California Books

Take a front-row seat to see Maestro Bernstein, America's foremost musician, perform in his favorite role -- teacher. Watch and listen as he demonstrates, explains, and reveals music as you have never heard it before, performed by his beloved orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. As you enjoy the experience, you will gain something precious: a love and understanding of great music. With the Young People's Concerts, mastering music is all pleasure!

The World's Great Music -- Made Understandable and Enjoyable
Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts span fifteen years during which the incomparable Mr. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic -- the century's most charismatic conductor leading America's premier symphony orchestra -- reached out in televised live performances to share with the whole world the joy of understanding beautiful music.

Getting to Know Symphonic Music -- From the Master Conductor! This set of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts is a genuine musical education in a form that's fun, fascinating, and easy. Just sit back and enjoy as Maestro Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic show you the thrilling, passion-filled world of the symphony orchestra. You'll be having such a good time, the learning will feel like pure entertainment!

Something for Everyone -- Young and Old, Novice and Expert Leonard Bernstein captivated a diverse audience. The programs are called Young People's Concerts -- but when they were broadcast, millions of adults enjoyed and benefited from them, too. Mr. Bernstein speaks in familiar terms that anyone can understand -- and what he says intrigues even seasoned professional musicians.

In the world of music, for sheer education and entertainment value, there has never been anything comparable to Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. They are, quite simply, the musical event of a lifetime.

"The Young People's Concerts are among my favorite, most highly prized activities of my life." -- Leonard Bernstein

Each Young People's Concert is an elegant, sparkling musical event-with-a-message -- a message that speaks to people of all ages who want to hear and understand music more enjoyably than ever before.

A Maestro With a Mission Pianist, composer, conductor, lecturer, author -- the world-famous Leonard Bernstein lived and breathed music his entire life because he truly loved it. He was also aware that "highbrow" music could be intimidating. So the Maestro made it his lifetime mission to turn great music into something everyone could understand and enjoy.

That's why the Young People's Concerts, aired on the CBS Television Network from 1958 to 1973, were so fabulously successful year after year. People packed the live performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Across America, families eagerly tuned in to watch every exciting new program. Around the world, television stations rushed to rebroadcast these unique musical events, translating them into a dozen foreign languages.

Maestro Bernstein's Young People's Concerts were a treasure -- a key that unlocked the door to the secrets of the world's great symphonic music. People watched... listened... enjoyed... understood... and simply couldn't get enough of the Young People's Concerts. There had been nothing like them before. There has been nothing like them since.

For You, Whatever Your Age or Musical Ability Most amazing of all, Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts appeal to people of all ages and at every level of musical ability. There is nothing difficult about these musical events. You don't need any musical experience. Every concept is simple, concrete, immediate. The Maestro describes a musical idea -- then sings it, plays a few bars on the piano, or lifts his baton to lead the New York Philharmonic through a glorious symphonic rendition of the theme. Suddenly, you hear great music as you never heard it before. You pick out melody, counterpoint, rhythm, structure -- and you grasp complex music in a way you never thought possible.

Explaining What Music Means Starting with What Does Music Mean?, Mr. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic present one spellbinding concert-with-commentary after another, showing you step by step what makes symphonic music an art form, and why great performances draw thunderous applause from audiences around the world.

Music's Most Exciting Moments

A world of beauty and meaning awaits you in Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. These digitally remastered recordings of the original televised performances provide you with a deluxe guided tour of great music, led by America's best-loved music teacher. The Young People's Concerts let you experience the most exciting and entertaining moments in American musical history.

You will find the Young People's Concerts delightful -- relaxed and informal, yet absolutely authoritative. And whatever your level of musical knowledge -- novice, student, or professional -- you are certain to learn and benefit from these timeless musical events.

Why do we not have enough top quality teachers? Because we fritter away money on educational bandaid programs instead of devoting the bulk of the dollars to creating a career ladder for teachers. Outstanding teachers ought to be able to aspire to earn $100,000 once they reach a certain point in their careers; poor teachers ought to be ushered out the door before they do too much damage to young minds.

We need a professional teaching corps in this country, and this book shows us how to get there. Buy it and give it to your favorite teacher for teacher appreciation day.

Why? Mainly because there is a perception on a significant part of the public that teachers have it easy because they only work 180 days a year and therefore shouldn't be paid more. As a former teacher myself, one who retired young from the profession because of the inequities experienced, I can tell you that this perception is grossly mistaken for any number of reasons, but is true in at least one sense. To put it bluntly, it is true for the teacher who doesn't care, for the teacher who just wants to get a paycheck, for the teacher who has tenure and sees his or her responsibility as not extending beyond that of a glorified babysitter. And this goes for administrators who only want glorified babysitters. Crosby understands this and that is why his program is designed to weed out the teacher who doesn't care and reward the teacher who takes pride in teaching and wants to help his or her students succeed. That teacher IS a $100,000 teacher, if only we knew.

The salient point of this book then is a realization that the problem of adequate public financial support for education and for upgrading the teaching profession will not be solved until the present tenure system is abolished. As Crosby expresses it, "...no matter the lousy job one performs, once tenured (after a two or three years of teaching), one is in it for life." (p. 106)

The immediate effect of this system is to tie the hands of administrators. They cannot easily influence poor teachers, nor can they get rid of them. Conversely those teachers who really care and give their best to their students are not rewarded and so they leave the profession in frustration. As Crosby points out on the very first page of the book, "One-fifth of all new teachers quit within three years" and "Half of all new teachers quit within five years."

An unintended consequence of the present system is to make teachers and administrators adversaries. Administrators want teachers to do more, but teachers are not rewarded for doing more, so they (the ones that stay) resist. In addition, typically the school principal leads the negotiating committee for the school district against the teacher's union. So instead of working together for student achievement, teachers and administrators become adversaries. This dissipates their ability as educators.

In the long run the effect of the tenure system is synergistic in a negative sense in that it tends to attract and keep only mediocre teachers poorly supervised by mediocre administrators who are at odds with one another. Although this truth is well-known to everybody in the profession, suggestions for abolishing the system will not sit well with the various teacher's organizations since they are addicted to tenure and cannot kick the habit. An enlightened and energized public is necessary to help them. This in essence is what Crosby is calling for.

His solution must be taken seriously because there are standing in the wings other "solutions" to the problem including the privatization of education through something like a voucher system. Vouchers will lead to the end of public education in America, that is, to the dismantling of a system that was largely responsible for the fabulous economic growth of this country. Privatization will then lead to a further economic polarization of society. Those who have the wherewithal will be able to afford a good education for their children; those who do not, will not.

In any case, teachers and their professional organizations should be aware, that the time of the mediocre teacher and the adversarial system between mediocre teachers and mediocre administrators is coming to an end. I hope that the public sees the light in time and the reforms outlined by Crosby become a reality.

A transplant to Southern Cal. will quickly gain the inside track to where to go and what to plant to make the best of this unique climate.

The fourth story is of a later evader in Belgium who was able to meet the oncoming Allies in 1944 instead of going to Spain. The fifth story details the evasion of an entire bomber crew from the island of Corfu over to Albania. They stayed at a guerilla camp in the mountains and eventually escaped by ship to Italy after much hardship. The final story is of of a flyer who evaded through Italy. Originally captured by the Germans upon landing, he was released from jail with many others when Italy signed an armistice with the allies. He spent the rest of his time evading the Germans and travelling around Italy (with much help from Italian partisans) and finally escaping to the Allied lines after many setbacks.

One of the central themes of the book is the sacrifice made by the occupied population to feed and help the Allied fliers escape. Every story has a follow-up at the end about the later life of the evader and what happened to the people that helped them evade (if known).

The author is a retired Brigadier General, United States Air Force, where he was once responsible for training at the Air Force Academy for "SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape). This gave him a professional interest in the history of evaders in Nazi occupied Europe. Philip D. Caine has also written books on Americans serving in in the Royal Air Force, (e.g. in the "Eagle Squadron") including "American Pilots In The RAF".

In this book, "Aircraft Down", he has drawn on his training and experience to write six separate stories, of individuals and crews, shot down behind the lines in enemy held Europe. The first three stories deal with Americans who were flying in the RAF. These three were fighter pilots, who came down alone. They were not alone on the ground, however, as they all needed the help of the local populace to escape Nazi searchers.

The fifth story is different: the entire crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress comes down on the island of Corfu, off the coast of Albania/Greece. Here, again, the common thread is that he local populace has to work together to first provide refuge for the evaders and then to provide a means of escape.

In all of the stories in this book, the author has worked to put a human face on the evaders. His research has been sufficient to give a personal memoir flavor to each story, and his follow-up on post war meetings, provides a sense of closure to the story. He relates the excitement when an evader meets the same woman working in the same field as on the day he was shot down, some 40+ years ago.

The book is concluded with a very short chapter entitled, "The Art Of Evasion And Survival", which points up that the personal resourcefulness of the downed pilot is often the key to a successful escape. General Caine has avoided the usual impersonal book, often written by General Officers, dealing with statistics numbers and unit identification, all at the "higher" strategic level. Instead, happily, he has used personal interviews and much research to provide a fine book telling the stories almost as if they were all personal memoirs.

The late Senate Chaplain, Dr. Richard Halverson, always ended his sermons by saying: You go no place by accident this week. Wherever you go, Christ is sending you. You are no place by accident this week.Wherever you are, Christ has placed you, has planted you. And so we believe that in September 2003, through several campground evacuations in the wake of "Hurricane Isabel" we were `hand-picked' to meet this burgeoning Christian writer, Kenneth Shipe at the Forest Lake campground in North Carolina. Which one of us was responding to God's whisper? We may never know, but our lives are changed because of this chance meeting, and their (Ken and his wife, Dottie) persuasive discussion of combining Christian service to Habitat for Humanity with retirement. They also showed us the fruits of their labor: the self-published historical autobiography, ALL MY BORN DAYS, Stories by a Sharecropper's Son.

Shipe's crisp writing style, punctuated with descriptions of the stark poverty of his childhood, brings the reader directly into the day-to-day life of a sharecropper-in ways that you would not learn in any school textbook. It's one thing to know, intellectually, that a sharecropper owns nothing: the entire family is beholden to the landlord; the rhythms of the seasons determine good or bad crop years. The other side is revealed in his carefully researched narrative of how they eked out an existence in the 1930's and 40's -- a sharp contrast to the lifestyle in 2004. Today's high-tech families can choose instant gratification in news or entertainment with the simple click of the remote control or a computer mouse. When Shipe was in elementary school, the family had no electricity, so their primary news source was his weekly reader subscription and the portable radio, if they had fresh batteries. Doing farm chores before and after school, Shipe always found time to read whatever he could, consumed as he was with an inner passion for learning, while still following his mother's example of knowing the things that pleased God.

Shipe weaves his Christian testimony through countless vignettes describing his parents' dependence on God and the power of prayer as they survive the Great Depression, and a flood that forces them to flee their home, to mention just a few examples.

He tells in heartbreaking detail how long and hard he had to work, saving money for a bicycle and later a sled. And, how quickly these prized possession were nearly shredded before his eyes as he and his friend learned first-hand the laws of thermodynamics, skidding at breakneck (and unbrake-able) speed down the mountain. His other escapades remind me of the little boy who was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."

Perhaps God's master plan included `a fleet of Angels' to protect Ken Shipe. Why? Because He knew the plans He had for him in his adult life: his faithfulness would be demonstrated as a Marine fighting in the Korean War, while his intellectual abilities to safely launch spacecraft would result in the safe return of many American astronauts.

While others might rest on their proverbial laurels, spending their retirement years on the golf course or sitting around the pool, not so for Ken and Dottie. They sold their home 6 years ago, and live full time in their Recreational Vehicle (RV), and have now completed 19 builds for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) through RV Care-A-Vanner's or the Family Motor Coach Association. "You can take the man out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the man" certainly describes Ken Shipe! His immersion in strict, God fearing family values is apparent in his family roles as husband, father, and grandfather. Yet an integral part of his life revolves around the opportunity to serve others, through local churches and by building houses.

In the Preface he gives two reasons for writing this book:

1. To preserve a written record of his personal recollections, genealogy research and family remembrances of his sharecropping lifestyle in the 20th century in the Allegheny Mountains.

2. To encourage others to record some verbal descriptions befitting their own family name and to add substance to the skeletal framework of their family tree.

I've picked up his challenge last Christmas by tape recording oral interviews with my 87-year-old Mother in Ohio. What will you do?

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When I got to the end, all I could say was, "When is the sequel coming out?"

Anyone who is interested in history from a personal point of view should read this book.