Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy (Paperback)

by Dave Hickey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Dave Hickey's twenty-three "love songs," which make up Air Guitar, fly off the page to offer the reader a vista beyond the wasteland. In Hickey's "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure--record stores, honky-tonks, hot-rod shops, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and the like--joy abounds and truth speaks. -- The Nation, Margaret Juhae Lee

Finally obliged to theorize his impolite tastes, judgments and ideas, Hickey lays his prejudices a little barer than altogether becomes them. Even caught in that old trap, however, he's as good as it gets, starting with his prose. Although his diction is often highfalutin (he was doing a doctoral thesis about Foucault and Derrida way back in 1967), his rhythms aren't, and he's more than fluent in colloquial English--I mean, the guy can flat-out write. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Robert Christgau

Product Description
"As enjoyable and provocative a book of criticism as anyone has published in years."--Rolling Stone. "Hickey creates music of his own with the style of a good short-fiction writer and the insight of a first-rate thinker."--The Nation. "...a deliciously democratic style of prose."--The Boston Phoenix. "Air Guitar is naked pleasure, executing an unabashed literary seduction."--Los Angeles Times. Third Printing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Art Issues Press; 1st edition (August 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963726455
• ISBN-13: 978-0963726452
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,308 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Instruments & Performers > Strings
  #4 in	Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Aesthetics
  #4 in	Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > Criticism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bible for the intellect,virtuoso,and hipster!, September 27, 1999

By	G. Scranton "savvy20" (Philly) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dave Hickey, cuts loose and speaks to the reader in vibrant tones and tempos in his collection of essays on life,drugs,art, and an ideal democracy. Be it a recollection of his childhood growing up with Jazz and joints, his academic years, with Brakhage and Warhol flicks, or his "dealing" days trading a piece of paper with a signature on it for another, Hickey somehow relates the residue of everyday life to Art and Democracy. At times his seductive writing can become so subconciously numbing, that one may want to pinch themselves once in a while to make sure they are not simply ingesting his information as fact...yes his writing is that good, but beware, and be critical!

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Guest for the Ideal Dinner Party, May 15, 2005

By	John Michael Albert "John-Michael Albert" (Dover NH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Air Guitar" is Hickey's characterization of critical writing, it's direct relationship to its subject(s) being of approximately equal import as a person playing air guitar in his living room is to a rock concert. In the words of Vladimir Horowitz, the concert pianist, it is "the words without the music." That being said, it's damned interesting, all the same, especially when approached this way. Hickey's favorite technique is to take two seemingly disparate things and to discuss the way in which they inform each other, all the while examining the net effect on his life as your basic, educated, ambitious Joe trying to fill the "great gap of time" between birth and death with a mind boggling array of interesting experiences. In this way, they're more 'think pieces' than academic essays. I'll admit, there were moments when my brain hurt; but most of the time, I was enjoying his company and his facility for mental gymnastics -- and the obvious pleasure he took in it personally. I heard of this book on a radio interview (Fresh Air? Diane Rehm Show?) and bought it specifically so that I could have my own personal copy of "My Weimar" -- a spectacular, 'where am I in the grand sceme of things now' type touchstone. Reading the whole book as a part of a recent essay jag, I found it all equally challenging, equally enjoyable.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It relates art to American culture from an everyday view., October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This book is a collection of essays which demonstrate how art functions in American society on a day to day, experience to experience way. Each essay is written in a conversational tone, as to invite the reader into the story through personnal experience and avoid the frequent erudite, elitist, and exclusionist text commonly associated with art theory. Each story is easy to relate to and encourages one to think about everyday incidences as a form of art and its relation to formal art. This book represents the thoughts of an artist both in what it says and how it says it. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read and educational tool for artists.