Post War Hillbillies: Western Swing, Honky Tonk and Bluegrass

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys - Take Me Back To Tulsa
Hank Williams - Hey Goodlookin' + Lovesick Blues
Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys - Muleskinner Blues + Blue Moon Of Kentucky

Realism in the Cinema

Bazin's collection of articles on neo-realism from What Is Cinema?; Vol. II
Merleau-Ponty, Preface to Phenomenology of Perception
Kracauer, The Found Story and the Episode from Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality
Below you will also find, embedded, Bazin's 'The Virtues and Limitations of Montage' from What is Cinema?; Vol I --click on the Google Books logo at the bottom of the frame and a new tab will open with a more comfortable page size for reading.

Towards A Third Cinema

Of all African film directors, Sembene is the first to confer value to images."
--Med Hondo

Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino, Towards a Third Cinema
Med Hondo, What is Cinema for us?

If you are interested in reading a brief outline of the life, ideas and struggles of Ousmane Sembene: OUSMANE SEMBENE: THE LIFE OF A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST

Barnouw - Chapter 3: Sound & Fury
(on John Grierson, Leni Riefenstahl, Pare Lorentz, Joris Ivens and other advocates)

Susan Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism"
Be prepared to discuss issues related to aesthetics and politics in documentary film and non-fiction representation. New York Review of Books link to the original article here.
There's a 'multimedia' version of the article here --footnoted with video clips of examples discussed in the article.

The Classic Realist Narrative Text

The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, USA, 1953)

David Bordwell, "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrational Principles and Procedures"
Tom Gunning, "The Big Heat: Circuits of Corruption"

The Sound Begins: Pop Music Readings II

in Garofalo:

-Chapter 2: Blues and Country Music: Mass Media and the Construction of Race

-Chapter 3: “Good Rockin’ Tonight”: The Rise of Rhythm and Blues

Charlie Gillet from The Sound of the City, "The Sound Begins"
Nelson George from The Death of Rhythm and Blues, "Dark Voices in the Night"

Pre-War Specialties

Doc Boggs - Sugar Baby
Jimmie Rodgers - Mule Skinner Blues
The Carter Family - Wildwood Flower
Jimmie Rodgers & The Carter Family - Blue Yodel
Skip James - Devil Got My Woman
Robert Johnson - Love in Vain

A Propos de Nichols

Nichols readings from Introduction to Documentary. Articles will stay online for one week -get them while you can.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

FYI On DIY Film

Think Outside the Box Office: Jon Reiss from DANGEROUS MINDS on Vimeo.

Folk From Around The World

from North Vietnam: A Brao Song
from the Mississippi Delta: Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was The Night
from the Mississippi Delta: Alan Lomax Collection - Arwhoolie (Cornfield Holler)
from Ireland: The Dubliners - Home Boys Home
from Democratic Republic of Congo: Konono No. 1 - Ditshe Tshiekutala

from India: Ravi Shankar - Dhun
But this is not 'folk music' as we defined it, rather it is an example of the 'high' in a different cultural and social context.

Western Art Music

Beethoven - Symphony N.9 d-moll Op. 125 (extract)
Text by Schiller here.

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight"
Chopin - Nocturne b-moll Op. 9 No. 1

Schumann - Dichterliebe, Opus 48, "A Poet's Love"
Text by Heine here.
Schumann - Liderkreis, Op. 39, "Intermezzo"
Text by Eichendorff here.

Schubert - An Silvia (D891 1826)
Text by Shakespeare here.

The virtuoso instrumentalist and composer as superstar: Franz Liszt.

Good interview on WNYC's Soundcheck with Tim Blanning author of The Triumph of Music, a 'social history' of musicians in the west and how they went from being considered merely servants to being 'stars'. This is an excellent example of metacontextual musical knowledge. Required listening.

Download entire interview mp3 here. Stream interview.

Cultural Resistance Readings I

Reading assignments for the first two weeks:

in Duncombe, Cultural Resistance Reader:
Introduction + Part Two: Williams, Marx&Engles, Gramsci, Benjamin

Extra Readings:
Hesmondalgh - Alternative Media, Alternative Texts?
Hans Magnus Enzensberger - Constituents of a Theory of the Media

John Downing - Radical Media in Italy
Steven Wright - A Love Born of Hate: Autonomist Rap in Italy

Documentary History: Explorers/Reporters/Painters

Here are the first two chapters from Eric Barnouw's Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Barnouw organizes his history around the figures of the filmmakers and the films that they made. These first two chapters detail the pre-history of the cinema (Prophet) and the early experiments in the form (Explorer/Reporter/Painter).

Barnouw Chapter 1
Barnouw Chapter 2

Please also read in the Ellis/McLane, A New History of Documentary Film, Chapters 1 & 2

from Bill Nichols:
The Domain of Documentary/ Chapter 1 in Representing Reality
Documentary Modes of Representation/ Chapter 2 in Representing Reality

As a bonus, here's Frank Zappa telling you what is the primary lesson to be learned from Flaherty's Nanook of the North.

from apostrophe ('), the 'Nanook tribute', "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs It"

Pop Music: Music Becomes A Thing

Readings Week 1&2:

in Cambridge Companion:
-Introduction + Chronology
-Theberge, "'Plugged In': Technology & Popular Music"
-Frith, "The Popular Music Industry"
-Frith, "Pop Music"

in Garofalo, Rockin' Out:
-Introduction + Chapter 1: Tin Pan Alley

from Durham & Kellner (eds), Media & Cultural Studies: Keyworks
-Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

from Frith & Goodwin (eds), On Record
-Adorno, "On Popular Music"
nb. You can find this essay together with "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" co-written with Max Horkheimer --an essay which if you have not read should definitely do so-- here.

from Even Eisenberg, The Recording Angel: Music Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa
-Eisenberg, Chapter 2: Music Becomes a Thing

Welcome to Spring 2010