Great American Billboards: 100 Years of History by the Side
of the Road
By Fred E. Basten (Ten Speed Press, $20)
"Neolithic cave paintings in
Spain and
France bear the unmistakable
images of animals standing, running, alone or in herds. What was
the message? Were they a warning to alert early humans to the
dangers lurking outside, or an announcement of the riches waiting
beyond the cave walls?" So begins the introduction to Fred Basten's
illustrated history Great American Billboards. Basten's brief but
illuminative opening essay traces the development of the form from
its prehistoric roots to its use as a propaganda tool by the
ancient Greeks to its explosion in the late 1800s, which birthed
the modern-day billboard industry. The rest of the book, however,
is dedicated specifically to the art (and frequently, the artifice)
of American billboards of the past 100 years. The nearly 200
sumptuous images here document a collection curated by the late Joe
Blackstock and taken from the archives of the
United States' first
and most prominent billboard company, Foster and Kleiser (whose
current incarnation is outdoor advertising monolith Clear Channel
Outdoor). Divided into chapters covering roughly 10-year
increments, this fascinating book follows the art form through the
Victorian era, the two World Wars, the cold-war boom years, and to
the increasingly postmodern billboards of today. Focusing on both
commercial and political advertising, the book is a testimony to
both the sublime and the ridiculous, including everything from a
somber black-and-white image marking the assassination of John F.
Kennedy to a gaudy ad trumpeting a Liberace stage show. It's
strange to think that a type of mass advertising could serve as
such an illuminating guide to a country, its culture, and its
people, but the images here bear witness to that history while
offering a fun-house-mirror reflection of us and of our dreams.
Basten, who's written and edited numerous books documenting the art
of Hollywood and the architecture of
Los Angeles, has a gift for
choosing the most vivid examples, but his captions and annotations
place the images in their broader context. Moreover, you come to
understand the billboard's unmistakable influence not just on pop
art and modern photography but also on a shared understanding of
our national identity.
- Bob Bozorgmehr
Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the
Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined),
and Manipulated into What America Eats
By Steve Ettlinger (Hudson Street Press, $24)
At a family picnic, Steve Ettlinger was perusing the label of an
ice-cream bar. "Whatcha reading, daddy?" asked his then
six-year-old daughter. His son, in sixth grade, chimed in, reciting
some of the ingredients: high-fructose corn syrup, polysorbate 60
…, when his daughter asked, "Where does polysorbate 60 come from,
Daddy?" Ettlinger felt chagrined that he had no idea.
Hence, Twinkie, Deconstructed. The guts of the book consist of 24
chapters that tie in each Twinkie snack-food ingredient - not only
polysorbate 60 and corn-derived sweeteners but also sodium stearoyl
lactylate, monocalcium phosphate, and cellulose gum, to name a
small sampling. Ettlinger is not picking on the Twinkie snack cake;
he could have chosen numerous other food products that contain
similar processed ingredients. He settled on Twinkies partly
because they are so well known and have spawned so many legends,
such as that of their alleged shelf life of 25 years, even when
unwrapped from their protective packaging. Although not trained as
an investigative journalist, Ettlinger digs deep. He does not,
however, adopt a prosecutorial or moral tone. He accepts that most
modern foods available in supermarkets contain processed
ingredients that find life in laboratories as well as in the soil.
The original Twinkie snack lacked many of today's ingredients. But
it also spoiled on the shelf within a week. The contemporary
Twinkie does not spoil as quickly, and it's still pleasing lots of
palates and is not causing much harm when consumed in moderation.
At the end of the book, Ettlinger can proudly make the statement,
"At least now you know what you're eating." - S.W.
The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: The Unbelievable Life of a
Forgotten President
By George Pendle
(Three Rivers Press, $10)
In real life, Millard Fillmore served as the 13th president of the
United States. Today Fillmore is thought of mostly as a joke, if he
is thought of at all. Part of the reason is his name - it sounds
funny in 2007. Another part of the reason is that Fillmore was
affiliated with the Whig political party, which expired soon after
his presidency ended (1853). Other reasons for his lack of
popularity include: (1) Fillmore is usually evaluated in the shadow
of President Zachary Taylor, who died in office during 1850, nearly
halfway through his term. Elected as Taylor's vice president,
Fillmore, a
Buffalo,
New York, politician-lawyer, became president
via the president's death, not through the ballot box. (2) Although
personally opposed to slavery, Fillmore tolerated it politically
because he feared a civil war if Northerners forced abolition on
Southerners. As a result, he is viewed, in retrospect, as something
of an unprincipled politician. (3) He ran for United States
president in 1856 on the American Party ticket, a movement
unfortunately nicknamed the Know-Nothing Party. He lost.
George Pendle uses the facts of Fillmore's life to write an
imagined biography, turning the dead president into a hero of
American history. Although Pendle's motivation for writing the
send-up is unclear, his book is a scathing satire of revisionist
history in general, and of presidential biography in particular.
Some readers are quite likely to chuckle or even to laugh out loud.
Others, who take American history and presidential biography at
face value, might puzzle about why an author would prick either. In
any case, the satire might have the effect - unintended or intended
- of driving readers to learn more about the real-life career of
Fillmore. - Steve Weinberg
UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation
By
Brooks Jackson and
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
(Random House, $13)
Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson serve as guides to
seekers of truth and accuracy. They are involved with a website,
FactCheck.org, that aims to help. The site is hosted by the
University of
Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, where
Jamieson, a professor of communication, serves as director. Jackson
is a veteran investigative journalist (Wall Street Journal,
Associated Press, CNN).
Given all the misinformation available via the Internet, it is,
perhaps, surprising that Jackson and Jamieson, the authors of
UnSpun, offer it as the main solution to misinformation - "if you
use it very carefully." Jackson and Jamieson explain the tactics of
liars, describe the psychological traps that lots of people fall
into and which lead them to believe the lies, and offer an
approachable lecture about how to distinguish credible evidence
from misleading random anecdotes.
Among the tips the authors give about using online information
wisely:
• Always assume anonymous/untraceable claims are untrue until
they're proven otherwise.
• Seek out more-or-less objective federal government websites (such
as those listing census data or offering accurate transcripts of
speeches).
• Rely on organizations such as the Consumers Union, publisher of
Consumer Reports, that are not beholden to advertisers or to
special interests.
After all, you have to trust someone. - S.W.
Easy beach reading? Forget that. You've got a month or so to
get ready for Ye Olde Sum'er o' Shaxper.
By J.D. Reid
Ask any flat-topped, gum-smacking 11th grader whether he would
rather (a) read
William Shakespeare or (b) die, and it's likely he
will give both sides a fair shake. On the one hand, his eyes would
have to glaze - I'm sorry, gaze - over countless e'ens, o'ers,
dosts, and thous and lines like, "They doubly redoubled strokes
upon the foe." On the other, he would die. "Fine," he'll say. "Kill
me."
We can sympathize; 400 years ago, the language was different,
spelling and letters were different, and things like "Love's
Labor's Lost" looked like "Loues Labours Loft." Writers these days
are spoiled with dictionaries and erasers; when Shakespeare was
chiseling Romeo and Juliet into his cave wall, he didn't have the
luxury of
Office Depot. It was hard enough to compose canonical
drama while keeping dragons at bay with a torch. Nonetheless,
Shakes managed, even in those dark ages. Surely if his drama could
entertain his illiterate, pox-friendly contemporaries, our
standardized-tested, antibacterial brains can stomach what I'm
calling Ye Olde Sum'er o' Shaxper.
Start with a bang by picking up Hamlet, which should be a refresher
reading for you. (If you made it through school without having read
it, odds are you didn't make it through school.) Hamlet is so
classic and so comfortable that it's like warm apple cider on
Chriftmas Eve. Moral of the story: Poison goes in the ear, not in
wine, where it is susceptible to glass confusion.
While we are still in violent moods, we'll hit Macbeth, the Fargo
of Shakespearean plays. And bloody? You betcha: Stabbings,
beheadings, suicide - even the witches use blood as a sort of heavy
broth in their soup cauldron. Moral: When in doubt, kill
everyone.
Ooh, and Titus Andronicus. Have you been looking for more gore in
your classic literature? Then this one's for you. Hands, tongues,
and heads are lopped off all over the place, which leads the story
to one grand question: How do we taste in pie form? Moral:
Actually, I don't think there is a moral in this one.
So those should kick off Ye Olde Sum'er o' Shaxper. Where to find
them? Easy: This month
Modern Library releases the monster William
Shakespeare Complete Works ($65), certain to devour all those
too-heavy, two-point-font, onionskin anthologies that you would
never actually read. All you need now is a lamp. Oh, and, of
course, silence.