Dennis Hopper Books

I agree with those below who consider this Brautigran's best work. I'll add that SO THE WIND is among my favorite books of all time, fiction or nonfiction. It does take you to an absolutely singular emotional/geographic landscape. Each sentence feels like it's reeling you further and further into the truth. I first read the book when I was 23, on the advice of a friend. It blew me away. :) Still does.

he takes you in into his heart in this one. the lost that he feels innocense blown away the ache in its place. Its a very ERRIE placeBrautigan walks us through a vanishing america wistfuly he must recover a past thats alreay extinct. HE THINKS THRU BACKWARDS PLACE METAPHORS AND SYMBOLS OF REGRET.places like tombstones on his path to escape an unfortunate act.AS always theres the random wonder in .

he takes you in into his heart in this one. the lost that he feels innocense blown away the ache in its place. Its a very ERRIE placeBrautigan walks us through a vanishing america wistfuly he must recover a past thats alreay extinct. HE THINKS THRU BACKWARDS PLACE METAPHORS AND SYMBOLS OF REGRET.places like tombstones on his path to escape an unfortunate act.AS always theres the random wonder in .

From a survey of reviews of Brautigan's work here at Amazon, it seems he is lost to Gen X or whatever they're calling "youth" these days. They don't "get" him, but maybe they should avoid "Trout Fishing in America" which is supposed to be his all-time classic. The three that truly deserve a place in the canon are "The Hawkline Monster," "Willard and his Bowling Trophies" (both written while Brautigan was in the ascendant) and this one, "So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away," his semi-autobiographical elegy to a lost America; not sentimental or maudlin, but mournful and challenging. I have never forgotten the scene of Brautigan and another soaking-wet ragamuffin shooting apples with .22s in an abandoned orchard, while the rain poured. "We were Pacific Northwest kids!" he shouts with defiant joy. The terminal scene, with the couple who take their couch with them fishing, teaches that living one's dreams necessarily entails exhibiting one's "eccenctricity" (actually authenticity). Brautigan did away with himself in his 40s due to a wife who fled, along with a career on the skids and alcohol (allegedly), but readers of this book know there was more to it than those merely contributing factors. Brautigan didn't want to pick up the pieces of his self after it had been homogenized and processed as we are now, in an age where we spend so much time staring at TV sets and video screens, and being stared at in return by "security" cameras. Suicide is a terrible wrong, but this little volume shows that Brautigan did not wish to endure the torments of a 21st century-style modernity, for fear of how he would be diminished by it. I liked him for many disparate and "crazy" reasons, including the fact that he was a true Oregonian westerner, Montana transplant and disparager of everything for which Woody Allen stands. Bruatigan and Keoruac could only have been Americans...The wind has blown a lot of it away, but maybe not all.

Richard Brautigan's story of a young boy whose life is forever changed by the decision not to eat a hamburger is simultaneously sweetly amusing and heartbreakingly tragic. That this novel is out of print, especially in light of his death in 1984, is equally tragic. If you read no other Brautigan work, read this novel.

These intriguing images, which range from sun-drenched to claustrophobic, have a dreamy quality, like a silent film. The photographs capture a graciously Bohemian culture that foreshadowed 1960's counterculture, and they faintly hint at the stylish decadence of 1920's Hollywood. They depict a time when the western regions of Los Angeles were both urbane and pastoral--a time when a starlet such as Tuesday Weld could feel comfortable driving on city streets in an open convertible--a time before personal style had degraded to the level of shaved heads, jauntily oriented baseball caps, and lapses in grooming. In photo number 120, the "Sunset Strip Riot" at Pandora's Box kicks off the 1960's upheavals that would be precisely defined by Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider just three years later. This photo is shot at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights, just down the road from the Hopper residence. In the background of the photo, behind the street action, is the site of The Garden of Alla, demolished 7 years previously, and perhaps the most prominent meeting place for the graciously Bohemian Hollywood crowd of the 1920's.

You can get a excellent sense of Warhol's progress from this book. 1962 seems to have been a decisive years. Before 1962, one can see Warhol's transition from commercial artist and early experimentalism. Beginning sometime in 1962, one sees the emergence of the well-chosen, well-executed images that Warhol is known for.

It seems helpful in understanding his growth to see some of Warhol's less appealing works. Nonetheless, with a total of about 320 pages of images, there are still plenty of Warhol's bettter works to see here.

Four high-quality, significant essays about Warhol open this book. The closing includes a chronology, a "collective portrait" consisting of short contributions from many who knew Warhol well, and "Warhol in his own words", selections that reveal how insightful yet straight-forward Warhol could be.

This seems to be the single best bible of Warhol's paintings. There is a comprehensive collection of Warhol's prints available in "Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonne: 1962-1987" which seems prettier but may suffer from excessive prettiness. Warhol's trashier aspects are not apparent, nor is his experimental reach, in the prints. Both books have their appeal, but as a one source collection of Warhol's painting and critical assessments of it this Retrospective seems unparalleled.

For a good exposure to Warhol in all his diversity, "Andy Warhol: 365 Takes" by the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum is also valuable, but to focus on the paintings, this retrospective seems ideal.

This book made me look at things in a different perspective. It brakes down the origin of the mind and how it reacts to things. I think it would be very helpful to those who seek self-improvement. This would be the best guidance for all of us. Because you would make the necessary changes of your negative ways.

The book is--for the most part,--masterfully engineered. The pop-up of the Golden Gate Bridge is particularly spectacular.

There is, however, a blatant void concerning the dawn of California's written history--namely, there is not one pop-up of a Spanish mission. The cover of this book includes a mission bell tower in its collage-style design, suggesting there might be a mission inside. Nada.

Perhaps a pop-up book of the 21 historic California missions is in order.

Now I know why I love California so much - this pop-up book tells it all! Well worth the money.

The book looks like it might just be a decorative coffee table item, but the content belies that impression. The pop-ups are fun and attractive, but the real story is in the choice of objects and the writing. The selections speak to the myth of California that was consciously created by early explorers, developers, and movie moguls but became its own reality as people migrated to the state ready to play the roles the myth-makers created for them. In exposing the history through objects and some remarkable writing by such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn See, Graham Nash, Alice Waters, Terry Gilliam, and Richard Rodriguez, the pre-mythic history and the development of a true California culture emerges...one in which the tinsel is a little tarnished around the edges, but glows as brightly as ever with its own special light.

Even with lack of proper stereoscopic vision, due to serious lazy eye, the figures appear vivid and dimensional. The book includes a set of postcards that may be sent to taunt the less fortunate who haven't witnessed the wonders herein.

As a California historian and author of the book: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MISCELLANY, I found this California pop-up to be a charmingly fun novelty book to share when company comes over.

David Dodd has assembled a wide variety of stories to inspire and encourage addicted people to get clean. I was impressed that Twelve Step groups were NOT the focus of every tale, and that the one constant was that each individual made a PERSONAL CHOICE to forego their addiction and live sober. For all the help some people get from 12-Step groups, there are many who don't "relate" to the religiousity. But this book shows that recovery is still possible and worthwhile. The fact that most of these tales are told by celebrities and artists we KNOW only increases their value. Plus, it's nice to know that my gut feeling about Steven Tyler is "on the money" - he truly IS a mensch!!

I was attracted to the many well-known names listed on the cover, but once I began reading the book, I was overwhelmed with its passion and solutions. David Dodd has done a remarkable job which is reflected in this collection of interviews. My favorite part, however, is the introduction to the book, where the author tells his personal story on how he became sober with the help of Steven Tyler. His vivid description of the events were astonishing to me, they were absolutely incredible. This is a wonderful book!