Avigdor Arikha

Book Description

SILKS FOR THRONES AND ALTARS presents 77 Chinese textiles from the 14th through the 18th century, divided into three groups. The first group consists of clothing and furnishing fabrics made for and used by the ruling elite of China. Regardless of their dates or the ethnic origins of various dynastic rulers, these trappings of nobility served the political and social goals of those in power. The second group contains Chinese silks found beyond the borders of the empire, specifically in Tibet, Japan, and Western Europe. The presence of Chinese luxury in a foreign context, whether the result of commerce or diplomacy, affected local ideas of status and prestige. The last group presents textiles made for Taoist and Buddhist liturgical use. Within the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and Japan, secular textiles found new uses without losing the prestige with which they had originally been imbued.

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How to Build Your Real-Estate Fortune on Other People's Money

Manufacturer: International Wealth Success Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Investments | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0934311390

Average customer rating:
How to Build Your Real-Estate Fortune on Other People's Money
Tyler G. Hicks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1561507563

Average customer rating:
How to Build Your Real-Estate Fortune on Other People's Money: Smart, Proven Ways for You to Get Rich in Real Estate Using Borrowed Money You Get from
Tyler Gregory Hicks
Manufacturer: International Wealth Success
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mortgages | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 156150288X

Book Description

Based on Ed Rampell's firsthand coverage of recent marches, demonstrations, rallies, fundraisers, political education meetings, art exhibits and organizing efforts, this book asks: What really motivates the Hollywood Left? How are Hollywood progressives politically educated? How do they organize protests and raise money for causes? Who are the masterminds and top financial backers of Hollywood's activism? What price are these outspoken notables paying for speaking out? Are they working out of a great tradition, and what do they have to learn from the great activists of Hollywood's earlier progressive periods-the '30s, '40s, '60s and '70s? What are the lessons from the dark ages of the '50s, and are we seeing a new McCarthy-like backlash during the Bush presidency to silence high-profile dissent? And, from action hero California recall candidates to producers of pro-Pentagon pictures, who in reactionary Tinseltown collaborates with the status quo, and how are the progressives countering the entertainment industry's right wing?

With an introduction by Greg Palast, author of bestseller The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Progressive Hollywood features Rampell's interviews and interactions with Hollywood luminaries such as producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Robert Greenwald; actors Jack Nicholson, Rob Reiner, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Martin Sheen, David Clennon, Gore Vidal and Dennis Hopper; directors Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and Lionel Chetwynd; blacklisted screenwriters Bernie Gordon (who initiated the 1999 protests against Elia Kazan's lifetime achievement Oscar), Bobby Lees (who injected dialectical materialism into Abbott and Costello comedies) and Norma Barzman (author of 2003's The Red and the Blacklist).

Ed Rampell is a full-time writer who has co-authored four books, including two film histories. His journalism has appeared in publications worldwide, including ABC News' 20/20, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio New Zealand, Newsweek, AP, Reuters, Honolulu Weekly, Mother Jones, In These Times, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, Toronto Globe & Mail, Variety and many others. <

Customer Reviews:

The struggle to express progressive social ideals.......2005-11-26

"Progressive Hollywood" by Ed Rampell is an excellent discourse about how Hollywood's creative community has often struggled to express progressive ideals through its art and unique brand of political activism for over a century. Mr. Rampell combines an encyclopedic knowledge of film with a solid understanding of American social and political history to create an interesting and informative narrative. The author helps us understand how the resurgence of progressive filmmaking today continues a Hollywood tradition of producing some of its best screen moments when America has undergone periods of substantial social change.

For example, Mr. Rampell makes a convincing argument that the audiences of the 1930s and 1940s were far better off for the presence of the Communist Party USA members who were employed by Hollywood studios during a trying time of economic depression and war. These so-called Crimson Era filmakers shone a light on the dangers of domestic and foreign Fascism when few others were willing to do so; some celebrated the common person's struggle with capital and state power; and others subtly suffused their humanist politics within their hopeful story narratives. Interestingly, the author discusses how Leftist influence reached its apogee in Hollywood during World War II, when eager American Communist filmmakers produced some of the most effective propaganda movies ever made on behalf of the U.S. government. Unfortunately, capital's postwar desire to break the power of unionized labor led to McCarthyism and the blacklist, which succeeded in scattering the creative community and effectively ended Hollywood's first great progressive movie era.

The next wave of progressive filmaking was inspired by the social and cultural conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s. Mr. Rampell discusses some of the important movies from the countercultural, Black Consciousness, environmental, feminist, anti-war and other film movements of the era. Marlon Brando's 1973 Academy Awards protest on behalf of Native American rights may have been the most memorable single event in a time when artists and filmmakers regularly challenged the status quo with their activism and work both on and offscreen.

Mr. Rampell contends that progressive Hollywood has returned after its long drought through the 1980s and 1990s in response to the ascendancy of the George W. Bush administration, the Iraq War and a wave of corporate crime scandals. The Internet has enabled filmmakers to communicate directly with niche and activist audiences who are hungry for socially conscious content, and the success of independently-produced documentaries has proven that a significant demand exists for subject matter on topics that have been ignored or underreported by the mainstream news media. The author is hopeful that today's progressive films will succeed in inspiring the public to challenge the Republican-dominated government's imperialistic misadventures and un-democratic policies of favortism for the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.

Mr. Rampell discusses how outspoken artists have frequently suffered for exercising their First Amendment freedoms. A modern-day form of the blacklist has been resurrected by Conservatives who have targeted performers such as the Dixie Chicks, Howard Stern, Phil Donahue and many others. But the author takes us behind the scenes of the activist Hollywood community to show us how celebrities continue to champion progressive causes even at the risk of significant financial retribution, theorizing that the creative process cultivates a sense of empathy and compassion within artists for those who may be less fortunate than themselves.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that the cover is a highly imaginative work of art that might alone be worth the price of the book. The image is a detailed and colorful collage of famous people from the political Left and Right whose lives or works are discussed in the book. It's a fun concept and is brilliantly rendered by illustrator Brian Paisley.

I highly recommend this entertaining and informative book to everyone.

Book Description

This latest addition to the Acoustic Masterclass series features 12 beautiful acoustic guitar interpretations of classic Christmas music as performed by David Cullen, Doug Smith, and Laurence Juber. The included CD contains the original recordings from three beautiful Christmas CDs from Cullen, Smith, and Juber respectively. Arranged and recorded by Doug Smith: Deck the Halls * Hark the Herald Angels Sing * I Saw Three Ships * Jingle Bells. Arranged and recorded by David Cullen: Go Tell It on the Mountain * O Come Emmanuel * O Come All Ye Faithful * Silent Night. Arranged and recorded by Laurence Juber: Away in a Manger * The Bells of Paradise * Good King Wenceslas * Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.

Contemporary Christian Christmas: Easy Guitar with Notes and Tab

Average customer rating:

Contemporary Christian Christmas: Easy Guitar with Notes and Tab

Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0634032739

Book Description

Easy arrangements of 19 holiday songs recorded by top artists. Includes: All Is Well * Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song) * Celebrate the Child * Child of Bethlehem * Emmanuel * Going Home for Christmas * Good News * Jesus Is Born * One Small Child * Precious Promise * A Strange Way to Save the World * This Baby * This Gift * This Little Child * Unto Us (Isaiah 9) * and more.

Book Description

Special Edition with Rider-Waite - the world's most popular tarot deck! Tarot Deck & Book Set For Dummies provides an accessible step-by-step approach to start your relationship with tarot. Using the special abridged edition of the Tarot For Dummies book, even the most apprehensive students will quickly learn to understand the meanings of each card. Packaged with the most popular and fundamental of tarot decks - the full-size Rider-Waite Tarot.

Customer Reviews:

great for beginners.......2006-07-18

i have recently gotten into witchcraft and wicca, and the tarot also called out to me. so, i decided to buy a beginners tarot deck, and found this one! it's really great. i've already read for other people, and i only bought it last week! this book and deck set ROXORS!

good for starter.......2005-02-21

I bought this book because it came with standard rider deck, exactly what I wanted and as a beginner. I have no complain for the cards, but card interpretation in the book is somewhat different from other source and I am going to buy another book 'learning tarot for beginners' to make sure I learn about tarot. The book is thinner than full dummie version, which is good enough. I would recommend people to buy the set if you never owned tarot, but suggest to read other books for deeper understanding.

this is an abridged version.......2003-11-11

Everyone should be aware that the book that comes with this set is an abridged version of Tarot for Dummies. It contains 100 fewer pages than the original and is missing Chapters 10-12, 14-17.

A big disappointment.......2003-08-24

Ms. Jayanti is big on the history of tarot cards and obviously a psychology buff. She interprets the cards as a psychologist might see Rohrschach ink blots. "I don't work with the tarot to predict the future," she says.

Tarot is a great teaching tool for substance-abuse counselors, according to this author. She lets the client do the interpreting of the cards as pretty pictures, much as a psychiatrist might ask a patient to interpret ink blots.

This author calls it a "fallacy" that some think tarot readings help you find out about your future.

To her, the cards are merely a symbol system that can assist you in understanding yourself -- and you can forget about predictive readings for others. "Lighting candles or saying prayers" to her is "just plain ignorant."

I'll take a book that tells me how to read the cards. If I want psychoanalysis, I'll go to a psychiatrist.

Great, but ...........2003-03-03

This book is easy and great for beginners. As a tarot fan for 2 years I recommmend this book which comes with a deck of Waite Tarot( It saves you a lot of money so you don't have to buy another deck separately). This book does not really teach you how to interpret cards, it just let you think and make your own decision.... Also, the author does not really believe tarot is a tool for telling the future. In fact, she defines tarot as a tool for understanding subconscious. It only teaches you few spreads. That's why it got 4 stars, not 5 stars. Besides that, this book is very good!

Average customer rating:

Dissapointment

Surprisingly Important Book

Great - even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition than by design.

Make your brand an icon

Planning to be an Icon, not Hoping it will Happen

How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding
D. B. Holt
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Marketing | Harvard Business School Press | By Publisher | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Advertising | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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BRAND sense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound

Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People

The Culting of Brands : Turn Your Customers into True Believers

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Brand Hijack : Marketing Without Marketing

ASIN: 1578517745

Book Description

“Iconic brands” (ie: Coca-Cola, Volkswagon, Corona) have social lives and cultural significance that go well beyond product benefits and features

This book distills the strategies used to create the world’s most enduring brands into a new approach called “cultural branding".

Brand identity is more critical than ever today, as more and more products compete for attention across an ever-increasing array of channels. This book offers marketers and managers an alternative to conventional branding strategies, which often backfire when companies attempt to create identity brands.

Customer Reviews:

Dissapointment.......2006-02-02

I am very surprised with the rave reviews of this book here. I decided to purchase it for two reasons. First, I trusted the reviews here and decided it would be important to own this book. Second, I am familiar with Douglas Holt's academic work, and have read his articles in academic journals. I thought this book will be very interesting to read.

I am dissapointed mainly because I find that the book does not tell me something original. Instead what Douglas Holt keeps saying in this book is that building an iconic brand is possible by focusing on culture not products. His argument is not convincing, especially when he tries to disprove other forms of brand building: tradition, cultural and emotional. If I have a brand new product, can I still build an icon? Is it advantageous to have an iconic brand? What are the downside of it? These are not talked about in the book.

Another problem is that he keeps repeating the same argument again and again. It gets very boring after a few pages only.

What a disappointment!

Surprisingly Important Book.......2005-11-08

I'm no business-head. I find modern consumerism more disturbing than exciting. But I read this book as part of a study on public relations and I must say Holt's passion for the subject is contagious.
First of all, his writing style is superb. He alternates nicely between anecdotes, charts and philosophy, allowing all sorts of minds to grasp just what he's saying. His ideas were bold and insightful, and he helped me to understand what a craft marketing really is.
I sometimes felt his connections were just that - his connections - but a lot of his ideas rang true, and for the most part his evidence was well, evident.
What I found most impressive was his aknowledgement of all the sexism in marketing. Perhaps it's a bit of sexism on my part, but I hadn't expected a man to pick up on all the overt and covert misogyny inherent in the advertising world. Holt not only saw it, he understood how it connected with the greater social and political environment surrounding it.
How Brands Become Icons should be required reading for every high school student in the country. And that's the first time I've said that. Holt's grasp of the subject goes beyond branding, into the heart of American culture, into the minds of the American people. This is not just a how-to book. It's an important book of why.

Great - even the most successful iconic brands have emerged more by intuition than by design........2005-08-17

This is an excellent book! Douglas B. Holt gives a cultural perspective to branding which is not that trivial to all managers. The book also presents historical analyses on brands like Mountain Dew, Corona, Volkswagen, and many others. The clear message is that iconic brands can't be created through conventional branding strategies, instead there is a need for a cultural perspectice to branding.

Make your brand an icon.......2005-04-14

Informative and entertaining, this book is a combination of cult references and great ideas. A solid guide to making your brand more succesful,Douglas provides the background knowledge you do the rest.

Planning to be an Icon, not Hoping it will Happen.......2004-11-19

A few, a very few products make it to icon status: Coke, Volkswagen and Harley-Davidson to name a few. And these have come about more by chance than by planning. In their time the marketing managers of these companies were just trying to establish next quarters sales.

This is one of the first books I've seen that approaches branding from a view of this kind of permanence, this kind of cultural approach. Most clear is the message that following trends can never build an iconic brand.

I'm not so sure that todays management, focused on this quarter, and maybe next is really ready for thinking about forming a brand that will endure for generations. Yet you do see companies with the kind of foresight to do just that. When Microsoft went into Russia, they went in with the view to establish their brand as the defacto standard. The immediate profits were basically ignored, but next year, and the year after that....

This is a book that has to get above the marketing manager, the CEO needs to provide the direction to say that we want to be the next Klenex.

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