Book Description
This daring, intensely personal book challenges both conventional and feminist ideas about beauty by asking us to take pleasure in beauty without shame, and to see and feel the erotic in everyday life. Bringing together her varied experiences as a poet, art historian, bodybuilder, and noted performance artist, Joanna Frueh shows us how to move beyond society's equation of youth with beauty toward an aesthetic for the fully erotic human being.
A lush combination of autobiography, theory, photography, and poetry, this book continues to develop the ideas about the erotic, beauty, older women, sex, and pleasure that Frueh first addressed in Erotic Faculties. Monster/Beauty examines these issues using a provocative, often explicit, set of examples. Frueh admiringly looks at the bodies and mindsets of midlife female bodybuilders, rethinks the vampire, and revises our ideas about traditional models of beauty, such as Aphrodite. Above all, she boldly brings her personal experience into the text, weaving her reflections on female sensuality with contemporary theory.
These linked essays are as much a performance as they are a discussion, breaking down the barriers between the personal and the academic, and the erotic and the intellectual. Frueh writes passionately and beautifully, and the result is a much-needed exploration of beauty myths and taboos.
Customer Reviews:
gorgeous theory.......2001-10-13
Joanna Frueh's Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love was life changing for me, and I literally shook with feeling as I read the introduction. I highly recommend this book. I have never read hotter theory! She engages with the theme of beauty not simply to critique or invert, but instead embraces, explodes, examines and burrows within the veins of beauty to open expose the term to a more complex arena. Among other things, the author convinces us that as our experience and understanding grow richer we become increasingly beautiful.
Customer Reviews:
An incredible book for 50's fashion lovers!.......2000-01-06
This book is packed with information about 50s and 60s fashion.It has hundreds of pictures, and the most information (in one book) I have ever read about 50s fashion. I must say I disagree with other readers who badmouth the models. Would you rather the clothes be n a wire hanger? The information index about designers and values was great. It also has many great ads!
Bad photo styling discredits decent book.......1999-09-30
While the information in this book is fairly reliable and thorough, the photography leaves much to be desired. The models are not appropriate to the styles -- we're seeing 80s girls wearing 50s clothes that occasionally don't look like they fit well. Consequently this book doesn't look as polished and professional as it could (and should) be. If you just want a list of common labels of the 50s, you can't go wrong -- if you could get past the photography.
like looking through a stranger's photo album........1999-09-12
ugh! if you can get past looking at all these cheesy snapshots of people you've never met, i give you a lot of credit. the worst part is the fact that one girl *constantly* has her long hair draped over the front of the dresses she wears. you couldn't see the detail! what's the point? the dated typography was no less than annoying and the layout completely lacked balance. i couldn't get my money back fast enough.
THE book for this era of fashions!.......1998-12-23
I love this book! The color photos of fashions on real people are terrific and the text is fun and very informative. If you want a great reference on women's clothes of this era, YOU MUST have this book!
Stunning fashion models! Great for research........1997-11-16
Numerous color photos and accompanying histories of the fashions of the 50s and 60s. Includes formal, casual and swimwear. Don't miss the disposable paper dresses section!
Customer Reviews:
Absolutley beautiful work!.......2004-04-23
This is comic book work at it's best. J. Scott Campbell is a master of anatomy (and not just the girls..), perspective, mechanical illustration, and over all sequential art. I myself am an aspiring comic book artist, and the the art just left me a gasp. I also found the sketch book just as inspirational, if not more so. But this is not just a title for wanna be's (like myself) or comic art nuts (again, like myself), but also for serious collectors of the medium, as each book of the collected Danger Girl series is number and signed.
The story has alot of humour, and action that would leave many movie scripts for dust. The story itself may draw criticism for being similar to Indiana Jones's first movie, but Campbell admits to being a huge fan of the film, so it's not surprising it has influenced him so obviously. The characters are well 'developed', shall we say, and unique.
Over all, I truley am overwhelmed, mostly by the art. I recommend any comic book collector, and especially J. Scott Campbell fans, to add this to their library's asap!!
Amazon.com
As you can see from the cover art of this book, it is possible that the indomitable mommymatrix Martha Stewart is so perfect that she walks on water. And it is possible that this is one of the most perfect parodies of any pop culture icon ever. The Dear Faux Martha gives advice on such issues as how to deal with the death of a dinner guest ("Dying is one of the rudest things a guest can do during a dinner party..." she begins), hints for hosting a luncheon for the Pope ("receiving the Pontiff in your home is really no different than entertaining royalty or anyone else in high office..."), and choosing appropriate foods for a circumcision day party (cocktail wieners each impaled with 2 Swedish meatballs, tender Calamari tips in red sauce). Lavishly illustrated, sometimes tasteless, and hilarious throughout.
Book Description
Martha Stuart's Better Than You at Entertaining does to Martha Stewart's books what Is Martha Stuart Living? did to her magazine. Hopelessly irreverent, this hilarious new spoof of the uncontested queen of homemaking presents recipes, dinner party plans and home projects that only a crazed Stepford Wife on steroids could hope to accomplish.
From garden parties to circumcisions, Martha Stuart's Better Than You at Entertaining provides an unceasing barrage of clever and ludicrous tips to make any occasion unforgettable. Be constructive on your wedding morning and impress the guests with a freshly baked 10-tier cake (from scratch, of course). For Mother's Day, Martha has the perfect recipes and tips to show Mom how inadequate as a homemaker she really is. Revive the pioneer spirit and have a genuine Thanksgiving -- Martha shows you how to breed, feed, kill and prepare your own turkey. As a special treat, see Martha in action for Easter, as she welcomes the Pope to her home. (She even tries to teach His Holiness how to turn water into an '89 Petrus or a '93 White Bordeaux.)
Only slightly more impossible than the Hospitality Guru's own projects, these instructions are guaranteed to have the legions of Martha fans (and their critics) roaring with delight.
Customer Reviews:
Hahahahah.......2002-03-08
Dude, she entertains the pope! The wedding night feast is hilarious, and the photos of the food will make you laugh out loud in a crowded public place! Martha fans, wake up, for this parody is more Martha than the real thing. Great find!
Martha, Martha, Martha.......2001-08-21
A hilarious parody on the infamous Martha Stewart. Martha is giving advice and ideas for the holidays and family get-togethers. She is doing everything from circumcising to poaching lobsters. You will see her like you have never seen her before. Truly imaginative, and a great laugh. I would recommend this to anyone with a sense of humor.
Laughed until I cried.......2001-04-07
Have you ever been annoyed by the unshakeable, in-your-face PERFECTION of Martha Stewart, queen of the perfect households? After listing the names by which she is often called ("Martha de Sade") she gets down to business: how to be like her in every respect.
The "Papal Visit" I wasn't crazy 'bout, but that definitely had some hilarious moments, including a sidebar that describes her pilfering other people's figurines and knicknacks. "Garden Party" includes the mind-numbing recipes for "Hand Picked Field Salad" which will make you cry; and the flambe-related Smoked Woodchuck.
In the matter of taste and refinement, nothing can beat the "circumcision day" chapter, with recipes that will make you shriek. And for Valentine's Day, Martha shows us how to souse and seduce... or just souse. Then she flits back to her childhood for "Mother's Day," going over various "regular" meals by her mama. The next chapter describes how to have a beach cookout, with one of the worst fish visuals I've ever seen!
"Christmas/Holiday Decorating" describes how you can horrify your friends and neighbors with perfect holiday decorating; the piece de resistance, however, is the chapter on Death and what to do if one of your guests dies ("Quickly, while you still can, shape and level the deceased's hand to hold a serving tray and begin setting out hors d'oeuvres..."
This book is written in a bitingly satirical style, and is graced by various straight-faced photos of "Martha" taking the necessary actions, such as preparing a tasteful lined coffin or cheerfully roping a date. And the cover is just a delight! As is this book!
(If you are a die-hard fan of Martha, however, do not read this book. Ever. You will explode)
Hours of Enjoyment.......2000-08-15
Martha Stuart's Better Than You at Entertaining is a fabulous gift for virtualy anyone in your life. It holds hours of enjoyment & makes for a wonderful surprise for your house guests if you leave a copy of it on your coffee table next to a few real Marths Magazines. The woman from comedy central who is in the book is great & does a really dead ringer impersonation of Martha. I have tried to find this book in the past at other book stores but have been unable to find it. But it sure is a steal at the current list price!
Average customer rating:
|
Screen Scores: Studies in Contemporary Australian Film Music
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Sheet Music & Scores
| Formats
| Books
| Composers
| Forms & Genres
| Historical Period
| Instrumentation
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Theory
| Theory, Composition & Performance
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Australia
| Australia & Oceania
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1876351004 |
Average customer rating:
|
Bartok and Kodaly Revisited (Indiana University Studies on Hungary, 2)
Manufacturer: Akademiai Kiado
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Bartok, Bela
| Composers
| Classical
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Composers & Musicians
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Hungary
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 9630545101 |
Book Description
This series, combining crostic puzzles (a perennial favorite) with pop-culture trivia (the current rage), could only be a creation from the amazing mind of Henry Hook. It's a book of puzzles and a book of trivia all in one.
Each puzzle is solved in the usual way, with this bonus: all the clues are trivia questions and each puzzle's solution yields yet another trivia question. And, the different elements of each puzzle all tie together in an elegant way that only the ingenious Henry Hook could dream up.
Customer Reviews:
pre-1975 maybe.......2006-05-02
I'm an avid crostics fan, and a fair trivia buff, but I could NOT enjoy any of these puzzles. At least the first 10 or 11, as I didn't bother to continue past those. Too many of these are targeted way too early for my generation, and the ones that were more current were extremely obscure. I couldn't even tease myself along by trying to check only the quote authors/answer source. I hope someone MUCH more obsessed with trivial knowledge and of an older generation will enjoy this more.
A Good Challenge.......2001-08-20
While I'm not a huge fan of crostics (I find them pretty tedious to solve, with all of the back-and-forth in writing letters), I tried this book since I often enjoy Henry Hook's puzzles.
So far, I've finished over half of the puzzles and haven't had use references to finish any of the crostics. They do get easier in some ways as you get further into the book since he uses a lot of the "tricks" more than once. There have been a few that I was stuck on temporarily but I managed to work through it.
I probably would've given this five stars if it wasn't for the lack of variety in the trivia questions and topics, which made it seem a little repetitious eventually.
Book Description
The international bestseller on the extent to which personal freedom has been eroded by government regulations and agencies while personal prosperity has been undermined by government spending and economic controls. New Foreword by the Authors; Index.
Customer Reviews:
Life transforming.......2007-06-23
Friedman was a genius. He was also the most articulate and fearless advovate for freedom. It seems that most are willing to give a little here and there for their pet projects. He was not. This is the best argument for the economic power that comes from freedom as well as the advantages for the individual. Over the long hall it is also the only way to prevent the loss of all freedoms. Read this book and it will positively change your life.
A book for freedom.......2007-06-14
Mr. Friedman, God rest his soul, continues to demonstrate the link between laissez faire economics and personal freedom. This companion to "Capitalism and Freedom" is a must read for those who are interested in individual liberty and the economic system that pertuates such liberty.
Be Free.......2007-05-24
Milton and Rose Friedman, "A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.
...
On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality."
Milton Friedman, "Everybody agrees that socialism has been a failure. Everybody agrees that capitalism has been a success... yet everybody is extending socialism."
Lawrence Reed, "Free men are not equal and equal men are not free."
Tusen Takk!
Still a beauty.......2007-04-08
Almost 30 years on, Free to Choose still offers valuable insights to the political economics in western democracies. The books main message is that special interests always prevail over general interests. For that reason, we have tariffs on sugar though the majority of the electorate loses from it and we have restricted entry into several occupations like real estate brokers and furniture designing. The story of the development of the Interstate Commerce Commission is particuylarly readable. The ICC was established to protect the consumer (general interest), but quickly turned to protect the producers (special interest). Because special interests always prevail, the governments role in the economy should be restricted.
The Freidmans finish their book with a faint of hope. The final chapter is called The Tide is Turning, and in the foreword written in 1990, they acknowledge that public opinion is greatly different in 1990 than it was in 1975. And economic policy in the US is improved. Marginal tax rates are reduced sharply. Inflation is low and stable. The former communist countries have gone capitalist in scores.
Many of the key messages of the book are now conventional wisdom. Its still worth reading, though. The book offers a very gook look into the intellectual climate of the late 70s. It is one of the central works of one of history's most prominent economists. But foremost, it describes the logic of economics in a very beautiful way.
A Classic and Totally True but Slightly Incomplete.......2007-04-02
Milton Friedman was an economics professor at the University of Chicago who won the Nobel Prize in economics for his development of monetary economics. This book briefly explains how an economy works. Yet "Free to Choose" is something more. It's a personal statement that we should embrace free markets and freedom for all of us as individuals to make our own decisions. When we freely choose, the economy is more fair because individuals make their own choices with their own benefits and consequences. The economy is more prosperous and more efficient because the economy competed for customers and the best win out. A controlled economy is a huge mistake. The proper role of government should be that of a referee to ensure fair play - not run the game itself. Friedman's ideas moved the global economy ahead to more efficiency and prosperity, yet his ideas were based on the old ideas of liberty and free markets.
Friedman was an old-school liberal, better known these days as a libertarian. He believed strongly in the power of liberty, as opposed to extreme social orders such as Communism, Nazism, monopolies, mafias, religious theocracies, slavery, segregation, sexism, etc.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is one of the foundations upon which America had been founded. Yet pure free market economics fell out of favor in the wake of the excesses of the Gilded Age when unregulated capitalism was seen to have an immoral side of exploitation. After the trauma of the Great Depression, capitalism was seen to be unstable and cruel. Theodore Roosevelt used the Bully Pulpit to argue that government should regulate the "malefactors of great wealth." He created the Food and Drug Administration, broke up trusts, regulated railroads, and the American approved. Franklin Roosevelt pursued policies for economic stability and basic security, and Americans elected him president four times. Many people sincerely feared capitalism. This would inadvertently lead to some well-intentioned but very bad economic policies.
Some of the pragmatic reforms of the New Deal were excellent, such as the SEC to require audited financial statements, which leads to more transparent and more efficient markets. Without the SEC we would have many more Enron disasters. The Federal Reserve Open Market committee, a New Deal reform, manages the money supply. New Deal banking legislation requires certain capital reserves and insures deposits to $100,000, which forever ended bank panics. The FHA insured mortgages, which created the 30 year mortgage and brought home ownership to millions of people who used to have to rent or inherit a pile of money. Government regulations adopted later require safe consumer products, such as home appliances and the electrical hardware to bring electricity into our homes. The government regulates pollution. Student loans allow citizens to learn the skills that a prosperous economy needs.
Unfortunately, some of the government experiments in the mid-to-late 20th Century with regulations were mistakes, such as price controls and some welfare programs. Socialism became fashionable to many, especially in Europe, and regulations kept creeping upward. In the United States, this culminated in the late 1960s with the Great Society, although America never became truly socialistic like some European nations. By the 1970s, the global economy was mired in stagflation. Too many bureaucrats were making too many business decisions, hampering market activity and taking away the automatic operation of the economy through prices and consumer choices. Too many politicians were making decisions for purely political gain. Big city politicians have especially been that way for well over a century.
Friedman's weakness in this book is that he does not give due credit to the "referee" government regulations that ensure free and FAIR competition. Friedman is too one-sided in his argument. Indeed, his ideas work today because of pragmatic government reforms of capitalism, such as the New Deal, that did not exist in the past. Friedman emphasizes freedom, as he should for the time period he lived in, but there must be an assumption of at least mild fairness in order for free competition to work.
Remember the books by Charles Dickens on the horrors of the industrial revolution? Remember the disgusting pollution that was so bad in London that the fog was filthy black? Some old buildings in Europe today are still stained black from the filth because they could not be cleaned of the filth. Remember the horrors of industrial child labor and slavery? The most powerful quickly overwhelm the less powerful in a "free" market without protections, and that's how some people want it.
Friedman blames the Federal Reserve for the Great Depression, which is partly true, but the constrictive gold standard was a leading cause as it caused the Fed to tighten and then spread the Depression globally. The countries that abondoned the gold standard the quickest recoverd the quickest. The countries that were not on the gold standard did not experience the Great Depression at all! Hoover refused to abandon the gold standard. FDR abaondoned it quickly, and the contraction ended. Ironically, Friedman's critique says the government was responsible because it did not intervene as it should have earlier.
Also, the financial systems completely collapsed when over 10,000 banks collapsed. The economy would never have recovered without government intervention to save and then reform the financial system, which FDR eventually did. Friedman was not honest about this. He seems so fixated on claiming that government is the problem that he is not truthful about the Great Depression. Friedman also says that the Great Crash did not cause the Great Depression, which is true. But it did make a natural recovery impossible. The financial system fell like a house of cards because there was no regulatory structure to support it. Also, numerous financial scandals rocked the financial system, such as the scandal involving Richard Whitney, formerly the president of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the board of governors, and arguably the most recognized broker in America.
Friedman also has an overly simplistic solution to inner-city poverty, and he says that schools should receive voicers so inner city parents can be better consumers through more freedom. This would do nothing to solve the real underlying (and maybe unsolvable problems) of cultures of disfunction, broken families, crime, and massive drug use. Ironically, Friedman would legalize drugs for more freedom. Friedman's overall theme of liberty being best is definitely correct, but with some commonsense exceptions please.
Adam Smith, the creator of economics, also said that government must make the investements for the common good that the free market never would make. America has a long history of making these investments, such as canals, roads, bridges, dams, school buildings, parks, aquaducts, etc. Yet Friedman mentions little about this partnership with government. Free markets do not work for everything, although I would argue for 95% of things.
Finally, economic activity is ultimately a social activity. People make money when they organizations with different functions and many people performing those function. It is only because we are socially cooperative that an economy can work. Friedman's emphasis on the individual is correct, but there is more to it. Look at this book as one of a dozen needed views.
Friedman was an optimist. He believed in the power of competition. He was 95% right. True competition will correct most economic problems. I wish more socialist liberals would read this book and learn that less is more. I highly recommend this book.
I also recommend Ronald Reagan's autobiography titled "An American Life," since he was the political figure who rhetorically sold Americans again on free markets. Reagan explains his optimistic views of free markets, his opposition to excessive government controls, his disgust for able-bodied freeloaders on welfare, and his optimistic belief in the goodness of individuals. He also says that he voted four times for Franklin Roosevelt, who said that welfare could destroy the work ethic like "a narcotic" and liquidated the temporary welfare programs designed to aid the country through the Depression once the crisis passed, only to be revived later. Reagan said he was not trying to undo the New Deal; he was trying to unleash the economy from the excesses of 1960s liberalism and excessive economic controls.
Books:
- NO ONE YOU KNOW: A Collection of Cartoons
- Occupied Japan for the Home
- Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy
- Pilobolus 2006 Calendar
- Popular Indian Art: Raja Ravi Varma and the Printed Gods of India
- Public Access: Ricky Powell Photographs 1985-2005
- Roots of Art: Education Practice (Art Education in Practice Series)
- Sense and Sensibility: Women Artists and Minimalism in the Nineties
- Sketchbook-Blackberry Blank Book-5 1/2x8 1/4"
- Soft as Steel: The Art of Julie Bell
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House
- The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
- Shape Of My Heart
- The beautiful vampire:
- The Alibi Man
- Seven Things That Steal Your Joy: Overcoming the Obstacles to Your Happiness
- The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
- Scrawl Too: More Dirt
- Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan's Native Americans
- Somatostatin and Its Receptors.
Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World
Chemical Pink
Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building
Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self-Definition
Picturing the Modern Amazon (New Museum Books)
