Two Words, One Answer.
philip morris
 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts $29.98 I don't quite know how, but Scott Hicks has made Philip Glass look boring. He spent many months with the composer, gaining exclusive access to his professional and personal life, and yet rarely manages to penetrate beyond the surface to find out what makes the man tick. The film starts off with a long and rather tedious anecdote told by an old friend about the olden days when Glass and co were really shaking up the staid world of music in the 1960s. We then flit from here to there and in the process we see far too much of Glass pottering around in his Nova Scotia cottage cooking and generally interacting with friends and family. So what? We want to learn something deeper about the man. Glass talks (or rather, he mumbles, which is another problem with the film) about himself and is occasionally insightful. He clearly lives for his music and everyone and everything comes a distant second. At the end of the two hours you ask "Is that really it?" We barely see him perform. The most personal part of the film comes when his fourth wife Holly almost breaks down in front of the camera, admitting that while the marriage worked for a while, the two of them are now drifting apart. It comes as no surprise to learn that they have separated (this is not mentioned in the film). Although I'm perhaps being unfair to suggest that Hicks had a chance of unlocking the soul of a very complicated man, I think he could have asked some more pressing questions.  Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris $19.95 Since the start of the so-named "tobacco wars" is about the time that this piece of tripe hits the bookstores, and is eventually honored by the New York Times and by a Pulitizer, we have to give credit where credit is due. Where is it due? The essential apping of the progress of a tobacco company and the history of it is just like putting a cloak over a puddle for the tobacco cartel to cross over. I have no idea why this got a good publisher, except the writer is "established". His view, to trace the company idiom, is far from what eventually happened, and it was a book dead in the water when it was published. Who would imagine that this tripe would be saying that the slight discovery that fell into the hands of Haines (Cippallone), was enough for the world? Surely, in a footnote, calling the B&W documents, handily taken by Glantz, et.al., would evolve into many, many documents - most are useless, but we need no clarification for the point here. It's author was writing a PR piece for tobacco, even if that wasn't his purpose, and that's that. It's a stinker.  1951 Philip Morris Cigarette Gain More Smokers Bellhop Trade Print Ad $12.99 An original vintage magazine ad print from the year published. Print ads make unique gift items that can be framed as artwork. Shipped flat un-framed in plastic sleeve with backing board. |
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