Danny Goldberg

Um bom livro sobre a vida de Kurt Cobain, em meio à produção do Nirvana e situações profissionais com os selos que gerenciaram a banda, pelo ex-empresário da banda; escrito de modo simples e direto, bem divido em capítulos e declaradamente simpático a Kurt e sua esposa Courtney, requer entretanto algo não tão incomum, mas relevante: um interesse de fã. Dentre as coisas interessantes: explicita as preocupações feministas (e a luta contra a postura roqueira "macho" da época) e de luta por direitos para homossexuais do protagonista; sua defesa incondicional do papel de Courtney Love em sua vida; como Kurt tentava ativamente mediar e negociar seu desejo por autenticidade punk/roqueira e seu anseio por fama, tanto pessoalmente, quanto em relação ao seu público; o quanto ele trabalhava constantemente para aumentar a popularidade da banda; ao mesmo tempo, o quanto ele, em meio a isso, procurava alavancar bandas independentes que gostava. Também aborda os problemas estomacais constantes e disciplicência alimentar do cantor, sua luta perdida com/contra o vício em heroína, além das intrigas do meio do showbizz.… (mehr)

I wanted to like this better than I did. It’s jammed with factoids for a 252 page book, which makes it listy rather than insightful. The author’s and the book’s biases line up with my biases, but even with that, I was put off by how slanted it was. True, the book was about the entertainment industry’s participation in the resistance to Trump and MAGA. But it would have been more interesting to include more discussion about books, films and music from Trump’s supporters. The country is divided over the political issues discussed, but this book presents the entertainment industry as the leftist monolith the right often claims it is.

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point, people would know the issues that were important to them and the voters’ positions would guide the elected officials. The 1960s were the years of civil rights and antiwar movements. Music was the common denominator. During the Trump era, it became comedy. Even more important to artists were younger people whose interests in climate change, economic inequality, and gun safety were ignored by the politicians
Now, the majority of people don’t vote so the pressure is on political parties to get their supporters to the polls, aka “turning out the base.”
Today people receive their information largely from the social media, the entertainment field, and news sources that show bias rather than presenting facts. The Republicans understand this. Steve Bannon explained Trump’s strategy: The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
Pop celebrities had more Twitter followers than even the most popular democrats in Congress.” Amy Klobuchar scored well in the early debates but didn’t attract entertainers and her campaign crashed.
At the national conventions, the entertainers get more publicity and attract more people than many of the speakers. Not having big name performers was considered to be a sign of a losing campaign. The Democrats had a lot of stars. The Republicans could not attract them.
Before he ran for President, Trump was best known for owning a lot of large buildings and golf courses with his name emblazoned on them and his TV show. What was not as well known was his primary interest was self-promotion and using his office to benefit himself. “He’s interested in two things: making you afraid and telling you who to blame for it.”
TIDBIT: In “Lion King,” Samba was destined to rule. Mufasa observed “while others search for what they can take, a true king searches for what he can give.
A major flaw of the book focuses on the 2020 election. A good portion of it, in particular the later chapters reads like a list – this famous person tweeted this, this musician did this, this group of actors raised x about of money for this group and so on. On the other hand, Trump illegally used songs and videos, sometimes altered, during his campaign. While on one hand this important to know the levels of engagement at all levels of popular media, on the other hand, listing does not make particularly engrossing reading.
I received a free review copy of BLOODY CROSSROADS 2020 from LibraryThing.… (mehr)