Colors: Tibor Kalman, Issues 1-13

Book Description

Over the course of 13 controversial issues, influential designer Tibor Kalman (1949-1999) used his position as Editor in Chief of the international magazine Colors to challenge the status quo. Through a highly visual language, he creatively explored the world's problems--racism, AIDS--and preoccupations--sports, shopping--to propel social change. That Colors was sponsored by the Benetton clothing company made the media experiment all the more intriguing. Following the success of Tibor's un(Fashion), this visually powerful book features spreads from each issue and reproduces in full a facsimile of the word-free 13th and final Colors. Kalman's previously unpublished notes and sketches, plus commentary by his partner, Maira, complete the collection.

Customer Reviews:

fantastic.......2007-05-20

i thought this was a marvelous book rendition of the magazine. i wish there were more pages though. it was just way too short.

Colors : Tibor Kalman, Issues 1-13.......2007-01-19

stunningly beautiful, such imagination... and a look into Tibor Kalman's head through his own notes!
Enjoy this book of random and organized art.

...yeah...it's worth buying........2002-06-29

My hope when buying this book was that I would find more indepth information about the creation of colors with insight coming from the people who assisted in its production. What I found was 1/3 of the book being redundant with Tibors book "Perverse Optimist." The last 1/3 of the book is a reproduction of issue 13 - an issue I already own - so that wasn't very helpful either.

I was almost completely dissapointed with this book until I reached the middle section - an archive of Tibor's sketches, doodles and thoughts that help readers like myself see exactly how he initiated ideas for Colors Magazine. THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. This fairly extensive section of the book offers heaps of photos that document Tibor's professional and activist life from High School onward. The supporting text by Maira is heart warming, funny and enlightmening. This section alone justifies buying the book.

Sadly enough, I have to call this Disappointing as well.......2002-06-29

I was expecting more insight, more celebration, more highlights...and instead you have some very reduced page layouts (maybe 40% of the original) that can't be appreciated, Kalman's scribbles and comments, and the photography of Issue 13...What was the point???

Disappointing!.......2002-06-01

I was disappointed with this books as soon as I browsed its contents. One third of the book is a reproduction of COLORS issue 13: probably the least interesting issue produced under the editorship of Tibor Kalman. Issue 13 had no words but 80 pages of stock photography - more of an indulgence than an issue of an otherwise extrodinary magazine. The previous 12 issues of COLORS had a wealth of both words and pictures on such themes as the street, wealth, religion, AIDS, travel, and sport. Unfortnately, in this retrospective, each issue only gets scant attention. As well, some of the excepts of the magazine are so inexplicably reduced in size that the text is impossible to read. The remainder of the book are exerpts from Tibor's scrapbook. Some of these excerpts are facinating, such as the FBI's reports of Tibor during his 'Cuban phase', but most merely confirm that that Kalman's strength came from his ideas and not from his skills in drawing or design.

Ignore this book. Buy Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist instead.

Customer Reviews:

I m Interested.......2001-08-17

This Book is interesting,and how buy this book.

Average customer rating:

Airbrush Art in Japan, No 4

Manufacturer: Graphic Sha Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 999226456X

Amazon.com

Late in life, the American novelist and conservationist Wallace Stegner left California, where he had lived for half a century, to move to Vermont. The reason, he said, was simple: there is more wilderness to be found in the pine forests of western New England than in the Far West. John Elder supports Stegner's claim, writing in Reading the Mountains of Home that the abandoned farmsteads of so many of Robert Frost's Vermont poems have now reverted to wild lands, dense with fallen logs and snags, full of bird and animal life.

A longtime resident of the state, Elder uses Frost's great but little-known poem "Directive" as a touchstone by which to guide his discussion of how modern humans can truly inhabit a landscape--in this case, a landscape that had been developed for generations and then all but forgotten. In such places, Elder writes, the issue is not one of wilderness versus civilization, that old trope, but the wildness that endures at the edges of settled places, wildness that is accessible to people all around the world. His celebration of returning greenness, of the forest's seasons, and of his own life in the woods makes for engaging reading indeed. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Small farms once occupied the heights that John Elder calls home, but now only a few cellar holes and tumbled stone walls remain among the dense stands of maple, beech, and hemlocks on these Vermont hills. Reading the Mountains of Homeis a journey into these verdant reaches where in the last century humans tried their hand and where bear and moose now find shelter. As John Elder is our guide, so Robert Frost is Elder's companion, his great poem "Directive" seeing us through a landscape in which nature and literature, loss and recovery, are inextricably joined.

Over the course of a year, Elder takes us on his hikes through the forested uplands between South Mountain and North Mountain, reflecting on the forces of nature, from the descent of the glaciers to the rush of the New Haven River, that shaped a plateau for his village of Bristol; and on the human will that denuded and farmed and abandoned the mountains so many years ago. His forays wind through the flinty relics of nineteenth-century homesteads and Abenaki settlements, leading to meditations on both human failure and the possibility for deeper communion with the land and others.

An exploration of the body and soul of a place, an interpretive map of its natural and literary life, Reading the Mountains of Home strikes a moving balance between the pressures of civilization and the attraction of wilderness. It is a beautiful work of nature writing in which human nature finds its place, where the reader is invited to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion."

Customer Reviews:

Hope for Co-existence.......2002-09-27

This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

An outstanding book.......1998-10-31

I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.

Smart and moving and insightful........1998-07-25

I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.

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A Cloud of Other Poets
Mario L. D'Avanzo
Manufacturer: University Press of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This study indicates in key poems how and why Robert Frost was influenced by his Romantic predecessors-Thoreau, Emerson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Seen in relation to their Romantic origins, many of Frost's poems-both those widely known and many less familiar-unfold to richer meanings. The author places the poetry of Frost in the context and tradition of the writings of these American and English Romantic writers and examines the variety of responses that Frost makes toward Romantic ideas on the mind, nature, and spiritual value. His kinship and differences with his forebears, who provide key images, figures, and symbols for his poems, indicate that Frost's poems prove to be a dialectic with his predecessors. The poems are to be seen from both a Romantic and anti-Romantic perspective. Contents: Emerson, Thoreau, and the English Romantics; The Visionary Mind; Wild Flowers-The Flowering Moment; The Darker Mood; The Visionary Quest; Poems of Diale Labor, Art, and Imagination; Four Poems of Origins and Ends.

A Choice of Inheritance: Self and Community from Edmund Burke to Robert Frost

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A Choice of Inheritance: Self and Community from Edmund Burke to Robert Frost
David Bromwich
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0674127757

Book Description

For the last two centuries, literature has tested the authority of the individual and the community. During this time, in Bromwich's words, "A motive for great writing...has been a tension, which is felt to be unresolvable, between the claims of social obligation and of personal autonomy. That these had to be experienced as rival claims was the discovery of Burke and Wordsworth. Our lives today and our choices are made in a culture where any settlement of the contest for either side is bound to be provisional. There is nothing to approve or regret in such a situation; it is the way things are; and in a time like ours, it is what great writing lives on."

With a historical as well as an interpretative emphasis, Bromwich explores this tension. He shows why the public-mindedness of the eighteenth century is as limited a model for readers now as the individualism of the nineteenth century. Calling attention to the ambivalence of the great writers, he cites Emerson's sense of the conflict between "spirit" and "commodity" and Burke's conviction that human nature is at once given and chosen. Elsewhere, he describes the attenuation of social concern even in the truest modern followers of the romantics as in the conscious turn away from Wordsworth's morality in poems by Stevens and Frost. Other topics include Keats's politics, Whitman's prose, William Cobbett's journalism, and the standards of the Edinburgh Review.

In some widely discussed general essays, Bromwich addresses such issues as the uses of biography, the idea that authors create their own worlds, and the political ambitions of recent literary theory. His own criticism is powerfully eclectic, combining history, philosophy, biography, and a subtle awareness of how literature performs its work of implication. He brings to the task an authentic understanding of intellectual culture and the ability to leap from textual detail to cultural observation with an understated grace.

As in his other writing, Bromwich aims to join aesthetic theory and moral thought. He rethinks the relationship between genius and talent, and defines genius in terms of its capacity to bring about change, rather than simply its quality of inward and spiritual uniqueness. His sustained defense here of that conception, and his elegant argument for a new approach to criticism generally, make this thoughtful book a controversial one as well.

Frost's Road Taken (Modern American Literature, Vol 7)

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Frost's Road Taken (Modern American Literature, Vol 7)
Robert F. Fleissner
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Pub Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

THE GRAVE; By Robert Blair: To which is Added Gray's Elegy In a Country Church Yard. With Notes Moral, Critical, and Explanatory. [bound with another work] THE FROST, A Little Poem, for Great Folks. Printed for the Author [unknown].

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THE GRAVE; By Robert Blair: To which is Added Gray's Elegy In a Country Church Yard. With Notes Moral, Critical, and Explanatory. [bound with another work] THE FROST, A Little Poem, for Great Folks. Printed for the Author [unknown].
Robert (1699-1746) Blair
Manufacturer: Printed for Scatcherd, & Whitaker
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RNDM4Q

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Robert Frost country
Betsy Melvin
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0385121806

Robert Ramble's City and Country Scenes.

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Robert Ramble's City and Country Scenes.
Robert. (pseud. of John Frost) Ramble
Manufacturer: NY: E. S. Francis & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IUT6W0

Average customer rating:

Great combo of B&W photos with Frost's simplicity

Versed in Country Things
Robert Frost
Manufacturer: Bulfinch Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Great combo of B&W photos with Frost's simplicity.......1999-04-22

Robert Frost has the ability to capture the deepness of simple things. We tend to overlook the profoundness of life's little nuggets. The combination of King's simple photos of country life in New England adds visual images to the mental ones painted by Frost. A beautiful book!

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The country hen farm news
George S Bass
Manufacturer: G.S. Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QXUSC

A Day in the Robert Frost Country: A Ripton Bicentennial Tribute to Joseph Battell

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A Day in the Robert Frost Country: A Ripton Bicentennial Tribute to Joseph Battell

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IAYCLU

Book Description

This book is my glowing invitation to you -- to live a rich, succulent life! I explore love, sexuality, romance, money, fat, fear and creativity. It's a little bit like reading my diary -- with permission. Succulence is powerFull! and so are we as women.

Customer Reviews:

Happy Accident.......2007-09-11

My finding this book was quite the happy accident. It was like making a good friend. It's colorful and creative presentation didn't prepare me for the possibilities I could explore inside. On those days, when you want or need something more to hold on to, pick up this book. Every page holds something of value!

Good info, hard to see visually.......2007-06-13

Nice book....I appreciate the author's writing style, however the use of multi-colored text combined with the funky fonts makes it difficult to read.

Absolutely Splendiferous.......2007-03-24

This book is a must have for any woman or young lady. I kept checking out this book from the library over and over again anytime I felt pressured by friends, family, or even pop culture to become something I wasn't. I finally realized that with all of the late fees I racked up I could have purchased the book five times over.

It encourages women to live life to the fullest and be who they truly are. If you are having even the slightest bit of confidence issues, this book is for you. Dive In!

Succulent Wild Women will give you a whole new perspective.......2007-01-09

This is a great book!!! Buy it for yourself and other women you know. I gave this book to several women as gifts and all of them have told me how much they love it and many have passed it along or bought copies for their girlfriends. This is an easy and fun read and hits on issues that many women deal with in a comical and realistic way. You should definitely buy this book!

SARK....A TRUE ORIGINAL.......2006-10-09

SARK is a true original. I had the opportunity to spend a weekend at a workshop she ran at Omega in Rhinebeck, NY, and it was truly inspirational. She has earned a forever fan in me! She is as colourful in person as her books are presented, and she has depth, insight, smarts as well as a playful spirit that really resonates through her work.

She taps into the essence of women, with all their challenges....and the ups and downs of life. But through it all, including sharing her incredible personal story of triumph, both personally and professionally, it is hard not to be moved and to want to be the best that you can be. Here's to SARK and her empowering us to create a life of full living color.

Buy this book....and explore her many others....and you will be on the path to greater self-exploration, joy, and creativity.

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Succulent Wild Woman
Sark
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000QY9IQM

Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing with Your Wonder-Full Self-In Store Display Kit

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Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing with Your Wonder-Full Self-In Store Display Kit
Sark
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Motivational | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0684004860

Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story
Average customer rating:

Mandatory Hilarious Reading for Anyone With Dreams of Glory

Familiar but Funny

Talk, talk, talk with repeating images as background

Much better than the book Bendis is trying to sell

Uncommonly funny

Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story
Brian Michael Bendis
Manufacturer: Oni Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Jinx: The Definitive Collection

Goldfish

Total Sell Out

Fire Fire

Torso Torso

ASIN: 1929998066

Book Description

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY gave him an A, Hollywood insiders fell all over themselves to praise him, and fans everywhere gave him a full thumbs-up for hilarity. Now, on the heels of his praise and punishment, Brian Michael Bendis puts his sold-out miniseries, FORTUNE & GLORY, into one hefty volume. Marvel once again at the stupidity of Hollywood producers, the vanity of stars like Uma Thurman and Clint Eastwood, and the enthralling mood swings and ego nosedives of a little indie comic-book creator caught up in the maelstrom of the motion picture industry. Presented in a handy 6" X 9" format, this collection features brand-new pages left on the cutting room floor and not included in the original comics. The individual issues are becoming increasingly hard to find, and that's because everyone who read it didn't like it, they loved it. Featuring an introduction by Paul Dini, who himself knows a thing or two about the Hollywood machine.

Customer Reviews:

Mandatory Hilarious Reading for Anyone With Dreams of Glory.......2007-09-06

This is one of the most hilarious true stories I've ever read and it should be read by anyone who has any desire to try to make it in life whether in the Entertainment Industry (Movies, Music, Modeling, Producing, Directing), Medicine, Business, With Beautiful Women, anything. I wish this book was available when I was a teen. Even though its about Bendis's trials and tribulations getting a movie made from his work, the path he goes on is similar for almost everything in life for people who want to succeed: Getting strung along left right and center, getting strung along some more & getting strung along some more after that, trying to reach your goal, without losing your mind in frustration after frustration getting your hopes up & getting them crushed, etc. If you have a teenage kid or daughter, you should make this mandatory reading for them.

Familiar but Funny.......2007-04-05

This is a very funny read, especially the last third when Bendis and Andreyko are pitching "Torso". The jokes are well-paced, and the page layouts are interesting. There's a lot of good advice for cartoonists/writers drawn to Hollywood.

On the downside is the familiarity of the story -- is anyone really surprised by the stupidity of Hollywood types? Also, there's rather too much reliance on repeating panels (although some of it is justified by the humour).

The "Torso" pitch made me want to read the book, but it seems to be out of print, and I couldn't find the movie either. It would be nice to have an update of its status in a future edition.

Talk, talk, talk with repeating images as background.......2006-12-28

I love Harvey Pekar's American Splendor material. I love Art Spiegelman's Complete Maus book. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is wonderful. Or Crumb's stuff. But reading Fortune and Glory is a worse use of my time than doing nothing--even if I was on an airplane and had nothing else to do.

Bendis reuses too many images with only a change of text. You don't have to look hard to find this; you can see this repeatedly in the first three pages. Additionally, some of his monologues have tons of balloon text segments. One has 24 balloon text segments and I found myself not caring about any of them.

Talk is the thing that this book is about. And it isn't interesting talk. At least if you consider the ratio of words to points as a basis.

I can only imagine that this must be of interest to people who have some sentimental attachment to the hassles of working with Hollywood and want to experience Bendis's every thought.

This comic book does not work at so many levels that it is great to study to see what can be done wrong. Too many images for too little content. Too little variety in the images. Many images being repeated many times. To little content for the amount of words. The story drags along.

I am left with the question: Why was this comic book published?

Much better than the book Bendis is trying to sell.......2006-02-06

You can see in my other reviews that I a) love Bendis and b) did not like Goldfish, so it was interesting for me to read this book, in which Bendis tries to sell his screenplay based on Goldfish to Hollywood. While I can't imagine Goldfish as a movie, it was funny to read about Bendis' experience trying to sell the idea to some airheads in Hollywood.

I've watched my significant other trying to make it as a writer in Hollywood for some years now, and Bendis' experience rang true. Bendis draws himself as a white bowling ball-headed character, with wide eyes, while everyone in Hollywood is drawn with big chins, big grins, and closed eyes. There is a great bit of monologue where Bendis is lying with his head on his wife's lap, looking fetal, thinking something like (sic), "You try not to get too excited, to think about how your boyhood dream is about to either start happening or disappear forever. You try... but COME ON!" I can't tell you how many times this has happened with me and mine.

It was also amusing as a historical document, with Bendis talking about how he is an independent comic book writer, and by independent we mean Not Superheroes. Clearly, now he writes everything for Marvel, including Daredevil, Ultimate Spiderman and New Avengers, so he's gotten over his disdain for the genre. Overall an entertaining and insightful little memoir.

Uncommonly funny.......2004-02-16

Comics generally don't do humour very well. Visual humour is often spoiled unless the pay off is over the page as the eye has a habit of seeing the punchline even as the brain deciphers the text involved in the build up. Written humour is subject to the vaguaries of the writer and the relative peculiarities of the reader. Fortune and Glory is the most consistently funny comic I have ever read, especially under re-reading.

Bendis is usually noted for his dialogue heavy pieces, his crime comics and his ability to depict the urban and the realistic. Here it is his observations on the absurd and the ridiculous that make the comic. Most of the jokes are underplayed: allowing the sheer stupidity of what is being said tell the joke rather than belabouring the point. While his art is suitably cartoony and energetic, it doesn't over exagerrate anything or distract from what is essentially verbal humour.

I have no idea how accurate this actually is, I don't particularly care. It's just damn funny.

Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story
Average customer rating:
Fortune and Glory: A True Hollywood Comic Book Story
Brian Michael Bendis
Manufacturer: Oni
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000MC8YSQ

Product Description

This is the signed limited edition hardcover and the only hardcover version of this excellent graphic novel by one of the masters of modern comics.

Book Description

Classical Guitarists: Conversations is the first book to bring together in-depth first-person interviews with today's pre-eminent classical guitarists and the composers with whom they have worked closely. Along with the interviews are reviews of the artists' recordings and concerts, and discographies of their recordings.

Guitarists include: Julian Bream, John Williams, Eliot Fisk, Sharon Isbin, David Starobin, David Tanenbaum and David Leisner.

Composers include: Richard Rodney Bennett, and Pulitzer Prize winners George Crumb and Aaron Jay Kernis.

Also featured is an interview with Harold Shaw, the greatest artist manager in the history of the classical guitar.

The book is in print and available for purchase.

From the Author

I wrote this book to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the lives, careers, experiences and thoughts of a select group of artists who have shaped and are continuing to shape the classical guitar world.

Customer Reviews:

Review in Soundboard Magazine (Winter 2002).......2002-05-05

These quotes are from a review by Paul Hurley:

"...chock full of fascinating information from cover to cover."

"Mr. Tosone has the knack for asking just the right question."

"...anyone with an interest in [new repertoire for the guitar] is likely to find the book a veritable gold mine of information."

"Mr. Tosone...brings out the special qualities of each [interviewee] with shrewdly conducted interviews."

"The book contains several attractive features, including and generous selection of photographs...[and]...a large number of concert and CD reviews."

Review in Classical Guitar Magazine, August 2001.......2001-09-21

These quotes are from a review by Colin Cooper, Editor of Classical Guitar Magazine, published in the August 2001 issue.

"For those who love the guitar and have more than a passing interest in knowing what motivates a small handful of leading exponents, the book is an excellent read."

"The many insights in the book make it compulsive reading, perhaps even essential..."

"Jim Tosone asks very good questions, and gets very good answers..."

"...the true value of the book...lies in the revelation of character, intellect and philosophy among some of our leading guitarists..."

"I wish this book could be made compulsory reading..."

Mel Bay Conversation Pieces: Original Solos for the Classical Guitarist
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Mel Bay Conversation Pieces: Original Solos for the Classical Guitarist
Lawrence Long , and George Sakellariou
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guitar | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786650931

Book Description

This book is a collection of short, easy-to-learn guitar solos that sound impressive even when played by the beginning guitar student. The classical/folk style of these works gives the performer something that is fun and exciting to learn, and the listener something that is pleasant to the ear. The works are arranged in order of musical complexity, the last being the most difficult. Written in notation and tablature.

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Classical Guitarists: Conversations
Jim Tosone
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MUD7R6

Book Description

A revised edition of the blackjack player's bible, with complete information on the odds, betting strategies, and much more -- now updated to include the rules of play in Atlantic City as well as international playing rules.

Customer Reviews:

Good book.......2007-03-09

Gook book to read on BJ. I hope everyone knows that you cannot make a professional living playing BJ in this country by counting cards. Go checkout blackjack forums first. Again, you cannot make money consistently by counting cards. It's a myth spread by the casinos, not the players. However, you will have an edge, ever slight. BJ should be played recreationally to get as much comps as possible without losing money. At least that's my goal.

Good basic starategy book........2005-09-30

Lance Humble and Clark Cooper, The World's Greatest Blackjack Book (revised edition) (Broadway Books, 1980)

The problem with the classic in the genre, Edward Thorp's Beat the Dealer, is that it's simply too complex for English majors like me to figure out. If you don't have a head for numbers, trying to put Thorp's work into practice is liable to send you to the nuthatch for long stretches of time. Humble and Cooper, after a good deal of expository prose (most of which is long, long out of date-- much of it, they surmise at various times, was probably out of date by the time the book rolled off the press), introduce first a basic non-counting system, then build on that to introduce the Hi-Opt (High Optimization) counting system. As it's a gradual process, it's already easier for boneheads like me to make sense out of. It does get complicated towards the end, of course, but as you're learning it in steps, things certainly seem a good deal easier. Besides, the big fad these days is Texas Hold 'Em, so you might actually be able to find a seat at the blackjack tables for once (or, better yet, at a no-dealer game administered by machine, where you can range your bets without a pit boss getting after you). The expository prose may be outdated, but the system is a "now more than ever" kind of thing. *** ½

A great first book.......2005-07-09

This is the type of book that, if I were to look at it now after having learned a lot about blackjack, I would probably consider one of the "dumb" or "mainstream" books that try to convince you there's a system you can use to beat roulette. I think the title might help lend it this idea as well.

But in reality this is the book that started it all for me. I don't know why I chose it first, but I learned *everything* about blackjack from this book, except for advanced card-counting techniques (which are here as well, but I chose to learn a simpler system, the KO Count). This book does an excellent job of describing the game for those who are new to it, and it presents Basic Strategy very clearly and concisely. I still refer to it to refresh my memory every time I go to a casino. In a lot of ways it really is one of the greatest books, at least in my experience.

This book is a worth while read but..........2004-09-19

This was the first book I read on blackjack and overall it provided a thorough description of how to play the game, outlined basic strategy using tables and desciptions, and a coherent explanation of Hi-opt1 counting strategy. What it didn't do is provide sound reasoning for using the hi-opt1 counting system over the more common, and in my opinion simpler, braun method. The book also fell short in how it explains betting correlation. It gave a textual description of how to do it with a few short paragraphs but then spent most of a chapter discussing how to mask your bets. The emphasis on betting correlation seemed to get lost among a lot of "covert ops" to disguise your card counting. Many of these secret methods are useless until you actually learn how to correlate your bets anyway.

Must read.......2004-03-05

One of the first book i enjoy reading on blackjack, even old this book is great..

THE WORLDS GREATEST BLACKJACK BOOK: The Blackjack Players Bible, featuring Hi-Opt 1,The Most Powerful Simple Betting System know

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THE WORLDS GREATEST BLACKJACK BOOK: The Blackjack Players Bible, featuring Hi-Opt 1,The Most Powerful Simple Betting System know

Manufacturer: Doubleday + Comp.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

An Insiders Glimpse into Mr. Televison's Life.......2004-05-25

'My Father, Uncle Miltie' presents the story of growing up as legendary comedian Milton Berle's son. MFUM tells the behind the scene details of Milton's somewhat private life, a life full of gambling, women and mild hatred toward his son. MFUM provides anecdotes never before made public, and makes one think of how much Berle's private and public life were vastly different. I recommend this book to any fan of Berle who wants to catch a deep glimpse of his character behind the curtain, and off the television screen. One might me a bit amazed...as I was.

Not "Milton Dearest"!.......2002-04-05

This book was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I was afraid it would be a real "Mommie Dearest" hatchet job on poor old Milton, but although there were certainly some problems in their relationship, Bill has the honesty to point out that it was his fault as much as his father's. It would be interesting to know how (or if) their relationship was affected by this book - did they speak at all after it was published? (By the way - my sympathies, Bill. It's tough to lose a parent but especially so when you were on the outs with him.)

The Humanizing of Milton Berle.......2000-01-10

I have always heard that comedians by nature are truly serious people, and basically an unhappy group. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that Milton Berle treated people, especially his son Bill, so obusively. MFUM humanizes the great TV star and, in fact, I pitied my idol after reading this book. I'm sure that Bill Berle would have much preferred a "real father" from a modest background rather than a superstar ogre such as Uncle Miltie. MFUM was an informative, interesting, well written book, and while it shattered my image of Milton Berle, I found it quite enjoyable.

Informative, Entertaining and Surprising.......1999-12-27

I've thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with this easy to read work. The book is rich in the interesting history of one of the world's most beloved entertainers, penned by someone that could only be a loving son. Both funny and tragic, it held my attention through the honesty without scandal. An unexpected ending certainly reminds us we're all equals! Thanks, Bill!

Good Bio. Could Have Gone Deeper.......1999-11-07

I like reading entertainment bios. This is one of the good ones out there. I think William Berle is too concerned about himself. He comes off passionless and pretty selfish. There are plenty of people who would have loved to have Milton as a father. What did he do that was so bad? There is way too much about Wiliam. Who cares? I would have liked to read more about Milton and all the great people he knew. Even with all of the Beverly Hills whining, the book is still fun to read.

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