When Ratatouille was released this past summer, I thought it was one of the best animated films I'd ever seen—certainly finer than anything else in that category that could come along in the same year. I still hold Pixar's gourmet rodent near to my heart, but now, one week before the end of 2007, comes Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics), a completely different kind of animated movie that, even more than Ratatouille, reimagines what the medium can do.
In the season of gift-giving, the ratio of books bought to books read tilts heavily toward the bought.
Such gifts carry with them a whiff of self-congratulation, as well as flattery. They say: I’m smart, and I think you are, too.
Sometimes the idea of the book — and its physical presence — is as important as content. “I think they become features in the intellectual landscape,” said Alberto Manguel, author of “A History of Reading” and “Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey: A Biography,” out this month. “You don’t need to climb it or visit it, you just need to know it’s there.”
Everyone acts superior to lists (so arbitrary and invidious!), but the act is a bluff. The fact of the matter is basic and ineluctable: we need these lists. The year would not be complete without them. The year would not make sense without them.
So Say We All | Battlestar Galactica Propaganda Posters
Topic: Arts
12:37 am EST, Dec 22, 2007
Join the battle against Cylon tyranny! Show your true colors and support the cause by displaying these posters in the common areas of your ship. Officially sanctioned by Fleet Operations, each poster contains critical messages from the Colonial Ministry of Information that will help recruit, inspire and inform your fellow Colonial citizens.
It is more important for a critic to be interesting than to be right. To truly interest the reader, a critic must risk something and be prepared for the embarrassment that follows a questionable enthusiasm or the contrition that's the result of an ill-considered pan.
David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars
Topic: Arts
7:24 am EST, Dec 19, 2007
What is called the music business today is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.
