An appealing record of a bohemian synthesis of rock, hip-hop, and celebrity.
Lavish, elegiac document of the filmmaker’s relationship with the Beastie Boys.
For three decades, Jonze, known for numerous music videos and acclaimed films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, was a core contributor to the aesthetic of the Beastie Boys, who lost founding member Adam “Ad-Rock” Yauch in 2012. As Mike “Mike D” Diamond explains in a wistful introduction, Jonze’s then-adolescent goofiness concealed intense technical curiosity and ambition: “Spike just made things happen because he said, ‘That’s what we’re doing.’ And then he didn’t blink….Spike was there, not only capturing it, but being a full member and facilitator of our creative chaos. And, at the same time, he was also always interested in asking, ‘What are you feeling?’ ” The book contains little text aside from the author’s handwritten notations, alternately documentarian and enigmatic (“Mike, Call Carl Sagan Back”), and an afterword in which Jonze connects his own growth to their influence. “I was inspired by all of them in many different ways,” he writes. “As artists, definitely, but maybe even more so as friends, as the kind of people who treat each other and everyone in their life with respect and honesty.” Even without exposition, an intimate cultural narrative develops. Earlier photos picture the band scuffling in New York following the commercial failure of Paul’s Boutique, their sophomore album that is now considered transformative. In Los Angeles, they found their footing, epitomized by Jonze’s mock-1970s “Sabotage” video and their collaborative magazine, Grand Royal. Photos from this time exude intimacy and friendship (and ridiculous fashion sense) alongside backstage antics and sweaty stage-action shots. Intense collective creativity resonates throughout. Later in their career, they enjoyed dressing up as elderly men or shaggy pseudo-intellectuals, foreshadowing a bittersweet retirement that stands in contrast to their enduring love of pranks, art, and one another.
An appealing record of a bohemian synthesis of rock, hip-hop, and celebrity.Pub Date: April 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8478-6838-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Rizzoli
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
It's high spirited reading.
When Françoise Gilot, an aspiring young painter, met Pablo Picasso in May, 1943, she was twenty-one years old, he some forty years her senior.
As they grew together, setting about their mutual campaigns upon each other, she proved herself a worthy adversary rather than acolyte. In the ten years which she shared with him, undertaking to assuage his solitude, bearing him two children, meeting his friend and admirers, she maintained a cool comprehension along with her compassion for Picasso the man that shows to delightful advantage here. For Françoise Gilot has the capacity to reveal the man in his intimate and professional dealings, and Picasso is superlative, inimitable copy. Witness Picasso dangling his agents, foremost among them Kahnweller, fancing with his friends Braque and Matisse, playing cat and mouse with the women in his life -- wife Olga, Marie Therese Walter, Dora Marr, Françoise and her successor Jacqueline Roque. But the author has the capacity as well to show Picasso the artist: she quotes him on painting, describes his method of work in painting, sculpture, pottery. Picasso himself is so articulate that he defies other description; au fond, art and the artist are subversive. His re-marks on art include not only his own but that of his foremost colleagues, Matisse and Braque, Miro, Legor, Chagall...All his encounters here are formed by his own formidable temperament, and recalled in satisfying detail by the woman who shared them. An intimate, vivid, above all intelligent and authentic portrait of Picasso, with its twin elements of love and art, this should sell like mad. And rightly.
It's high spirited reading.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781681373195
Page Count: 384
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A sumptuous, nostalgic ode to a disappearing landscape
An oversized album compiled in response to the recent omission by the Oxford Junior Dictionary of many natural-science words, including several common European bird, plant, and animal species, in favor of more current technological terms.
In his introduction, Macfarlane laments this loss, announcing his intention to create “a spellbook for conjuring back these lost words.” Each lost word is afforded three double-page spreads. First, the letters of each lost word are sprinkled randomly among other letters and an impressionistic sketch in a visual puzzle. This is followed by an acrostic poem or riddle describing essential qualities of the object, accompanied by a close-up view. A two-page spread depicting the object in context follows. Morris’ strong, dynamic watercolors are a pleasure to look at, accurate in every detail, vibrant and full of life. The book is beautifully produced and executed, but anyone looking for definitions of the “lost words” will be disappointed. The acrostic poems are subjective, sophisticated impressions of the birds and animals depicted, redolent with alliteration and wordplay, perhaps more appropriate for creative writing prompts than for science exploration. This book is firmly rooted in the English countryside, celebrating such words as “conker,” “bramble,” and “starling” (invasive in North America), but many will cross over for North American readers. A free “Explorer’s Guide” is available online.
A sumptuous, nostalgic ode to a disappearing landscape . (Picture book/poetry. 10-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4870-0538-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Anansi Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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