Studios Books

Until such time as someone tries to fill the shoes of Jean Sammet and write a new overview of programming languages (a major job, that!), the HOPL conferences are the main source of insight into the development of programming languages that, Sapir-Whorf style, have shaped the way we view programming and the problems we try to solve with a computer. Even if someone does take up that task, the HOPL conferences are invaluable, since they provide information straight from the people involved.

This volume of the proceedings of HOPL II is thus invaluable for the student of programming. HOPL I covered the main early languages (Algol 60, FORTRAN, COBOL, LISP, APT, BASIC...); HOPL II covers important languages of more recent vintage (Algol 68, Pascal, C, C++. more recent dialects of LISP). C.H. Lindsey's fine paper on the turbulent development of Algol 68, the best language you probably never used and a major influence on later languages, is worth the price of admission by itself.

I have read many many computer jounrals about the history of computing. Very few resources have put the kind of time and effort that Thomas Bergin has done in his book. Along with assistant editor, RIck Gibson, both men do a fine job collecting the best of the best resources and giving it right to the public upfront. I wish Bergin can do another book or something Internet related because this is truly apart of computing that we do not really have much material on.

For the person like me who is planning on building a small studio, this is the book with the most information.
It covers everything you need to know from the first step to the last.
It also gives you money saving tips on how to build rather than buy.
My best investment yet!

This book was a great help to me when I was thinking about starting a recording studio in my home. I wasn't sure quite where to start, but this book has in-depth articles that were written specifically for people in my situation. It contains everything from setup and conditioning to gear and monitors to mixing a final cut. It was a great book that was easy to understand, but not "dumbed down" in the way it conveyed the ideas. This book is a must have for anyone who is looking to start a home recording studio.

The author spent 3 to 6 months in the year in the Camargue over a period of five years to photograph the life of the remaining wild horses. It was only through the kindness and co-operation of the owners of the herds that he was able to take photos of them at all. The introduction is a brief history of the horses and the authors journey as he photographed their life. The remaining pages are the photo documentary of said introduction. The book is not divided into chapters, but rather by seasons in their extremes. Photos start off with Spring and end in Winter. You will find breath-taking images of herds galloping through water and stallions battling for breeding rights. A must-have if you love wild horses.

As someone who's lived in Provence and visited the Camargue on several occaisions, I can honestly say this is an awesome book. You get a better sense of the horses from the book than from an actual visit. The few times I saw the horses in person was from a great distance as they are so shy around people. I was able to see them in all their majestic glory much better in the book. The photographer spent many months gaining the horses trust and so was able to blend into the background and get shots few people, if any, can. For those who don't know, the Camrague horses are to southern France what the Mustangs are to the western US. If you love horses, great photography, great scenery with a dose of local history/culture then this book is for you. It is definately worth the price and makes a great coffee table book.

Horses of the Camargue is by far the best book of horse photographs I have ever seen.

So why is it out of print? (Had no trouble getting one though.) This book is based on a series of magazine articles for Old Home Journal, so the style is informal. The carefully chosen color pictures set it apart from its competition, A Field Guide to American Houses, by the other husband and wife team. But mostly it's the authors' ability to explain in simple language the events that caused the rise and fall of the various styles: the switch to stud framing, the widely circulated pattern books, the Arts and Craft movement, World War I and the various European styles brought home by the soldiers, etc.

House Styles in America is a well constructed collection of american houses dating back to the old Ironworks houses, Like the Turner house and Bacons Castle,but this book also contains modern houses, like Phillip Johnson's glass house. This book is a great addition to anyones growing architecture library.

I can get all the info I need on equipment from magazines, but this book explains how to put it together professionally. Some of it is hard going, but the results I'm going to get will be worth it.

This book gave me an understanding of how to use specified pieces of gear to get professional results. It was a great guide for me to learn just about anything there is to know about how the home studio should be set up.

this book is really good, the author, arlene ferguson came to talk to us about it and she showed us a real junkanoo hat and everything. the pictures are really interesting and the history is brilliant (a word she used)!!

This book is a "true-true" part of Bahamian history. Very few books have been written about the history of this cultural festival and this one is phenomenal. Nash-Ferguson gives a first person account of the entire process and history of the festival and the reader truly feels a part of the experience. The graphics and layout of this book are also wonderful - from the scene displayed through a piece of ripped cardboard on the cover to the shots of the costumes throughout it is easy to see why Junkanoo is considered true Bahamian culture by many.

The perfect book for anyone who is a little cynical about Feb. 14th. Awesome present for college/young adult age. Madison tells it like it is about the horrible chocolate, the high expectations and those damn conversation hearts. Deffinetly something I will read every valentines day!

I'm an extremely romantic type who will probably never marry, have children, or even have a serious boyfriend. According to a test in this book, I was almost the type who "cries at TV commercials", who should've put the book back and gotten a refund. Thing is, I borrowed this book yesterday from the Flushing Library (Queens, NY), and I've almost read all of it.

Bennett Madison's book is full of tongue-in-cheek (almost) advice about rethinking Valentine's Day's meaning, and, failing that, landing a "V-Date" for that fateful day, and surviving that date. He also includes advice about Valentine's Day gifts and cards (no stuffed animals, says he!), and other paraphernalia.

From my POV, the first two chapters, "Where Did Our Love Go?" and "Rethinking Valentine's Day", should be taken seriously. His very first line in Chapter 1 is, "Remember when Valentine's Day was fun?" He gives the same advice that I received from a college counselor nearly 30 years ago: basically, to expand one's definition of love beyond the narrow confines of romantic coupling. Similiar to the book Unplug the Christmas Machine, this book challenges the reader to recall the childhood enjoyment of the holiday and recognize when and how "it went wrong".

I supposed I have a love-hate relationship with V-Day, though I mostly love it. After reading I Hate Valentine's Day, you might teach yourself to love it, too, or keep hating the day--your choice.

If These Halls Could Talk : A historical tour through San Francisco Recording Studios.



Heather Johnson , a well known writer for Mix Magazine and many other recording media related publications, has produced an extensively researched, factual account of the history of the recording studios and the creative people involved in the creation of the San Francisco recording scene.



Starting in the post world war II era , San Francisco has inspired a plethora of musical innovators of many genres: jazz and blues by Dave Brubeck , Herbie Hancock and Lowell Fulsom, the "San Francisco Sound" of the Grateful Dead, the Beau Brummels, and Creedence Clearwater, the funk of Tower of Power , Sly and The Family Stone and rock by Metallica ,The Dead Kennedys and Joe Satriani to name just a few. Presently, the impact of contemporary bay area musicians continues unabated.



Without the local recording studios, much of this music would have gone unheard by the world at large. From the top drawer studios like CBS (later the Automatt) ,The Record Plant and Wally Heiders (later Hyde Street) , to mid level studios like Different Fur and Coast Recorders, on down to "street level " studios like Funky Jacks and Tewksbury, the recording scene was ( and is) alive with personalities and recording projects. Ms. Johnson has done an admirable job of illuminating the struggles and triumphs of the many studio facilities, their founders, and the engineers who have contributed so much to this rich musical fabric.



Illustrated with dozens of photographs , Johnson presents an entertaining , educational, and historic tribute to the studios and the people who shaped them. Although the San Francisco recording scene was never as big as New York or Los Angeles, this book provides an insight and historical perspective that validates and preserves their history.



Hopefully, she will continue to write similar histories for other recording scenes. Chicago, Nashville, Detroit, and of course New York and LA all seem like fertile ground for such an endevour.



A well written , highly recommended, and thoroughly enjoyable book for anyone interested in recording, and the creative process of music making in general .



Dan Alexander

really a special book that traces the golden years of music (in other words - recording studios in the San Francisco Bay Area) during the 1960's and 70's and beyond. if you want to know where the Dead recorded American Beauty or where Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded Deja Vu - this is the book for you. But besides these hippie classics - you get behind the scenes stories of SF punk bands recording their LPs as well. The book does mention what kind of equipment was used in certain studios or on certain records - but it's MORE about the people, the music, and the building/locations of the studios themselves. very well researched and written. the author interviewed alot of the people involved firsthand.

I know that the detail about this book says its for junior level reading, but I'm 20 and absolutely love it. I'm not going to take the time to tell you about the story itself, seeing as it IS Dracula through and through. The illustrations in this book are amazing. True, there aren't a million of them (and more would be fantastic), but the artist's renditions of Dracula are like none I've ever seen. The mood of the novel is reflected perfectly within the paintings. The point: BUY THIS COPY OF DRACULA! and bring it home...FOREVER! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Dracula" was not the first vampire novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book. But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vampire novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books -- and here, his immortal story is enhanced by the creepy, jagged art of Jae Lee.

Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished.

And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about "Him" coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England -- and he's not going to be stopped easily.

"Dracula" is the grandaddy is Lestat and Jean-Claude, but that isn't the sole reason why it is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vampires in movies and books, even to this day.

Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vampires. It's a bit tempting to yell "It's a vampire, you idiots!" every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula.

And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book.

It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright.

Jae Lee has done work for other creepy, grimy stories like Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. And those shadowy, sharp-edged pictures are well-suited for this story; a few are in muted colours, but most are black-and-white. Lee creates chilling portraits of the looming vampire, his brides, ships in the mist, and Renfield eating a giant beetle; the most shocking is a bloody-mouthed Lucy clutching a baby.

Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, "Dracula" is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vampire books and movies -- and arguably among the best.

Very well written. Just what I had hoped it would be. I plan to buy other books by the same author

Derek Fell does it again! Amazing photography combined with very well researched and written text, sprinkled with occasional glimpses of the original paintings. However, it and "Monet's Garden" are very similar. I personally liked the latter so much I bought several other of his works, and they all are exceptional.