Michael Douglas Books

The DL series was a huge leap forward for TSR - these modules featured a new emphasis on drama and storytelling that made the gaming MUCH more fun and involved for the PCs and the DM. Of course, at heart, being TSR modules from the 80s, they're still dungeon crawls! In this chapter (the final module!), all of the loose ends are finally tied up - we learn what happened to Kitiara, and most importantly, is revealed Dargaard Keep - the lair of Lord Soth himself!

This book is great for players of AD&D and fans of the dragonlance novels alike. It contains lots of info on the dragonlance world that is useful and interesting at the same time. My only regret is that it was not more in depth, but other products have made up for its lacking...a definite must have core for those books, though.

H1: Bloodstone Pass is an AD&D (1st edition) adventure module for five to seven characters of level thirteen to seventeen. That's right, this is a wide-ranging adventure for high-level characters. But, it is not your normal AD&D adventure.

In Bloodstone Pass, the characters begin play as down-on-their-luck refugees, who must come to the aid of the town of Bloodstone, raise armies, fight dread opponents, and save the day. Certain of the adventures that the characters will encounter will be of the standard sort, but others are based on the BATTLESYSTEM rules that allow unit based action.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating module, with a lot of great action and grand adventure. If you have access to the BATTLESYSTEM rules, then this is a module you should consider. If you don't, then just move along, as large-scale battle are an integral part of the module. I give this 1985 module a guarded recommendation.

Camera Politica is a must for all who are interested in studying the development of film studies. In this book, Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner offer a plethora of studies of films from the late 60s to the 80s in order to make a larger argument about that period of history. Their basic premise is that these films are in a dialectical relationship to the rise of conservative politics in the 80s. Meaning, the growing sentiment of conservativism informs films like Dirty Harry and Rambo, but at the same time, the development of a full fledged conservative popular culture, in which these films are involved, creates a social milieu in which conservative politics appears attractive and the remedy to growing economic and social disturbances.
They also criticize liberals for feeding into conservative filmic representations, often identifying the same ills as conservatives in their own attempts at cultural production. But, more significantly, liberal critics did not offer counter-representations that would do the same culture work that the conservative films of the late 70s and 80s did.
Thus, they call for a new radical cinema. They are Marxist in orientation (though they are clearly aligned with feminisms, radical race theorists, and student radicals), and so they are suggesting that a Marxian culture and a Marxist cinema must come into being. This cinematic culture must diagnose problems but it also must offer remedies that speak to the large majority of people. Perhaps, most provocatively (especially for the time this book was written), Ryan and Kellner claim that this new Marxian cinema can take the form of the popular Hollywood film, and in fact it must if it wants to reach mainstream society.
Though this book is a periodization of films, it also offers new theoretical devices. The first is the notion of transcoding: a film transcodes social attitudes. The second is ideology: the ideological work of Hollywood cinema is to try and offer remedies for social ills, but in so doing, it must admit ills do in fact exist. Thus ideology is double-edged. The third is diagnostic critique: the method of reading films that excavate both the ideological containment and the problem being identified.
At this point in history, Camera Politica might appear a bit dated. But if anyone is interested in doing a historical periodization of American culture, this book is simply a MUST. If anyone is new to the area of visual and film culture and wants a book that might offer some theoretical methods as well as demonstrations of readings, then, they might want to pick this book up.
This book is a bit of an overlooked classic, and it should be considered a staple in film studies.

This is by far the best book I have read concerning the use of feature films as a medium in contemporary art. Douglas Gordon's "24 Hour Psycho" takes the spotlight and the cover. Christian Marclay's montage of film clips featuring phones and instruments is also discussed. It is a good beginning for people interested in the use of feature film by fine artists.

This book by an excellent author provides the reader with little known facts about a well known plane.

Although he was put in the Inferno by Dante, as an evil sorcerer, is this justified? You can draw your own conclusions as this informative in depth work describes the life, deeds and exploits of this controversial figure. Was he in fact a phony or a far seeing individual like Giordano Bruno and other men of great vision, who were victims of the religious prejudices of the time? This work will give as concise unbiased information as was ever written about Michael Scott

I found this book to be a useful tool for me. It stimulated an interest in photography that was always obscured by my interest for the other visual arts. there are some real gems in here that you will come back to, time and again. you will not be let down by the quality of the images, the work selected, or how the book is presented. it is just a shame that the palm beach contemporary museum has since closed. the work, from dennis scholls collection can be seen in miami though.

This is a handy if somewhat eclectic little collection, with works by some poets who are hard to find elsewhere, such as Henry Howard. If you don't have a copy of the long-out-of-print Hebel and Hudson anthology of English Renaissance Poetry, pick up this.

..i seem to recall first reading this story in the pages of "heavy metal" magazine... but i must've missed a few installments because reading the story all in one compilation made it ten times better. the people who worked on this book are also prevelant in the comic book industry and sci fi/fantasy novel area... the work is some of the best and skin tight orbit is no exception. the art work and storyline bring to life the fantastic and gritty world. the elements of sexuality and lust are handled maturely and beautifully. the detail of both scenery and character make skin tight orbit one of the best erotic tales around. it's set in a semi-sci fi futuristic sort of theme and thus lends to having wonderous scope and imagination put into the story. it is a credit to the artist and writers talent and a good read for anyone into anything "heavy metal".

This is a fascinating account of thirteen stately homes and the scandals which occurred in them. The book includes the homes of royalty and the aristocracy, starting with Balmoral, the Scottish home of the present day Queen Elizabeth 11, and is the site upon which, in 1128, the Scottish King David proposed the building of an Abbey. The building was added to, remodelled, burned down, attacked by various armies and was the site of murders, and scandals, as were the other sites listed in this book. The author has added wonderfully entertaining snippets of the goings on in all of these premises, right up to and including the 20th century, which makes this book a most interesting read for admirers of these wonderful buildings and the people who inhabited them, throughout the centuries.