Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth

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The Best

Emery Roth: New York's underappreciated architect

Lost Elegance in the Architecture of Emory Roth

Mansions in the Clouds: The Skyscraper Palazzi of Emery Roth
Steven Ruttenbaum
Manufacturer: Balsam Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0917439090

Customer Reviews:

The Best.......2006-03-01

This is by far the best book I've ever read about Emery Roth. So good!

Emery Roth: New York's underappreciated architect.......2001-10-03

Ruttenbaum's book on Emery Roth (1871-1948) is a biography as well as a survey of the buildings he designed. The author successfully explains Roth's role in creating high-rise hotels and apartment buildings that combined attractive exteriors with more efficient, more livable interiors than had been the case before Roth. Architects like Wright, Pei, and LeCorbusier may be better known, but their buildings were designed as works of art, not buildings to be lived in. In contrast, Roth's buildings combined functionality and attractiveness. As Ruttenbaum walks us through Roth's career, we see how he gradually fine-tuned his ability to craft functional floor plans. Roth's works include such New York landmarks as the Beresford, Warwick, San Remo, St. Moritz, Ritz Tower, and hundreds of others.

Two small quibbles regarding this book: Why did Ruttenbaum omit the Hotel Dixie (now Hotel Carter), which was noteworthy for having a long-distance bus station in its basement, complete with turntable? And why did the author use the last chapter to fawn uncritically over the works of Emery Roth's sons, who, lacking their father's aesthetic sense, have produced buildings comprising the worst of 60s-era architecture? Ruttenbaum's book includes a multitude of photos, averaging roughly one per page, as well as 25 floor plans.

Lost Elegance in the Architecture of Emory Roth.......2000-06-01

In the impersonal concrete and glass caverns of New York City, one can still find survivors of a more gracious, yet jazz-age modern, era. Mansions in the Clouds introduces readers to the career and major buildings of architect Emory Roth. His residential hotels and apartment buildings graced the New York skyline with impressive profiles while retaining human scale and classical detailing. The exterior renderings, interior photographs, floor plans, and descriptive detail assist the reader in recapturing and appreciating the genius of Emory Roth. Tea at the Ritz has become an impossible dream, but the Beresford, San Remo, and other Roth-designed buildings remain as inspirations for any of today's architects who are eager to appropriate these masterpieces of the past and express them in a contemporary idiom. Most of all, the book is an indulgence for all of us who daydream of our own manison in the clouds.

Book Description

For more than 25 years, Jim Burns’s imaginative book covers have delighted the giants of the science fiction genre—Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke among them. In witty, informative commentary, filled with anecdotes and reminiscences, Burns himself explains the concepts and the process behind the creation of his spellbinding paintings. Several authors weigh in too, recalling their pleased reactions at seeing art that gave shape to their words and brought their visions to life.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Art.......2001-06-26

It's hard to find words that adequately describe the greatness of Jim Burns' artwork. You look at these works with a sense of wonder, amazement and envy.

Like Chris Moore, his attention to detail is astonishing. Every part of the picture is treated with equal importance. (I love the way he paints every blade of grass, every little pebble and every single leaf in his backgrounds.)

I have to confess, a lot of the SF books I have read were bought simply because Jim Burns did the cover. It's interesting to note that Burns was among many artists influenced by the British 1950s comic "Eagle", which featured the hugely popular story "Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future". When "Eagle" resurfaced in the 1980s I grew up reading this comic too.

I'm currently in my second year at art college. I'm a little wary of admitting that I like SF art because a lot of lecturers tend to look down on it. Maybe they believe it's too commercial. But at home this is the sort of art I like to do. Futuristic architecture especially.

Looking at Jim Burns' detailed paintings, you wonder if he suffers much from eyestrain. In the beginning of the book he mentions "airbrush thumb". Sitting at a keyboard might not be so comfortable either. Every artist has their cross to bear. With this book you could spend hours looking at just one painting.

Perhaps in the future, centuries from now, people will look at Jim Burns' work the way we look at the work of Hieronymous Bosch.

The master of color.......2001-03-25

Jim Burns deals in vivid, constrasting colors and deep shadows, shiny surfaces and rich textures, acrylics, oils, and digital media, humans and humanoids full of predatory tension and energy. His art is comparable to Eggleton's in terms of luster, but is far more detailed, defined, spacious.

Mr. Burns is almost excusively a science fiction artist, but he is not above doing fantasy. Included are the magnificent cover for Silverberg's "Lord Prestimion" and the covers for Duncan's "A Handful of Men" tetralogy, to mention a few. In any case, Mr. Burns seems to derive more inspiration from science fiction than fantasy - his sci-fi paintings just seem more alive. He is notorious for keeping to the letter of the subject material, and thus his artwork is full of detail. On a different note, I enjoyed the captions - written by Mr. Burns himself: they sparkle with wit and personality.

A few paintings - this is especially evident in some of the humans - do suffer from minor parallax problems: just observe the case of minor cross-eye in the finger-knitting heroine on the cover, or, alternatively, the similar figure on the painting for Bear's "/" ("Slant", not "Slash"). Otherwise, this is an indispensable book for lovers of fantastic art.

whoosh...!.......2001-01-05

I have loved Jim Burns's art since forever, and always regretted that I missed out getting a copy of his collection "Lightship" a few years back. So when "Transluminal" came out, I made sure to grab a copy hot off the presses, and I was definitely in swoon-mode as soon as I cracked the covers. Burns is simply the best SF illustrator of the last twenty-five years. This is not to say that there aren't tons of other great artists out there; Moebius and H.R. Giger are also amazing and wonderful. And I fondly remember the time when Richard Powers ruled the paperback world. But when the fashion in SF publishing turned from abstraction to narrative art, it all could have gone so very wrong. Fortunately, that was about the time when a young Welshman fresh out of the R.A.F. was beginning his career, and he has gone on to define the standard for beautiful jacket art. Burns combines old-master technique with a big and wild imagination, and his covers often make me buy books I might've passed up otherwise (in fact, I hate to say it, but the books aren't always as good as the pretty pictures). His baroque/organic gadgets, his ornately-sculpted spaceships, his lovely women and gorgeously bizarre aliens are all like dreams come true, and must give authors as many ideas as Burns gets from the stories he's assigned to illustrate. If only more SF films looked as good as Jim Burns's paintings (okay, well, "Babylon 5" did have some suspiciously Burnsian stuff in it...and a long time ago, Burns apparently did some pre-production work on "BladeRunner"...or so I heard). Anyway, if you love SF, and aren't snobbish about commercial art, this book is a great introduction into the world of a huge talent.

Transluminal - The Paintings of Jim Burns

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Transluminal - The Paintings of Jim Burns
Chris with Jim Burns Evans
Manufacturer: Paper Tiger
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HKJ2JS

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TRANSLUMINAL: The Paintings of Jim Burns
Burns. Jim
Manufacturer: Paper Tiger
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O98UJU

Customer Reviews:

An Essential Book.......2001-10-30

I am a serious, pro-amature who's been away from photography for quite a few years. When I treated myself to a Nikon N80 for my birthday this year, I knew that black and white photography was where I wanted to focus. Black and White Shots is an invaluable source for me for staging as well as lighting for black and white photography. I was able to look at pictures that caught my eye and read both description and a diagram of how the photographer put the shot together. Film type, f/stops, lighting types, positioning and notes about the shoot -- this book had it ALL!!! It told me the basics and allowed me to add my own creative touch to a photo session. Definitely a reference KEEPER!

Amazing book!.......2001-09-03

This book is one of the best in studio photography. you can even use the lighting and diagrams for color portrait.
I love this book, it's the best among all the other books i have in this field.

Excellent resource for any level of photographer.......2000-04-06

As with all of the Pro Lighting series of books, this latest edition adds insightful tips and tricks into the world of "pro" level B/W photography. Especially helpful are the detailed shot elements that allow you to very closely achieve results like those you see in print.

A must have to complete the collection. Do not miss this title.

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Framed Black and White photograph. Image Size=4.5 x 6 Image is a head shot of Dr. Sampson
John Sampson
Manufacturer: John Sampson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MLANHM

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Framed Black and White photograph. Image Size=7.25 x 8.25 Image is a shoulder and head shot of Dr. Alvarez
Walter C. Alvarez
Manufacturer: Walter C. Alvarez
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ML90IK

Book Description

"Carl Frankel has produced a challenging thought-piece which weaves the many facets of the business/sustainability prism into an integrated system of light appealing to both the head and the heart." - Beth Beloff, Director, Institute for Corporate Environmental Management.

In recent years, people have looked more and more to the business world to take their share of responsibility for the fast-deteriorating state of the Earth. But exactly how businesses should go about this task has remained something of a puzzle. Now, with In Earth's Company: Business, Environment, and the Challenge of Sustainability, well-known business and environment writer Carl Frankel deftly gathers the pieces of the puzzle together into a single, comprehensive volume.

Frankel describes the history and meaning of the term 'sustainable development' as the effective balancing of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity, and outlines key contributors to the concept - such as the Green consumer movement, the Brundtland Report, and the Earth Summit. He goes on to analyze how corporations have attempted to integrate environmental concerns into their operations through public environmental reporting, ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management, as well as current corporate trends such as zero waste, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Critical of current techniques for measuring environmental performance, Frankel then discusses emerging corporate strategies for improving the business record on the environment, as well as strategies for making the entire industrial system more sustainable, such as 'Factor 10,' industrial ecology, The Natural Step, and environmental accounting. Concluding that the business record to date regarding sustainability is at best uneven, Frankel calls for greater emphasis on collaboration, process and quality in all dimensions of business practice, as well as a 'new humanism' requiring corporations to be more sensitive to the full range of human concerns and to include social equity into the calculation of the 'bottom line.'

Lucid and authoritative, In Earth's Company offers provocative guidance and an intriguing glimpse into an area of key importance for the future. It will be of equal interest to business executives, environmentalists, and to ordinary citizens concerned about the state of the Earth.

Customer Reviews:

Thoughtful and informative.......2000-08-17

Whether you believe the greening of business is hype and greenwash, or that businesses are starting to play an important role in hastening the coming ecological age, In Earth's Company provides a good overview of the successes, failures, and challenges of corporate environmentalism.

Author Carl Frankel is the North American editor for Tomorrow magazine, a slick glossy publication from Sweden that is one of the better periodicals covering developments in business and the environment. Frankel makes good use of his broad knowledge of current events in environmental management and his book is full of stories and examples that go beyond the usual extremes of either finger pointing or hero worship.

Frankel does not attempt to demonstrate the overwhelming decline in global life support systems. He accepts that this has been well documented in many other places and focuses on how businesses have reacted to this overwhelming driving force.

Why are major corporations now starting to consider integrating sustainability into their strategies and operations? To answer this question requires an understanding of the four eras of corporate environmentalism

The first era of corporate environmentalism was the era of barebones regulatory compliance. Simply complying with the growing array of environmental laws developed in the 1960s and 70s kept corporate environmental management fully occupied.

After environmental catastrophes such as the release of 57,000 litres of methyl isocyanate from a Union Carbide plant into the air in Bhopal, India that killed and injured thousands, companies felt extreme pressure to disclose more to their stakeholders. The second era of increased disclosure began.

Out of increased disclosure, public accountability increased and companies began to make voluntary commitments to go "beyond compliance," the defining characteristic of the current third era of corporate environmentalism.

The fourth era of corporate environmentalism is just beginning. To achieve it, bigger, more creative, higher-level thinking - systems-level thinking - is required. Businesses have generally taken a narrow view of the nature and implications of sustainable development. Frankel believes that this needs to change before corporations can develop truly effective sustainability strategies. The key challenge is educational - a matter of changing mental models.

Tracing the evolution of four eras of corporate environmentalism, Frankel concludes that the business community may be on a sustainability trajectory it isn't quite aware of. I hope he is right. According to Frankel, the transition to the fourth era of corporate environmentalism is linked to the death of modernism and the transition to a post-modern, post-industrial culture. Drawing parallels to the dawn of the industrial age, we know something large and significant is happening, we're just not sure what the outcome will be.

Frankel calls for a new humanism - a new appreciation of the qualitative "depth dimension" of experience. The business axiom of "what gets measured gets managed" ignores the converse that what isn't measured (e.g. soulfulness, connectedness, meaning, artistry, etc.) gets discounted and ignored.

Frankel acknowledges the need for radical change. He traces the rise of green consumerism and the challenge of creating a consumer movement that puts sustained pressure on the corporate community to create meaningful change. At the same time, he is disturbed that what were once called "members of the public" or, better yet, "citizens," are now referred to as consumers. This is a symptom of a society whose underlying theme is "I buy, therefore I am." We need to become green citizens, not green consumers. The difference is one of underlying ideology versus passing issue.

Finally, Frankel argues that many of the concepts and technologies for creating a sustainable future have already been developed and are in place. He points to examples like zero waste design concepts that have produced fabric-dyeing factories where the water effluent is cleaner than the water brought in. Some innovative companies are leasing their products so that they sell a service (e.g. "cold beer") rather than a product (the refrigerator). This changes the cost of ownership drastically and more durable products and many other environmental innovations become economic. Micro-credit can help address some of the social justice and equity issues of sustainability. Other useful concepts include The Natural Step, and "Factor Four" that envisions a four-fold increase in material and energy efficiency.

According to Frankel, it is not a question of if we will make the transition to a sustainable society but when? "Will we continue to limp and stagger toward sustainability, with the cultural and political mainstream largely oblivious to the urgency of the challenge? Or will we at some point, ... display the collective wit and will to commit massive resources to accelerating the transition into a more sustainable industrial culture?"

In Earth's Company is a thoughtful and informative piece about the history and current status of environment and sustainability within the business world. It covers a lot of ground and provides an accurate view of some of the key challenges facing those who see a role and opportunity for businesses in creating a more sustainable world.

With a foreword by leading author and environmentalist Paul Hawken as well as endorsements from a broad range of greeneratti including Hazel Henderson, David Korten and architect Bill McDonough, In Earth's Company is sure to win "must read" status within the corporate sustainability niche. It deserves to be read by a much broader audience and could make a solid contribution to a richer and better informed dialogue involving business, governments and citizens.

Change the way you think about sustainability--PERMANENTLY.......1999-03-05

I am not in the green-business or even the business field, and this book blew my mind. It presents a brilliant, provocative view of sustainability as an idea and a practice in the very real world of business. Mr. Frankel's perspective is illuminating both in its practical implications and its far reaching challenges to the way we live, think and create our future. This book has permanently changed the way I think about sustainability in my life and work.

Book Description

This history of theories and theorists of economic growth elucidates the economic theory, economic history, and public policy observations of the renowned scholar W. W. Rostow. Looking at the economic growth theories of the classic economists up to 1870, Rostow compares Hume and Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo, and J.S. Mill and Karl Marx. He then examines the period 1870-1939 and its economic theorists, including Schumpeter, Colin Clark, Kuznets, and Harrod, and surveys the three forms of growth analysis in the postwar era: formal models, statistical morphology, and development theories. This authoritative overview also includes an agenda of unresolved problems in growth analysis and a description of the five major tasks statesmen will confront over the next several generations.

Theorists of Economic Growth from David Hume to the Present: With a Perspective on the Next Century

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Theorists of Economic Growth from David Hume to the Present: With a Perspective on the Next Century
W. W. Rostow
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WYZCBG

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Techniques, published by Association for Career and Technical Education on April 1, 2005. The length of the article is 460 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Adult workforce development division report: embracing change.(Meet ACTE Divisions & Regions)
Author: Robert Scarborough
Publication: Techniques (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: Association for Career and Technical Education
Volume: 80 Issue: 4 Page: 43(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Culture and Technical Innovation: A Cross-Cultural Analysis and Policy Recommendations (Research Report/the Academy of Sciences and Technology in Be)

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Culture and Technical Innovation: A Cross-Cultural Analysis and Policy Recommendations (Research Report/the Academy of Sciences and Technology in Be)
Horst Albach
Manufacturer: Walter de Gruyter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Operations Research | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Future of Computing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 3110139472

Employment and Technical Change in Europe: Work Organization, Skills and Training

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Employment and Technical Change in Europe: Work Organization, Skills and Training

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1852787759

The Employment Effect of Technical Change: A Theoretical Study of New Technology and the Labour Market

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The Employment Effect of Technical Change: A Theoretical Study of New Technology and the Labour Market
Y. S. Katsoulacos
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803227132

Employment protection and high-tech aversion [An article from: Review of Economic Dynamics]

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Employment protection and high-tech aversion [An article from: Review of Economic Dynamics]
R.M. Samaniego
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000RR92N2

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Review of Economic Dynamics, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Do institutional firing costs slow the diffusion of information and communications technology (ICT)? The paper develops a model in which, as the technology at a given plant drops behind the best practice, it optimally reduces its workforce. As a result, firing costs are particularly detrimental to profits in industries in which the rate of technical change is rapid-such as ICT-and countries with high firing costs specialize in industries in which technical change is sluggish. The paper suggests that industry composition is a new channel through which labor market regulation might impact macroeconomic aggregates.

How are age and technical changes affecting employment of executives? (American Management Association. Personnel series)

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How are age and technical changes affecting employment of executives? (American Management Association. Personnel series)
J. P Jordan
Manufacturer: Kraus Reprint Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000863T54

Human Resource Management and Technical Change

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Human Resource Management and Technical Change

Manufacturer: Sage Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

"The case study format provides selected details of the interplay between HRM and technical change and offers some insights into HRM practices in the United Kingdom." --Industrial and Labor Relations Review "This is a well-coordinated effort in which each of the contributors has, unusually, read the work of the others and there is a considerable degree of cross referencing between them. Jon Clark contributes his own case study and, as editor, a thoughtful introduction and a conclusion which pulls the threads together and teases out the theoretical and practical implications." --Work, Employment, and Society "The publication. . .is remarkable not only for the speed with which it was produced but also for the coherence and integration of it. This integration is achieved not only through the editor's valuable introduction and insightful conclusion to the nine different contributions but also through the explicit attempt by the authors to utilise findings from their own research. . . . --Sheila Rothwell, Henley Management College, Human Resources Management Journal Technical change is a fact of modern organizational life, inevitably impacting--to a greater or lesser extent--upon human resource management. This volume provides the first systematic analysis of the relations between technical change and human resource management. Contributors to this impressive volume explore such salient questions as: Is technical change within work organizations still seen largely as a technical matter in which there is no established role for the personnel specialist or human resource manager? Does it present particular opportunities or constraints in the management of personnel? To what extent are organization and job design, total quality management, teamwork, skills training, and employee involvement central or marginal to technical change? And, do non-union firms behave differently from unionized ones in relation to technical change? In this volume, contributors provide answers and offer innovative solutions to these and other questions arising from the rapid technological change within organizations. Replete with actual case studies from a variety of organizational settings, Human Resource Management and Technical Change will be of interest to students and professionals in human resource management, organizational behavior, industrial relations, and general management studies.

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Over Priced advice

The Overnight Job Change Letter
Donald Asher
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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The Overnight Job Change Strategy

ASIN: 0898155959

Customer Reviews:

Over Priced advice.......2004-01-22

This book has lots of good information but it is NOT worth $40.
$20 maybe.

Productivity in Transport: A Study of Employment Capital, Output Productivity and Technical Change

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Productivity in Transport: A Study of Employment Capital, Output Productivity and Technical Change
B. M. Deakin
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

The professional and business services sector: employment changes across Indiana metros.: An article from: Indiana Business Review

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The professional and business services sector: employment changes across Indiana metros.: An article from: Indiana Business Review
Uric Dufrene , and James Altmann
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000TNRAMO
Release Date: 2007-07-14

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Indiana Business Review, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 2989 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The professional and business services sector: employment changes across Indiana metros.
Author: Uric Dufrene
Publication: Indiana Business Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 82 Issue: 2 Page: 1(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Most artists earn very little. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of aspiring young artists. Do they give to the arts willingly or unknowingly? Governments and other institutions also give to the arts, to raise the low incomes. But their support is ineffective: subsidies only increase the artists' poverty.

The economy of the arts is exceptional. Although the arts operate successfully in the marketplace, their natural affinity is with gift-giving, rather than with commercial exchange. People believe that artists are selflessly dedicated to art, that price does not reflect quality, and that the arts are free. But is it true?

This unconventional multidisciplinary analysis explains the exceptional economy of the arts. Insightful illustrations from the practice of a visual artist support the analysis.

Customer Reviews:

A flawed book , but an important one.......2003-10-14

The author of this book is both an economist and a painter/photographer, and thus highly qualified to write on this subject. His main argument is that art is quasi-sacred, and for that reason both its practitioners and its consumers are loath to think that it is "about" commerce or commodity exchanges. Most money that flows to the arts does so in the form of gifts (not just grants and donations, but family support and even individual artists subsidizing their own art with funds from a day job). Even outright sales are disguised to resemble gifts. The only learned profession with lower incomes than the arts is the clergy, who operate on similar lines, for similar reasons. Artists who make a lot of money become suspect in the eyes of peers and critics (case in point: Salvador Dali).

Artists use grant money to quit their day jobs while remaining as poor as ever. Abbing argues at length that European-style subsidies merely encourage more people to enter the arts, thereby actually increasing the number of poor artists without ameliorating the plight of the profession as a whole. The main value of such subsidies is to the government (prestige, status, and I would add though Abbing doesn't: appeasement of the intelligentsia)

Abbing's basic argument is a persuasive one, at the very least thought-provoking in an area all in and near the arts need to think about more than we have in the past (Abbing argues that young people enter the arts blindly because it is not in the interests of the arts community to inform them of huge unlikelihood of any one of them actually succeeding as an artist). His analysis can be used to answer questions he doesn't even address, such as why the output of musical masterpieces has remained roughly constant for 800 years while the number of composers has increased a thousand fold, and the audience by a factor of
100,000.

Artists can even glean some practical advice here: The person with the money should always be given the oppportunity to look like (s)he's doing you a favor. For success, it is well nigh essential to suck up to power and influence, but be subtle about it.

The flaws in this book? Abbing relies almost entirely on hypothetical examples (by no means all persuasive) to demonstrate his points. His command of English grammar and syntax is a bit dicy. He has a particularly European, maybe even specifically Dutch, outlook that takes him to some peculiar places: he takes it as a matter of course, for instance, that the the films of Werner Herzog are of greater esthetic value than those of Steven Spielberg, and he thinks that Henryk Gorecki lost status when his music became popular. He divides the contemporary "fine" arts into a supposedly prestigious "avant-garde" layer and a less prestigious layer that is merely modernist--a view that will strike most Americans as 30 years out of date. He names several dozen contemporary visual artists during the course of the book, not one of whom have I ever heard.

Architecture, where poverty is much less endemic than in the other arts, is nowhere mentioned.

He repeatedly (and correctly) asserts that artists usually come from the upper strata of society, while failing to notice that they do not often come from the very topmost tier. He fails to address the phenomenon of philistinism, which denies the "sacred" status of art on which the whole arts economy is supposedly based, and which has been a major, structural distorting factor of the US arts discourse since the nation was founded.

Finally, his historical viewpoint is shortsighted. He contends that the conditions he describes have only been in place since the nineteenth century, but there is much evidence to suggest otherwise. Consider Hogarth's "The Distrest Poet" (poets are stereotypically poor, it seems to me, in all cultures). Earlier still, consider Chaucer's Clerke of Oxenford--not an artist, true, but the type is clearly recognizable: a man with a great deal of economically useless education who, when he does get a little money, spends it on yet another book. Throughout Western history, successful composers have usually lived not by composing but by sinecures in other professions: the clergy, then musical household management, then conductor, then college professor.

Product Description

Rich Rapper, Poor Rapper is a true story about two artists. Both of them are very talented, yet one of them is making more money than the other in the music business. After reading this book you'll discover the secrets behind Rich Rappers success and the reasons why Poor rapper isn't making any money with his music. This book will DESTROY the myth that you need a record deal to become a successful hip hop artist and will explain why chasing the dreams, reality TV shows, which offer record deals could be wasting your time. It's a MUST read for any aspiring hip hop artist looking to make a good living off their music.

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