Mad Peck Studio

Customer Reviews:

From the Publisher.......2005-11-04

"Christopher Marley spent years in tropical regions around the world, becoming fascinated with the insect populations to the point where he became involved in a lengthy study of entomology. The collection in this calendar reveals the true splendor of the insects--the colors are natural and not enhanced or digitally altered. Marley's presentation helps us to overcome our initial fright of tropical beetles and leads us to appreciate nature's beauty in all things creepy crawly, from the bright orange of wood-boring beetles to the fiery reds of the frog beetles. ¶ 12 x 13" wall calendar (opens to 12 x 26") with twelve full-color reproductions. ISBN: 0-7649-3127-X . . . Related items: Exquisite Creatures jigsaw puzzle."--© Pomegranate

Book Description

"A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. . . . But on the 12th Floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent quetions: Guy Noir, Private eye." This all-new collection of Guy Noir episodes follows the intrepid detective as he solves cases no other gumshoe would touch. A Grammy Award Nominee

Customer Reviews:

Guy Noir Rules!.......2007-03-26

I am a long time listener of A Prairie Home Companion. I always look forward to Saturday evenings at 6, when my local station airs APHC. The show is great and pokes fun at politics, headline news, and just old funnies in a non-threatening way.

Guy Noir is my second favorite part of the show, following Garrison Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon." Each week the theme song is played and Guy Noir is involved in a wonderful sketch filled to the brim with laughs as he goes and solves mysteries, for he is Private Eye.

hilarious, well written, with excellent sound effects and music.......2007-03-15

This collection of "Guy Noir" routines, lifted from A Praire Home Companion, are very funny. Garrison Keillor and his merry band of actors give a sense of the old time radio drama? with these. The sound effects are excellent and the theme is pretty cool. Both series are great.

Not As Funny As The Original.......2007-01-19

The FIRST Guy Noir release was more faithful to the original conceit of Noir - as a hard-boiled detective talking tough with his clients, his friends and his women.

Here, you get something else: Guy's much more self-conscious. While interacting with PHC guest stars would normally promise some greater variety, it is honestly not too forthcoming. He has become fussy and self-absorbed, and a lot of the great tough talk present in earlier episodes is missing here.

It's a good listen - and I love PHC, too. It's just not as good as the very first release...

GOOD, SMILE-PROVOKING LISTENING.......2006-01-03

What great, good, smile provoking fun! Fans of Garrison Keillor and a Prairie Home Companion will thoroughly enjoy this 11 episode collection of detective stories originally heard in live broadcast.

If you missed these sketches on the radio, not to worry - now you can meet Guy, the intrepid gumshoe who chases crime from St. Paul. Sam Spade and Hercule Poirot would duck their heads in shame to learn of Guy's exploits. After all, he never knows whether the knock on his door means a fish has been filched or Henry Kissinger needs help.

In this parody on the old-time private eyes, we can't resist the guy or Guy who keeps his vigil on "A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets but high above the empty streets, on the 12th floor of the Acme building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions."

Keillor is supported by members of the Prairie Home companion cast, thus "Guy Noir" is a terrific ensemble performance. Among the sketches are

Gotham Gets The Girl
Operator
Bad Grits
Gotta Go
Bad Blood
Picnic Plaid
Movie Shoot
Hotdish Hangover
Renata Flambe
Snow Job
Missing Fish.

Very highly recommended - don't miss it!

- Gail Cooke

The Adventures of Guy Noir - Radio private eye.......2005-10-30

I am a professional truck driver from Quebec and I discovered the wonderful world of Garrison Keillor two years ago while listening to NPR Radio. It took me several months to find out who he was and finally found Prairie Home Companion via the Internet and listened to many of the programs from the archives. Since then I have religiously tuned in to its weekly program with News from Lake Wobegon and Guy Noir, Private Eye. When I bought the CD "The Adventures of Guy Noir" about the famous Private Eye; my wife and children all fell in love with its hilarious stories. I regularly listen to his adventures in my truck while travelling all over Canada and the USA. Guy Noir a.k.a Garrison Keillor, you are the best. I can't wait to get "the rest of the stories."

Average customer rating:

first of two very funny series
Not the Noir I know
When Guy Noir Was Really Funny
Longtime listener
Amusing in Small Doses

Guy Noir, Radio Private Eye
Garrison Keillor
Manufacturer: Highbridge Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General Broadcasting | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Radio Shows | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books

General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1565117492

Book Description

It's a dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets, but high above the mean streets, a light burns on the 12th floor of the Acme Building, where Guy Noir--hard boiled, world-weary, yet surprisingly articulate--is trying to find the answers to life's questions. In his big swivel chair under the bare bulb beside the beat-up gray file cabinet, he awaits the call of his clientele: the disappointed, the paranoid, the embittered, the rejected. But instead of a paying customer,what does he get? A knock on the door from Pete, who has shot and killed Guy on many occasions in the past, and yet the two of them are still friends. What can a guy do? If you're Guy Noir, you get up and open the door. Life is no picnic, pal, and friendship so often leads to violence, but you can't walk away from these things.... 1995 Grammy® Award nominee 1½ hours on 1 audiocassette

Customer Reviews:

first of two very funny series.......2007-03-15

This first collection of "Guy Noir" routines, lifted from A Praire Home Companion, are very funny. Garrison Keillor and his merry band of actors give a sense of the old time radio drama? with these. The sound effects are excellent and the theme is pretty cool. Both series are great. I wish they'd lift more of them to create a few more series.

Not the Noir I know.......2005-12-03

I love PHC and Guy Noir. Does anyone remember (or know where I can get) the St. Patrick's Day show he recorded in Dublin, Ireland? The Guy Noir skit on that broadcast was high-larious.

This particular collection is a 9-track running joke. It has its standout moments with fantastic feats of alliteration in a couple tracks and the old fashioned sound effects are fun . . . but, as another post here says, it gets less funny as it goes along.

The essence of comedy is brevity and most of these skits take too long. I recall the Guy Noir skits I heard on the radio being shorter, much more varied and having a bigger cast with more fantastic stories. Most of these tracks just drag on as if by taking longer to get to the punchline the same old shtick will become funnier; mostly, it doesn't work. Unless you're a real die-hard fan completing your PHC collection, this CD is a monotonous disappointment.

When Guy Noir Was Really Funny.......2005-10-17

Buy this album! It will bring you back to a time before Garrison Keillor and Prarie Home Companion descended as completely into self-absorption and self-parody as they are today.

A time ago Keillor described New York performance artists as "raging narcissists." He was right, but did not know how he was predicting his own aesthetic future.

And you'll see it so clearly here. For one thing, Keillor shares the Guy Noir stage with someone other than a sound effects man: the character of Pete is essential to understanding Guy Noir's psyche. We can guess that Pete was phased out so that Noir, as portrayed today, is more of a loner. But it might also have had to do with the fact that Pete pretty consistently upstaged Guy - you be the judge.

But what really matters, of course, is the quality of the comedy here, and it's just great. Word plays, tongue twisters, great plots - it's bright, original, funny and deliciously ironic. You'll love it!

Longtime listener.......2004-08-18

I have played this tape so often that it's worn out. I have some of his other tapes but this one is by far my favorite. I especially like the rendition of Lida Rose. Also, if you admire alliteration and all that amusement, you'll absolutely adore it!

Amusing in Small Doses.......2003-02-04

Guy Noir is sort of a Philip Marlowe/Sam Spade kind of a guy. His friend of 30 years, Pete, might pass for Miles Archer, Spade's late, lamented partner in "The Maltese Falcon." Each skit involves Guy confronting Pete over some incongruous issue. The duo devise deliciously alliterative dialog, but become belligerent, and the burgeoning bellicosity soon embroils them in a gun battle. They invariably wind up killing each other. Cliche's from the golden age of radio drama abound as the two "friends" deal with all sorts of modern day issues. My first thought upon listening to the first episode was "Dr. Phil meets Philip Marlowe."

The first two or three episodes had me laughing out loud, but the longer I listened, the less funny it became. Don't listen to the episodes straight through. Listen to them one at a time, and give yourself a couple of weeks between episodes.

Amazon.com

Eric Schaefer's readable history of exploitation movies begins with a description of what the genre ain't--the rabid "nudie pics" of Russ Meyer (Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill!) and the drecky, knowing arthouse flicks made by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey (Andy Warhol's Dracula). Though these camp movies are sometimes labeled "exploitation," they do not exactly fit Schaefer's definition. For him, exploitation is the brand of movie that puts nudity and antisocial behavior up on the screen in the name of civic-mindedness and healthy social conscience--and with a wink. Between 1919 and 1959, sexual hygiene and antidrug movies with kicky, lascivious titles such as No Greater Sin (1939), Call Girls (1959), Nudist Land (1937), and Paroled from the Big House (1938) traveled through the country outside regular theater chains, advertising themselves as "shocking" yet educational. The posters didn't slouch either. No Greater Sin promised viewers, "You'll gasp, you'll wince, you'll shudder... so powerful, many will faint!" Schaefer argues that studying the films tells us cartloads about the way Puritanical America grappled with complex issues like premarital sex, drugs, infidelity, and alternative lifestyles. And he may be right: by 1959, audiences had begun turning to European films like And God Created Woman, films that treated exploitation movie subjects legitimately. The story of a lost culture, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! is finally an archaeology of the immediate past that throws our present incoherence about sex, public-mindedness, virtue, and immediate gratification into high and sometimes hilarious relief. With priceless historical black-and-white photographs. --Lyall Bush

Book Description

Unashamed nudists, high-flying hopheads, brazen strippers, vicious vice lords, and high school girls who find themselves “in trouble” comprise the population of exploitation films. In the first full-scale history of these low-budget movies of decades past, Eric Schaefer reveals how this pioneering form of “trash film” purveyed the forbidden thrills of explicit sexual behavior, drug use, and vice that the mainstream movie industry could not show.
Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! is a meticulously researched, interdisciplinary study that is informed by a wide range of sources—including both mainstream and industry newspapers and periodicals, archival accounts, personal interviews, and the films themselves. Schaefer begins by exploring the unique mode of production of exploitation movies, their distribution, and the outrageous exhibition practices that were rooted in the traditions of sideshows and carnivals. His close analysis of dozens of films, such as The Road to Ruin, Modern Motherhood, One Way Ticket to Hell, and The Wages of Sin demonstrates that these films were more than simply “bad” movies. By situating exploitation films in a historical context and organizing them according to the social problems they addressed, Schaefer shows how they evolved during a period of forty years and how, during that time, they shaped public policies and attitudes. Finally, he focuses on the changes in the postwar American film industry that led to the decline of the classical exploitation film and set the stage for the rise of “sexploitation” in the 1960s.
Engagingly written, illustrated with rare photographs, posters, production stills, and ad slicks, and offering a full filmography, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! reveals a forgotten side of film history and American culture. It will delight and inform those interested in film history, cultural studies, American studies and history, and the many fans of exploitation films.

Customer Reviews:

Academic Study Of Exploitation Films.......2007-02-18

Eric Schaefer is a professor of visual and and media arts at Emerson College who developed an interest in exploitation films while writing his master's thesis. He defines the "exploitation film" as being the often lurid "educational" movies that were released by small time film makers between 1919-1959. Sex hygiene and anti-drug propaganda were the most typical themes, though vice, gangs and "exotic" cultures were also part of the genre. The films are often characterized by their attempts to titillate the audience while claiming to be preaching against social evils.

Much of the first half of the book is devoted to describing the production techinques, marketing and commercial appeal of these films. Film makers and hardcore cinema junkies will probably be intrigued. But this portion of the book held little interest for me. I did, however, enjoy the chapter on censorship. It discussed Hollywood history and how exploitation films developed as a sort of "alternative cinema" following the implementation of production codes by the the Hays Office in the 1920's - which censored much of the sex and other taboo topics out of the big studio movies of the era.

The second part of the book is a lengthy chronicling of dozens of these exploitation films. I enjoyed reading about the various story lines, actors and directors, though it did get a bit repetitive at times.

Schaefer is a decent writer and this book largely suceeds in its scholarly intentions. But one should remember, before purchasing, that this is an academic work directed towards a specific audience - devoted exploitation film fans, movie makers and film students. I, as someone with a more casual interest in these types of movies, was hoping for a more accessible book that covered a wider range of cult films. The appendix does serve as a good resource for the directors and films covered. It was this part of the book that I found most useful.

Beautifully designed and illustrated.......2001-11-19

In Eric Schaefer's beautifully designed and illustrated book, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959, you get the full history of the exploitation film genre, a genre that concentrates on shocking the viewer and making money in the process. In language that is brutally simplistic, and images that don't require second-guessing, exploitation films deliver the darkest fantasy of American culture along with its moral. Schaefer discusses the writing, production, and distribution of these films and profiles some filmmakers. He presents details on such exploitation masterpieces as Road to Ruin, Modern Motherhood, One Way Ticket to Hell, and The Wages of Sin.

Entertaining and Educative--say it ain't so.......2001-10-12

Yes, the book is exquisitely researched; it offers more. For those with an interest in the close past, Schaefer examines the time through its rejection/acceptance of these films. The book is worth purchasing for its pictures alone (if you don't like words). If you like films, well, naturally you will want it.

If you are one of those persons who just likes knowing "stuff"; if you enjoy _Longtitude_ or the _The Professor and the Madman_ then you will find this book entertaining.

The subject matter is both tillitating and important. The films encapsulate both the desires and the anxieties of the time; gratuitious scenes of sex tempered with doctor's warnings of veneral disease. What a wonderful juxtaposition of the double standards of the time.

Schaefer's style is soo easy to read too.

Essential reading.......1999-12-31

The author of this book, Eric Schaefer, is an associate professor and, frankly, reads like one. With that said, Bold! Daring! is probably the most important book on the American screen published in recent times. The author eminently explains not only how exploitation movies, the step children of the Golden Era film industry, came to be but, more importantly, why. Using a liberal dose of both contemporary and modern sources, Schaefer eminently describes the rise and fall and rise again of a genre not as easily dismissed as previous works would have us believe. BOLD! DARING! SHOCKING! TRUE quite simply fills an important gap in our knowledge of society in general and the film industry (with stress on INDUSTRY) in particular. Anyone owning a copy of, say, REEFER MADNESS, will wish to view it again for more than the accustomed camp value.

A DEFINITIVE WORK!.......1999-11-25

I have read many books & articles on exploitation films as well as viewing many of the films mentioned in Eric's book. THE BOOK IS WELL RESEARCHED. The chapters about censorship & distribution/marketing were the most interesting. Eric gives an excellent example of what cuts were required for a specific film for both the Chicago & the Ohio censorship boards (the Ohio board being much stricter), & mentions about how the same film was handled for the different markets. Detailed descriptions of many films are provided(& this is about the only book that mentions about exploitation films during the silent era). This is also the only book that I have seen that mentions about the ultra-low budgets(including dollar amounts)of these films. Anybody with a serious interest in film should read this book.

"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959.(Review) (book review): An article from: Cineaste

Average customer rating:

"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959.(Review) (book review): An article from: Cineaste
J. David Slocum
Manufacturer: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008H9V96
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Cineaste, published by Cineaste Publishers, Inc. on March 22, 2000. The length of the article is 985 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959.(Review) (book review)
Author: J. David Slocum
Publication: Cineaste (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2000
Publisher: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Volume: 25 Issue: 2 Page: 66

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Contains: Back in Business (Dick Tracy) * The Ballad of Booth (Assasins) * Barcelona (Company) * Broadway Baby (Follies) * Children Will Listen (Into the Woods) * Send In the Clowns (A Little Night Music) * Water Under the Bridge (Singing Out Loud) * You Could Drive a Person Crazy (Company) and many, many more.

Customer Reviews:

NOT what you think.......2003-03-15

The book is ok and the songs are good but, what i loved about this show was the mixing of songs which are NOT in this book. It is a book of songs from the original shows. It really should be part of the all sondheim collection of books cause that's all it really is.

Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall

Average customer rating:

Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall

Manufacturer: Warner Bros Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Fun and stimulating.......2004-02-24

These designs are lots of fun to color, sort of relaxing and stimulating all at the same time. Shapes, pictures, and patterns appear, and disappear, in front of your eyes. I loved coloring in the designs and creating something that I knew was all of my own. I really recommend Images Book 5 for all those who want to explore their own imaginations.

Unbelievably LOW Quality.......2004-02-08

I am hugely disappointed in this item, and the cover photo is extremely misleading, since the inside pages are NOT white as the cover pic shows! They are beige-yellow kraft paper type color and the poorest quality paper of any coloring book--for adults, or kids--that I have ever seen. Why wasn't this very important fact mentioned in the description? The price of this book is outrageous compared to the excellent quality paper and designs of the under four dollar set, such as Dazzling Designs, or even Kaleidoscope Designs coloring books. I would not have paid even two dollars for this book.

The pages don't copy well--they come out dirty looking because of the yellowish paper. The pages are very thin, NOT suitable for markers, paint or any wet media (the type I use most). At least they are printed one to a page, and the designs would be great, IF the paper quality were even adequate or minimal, or could be copied in white at least, to color out of the book. Do not pay six-plus bucks for this, unless you have money to burn and are buying this for a genius 2 year old with crayons. Maybe a two dollar used copy would be a good value for children to use?

Unfortunately, the designs are the type of complex, 3-D patterns an adult would enjoy most, so I don't understand why they used the worst paper they could find, and then priced it out of range with its actual value. I had all of these versions in my wish list and would have bought every one of them if this one had at least white (or ability to clean copy) pages. The real killer is that it will cost me more to return it and I am out not only the cover price, but postal costs both ways as well.

Do all of the "Roger Burrows Images" (original numbered one through 4) coloring books have such poor quality, thin, non-white scap type paper as this one? If not, let me know and maybe I'll try a different one. The designs in this one are particularly appealing compared to the previous versions by Roger Barrows. The Ultimate Coloring Experience? I think not, unless he means a new ultimate WORST coloring experience. Item cover photo misrepresents this Images 5 book almost to the point of bait and switch technique--show perfectly beautiful, complex designs on brilliant white paper, then inside where a potential online buyer can't truly see, the cheapest medium possible for coloring on.

Customer Reviews:

Doctor Who: A Celebration.......2003-10-26

This is a lovely book that details everything one would ever want to know about the first two decades of Doctor Who. It includes commentary from various producers of the show, fascinating biographies of each of the first five Doctors, and even an article by each of the five actors about their thoughts on Dr. Who. It is a well-written and extremely infomative book.

Plus it has photographs of Peter Davison.

Twenty years of the timelord on TV.......1999-12-27

This book is a time capsule of the Doctor Who franchise thru 20 years. Many unique pictures and anecdotes from the series.

Doctor Who: A Celebration; Two Decades Through Time and Space

Average customer rating:

The Ultimate Doctor Who Book.

Doctor Who: A Celebration; Two Decades Through Time and Space
Peter Haining
Manufacturer: W.H. Allen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

Doctor Who | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

The Ultimate Doctor Who Book........2000-04-16

I first read Doctor Who A Celebration way back in 1984. Back when Doctor Who was popular in the United States. Back when there was a Doctor Who convention to attend every couple of months. Attending conventions was loads of fun, and so was reading this book. A Celebration was written by Haining as a tribute to the success of this remarkable program. This book covers all of the important aspects of the show.

The first third of this book covers the first five doctors. There are articles on each Doctor, as well as articles written by each of the Doctors. They give their unique perspectives on the show and the role they played in its success. Next, the book covers a variety of Doctor Who facts. The TARDIS, K9, the Master, Gallifrey, the companions, and articles from the producers and creators of the show are all here. The final portion of the book is entitled The Whoniverse. It is a twenty year travel log of the Doctor's adventures. This is the best part of the book. It lists each episode. The episode is described and small production facts are given. This is not all of the topics that are covered by this remarkable book. There is still much, much more that is worth reading. If you are a Doctor Who fan this book is a must have. It is a great book covering the first twenty years of the show.

Average customer rating:
Doctor Who: A Celebration. Two Decades Through Time and Space.
PETER HAINING
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Doctor Who | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RRA8XK

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books