storm Private and Public Bodies of Memory in After Life, The Truth, and Distance Interviews with Kore-eda Hirokazu Filmography Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This insightful book restores filmmaker Su Friedrich’s key role in American experimental cinema, along with the New York feminist and lesbian cultural and activist contexts that shaped it. Friedrich’s associative style, personal content, and precision editing remind us that formalism has politics and politics has form. This comprehensive account challenges existing histories of American experimental film.”--Patricia White, author of Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary FeminismsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments A Politics of the Personal in Experimental Filmmaking Auteurism Expanded Scratching and Cutting Counter Memories The Politics of Being Lesbian Digital Embodiments An Interview with Su Friedrich Filmography Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn this collection of musical portraits, jazz pianist and radio host Marian McPartland pays tribute to such beloved and legendary figures as Benny Goodman, Bill Evans, Joe Morello, Paul Desmond, Alec Wilder, Mary Lou Williams, and others. McPartland’s reminiscences and anecdotes about these jazz greats are informed by her encyclopedic knowledge of their music, making this richly detailed collection an important addition to the literature of jazz.In a preface to this edition, McPartland extends her commentary to include details of her long-running National Public Radio show “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” and memories of her late husband, famed Chicago trumpeter Jimmy McPartland.Trade Review“Marian McPartland has always been one of my favorite pianists, and this book shows that she is every bit as good a writer as she is a musician.”--Dave Brubeck“She has done her studying from the inside: as one of the few working jazz musicians to write about the music with any frequency, she offers a perspective on the men and women who play jazz for a living that seldom finds its way into print.”--New York Times“Marian McPartland is as wittily incisive a writer-memoirist as she is a pianist and radio sage. The new postscripts enhance a jazz classic--portraits of an era, from the other side of the footlights.”--Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams“I wonder if Marian McPartland fully realizes what an elegant prose stylist she is. But then, it’s only natural that her choices with language should be no less sensitive or discriminating than those she makes at the keyboard. In the truest sense these word portraits are McPartland compositions and remain among my most treasured music reading. What a joy to have an expanded and updated edition.”--Richard M. Sudhalter, author of Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael

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Book SynopsisThe maverick filmmaker''s personal and political relationships with film Best known in the United States for his visionary short film La Jetée, Chris Marker spearheaded the bourgeoning Nouvelle Vague scene in the late 1950s. His distinctive style and use of still images place him among the postwar era''s most influential European filmmakers. His fearless political cinema, meanwhile, provided a bold model for other activist filmmakers. Nora M. Alter investigates the core themes and motivations behind an unpredictable and transnational career that defies easy classification. A photographer, multimedia artist, writer, broadcaster, producer, and organizer, Marker cultivated an artistic dynamism and always-changing identity. ''I am an essayist,'' Marker once said, and his 1953 debut filmic essay The Statues Also Die (with Alain Resnais) exposed the European art market''s complicity in atrocities in the former Belgian Congo. Ranging geographicallTrade Review"Nora Alter's short study of Marker's work does much to restore a sense of the complexity of his motivations and working methods . . . She is especially informative on the aesthetic and political involutions of post-war France. . . . For its filmography and the breadth of its coverage, her book is essential."--Brian Dillon, Sight and Sound "A valuable addition to Marker scholarship."--Film International

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] comprehensive and informative critical evaluation of the Portuguese filmmaker's body of work."--Strictly Film School "An aristocratic provocateur who most often comes up with aggressively eccentric but beautifully logical ways of adapting plays and novels, this 19th-century modernist needs an erudite explicator and finds one in Johnson."--Film CommentTable of ContentsCoverTitleCopyrightContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsThe Early Years: 1931–65The Tetralogy of Frustrated LoveTo the LimitBonfire of VanitiesVoyages“A Mental Conception of Cinema”: An Interview by Jean A. GiliAn Interview with Manoel de Oliveira By Ruy GardnierFilmographyBibliographyIndexBack cover

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Book SynopsisIlluminating the cinematic career of a male pop iconTrade Review"McNally's study . . . has an unexpected share of gossip and biographical surprises. . . . An exploration of Sinatra's forthright ethnicity, his strident championing of civil rights and his sexual objectification."--Times Literary Supplement "A valuable addition to masculinity studies and Sinatra scholarship. Highly recommended."--Choice "[McNally] provides meaning and recognition to Sinatra's films, a very important part of his career and his life. Her book is well worth reading."--Film International“A provocative work. . . . McNally’s illumination of the importance of Sinatra and his image to understanding male identity in postwar America will force readers to reexamine simplistic definitions of manhood from the period as well as the cultural significance of the Chairman of the Board.”--Journal of American History

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Book Synopsis This survey of Sally Potter’s work explores her cinematic development from the feminist reworking ofLa BohèmeinThrillerto the provocative contemplation of romantic relationships after 9/11 inYes.Catherine Fowler traces a clear trajectory of developing themes and preoccupations and shows how Potter uses song, dance, performance, and poetry to expand our experience of cinema beyond the audiovisual. Potter has relentlessly struggled against predictability and safe options. Again and again, her works grapple with the complexities of being a woman in charge. Instead of the quest to find a romantic partner that drives mainstream cinema, Potter’s films feature characters seeking answers to questions about their sexual, gendered, social, cultural, and ethnic identities. They find answers by retelling stories, investigating mysteries, and traveling and interacting with people. At the heart of Potter’s work is a concern with the ways naTrade Review“A first-rate study of an important contemporary director. Catherine Fowler’s writing is lucid and readable, and she traces with confidence the myriad cultural influences that shaped Potter’s aesthetic.”--Virginia Wright Wexman, coeditor of Women and Experimental Filmmaking

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Book SynopsisReflections from the legendary R & B deejay whose signature sound seared the airwavesTrade Review"Montague's undeniable energy and passion for life leap from the pages."--Los Angeles Sentinel"Montague! Dynamic! Understanding! A brother in the struggle! Yes, the Magnificent Montague! A man who commanded so much love and respect it will never, never, never be replaced. Take it from the Godfather of Soul, paying homage to the Don of Radio: This book tells it all."--James Brown"Webster defines 'magnificent' as splendid, superb, noble--truly a description of Montague. He was splendid in his ability to captivate the listening audience, superb in his role as a community leader, and noble in the way he showed young people how to move through life with class. As I looked up these definitions, I thought to myself, 'Webster must have known my friend Montague.' I'm so glad he was around during the infancy years at Motown. What a blessing he was to so many of us."--Smokey Robinson"The only sustained account by a black deejay who lived through the harshly segregated world of the 1950s and the explosive civil rights era of the 1960s. This book is a valuable contribution to the literature of black life and history."--Robert Pruter, author of Chicago Soul and Doowop: The Chicago SceneTable of ContentsIntroduction, by Bob Baker xi Prologue 1 1. The Hustle 13 2. The Groove 27 3. The Rhythm 36 4. The Book 51 5. The Movement 74 6. The Apple 86 7. The Boy 102 8. The Man 110 9. The Riot 123 10. The Residue 136 11. The Climb 154 12. The Collection 169 Index 185Illustrations follow pages 50 and 122

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Book Synopsis For well over a decade, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have produced highly original and ethically charged films that immerse their audiences in an intense and embodied viewing experience. Their work has consistently attracted international recognition, including the rare feat of two Palmes d''Or at Cannes. In this first book-length study of the Belgian brothers, Joseph Mai delivers sophisticated close analyses of their directorial style and explores the many philosophical issues dealt with in their films (especially the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas). Mai discusses the Dardennes'' varied and searching career from its inception in the late 1970s, starting with the working-class political consciousness and lost utopias of their documentary period; passing through their transition toward fictional narrative, experimental techniques, and familial themes; and finishing with a series of in-depth and philosophically informed interpretations of the brothers'' more recent work. In sucTrade Review"Meticulously researched and fluently written, it makes a very substantial and important contribution to the literature on two enormously important film-makers."--H-France Review"In this masterful, efficient study, Mai reviews their canon with sensitivity, insight, and respectful objectivity. Recommended."--Choice"An innovative, intelligent introduction to the work of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Mai delivers a lucid, critically engaged account of the filmmakers' influences and their own unique style.”--Sarah Cooper, Reader in Film Theory and Aesthetics, King's College London"Intelligently argued. . . . A keenly observed account of the Dardennes' work, and whets the appetite for new, or renewed, viewings of the film."--Modern & Contemporary France

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Book Synopsis This award-winning book, now available in paperback, is the first solid appraisal of the legendary career of the eminent Hungarian-born conductor Fritz Reiner (1888-1963). Personally enigmatic and often described as difficult to work with, he was nevertheless renowned for the dynamic galvanization of the orchestras he led, a nearly unrivaled technical ability, and high professional standards. Reiner''s influence in the United States began in the early 1920s and lasted until his death. Reiner was also deeply committed to serious music in American life, especially through the promotion of new scores. In Fritz Reiner, Maestro and Martinet, Kenneth Morgan paints a very real portrait of a man who was both his own worst enemy and one of the true titans of his profession. Trade ReviewRecipient of an ASCAP Deems Taylor award in the classical music category (2006). "A lively, polished, and succinct writer and scholar of the first rank, Kenneth Morgan has filled a critical gap left by Reiner's previous biographer, focusing as he does on Fritz Reiner's musicianship. Through impeccable research and revealing interviews, Morgan offers unprecedented insights into those distinctive characteristics that made Reiner one of the greatest conductors of all time. Especially welcome is his detailed discussion of the famous legacy of recordings that keeps Reiner's memory alive, even to those too young to have heard him in concert."--Steven Hillyer, editor of Podium"Kenneth Morgan's eminently readable Fritz Reiner is a highly provocative and well-researched biography of one of the most interesting musicians who worked in the United States. It will certainly be of great value to all those interested in this legendary conductor."--Leonard Slatkin, music director, National Symphony Orchestra "In the galaxy of brilliant Chicago Symphony maestri including such giants as Theodore Thomas, Frederick Stock, Georg Solti, and the incumbent Daniel Barenboim, Fritz Reiner was a masterful conductor in the great tradition, modest in demeanor yet fierce on behalf of the highest musical standards."--Danny Newman, Lyric Opera Chicago

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Book Synopsis This in-depth study of Mexican film director Alejandro González Iñárritu explores his role in moving Mexican filmmaking from a traditional nationalist agenda towards a more global focus. Working in the United States and in Mexico, Iñárritu crosses national borders while his movies break the barriers of distribution, production, narration, and style. His features also experiment with transnational identity as characters emigrate and settings change. In studying the international scope of Iñárritu''s influential films Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel, Celestino Deleyto and María del Mar Azcona trace common themes such as human suffering and redemption, chance, and accidental encounters. The authors also analyze the director''s powerful visual style and his consistent use of multiple characters and a fragmented narrative structure. The book concludes with a new interview with Iñ&aTrade Review"An excellent analysis of the director’s style."--PopMatters"An important contribution on the work of one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers. Through meticulous analysis and attention to detail, style and structure, the authors offer an in-depth analysis of the work of Alejandro González Iñárritu."--Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies"A model of impeccable scholarship and writing. Alejandro González Iñárritu is unquestionably one of the most interesting and important contemporary filmmakers in Latin America, and this study demonstrates a solid and secure understanding of Iñárritu's role in moving Mexican filmmaking toward a more globalized focus."--David William Foster, author of Mexico City and Contemporary Mexican Filmmaking

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Book Synopsis Charles Ives Reconsidered reexamines a number of critical assumptions about the life and works of this significant American composer, drawing on many new sources to explore Ives''s creative activities within broader historical, social, cultural, and musical perspectives. Gayle Sherwood Magee offers the first large-scale rethinking of Ives''s musical development based on the controversial revised chronology of his music. Using as a guide Ives''s own dictum that 'the fabric of existence weaves itself whole,' Charles Ives Reconsidered offers several new paths to understanding all of Ives''s music as the integrated and cohesive work of a controversial composer who was very much a product of his time and place. Magee portrays Ives''s life, career and posthumous legacy against the backdrop of his musical and social environments from the Gilded Age to the present. The book includes contemporary portraits of the composer, his peers, and his teachers, as seen through arcTrade ReviewA Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2009. “’Reconsidered’ is exactly the word here. Magee takes on the idolators and the revisionists with equal vigour, and in doing so, restores Charles Ives to a more nuanced and realistic place in the American canon: a man of his times, to be sure, but also an artist who continued to evolve and create. . . . Magee hasn’t just written a very good book about Ives, but a very good book about what Harold Bloom calls 'the anxiety of influence.'”--The Wire “Magee’s book is a model of contemporary musicology, sympathetically sober in its judgments and interdisciplinary in its methods.”--The Nation "Magee's provocative and insightful new biography of Charles Ives examines the man, his legend, his music, and its reception. An important work."--Journal of the Society for American Music "This is in every way an exemplary interpretive study of Ives's aesthetic and compositional career as considered against the background of his biography. . . . A first-rate exposition of current knowledge and thinking about Ives, and Magee's own views are a welcome contribution. Essential."--Choice "Anyone looking for new windows into the life of this unique composer will find here a rich source, clearly written and abundantly illustrated with photos and copies of musical transcripts."--American Record Guide

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Book SynopsisA Hollywood director who blends substance with the mainstreamTrade Review"A smart, enthusiastic analysis of an artist and his considerable oeuvre. Baker's textual analysis of Soderbergh's films is spot on."--Jon Lewis, author of American Film: A History"By having a foot in both worlds, Soderbergh has produced a number of films that follow classical Hollywood narratives, yet often carry non-traditional visual cues and meta-commentaries. Baker creates an accessible work for those who often dismiss half of his work, whichever side that may be."--Film MattersTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments | ix THE FILMS OF STEVEN SODERBERGH | 1 Relational Independence 1 Remade by Steven Soderbergh: The Underneath, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Solaris 16 Star Actors: Julia Roberts, Michael Douglas, George Clooney 28 Cinema of Outsiders: Alienation and Crime 39 Critical Violence and Out of Sight 42 Words as Weapons: The Limey and Ocean's Eleven 53 Independent Form 60 Experiments in Digital Video: Full Frontal, K Street, Bubble 75 Class Conflict in High Definition: Che and The Girlfriend Experience 86 Music and Authorship in Ocean's Eleven and The Limey 90 INTERVIEWS WITH STEVEN SODERBERGH | 97Filmography | 115Bibliography | 123Index | 129

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Book Synopsis This volume is the first book-length study of the extensive career and prolific works of D.A. Pennebaker, one of the pioneers of direct cinema, a documentary form that emphasizes observation and a straightforward portrayal of events. With a career spanning decades, Pennebaker''s many projects have included avant-garde experiments (Daybreak Express), ground-breaking television documentaries (Primary), celebrity films (Dont Look Back), concert films (Monterey Pop), and innovative fusions of documentary and fiction (Maidstone). Exploring the concept of 'performing the real,' Keith Beattie interprets Pennebaker''s films as performances in which the act of filming is in itself a performative transgression of the norms of purely observational documentary. He examines the ways in which Pennebaker''s presentation of unscripted everyday performances is informed by connections between documentary filmmaking and other experimental Trade Review"A welcome addition to the Contemporary Film Directors Series."--Documentary "Filled with useful historical and technical details, this enthusiastic study of one of documentary cinema's most important filmmakers will convert some skeptics and create many new admirers of D.A. Pennebaker's work." --Joe McElhaney, author of Albert Maysles"Enlightening. . . . A useful look at the work of an affable, masterful documentary filmmaker who somehow managed to be in the midst of some of the major cultural turning points of the twentieth centrury."-- Journal of Film and VideoTable of ContentsAcknowledgments PERFORMING THE REAL Concert / Film; Collaborative / Filmmaking; Portraiture; Rehearsal INTERVIEW WITH D.A.PENNEBAKER Filmography; Bibliography; Index

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Book Synopsis As a pioneer of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette was one of a group of directors who permanently altered the world''s perception of cinema by taking the camera out of the studios and into the streets. His films, including Paris nous appartient, Out 1: Noli me tangere, Céline et Julie vont en bateau--Phantom Ladies Over Paris, La belle noiseuse, Secret défense, and Va savoir are extraordinary combinations of intellectual depth, playfulness, and sensuous beauty. In this study of Rivette, Mary M. Wiles provides a thorough account of the director''s career from the burgeoning French New Wave to the present day, focusing on the theatricality of Rivette''s films and his explorations of the relationship between cinema and fine arts such as painting, literature, music, and dance. Wiles also explores the intellectual interests that shaped Rivette''s approach to film, including Sartre''s existentialism, Barthes''s structuralism, and Trade Review “A riveting study of an often-overlooked director.”--Library Journal "A very useful and thoughtful book. In this critical study of Jacques Rivette, Mary M. Wiles situates Rivette within many strands of French culture and makes his films more legible. Wiles's discussion is well-informed, provocative, suggestive, and reliable, and her fanaticism about Rivette is contagious."--Jonathan Rosenbaum, author of Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia: Film Culture in Transition "A perceptive volume, on a filmmaker whom studies are thin on the ground."--Film International "Wiles puts forth an original work which never relies on a compilation of other's analyses and review. . . . Wiles reinforces Rivette's credibility as experimental filmmaker while reaching out to audiences of adaptation and film studies."--French Review

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Book Synopsis As one of the best-known honky tonkers to appear in the wake of Hank Williams’s death, Faron Young was a popular presence on Nashville’s music scene for more than four decades. The Singing Sheriff produced a string of Top Ten hits, placed over eighty songs on the country music charts, and founded the long-running country music periodical Music City News in 1963. Flamboyant, impulsive, and generous, he helped and encouraged a new generation of talented songwriter-performers that included Willie Nelson and Bill Anderson. In 2000, four years after his untimely death, Faron was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Presenting the first detailed portrayal of this lively and unpredictable country music star, Diane Diekman masterfully draws on extensive interviews with Young’s family, band members, and colleagues. Impeccably researched, Diekman’s narrative also weaves anecdotes from Louisiana Hayride and other old radio shows with onTrade Review “Diekman has done such a thorough job that there is unlikely ever to be another Faron Young biography to compete with it. She has uncovered a great deal of information that will be news to even Faron Young’s most passionate fans and friends.”--Paul Kingsbury, editor of The Encyclopedia of Country Music and Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America "I've never read a book on someone in the music business that inspired so many different feelings--laughter, sadness, pity, and even crying!" --Glenn Sutton, member of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame "Live Fast, Love Hard, a sobering account of the Singing Sheriff's roller-coaster life that ended with his 1996 suicide, tells the tale of two Youngs: one, a talented, flamboyant performer and charitable man who helped the community and struggling songwriters like Willie Nelson and Bill Anderson, and who helped country music by founding the long-running periodical Music City News; the other, a raging alcoholic and jealous husband with an explosive temper, whose addiction and poor self image . . . led him to abuse and cheat on his wife, and verbally abuse his children, band members, and friends when he was drinking. . . . Diane Diekman . . . provides readers a rare glimpse inside the tumultuous life of this talented and troubled musician."--Dirty Linen

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Book SynopsisAn incisive analysis of a popular American filmmakerTrade Review"Refreshingly open-minded."--Senses of Cinema "In addition to Johnson's critical insights, a lengthy interview with the director is included. . . . This book is ideal for scholars of American independent cinema."--Library Journal"The most exhaustive, densest study of Linklater's work yet published. . . . A terrific resource on an oddly underdiscussed director."--Austin American-Statesman"Readers will find that reading this highly engaging and accessible book engenders a desire to delve further into the world of an important director."--Screening The Past"With remarkable clarity, this intelligent and rigorous study securely establishes Richard Linklater as a definitive auteur, locating commonalities across his seemingly diverse oeuvre."--Michael Koresky, staff writer and editor, the Criterion Collection, and cofounder and editor of Reverse Shot

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Book SynopsisInside an original modern musical mindTrade Review"Presenting Christian Wolff as a quintessential American musical maverick, Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund compellingly argue that Wolff's stature will continue to grow as the historical dust settles. This book is beautifully written and aptly synthesizes discussions of specific works, details about Wolff's life, and the broader context within which he works."--David W. Bernstein, author of The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde "Insightful and alert. . . . This book serves as a neat little primer for [Wolff's] work."--The WireDespite the fact that Wolff is listed in every music history textbook as a member of the so-called New York School alongside John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Earle Brown, he has received relatively little scholarly attention. Hicks and Asplund have made a significant effort to balance the scales with this excellent narrative."-- Notes

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Book SynopsisExplores the artistic and sociopolitical currents that shaped Germaine Dulac's approach to cinema while interrogating the ground breaking techniques and strategies she used to critique conservative notions of gender and sexuality.Trade ReviewResearch in the Humanities Award, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015. “Williams's book is exemplary in tying together the multiple personal, political, social, and artistic strains running through Dulac's oeuvre. Although it may be surprising that we are only now getting the first book-length consideration of Dulac's career, it was well worth the wait.”--Afterimage "With its deft combination of biography, history, and criticism, Williams's book is now, and will likely remain for some time the resource on Dulac's life and work."--Choice "Within the burgeoning realm of archivally-based feminist film historiography, especially around early cinema, it is the singular achievement of Tami Williams's study of the career of Germaine Dulac that it manifests similar lessons about biography and offers us a thick rendition of a life that was so consequential in so many domains yet little known in its extension to most researchers. . . . The importance of Williams's book lies in the ways it goes beyond Dulac's life and career per se to offer a veritable picture of independent French cinema between the wars and especially to use the one life as a lesson about the possible place of women within that broader picture."--Film Quarterly"Tami Williams has produced a monumental, extraordinarily well-researched, highly readable portrait of one of the most significant figures in the history of cinema.... There is, quite literally, no other book like it anywhere, in any language. It is the first book of its kind and will always be the best." --Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, author of To Desire Differently: Feminism and the French Cinema"An authoritative, scholarly survey of one of France’s pioneer female filmmakers. Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations is a fascinating text for cinephiles and Francophiles alike. It may render any subsequent biographical attempts at Dulac as redundant when compared to such a comprehensive study."--Shepherd Express"[M]akes a significant contribution to the field of film study, offering the most thorough account yet of this important artist's life and work.... The research behind this manuscript is astounding . . . drawing upon a massive amount of primary source material few scholars have taken the trouble to examine."--Charles O'Brien, author of Cinema's Conversion to Sound: Technology and Film Style in France and the U.S."Williams's study is a pleasure to read, a model of feminist film history, and an achievement that suggests many avenues for future research."--French Studies"Williams delivers primary scholarship of the highest order. Her jargon-free prose blends biographical narrative, institutional histories of Belle Epoque feminism and syndicalism, economic and industrial considerations, as well as close analyses of films that survived and reconstructions of those that did not."--French Review

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Book SynopsisGifted harpist Edna Phillips (1907-2003) joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1930, becoming not only that ensemble's first female member but also the first woman to hold a principal position in a major American orchestra. This book traces Phillips' journey through the competitive realm of Philadelphia's virtuoso players.Trade Review"Transforms into a riveting tale that spans the period from Phillip's audition to the second World War. Recommended."--Library Journal"Welsh's book is pure gold."--Philadelphia Inquirer"Edna Phillips's story is significant and worth telling, and this work relates the trials, tribulations, and successes of this woman pioneer in orchestral performance. Set against the background of some of the prominent musicians of the twentieth century, One Woman in a Hundred will appeal to many general readers and music lovers."--J. Michele Edwards, professor emerita of music, Macalester College"There isn't a dull word in this book, which is difficult to put down once one opens it."--San Francisco Book Review"Welsh has produced a richly detailed biography that captures the insider's knowledge and unique voice of her subject. . . . thoroughly engaging."--SymphonyNow"The book was not only informative about both the personal and professional lives of Edna Phillips, but also about the inner workings of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and institution with much more drama and excitement than most would think."--The Villanovan"Welsh's book is filled with substantive detail about the life of a serious musician, along with anecdotes about colorful guest conductors. . . .Phillips's biography becomes in effect a history of the Philadelphia Orchestra from Phillips's perspective."--BroadStreetReview"A refreshing addition to the literature on women in music history. One Woman in a Hundred candidly shares the experience of one woman who broke gender barriers during a significant period in the U.S. and Western Europe. Finding herself at the nexus of the powerful social and artistic elite of the day, Edna Phillips contributed greatly to the musical world through her performances and commissions."--Ann Yeung, editor of World Harp Congress Review "Women playing in an orchestra? Unimaginable. Until Edna Phillips, just out of conservatory, innocently—but staunchly—took the stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The first woman to hold a principal position in a major American orchestra, opened the symphonic world to women. Hers was a life in music like no other, and Mary Sue Welsh takes us backstage for the start of a social and musical revolution."--Daniel Webster, former music critic, The Philadelphia Inquirer "Edna Phillips was an important figure not only in Philadelphia history but also in the history of the American symphony orchestra. Her biography by Mary Sue Welsh is of great value for the light it sheds on key musical personalities of the early to mid-twentieth century, as well as the attitude of orchestra members and managements toward women. It is also a delightfully frank portrait of a woman full of moxie, wit and warmth."--Diana Burgwyn, reviewer, classical music critic "More than providing an enthralling account of a remarkable woman, One Woman in a Hundred adds vivid portraits of such legendary titans as Leopold Stokowski and Arturo Toscanini in the context of a tumultuous period in our history. Music is the backdrop for a compelling picture of how this era of depression and war resonated throughout Philadelphia and the nation."--Harold I. Gullan, Ph.D., historian and author of Faith of Our Mothers: The Stories of Presidential Mothers from Mary Washington to Barbara Bush

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Book SynopsisCalled the most important British filmmaker of his generation, Terence Davies made his reputation with modern classics like Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, personal works exploring his fractured childhood in Liverpool. His idiosyncratic and unorthodox narrative films defy easy categorization, as their seeming existence within realism and personal memory cinema is undermined by an abstractness that makes the way he lays bare personal pain come across as distant, even alien. Film critic Michael Koresky explores the unique emotional tenor of Davies''s work by focusing on four paradoxes within the director''s oeuvre: films that are autobiographical yet fictional; melancholy yet elating; conservative in tone and theme yet radically constructed; and obsessed with the passing of time yet frozen in time and space. Through these contradictions, the films'' intricate designs reveal a cumulative, deeply personal meditation on the self. Koresky also analyzes hTrade Review"A significant contribution to the field. Koresky is able to both chart the development of Davies' cinema, while convincingly conveying the coherence and continuity of both theme and style at the heart of this very singular auteur." --Duncan Petrie, author of Creativity and Constraint in the British Film Industry"Britain's finest living director finally gets the analytic overview and close reading that he deserves. . . . Koresky is especially perceptive. Recommended."--Choice"Michael Koresky's study of Davies is above all attuned to the contradictions that define his life and inform his work, namely 'beauty and ugliness, the real and the artificial, progression and tradition, motion and stasis.' Koresky unpacks the paradoxes intrinsic to Davies's project with clarity and rigor, dividing his aesthetic among the fiction of autobiography (refraction of personal memories for poetic effect), the elation of melancholy (sensually pleasing depictions of excruciating events), the radical traditional (classical themes embedded in avant-garde constructions), and the suspension of forward motion."--Film Comment"Koresky. . . . regards Terence Davies’s work as 'one of the richest, most idiosyncratic, and arrestingly experimental bodies of work put out by a narrative filmmaker,' and his monograph in the University of Illinois Contemporary Film Directors series is both informative and insightful."--Sight and Sound

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Book SynopsisAcclaimed as one of the most influential and innovative American directors, Francis Ford Coppola is also lionized as a maverick auteur at war with Hollywood''s power structure and an ardent critic of the postindustrial corporate America it reflects. However, Jeff Menne argues that Coppola exemplifies the new breed of creative corporate person and sees the director''s oeuvre as vital for reimagining the corporation in the transformation of Hollywood. Reading auteur theory as the new American business theory, Menne reveals how Coppola''s vision of a new kind of company has transformed the worker into a liberated and well-utilized artist, but has also commodified individual creativity at a level unprecedented in corporate history. Coppola negotiated the contradictory roles of shrewd businessman and creative artist by recognizing the two roles are fused in a postindustrial economy. Analyzing films like The Godfather (1970) and the overlooked TuckerTrade Review"Well researched, well written, compellingly argued. Writing intelligently and coherently about an auteur as significant and complex as Francis Coppola in a short book is more of a challenge than doing so in a more expansive format. Menne proves up to the task." --Jon Lewis, author of Whom God Wishes to Destroy: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood"Jeff Menne has found a new angle on one of the most remarkable filmmakers of his era."--Shepherd Express

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Book SynopsisComposer, performer, instrument builder, teacher, and writer Gordon Mumma has left an indelible mark on the American contemporary music scene. A prolific composer and innovative French horn player, Mumma is recognized for integrating advanced electronic processes into musical structures, an approach he has termed ''Cybersonics.'' Musicologist Michelle Fillion curates a collection of Mumma''s writings, presenting revised versions of his classic pieces as well as many unpublished works from every stage of his storied career. Here, through words and astonishing photos, is Mumma''s chronicle of seminal events in the musical world of the twentieth century: his cofounding the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music; his role in organizing the historic ONCE Festivals of Contemporary Music; performances with the Sonic Arts Union; and working alongside John Cage and David Tudor as a composer-musician with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In addition, Mumma describes his collaborations witTrade Review"What counts here is the spirit of it, the inventiveness springing from an independence of imagination as well as the willingness and financial necessity to work outside the given conditions of the time. Mumma shows us how that spirit is in fact crucial and, always, of essential value."--Christian Wolff, from the foreword"An excellent and engaging book that can take its readers to a dizzying array of places, real and metaphoric. It is an admirable introduction to the mind and spirit of Gordon Mumma as well as a vivid and loving remembrance of an amazing time in the history of music."--ARSC Journal"The firsthand histories flowing from this book are precious, provided by one of the unsung heroes of the American electronic music scene, Gordon Mumma... A valuable resource."--Neural"Mumma's energetic perspectives on so many topics--as a scholar, inventor, technician, performer, composer, photographer, historian, and documentarian--richly enhance our perspective on this period of rapid change and fruitful innovation. A beautiful and much-anticipated achievement."--Amy C. Beal, author of Johanna Beyer and Carla Bley"Widely known as a multi-talented composer/performer and inventor of handmade circuits and various forms of electronic wizardry that revolutionized live electronic music, Mumma is far more than the prototypical American 'maverick.' His fierce dedication to his own artistic vision has always been coupled to a voracious interest in the work of the pathbreaking composers, performers, dancers, architects, and visual artists who inhabit his music world and with whom he has often collaborated. This elegantly edited and annotated book is thus not only an invaluable overview of Mumma's extraordinary creative output and ideas, but also an intimate insider’s telling of the history of experimental music during the last half century."--David W. Bernstein, editor of The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde"A treasure trove of primary source material on American, and to a lesser extent Latin-American, music, especially of the experimental kind. The reader is repeatedly struck by the genuineness of Mumma's writing; whether in passages from his diary or accounts of now-significant events, he writes with the authority of one who was actually there."--Bob Gilmore, editor of Ben Johnston's "Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music"A very wonderful collection of essays, with its first-person witnessing of a scene that was critical for the development of the music technology we have today, and I highly recommend it."--Soundbytes"A wonderful resource for music and the arts, the book can be read as narrative or used as reference. Highly recommended."--Choice "As all great books about music lead you to do, I couldn't help but reach up to my CD shelves, where various Mumma discs releases on lables like New World and Tzadik are housed."--Gramophone "Part memoir of a remarkable life at the center of 20th and 21st century American experimental music, and partly a collection of Mumma's thoughtful, provocative, and influential essays, the book introduces this pioneer to a new generation of sonic explorers"--Electronic Musician "A contemporary history of a particularly fertile and disruptive time in the advanced arts. . . . Mumma's book bears articulate witness to how this flexible discipline played itself out in concrete situations over the decades."--Avant Music News

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Accessible and engaging, this fresh view of Mancini's oeuvre and influence will delight and inform fans of film and popular music."--Turner Classic Movies"Caps' assiduously research study of Mancini's life and career ... is detailed and insightful. . . . It will be enjoyed both by film buffs and music lovers."--Allaboutjazz.com "Will satisfy musically experienced readers as well as laypeople. It deserves a place in every film and popular music collection."--Library Journal"A stimulating chronicle of the life and works of film and television composer Henry Mancini. Consistently thorough and detailed, this book contains a considerable wealth of information and insight into this extremely popular composer."--James Wierzbicki, author of Film Music: A History and Elliott Carter "A well-researched study of a musical career. . . Film by film, the book reveals how Mancini negotiated and compromised to become the computer of many a moviemaker's dreams."--Booklist"An important book, and, in many ways, a crucial one, too, it's chief value resting in Caps' articulate championing of one of the most singular compositional talents to emerge from Hollywood's film factory."--Classical Music"In this lively, syncopated survey of Mancini's movie music, Caps offers a comprehensive critique of the composer's film/TV scores and hit albums."--Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisProdigy. Iconoclast. Genius. Exile. Orson Welles remains one of the most discussed figures in cinematic history. In the centenary year of Welles's birth, James Naremore presents a revised third edition of this incomparable study, including a new section on the unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind. Naremore analyzes the political and psychological implications of the films, Welles's idiosyncratic style, and the biographical details--both playful and vexing--that impacted each work. Itself a historic film study, The Magic World of Orson Welles unlocks the soaring art and quixotic methods of a master.Trade Review"The most perceptive study of Welles's art.--Andrew Sarris "Naremore's book, with its wealth of background and close commentary, is certainly the best study of Welles."--Tag Gallagher, Film Comment"Naremore is not simply pandering to the movie buff's passion for unconsidered and inconsiderable trifles, but revealing that it's possible to go on where most Wellesian researchers have stopped."--Sight and Sound"It may, along with a small handful of other books, help to change the standards of scholarship and critical sophistication we apply to writing on film. It is patient, intelligent, scrupulously researched, and yet it is never solemn. Absolutely compelling on the more technical aspects of Welles's films."--Michael Wood, Washington Post"Naremore's book, with its wealth of background and close commentary, is certainly the best study of Welles."--Tag Gallagher, Film Comment"The most perceptive study of Welles's art."--Andrew Sarris"The Magic of Orson Welles remains one of the important works that notes the frisson the world experienced with him."--afterimage

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewCertificate of Merit for Best Discography, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), 2017 "Recommended."--Choice"As part of the 'Music in American Life' series, this book is an essential introduction and study of the music of one of the greatest American composers of the twentieth century." --The Journal of American Culture"Is there a need for a book like this, a compendium of essays by scholars and experts in musicology, music history and sundry ancillary specialties? The answer is an emphatic yes… To return to Irving Berlin, 'ya don’t need any larning' to appreciate this most sophisticated and well educated of American songwriters, but the huge amount of detail and analysis packed into this book enhances that appreciation."--The Washington Times"A Cole Porter Companion is an important addition to scholarship on American musical theatre and popular music. . . . This is a good introduction to scholarly examinations of the work of one of the most beloved American composers."--Indiana Magazine if History"Though centered on one person and his undeniable talents, the compilation explores many different avenues and subtopics, keeping the subject fresh and enjoyable throughout."--Notes"A Cole Porter Companion is simply an indispensable, unadulterated joy of a book--required reading for anyone who loves music, lyrics, the theater, and of course the inimitable Cole Porter--from the non-music-reading fan to the most sophisticated and scholarly musicologist. A landmark volume, bridging the gap between academe and the general listener with a bubbly élan worthy of the master himself."--Maury Yeston"Anything goes?--not in the ruthless world of Tin Pan Alley. Of all the great American Songbook composers, Cole Porter is perhaps the hardest to fit into Broadway's 'Golden Age.' This fine guide suggests how best to do it."--Tim Carter, author of Oklahoma! The Making of an American Musical

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewCertificate of Merit for Best Historical Research in Recorded Country Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards (ARSC), 2017 Named Bluegrass Print/Media Person of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), 2016 "A front row seat to bluegrass history."--Charlotte News & Observer "What emerges from Parsons' narrative is a fascinating life of a performer who deserves to be well known to all scholars and fans of bluegrass music."--ARSC Journal"Those who are interested in the history of bluegrass and old country music must by and read this wonderful book."--Bluegrass Today"Let us shower Penny Parsons and Curly Seckler with roses for their wonderful collaboration on Foggy Mountain Troubadour . Curly Seckler is one of the most beloved and revered of all the first generation country and bluegrass music pioneers. Ms. Parsons not only illuminates Mr. Seckler's storied life but also reports rarified accounts that offer us insight into the humanity that underscored the people, songs, live performances, recordings, and travels surrounding what is now considered to be one of the most mythical bands ever to play: Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Penny Parsons is not only an authentic biographer, she is also a first-rate musical detective."--Marty Stuart"Anyone who has followed the life and career of Curly Seckler will have a hard time putting this book down. . . . [Penny Parsons] has done an amazing and masterful job in documenting the life of one of the great sidemen in Bluegrass."--Country Sales Newsletter"A must read for anyone who would like a window into the world of the American South, the rise of our country music and its early stars, and especially to gain an appreciation for an American musical treasure--Curly Seckler."--Randall Franks, Southern Style"Foggy Mountain Troubadour offers a fascinating look at a long and storied life in music. Bluegrass is one of America's defining art forms, and Parsons uses spirited prose and anecdotes drawn from her adept research to illustrate how Seckler witnessed and helped shape it from the beginning."--Greensboro News & Record"Penny Parsons's well-mined research and articulate journalistic style reveal never-before-documented history that should be of interest to all fans of country and bluegrass music's golden era. Written with Mr. Seckler's full cooperation, this educational and entertaining biography explores the compelling journey of a legendary musical statesman. Along the way, he endured both triumph and tragedy with determination, unshakable faith, kindness, generosity, and humor. This book truly does justice to his amazing legacy."--Eddie Stubbs, WSM Grand Ole Opry announcer "This carefully researched and richly detailed account of Seckler's life and career provides a new perspective on the work of his primary employers--Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Parsons's labor of love has produced a good read and an invaluable reference."--Jay Orr, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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Book SynopsisCristi Puiu''s black comedy The Death of Mr. Lazarescu announced the arrival of the New Romanian Cinema as a force on the film world stage. As critics and festival audiences embraced the new movement, Puiu emerged as its lodestar and critical voice. Monica Filimon explores the works of an artist dedicated to truth not as an abstract concept, but as the ephemeral revelation of the fuller, ungraspable world beyond the screen. Puiu''s innovative use of the handheld camera as an observer and his reliance on austere, restricted narration highlight the very limits of human understanding, guiding the viewer''s intellectual and emotional sensibilities to the reality that has been left unfilmed. Filimon examines the director''s ethics of epiphany not only in relation to the collective and personal histories that have triggered it, but also in dialogue with the films, texts, and filmmakers that have shaped it.Trade Review"Cristi Puiu is, undoubtedly, the most important filmmaker in contemporary Romanian cinema. His masterpieces have made their mark not only in the national film industry, but also in the European film culture. Monica Filimon's book, the first comprehensive analysis of all of Puiu's works until now, provides a thorough overview of the inner mechanisms of a complex and influential cinema-maker."--Doru Pop, author of Romanian New Wave Cinema: An Introduction"An original and highly competent investigation."--Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews"Monica Filimon's concise and helpful study of the director's oeuvre, background, and aesthetics is such a welcome publication. . . . Apart from her highly readable and well-argued accounts of Puiu's films . . . Filimon offers a convincing account of the director's evolution."--Cineaste"Monica Filimon offers an enlightening and engaging portrait of the larger-than-life personality that forms a core part of the New Romanian Cinema." --Studies in European Cinema

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"His attention to the sensorial and material--traced vividly through his method of close reading--are necessary approaches for scholars working to account for how race and gender intersect within trans* cinema." --Transgender Studies Quarterly"An admirable, focused study of the Wachowski sisters, best known for their postmillennial science fiction films, especially The Matrix franchise....makes a case for considering their work alongside the canon of new queer cinema, despite their exclusion from that corpus at the time of its formation. Highly recommended." --Choice"This book is a revelation! Leaving behind the more pedestrian methods of examining cinematic narratives of transgender lives, Cael Keegan goes one huge step beyond. With this book on Lana and Lilly Wachowski, we have in our hands the first book to consider the transgender content of the Wachowskis' massively influential cinematic practice. The trans* cinema of the Wachowskis is, according to Keegan, not just disruptive and wildly imaginative, although it is definitely that, it also represents an expansion of the popular imagination and a very different sense of life in and beyond the matrix. Keegan gives a masterful account of the Wachowskis' world and drops his readers down the rabbit hole of a trans* altered reality. Bon voyage."--Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal"Keegan approaches trans* in the Wachowskis' cinema not in terms of literal, figurative representation but rather as a lens through which new forms and narratives may be evinced. Trans* thus becomes at once an ideological critique, method, and sensory experience." --Film Quarterly"A beautifully poetic--detailed and elaborate, yet at the same time cohesive and linear--work of trans* inquiry and critique. At its heart, Keegan offers a 'loving' and critical technology of sensing, a somatechnical disposition with which one may be immersed in the Wachowskis' offer to sense differently, through the trajectories of gender and cinema." --Somatechnics"This captivating book does more than argue persuasively for the centrality of the Wachowskis' oeuvre in the recent history of cinema: it demonstrates how their embodied transgender experience is a central component of their aesthetic vision, and how transgender experience has become paradigmatic of visual semiotic practices in the increasingly ubiquitous digital media environment. Keegan offers lucid close readings of the entire Wachowski filmography, while also mapping generative points of overlap and intersection between cinema studies and trans studies. It makes a significant contribution to both fields."--Susan Stryker, founding coeditor, Transgender Studies Quarterly

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTimothy White Award for Musical Biography, ASCAP Foundation and Virgil Thomson Foundation, 2016 "Mr. Rimler tells an important story, and he presents musical analysis of Arlen’s compositional style in nonacademic terms, so that all readers can grasp how inventive Arlen really was."--Wall Street Journal"An endearing yet clear-eyed assessment of Harold Arlen. . . . For lovers of the Great American Songbook and for anyone who ever dreamed beyond the confines of practicality."--Library Journal "Highly readable, this could easily count as the perfect biography, well-researched but never overladen with detail, the always modest Arlen’s ‘bittersweet life’, in critic John Lahr’s words, elegantly conveyed.”--Peter Vacher, Jazzwise"To the point, simple to grasp, and an engaging read. I was fully drawn to Arlen the man and Arlen the songwriter and by the end sad to relinquish his acquaintance."--Stephen Banfield, author of Jerome Kern"There is still room for a short, stylish book aimed at general audiences, and Walter Rimler's The Man That Got Away: The Life and Songs of Harold Arlen fills that bill as well as it could possibly be filled. The author . . . offers pithy and readable accounts of Arlen's personal and professional lives. If you want to know what Harold Arlen was all about, you'll find it here."--Terry Teachout,The Weekly Standard"Required reading for those interested in American song. Recommended."--Choice"Rimler's study ensures that Arlen's story and his contributions to music will not be forgotten."--Publishers Weekly"Reading Mr. Rimler's sympathetic but unflinching account of Arlen's travails gives one an enhanced admiration for his productivity and the grit and determination that enabled him to produce such jewels amid such turmoil."--Washington Times “Fascinating. . . . Rimler provides countless pieces of information not previously known. . . . Rimler's work remains refreshingly unacademic and is a real pleasure to read."--ARSC Journal "The title of Walter Rimler's study of songwriter Harold Arlen's life and work says it all! Yet, despite Arlen's elusiveness as a man and an artist, Rimler does a fine job of conveying an appreciation for and the context of the composer's memorable musical output. In meticulously researched, cool, readable prose, the author admirably recreates the historical milieu of Arlen's world, placing the composer in the context of the 20th century Broadway and Hollywood songwriting traditions."--Fanfare "Walter Rimler's biography is not only chock-full of information, but with intimate, carefully researched, and heretofore unknown details, making it one of the most entertaining and readable portraits of the wizard Arlen--one of songdom's greatest composers--that has ever been written. This book does a remarkable thing--it allows words to describe music."--Martin Charnin, Tony Award–winning creator and director of Annie "Refreshingly down to earth. The Man That Got Away does what no other single volume has done: it combines a succinct account of Arlen's life with a nontechnical but useful description of his idiosyncratic songwriting style."--Larry Hamberlin, coauthor of Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era

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Book SynopsisEschewing the idea of film reviewer-as-solitary-expert, Jonathan Rosenbaum continues to advance his belief that a critic's ideal role is to mediate and facilitate our public discussion of cinema. Portraits and Polemics presents debate as an important form of cinematic encounter whether one argues with filmmakers themselves, on behalf of their work, or with one's self. Rosenbaum takes on filmmakers like Chantal Akerman, Richard Linklater, Manoel De Oliveira, Mark Rappaport, Elaine May, and Béla Tarr. He also engages, implicitly and explicitly, with other writers, arguing with Pauline Kaeland Wikipediaover Jacques Demy, with the Hollywood Reporter and Variety reviewers of Jarmusch's The Limits of Control, with David Thomson about James L. Brooks, and with many American and English film critics about misrepresented figures from Jerry Lewis to Yasujiro Ozu to Orson Welles. Throughout, Rosenbaum mines insights, pursues pet notions, and invites readers to join the fray.Trade Review"Challenging, probing, illuminating, Jonathan Rosenbaum's work is a beacon for other cinephiles. His new collection shows him engaging with an exhilaratingly wide range of films and filmmakers throughout the world and causing us to think about them in fresh ways."--Joseph McBride, author of How Did Lubitsch Do It?"Like a well-composed musical score, Rosenbaum’s magnificent Portraits and Polemics erupts with fresh, incisive, and dynamic sketches of essential cineastes and their works, interlacing tales, energetic rhythmic effects, and vibrant poetic matches: bold, impassioned, cadenced, dialectical, always surprising."--Tami Williams, coeditor of Global Cinema Networks "An excellent collection. Highly recommended." --Choice"Rosenbaum has passed a lifetime of cinephilia to me. A few scribbles in the margins I return." --Cineaste

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