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DARKNET

Name: DARKNET
Author: J.D. Lasica
ISBN: 0-471-68334-5

HOLLYWOOD’S WAR AGAINST THE DIGITAL GENERATION

by J.D. Lasica ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2005

Frequently riveting, occasionally long-winded. Well worth your time, but read fast: it has the unwritten expiration date of...

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Sprawling account of the battle between corporations and creative individuals over what constitutes the proper use of digital media.

Blog journalist Lasica (newmediamusings.com) could have pulled this up-to-the-minute story together with a flurry of phone calls and Web searches, but his reporting from the field gives it sweep and intimacy. The cast of characters is vibrant. Railing against DVD bootleggers, Hollywood lobbyist and ex-MPAA chairman Jack Valenti comes off as the ever-indignant guardian of media companies’ right to every last penny. He’s but one of the corporate flacks who sound shrilly evangelistic when describing the evils of digital camcorders, file-sharing networks and DVD burners. Lasica’s skill at capturing personalities also benefits his recounting of visits with various professors, filmmakers, hippies, hackers, hobbyists and entrepreneurs who have run afoul of American copyright law in one way or another. The author contends that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act criminalizes harmless behavior, citing law-abiding citizens who have been sued, threatened or fined for copying material for their own personal use. With deep pockets and aggressive lobbyists in Washington, Lasica says, Hollywood is trying to halt the kind of progress that allowed the photocopier, the VCR and the MP3 player into the marketplace. In the chapter “Cool Toys Hollywood Wants to Ban,” he describes the next generation of digital goodies that content companies will fight until they’re absolutely certain they can profit from them. The cool quotient here suffers slightly from Lasica’s tendency to reiterate over and over the same point—the digital age has transformed consumers into producers—in the breathless tone of a TV newsmagazine. His strength is presenting vivid snapshots of our rapidly changing cultural/technological landscape, not scrounging up metaphors for same.

Frequently riveting, occasionally long-winded. Well worth your time, but read fast: it has the unwritten expiration date of a Wired article on tech trends.

Pub Date: May 13, 2005

ISBN: 0-471-68334-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Wiley

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.