Arts and Entertainment Books

In the Bible, the Israelites were ordered by the Pharaoh to make bricks without straw. Similarly, Blaisdell had to create visually interesting and workable monsters on short notice with virtually no money. He succeeded admirably despite having the deck stacked against him. Anyone remotely interested in genre movies will be fascinated by this thorough, excellent book. Highly recommended.

Gives a great insight into Paul's work, in some cases you'd think you were there with him. The conditions that Paul worked under was amazing and his commitment and materials used.
His wicked sense of humour and support from his friends in this
then under exposed art of effects and monster making. Still think Technicians behind the scenes should get more support and recognition - grin. This book tops up your enthusiasm to do more

Randy Palmer eloquently invokes the fun-loving spirit of Paul and his funky, renegade creations. Paul certainly was a rare breed; capable of creating fiercely original monsters under less than thankless conditions. Paul's monsters are as endearing as they are memorable, imbued with a soulfulness that few possess. Technique can be learned - imagination can't! Like most gifted artists Paul possessed this and met a tragic end. Randy Palmer sets the record straight and Paul is finally given his due. Randy's book is a MUST own for monster lovers/makers everywhere! A big "Beulah" thank you to Randy...and of course Paul.

For those of you who don't know, Paul Blaisdell designed and built some of the most memorable movie monsters of the late fifties operating under incredible time constraints and a budget laughable even for American International Pictures. Remember the carrot creature from It Conquered the World? How about the pulpish titular antagonists from Invasion of the Saucer Men or the anatomically correct She Creature? While other special effects men of the time, such as Ray Harryhausen, went on to acclaim and respect in the Hollywood establishment Blaisdell was ignominiously fired upon asking for a little respect in an industry that treats its unknowns even worse than its shining stars. The only information available on the man has been from an old article in Cinefantastique magazine and in the reminiscences of his friend and champion, Bob Burns. This well researched biography can be seen as a celebration of a forgotten special effects man and as another cautionary tale of the Hollywood fringe (a great companion piece to the Ed Wood biography, The Nightmare of Ectasy). Some of his notable creations may be so for the wrong reasons but they had more heart than a good majority of the slick and forgettable monsters made these days. Mr. Palmer's book is a wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any fan of fantastic films and their creators.

This album is for the head banger. For the casual listener, there is no way in. But since this is about the book and not the album, here's a bow shot: There is no tablature in here. So if your skill lies in reading music, this is the place to go but don't expect any fret numbers laid out for you neatly to go home, have a few beers and play along. I doubt if Gilmour himself will be able to play along this stuff considering he cannot read music. Additionally, here's a bit of trivia for you. The outro solo on Pigs on the wing - Part 2, was crafted and executed by Snowy White and not David Gilmour, as is usually thought. In conclusion, this is one of PF's heaviest albums and worth learning to read notes to play the stuff. Have fun

RK

this cd is almost perfect...
Pigs on the wing.. almost makes me cry every time I listen to it..

Dogs is a 17 minute tour de Force.... All thanx to Waters...
Waters is god...
This is a great book... Gilmour's solos are great... But thanx to waters... ahhaha

I thought I'd save everyone the trouble and let you all know that this book does NOT have the popular Tablature format!
Otherwise, the book has a nice collection of photos and essays as well as the music in standard format.

The animals is not generally known for it's musical prowess. It was also admitted by the band that they needed something badly for a tour and threw in this material. While waters dominates the album's song credit, David Gilmour's contribution to it's music has not gone unnoticed. Dogs features some of David's best guitaring and of which he admittedly was very proud of. For him as well, It is not his normal run of the mill solo. Historically for Floydians, it is a track(the solo parts) that Waters accidentally erased and that Gilmour had to re-record. Anyway, It is subtle in the guitar sound and has a pace remniscent of Money, all the luscious signature Gilmour bends. Also sonically, It is an altered tuning that is tuned down a whole step on all strings. Pigs features some repetitive musical parts, the only musical highlight being the outro solo with good bass finishing things off. This solo is a good example of Gilmour's lyrical playing. Rarely does he move around in this solo between too many notes. Instead his attitude is compositional by just staying around a few notes riding it high with bends and vibrato. The two solos are a must for progressive guitarists and there is a lot of learning here in terms of feel and those huge bends. Sheep, not to metion, has some unusual guitar playing on it as well and is a great track and fantastic usage of biblical psalms by Waters. Lyrically, Roger has put George Orwell's Animal Farm to good use here and in Rock & Roll format. It is his lucid observation of the workings of society and the evils that go with it that makes Pink Floyd the band they are and worthwhile listening to.

This book is the first part of an autobiographical trilogy and deals with Dirk Bogards childhood up to the age of 18. He and his sister spent the pre war years of the late 30's in an idyllic setting where everything was safe and gentle.Things changed however when he was sent to school in a harsh and unforgiving Glasgow to "whip him into shape".Then followed a few years where he tried to get into the theatre and finally to his call up to an Army camp. Everything rings perfectly truly and I can't wait to start book 2 ,"Snakes and Ladders".

What can I say? Bogarde's a genius, and this book, like all his others, is evidence of that fact. They broke the mold when they made the Dirkster, and the world is a better place for it! His light is so bright it'll blind you if you stare directly at it, just like the sun. Approach with eyes averted, as if humbly bowing down to the gods.

In my opinion, Sir Bogarde is the most fascinating actor ever to grace the screen. His talent as an author is no less fascinating. He describes his early childhood with all the beauty and gentleness of a fairytale , accompanied by sweet , nostalgic sketches. As he proceeds , he describes the hardships he encountered later on with amazing frankness and clarity ,particularly a heartwrenching day of his life when he was brutally raped by a sadistic child molester. There is much strength , beauty , humour and sadness inside this amazing man. It must be an enriching experience to know him personally.

The first book I had ever read by Dirk Bogarde was AN ORDINARY MAN. I couldn't wait to read the rest of his books and now have a fairly complete collection. A POSTILLION STRUCK BY LIGHTNING is one the best, full of humor, insight into human frailities, and pure craftsmanship. I'd recommend it to everyone. When I first read AN ORDINARY MAN I wrote him a fan letter addressed to his publisher. Remarkably, they passed the letter on to him and I received the most charming response. We carried on a correspondence right up to the time he became ill. It was so sad to learn of his death.

I first started listening to Queen back around 1987, having a copy of "The Game" that a cousin gave me. But it wasn't until 1992 that I became a fan, and I bought this book to learn about the band. It's got a lot of good information and pictures, and I recommend it to any Queen fan.

There is one aspect of the band that isn't touched on in the book, and that is their debauchery! Even though I've been a fan for almost 15 years, only recently did I learn that these guys were real hellraisers! I'd read a magazine article after "Innuendo" came out that mentioned the wild release party they held for it, but I had no idea how hard these guys partied. Sick and twisted!

But anyway, that one, minor, misgiving aside, I recommend this book. I wish there were more books available on Queen.

I bought this book back in 1992 when I first became a Queen fanatic. There are some great pictures and quotes, along with kind of an abbreviated history of the band. It concludes with a list of all of Queen's music releases up until 1992. It is a beautiful book that is well worth the money. You will look at it again and again.

This book brings you right along side the band and their legendary music. If you like queen, this is a must have for your library!

This Queen book is absolutely fabulous! It is perfect in nearly every way. It is basically a visual timeline of the band, from its subtle beginnings to its flashy end (or is it?). The pictures alone are worth the price, but the ingenius quotes from band members simply makes this one of the best Queen books available. Look for Freddie in his Superman shirt!

When Tarantino blew up in the early 90's, there were slews of quickie books written to cash in on his enormous popularity. This is not one of them. Jami Bernard has done one of the most thorough and detailed biographies ever done on a celebrity. She misses nothing. The only problem this book has is the same problem almost all Q.T books have- they were all written 2 to 3 years into his career, so there is no recent information. This is one book I'd love to see updated and re-released.It is a richly detailed and fair account of Tarantino's life and career up until 1995.

I just finished reading this book, and it is a fine work of reporting. It interviews people from both sides of the Tarantino debate (those who love him and those who hate him), and allows you to draw your own conclusions from all the statements. It covers Tarantino's life from his birth up to the moment when he made Four Rooms.

Too bad this book is out of print. I hope there will be a reissue in the future, probably covering the latest works of Tarantino.

This book is a very good book. It gets you very familiar with Quentin and his movis. Every Quentin fan should read this book. I am going to read it again. Read the book!! Thomas Peterson MXPF89C@prodigy.com Kuna, Idaho

This book is a must-read for every true Tarantino fan.

Jamie Bernard's book is simply amazing. It covers Tarantino's life from childhood till about 1996. The book is well-written, and goes deep into detail and uncovers Tarantino's life as hyperactive kid, movie theater regular, fatherless child and genius moviemaker. This is the single best book ever written about Quentin Tarantino. No other book delivers such great information, biographical facts and stories about the making of his early movies and involvements in projects. If you want to read a good book about Tarantino, get this one first. It's the best!

trust me on this...

This is neither a "companion piece" nor a "tell-all" book. Equally, it is not a flimsy paperback stapled and glued together just in time for the band's next big tour. What Denise Sullivan does write (and write well, also) is much closer to an anecdote, a souveneir, a recalled event. She avoids the trite and passionless type of "rock'n'roll" review/expose we have to endure all the time and instead lets the reader get a glimpse not so much of the band REM, but of the people that REM exerted some influence on, or the people for whom REM mattered. Reading Sullivan's book, I am reminded of how one of my closest friends and I discuss REM -- from memory, from songs, from what has been happening in our lives. This book feels like a friend.

Unlike most "rock-n-roll" books which often pander to the lowest common denominator -- which usually is the author's own personal bias barely hidden in the text and most often the lens through which we are forced to watch the history of the band/singer unfold -- Denise Sullivan gives us something better, and frankly, more fun. "TATP" offers an original and fresh perspective on a very enigmatic yet familiar college - rock - alternative - mainstream - wacky - superstar band. This book is a must-have for both the fan and fanatic. The writing is well-done, the subject matter well-handled. While almost everyone's favorite REM song and/or album may change over time, this remains my favorite book on the band.

You can't get much better than this -- personal accounts of people who actually were there. There is just as much information to be found here as in _It Crawled from the South_. It proceeds chronologically with great detail, and feeds the REM-fact hungry reader just what he/she wants.

This book was excellent. It was great to get a history of what went on by people who actually were there.Recommendwd if you are a fan of Mr. Stipe and Co. or just interested in a the history of great music that shaped a scene.

This book is about my favorite actress, the incredibly talented Halle Berry. She is totally amazing because she doesn't let anything stop her from being number one. This book shows that Ms. Berry is a determined person. She always knew she was going to be successful and look what happened. She became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I think the moral of this book is to believe in yourself.

This book is about my favorite actress, the incredibly talented Halle Berry. She is totally amazing because she doesn't let anything stop her from being number one. This book shows that Ms. Berry is a determined person. She always knew she was going to be successful and look what happened. She became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I think the moral of this book is to believe in yourself.

"Red Hot Halle: The Story of an American Best Actress" is fascinating. When the actress delivered her very emotional acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, I was curious about her. I wanted to know where she was from, how she got started and what other movies she had played in. I wanted to know all about her background and what makes her tick. "Red Hot Halle" tells it all. It is a very factual account of Halle Berry's life and it has information about every movie she's ever been in. But it is more than just facts. The book tells Halle Berry's life story in an intriguing way introducing other very colorful characters, some big Hollywood players and some everyday people. The book is fast paced, funny at times, inspiring but yet disturbing as it chronicles the actress's struggles in relationships. "Red Hot Halle" is an excellent read.

After reading the intros of "Red Hot Halle" and "Aaliyah" on Kelly Kenyatta's site, my appetite grew to learn more of the two stars. I was excited when my book order arrived. I tore into the package and started reading Halle until my eyes couldn't stay open any longer because I couldn't stop reading. I'm almost through reading it and I'm enjoying every bit of it. I felt like I was there.............. When I picked the book up the next day to finish reading it, I found out there were only two pages left, but I was yearning for more, more............. I like Kelly Kenyatta's style. Her explanations of the other people in her stories are informative. It brings people like me, who don't know them, up to date and put me/us in a familiar time and a place. I couldn't wait to start reading Aaliyah. I have become a fan of Author Kelly Kenyatta.

Jean Rouverol recreates those traumatic years with sensitivity, care and love. With a young family she and her husband not only managed to get away from, (rather than escape), the harrassment of anti-communism in Hollywood but also managed to create a new and productive live in Mexico. Her prose is crisp and very readable.Her sense of humour never fails. Her message is clear- if you believe in it you can do it! One of the few books I have read cover to cover in one sitting.

Jean Rouverol has written here a rather readable personal history of a very public assault on civil liberties (such as they were and are in the US) during the post-WWII Red Scare.

While it does not appear to have been her intention to delve into the politics of the period except as it pertained to women in general and her family (and the expatriate community in Mexico) in particular, especially during the blacklist, the inquiring reader is left wondering, for example, what happened to Rouverol's husband, screenwriter Hugo Butler, perhaps during their Mexican exile, to lead him to celebrate the display of Italian Communist Party banners in Rome even as he wishes that Party to lose the 1960 parliamentary election in Italy -- he, like his wife, having been a member of the Communist Party USA. But then, she tied up the loose ends of her family's Mexican experience somewhat hastily, leaving one to speculate as to whether Butler's political regression was a result of his overall mental deterioration -- a condition Rouverol noted. Nevertheless, her detailed account of their life in Mexico -- the focus of the book -- makes this a worthwhile record of survival during an intensely repressive time.

I was a teenager at Hollywood High during these dark years. Struggling to understand the turmoil and politics that my family was living through. Each day I saw the pain my loving, idealistic father was enduring as more and more of his friends and coworkers became ensnared in the stupid net of fear and accusation that was spreading through his industry.

Jean's story of their quick decision to slip across the border with their children and their day to day challenges of providing a good education and rich family life as exiles makes great reading.

Rouverol's clean prose and unsparing eye will draw readers into recollections of her family's life on the run and the work they scared up to support their nearly decade-long stint underground. Poignant and unapologetic, Rouverol's memoir juxtaposes the support they found south of the border with the unrelenting weight of living as fugitives. -- Publishers Weekly

Every Jewish fanatic who thinks they know everything about Wagner's relationships w/Jews and who base their opinions on the fact that he was an anti-semite ought to read this book. Loads of stuff not previously known, at least not by me. jww

Having read many books on the life of Wagner over the years, I can safely say that this biographical sketch by Brener ranks among the best. The author is a retired attorney who is also a music and art critic. Like most of us who love Wagner's music, Brener is troubled by the composer's less than admirable traits -- his manipulation of his friends, his skipping out on debts, and particularly his anti-Semitism. How could a man who wrote some of the most moving music and insightful music dramas in Western civiilzation be such a defective human being? Brener sets out to understand Wagner the man in human perspective and succeeds admirably. He focuses mainly on Wagner's public views of "the Jews" and his private, long-standing and meaningful friendships with many individual Jews. A retired lawyer, he has done his homework, deposed all the key witnesses, and developed an argument that leaves no stone unturned. Brener makes a compelling case for Wagner as a nuanced human being rather than the black and white monster as some biographers portray him. In addition, the book is extremely well written and hard to put down. I came away with a greater appreciation of Wagner and a deeper understanding of the nature of prejudice. Highly recommended.

This is not the usual diatribe that we expect on Wagner's Antisemitism. Instead it is a biography focusing on the composer's relations with the Jews. Brener makes a sharp distinction between "the Jews" in Roman type and the same phrase in italic, the former representing Wagner's Jewish friends, the latter the Jewish community that he despised.

The main characters are Karl Tausig, Heinrich Porges, Joseph Rubinstein, and Hermann Levi--all close associates of Wagner and all Jewish. The chapters on Levi are especially revealing, a sharp challenge to orthodox opinion by such scholars as Peter Gay. The analysis of Wagner's major tract on the subject, "Judaism in Music," is adequate.

Brener is a good writer with a refined sense of tone and wit. He knows the primary literature backwards and forwards. His mastery of the secondary sources seems less secure but still sufficient for his purposes. Obviously he has visited most of the places he discusses, for his descriptions of them (both then and now) are vivid.

His theme is summed up in a concise sentence that concludes his preface: "I do not beleive that, at the deeper levels, the man who created Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and Der Ring des Nibelungen could possibly have been the monster that so many have painted." He proves his point well.

I enjoyed this book and learned much from it. I recommend it wholeheartedly to fellow Wagnerians.

Despite a few notable exceptions, Milton Brener's Richard Wagner and the Jews is nearly the only book that deals fairly with the famed opera composer's anti-Semitism; and as such, this book is a welcome corrective to some of the more shrill anti-Wagner screeds of the last few decades. Brener does not intend to excuse Wagner; he merely comes closer than most in explaining him.

Besides being probably the greatest artist who ever lived, Wagner was also a bundle of contradictions. However, this bundle of contradictions never seemed to be able to realize that he was just that. Indeed, Wagner did possess anti-Semitic attitudes, but his anti-Semitism was of a different stripe than that espoused by the Nazis. Wagner called for Jewish assimilation within the German population, which certainly did not conform with later Nazi policy. Like many a 19th-Century anti-Semite, Wagner seems to have seen Jewishness as almost an abstract, metaphysical concept. Of course, that does not excuse him. He did indeed say vile things about Jews, and he needs to be held accountable for those attitudes, but to simply (and wrongly) call him a proto-Nazi is not only intellectually dishonest, it wrongly stains the reputation of an artist who created stupendous, deeply human works-of-art.

As Brener also points out, there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic in any of Wagner's great works of art. Unfortunately, some writers, such as Robert Gutman, seem to have a compulsion to find even the most tenuous, implausible Anti-Semitic connections in Wagner's work. It is simply impossible to find such links. There is not the slightest overt connection to anti-Semitism in any of Wagner's works, and if there are any such covert links, then one would have had to have entered the composer's mind to see them. Wagner's many genuine friendships with Jews complicate Gutman's position even more.

This is simply a fabulous book. And, along with The Darker Side of Genius and The Ring of Myths, it is also the most responsible volume available that deals specifically with Wagner's most famous character flaw.

Also included, as an appendix, is the composer's infamous essay, "Judaism in Music". While the essay is bitter and paranoid, it is helpful for a frame of reference to the preceding 300 pages. Needless to say, I find Wagner's argument that Jews are incapable of generating higher culture to be utterly worthless. Schoenberg & Mahler (and many other Jewish artists) obviously dismantle that argument, and as for Wagner's claim that Jews are incapable of high art because they are "rootless", we only need to look at Aaron Copland, a man of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, who used Appalachian & Mexican melodies and rhythms to create incredible works of art.

This is your mentor-in-a-box. It gets closer than any other book has to the instructive wisdom, creativity, ingenuity, and technical expertise inside the minds of some very important news shooters. I bet some of these guys wouldn't be able to articulate their own processes nearly as eloquently as Underwood has here. Worth every cent.

I was afraid it was just going to be another text book by someone who had a small TV background and then went into teaching. However, I was very interested to see the article on how the BBC photographers cover international news...(after all they invented it). The articles on network freelancers I would have liked to see expanded as this is now a major force in top TV coverage. I liked seeing the sidebars on the primary tools each person uses. The book has a blend of large and smaller market stories and is a good read. I wish it was longer! John Treadgold, news photographer

Since I bought it, this book has been a hit with the photogs at the station I work at. I would recommend that working news photographers either get their own, or pool some money for at least a "staff" copy. It's a book you will casually pick up and wind up reading for the next hour (or as long as you can!) it's packed with great info, for just about any situation (it'll step you through focal lengths and later on it has info on how to shoot in a disaster. It doesn't matter if you're a student or a seasoned vet, you will find something interesting and valuable in this book (even if it's just to clarify and reflect your own thoughts on shooting).

Each chapter is written by or features a different photographer/TV news professional (there's a few reporters and producers mixed in, but all have strong visual backgrounds) and focuses on a certain aspect of shooting TV news. Whether its just the basics of story structure and editing, how to shoot a visually interesting interview, ethics, shooting sports, major disasters and "spot" news, One-man-bands, live shots, international stories (being embedded, international travel). And, of course, there is more.

I don't normally ooze praise like this, but this book is worth the fairly high price tag. Only one request: Why not include a DVD of pieces done by the great photographers featured in the book? That would really help, especially newer shooters to understand some of the concepts and to see what is possible when you are shooting to the Nth degree. After reading a section of this, you'll want to go out and shoot more than before. It's helped to replenish my desire to pursue this career when sometimes work seems to be getting stale.

BUY THIS BOOK

Roll! is a terrific textbook for TV Reporting. If it's at all possible to teach shooting with a book, this is the book. A must for any college teaching TV news. Just the diagrams for different angles in Chapter 7 is nearly worth the price. Rather than drawing diagrams on a white board, just use the book. Properly organized, the book can take students from the first lesson through advanced shooting.

Bob Lissit
Journalism professor
S.I. Newhouse School
Syracuse University