Somewhere between Fleischer and Plympton is Bozzetto, whose 1976 satire of Fantasia sliced up animation's tropes and let loose. Rarely screened in revival. Many tangents in Allegro's animation, like other innovations of the 70's, were discarded by the mainstream.  A must see. Here's Sibelius's Valse Triste, where an anti-Aristocat makes wall art while exploring the edge's of Bozzetto's momentary genius.

This revealing, staccato biography of the sometimes mythic retaker of Jerusalem and uniter at times of the Eastern, Arabic and Persian worlds, Anne-Marie Eddé tackles the subject in several phases: dry history, military strategies, religious aspects, myths of both the demonizing and lionizing kind. Oblique at times, Saladin cannot be perceived as a complete narrative biography (events like the siege of Acre are only partly described, stories of places like Tyre are left unfinished) but it searches for deeper meaning with a variety of views. For a time, Saladin's realpolitik empire spanned deep Egypt to beyond Syria and Beirut, and it required an as yet unseen mastery of both diplomacy and risk. Many gestures divided enemies and allies, deftly. Aspects of duty, taxation, customs, even seasonal challenges like winter storms halting sea-trade are laced with personality and conflicts. Poetry, diaries, contracts are all cited to great effect. Several oft repeated tales drive the effects home, including the determinism to die poor: at death he had only a few dinars left. Nuances like short histories of the sultan/Seljuk title, interspersed, are amazing. At times a travelogue tragedy. An ocean of desert at night for a knife at throat bedouin raid, the march of entire cities leaving every valuable behind while others are left untouched. In between slaughter is chivalry, common good will, suicidal assasin sects, wholesale ransoming, pilgrimages, somehow proof humans achieve their sense of greatness only on a vast scale. And in human cost. Extensive quotes from William of Tyre.  The cover above is from the french original.   Translated.  Harvard-Belknap Press.

Saladin's Palace, Syria

Jerome Agel, Buckminster Fuller, McLuhan, Fiore, Herman Kahn, and assorted other characters reinvent the book as the message paperback of the 60s and it sells for $2.45. While McLuhan and Fuller enjoyed long-lasting notoriety (their paperbacks were merely the mass-marketing side of their fame), unsung hero Jerome Agel created some of the most inventive new journalism as portable rapid fire non-fiction. His Signet original The Making of Kubrick's 2001 included photocopies of torn tickets stubs demanding refunds, complaints by scientist Freeman Dyson about the acting, as well as a study of the initial rejection days after the film's release by established critics. Most reviews are full length. The critical shellacing chapter is followed by one of re-reviews, sudden reversals of critics, a few merely days after their first drubbing. And then, in the chapter "The Good Stuff," came John Lennon's famous claim on WBAI, that he sees it every week at the Loews, and suddenly the tide had turned. Space Odyssey shifted from failed mainstream property to the youth cult charm of the summer of love. The book shadows esoteric data with camera printing reports and detailed imagery that reveal effects secrets. The book came with a bravura 96 page centerpiece of images.

This book from Princeton Architectural Press compiles their various pulp-visual styles and edits them into a sharp documentary paperback, the first of its kind. The first of its size. (including selections from McLuhan, Fuller, Herman Kahnciousness, The Making of 2001). Unironically priced: $19.95

An unusual article from the Washington Post.

This scant black and white masterpiece photo book, like another black and white photobook Wisconsin Death Trip, is composed of entirely found negatives, culled from historical, industrial and governmental archives (the defense industry is well in evidence). Evidence, made of some of the greatest late 20th century images of American photography, is precisely how future anthropologists will asses our near past. Specifically it will be an introductory map to our various archives of visual data which will acompany the factual data, in a time/era without very much filming/taping ability. Each image the tip of an iceberg of thousands upon thousands of negatives. Services might even rebuild motion events from a series or even a single still of an experiment, and discover what really went wrong. Documentary movies will probably be made from stills in the future, tracking algorithms can spot each speed of a street in motion's objects, render them for seven seconds. The blur has micro blurs in the negative. Evidence will come to life. First published in 1977 (the equally great Wisconsin Death Trip was published 1974). Reprinted recently.

An excellent tech-piece in Gawker.

The X-47B, skychief without a human master. Lands on carriers.

so who's accountable? from the L.A. Times.

What, no media companies?

Couple this with a dissection of Western Liberal Capitalism vs. State Capitalism and you can redefine global ecopolitics in a few minutes. The Economist discusses the failure of the Reagan/Thatcher era's influence as China converts from communism to "state-capitalism" fluidly. A must-read.