Posted March 5, 2007.
Film &
Television | History | Literature | Performing
Arts | Visual Arts |
Film & Television
G1 - Wonderful World; A Critic At Large
Anthony Lane
The New Yorker, December 11, 2006, v82, #41, p67
The article looks back on Walt Disney and the empire he built: "What attracted Walt Disney throughout his career was not so much the money that people traded for his art as the eager numbers in which they came to view it, as if reassuring its creator that his dreams were just like theirs. Disney was hardly alone in locating bliss in some lost zone of childhood, and in striving to reconstruct it in the movies, but Disney taught the world to look back without anger.” Anthony Lane is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. Fulltext
G2 - Expect the Unexpected
Farhi, Paul
American Journalism Review, December 2006/January 2007, online edition
The post-Ted Koppel “Nightline” is a very different animal than its vaunted predecessor. Serious journalism remains, but there is more variety and plenty of fluff in the mix. One year after Koppel stepped aside , "Nightline" looks and sounds only vaguely like its former self. A new management team has created a faster, hipper and zippier show, complete with restyled graphics, a more contemporary set and three younger anchors (Cynthia McFadden, Martin Bashir and Terry Moran). The sober and substantive newsmagazine that used to cover the day's big story is pretty much now only a memory. Paul Farhi is a Washington Post reporter who writes frequently about the media for the Post and AJR. Fulltext
G3 - Hitchcock's Music Man
Teachout, Terry
Commentary, February 2007, v123, #2; pp60-64
Throughout their history, movies have been accompanied by music. Over The course of the studio era in Hollywood, however, there was only one
director who employed music with such unfailing sensitivity that the quality of
the scores accompanying his films became one of his trademarks. That director
was Alfred Hitchcock. This article explores why The "master of suspense" relied heavily on the darkly luminous orchestration of one composer in particular. Terry Teachout is COMMENTARY's regular music critic and the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal. Fulltext
G4 - Why Hollywood Cannot Make Art
Teachout, Terry
Commentary, January 2007, v123, #1, pp48-52
The author explains why, in his opinion, the Hollywood studio system rarely makes artistically serious movies -- save by inadvertence. He points out that Hollywood has always been a money-making enterprise but that the commercial success of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" and George Lucas' "Star Wars" shifted the focus of Hollywood to making extremely marketable, broadly accessible blockbusters, signaling a move from more personal and artistic films. Terry Teachout is Commentary's regular music critic and the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal. Fulltext
History
G5 - They Made America
Douthat, Ross
The Atlantic Monthly, December 2006, v298, #5, pp59-73
The article lists the 100 most influential figures in American history, as nominated by ten eminent historians. The article defines influence as a person's impact, for good or ill, on his or her own era and the way Americans live in the present. A followup article, published in the Jan/Feb issue, presents the resultd of an online contest conducted by the magazine, asking readers to predict which Americans would grace the Top Ten. Fulltext
Literature
G6 - Stephen King's American Apocalypse
Douthat, Ross
First Things, February 2007,
#170, pp14-20
Author Stephen King's recently received a lifetime achievement medal for his "distinguished contribution to American letters" from the National Book Foundatio. Aspects of his acceptance speech are discussed, including a critique of literary prize-giving for its snobbery and its willful ignorance of popular and genre fiction. Details of King's literary career and portrayal of God in his books are discussed. Ross Douthat is an associate editor at the Atlantic Monthly. Fulltext
G7 - Famous Once Again
Basbanes, Nicholas A
Smithsonian, February 2007, v37, #11; pp96-103
"The article looks at poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. According to Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Longfellow did as much as any author or politician of his time to shape the way 19th-century Americans saw themselves, their nation, and their past. To commemorate Longfellow's 200th birthday during February 2007 the U.S. Postal Service has issued a commemorative stamp. A Library of America edition of his selected writings, published in 2000, has gone through four printings. The article discusses Longfellow's wife Fanny Appleton, his published works, including "Evangeline," and his popularity." Nicholas A. Basbanes writes about books and book culture. Fulltext
Performing Arts
G8 - John Hammond's Jazz
Teachout, Terry
Commentary, October 2006, v122, #3, pp55–59
"The author recounts the career of record producer John Hammond, “one of the very first people to think seriously about jazz -- to treat it not as commercial jazz music but as an art form deserving of wider and deeper consideration.” Hammond was known for his ability to discover young and underappreciated talent, and discoveries and signings included Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson. He was an instrumental force for the integration of jazz groups, and originated the idea of expanding Goodman’s trio to a quartet by adding the African American vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Rejecting the be-bop style that predominated during the 1950s, Hammond shifted his focus to rock and folk music, eventually signing both Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to their first recording contracts." Terry Teachout, Commentary's regular music critic and the drama critic of the Wall Street Journal, is at work on a biography of Louis Armstrong. He blogs about the arts at www.terryteachout.com. Fulltext
G9 - Being James Brown
Lethem, Jonathan
Rolling Stone, February 24, 2007, online edition
James Brown, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and dancer who indelibly transformed 20th-century music, died on the 25th of December in Atlanta.
"The Godfather of Soul invented funk, befriended presidents and laid the foundations of rap. And he did it by defying the laws of space and time. Inside the private world of the baddest man who ever lived." Jonathan Lethem is a Brooklyn Novelist. Fulltext
Visual Arts
G10 - Light Industry
Leffingwell, Edward
Art in America, December 2006, #12, pp128-133
"Forrest Myers has been known for his innovative works using light and metal for over forty years. An exhibition at the Yellow Bird Gallery in New York shows the range of this works over the last four decades. Myers, creator of The Wall (1973), a monumental public sculpture in Manhattan also known as the “Gateway to SoHo”, was a pioneer in kinetic sculpture, works that combine form and function, such as his legendary Unocycle (1975), a one-wheeled motorcycle, and For Miles (1996), a memorial to the late jazz musician Miles Davis, consisting of a stainless-steel drum that functions as a horn. Myers worked with the Experiments in Art and Technology cooperative in the late 1960s to assemble a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary project at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan." Fulltext
G11 - Patterns of Thought: Hedda Sterne
Simon, Joan
Art in America, February 2007, v95, #2, pp110-159
The article presents an interview with visual artist Hedda Sterne. When asked about the impact of Surrealism, Sterne discusses the surrealist nature of the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Sterne comments on her immigration from Romania to France to Portugal to the United States. Sterne also discusses her relationships with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Peggy Guggenheim, Marcel Duchamp, and the group of artists known as the "Irascibles." Joan Simon is a contributing writer to "Art in America". Fulltext
G12 - American in Paris
Lubow, Arthur
Smithsonian, January 2007, v37, #10, pp78-86
In the late 19th century, Paris, the "City of Light" beckoned Whistler, Sargent, Cassatt and other young artists. As the recent exhibition, "Americans in Paris, 1860-1900" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, makes clear, what they experienced would transform American art. Many American artists felt better appreciated in Paris than ar home. "By the late 1880s, it was estimated that one in seven of the 7,000 Americans living in Paris were artists or art students. For women especially, the French capital offered an intoxicating freedom. 'They were Americans, so they weren't bound by the conventions of French society,' says Erica E. Hirshler of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, one of the exhibition's three curators. 'And they were no longer in America, so they escaped those restrictions too.'" Arthur Lubow is a contributing writer on cultural subjects to the New York Times Magazine. Fulltext
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