Now See Hear! has been assembled around the central rubric of translation, and essays address translations between art, language, advertising, television, graphic design, comics, video, film, history, art-history, signs and symbols, landscape and architecture, within the context of the current conditions of the market place.

"Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Film Preservation Board."

This book explains the nature of sound both as a physical phenomenon and as a sensation, how it travels through air and water, and how the hearing system evolved to convert these vibrations into sensations. Drawing on physics, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, literature, history, anecdote, and personal experience, "Now Hear This" is a wide-ranging exploration of the nature of sound and hearing that opens up a fascinating world of sounds from the mundane to the unusual and seeks above all to persuade the reader of the wisdom of John Cage’s advice that “Wherever we are what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.”

People love movies. People love lists. So The A-List is a natural. While there are plenty of encyclopedic lists of films, this compulsively readable book of 100 essays -- most written expressly for this volume-flags the best of the best as chosen by a consensus of the National Society of Film Critics. The Society is a world-renowned, marquee -- name organization embracing some of America's most distinguished critics: more than forty writers who have national followings as well as devoted local constituencies in such major cities as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. But make no mistake about it: This isn't a collection of esoteric "critic's choice" movies. The Society has made its selections based on a film's intrinsic merits, its role in the development of the motion-picture art, and its impact on culture and society. Some of the choices are controversial. So are some of the omissions. It will be a jumping-off point for discussions for years to come. And since the volume spans all international films from the very beginning, it will act as a balance to recent guides dominated by films of the last two decades (hardly film's golden age). Here is a book that is definitely ready for its close-up.

Long dismissed as ciphers, sycophants and "Stepford Wives," women characters of primetime television during the 1950s through the 1980s are overdue for this careful reassessment. From smart, savvy wives and resilient mothers (including the much-maligned June Cleaver and Donna Reed) to talented working women (long before the debut of "Mary Tyler Moore") to crimebusters and even criminals, American women on television emerge as a diverse, empowered, individualistic, and capable lot, highly worthy of emulation and appreciation.

Profiles such notable women as Lucille Ball, Faye Emerson, Betty Furness, Lucy Jarvis, Ida Lupino, and Betty White

In 1947, the Cold War came to Hollywood. Over nine tumultuous days in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee held a notorious round of hearings into alleged Communist subversion in the movie industry. The blowback was profound: the major studios pledged to never again employ a known Communist or unrepentant fellow traveler. The declaration marked the onset of the blacklist era, a time when political allegiances, real or suspected, determined employment opportunities in the entertainment industry. Hundreds of artists were shown the door—or had it shut in their faces. In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. He details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.

Conceived expressly for Yoko Ono as a gift between friends on the occasion of her eightieth birthday, See Hear Yoko is a visual portrait of an icon of contemporary American cultural history, from her days with John Lennon through to the present. Legendary rock and roll photographer Bob Gruen was welcomed into the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their years in New York City, when Gruen served as their personal lensman, and he continues to document Yoko today. Approached by his friend Jody Denberg, an Austin rock radio mainstay who had logged twenty-five years of interviews with Yoko, Gruen collaborated with him to create an extraordinary birthday gift. In this breathtaking volume, Gruen has selected more than three hundred classic color and black-and-white photographs—accompanied by text of Yoko's insights gleaned from Denberg's many hours of interviews—to illuminate the intimate story of Yoko Ono at the height of her fame as a woman, wife, mother, and avant-garde artist who keeps creating because, as she notes, "that's who I am." Yoko's role as a peace activist and artist underscores the enduring legacy of the era. See Hear Yoko reveals a modern woman in love, in ascension, in grief, in joy, and in peace. Lavish and beautiful, mirroring the deeply personal design of the original volume given to Yoko herself, See Hear Yoko brings into focus an extraordinary woman, and one of the most memorable periods in modern history.

This book explains the nature of sound both as a physical phenomenon and as a sensation, how it travels through air and water, and how the hearing system evolved to convert these vibrations into sensations. Drawing on physics, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, literature, history, anecdote, and personal experience, "Now Hear This" is a wide-ranging exploration of the nature of sound and hearing that opens up a fascinating world of sounds from the mundane to the unusual and seeks above all to persuade the reader of the wisdom of John Cage’s advice that “Wherever we are what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.”