Book Description
One of the art world's most outspoken critics explores the modern public's alienation from contemporary art and makes a powerful plea for the revival of communication, accessibility, and traditional skills in this field.
Customer Reviews:
A well articulated viewpoint on modern art.......2004-01-18
I found this book to be interesting and well stated even though I did not agree with everything the author says. The basic premise of the book is that modern art has lost touch with modern audiences because it has little to say that is relevant to people. With too many artists seeking to capitalize on shock value, "statements" about non-art as art, and making the artist into the center of attention, modern art is becoming a backwater where people will say they like some works even though they love none of them. Some good points about the book are its questioning whether modern art is even trying to reflect the current times and whether much of what is called art is even art at all. I disagree with some of the author's contentions such as his statement that photography is merely a mechanical process (frankly, it is far more difficult to get perfect tonalities in a photograph than it is to assemble a bull's head from bicycle parts even though the creative visions may be similar) but attribute this to his lack of familiarity with that medium. This book expresses a thoughtful perspective and makes you think. This alone warrants the five star rating. Also, the book contains no graphic nudity even though the author asserts that the emperor is wearing no clothes.
fuddy-duddy and philistine...?.......2003-11-27
might be how some people might see the content of this book's argument. I would have to disagree with them. This is an unusual book, cutting in its honesty and rationality. Written by one of the most vocal and learned critics today, this book argues for something which concerns the life of art and the place of art in life. At some point in his very active career as curator, critic, and museum director, Spalding decided that he had had enough -- enough of trying to the clothes the Emperor was emphatically NOT wearing. In this book he addresses the question of why he has never met anyone who could, with genuine enthusiam and love, say to him, "You simply MUST see this" about contemporary art. What is behind the alienation of art from life? Why has art become so solipsistic? So onanistic?
Just because he wants to see less offensive material in art, Spalding is not therefore out to argue for something underhahdedly smarmy and specious, like the importance of art's being earnest or being accessible to "the people." Spalding is by and large impartial in his attitude toward what art used to be, did, and can still do. In other words, he accepts art's aristocratic alliance as a matter of historical fact. He also accepts the break with tradition that modern art had to accomplish in order to open new horizons. Spalding is neither a condescending snob nor a churlish champion of the hoi poloi, but he presents the situation of today's art as one that has no voice, and no language, to speak to anyone (high or low) but only to its deaf self and a handful of self-appointed members of the pointlessly esoteric priesthood.
Spalding has been around a while and has seen much of the making of modern art on both sides of the Atlantic and now tells the story of how, and when (1937) the eclipse of art in our time began so as to put us in total darkness today. But the story he tells is not all gloom and doom. He does not deny that there is great art in our time. But the main focus of his argument is that art has today become, for the most part, something akin to an abomination, and a very tedious and depressing one at that. "What is there to really get out of looking at a rotting cow head being eaten by a swarm of flies?" he asks rhetorically, referring to what the Tate Modern bought having declared it a significant work of art.
If Spalding seems the odd man out in the art establishment, he probably is. Spalding's stance is simply that of a thinking man who still believes that art's core values are tied to its ability to communicate something about that by which human beings are oriented and reoriented, if strangely, unto some plane of experience most of us feel is higher and more vibrantly life-affirming.
Spalding apparently lacks humor, patience, or artistic acumen, but he just cannot be convinced that human excrement packaged in tin cans is art. And perhaps that's where and how he stands apart from his colleagues at prestigious museums who think nothing of spending $20,000+ for such cans putatively filled with some artist's own excrement. (Not that they ever verified the content.)
His argument will have some people throwing eggs and tomatoes at him -- real or cyber -- for not appreciating the spirit of contemporary art. But Spalding presents a very cogent picture of why and how the eclipse -- or a series of eclipses in learning, language, content, and discipline -- came to be historically, and how that eclipse has come to benight art's original and engendering powers.
Spalding's vision of art is wide enough, I think, to encompass any medium and style of expression. What he is asking for in art is intelligence. Not cleverness, but intelligence, a show of reflection and care.
What he is arguing against is pseudo-intelligence, pseudo-spirituality, and contrived ideas about creativity. Spalding's argument is not against any particular artists' work but against the entire structure of Byzantine politics and machinations behind the tyranny of art world's decision-making process.
His plea is one that would have art itself "function" creatively, not just made in the name of anything-goes. Spalding's general definition of art by way of an attitude is that art is a compression, not just expression, of intelligence, love, observation, insight, reflection, care, and reconfiguration of vital human experience so as to deliver us ultimatley to that realm whose name is now considered taboo to mention: beauty and grace.
Spalding's brief analysis of the history of art education in Britain, of Marcel Duchamp's role in the (d)evolution of modern art, and of the reasons behind the rise of Jackson Pollack in the identity-desperate postwar US, and comparison of Pollack's work with that of Edward Hopper are very illuminating even as he tracks the eclipse of art.
In Romania a man who had committed suicide by hanging himself in the sculpture garden section of a public park was left hanging for nearly two years because everybody thought it was a "work of art." If you think you too might have walked past a dead man thinking it was art just because it was in a "art" park, then this is a book for you. Highly recommended.
Book Description
Levi's jeans are the consummate American icon. For nearly 150 years, Levi's jeans have been woven into the very fabric of American history and culture.
America's love affair with jeans is movingly documented, and the wonderfully original Levi's advertising campaigns brilliantly reproduced.
From the gold fields of California to the oil fields of Oklahoma, from wheat fields of Kansas to cattle drives in Texas - from Woodstock to Haight Ashbury to Rodeo Drive - Levi's jeans is the way to go.
Customer Reviews:
"Life's too far in the future to think about. Right now, I could use a good cigar.".......2006-05-11
In a strange and very perverse sense, it might just be appropriate that the appallingly awful HTD movie is Howard's predominant image in the public eye. Why, you ask? Well, I reply, because Howard himself was never really understood or appreciated by the world around him; that's the entire point. (And yeah, I wish the movie had been better, too. I'm just choosing to enjoy the irony.)
The tag-line for Steve Gerber's magnum opus was "Trapped in a world he never made!" and that pretty much sums it up. Howard is the epitome of anyone from one world mistakenly tranplanted into another. Visually, imagine if one of the myriad cartoon characters from the kiddie reels somehow got injected into a Martin Scorcese film. How would D***** Duck (pick your fave) react to a world of junkies, street thugs, dehumanizing media figures and stupid, indifferent politicians? Granted, there are assorted super-villain types and the occasional super-hero guest star here and there (it's a Marvel comic, after all), but they're not really the point, any more than the predictable parodies of at-the-time crazes like Kung Fu, Star Wars or the Exorcist. Underneath the slapstick, the thankfully abbreviated battles and the wry wisequacks -- er, wiseCRACKs, that is -- there's a substantial amount of insightful social commentary and genuine angst.
Of the assorted artists involved, Gene "the Dean" Colan remains the definitive HTD artist; who else could so convincingly merge the gothic banality of Cleveland streets and New York alleyways with the evolution-defying cartooniness of Howard's anatomy? WHo else could portray despair, madness, cynicism and just plain rage writ large across the face of a feathered critter who goes "BOOOIIINNNGGG!!" when he charges (reluctantly) into the fray? Let alone make a giant sea serpent wearing a top hat look scary?
But even Colan's excellent work takes a back seat (if only just barely) to Steve Gerber. Val Mayerik and other artists also turned in fine work on the series, but Gerber's writing could not be replaced. Possibly no other comic series of the '70's could have afforded this opportunity to break out of the genre's formulaic conventions, and possibly no other writer of the time could have made the most of such an opportunity anyway. If it helps, recall what Quentin Tarantino did for movies in the '90's, and then imagine the same sort of thing in comics, twenty years earlier. Then again, if that's too weird a notion to wrap your head around, don't sweat it; you'll still find a lot of humor to enjoy. Where else will you find a hero who flies across the world to his abducted girlfriend's rescue by winning a radio contest? ("I dunno...Grant, I guess.")
But, y-you're a duck!.......2006-03-19
I began collecting horror comics in the early 1970's "boom" that included "The Tomb of Dracula," and gradually began to sample super-hero books like "The Amazing Spider-Man." Somewhere along the way, in walked "Howard the Duck."
In a world of super-heroes, Howard was something different. As an outsider, he could comment on the many absurdities of the society he had become trapped in. An alternate interpretation of what most people had not stopped to question is a very valuable thing.
I remember the book having a big influence on how I looked at the world. It gave me a somewhat skeptical outlook on what the mainstream judged acceptable.
Monty Python's Flying Circus had already shown me how to poke fun at authority, and the Warren Commission had shown why this was necessary.
Howard tackled a broad range of issues, giving food for thought on the issues of government, religion, media, and personal relationships. I remember the stories where Howard suffered a breakdown as particularly disturbing, and at the same time enlightening. An adolescent grows up in "a world he/she never made," and sometimes wonders not just where the line is, but which side is the correct one.
When Steve Gerber left the book (or was fired?), I don't rememeber being particularly upset, but a re-reading of the series showed a definite vision and progress brutally interrupted in mid-stream.
It is too bad that the story wasn't completed, but what we have is still good reading, and still as relevant as it was then. Highly recommended.
A great collection.......2005-08-17
I've loved some of the choices Marvel has made with their Essentials line. Instead of just sticking with the Marvel main-stays, Spider-man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc., they've been dipping into the pool of what many consider 2nd or 3rd tier characters whose adventures are not as well known. Howard the Duck has always been a favorite of mine, one of the more creative books to come out of the 70's in my opinion. Unfortunately a lot of people only know the character through the horrible Hollywood version of the character brought to us in the 80's. As with all the Essentials I wish the reprints were done in color. The paper quality doesn't bother me, I understand the need to keep product costs low.
You Had to See It to Believe It.......2005-07-30
The seventies were a relatively interesting time for comic books. The Golden Age was long gone and the Silver Age was coming to an end. The space was being filled by all sorts of writers and artists who grew up on the Marvel Age of the sixties and were trying to capture it or subvert it as werewolves, barbarians, vampires, man-things and ghost riders shared the stage with the super-heroes. It is somewhat of a stretch to know which category Howard the Duck fit into but it is even more surprising that it happened within the Marvel Universe itself at all ,and would sometimes guest star a character from said world, such as Spider-Man, the Man-Thing, or the Defenders. Steve Gerber did his best work on this series as it was the only comic book that was entirely appropriate for his style. His days with the Defenders were never a good fit and his time with the Man-Thing are best forgotten. Gene Colan also did some of this best work with this series, second only to his Tomb of Dracula. It is one of the delightful suprises of the series to see how Colan was able to go from the darkness of one to the visual humour of the other. The Essential Howard the Duck is a beautiful glimpse into the seventies at their most unique. It is wonderful that in a world of super-heroes and monsters, for one brief, shining moment a duck walked amongst them and, on occasion, soared above them.
Far ahead of its time... and much needed nowadays........2005-06-08
So, tonight, my local comic book store had this great 50% off sale on TPB's, and I happened to pick up Essential Howard the Duck.
Now, being in comic fandom for a good few years, I'd always read about Howard the Duck. But except for a few appearances in the back of Wizard magazine and vague memories of the horrendous live -action movie, all I had going for me was what came down through the grapevine - and all that came down to me was some really positive buzz. So it was with great anticipation that I sat down with the book tonight.
And boy, did Marvel's favourite anthropomorphic fowl not disappoint. Ahead of his time? Try ahead of -our- time. What an astonishing book - I'm honestly speaking when I say that it deserves much more praise than it's getting nowadays.
This is some great stuff, bringing in metaliterary commentary on social trends and Western culture's normative cultural ethos. Even if the new volume of She-Hulk is attempting to continue the humourous vein set in the '70s and '80s by books like this and She-Hulk volume 1, it seems that the cultural, ethical discussions prevalent even in mainstream comic media in the Bronze Era (is that what they're calling it these days?) has been wholly excised from these modern series.
With its thinly veiled but highly positive social commentary, and constant nods to classic literature (a seemingly tormented, wild man who watches over a young girl in a late-1800s style house is called "Heathcliff Rochester," a nod to the Bronte sisters), philosophy (Howards has Hegel), and other intellectual landmarks in the western canon, Howard the Duck has a little bit of everything for everybody. Very highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
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Essential Howard The Duck TPB
Steve Gerber
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Comics & Graphic Novels
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Marvel
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ASIN: B000LSBQGI |
Book Description
Dave is back -- and he's not taking this sitting down!
What's been getting Dave Barry all worked up lately? What can possibly induce him to rise up -- yes, actually out of his chair -- in indignation? Well, lots of things. For instance:
The plague of low-flow toilets (very important!)
The monumental parent-misery quotient of school science fairs
How the U.S. Army "lost" a one-million-dollar missile launcher
The hidden dangers of wasabi
"Specialty" coffees
Celebrity low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-everything diets
Disasters at the FearPlex movie theaters
His dangerous voyage through a cruise ship buffet
Yes, all that, plus the real skinny on the IRS, airlines, Donald Trump, and so much more. It's all here in this new collection of columns from the writer we know as "the funniest man in America."
From the Introduction
People often ask me: "Dave, what is the best thing about being a professional humor columnist?"
I always answer: "The best thing is that I can help others and make the world a better place."
Then everyone has a hearty laugh, because, of course, I am lying. In fact, that's one of the great things about being a humor columnist: You can lie! You get PAID to lie! What other profession can say that?
I have a wonderful job.
By any objective standard of measurement, there is no better profession than humor columnist. That is why so many people want my job. It looks so easy! In fact, as you read the columns in this book, you may find yourself thinking: "Hey, I could do this. Any random person could do this!"
That is where you are wrong, my friend. It takes a very special kind of random person to be a humor columnist. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people try their hand at this demanding profession. After a few months, almost all of them have given up and gone back to the ninth grade.
Download Description
Barry fans will enjoy this latest collection of columns from one of America's funniest journalists. The title originates from his rant about low-flow toilets in his notorious "Toilet Police" article. According to the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist (Big Trouble), it wasn't his first choice for a title, which would have been (and I am not making this up) Tuesdays with Harry Potter. Apparently, the publisher's legal department had some problems with that. The title represents Barry's rage not only about toilets but about airline "bistro service" meals, television ads for pharmaceuticals, and the general moral decay confronting America today. Fans will not be disappointed with Barry's forays into proper word usage when he dons his "Mr. Language Person" hat. And they will certainly rally around him on issues concerning the IRS, college dormitories, and Internet millionaires. But the toilet on the cover is really why this book should be in every library's humor collection.
Customer Reviews:
Funny at times, but not the best.......2007-04-11
This is another compilation of columns, somewhat more disjointed than Dave Barry's Money Secrets. It's great for listening to in a car, because there's really nothing - no plot - to keep track of, and you can just listen now and then. It's quirky and funny, that's about it. If you like the columns, obviously, this is something to listen to.
Close to five stars........2006-10-15
If I wasn't so familiar with Dave Barry's work, I would probably have called this a five star book; it is a delightfully funny collection of columns by one of the best humorists in the world. But I've seen better from Dave, and have come to expect it, so I have to rate this book at four stars, simply to differentiate it from his best work (Dave Barry Turns 40, Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up, Dave Barry's Book Of Bad Songs, Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need, maybe Dave Barry's Greatest Hits).
Another hit from Barry.......2005-11-17
This is another collection of Barry's columns and a surefire hit for any fan. As usual, his columns pack a punch and end with a zinger or inside joke. Mr. Language Person makes an appearance or two in this collection, and Barry also takes on TV commericials, his relationship with his wife, and (always a winner) the life of his teenaged son. Recommended!
Very funny reading.......2005-07-14
Have you ever wanted to see a Pulitzer Prize-winning author sitting on the pot? Well, here's your chance with Dave Barry's book, Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down! While the cover shot may have visions of the scatological Farrelly Brothers doing the can-can in your head, you can put a lid on that: Barry's humor is irreverent, yes, but it is tidy-bowl clean.
Although I appreciate a good laugh as much as anyone, I have a rather serious countenance. I'm the kind of person that total strangers come up to and command, "Smile!" Another oft-posed question is, "Why aren't you smiling?" Like I'm supposed to be standing in line at the Post Office or the DMV grinning like an idiot. One possible solution could be Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down! This book did have me smiling a lot, chuckling, and even - lo and behold! - laughing out loud. (This gets an entirely different reaction while standing in line at the Post Office or the DMV... It has fellow line-loungers casting furtive glances at the "wanted" posters on the walls.)
Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down! is a collection of the humorist's previously published columns. Barry has been with The Miami Herald for nearly 20 years now, and his commentary has been syndicated all over the planet - in case you are wondering (as was I), he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1988. According to his bio, "Barry writes about various major issues relating to the international economy, the future of democracy, the social infrastructure and exploding toilets."
I have read several of Barry's books before, and while I prefer the ones on a theme (Dave Barry Does Japan is my personal fave), the compilations are fun too, because I'm always bound to find a little something that tickles me. The only complaint I have about these compilations, and this one in particular, are when timely themes are included. They "date" the book, and even though it's brand new, it seems old in some places (one I can recall offhand is mention of the impending Y2K problem that never materialized).
There were quite a few bits and pieces that struck a personal chord with me. As the driver of a little sports job, I was howling with laughter at Barry's rant on SUV drivers:
"...What people mainly do with Sports Utility Vehicles, as far as I can tell, is try to maneuver them in and out of parking spaces. I base this statement on my local supermarket, where many of the upscale patrons drive Chevrolet Subdivisions. I've noticed that these people often purchase just a couple of items - maybe a bottle of diet water and a two-ounce package of low-fat dried carrot shreds - which they put into the back of their Subdivisions, which have approximately the same cargo capacity, in cubic feet, as Finland... Then comes the scary part: getting out of the parking space... I drive a compact car, and on a number of occasions have found myself trapped behind a Subdivision backing directly toward me, its massive metal butt looming high over my head, making me feel like a Tokyo pedestrian looking up at Godzilla. I've tried honking my horn, but (they) can't hear me, because they're always talking on phones the size of Chiclets (The Bigger Your Car, The Smaller Your Phone, that is their motto)."
And forget Mars and Venus - Barry knows guys better than Gray could ever hope to. He has a reoccurring report in his column on Stuff That Guys Do, and a couple of them are presented here in the chapters Rubber-Band Man ("...Guys like to do stuff. This explains both the Space Shuttle and mailbox vandalism."), and Rock of Ages ("At some point or another, almost every guy wants an electric guitar. Electric guitars exert a strong appeal for guys, because they combine two critical elements: 1. guitar, 2. electricity.")
This is the sort of book that you'll want to read passages from, aloud, to anyone within earshot whether they like it or not. Barry has something to say about everything from the government's spending habits to the climate in Florida. Even if you're not especially interested in the government's spending habits or the climate in Florida, I bet you'll get a snicker or two from Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down! You really can't go wrong with this book.
Let's just say Dave Barry is the American Standard of humorists working today. He goes to the head of the class. He's a damn sight funnier than Harry Potter. And as I mentioned previously, Barry's humor is clean: With the holidays coming up, you can safely buy this book for all the Janes and Johns on your list. (Okay, even I'm flushed with embarrassment now...)
Hilarity for everyone on every topic.......2003-09-03
Dave Barry who can make a prison lifer laugh until his internal organs burst, meaning that he can make someone laugh about...anything. This is the first Dave Barry book I have read and it has put me on a diet of his humor for a long time. His essays/columns are the perfect length for any subject. I admit that I have had quite a few natural laughing highs since reading his words. I highly suggest this book for anyone.
Book Description
Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down: What's been getting Dave Barry all worked up lately? What can possibly induce him to rise up - yes, actually out of his chair - in indignation? Well, lots of things, including the real skinny on the IRS, Donald Trump, the airlines, and so much more...
Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway: Below the Beltway includes Barry's stirring account of how the United States was born, including his version of a properly written Declaration (When in the course of human events it behooves us, the people, not to ask "What can our country do for us, anyway?" but rather whether we have anything to fear except fear itself) and a revised Constitution (Section II: The House of Representatives shall be composed of people who own at least two dark suits and have not been indicted recently).
Boogers Are My Beat: Dave Barry gives us the real scoop on: • The scientific search for the world's funniest joke • RV camping in the Wal-Mart parking lot • Outwitting "smart" kitchen appliances and service contracts • Elections in Florida • The Olympics, where people from all over the world come together to accuse each other of cheating • The truth about the Dakotas, the Lone Ranger, and feng shui • The choice between death and taxes
And much, much more - including some truths about journalism and serious thoughts about 9/11.
Book Description
Dave Barry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down (Susie Breck, Melissa Coates): What's been getting Dave Barry all worked up lately? What can possibly induce him to rise up - yes, actually out of his chair - in indignation? Well, lots of things, including the real skinny on the IRS, Donald Trump, the airlines, and so much more...
Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway (Laura Grafton, Melissa Coates): Below the Beltway includes Barry's stirring account of how the United States was born, including his version of a properly written Declaration (When in the course of human events it behooves us, the people, not to ask "What can our country do for us, anyway?" but rather whether we have anything to fear except fear itself) and a revised Constitution (Section II: The House of Representatives shall be composed of people who own at least two dark suits and have not been indicted recently).
Tricky Business (Susie Breck, Mike Council): The Extravaganza of the Seas is a five-thousand-ton cash cow, a top-heavy tub whose sole function is to carry gamblers three miles from the Florida coast, take their money, then bring them back so they can find more money. What happens to its passengers and crew in the midst of the fiercest storm in years will change their lives and send them ricocheting off each other like a giant game of pinball.
Books:
- The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930
- The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914
- The Magic Curtain: The Mexican-American Border in Fiction, Film, and Song
- The Nyonya Kebaya: A Century Of Straits Chinese Costume
- The Oldman Collection Of Maori Artifacts (Polynesian Society Memoir)
- The Secret Life of Puppets
- The Thunder Keeper
- The World's Biggest Book of Brainteasers & Logic Puzzles
- Themes and Foundations of Art/Student's Edition
- Three Essays on Style
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World
- The Merchant of Venice
- Like Night and Day: Unionization in a Southern Mill Town
- Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering
- Solo Guitar Playing/Book 1 with CD
- The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides
- Posttranslational Modification of Proteins: Expanding Nature's Inventory
- Pensions and Profit Sharing, 8E
- Managing Credit Risk in Corporate Bond Portfolios: A Practitioner's Guide
- Over the Door: The Ornamental Stonework of New York
Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series
Emotion and Meaning in Music (Phoenix Books)
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style (Oxford Paperbacks)
Art Worlds
Zen in the Art of Archery
