Blood Beats: Vol. 2 (Paperback)

~ Ernest Hardy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Writing from a critical center that is melanin-based/feminist/pro-queer/unabashedly leftist, LA-based writer Ernest Hardy pens essays, interviews and reviews whose subject matter ranges from underground hip-hop and American indie film to modern French cinema; from revealing interviews with Carl Hancock Rux, Sarah Schulman, Meshell NdegeOcello, visual artist Mark Bradford, legendary French filmmaker Agnes Varda and Ledisi to essays on the Fugees, Kanye West, Eminem and gay hip-hop porn.

About the Author

Ernest Hardy writes about film and music from his home base of Los Angeles. His criticism has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, the L.A. Times, Vibe, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Source, Millennium Film Journal, Flaunt, Request, Minneapolis City Pages, and the reference books 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, among others. He's written liner notes for Chuck D Presents: Louder Than a Bomb, the box-set Say It Loud: A Celebration of Black Music in America, Curtis Mayfield: Gospel; the box-set Superstars of Seventies Soul; and the Luther Vandross box-set, Love, Luther; he is the winner of the 2006 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence, honoring his liner notes for the Chet Baker CD, Career 1952-1988. A Sundance Fellow and a member of LAFCA (Los Angeles Film Critics Association), he's sat as a juror for the Sundance Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and Los Angeles Outfest. He's also co-programmed the FUSION Film Festival in Los Angeles. Blood Beats: Vol. 1, Hardy's first collection of film and music criticism, won a 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 399 pages
• Publisher: RedBone Press (February 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965665992
• ISBN-13: 978-0965665995
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,887,900 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardy For President!, September 12, 2008

By	Reginald "Reg" (Chattanooga, TN) - See all my reviews

American popular culture has been in need of serious critiquing for sometime now...And I don't mean that "here, let me hold you by the hand and walk you through it" type of critiquing. It needs crticism infused with knowledge and knowingness...Heart and matter. Well, the wait for such a lofty endeavor is over...Ernest Hardy has arrived...again...Blood Beats Vol. 2: The Bootleg Joints says everything that needs to be said, presents everything that needs to be presented, and alas, establishes everything that needs to be established. In other words, pop culture is still relevant, is still a vitial part of American lives and, if placed in the right hands, can be presented in the spirit of which it is offered, as art for art sake...

With the careful eye and astute language of a culture critic who knows and cares deeply about the world of which he writes, Ernest Hardy is a brave soldier fighting an oftentimes pointless war...His approach is neither shock nor awe...It's widom infused with clarity...The necessary ingredients for getting the job done and done well.

It's all here- essays, reviews, and interviews...Street slang meets acedemic language, and it's a perfect marriage of the two...Hardy is a everyman's critic...His posture does not define his prose...He is not a yes or no man...Infact, his writings lack all traces of gender...Thus making it univerisal and free of any hangups or misguided directions...There is no folded arms or nose toward the sky stance here...Hell, no!...He is hands on...He makes it his buisness to get all up in the world of independent and popular culture- ie..films, music, books. There's no malicious judgements here...Only heart felt and genuine interest in the subjects at hand...Who is Kim Hill?...Let him tell you now...You'll thank him later...

Blood Beats Vol. 2, like it's predecessor Vol. 1, is a true act of generosity...A necessary and useful gift. And for this I am grateful...