Recently, I read Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Jonathan Mahler’s Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning. Due to her residence in New York City for many years, Jacobs’ theory is illustrated by the real-life examples of politics, economics, and city planning recorded by Mahler in his study of 1977 Gotham. Both authors display a strong understanding of history and the events that have led to the current state of New York City. Unfortunately, both possess a rambling writing style that creates many excruciating chapters. Editors have jobs because they do good work. Written …
I’m Not There
Six actors, portraying six diverse phases of Bob Dylan’s life. Under aliases, a half-dozen stories intertwine smoothly, roughly, and sometimes indescribably. Certainly, the creativity of the protagonist(s) and the director remain the film’s defining quality. Themes such as conformity, change, and challenges also abound, as illustrated by forums like a Macarthyism-style hearing, a 1960s documentary, and a fictional epilogue for Billy the Kid, if he survived Sherriff Garrett’s bullets. Spectators draw their own unique conclusions, branches of the same tree. Everything is nothing without the people who define it. Je est un autre. Jane Jacobs argues that every city, neighbourhood, …