Blake Books

I am reviewing N. F. Blake's "A Grammar of Shakespeare's Language"

This is the best book about Shakespeare's art in quite a long time. It is so because it focuses on the grammatical norms of Shakespeare's English.

This is a book that adds to our understanding of Shakespeare because it describes in great detail the syntax of the English of Shakespeare's plays and poems. This grammar uses terms from traditional grammar like adjective and adverb, and it also uses terms from functional grammar such as "noun head," "do-periphrasis," and "discourse analysis." A familiarity with the grammars of Quirk, Greenbaum, Svartvik and Leech is not essential but will make Blake's grammar easier to read.

Blake uses the Norton Facsimile (second editition), the Allen and Muir edition of Shakepeare's quarto facsimilies, and 19th Century facsimiles as his sources. It is a bold choice to do so because he wants to demonstrate the features of Shakepeare's grammar with a minimum of editorial interference. But then Blake ties his citations to the line numbering from the Oxford edition because he says this edition was more accessable to the ordinary reader. I confess that I do not find the choice convienent. I would have preferred that he cited the sources that he used directly because it would have been easier to verify his conclusions.

It should be stressed that this book limits itself to the syntax and usage found in Shakespeare plays and poems. It is not a comprehensive grammar of Early Modern English. There are features which show up in Early Modern English which do not show up in Shakespeare's writings. For example, on page 208 Blake writes that "In ShE "not" is never abbrivated to "n't"....which sets it apart from PdE where forms like "don't" are common." "N't" is found in Early Modern English. Though it is true that Shakespeare did not use contractions like "won't," his contempory Thomas Middleton did. See "The Family of Love" (1607) act iv, scene iv, line 49. Gudgeon says to Purge "A pile on ye, won't you! had you not been so manable, here are some would have saved you that labour."

The word "don't" does appear in the 1623 folio, but not as a contraction of "do not" but as a contraction of "done it." See Macbeth act 2, scene 2, line 13 (Norton2 p. 744 col. 2)

But these are minor criticisms. This grammar is authoritative. Shakespeare's readers at all levels will find many things to interest them.

Once again Mridula has produced a great collection of recipies.
I thoroughly recommend any of her recipe books to everyone.
They never fail!

What a fantastic read, unfortunately this is a true story of a girl aged 11 who was groomed and abused by Ian Huntley who went on to kill two girls from Soham UK. Hailey was disbelieved by many but people only wanted to hear the little girls story once it was too late. An amazing book that i would definately reccomend anyone to buy.

Publisher's Description: Everyone is talking today about the centrality of family values. Here is a volume which provides a thorough treatment of religious education for the family, in the family, and of the family. The distinctiveness of this book is that it is the most comprehensive book available on family religious education. It gives you the finest theories, best research data, and most workable practices. Major features include helpful treatment on how to build strong religious families, how to work with traditional and nontraditional families, how to promote family communication, and theology of the family.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Biblical and Theological Foundations of Marriage and the Family--David K. Clark 2. Religion and the Family--Daniel N. McIntosh and Bernard Spilka 3. Parenting and Religious Education--Donald Ratcliff 4. The Family Redefined--Richard J. Stellway 5. The Diverse-Traditional Family--Blake J. Neff 6. Family Communication--Blake J. Neff 7. Dysfunction, Healing, and the Family of Origin--Jon R. Harris 8. Family Ministry Methods--James W. White 9. Evaluating the Family Religious Education Program 10. The Future of Family Religious Education

The senior editor is former President of Vennard College, and is junior author of The Complete Guide to Religious Education Volunteers.

Gloria Durka of Fordham University and editor of Family Ministry writes: "This book is a treasure. In one volume the best research on family religious education plus many specific suggestions."

Myron Augsburger, former president of Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities and author of Pilgrim Aflame says: "Skillfully blends biblical studies, theology, psychology, sociology, and educational practice."

Armond M. Nicholi Jr. of Harvard Medical School and author of Changes in the American Family states: "Provides clear and practical guidelines on how to keep the family intact and heal! thy."

This is an exhaustive survey of Eisler's work,music,aesthetic and life. David Blake the editor and composer studied with Eisler for a time. Blake also has wonderful essays on Ernst Bloch.
Eisler was a marxist activist composer in every respect of the term, he simply worked at whatever the movement and music, the arts needed, and this endeavor was a problematical one even today.
He emerged from Vienna and studied with Arnold Schoenberg,and is never really recognized by anyone(other than Schoenberg) as the third great student of the 12 Tone School(Berg and Webern the obvious others).But bourgeois prejudice has made Eisler actually throughout history, an outcast in the new music community. Even Luciano Berio had nothing perceptive to say about Eisler's work,simply that it was too simple. This from a composer (Berio) who found the shortest distances the dilution and homogenizations of the post-serial languages.He is still however deeply respected by the younger generation composers certainly in England Cardew and Skempton, and Smith,and the Germany,composers H.K. Gruber and H. Goebbels.
Eisler early had found the thread of politics to music writing pieces and conducting within collective settings as the worker chorus,mass songs(United Front Song)(Forwards)became the focus for this period prior to the rise of fascism, where the ruling classes of the globe did have in fact something to fear, with the system not working, the Depression.
With the eradication of the Left,The Nazis had put a price on Eisler's head so he immigrated and remained in the USA living as a film composer in Hollywood.This was a place he found the greatest hypocrisy in the arts.He was only to be deported after the war during the Witch Hunts of the McCarthy era.
This collection of essays reveals Eisler not only the composer but the theoretician,of speaking on problems of creativity,history,structure,text and concept. He found himself on Lecture Tours,throughout his life and this process became an integral part of his music, knowing how to speak to people is just as important as writing music.
Here included are some of his primary essays that perhaps had more mass appeal "On the situation of modern music"and "On the bourgeois concert business". He does have vigorous essays, actually translations of his Lectures on aspects of the sociology of music,on finding the class origins for instance within the history of music,topics seldom discussed even within academia today.Much of this material is still in its original German.He found it a challenge as the essay here by Albrecht Betz"Music and politics:theme and variations" on the paradigm of tracing the line that exists between outright propaganda and serious music.This became an art in and of itself when you also contemplate Brecht's contribution to poetry and literature, where he discovered new literary genres placing his poetry in forever differing context.Eisler as collaborator with Brecht was certainly influenced by this affinity for the new in terms of the aestjetic and structure.(Betz has his own booklength study of Eisler.)And Eisler never simple took the easy route and maintained a sophisticated sense of the aesthetic throughout his life,even coming to terms with atonality the last years of his life. He did in fact write the most interesting atonal music during his early years,a topic Blake takes up as the "First and Second Piano Sonatas", and the pieces"Zeitungausshnitte".Opus 11 "Newspapperclippings" for Voice and Piano.Eisler had a gift for lyricism and transforming the most arduous text into power,directedness and lilting gentleness. Examples abound as his"An den kleinen Radioapparat""to my radio",the" Drei Wiegenlieds" "Three Lullabys","Change the World it Need it!". He found irony for instance in the song on the tric(man of the street) soliciting a prostitute,where he interweaves the famous harmonic progression from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", that love can be bought, it is simply another commodity as anything else.
Eisler and Brecht being in the forefront of the issues of politics during the pre-and post war times in the arts were frequently the subject of discussion,even Walter Benjamin knew this body of work, and found the genre of "mass art" to be progressive as Brecht practiced it. Along this line Gunter Mayer provides a chapter "Eisler and Adorno" a formidable rendering of these issues between committment and marxist mandarin-ism Adorno.Adorno thought that mixing politics and music only cheapened one for the other. That the highest form of subversion was actually the privatized practicing bourgeois artist as recluse,not sacrificing his aesthtic for the market or the street, as Schoenberg,Berg and Webern had admirably done.
The great works of Eisler are surveyed,primarily the "Songs" the "Holderlin Fragment" is given one chapter by here as well the collaborations with Brecht, "Die Mutter" "Die Massnahme", "The Hollywood Songbooks", and the oratorio-like "Deutsche Sinfonie", and his last work the opera from 1952 "Johann Faustus". This last work was like the summary opus a deeply felt commentary on the state of the world after the war, and the opportunism that existed in the East with the Soviet satellites.Here we are provided with the libretto and Eisler's own notes on this work. Eisler when he returned to the DDR , East Germany he was largely ignored by the DDR government hardly mounting performances of his works.

There are also heretofore unavailable a translated interview with Hans Bunge where we now see Eisler past his career where he reflects on the politicalization of the arts,the situation in the East and when asked where music and politics renders itself,that all art is political the answer was that it is rather useless to politicize everything.It is rather the artist challenge to find the thread to jump over the border to find where this paradigm exists between politics and music.There is also a wonderful narrative on when Eisler brough Brecht to Schoenberg's home while they all lived in Los Angeles. Eisler had though Brecht would insult Schoenberg.

There are also nice vintage phots and ample musical excerpts from score and manuscript.

This reprint of 1935's "Hawaiian Surfboard" is a lovely edition for any collector of Hawaiiana. The reddish-brown, gold-embossed cover looks classy. The pages are a quality rich buttercream-colored stock with many excellent black and white photographs and drawings throughout. There is an introduction by Duke Kahanamoku.

Chapters are as follows:
1) Ancient Hawaiian Legends of Surfriding
2) Early Hawaiian Historial Period, Surfriding
3) Modern Surfriding
4) How to Use the New Hollow Surfboard

The writing style is informative, yet friendly and accessible. This volume will be a treasured keepsake.

Everytime I read this book again, I am amazed about the importance of the message J.B. Bennett brings about.

The importance of Hazard, the Risk one has to take for bringing
about possibilities one otherwise has not access to. The realisation, why the world was created as it is, where fate is to be placed, why chaos, why a just determined world cannot be like our world is.

Not just a must for any 4.th way seeker, but as much for any true and sincere spiritual seeker!

This Nigel Strangeways mystery, Head of a Traveler (1949), offers a traditional manor house setting, erudite suspects, poetic allusions, and a satisfying, layered solution. Poetry and murder become intertwined as the poet Nigel Strangeways investigates a rural murder that involves the family of Robert Seaton, one of the most distinguished poets in England.

For those new to the Strangeways stories, Nicholas Blake was a pseudonym for Cecil Day-Lewis, a respected English poet himself. In fact, Day-Lewis served as poet laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972.

As is typical in a Strangeways mystery, this murder has its roots in the past. Critical past events and hidden relationships are gradually revealed, shifting the spotlight from one suspect to another. In the concluding chapters alternative solutions are considered in rapid sequence, each successive solution fitting the evidence more closely.

Head of a Traveler is an entertaining mystery that would make a good introduction to the Nigel Strangeways series.

This is one of the most reliable sources on Hearst Castle! Instead of mostly text describing the house, there are pictures, which displays much more than words. It also is affordable, for anyone whowants a resource without high, coffeetable book prices.

gave me a whole lot of more information on the human service program and if i want to go on in my career........