Dance Books

I love Ellen Stolle Walsh books! This one has clever cut-out illustrations and a nice message about trying different things and group acceptance. Children love the large print and the fun repetitions.

Fun and humorous! Betsy the independing-thinking frog wants to try something different. Shows a female character with leadership skills: getting all the other frogs to try dancing. Very minimal text per page, and fairly short overall so easy to hold a toddler's attention. Beautiful Leo Leonni-style artwork. Age 1.5+

Teaching children that they don't always have to follow suit, instead of just hopping and jumping, they can dance and twirl to their own tune. My youngest daughter lists this as one of her three favorite books and I certainly see why.

I can probably be forgiven for confusing Ellen Stoll Walsh with fellow children's author/illustrator Denise Fleming. Both artists use remarkably original cut-outish designs to present stories of highly creative animals. Both have also used mice in a great many of their books. I was under the impression however that I'd never read a Walsh story, until I remembered her delightful "Mouse Paint" from a couple years ago. In that story, Walsh used otherwise unemotional rodentia to tell a clever tale of camouflage and colors. "Hop Jump" is not particularly dissimilar from "Mouse Paint" at first glance. The characters never show much in the way of emotion. Just the same, Walsh has a way of positioning her characters bodies and phrasing their thoughts so as to make you think that their otherwise blank faces express a wide range of intentions and meanings. The result is a delightful little tale of frogs, dancing, and diversity.

Betsy is bored to death with her compatriots. No matter where they go, the other frogs go "Hop jump, hop jump". They never change their style. When she watches the pattern of falling leaves she attempts to imitate their movements. Betsy cannot float gently to the ground, but she can leap, turn, twist, and dance. Of course, the other frogs crowd her and inform her that there is no room for dancing. When she goes off to find her own dancing ground, her fellows are intrigued and eventually join her. The moment of truth comes when one other frog wants to hop and jump in the newly formed dancing circle. The others try to tell him that there is no room for hopping. Betsy contradicts them, however, and says, "Oh yes, there's room. For dancing and for hopping".

Walsh creates a variety of frogs that look similar at first but carry distinguishing characteristics. Some have yellow spotted green bodies with green spotted yellow arms. Others have purple spotted green bodies with yellow spotted green arms. Betsy, so that the reader can tell her apart from the others, is the sole blue frog amongst them. They all have benign expressions and wide orange eyes, though. Using a minimal amount of arms and legs and bodies, Walsh coaxes a great deal of expressive movements out of these otherwise limited figures. The message the story contains is a simple one and the pictures are just as easy to understand. The words are also particularly short and good for those kids attempting to read their first picture book on their own.

Cut-out picture books normally conjure images of Eric Carle. I wish, rather, that images of Ellen Stoll Walsh were conjured instead. "Hop Jump" is just one more well-written beautifully illustrated book of hers that tells a story with simplicity and aplomb. An excellent companion to Leo Lionni's, "Fish Is Fish".

This is an excellent choice for kindergarten teachers that are looking for a book that is simple in its vocabulary and number of words per page, yet rich with meaning and personal connections for children.

this book is a must read it open's your mind to the it cant happen to me's and let's you see how easy it is to make a life decision and how things that look so good on the outside aren't as pleasant inside... in this book (regina)a character was submited to the aids virus on her first sexual experience by her cousin's boyfriend ...after she went from town to town enfecting people with the aids virus with no remorse. After the deed was done she would then leave a poem behind to let her victim's know that they had just been subjected with this uncurable virus. this book i would give 5 star cause it's a real eye opener for some.

Truly a must read, educational and instrumental for those who need a class on life and sexual safety. Although the characters are fictional, but if looked at in its context this could be a real life drama that CAN happen to you. Be sex smart! Spellbounding!

Roberta M. Heck, Author of "After The Storm Is Over"

This book is "AWESOME". I read the entire book in one sitting. The authors' ability to keep you guessing is incredible. AIDS is definitely a problem that should be discussed and EVERYONE needs to understand that there are NO PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS that an HIV carrier will display. The character "Regina" is a great example of "Everything that looks good to you is not always good for you".

Purchase today for yourself or for someone who needs to be enlightened. It's a great way to learn about the dangers of AIDS.
God bless you and much success. I'll pass on the word about your book!

This book gave me the insight that was darkened in my mind. I would never agian allow a pretty face, ... and a smile be my weakness. After reading I APOLOGIZE I have been protecting myself. This book was deep and I don't know why I have seen this author on Ophra. This book could help the black community with their AIDS problem. This was more scarier than a Stephen Kings Novel. I would like to read a part two. I know she has to be working on a part two. This book should be number 1.

The book was awsome! I was a none reader, now I am ready to puchase any book by the Author 'Dora McCuller'. It was quite compelling and filled with adventure. Once I started reading the book I could not put it down. I went to her book signing at the Yale University Barnes and Noble and they announced that she had a horror coming out next spring. I can't wait! The character (Regina) reminds me of this man in New York who was also intentionally spreading the Aids virus, but the way she wrote this book kept me in suspence the entire time. I think every parent and school should give their teen or adolescent this book to read. It would definitely teach them abstinence. There are too many promiscuous teens out there, that is why thiis book should be in every school and library. AIDS is NO JOKE!

Deryck Cooke gets under the surface but without any any confusing and pretentious psychobabble.

This really is an extraordinary book - it is the most comprehensive, insightful, and consistent study of Wagner's Ring des Niblungen. It offers some musical analysis of the leitmotivs, and is one of the first books to begin a revision of von Wolzogen's grossly erroneous analysis of the leitmotivs; it provides a plethora of highly organized information about the stages of Wagner's sketches and librettos and the original myths/legends/sagas from which he drew; and a scene by scene analysis of Rheingold and Walkure.

This book actually makes sense of Der Ring des Niblungen - no easy task, as anyone familiar with the opera tetralogy is well aware. If you are interested in the tetralogy and want to know more about it, this is THE book. There are, however, two tragedies associated with this book: the first is that the author's untimely death prevented him from finishing the book (though the material printed is itself finished). The whole book should have been about three times the length of the printed material. The second tragedy is that it is OUT OF PRINT - this is absolutely disgraceful...hopefully this title will come in to print again.

Get a hold of a copy of this book if you can.

This book is a model of thoughtful interpretation. Cooke begins by setting out why interpretation of the Ring cycle has been so difficult. This is seen as due partly to the enormous complexity of the work, partly due to the fact that prior major interpretations have been based on somewhat unrealistic preconceptions, for example, Bernard Shaw's social-political interpretation, and partly due to prior major interpretations bypassing close analysis of the music itself. Cooke develops a set of explicit criteria for an accurate interpretation of the Ring and applies them to prior major interpretative efforts. His critique of Robert Dornington's Jungian analysis, for example is moderate in tone but devastating in effect. Cooke defends Wagner against the charge that the plot and characters of the Ring are a shoddily assembled hodge-podge of myth. Cooke performs a careful analysis of Wagner's sources, using the same editions that Wagner drew from. Cooke demonstrates Wagner's careful and artful selection and modification of elements from German and Nordic mythology into a sophisticated and well integrated drama. Cooke's recurring term for Wagner's craft is masterly and he is correct. With this background, Cooke moves to a careful analysis of the plot and characters of the first 2 operas, Rheingold and Valkyrie. An essentially step by step analysis shows how Wagner used plot and character to advance his theme of the conflict of power versus love.
The only defect of this book is that it ends with the conclusion of Valkyrie. Though this book is over 350 pages long (in a small but not miniscule font), this would have been only the beginning of Cooke's projected opus on the Ring. Presumably, there would have been an equivalent amount of enlightening text on Siegfried and Gotterdamerung. Cooke then apparently planned a major work analyzing the development of musical aspects of the drama. Listeners who have heard Cooke's excellent introduction to the leitmotivs of the Ring will have had a taste of what Cooke planned. Its truly unfortunate that Cooke didn't live to complete this project.

i saw the world end is one of the most brilliant studies of wagner's ring. unfortunately, deryck cooke died before he finished his survey. still, i saw the world end remains an important work detailing the ring and die walkure in particular.

This book amply shows what a tragedy it was that Deryck Cooke died whilst still at the height of his powers. He was one of the most approachable and reliable of music critics and musicologists. No-one was better at tracing a path through the minefield of different editions of the Bruckner symphonies. No-one was more perceptive in elucidating Mahler's music and its interpreters. His performing edition of the 10th Symphony still stands as a paradigm for how these things should be done and how they should be presented to the world. 40 odd years later, his book, The Language of Music, remains a fascinating and significant exposition of the building-blocks of music, an exploration of how certain intervals and phrases which are the basic vocabulary of musical expression seem to retain a common 'meaning' across the work of very different composers from the Baroque era to the 60's.

But this monumental study of Wagner's Ring, which he left less than half finished at his death, would probably have been his greatest contribution to musical exegesis. What is left for us is an introduction which cogently dispenses with the narrow-minded interpretations proposed by the socialist, anti-capitalist Shaw in The Perfect Wagnerite and the Jungian psychology of Donington in Wagner's Ring and its Symbols. There then follows a tantalising look at the music itself in which he shows that one particular leitmotif misnamed by Wolzogen in his pioneering study as Flight, a mistake blindly followed by most subsequent commentators, is in fact the fundamental Love motif of the entire cycle. From this he draws the not unreasonable conclusion that this is, musically and philosophically, a crucial half of the essential dramatic conflict of the tetralogy between Power and Love. This particular chapter is especially frustrating in the glimpse it gives us of just how penetrating and perceptive his promised but unfulfilled analysis of the music would have been.

What we do get is a fascinating study of how Wagner bent the myriad of literary sources he used into a taut and coherent dramatic structure. And what parts of the final Ring libretto were entirely the product of his own imagination. It makes for a detective trail along the lines of John Livingstone Lowe's pursuit of all the sources for Coleridge's Kubla Khan in The Road to Xanadu. But even this part of the argument only takes us through the evolution of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure before it is cut off in its prime. However, it is still more than enough to leave us with and important study, written with all Cooke's familiar approachability and common sense.

This may be just the torso of the book Cooke intended to write. But anyone interested in how Wagner's enormous work came to take the form it did should derive enormous pleasure as well as elucidation from it. The title, by the way, is taken from some wonderfully evocative lines that Wagner wrote for Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene, but cut before he set them to music.

The blessed end
Of all things eternal,
Do you know how I reached it?
Deepest suffering
Of Grieving love
Opened my eyes:
I saw the world end.

I am so impressed by the wealth of information contained in this book! I am an artist in many forms, and wish I had known this information when I first moved to NYC. The book is written in an easy-to-read personable style - it feels as if the author is your good friend helping you to make it in NYC. Along with contact information of many resources, the author also includes anecdotes, quotes, and personal stories that liven up the read. I rate it a 10 out of 10!

I've already used several suggestions...including signing up for focus groups. And you don't have to live in NYC to make money on focus groups. Also, I found the book to be generally helpful to making my life easier, richer and fuller...economically! Amy Harrell is an resource angel!

I met the author last night by coincidence in a seminar that we took togheter, i was amazed with the ideias and resources on the book that i didnt hesitate at purchase the only copy that she had it on hands. It is amazing how she divided the topics and make them really clear and extremely helpful . I took couple hours to read it and now im working on the ideias of the book.

THE BEST LUCK FOR YOU AMY HARRELL :)

Liege Neves

A fellow performer recommended this book to me and it has become an invaluable part of my life. It goes well above and beyond other books for artists living in the city - it's a guidebook to every aspect of an aspiring artist's life, from finding an apartment to bargain shopping to making a living through odd jobs to general ways to have a full, rich life on a small budget. A must own!

Most people come to New York like it's the Emerald City, where all your dreams can come true. While that may be true and there are a tremendous amount of opportunities here in this vast jungle; New York does not come with an owners manual. Sure there are are lots of books telling you where to eat, shop, site see, and catch a show, but for a newcomer to this city, especially an artist you'd be hard pressed to find any kind of comprehensive "how to" book.

Soooo many artists, actors, dancers, painters, performers come to New York for school or after they've completed school ready to take on the world, but the sad truth is that these kinds of jobs at the very entry level (if you can find them) don't pay a whole hell of a lot. You want to be here, where it's all happening, NYC, the center of the universe, but ya gotta eat, ya gotta have a roof over your head, ya gotta pay the phone bill so your agent can reach you. How do you do this all the while trying to pursue your dream as an artist?

Do you do the old cliche of waiting tables until you're lucky enough to serve huevos rancheros to Scorcese and he decides he MUST cast you in his next movie and then you can throw away your apron and order pad? Is waiting tables the ONLY WAY?

Most of us live in "the real world" and not the one with Puck, and we have to eek out a living and still make time for pursuing our "dream" so how do we do this?

"I'm Here, Now What", the artists survival guide is a comprehensive guide to pursuing what you love in the big city without going broke and enabling you to live, eat, feed yourself and still make time to do whatever artistic thing you love to do. It is filled with tons of resources that can guide you, point you in the right direction and help you find freelance work, roommates, housing, places to eat, drink, network, socialize, and get connected.

If you're an artist in NYC this is an invaluable resource that can be your own personal Ellis Island welcoming you to this fabulous city and providing a light in the tunnel.

This is Lydia Lunch at the height of her power, a chronicle of conflicts, abuse, strife, hatred. misery and obsession. As she says in the introduction: "... the need to document my personal insanity is an affliction I haven't yet cured myself of .... Read it and weep." Includes the play "South Of Your Border", lovely pics of Lydia and lots of humorous illustrations by Kristian Hoffman. Definitely not for sensitive readers, since there's a lot that will offend here, but people who like Georges Bataille will love this book.

I have followed Lydia Lunch's career for nearly 12 years now. I have seen her monologize dozens of times, watched her bands perform, and read her rants and attempts at fiction in many zines and books. I have come to admire her energy and anger that she channels into her art. What I have a problem with is what she does and what she is capable of doing: Lunch is stuck in a rut where she capitalizes on her life and experiences and little more. Not there are not enough interesting occurrences in Lunch's autobiography, and certainly not that fact that she does not have enough to complain about what is wrong with the world. It's that she has elevated her prose to such an interesting and unique style and voice that it seems a pity that she wastes most of her time these days on the rants that made her into the post-punk icon that she is. Lunch is a talented writer; she deals with the same topics as the overrated Kathy Acker---but the level of intensity and emotion in Lunch's work can put Acker's work to shame. What exists in these pages is good, but it is nothing special---potentially Lunch has the ability to be very special. Maybe someday

Lydia Lunch is an artist. Read and buy everything she does. There will ALWAYS be something special in everything she does regardless if you 'like' or 'don't like' it.

I don't have much time to talk today, but I will tell you this. I love reading, and this is the not the best I have ever read.

The ending was sad, but very well written and thought out. I think this book is realy wonderull but, unforunitly, this is one of the most depressing books I've ever read, but it does present an excellent discussion about conspiracy and power. When I read this story, I was amazed: the book is fundamentally an expression of the deepest alienation in the minds of man.

Everyone should read this book if they can. There are many levels of comparison other than that of me who, like so many others, was forced to read this book. This story serves as a warning to all who trust. What next Mrs. Lunch?

The infamous Lydia Lunch, sub culture queen of the last decade or so, takes the reader on a voyage through the dark recesses of her mind. I have been a fan of her's for years and this literary gem that Lydia has bestowed upon us is equal to her other works. This particular collection seems to be a bit more personal and the exorcising of some of her own demons while forcing us(the reader) to re-evaluate our lives and rid ourselves of some of our own demons. "Daddy Dearest" is the most powerful and speaks to thousands of individuals who have suffered abuse of one form or another from someone trusted and loved. What appears at first to be a selection of psycotic ramblings is in actuality a tour of what makes Lydia "tick" and what has made her the way she is. We are all products of our enviroment and no one puts it more clearer than our Dearest Lydia....Definately not for the weak hearted or narrow minded...but a definate must for those who are fans of female angst. You Go Girl!!!!!

I love it...I love teaching class to this CD or just listening to it in the car. Great choice for those who love ambient music.

I first heard this CD at one of my yoga classes and really enjoyed doing yoga to this upbeat music, so I got a copy for myself and use it very often while doing my home practice. I like the upbeat, energizing quality to many of the songs rather than always listening to slow, deeply relaxing music while doing my practice. It has added new energy and interest to my yoga practice and I would highly recommend this CD to others to accompany yoga, or to listen for its own sake!

Love this CD...I am a yoga instructor and use this in many of my classes. Great mix, and good for both a level 1 and/or more energetic class. Love the mix, energy and flow. Two great tracks at the end to use for savasana. Have received many compliments from students in class.

Shiva Rea has created a rhythmic escape with lush electronic textures and cleansing moods. I was surprised at the healing effects of this CD alone. Like Yoga, it seems to heal and cleanse you, refreshing your mind and opening the heart.

JALA is an energetic collection of twelve richly layered moments in time. You can escape into each track offering everything from soothing sitar to high-energy percussion.

Shiva Rea weaves the sensual and the sacred into an infusion of soul stirring sounds. The oceanic soundscapes are layered with vocals, ever changing rhythms, drums, sitar and vocals.

~The Rebecca Review

Shiva Rea has created a rhythmic escape with lush electronic textures and cleansing moods. I was surprised at the healing effects of this CD alone. Like Yoga, it seems to heal and cleanse you, refreshing your mind and opening the heart.

JALA is an energetic collection of twelve richly layered moments in time. You can escape into each track offering everything from soothing sitar to high-energy percussion.

Shiva Rea weaves the sensual and the sacred into an infusion of soul stirring sounds. The oceanic soundscapes are layered with vocals, ever changing rhythms, drums, sitar and vocals.

~The Rebecca Review

This book is an excellent guide for the beginning to intermediate jazz composer. This book assumes some basic knowledge of jazz style and notation. The resorces are are excellent for jazz harmonization and melodic composition both tonal and modal. This book does not, however, go into much depth in regards to part writing for an ensemble. I think this book is good preparation for Sammy Nestico's "The Complete Arranger" book.

It starts with melody, and what is cool has exercises throughout, so you can really learn on the way... if you are interesting with jazz theory, I suggest this book, and also "modern jazz voicings" compliments it very well.

This is a great book for those who know a respectable amount of jazz theory and want to understand the practice and art of jazz composition. Throughout the book, you are given exercises and opportunities to write your own pieces and comes with a CD. Although this book teaches you modal harmony, chromatic harmony, blues writing, ect., there is no substitute for a jazz composition professional teacher who would be valuable to check your work and offer criticism and suggestions.

Writing pieces on your own is basically made easier in terms of form and structure.

This excellent book realy help me to teach modern jazz theory and composition on Jezek Conservatory Prague.I recommend this book to all my students.

This is a great book. My daughter found it very easy to read.

This is a good look at a rehashing of what has been, for a long time. Some authors are better at portraying certain subjects in better context than others. These 2 gentleman seem above the average! I like it, very much.

The biggest value of this book though, is the fact that the great Jeff Bent was such a huge part in the authentication process.... I personally am working on several learning methods for publication. It would be an honor to have Mr. Bernt give a look at my ciriculum also. ( I probably mispelled that, thats why I need Jerf!!)

Anyway, good book. Nicely done!

This book is one of the very best I have seen,
along with "hearing the changes" by Jerry Coker,
and Jazz and Popular Harmony by Daniel Ricigliano,
it has become a favorite.

The book's approach is so intuitive, it almost leads you by the hand into the world of jazz. Certainly jazz is freedom of expression but you have to know what you're doing and this book is the tool for that. Combine it with some tunes and mix in some listening, and the world of jazz is open to you. This should be a standard in every high school with a jazz program and every college lab band.

This excellent book is useful and relevant both as a reference work
and as a coursebook.

In addition to being the definitive compendium of music theory as it
relates to Jazz usage, it also contains exercises for the student
that can be used in the classroom as a supplementary teaching tool or
even as a full blown course of study in itself.

There are hundreds of musical examples to flesh out the prinicples
and topics covered in the text.

The material is well paced and in a logical order. The uncrowded look
of the page layouts aids considerably in making this vast amount of
technical material easily digestible for learners of any level.

This extremely deep book is certainly poised to become the standard
Jazz Theory text of the 21st century.

Although it is only one of many jazz theory books on my shelf, I find that this book sticks out for its breadth and applicability to performing and arranging in the jazz idiom. This is accomplished through the sections on piano playing for all jazz instrumentalists where the topics include both voicing and comping rhythms. The latter is usually left out from theory books. There is also a chapter devoted to solo styles where the student can read through analysis of solos with the musical example provided in the book. There is a chapter on arranging for various ensembles as well as a chapter that deals with "Early and Traditional Jazz" a much overlooked area in our jazz history studies. The book even ends with a chapter on practicing that deals not only with what one should practice, but why we practice particular aspects of the music.

Of course there are all of the requisite chapters on scale/chord theory and the ii-V-I progression that you will find in most books, but it is the added material that appleals to the player as much as the theorist. That is what makes this book a superior buy to many others.

Jessi is going to New York to do ballet. In the book, Jessi meets Quint and likes him. Unfortunately, Quint has a crush on Jessi and she has to go home.

Jessi is accepted to Dance New York for a three week time span. She feels sad about leaving her friends but when she gets there she feels she's in another world. After three weeks is up of dancing at the acadamy she given a chance to dance there permanently now she has two choices stay with her friends or follow her dream.

Jessi is going to New York. There she will dance in ballet. But does this mean it's the end of the BSC.

This is the first book about Jessi since book #103 Happy Holidays, Jessi. It was really good though. Jessi gets accepted into Dance New York, a excellant ballet school. She gets to work with one of her heroes, is reunited with Quint, and makes great new friends! Jessi love living in the city and has a hard time coming back. Meanwhile at home Mallory misses Jessi like crazy! Becca is furious at Jessi for leaving her. This book really tells you that home is where the heart is. I loved this book and I hope you do to! :)

In here, Jessi Ramsey, an eleven year old fantastic ballerina, is offered the chance for a two-week class in New York--a dancing class! Go Jessi! And it's away from school! So Jessi is psyched and all her friends in the Babysitters' Club will miss her but they are excited for her as well. When she gets to the city, she is reunited with an old friend and makes new ones, plus she's staying with her cousin and his wife. They're very nice to her. She also likes it that they're artists and her cousin's wife plays the piano! New York City is very exciting but everyone's waiting for Jessi at home--right? Plus Jessi wants to go back--right?

Wrong. Jessi is accepted to be in the full-time program for the experts and has a very tough choice to make: her #1 goal or her friends and family back in Stoneybrook, Connecticut? What will she decide to do?

Joe Bob goes to the Drive-in Is with out a doubt a great read reads. He makes anyone who passes his time seeing B movies and hanging out with his friends feel like they are not alone
and I love the times when he bashes a movie as a critic and then tells how he enjoys it as a fan, And if that is not enough Joe Bobs stories of His friends and Non Friends will definetly keep you entertained.
The drive in will never die

...and we're talking an anthology of uniquely American satire - by a man who truly believes that a sacred cow is worth but one thing (namely: steak!) - with that classic American institution of sideward mobility (the drive-in theater) serving merely as the setup man for the most classic lancing of America's boils since H.L. Mencken roasted the booboisie and Artemus Ward proclaimed that if we can't find a live man who's worth a thing, by all means let us find a first class corpse.

Beaucoup garbanzas, mountains of mashed internal organs, kung fooey out the yin-yang, slashings, smashings, chainsawings, bonechoppings, drillings, you name it. And it isn't just the cheeseball drive-in celluloid (yes, children, once upon a time there was celluloid) that gets dismembered, disemboweled, and dehydrated by the classic Briggs scythe: it's the absolute and utter pretentiousness of the smugger-than-thou film critic colony (there are exceptions; you will know them by their lack of implied slash in a typical Joe Bob joust) and the politically correct pissants who tried, and in the long run failed, to bring him down, that get the real roasting in here.

(Come on - you don't REALLY think "We Are The World" was either sacred or a cow, so much as it was a lot of bull, as any of those starving African children - who gorged themselves on all the food the monies didn't provide them, because it was lining the hips of the Communist french fry heads who ran the show in Ethiopia, gave one gander to the white man formerly known as the black man named Michael Jackson and friends, with their precious pietous paen to giving until it hurt, and decided they'd had their biggest laugh since the invention of the axle - can tell you. Do you? And these days, Joe Bob's slash-and-burn against Wacko and the gang would be considered downright lightweight, compared to some of the chazerei getting spouted off by cable TV comics and the lunatics fringe left and right.)

Rated OK for gratuitous satire. DukeBob says check it out. Five stars. (Actually, there's only one star of this show.)

by Delacourt, this is a cult classic just as much as any of the movies Joe Bob reviews. John Bloom's beer-guzzling, womanizing, politically incorrect alter ego unleashes subtle social commentary while reviewing some of the worst travesties ever committed to film based on the number of people who die, how they die, and how many women take their tops off. Bloom went so far as to get Joe Bob banned from Texas newspapers, for a racial satire on "We Are The World". Stephen King writes the intro. If you are a fan of all that is bad in cinema (lo-budget horror, women in jail films, kung fu), you cannot go thru life not reading this. ....

Five stars. I say check it out.

Joe Bob Briggs goes the distance to bring to you the ultimate list of the best Drive In movies. This collection of newspaper articles that Joe Bob wrote is funny and entertaining. Also, you get a peek into Joe Bob's life as well as his early career. From his very first article to him being run out of Texas on a rail, it's a great story!

Excellent reading for the b-movie (and otherwise) fan. Not only do we get movie reviews with blood, breast and decapitation counts, we get a bit of history watching Joe Bob's (John Bloom) Dallas newspaper column pro-gress. Part of the fun is knowing that this stuff was printed in the newspaper, in Dallas, in the 80s. He gets in spats with various entities (the mayor of Irving, TX) and creates endearing (or disgusting, depending on your perspective) fictional characters. I particularly enjoyed the letters-to-the-editor he would respond to. Only 4 stars because he basically says to check out every movie he reviews (even if it sucks).