Word: stardom
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Today, most people tend to think of American folk music in terms of simplicity, humble unadulterated vocals, simple guitar parts and hole-in-the-wall coffeehouses. Stardom inevitably means crossing over into pop music, a la Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega and Michelle Shocked. And for the most fortunate and gifted, there comes the chance to perform on Sinatra's Duets album. What is generally unknown is that the long tradition of American folk instrumentalists remains well alive, albeit largely in obscurity. Out of the bluegrass and other string band music that flourished in rural America, came a national folk music...
...Allen is still learning the protocols of stardom. On a promotion tour for his new book earlier this fall, he went on a talk show and laughed about the private plane that his publisher, which is owned by Disney, was flying him around in. Known for its thriftiness, Disney hates being made to look like a typical, money-burning Hollywood studio, and a few days after Allen made his remarks, he received a curt memo from headquarters. Never brag about Disney's use of corporate jets, the company's biggest star next to Simba the Lion was told...
What is profoundly disturbing about "Hoop Dreams" is not that its two protagonists will probably fall short of NBA stardom. Rather, it is the particular kind of failure--intractable, cyclical and tragic--that makes the film pathetic...
...ending with freshman year of college, through family struggles, vibrant victories, and finally to the harsh realities that undercut the "dreams" of the film's title. William and Arthur's dreams are born, cultivated, encouraged, exploited and destroyed. The movie shows how and why their dreams of NBA stardom become less like dreams and more like bitter aftertastes...
William is the one marked for stardom, and the burden of anticipated glory weighs heavily on him. His brother Curtis, once a junior college star, is now a has-been in sports and an ain't-gonna-be in life; he wants his brother to make it for him, but William says, "I always felt that Curtis should not be living his dream through me." The St. Joe coach can't afford to bring William along slowly. In the '70s he had refused to play a gifted freshman -- Isiah Thomas -- and "it cost us the state championship." William's teachers...