Tropical Living: Contemporary Dream Houses in the Philippines

Book Description

Start with a warm tropical climate. Add an abundance of exotic natural building material. And then let the cross currents of Asian design and aesthetics create a rich architectural alchemy of its own. The result? The exquisite homes in the Philippines, a perfect balance of form and functionality. Tropical Living explores this dynamic experiment with breathtaking photography and fascinating text.Tropical Living examines diverse residential design styles in both the city and in the countryside, in mountains and at the sea. From a classic old-world penthouse in the Malate area to an Asian-fusion villa on Batangas Bay, over thirty private homes are showcased and captured in color photographs taken by noted photographer, Andrew Chester Ong. Featuring an introduction by anthropology professor, Fernando Nakpil Zialcita, this book is a feast for lovers of Southeast Asia and anyone interested in design concepts from this fascinating and underrepresented corner of the world.

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended!.......2002-07-11

If you are into tropical architecture, this sure is the book for you! Not much text which makes it of "worth" + great photography! Before planning a house, this sure is a must-have! Houses featured here has its owne individuality and character! Dont miss it!...

A designing must.......2001-09-15

This is a beautifully photographed and well-organized showcase of wonderful Philippine homes. The range of houses covered is amazing and you're sure to get inspiration from one of the many fine examples of East meets West design as well as the seamless blend of Spanish, Malay, and Western heritage that the Philippines has. The homes are fabulous and even if you aren't thinking of redecorating, you will be after you finish it. One of the things that I particularly like about this is that unlike many books on Asian homes which focus only on either architectural design OR the interiors, this one gives a good balance of both. I just wish that the book had more pages.

Philippine Dream Homes.......2001-07-10

This was truly a feast for my senses. The Filipino elite is a highly sophisticated, well travelled, cosmopolitan, tropical, and casually elegant group who have developed a blended taste and style of their own. This book could be renamed "Tropical Dream Homes of the Philippines Rich and Famous". What is truly visible in this book is the rich diversity and fusion of the different cultures - Chinese, Spanish, Indonesian, Malaysian, and American - creating a Philippine cosmo-Asian blend. I highly recommend this book.

Book Description

A Child's First Drawing Book

With this simple teaching method, every child can learn to draw!

Designed as a child's first art series, Kids Can Draw will help any child learn the basics of drawing. It's as easy as drawing a triangle, circle, or square. By starting with these basic shapes, your child can create a dog, cat, rabbit, or any favorite pet.

Average customer rating:

Pictures of power

because no one looks like that, right?

Illustrator AND Photographer

Robust, Beautiful Unadorned Bodies Form the Base of Fantasy!

A wonderful product with a warts-and-all approach

Bodies: Boris Vallejo : His Photographic Art

Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560251581

Customer Reviews:

Pictures of power.......2006-06-29

Boris Vallejo is known as illustrator of fantasy figures: mighty heroes and heroines of the sword and sandal sort, straining their mighty thews against natural and supernatural foes. Despite their fantastic elements, all of the figures are firmly founded in physical reality. Like many illustrators, Boris works from photos. And, like somewhat fewer, he takes his own reference photos. These are some of the photos from that body of work.

The pictures are unusual in several ways. One is that Boris favors body-builders, both men and women, for his rippling-sinews work. A body-builder himself, he uses unusual poses to emphasize their unusual proportions. In women, this means huge power in their lower bodies, as seen in the cover photo. Another unusual feature is the collection's clear focus on power. There's nothing erotic here, except to the extent that any healthy body stirs the attention. These aren't abstractions either, they're whole and clear renderings of entire figures, even if some of those figures strain one's belief in what's normal. (The one female body builder I've known looked as good as any of these, but without that muscle-y look that makes me think of steroids.) Yet another idiosyncracy of this collection can't be put into any one word. It's the sense, and certainly true in many cases, that the photo was not the artist's endpoint. Instead, the photo, model, and pose are just steps towards an illustration that exists only in Boris's thoughts.

//wiredweird

because no one looks like that, right?.......2002-12-27

Boris Vallejo is well known for his fantasy art. Specifically for his incredibly muscular voluptous and scantily clad ladies. Although, he also is responsible for the incredibly buff males who wear just as little clothing (look for his work on Conan: the Barbarian)
Teamed with his wife, Julie Bell who is a body builder and accomplished artist in her own right (you will see many pictures of her nude in this book), the two have published tons of illustration books. These books attract all different fans, from those who just use them as soft porn to those who really appreciate the illustrative techniques, and fantasy enthusiasts of all sorts. Most people who looked at these books have to go at some point, usually in discust, THERE ARE NO REAL PEOPLE WHO LOOK LIKE THIS!
Well...um...I said that too, and looking at this photography, I have to munch those words. (Pass the ketchup?) The beautiful black and white photography of these incredible hardbodies proves that yes there are some real live people who really do look like fantasy superheros/heroines. (Except honestly, the breasts on the women are usually, but not always smaller, since breasts are mostly fat)
Then there is the irony of this book, in that we are being presented with larger than life looking bodybuilders, seemingly so perfect, but they are presented to us very candidly, with scars and freckles and body hair. It's wonderful. I think fans of Boris Vallejo will really appreciate this book.

Illustrator AND Photographer.......2001-05-11

Most people who are familiar with Boris Vallejo's work know him as a fantasy illustrator. He is on of the best in his field, producing strong, graphic images of physically impressive people. I was surprised to discover that most often Vallejo works from life, or photographs of models.

Originally Vallejo used a professional photographer, but he became interested in photographer and began to do his own work. He brings to his black and white photographic images the same intensity that he uses in his illustration. No doubt due in part to his interest in body building Vallejo's perception of beauty is a bit different from the photographic norm.

Vallejo's women are not the slim ephemeral beauties that inhabit the fantasies of your average, slightly flabby, American male. These women are people to contend with, who hand swords and armor with the same facility we do Palm Pilots. Using these strong thewed yet remarkably sensual women (and men too) Vallejo creates images of refined quality with a startling sense of natural form and flow. They lack the excessive strain that sometimes appears in photos of body builders.

Vallejo uses medium format cameras to create images of extreme detail, and is unafraid to include the scars and bumps along with the lush sensuality of skin and hair. As such there is a dimensional effect which can be hypnotic. Some might quibble over whether this is fine art photography, but these are striking, unforgettable images.

Robust, Beautiful Unadorned Bodies Form the Base of Fantasy!.......2001-03-29

This book contains many nude photographs done in ways that would cause the book to receive an R rating if it were a motion picture.

Boris Vallejo is well known for his fantasy illustrations of strong men and women. To create those illustrations, he often creates photographs of his models rather than having them pose for extended periods of time. This book contains many images that he has used for that purpose. For long-time Vallejo fans, part of the interest in this book will be seeing the models he was using. This allows you to see more clearly what Vallejo adds through selecting the models, posing them, and employing his illustration style.

Since these images were created as intermediary subjects, they do not have the usual focus on composition, lighting, or personality. As such, these vibrant people often come across like partially decayed statues done in marble by a long-deceased Roman or Greek sculptor.

The most interesting part of the photographs themselves is that they reveal aspects of the human form that you have probably not seen before. Most of the models are female bodybuilders (including Mr. Vallejo's wife and sister). Most of us have an image of what bodybuilders look like in a competition. These photographs are less extreme, taken when a model is usually not "pumped up" to competition shape and with less extreme poses. Because there is little use of filters (and no retouching that I noticed), these people reveal their warts and scars as well as their muscles. I found the contrasts to be fascinating. Rather than making the images less attractive, the contrast for me made the most beautiful sections of the model's body even more idealized. In many cases, it's a jaw line, or a neck, or part of the curve of the shoulder that draws your attention. But by being in very good shape, there's a lot of muscle that creates slightly exaggerated curves in many places against taut skin that makes for very appealing shapes.

In some situations, the models pose with all kinds of fantasy gear, including weapons. This actually enhances the contrasts in favor of seeing the person has more powerful -- to hold such a dangerous weapon while unclothed requires great self-confidence.

I also came away from this book having a greater appreciation for Mr. Vallejo's illustrations. They are much closer to real life than I would have ever imagined. I had always found them to seem exaggerated, and thus unfairly dismissed them as overdone. But his illustrations are not much more than an idealization of the real thing, as portrayed here.

I would normally tell you what my favorite images are from the book. Since there were no names, titles, dates, or page numbers, it is hard to reference them. From a photography perspective, the image of the pregnant woman was clearly one of the best. I found that his female photographs were more appealing than his male ones, probably because the models were less distorted by muscles. The women seemed healthy and vibrant, rather than muscle-dominated. But that's probably just a matter of personal taste.

After you finish this book, perhaps you should think about how you can use photography to help you accomplish important tasks in your life. Where would it help to have real-life models? Where can a photograph record reality better than any other method, including your memory? If you move 20 years into the future, what would you miss if you had not photographed it?

Be open to appreciating people and beauty in new ways!

A wonderful product with a warts-and-all approach.......1999-10-27

Quite frankly, there isn't much for me to say; the reader from Milwaukee, August, 1998 pretty much covered it all, and I agree with everything that reviewer said. This was not something that was developed specifically as a photography project; it evolved naturally from Boris' work as an illustrator. In his earlier works, such as "The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo" and "Mirage," reference is made to his use of photo-referents as tools for his paintings. While his interest in photography stems from that, his primary concern with it is firmly rooted in the utilitarian sense of the photo as an intermediary tool in the creation of something else. That shows in this. In "Bodies" we find some prints which were always intended as showcase photos, some which were merely used to get the creative juices flowing, and some which were intended as intermediary tools, but which also happened to be of showcase quality.

Because Boris' photographic mentality is focused not so much on the end product, but on the process, we see a very organic, natural, frank, honest, and unpretentious presentation. Oh, it's not without flaws, but neither is the essence of humanity. I was so impressed with the package that I refused to buy the copy of the book I found in the store, which had been slightly manhandled (no doubt by giggling adolescents incapable of looking beyond the nude to the art within). I made them special order a copy so that I might have one that was pristine.

There was one other fun thing not touched on by any of the previous reviewers. As a longtime Boris fan, owner of all his previous books ("The Fantastic Art of Boris Vallejo," "Mirage," "Enchantment," and "Ladies") as well as numerous book covers and fantasy art calendars, I found it entertaining to play "Spot the Model." Though the majority of the photos were of the photographer's wife, bodybuilder and fantasy artist Julie Bell, certain faces and figures were instantly recognizable for having turned up as a god in a calendar, a noble savage on a book cover, a Greek femme fatale bringing to life a story by the artist's sister, Doris.

Jaded longtime photography pointy-heads may not learn anything new from this book, but there is something within that can make this book as enjoyable to them as to any longtime fan of the great illustrator. Boris simply has a deep and abiding love for the human form, and this collection is a celebration of that emotion and devotion. A celebration definitely worth attending.

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BODIES. Boris Vallejo, His Photographic Art.
Boris. Vallejo
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R8CD9Q

Customer Reviews:

Dracula: A symphony in moonlight and nightmares.......2003-12-10

The only major drawback I have with this story is that is a retelling of the original story of Dracula. Some of the events and characters and their relationships are changed. For example - In the original novel, it was Lucy Westrena who became Dracula's victim. In this book, it's Mina Harker. Also, there's no mention of the first part of the book in which Jonathon, Mina's Fiancee', goes to Translyvania to meet with the count and to arrange his move to England. In fact, there's little mention of Jonathon at all.
Basically, don't read this with the expectation of it being an adaptation of the Stoker novel. Think of it as more a reimagining, an alternate reality version of the story.
The artwork, as always, is just simply gorgeous...ethereal, dreamy, moody, haunting... I've been a fan of Muth since the 80's when he did work for Marvel Comic's Epic line: Moonshadow and Meltdown: Havok and Wolverine. I reccomend this book highly. Muth's art doesn't disappoint.

Like Herzog's Nosferatu: Familiar, but very different.......2002-01-27

Just don't read it too fast. As a previous reviewer pointed out, Muth's "Symphony" is not a graphic novel. It is more like a script to a play or movie, alternating with a page (sometimes more than one) sized illustration.

Muth decorates the borders of the text pages with curls and strokes and little illustrations (which are not always the same as those on the pages before), evoking some Victorian text. (Epic Comics did not keep this is mind when choosing the daffy modern typeface, however.) The painted pages are not just accompaniments to an otherwise complete story, either. They substitute for the script. These paintings are all watercolor washes, too--the only style I've seen him do, and do them well he does.

Really this book is a fascinating experiment in montage; one large image after another with the viewer's mind passively working to find a recognizable narrative as fast as possible. That is a powerful tool--and could be used as the creative technique any person could use who itches to tell a story visually. Film students and studying cartoonists might distinguish this as interesting reading.

I am a lousy writer, so I am helpless to communicate exactly why this book is so interesting to me. But all I can say is, don't read it too quickly. He only got 48 pages to work with and he deserves a chance to have a project experienced on its own terms. Muth's art, as always, is astonishing.

I almost forgot--the book rocks as a graphic novel.

A retelling of the Dracula story in a graphic novel format........1997-03-06

This is not just another Dracula story. Jon Muth tells the tale of the imfamous vampire through the writings of the characters Dracula encounters, in their diaries, logbooks, and telegrams. There is also standard prose, as in a regular book, and snatches of dialogue in script format. But the best reason to own a copy is Muth's beautiful watercolour renderings of the story. There is page after page of the watercolours telling the story, with no interruption with print or word balloons as in a regular graphic novel. This allows the reader the opportunity of filling in the story himself, partially making up what the action is. Believe me, this is not a drawback, as you may suppose! The book only fails in one respect, that being a relatively short length. I certianly would have loved the opportunity to see more of Mr. Muth's watercolours!

Amazon.com

First published in 1966, this adulatory memoir made news by revealing that Ernest Hemingway's 1961 death was a suicide. It also provided the mythmaking, Nobel Prize-winning author with an opportunity to promulgate his preferred public persona from beyond the grave. Chronicling their friendship over the final 14 years of Hemingway's life, A.E. Hotchner vividly captured the writer's appeal as a man and his genius as a storyteller in extensive direct quotes. He draws from contemporary notes, tape recordings, and (he reveals in the foreword to this edition published for the Hemingway centennial) disguised excerpts from personal letters that Hemingway's widow, Mary, refused him permission to use. In conversation, Hemingway sounds like one of his own fictional heroes: terse, witty, profane, manly. Hotchner, in his mid-20s when they first met in 1948 and, he freely admits, "struck with an affliction common to my generation: Hemingway Awe," seldom evaluates either the veracity of or the motivations behind the writer's anecdotes. He makes no claim to be objective, which adds to the emotional force of the painful final chapters showing a desolate, depressed Hemingway convinced he could no longer write. By no means the whole truth, Hotchner's loving portrait shows Hemingway to readers as he wanted to be seen and as his most ardent admirers saw him. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Coinciding with the release of Papa starring Anthony Hopkins and Meg Ryan-the New York Times bestseller and classic portrait of one of America's greatest writers

Between 1948 and 1961, Ernest Hemingway and A. E. Hotchner traveled together from New York to Paris to Spain, fished the waters off Cuba, hunted in Idaho, ran with the bulls in Pamplona-and once Hotchner even masqueraded as a matador and Hemingway's manager in an actual bullfight. Everywhere they went, they talked. For fourteen years, Hotchner and Hemingway shared their thoughts and as Hemingway reminisced about his childhood, recalled the Paris literary scene of the twenties, and recounted the real events that lay behind his fiction, Hotchner took it all down. His notes on the many occasions he spent with his friend Papa-in Venice and Rome, in Key West, on the Riviera, and in Ketchum, Idaho, where Hemingway died by his own hand in 1961-provide the material for this utterly profound, and truthfully compassionate best-selling memoir about the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. With a new introduction by the author and with never before published photographs from his personal collection, Papa Hemingway is a mesmerizing portrait.

Customer Reviews:

Literary Lion in Winter...........2007-08-29

Wild game hunter, war correspondent, bull fighting afficionado; these were the elements that comprised the public persona of Earnest Hemingway, unparalleled man of American letters. As time went on though, Hemingway added unfathomable amounts of liquor to the mix and he began to confuse his public persona with who he really was. Hotchner's memoir finds Hemingway near the end of his remarkable reign as macho wordsmith king extrordinaire--It begins somewhere before he wrote the Old Man and the Sea, won the Nobel Prize, and covers through his tragic psychological/physical decline and suicide in 1961. Hotchner spent a lot of time with Hemingway during these later years touring Europe and running with the bulls. Along the way Hem and Hotch rub shoulders with Hemingway pals Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, among others; but front and center are Hotchner's observations of the great man himself. It must have been hard for A.E.H. to write this as Hemingway slid into the paranoia/psychosis that eventually led him to fire that shotgun into his mouth in Ketchum, Idaho. As the memoir goes on, EH drinks more and more and struggles to maintain his art. Eventually, he imagines himself a target of the FBI, and at one point attempts to jump out of a plane transporting him to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Through it all his last wife, Mary--as well as Hotchner and his many friends, stand by him. The reader,though, gets the feeling that while Hemingway was never easy to be around, the years of decline were especially difficult. Hotchner, a loyal friend and admirer, proves a more than able chronicler, always managing to mix just the right touch of compassion (that never becomes blind hero worship) with a keen objectivity that serves a good memoir best. In this book, Hotchner relates both the high and low points of the literary lion in winter.

Defeat not an option.......2007-08-29

It was this book, PAPA HEMINGWAY by A.E. Hotchner, that revealed to the world upon its publication in 1966 that Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 not of an accident while cleaning a gun but of an intentional self-inflicted gunshot. If that was all this book had to offer the world on Hemingway, it would not still be in print. He provides an up close and personal portrait of a man he admired and called a good friend, but a complicated personage all the same. This is not a critical, exhaustively researched biography weighing 10 pounds; it is memoir by someone who experienced life with the man firsthand, an account that comes across with honesty and enough detail for readers to draw their own critical conclusions.

Hotchner was a young writer dispatched by a magazine in 1948 to find the by then world famous Hemingway in Cuba and negotiate an article. Hotchner's terror at the assignment turned into high surprise as Hemingway took to him and brought him right into his inner circle. Hotchner never talks about himself really, so we don't know what Hemingway saw in him, but it had to be something because Hemingway was not a man who trusted easily, who required exacting standards in his pals, who also included restaurateur Toots Shor, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and Ava Gardner. Hemingway was at the top of his powers in 1948, living as he thought life should be lived and settled in with his fourth and last wife, Mary, who could stand up to him. On the pretense of editing work, he takes Hotchner along for European adventures, making fun while also disclosing memories of his earlier days, and most important, what inspired his classic novels. As they move into the 1950's together, Hotchner also catches evidence of Hemingway's battle with mortality. He has a tough road back to health after surviving a plane crash in Africa, and then, trying to work again, he is bowled over by the response to THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (the Pulitzer) and the Nobel Prize. Castro, with whom he thought he had an understanding, takes his home and sanctuary. He is briefly revived in the outdoors of Ketchum, Idaho, but depression and paranoia begin to tear at him. What now seems a brutal electric shock treatment at the Mayo Clinic, especially for a man who never believed in analysis or being penned up, who wanted to do his own fighting, preceded his death.

fantastic personal memoir of a giant of a man.......2007-04-26

One of my all time favorite books; the Hotch-Hemingway relationship is one of literature's most enduring testaments to friendship. Hothchner gives us a memorable picture of his good friend & one of America's premier authors. Looks at him favorably, not objectively.

Great Book.......2006-11-07

An interesting perspective on the life of one of the world's great authors. As an aspiring writer myself, I found that a lot of Hemingway's dialogues with Hotchner provided me with useful insight for my own writings.

being with Hemingway.......2006-05-17

After reading "Papa Hemingway" for the third time I felt compelled to contribute some comment. What makes this book unique is that in it Hemingway speaks and you somehow know the quoted dialogue is a faithful replication of what Hotchner heard.
While reading I felt as if I was in the back seat of the touring car Papa and Hotch used through Spain and The Riviera. I experienced the many bars they visited and got to meet the various friends and characters they encountered. A great read...and a great trip!

Average customer rating:

Pretty interesting, but forgettable.

Papa: A Personal Memoir
Gregory H. Hemingway
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0395243483

Customer Reviews:

Pretty interesting, but forgettable........2003-05-18

I'm not an expert on Hemingway and I haven't read more than just a couple of his books, but I thought this was a short, interesting book by one of Hemingway's sons, Gregory. He's not a writer and doesn't seem neither to try to become one nor to emulate his father's talents (although he tells us that he did try just both, when he was young). Instead, he gives more than a couple of interesting anecdotes. He puts some light on Hemingway's obsessions with his image and macho figure. At the time I read this book, a probably silly association came to my mind: Walt Whitman (another American hero from another age) and his supposed homosexuality -a complex statement that I, basicaly, disagree with. There're some aspects in Hemingway's postures in this book that made me think about his own unassumed conflicts with homosexual feelings and his image as a boxer and a 'viril' writer. Excellent pictures in the hard cover edition I've read.

Average customer rating:

PAPA a Personal Memoir
GREGORY H. HEMINGWAY
Manufacturer: HOUGHTON & MIFFLlIN Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HEO9RE

Average customer rating:

Papa Hemingway : A Personal Memoir
HOTCHNER A.E.
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GRCRK8

Average customer rating:

PAPA HEMINGWAY, A PERSONAL MEMOIR
A E HOTCHNER
Manufacturer: RANDOM HOUSE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SIJRX0

Average customer rating:

Papa Hemingway, a Personal Memoir
A. E. Hotchner
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CN5DI

Papa Hemingway, A Personal Memoir by A. E. Hotchner

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Papa Hemingway, A Personal Memoir by A. E. Hotchner
A E Hotchner
Manufacturer: Random House Inc, NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6AXM0

Average customer rating:

PAPA HEMINGWAY, A PERSONAL MEMOIR.
A.E Hotchner
Manufacturer: Readers Union
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GM4UY4

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Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir
A. E. Hotchner
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GY5R30

Average customer rating:

Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir
Ernest] Hotchner, A. E. [Hemingway
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KTQCBC

Customer Reviews:

A Soldier's Wife View of WWII.......2000-07-27

In this rush to recognize the World War II generation, we seem to have forgotten the very rich memory of veterans' friends and family. This book helps fill this important niche of our history by providing a unique perspective from a WWII wife who followed her husband from camp to camp, dragging a four year boy, while the country rushed to join the war. See a slice of time that soon will be gone from our collective memories told in a manner that is both entertaining and enlightening.

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