Book Description
This beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated introduction to contemporary color offers working artists valuable insight into traditional color theory while examining the effective use of color in digital applications and 3D design work. Written by a leading design educator whose work is widely exhibited, Contemporary Color features a balanced examination of theory and its practical application in a technology-driven world. Topics range from color perception, color harmonies, pigments, colorants, and paints to digital color and 3D design. An intriguing discussion of the psychological impact of color and the future of color add a stimulating dimension to the book. Thoughtful contributions on creativity and best practices round out the inclusive coverage.
Customer Reviews:
Commentary on Contemporary Color.......2007-09-16
I found this to be an ecellent book on the subject of color and it's relationship to the art, graphic, and design world.
I would have loved to have taken the course which uses this book as their study guide art the Art Institute of Tampa, but they only deal with Degree seeking students.
You will find it very relative to the use of color in the Art, Graphic, and Design areas, especailly in the practical use of color in the real world.
Customer Reviews:
one of the best books on artmaking I've ever read.......2007-07-08
I read this book cover to cover, finding it both engaging and inspiring. I've studied plenty of other books on color, and this one doesn't take the place of detailed works on various color wheels and apporaches to mixing color. But! If, as an artist, I could own only one book on color, this is the one I'd choose -- because I know I can come back to it any time for more inspiration.
This book seemed to turn on a "color ideas" section of my brain, so I'd go to bed imagining colors to try the next morning, and dream in more colors too.
I'm especially impressed that the author presents a full range of approaches to color and painting. His own work is interesting but nothing I'd want to do myself, but he's confident and humble enough to include the work of many other artists as well.
Don't miss this one!
increase your color awareness:LeClair has good advice........2007-06-13
I was fortunate to study with a color aware painter Paul Wieghardt,52-53. Not all of the painters who studied with him are all that good in color: Robert Indiana, Leon Golub,H.C. Westermann,Jack Beal. But, this book brought back to me how Wieghardt was knowledgeable about color.He studied with Klee. Klee is one of the artists I find inspiring in color. I don't think Diebenkorn is all that good in color. I prefer his work in greys.Grey is color but ,I think artists that are capable of brilliant use are the best.In my own case, I grew in confidence in color ,as I was aware of color when I was fifteen.Instruction from other artists, who you like for their color... helps.There are instructors who have different taste in color. Some will like your work and others will not.This is a book stands alone in a difficult area that many fail to teach.However, he should discuss those artists who use color with sensitivity, daring.... artists who have variety in their use of color.LeClairs emphasis is on American artists.This book does a fine job as far as it goes... you need books on Matisse ,Klee, Bonnard,Cezanne. LeClair acknowledges different approaches such as those chapters on opart, expressionism ,conceptual art. The latter is a chapter that could be expanded.I once told the collagist Robert Nickle well known in Chicago that I liked his color. He was happy to hear that from me! He said.His color is subtle,shows sensitivityI have read a lot of books on color,including the British scholar John Gage. Unlike Gage the beginner will have no difficulty reading and gaining help from this book.I quarrel with the selection of plates ,but value the discussion here.
excellent.......2006-12-14
I feel I have a greatly increased understanding of the uses of color. This book doesn't make good/bad assertions, it just explains what is done, why, with examples. I make better color decisions now.
useless!.......2005-12-09
A book not good enough for beginners ...really more of a how-to-paint magazine lacking actual info on how to paint...better to study masters and take classes
My favorite edit.......2004-10-16
I edited this book many years ago and STILL consult it about color questions. (Yeah, I'm an editor, but I used to be an artist--one who, while I was still painting, desperately needed a book like this. And after that, needed it even more when I chose art history as my muse.)
Am I prejudiced toward this book? Yes, of course. For instance, I love Diebenkorn's work and helped choose the painting that graces the cover. And Charles Le Clair, the author, taught me so much, even though we sometimes did battle over his writing quirks (and my editing ones).
I see now, more than a decade after Color in Contemporary Painting was first published, that even though the paintings Charles used to explicate various uses of color are still valid in that context, perhaps a 21st-century update of some kind may be called for. BUT: Really, how much does color use change in major ways that differ from what Charles has presented?
SO: Here is a plea: Suggest some newer examples. I will forward appropriate ones to the publisher.
Average customer rating:
- Once you get started--Once you get past the beginning chapters
- Soul Survivor. . .
- Keep Up the Good Work Chaka
- Great book!
- 3 -1/2 stars defaults to 4 here. ;o)
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Chaka! Through the Fire
Chaka Khan , and
Tonya Bolden
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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ASIN: 1579548261 |
Book Description
It started with a difficult childhood in Chicago, wild teenage ways (including a stint as a Black Panther), and nights as a fifty-dollar performer in raucous clubs. Then came Rufus and the first hits, a solo career, and the addictions that so often accompany superstardom. But Chaka fought back and beat her demons-physical, emotional, and spiritual. Today, she's herself at last, with renewed ties to her family, her own record label, and a foundation to help women and children in crisis. Chaka! will be a delicious treat for the legion of 'Chakaholics' worldwide who have grown up to the sound of her incomparable voice-a voice of joy and pain, rage and redemption, heartbreak and healing. Yet it's also a celebration of the staying power of rebels and free spirits. Chaka! is a book for the generation of women-black and white-who came of age in the turbulent 1960s, who surfed the first and second waves of Feminism to come boldly into their own power.
Customer Reviews:
Once you get started--Once you get past the beginning chapters.......2007-06-21
It begins kind of boring because she is talking about people we really don't care about (her relatives), but once she starts talking about her teen years, her black power years, her marriage, her sucess, it is very interesting!!! It is more like listening to her talk than it is "literary", but I'm glad to get info on Chaka anyway I can!!!
Soul Survivor. . ........2006-08-31
Recently checked out this book and thought it was not bad as celebrity memoirs go. Though the book is a collaborative effort, it is unmistakeably the voice of Chaka Khan. She frankly discusses both the successes, spoils and the pressures of an unexpectedly rapid rise to pop stardom. As the powerhouse tomboy of seventies soul music, Chaka Khan created a amazing body of work with the integrated pop/rock/soul band Rufus. On her own, she has been less successful but no less interesting. Indeed, she is now getting her well-deserved props for the white-hot trail she blazed in pop/R&B music. At the same time, she is also upfront about her legendary drug problems, romantic failings and her flaws as a parent. All told, this is a quick read, enjoyable and very down-to-earth.
Keep Up the Good Work Chaka.......2006-01-05
This opening comment is directed to the writer who titled their review; "Chaka Uncut".
Aretha gave birth to her first child when she was thirteen years of age. She most certainly could be Chaka's momma. As we used to say in the neighborhood a very looong time ago...."So talk what you know!"
A good read. Boring if you are looking for lots of juicy details about intimate and private portions of the author's life.
I believe this is an honest and forthright book that makes Chaka transparent before her fans and the world. Chaka's drug addiction and addled behavior was a well know industry secret.
It's good to know she is clean and moving forward with her life. She purports to be a Christian these days. Lets all wish her the best.
In Uncharacteristic Charity,
Miss Ross
Great book!.......2005-02-06
Too bad not enough people know about Chaka Khan in 2005.
One great female vocalist.
This is a great book.
3 -1/2 stars defaults to 4 here. ;o).......2005-01-05
I truly enjoyed this memoir written by Chaka Khan and Tonya Bolden and would recommend it to any Chaka Khan fan or anyone curious as to how this siren of song came to be and lived.
I've been a Chaka fan since childhood. She is my favorite all-time vocalist. My father bought Rufus' first album but I didn't pay much attention until the second, "Rags to Rufus". Chaka's raw primal energy on the microphone had me hooked from the first guitar riff of "You Got the Love" and "Tell Me Something Good". The third album, "Rufusized", sealed my fate as a lifelong Rufus and Chaka Khan fan. I would sit, listen and ogle over the album covers for hours on end. In my naive young mind, Chaka Khan was the epitome of womanhood. I wanted to be her. All at once this woman was incredibly talented, beautiful, vivacious, tender... exuding tremendous confidence, power and an animal-like sensuality. I would shake my braids loose, dress up in my summer halter and bell-bottoms and dance about the family room doing that side-to-side-jerk-shimmy thing that was her trademark. The band's appearances on shows like Bandstand and Soul Train were moments that I lived for. My father even bought my first guitar to help appease my obsession. It was only much later that I discovered all that glitters is not gold... in regard to my idol and otherwise. My first live Chaka experience was at a mid-80's concert in the Chicago area. She was good... but clearly trashed and suffering. It broke my heart. My adulation remains however, and I'd always yearned to know her story.
The thing that I enjoyed most about the book is the conveyance of her personality through the words. Her candid expression and frankness are qualities that I deeply appreciate. Her matter-of-fact sense of humor tends to come out of nowhere. From the first mention of her first-born you can sense the guilt that haunted her career, having left her child for long periods to pursue her career. Others have remarked on the brevity and lack of detail throughout some periods of her career (if not MOST of it). I would agree. Though personal and to the point, her recollections are fairly vague. I don't know if she was limited to a certain number of pages, by deadlines, or simply couldn't recall those times through the haze of substance abuse. I will say that I wished there were more... much more. (C'mon Chaka... girl if you're gonna write it... write it) Perhaps the intent was to focus on a few specific moments and what she pulled from those experiences. To the self-dubbed "in-the-moment gal", I gather everything else was irrelevant. I would like to know more about her rise with Rufus beyond the formative years, more detail on the inter-relationships (she could've devoted an entire chapter to her and Tony Maiden alone), inspiration for songs that she penned and adventures on the road. Most importantly, more on where that voice derived it's passion and fire. She seems to have completed this book for the purposes of exorcising demons, rather than putting focus on the beauty and legend that she created. In a way the book IS optimistic, in the sense that she feels that she has now gotten the upper hand on her demons. She continues to look forward, taking each day as it comes. I wish her the very best.
Book Description
The poet's journey begins in the heart. Here is a memoir from a poet that reminds us to pursue writing as much as love.
Moving beyond the loss of both his father and brother, E. Ethelbert Miller tells the story of how love survived in his family. When Miller was about ten years old, his father told him how he could have left his mother. Years later, now a writer and a father, Miller looks back on that simple remark and how it shaped him. In Fathering Words, Miller explores his development as an African American writer, the responsibility of his chosen career, and his ambitions to raise the consciousness of black people. Gradually, Miller comes to see that when his father told him he could have left his mother that he was attempting to raise his consciousness. In his own way, his father was warning Miller not to take things for granted, that one's own world could easily and quickly change. And in his quiet way that he loved him.
Miller's poetry often relies on the voices of women. Here in Fathering Words, Miller has chosen to write his memoir in two voices. He places his sister's voice on the page next to his own. The result is a wonderful duet that tells two stories woven together into one.
Fathering Words is Miller's moving tribute and a powerful memoir.
Customer Reviews:
Fathering Grief and Discovering Love.......2003-03-25
Fathering Words portrays the grief and loss one man feels when his father and brother suddenly die within two years of each other. Their deaths cause Miller to recall how seldom he and his father spoke, and yet, he always knows his father loves the family. That singular way one person cares for and remembers another is at the spiritual core of this book. What does a son inherit from the men in his family when there are few conversations? Miller compares his life and his dreams to that of his older brother, and maps out the goals for his own future as he marries, has his own children, and embarks on his career as a poet. He punctuates the story with the gracious voice of his older sister, Marie, as he imagines how the family might have looked to her. Marie carries the secrets and stories that filter down to the younger son as rumors and tales. She becomes a source of information and verification of the family history. Using a network of subtle references to religion, classical and jazz music, basketball and baseball, as well as motifs from literary works, Miller provides a number of avenues by which a broad spectrum of readers will be able to enter and inhabit his poignant text.
For those who want to write about their own lives, the book provides a model for creating scenes in small vignettes that become interconnected by the end of the chapter, as opposed to providing a direct narrative path from the beginning of a life to the present. For writers who aspire to become published, and perhaps even famous, Miller chronicles the encounters he has with a number of writers, revealing the history of African American literature in the past thirty years.
I teach Fathering Words in a senior-level college course on autobiography at the University of Southern Indiana. ...
Fathering Grief and Discovering Love.......2003-03-25
Fathering Words portrays the grief and loss one man feels when his father and brother suddenly die within two years of each other. Their deaths cause Miller to recall how seldom he and his father spoke, and yet, he always knows his father loves the family. That singular way one person cares for and remembers another is at the spiritual core of this book. What does a son inherit from the men in his family when there are few conversations? Miller compares his life and his dreams to that of his older brother, and maps out the goals for his own future as he marries, has his own children, and embarks on his career as a poet. He punctuates the story with the gracious voice of his older sister, Marie, as he imagines how the family might have looked to her. Marie carries the secrets and stories that filter down to the younger son as rumors and tales. She becomes a source of information and verification of the family history. Using a network of subtle references to religion, classical and jazz music, basketball and baseball, as well as motifs from literary works, Miller provides a number of avenues by which a broad spectrum of readers will be able to enter and inhabit his poignant text.
For those who want to write about their own lives, the book provides a model for creating scenes in small vignettes that become interconnected by the end of the chapter, as opposed to providing a direct narrative path from the beginning of a life to the present. For writers who aspire to become published, and perhaps even famous, Miller chronicles the encounters he has with a number of writers, revealing the history of African American literature in the past thirty years.
I teach Fathering Words in a senior-level college course on autobiography at the University of Southern Indiana. Readers who want more information about the author might start with his website ....
A gift from heaven.......2002-06-18
If I had received this book five years ago, it would have saved me five years of pain and confusion. Fathering Words is the tangible witness of a man's journey into and through his writing life. Unlike many writing memoirs, it is not a how to, or even a how, but a detatched narrative of his life as a poet. He is eerily objective about the mistakes and choices he has made, and uses occasional passages from his sister to broaden the view he gives the reader.
I learned more about the writing process, more about the yearning that true writers feel, and more about the lack of understanding that non-artists have about the whys and wherefores. If you know an African-American man who yearns to "father words", buying this book for him will be the best show of support you can give him.
Remarkable.......2001-06-04
Fathering Words is a deeply moving memoir. Ethelbert Miller's description of his father will remain with the reader for a very long time. His decision to write the book using both his and his sister's voice is unique and it works.It's definitely a keeper.
Poetic Fathering.......2000-11-01
This book is so beautifully written, so touchingly direct that I called Howard University to search out the author and tell him what a compelling book he had written. Anyone who is a father, about to be a father or contemplating being a father (whether African-American or not) will find this book touching in what it says about the frequently mute love between fathers and their sons. African-Americans families are often love mutes like Mr. Miller's-- too busy working, too focused on the quotidien to express love outside provision of food and shelter. Out of such silent, seemingly fallow ground, E. Ethelbert Miller heaps up words of love and power, fathering not only his own father, but his whole family in some of the most poetic prose you will ever read.
Book Description
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color
is a ground-breaking anthology of eighteen new and recent works by African American, Asian American, Latina American and Native American playwrights. This compelling anthology includes works by award-winning and well-known playwrights such as Anna Deavere Smith, Cherrie Moraga, Pearl Cleage, Marga Gomez and Spiderwoman, along with notable emerging writers such as Kia Corthron, Louella Dizon, Diana Son and Terry Gomez. These are women who are breaking traditional boundaries in writing and engaging difficult themes with originality and integrity.
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color
explores how these women of color address the various stereotypes imposed on them, and seeks to uncover the real faces behind the masks.
This is the first anthology to display such an abundance of talents from such a wide range of today's women playwrights. The plays tackle a variety of topics--from the playful to the painful. Women of color are speaking out in the theater, addressing such controversial issues as rape and other violence against women; media stereotypes and urban rebellion; the impact of poverty on individuals, families and communites; abortion and the relationship of woman to her body, the relationship of women to each other, and the response of a given community to crisis. The plays also represent varying approaches to playmaking, including solo performance and collective creation.
Despite the number of women of color writing for the theater, resisting invisibility remains the greatest challenge for these writers. This volume addresses this question of invisibility, and the fact that works by women of color are not produces as much as works by whites and males. Furthermore, it includes an invaluable appendix of published plays by women of color, which will direct readers to the growing body of published dramatic literature by the many talented writers in this group.
As contemporary works awaiting to be read, produced and absorbed, these plays offer a wellspring; they are a source to sustain, refresh and renew. Offering a stunning array of voices and play styles,
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color
allows the reader a looks into a theater of redemption and transformation--the theater that women of color are making, living and dreaming.
Customer Reviews:
Literature 112 at Olive-Harvey College.......2006-09-14
Admittedly, I am biased towards this book because I was an intern for Roberta Uno's New Works for a New World some years ago. This review is, however, based on my students's evaluation of the book. I teach in an urban setting. Students of color--black and hispanic--comprise the bulk of our population. I ordered the book anticipating a class of 20 or so black and hispanic women. I found myself teaching a class of 10 black men. They loved each play. Their favorite, by far, was The Queen's Garden. Do not be afraid to assign this book to any group of students. The work is so exciting that any theater lover, woman or man, young or old, of color or other, can find a lot to enjoy.
Book Description
From the rosy tint of wind-reddened cheeks to the first flush of arousal, from cherry blossoms to PeptoBismol, pink is a sweet, intimate, fragile and sickening shade. Few colors trigger more contradictory associations and emotions--tender, childish, plastic, pornographic--or are so symbolic of both high and low culture. Pink is sometimes awkward, even embarrassing, but on the other hand it is enjoyed and associated with the idea of beauty. Artists of all hues, from Jean-Honore Fragonard to Pablo Picasso, Caspar David Friedrich, Louise Bourgeois, Sylvie Fleury or Pipilotti Rist, have studied it in their works. The examples collected here include those and more, featuring Caspar David Friedrich, the early Joseph Beuys, Willem De Kooning, Andy Warhol and Yves Klein, not to mention contemporaries like Christo, Nan Goldin, Vanessa Beecroft, Wolfgang Tillmans, Takashi Murakami and Pipilotti Rist. In addition, Pink gathers work by a group of young talents from the Bauhaus University in Vienna and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where working students cooperated over an interactive web site to investigate the color's most current perceptions and uses. Their final selection suggests, among other things, that viewer reactions are determined by cultural factors. For example, the positive perception of pink in Japan seems strikingly masculine to the Western viewer; every year the country pauses to contemplate the pink blossoms of the cherry trees, which, after just a few days, drift like snow to the ground, symbols of the death of the samurai, who falls in the bloom of youth. As the cherry trees blossom, this book on the nature of pink makes its debut, an unusual intercultural discourse.
Customer Reviews:
Pink: The Exposed Color in Contemporary Art and Culture.......2007-01-12
I thought "Pink" to be a wonderful mixture of artistic styles. It captures emotions of humor, politics, sex, sorrow, awakening, happiness,and more.
Often thought of as a kitchy color, you will find so much more to the color and word "Pink" by purchasing this book.
Average customer rating:
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Mark Adams A Way With Color
Chronicle Books LLC Staff
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
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Binding: Paperback
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- True Colors = 4-Star Palmer Read
- Diana Palmer's Worst
- Great, but too much business talk
- It Suck
- This is definitley one of my favorites!
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True Colors
Diana Palmer
Manufacturer: HQN Books
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Customer Reviews:
True Colors = 4-Star Palmer Read.......2007-03-22
When she was an 18-year old waitress in Billings, MT, Meredith Ashe lost her heart and her virginity to experienced and wealthy businessman Cy Harden. Falsely accused of theft and infidelity, Meredith fled to Chicago. Almost immediately, she ran into (or he ran into her) billionaire Henry Tennison and his bodyguard, Mr. Smith. Smitten with Meredith, Tennison marries her, takes care of her and her new baby, and molds her into a polished socialite and shrewd businesswoman. Five years later, Meredith's feelings of friendship and respect for Tennison are just beginning to bloom into something more when he is killed in a plane crash, leaving her to share control of his multinational corporation with his brother, Don.
Meredith, who is now known only as "Kip" Tennison, wants key mineral rights held by Cy Harden's company and is perfectly happy to take over Harden Properties and oust Cy in the process. When her aunt in Billings dies, Meredith takes the opportunity to return incognito as poor Meredith Ashe to scout out the situation. She immediately runs into Cy and accepts the waitressing job he offers her. This leaves Meredith serving customers (particularly the talkative Harden Properties executives) in the restaurant by day, secretly taking care of Tennison business at night, and fending off Cy's attemps to get her back in bed in between.
Naturally, Meredith does end up back in bed with Cy and, while the physical spark is still there, so too are all the old problems. Cy still distrusts Meredith and thinks she is beneath him socially. Meredith is still hurt by Cy's past and present treatment of her, and is more determined than ever to spring her trap and exact revenge. While all the sexual sparring is occurring, Cy is trying to secure his company against the mysterious, predatory Kip Tennison and Tennison International. On her end, Meredith finds herself fighting a business war on two fronts as she maneuvers not only against Cy, but also defends herself against Don Tennison's treacherous power grab.
From the reviews already posted, there seems to be a great divergence of opinion about this book. For my part, I think it is one of Diana Palmer's better books. That said I did have to laugh at, and agree with, some of the criticisms about the book. Cy was pretty boorish and condescending throughout the book. He was openly boastful of his sexual prowess and social standing. Meredith was apparently good enough for sex, but he otherwise treated her like trailer park trash, being continually physically and emotionally rough with her. He seemed to have few personal relationships of any note, and was even distant with his own mother, knowing very little about her past or her true nature. Meredith was at turns a weak doormat and hard and manipulative businesswoman. I actually liked her when she was being hard and vindictive--I think she really needed to teach Cy (and Don) and few well-earned lessons--and didn't like it when she easily drifted back into marshmallow mode. I enjoyed all the corporate intrigue, but did not particularly care for the final outcome. (And whatever happened to poor, loyal McGee?) I also agree that there were a number a far-fetched propositions (Cy's lack of knowledge about his mother, Meredith's amazing transformation, the timing and outcome of Cy's accident, etc.), but they didn't bother me overly much.
All in all, I liked Cy and Meredith almost in spite of themselves. I liked the personal tensions and all the business wrangling and backstabbing. I liked that all of the parties who needed to eat crow actually ended up having a few bites of it. I liked how the secondary characters--including Myrna Harden, Great-uncle Lawrence, and Don--were represented. I liked the realistic portrayal of Blake, Meredith's (and Cy's) young son. And I *loved* the strong, silent Mr. Smith and his pet iguana, Tiny. This was a good, 4-star book for me.
Diana Palmer's Worst.......2006-09-06
Ugh! I hated this book, I could not stand Meredith I thought she was selfish, and just plain rude and mean. I felt really bad for Cy and if I was him I would not have taken Meredith back. I love Diana Palmer, and I think she is an amazing author, but this book was horrible.
Great, but too much business talk.......2006-09-04
I thought this book was great. The love story is unique, however, I did have a hard time being interested in so much business talk. It's not good for someone who does not understand the business language. But yet again, the fact that Meredith was head of a company made her a powerful character. It did not make her weak. Every detail was well put out, good ending, no loose ends, an overall great story. I believe it is one of Palmer's best. The only thing lacking was that it had too much business monologue.
It Suck.......2006-07-17
I hated this book so much. I though Meredith was completely weak for marrying another man that she did not love just because she was too scared to make it on her ownn. And I thought it was unfair her to let another man raise Cy's child. I actually felt bad for Cy not Meredith. This is the first Palmer book that the heroine came back to the heroe after sleeping with another man.
This is definitley one of my favorites!.......2005-06-09
Reading some of these reviews I have to say that they were pretty harsh. I mean its just a story its not like its real life or anything. Well anyway I thought that the story was great and I have been reading Diana Palmer's books for a while and every one of them has been excellent. For people out there that are looking for a good steamy romance look no further than True Colors. I mean what fun is there in reading a story if your just going to nit pick about it?
Book Description
Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he invented, almost single-handedly, what became known as soul. And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could and couldn't do. As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, Brother Ray is "candid, explicit, sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always warm, touching, and deeply human-just like his music."
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read.......2007-10-06
It was great getting to know Brother Ray. I've always loved him and now I love him even more.
Ray.......2006-11-10
The book is great and I am enjoying getting to know Ray through his words.
Oh yeah.......2006-08-27
"The most clear-eyed and honest celebrity autobiography I've read."
That back cover blurb, by somebody famous I've never heard of, is exactly right, including some details I'd probably omit from my own autobiography. What makes this book wonderful is, as you'd expect, Ray's voice. You've heard it in his music, and now you can read it in his book. I highly recommend it.
"Don't change a goddamn word!".......2006-05-05
David Ritz is a lucky man. In the course of his life he wrote autobiographies for Soul legends as Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles. These bios were the result of long and intimate conversations, a fan boy's dream come true. All these autobiographies are interesting not only for the lives they portray but also for the era they take place in. At the time these artists were at the height of there career America was changing. During the sixties when the civil rights movement reached its peak they had there biggest selling records and were pushing the boundaries of the genre they were operating in.
It is often argued that Ray Charles and artist like him played an important part in the civil rights movement. His records crossed over from R&B to Pop, allowing the white middleclass teenagers to be introduced to Black culture. Not everybody had the patience or commitment to go to a civil rights rally; everybody can enjoy a good piece of music. Not only did Ray cross over he wrote some new rules as well. Ray was one of the first to combine Jazz, Soul and Country, appealing to a very broad audience of all colors and dominations. Ray was as much appreciated by the college kids up north and the hillbillies down south. Ray integrated concerts and gave the black man a human face, which at the time it was sadly lacking in mainstream white America.
David Ritz describes his conversations as some of the most frank yet closed he's had throughout his career. Ray never left out the sordid details of his life; the drugs and infidelity is vividly portrait. All of it written down in raw language, Ray liked to swear! At times you forget Ray is blind as he describes the women in his life, "Man the things I've seen" he even exclaims when he talks about his nights of sex on the road. Yet he also found Ray lacking the capability to reflect on the why's in his life. In contrast to Marvin Gaye who thoroughly analyzed himself, Ray seemed to ride the current, act on instinct and gut, without asking why he made the decisions he made. We find Ray Charles claiming that he did drugs, drugs never did him. Ray tells us his music comes from his Soul, he sang it as he felt it. Inevitably it was his unwillingness or unable ness to reflect that made him such a robust performer. When David Ritz asked Ray a couple of years later if he wanted some revisions for a reprint Ray exclaimed "Don't change a goddamn word!".
The Genius of Soul Recounts His Life--In His Own Style.......2006-04-07
This is a very real, sometimes funny, sometimes bitter, sometimes poignant memoir from The Genius of Soul himself, of the first 45 or so years of his life. His frank, no-holds-barred style, frequent use of strong language, and free-living attitude toward drugs and sex may put some people off; but the book is well worth reading for his candid account of his upbringing influenced by two strong and loving women, learning to be independent and deal with his disability without self-pity, and his rise in the music business to a hugely successful career. I found it refreshing and enjoyable, because Ray put himself out to readers just the way he was-faults, charms, humor, strong feelings and powerful talent-and his story makes us want to remember what a blessing he was to the world. I wish he had written a follow-up of his later life.
Average customer rating:
- Great mix of enthusiasm and erudition
- Fela Deserves Better
- Surprisingly Good
- A Masterpice on a Musical Icon
- Everybody Say YEAH YEAH!!
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Fela: Life And Times Of An African
Michael Veal
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway
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Fela In Concert
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Arrest The Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (African Expressive Cultures)
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ASIN: 1566397650 |
Book Description
Why black people suffer today
Why black people don't have money today
Why black people haven't travelled to the moon today
THIS is the reason why:
We were in our homeland, without troubles
We were minding our own business
Some people came from a faraway land
They fought us and took our land
They took our people as slaves and destroyed our towns
Our troubles started at that time
Our riches they took away to their land
In return they gave us their colony
They took our culture away from us
They gave us their culture which we don't understand
Black people, we don't know ourselves
We don't know our ancestral heritage
We fight each other every day
We are never together at all —
THAT is why black people suffer today
Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African-American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music.
Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics—charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution—made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970's as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980's and was recognized in the 1990's as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution.
In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African-America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such a historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing—if only temporarily—a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.
Customer Reviews:
Great mix of enthusiasm and erudition.......2007-07-25
I have just finished this book and it was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read. To be sure, this is an academic book, and it reads like one. But Veal is an excellent writer and his tone is appropriate for the depth he brings to his subject. This book takes the reader on a rich journey through about 50 years of African popular music. But it also does much more than that. I learned a huge amount about Fela's roots, the political background of his family, and the cultural and political backdrop of post-independence Nigeria. Since I am interested in African music and African culture, I read this book alongside Karl Meier's "This House Has Fallen" and they made perfect sense together. I really understood Fela as an embodiment of Nigeria's triumphs and tragedies.
The review by "spice-the-cat" leaves me baffled. It doesn't sound as if this reviewer has read the same book as the rest of us. Yes, Veal does take an admiring stance on Fela, but throughout the book he also takes Fela to task for all of his inconsistencies. There are several sections that examine the inconsistent and problematic aspects of Fela's behaviour toward women. Fela's poor treatment of his musicians is touched on several times. There is an entire chapter devoted to the theme of Fela's privileged origins, the de facto class advantage it gave him over the musicians, women and other members of his "Kalakuta" commune, and his abuse of this advantage. The physical "discipline" meted out to commune members is also chronicled several times (chapter five and seven), and again, Veal takes a clearly critical stance. Fela's relationship with the "magician" Professor Hindu is presented in a way that reveals it to be fraudulent and delusional. Veal's way of highlighting these points is not polemical or simplistically judgmental. He presents all of the available evidence, pro and con, and allows the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. I think this approach is appropriate for such a controversial, complex and hotly-contested figure as Fela. I agree with the other reviews on this site, all of which praise the book's objectivity.
As far as the academic tone of the book, I think it is great to have a topic in black/African popular music treated with the seriousness that it deserves. This ultimately does justice to the subject.
I urge anyone interested in African music to read this book!
Fela Deserves Better.......2007-06-30
I have mixed feelings about this book and while any book about Fela Kuti is to be welcomed, I don't think this is the definitive one and I do think that Fela's legacy deserves better.
There is no doubt that the author is probably the most well informed of all those who have written about this iconic figure, the man who was the most important musician ever to come out of Africa. The research is unquestionably thorough and there is as much detail as any admirer would wish to know. The problem, for me, is that any biographer should be invisible in the work he's writing. Michael Veal, unfortunately, isn't and at times his presence looms larger than the subject of his book.
Throughout the narrative there are long sections where the author writes an analysis of Fela and his relationship to the African experience. These passages are written in the most stilted and uncomfortable academic manner. The effect of this is to give the impression that the work is a cut and paste job between outside sources and one of the author's academic theses, an impression which renders the book an uncomfortable mix of good biography and dull collegiate essaying. There were times when reading these sections I wondered just what Fela would have made of this awkward literary style - and I suspect he would have been dismissive and written a song which parodied it.
The other fault with the book is the distinct lack of objectivity from the author. That Michael Veal is in awe of the man is not in doubt, but awe is not the best starting place for a biography. The dichotomy of the contrasting aspects of Fela's personality is acknowledged on many occasions, but there is absolutely no attempt to analyse the negative aspects of his character. There is no examination of how Fela's stance in representing the poor and downtrodden contrasts with his ill treatment of his band members, there is no analysis of how, later in life such a forceful personality came under the influence of such an obvious charlatan as Dr Hindu and there is no mention, whatsoever, of the violence and brutality meted out by Fela's own people to those who lived in his commune. Details of which are well documented by other authors and numerous journalists. A biography should look at all aspects of the subject's life and this one fails the reader with excessive bias and a lack of balance.
Michael Veal's involvement in maintaining interest in Fela and his music is to be welcomed. His active support in the ten years since the death of this icon and his involvement in facilitating the current availability of much of Fela's early, and more obscure work, is nothing short of admirable. Perhaps the final step would be a wholesale edit of this biography to produce a balanced and more readable work. Then, perhaps, we would have the definitive story of Fela Kuti.
Surprisingly Good.......2004-06-01
Fela was a true artist - a man committed to his music, who was intelligent and aware enough to see the disgrace of what his country had become. Despite beatings, arrests and the murder of his mother, he simply refused to remain silent about what was going on in Nigeria and Africa.
But if his music was merely okay, he'd be a footnote in music history. As it was, Fela produced some of the most challenging, abrasive, rhythmic and simply awesome music ever produced.
I thought that it would be impossible for a book to capture and explain this truly wild soul - but this one did a very good job. Amazingly, it began life as an academic paper. "Amazingly" because it is vibrant, detailed and completely entertaining.
A Masterpice on a Musical Icon.......2002-12-10
Michael - has managed to do what very authors have been able to do with Fela's Biography....lay down a balanced view point of the great but yet very complicated man. This book here caputres not just the actions but the Philosophy behind such actions. What i found very informative about this book is the amount of education I received on the History of African music - it kinda sets you on the right track to research more. Fela was no doubt a legend during and after his lifetime and Mr veal captured that well. I very good read - a must read for any african/african american youth.
Everybody Say YEAH YEAH!!.......2001-10-17
First I 'd like to thank Michael Veal for the work he did on this book. It is the best book I have read so far. My parents are Nigerian, however I have lived in the US all my life. I have always been a big fan of Fela (introduced to his music by my Dad), but never fully understood the reason he did some things he did, or some of his lyrics. Now I do. The book is really deep-rooted, cutting across all boudries, giving me an insight into Nigeria and the man called FELA in a way nobody has ever been able to. This book has changed my attitude towards life forever. May God bless Fela, and may he rest in peace forever!
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