Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I Read All Year
Review: A chain of family and friends recommended this book to me--first my niece, then a younger brother, then an older brother, an age range of more than 25 years. I'd like to have a box of the books by my front door so I could give one to everyone who comes and goes, including the Fedex man, the mailman, friends and door-to-door salesmen. It is wonderful, intoxicating, and hilarious. Sometimes too wordy, but when it is, it is a little like Moe slapping Curly and then poking him in the eyes. Hickey always brings you back to earth after zooming around the clouds. The book should be required reading for academics and artists alike--you'll never think about what you do in the same way after reading this book, which in some ways might be characterized as a love song to life. Utterly delightful. I drove my wife crazy raving about it, now I have to get her a copy, since mine is all marked up with exclamation points.

Rating:
Summary: A student's view...
Review: As an art student I was instructed to read this book. At first Hickey's tone was troublesome and posed much trouble to me, yet once my epiphony came to life not only did my artwork take aon a whole new, more realized meaning, the once tunneled vision of the world that I had, expanded. If you are to do nothing, do it better than anyone else. To Artists-A MUST, To persons interested in expanding-A MUST, To everyone else-A MUST

Rating:
Summary: Air Guitar-Dave Hickey
Review: As an art student I was instructed to read this book. At first Hickey's tone was troublesome and posed much trouble to me, yet once my epiphony came to life not only did my artwork take aon a whole new, more realized meaning, the once tunneled vision of the world that I had, expanded. If you are to do nothing, do it better than anyone else. To Artists-A MUST, To persons interested in expanding-A MUST, To everyone else-A MUST

Rating:
Summary: A bible for the intellect,virtuoso,and hipster!
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Art and democracy, one cannot be without the other.
Review: Hickey with his contemporary commentary on Art, Americana, and popular culture uses his insight to connect all parts of our "culture", after reading Air Guitar you realize how tied together everything is, and how we arrived were we are today.

Rating:
Summary: Look for another book to read this is junk
Review: Hickeys over and misuse of words plagues the entire book. Trust me this book will make you sick. He is constantly going off in all directions with out reason or purpose. One sentence could describe every chapter of his book. Its also troublesome to have to read something with a dictionary in one had just to understand what the guy is saying. He seemingly goes out of his way to add the most annoying words you won't find anywhere else in his book. It's an obvious attempt by hickey to create an illusion of heightened intelligence. If your time is of value skip this book.

Rating:
Summary: A student's view...
Review: I had to buy this book for a class. I happen to disagree with a lot of what he says, but nonetheless it's a pretty good book. It really makes you think about things, especially the things you think you can't live without, and also those things you define your quality of life by.

Rating:
Summary: BORING !
Review: I had to read this book for one of my college classes and it was terrible. The book is filled with words found only in an unabridged dictionary! The book really has no substances; the book is just about some guy how is an art reviewer and has a bunch of stupid jobs in his life. Its not even interesting it's just a pain in the butt to read and did nothing for me. It was just a boring read.

Rating:
Summary: BORING !
Review: I had to read this book for one of my college classes and it was terrible. The book is filled with words found only in an unabridged dictionary! The book really has no substances; the book is just about some guy how is an art reviewer and has a bunch of stupid jobs in his life. Its not even interesting it's just a pain in the butt to read and did nothing for me. It was just a boring read.

Rating:
Summary: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous ... & Back
Review: I love Dave Hickey. And not just cause he's some rich culture nut [with] on a MacArthur Genius Award. I loved him before he won it - when I first read this book - before some sleaze stole my copy & I had to save up to buy another one.
Regardless of whether you are, at any point, in agreement or disagreement with Dave (I call him "Dave"), his prose always elicits an admiration for its tingling velocity. Veering from the microscopic details of his tawdry life to his grand generalizations to the pompous rejection of Cezanne and ridiculous idolization of Chet Baker, Dave is a crash-test culture dummy.
Bravo for courage. He even re-invented "Beauty" (without whispering).