Pacific Tapa

Customer Reviews:

The best!.......2001-12-13

I'm an artist and into designs, and this book is the best! Lots of great close-up color pictures! It also has lots of wonderful old photos of natives of different islands wearing the tapa cloth, and a lot of interesting text (which I haven't read all of because I bought the book mostly for the pictures.) But I really recommend this book for anyone interested in great native designs.

excellent.......1998-06-23

beautiful reproductions of an outstanding collection, along with photographs of the making/use of the cloth

Papyrus, Tapa, Amate and Rice Paper: Papermaking in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America and Southeast Asia

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Papyrus, Tapa, Amate and Rice Paper: Papermaking in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America and Southeast Asia
Lilian A. Bell
Manufacturer: Liliaceae Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0962507644

Pacific Tapa.(Book Review) : An article from: Pacific Affairs

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Pacific Tapa.(Book Review) : An article from: Pacific Affairs
Barbara Lawson
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000EQ49PW
Release Date: 2006-02-24

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 647 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: Pacific Tapa.(Book Review)
Author: Barbara Lawson
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 78 Issue: 3 Page: 522(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Pieces of Cloth, Pieces of Culture: Tapa from Tonga & The Pacific Islands

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Pieces of Cloth, Pieces of Culture: Tapa from Tonga & The Pacific Islands
Ping Ann Addo
Manufacturer: CALIFORNIA ACADAMY OF SCIENCES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000Q0ZH3O

T-shirts and tapa cloth: A handbook of small rural businesses for the Pacific

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T-shirts and tapa cloth: A handbook of small rural businesses for the Pacific
Alan Bollard
Manufacturer: South Pacific Commission
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Small Homes & Cottages | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007AWCJU

Book Description

When Christian Dior launched his New Look in 1947, Gainsborough Studios had already begun to refashion British sexuality. Elizabeth Haffenden's designs for the period costume romances produced by the studio between 1943 and 1950 projected a vision of femininity as both powerful and erotic. Gainsborough's spectacular display of the feminine outraged critics and official agencies. Fashioning the Nation reveals the cultural implications of this scandal, changing the consensus that, even today, tends to define British cinema in narrow parochial terms.

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How You Can Build a Fortune Investing in Residential Real Estate
Gil Armen
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Investments | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0134441176

Amazon.com

Best known as the author of scripts for such hit musicals as West Side Story and Gypsy, Arthur Laurents began his career writing strong, socially conscious plays like Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo; he also has impressive credits as a screenwriter (The Way We Were) and stage director (La Cage aux Folles). Such a varied professional life makes for absorbing reading in this lively autobiography stuffed with famous names, including George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, and Stephen Sondheim, all of whom emerge vividly in thumbnail portraits ranging from affectionately frank (Stella Adler) to frankly unflattering (Jerome Robbins). Laurents, born in 1917, was a Marxist during his college years at Cornell, and he retains strong political opinions to this day: he has no use for bigots of any kind, and his memoir displays no inclination to forgive people like Elia Kazan, who named names during the 1950s. Yet the author also has a marvelous sense of humor (after critic Frank Rich inadvertently made public reference to Laurents's homosexuality, Laurents introduced him at a charity lunch as "the man who outed me as a liberal") and a zest for life that shines particularly in a loving portrait of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Here is the original story of a true original, the celebrated and internationally renowned director, playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents, whose creative genius continues to energize American stage and screen today. Say his name, and images of West Side Story, Gypsy, Anastasia, The Turning Point, and The Way We Were appear. Laurents' highly praised memoir is a dazzling portrait of his life - as he recounts the great moments, the trials and the joys of his incredible career. He takes us into his world, peopled with the creative artists, directors, actors and personalities who came of age in the theatre and in Hollywood after WWII. Later, back in New York, he writes about jump-starting Barbra Streisand's career by casting her in I Can Get It for You Wholesale. He writes about the creation of Gypsy with Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. And he writes about coming together in a complex, fraught collaboration with his three old pals, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim for West Side Story. Throughout, Laurents is funny, fierce, and frank - a life recounted as richly as it was lived. "This is a historic work. A 'must' for show biz mavens." - LIZ SMITH, Newsday and Syndicated

Customer Reviews:

Engrossing but self-absorbed.......2005-01-04

I just finished reading this fascinating but maddening autobiography last night. There is no doubt about it - Arthur has quite a story to tell. His storytelling pulls you in, making you feel as if he's telling the stories directly to you. He's met or worked with virtually every major star of the past 60 years so he's definitely got tales to tell. However, after reading for awhile, I found several things off-putting. Early on, Arthur starts to regale us with endless stories of sexual conquests. He inevitably describes his partners as "handsome", "beautiful", etc. A few stories like this would have gotten the point across, but I eventually came to the conclusion that Arthur was very insecure about his attractiveness and had to make sure that we readers knew that he was very desirable (even if pictures don't seem to tell that story). Then there's the sexual encounter he has with an old friend and sex partner who was starring in a play that Arthur was directing - it was simply creepy to me. As I continued reading, it just seemed that Arthur wanted to dissect and criticize almost everyone he came across, especially those who had disappointed him, and on several occasions I thought he was incredibly unkind. His portrait of Jerry Robbins is one-sided at best and mean at worst - he definitely comes across as if he has an ax to grind with Jerry. His coldness upon Jerry's death struck me as amazingly hard-hearted, considering all that they had done together in their lives. Arthur also never seemed to turn that critical eye onto himself. He generally comes off as good in all encounters, while others are usually immoral, dishonest, etc. I also had the sense that Arthur might have embellished the details to help himself come out so well in his stories. (This is especially ironic, considering his comments about how Gypsy Rose Lee did the same in her autobiography.) If you're interested in Broadway and the movies in the second half of the 20th century, this is a great read. Just beware the shortcomings of the author.

The truth........2003-01-06

An 86-year-old friend who grew up in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, and who had her own works on Broadway, gave me this book for help with my writing (I'm 42). Laurents is remarkably inspiring, even when he doesn't necessarily intend to be. His stories about writing for the war effort, writing radio plays, mapping plots of popular films, and turning out work for deadline demonstrate a TREMENDOUS work ethic and a resilient willingness to write and re-write.

..., but gay lives weren't well documented in that era. Worse, "liberal" Hollywood was thought to be generally accepting, when in fact the opposite was true. Laurents was under enormous pressure to stay in the closet, as were most writers and stars.

The narrative hops around a bit, but he's a gifted writer, and soon you'll settle in. If you want to be a screenwriter, read this. Some of the political nonsense that goes into making a motion picture still happens, even in 2003!

Arthur Laurents is an amazing man whom I hope has a magnificent decade as an octogenarian. If his vibrant words are any indication, then in spirit he'll always be 33 and ready for the next adventure.

Damned good..Go out and Read it!.......2001-09-12

The best thing a book can have is the author's voice, and Laurents' autobiography certainly has his: argumentative, discrening, opinionated, political, sexy, candid. He has a bristly side to him and he doesn't hide it. And this makes his book seem genuine and compelling, not the kind of "I loved them all..we had a great time" gush that many older entertainment types write. His take on the blacklist is wonderful. His backstage stories about how his play ("Time of the Cuckoo") was a hit and his movie ("The Way We Were") got chewed up in the editing room are fascinating. And he doesn't hold back: Sydney Pollack comes off a clever swine, Jerome Robbins is shown warts and all. You may find that Laurents is the kind of man you might have trouble liking in real life, but you won't be able to put his book down. That's because he's a real writer with a voice...and it's in these pages. One of the best theatre books in quite a while, certainly the best since Neil Simon's first book. Seems like good playwrites make good memoir writers. Read this!

VITAL, JUICY AND BLUNT.......2001-04-13

Now THIS is an autobiography! It is the story of a man, the last of his peer group, who, at 81, is healthy, athletic, sexual, productive in his craft, and in love. He is joyous and it reflects in his writing. Vitriol, if not burned away, has often been reduced to pithy one-liners that zing with word-play. Apathy seems to have replaced anger. Mr. Laurents is too busy living to show resignation or to bemoan the passing of relationships, so his book is vital, alive.

He is blunt and ruthless and he shows us the sage as scrappy youth and unformed man as well as (bad)businessman and lover, plus playwright, director and Hollywood hack. He has little respect for the movie industry and when black-listed,was more relieved than aggrieved! He spares himself nothing, is quick to offer accolades and in stories that are pay-backs, with time and acoomplishment to back him up, chummy fact can be damning! He has a gift for knowing that someone loves and respects the famous people he mentions and he writes accordingly, whether he shares their regard or not, and even when a relationship has lapsed, if praise is due, he generously heaps it on.

Incidentals are rampant. Some add to the whole, like how Geraldine Brooks' breast cancer led to her marriage with HUAC informer Budd Schulberg and how this impaced her friendship with Mr. Laurents, or how Lillian Roth's fight with alcoholism helped Mr. Laurents direct her in I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. Other tidbits just make juicy reading, like the stoicism of Hal Prince learning to water-ski. It is so easy to link the vision of Prince dropping rather than veer out of the boat's wake, with his dogged direction of PARADE a few years back! It is fascinating to hear how life experiences made their way into his work, to hear the power 'stars' had to pervert an author's intent, and to see how some events became motivations or mere moments of dialogue in a play, while others became entire works. Sometimes, Mr. Laurents himself was unaware of where a line or a thought came from, and when he recognizes the origin, his delight is triumphant! Bad psycho-analysts become saccharine characters in admittedly mediocre plays, a handsome Jew in love with a Nazi becomes a portly Italian shopkeeper/love interest, and the Hollywood Witch Hunt becomes THE WAY WE WERE, before politics were 'expunged', Robert Redford collided with his role and the climax of the movie (not film) was edited out. (It seems Katherine Hepburn had a knack for turning her character into herself too, not the reverse!) Included too, is director Laurents' dealings with star-in-waiting Barbara Streisand, manipulative producer David Merrick, sweating co-star Elliot Gould, and costuming goddess Theoni V. Aldredge. He loved working with Jule Styne, Len Bernstein and Steve Sondheim and has high praise for master craftsmen Shirley Booth and Angella Lansbury. It was fascinating to hear him revisit GYPSY over the years as his role changed from author to director. Reading about Miss Lansbury performing the bows at the end of "Rose's Turn" was electric. I wish I could have seen an actual performance!

There is over-lap between Laurents and the ballet world through Jerome Robbins, Nora Kaye, and Harold Lang, and superstar Erik Bruhn makes a moon-lit naked appearance. Robbins seems to be the only one of the four Laurents didn't sleep with, and I question his use of 'balletomane' as a verb! His friendship with Robbins runs as deeply as Nora Kaye's and Robbins plays a major part in the book, as friend, informer, collaborator on famous works, and betrayer. To hear his stories of W.W. II, where he wrote training films, gays in the military should NEVER be an issue. Actually, he finds handsome men all over the world and his search to not only accept what he is, but to prefer it, turns up in much of his writing. Too much so in fact, if there is anything to criticize about ths book. His exploits during the war read like fiction!

Early on, he announces his intolerance of bigotry of any kind, especially against homosexuals, Negroes and Jews but I find this odd since he flatly dismisses his Bar Mitzvah as 'meaningless.' This is really the first book I've read that deals pointedly with McCarthyism and the Hollywood Witch Hunt. He voices what many must have felt, sharing freely his feelings of the time and his feelings now! Informers are pariah, yet some who informed remained Laurents' friend, some did not and we learn the whys of each, first hand. Judgments are presented factually along with consequences of decisions that were made.

This book is a wealth of history but for those interested in fair play and looking at all sides of an issue, don't bother picking it up. This is Arthur Laurents' story, and I not only respect his right to tell it, I revel in it! Five stars for this one, and the moon has come out again!

Enjoy the Ride!.......2001-01-17

If you live to be 82 years old and fortunate enough to have lived the life that Arthur Laurents has then you've earned the right to say what you damn well please. Arther Laurents does just that in his autobiography and in a very honest an entertaining style. Sit back and enjoy the ride, you just might learn something along the way!

Original Story by Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood.(Review) (book review): An article from: Theatre History Studies

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Original Story by Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood.(Review) (book review): An article from: Theatre History Studies
Jeffrey Smart
Manufacturer: Mid-America Theatre Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008I045A
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Theatre History Studies, published by Mid-America Theatre Association on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1011 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: Original Story by Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood.(Review) (book review)
Author: Jeffrey Smart
Publication: Theatre History Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2001
Publisher: Mid-America Theatre Association
Page: 142

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Original Story. A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood

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Original Story. A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood
Arthur Laurents
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUNR9S

Book Description

The Green Day story is very blunt: three school friends grow up together in a cluster of small blue-collar Californian towns, form a band â€¦ and sell over 50 million albums. Except it wasn't that simple. Self-confessed latch-key kids, theirs was far from an easy ride.

Inspired by both the energy of British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks and cult American bands such as Dead Kennedys and Husker Du, Green Day formed in 1989. The band gigged relentlessly across the US, quickly selling out every underground club that booked them, and their 1994 major label debut Dookie was a 10-million-selling worldwide hit album that seized the zeitgeist while rock music was still reeling from the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. They toured the world, headlined all the big festivals, won countless awards and released multi-million selling albums.

In 2004 Green Day reached a career pinnacle with the concept album American Idiot, a sophisticated commentary on modern life-not least dissatisfaction with their president and America's continued cultural and economic imperialism. The No. 1 success of the Grammy-winning album extended Green Day's fan base even further-from pre-teen kids to previously skeptical critics.

This book is the world's first full biography on Green Day. An authority on punk and hardcore, author Ben Myers charts the band members' difficult childhoods, the context of the band within the US and world punk scene and their glittering rise to success. Myers has also interviewed the band for various magazines at different stages of their career.

Customer Reviews:

Recommended even for those who know nothing about Green Day.......2006-10-20

This is an unauthorized, but very favorable, biography of Green Day, one of the world's biggest punk music bands.

The trio that became Green Day grew up in small towns near San Francisco. Each coming from difficult family circumstances, they fell in love with punk music (the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, among many others). They formed a band, and soon became mainstays at a place called 924 Gilman. It was little more than a vacant building, but it quickly became a West Coast punk rock mecca. On any given night, veteran punk bands and bands playing their first gig would share the bill.

In the early days, Green Day was constantly on tour. They played basements, squats, anywhere they could plug in their instruments. Some nights, their audience might reach double digits, and other nights they might actually get paid for their efforts. They were living the punk rock lifestyle, fueled by large amounts of alcohol. They were loose and slacker-like about many things, but they were totally serious about their music.

Slowly but surely, they were building a fan base. Their first two albums, on a small punk label, did really well, eventually selling in the hundreds of thousands. Their first major label release, Dookie, in 1994, was a blockbuster, eventually selling 10 million copies. Marriage, fatherhood and burnout became a part of their lives, so they cut back on the incessant touring. But they were now filling major arenas. While some punk music can be indistinguishable from very loud, random noise, a big influence for Green Day was 1960s British bands, so there was actual music in their songs. In 2004, they released a concept album called American Idiot, another blockbuster and Grammy winner, giving their view of present-day America.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, this book is highly recommended for those who own any of the band's musical output. It is also recommended for anyone, yours truly included, who has seen a video or two of theirs on TV, but who knows little or nothing about punk music in general, or Green Day in particular.

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The New York Times Beach Blanket Crosswords: Light and Easy Puzzles (New York Times Crossword Puzzle)
The New York Times
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crosswords | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Crosswords | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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Book Description

A brand-new summery collection of fun, easy puzzles from the pages of The New York Times Continuing the success of The New York Times Sun, Sand and Crosswords, The New York Times More Sun, Sand and Crosswords and The New York Times Crosswords for Your Beach Bag comes this latest collection of fun, solvable puzzles from crossword great Will Shortz. Seventy-five of the Times' easiest puzzles make sure that solvers can sit back, relax, and solve the day away.

The New York Times Beach Blanket Crosswords : Light and Easy Puzzles

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The New York Times Beach Blanket Crosswords : Light and Easy Puzzles
Will Shortz
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTFRF0

Book Description

The proven and popular Microeconomics has been made even tighter and smoother for its 16th edition. A DVD features bestselling DiscoverEcon software and two videos with Paul Solman of PBS. New topics include the economics of the war on terrorism, China's rapidly emerging economy, recent accounting misconduct, and more. Two bonus chapters available on the Web provide additional, specialized information.

Customer Reviews:

Overall Good.......2006-12-24

This book is clear and easy to use, though at times the examples were not very beneficial. It also did not seem as though there were a clear order to the ideas presented in each chapter.

I did, however, gain a relatively thourough knowledge of microeconomics from using this book and overall I found the chapters easy to read and understand.

I cannot comment on the DiscoverEcon Online or the videos as I did not have enough time in order to explore either of these additional resources.

MicroEcon Review online - Marlon T. Dinu.......2005-01-17

McConnell's approach is very comprehensive. The application of economic models is very useful for instruction to Filipino undergraduate students of economics courses.

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