"A broad and deep look at how electronic media are changing storytelling…Completely fascinating." —Booklist, starred review Not long ago we were spectators, passive consumers of mass media. Now, on YouTube and blogs and Facebook and Twitter, we are media. No longer content in our traditional role as couch potatoes, we approach television shows, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate—as experiences to immerse ourselves in at will. Frank Rose introduces us to the people who are reshaping media for a two-way world, changing how we play, how we communicate, and how we think.
"A broad and deep look at how electronic media are changing storytelling…Completely fascinating." —Booklist, starred review Not long ago we were spectators, passive consumers of mass media. Now, on YouTube and blogs and Facebook and Twitter, we are media. No longer content in our traditional role as couch potatoes, we approach television shows, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate—as experiences to immerse ourselves in at will. Frank Rose introduces us to the people who are reshaping media for a two-way world, changing how we play, how we communicate, and how we think.
Award-winning journalist Frank Rose provides a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of a business and a technology in tormoil. The fall of Steve Jobs, the visionary entrepreneur who founded Apple Computer, is also the story of a freewheeling California youth culture on a collision course with corporate America.
“What the future fortunes of [Gramsci’s] writings will be, we cannot know. However, his permanence is already sufficiently sure, and justifies the historical study of his international reception. The present collection of studies is an indispensable foundation for this.” —Eric Hobsbawm, from the preface Antonio Gramsci is a giant of Marxian thought and one of the world's greatest cultural critics. Antonio A. Santucci is perhaps the world's preeminent Gramsci scholar. Monthly Review Press is proud to publish, for the first time in English, Santucci’s masterful intellectual biography of the great Sardinian scholar and revolutionary. Gramscian terms such as “civil society” and “hegemony” are much used in everyday political discourse. Santucci warns us, however, that these words have been appropriated by both radicals and conservatives for contemporary and often self-serving ends that often have nothing to do with Gramsci’s purposes in developing them. Rather what we must do, and what Santucci illustrates time and again in his dissection of Gramsci’s writings, is absorb Gramsci’s methods. These can be summed up as the suspicion of “grand explanatory schemes,” the unity of theory and practice, and a focus on the details of everyday life. With respect to the last of these, Joseph Buttigieg says in his Nota: “Gramsci did not set out to explain historical reality armed with some full-fledged concept, such as hegemony; rather, he examined the minutiae of concrete social, economic, cultural, and political relations as they are lived in by individuals in their specific historical circumstances and, gradually, he acquired an increasingly complex understanding of how hegemony operates in many diverse ways and under many aspects within the capillaries of society.” The rigor of Santucci’s examination of Gramsci’s life and work matches that of the seminal thought of the master himself. Readers will be enlightened and inspired by every page.
This thought-provoking and inspirational book covers such topics as: developing a solid creative process through “Visual Reflection Notebooks” and “Bring Play to Work”; understanding the artist’s unique identity in relation to the larger culture; building systems of support and collaboration; explaining how an artist’s needs and passions can lead to innovation and authenticity; using language to inspire visual creativity; responding to the Internet and changing concepts of what is public and private; and accepting digression as a creative necessity. Through the exercises and techniques outlined in Art Without Compromise*, the reader will develop new confidence to pursue individual goals and inspiration to explore new paths, along with motivation to overcome creative blocks. With a revised understanding of the relevance in their own work within the sphere of contemporary culture, the artist will come away with a clearer perspective on his or her past and future work and a critical eye for personal authenticity.
The story of the William Morris Agency is the stoyr of show business itself. Founded at the turn of the century, it stood as the premier agency in Hollywood for 80 years. With unvarnished descriptions of the board that runs William Morris and the needy and demanding stars they represent, The Agency is a compelling tale that lifts the curtain on the most intriguing business in Americ today. Photos.
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year The Pixar Touch is a lively chronicle of Pixar Animation Studios' history and evolution, and the “fraternity of geeks” who shaped it. With the help of animating genius John Lasseter and visionary businessman Steve Jobs, Pixar has become the gold standard of animated filmmaking, beginning with a short special effects shot made at Lucasfilm in 1982 all the way up through the landmark films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and others. David A. Price goes behind the scenes of the corporate feuds between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as between Jobs and Michael Eisner. And finally he explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown. With an Updated Epilogue
