Michael Ray Charles, 1989-1997: An American Artist's Work

Book Description

Michael Ray Charles is a painter whose carefully crafted and faux-aged canvases and works on paper draw attention to race relations historically and in contemporary society. Borrowing pop culture images of characters such as Sambo, Buckwheat, and Aunt Jemima, Charles uses them ironically to comment on racial issues. His concerns range from how tobacco and liquor companies target marketing to minorities to the depiction of African Americans in the entertainment and sports industries to concepts of all-American (i.e., white) beauty.

This book is the catalog of the first major solo exhibition of Charles' work, staged by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. It contains a broad range of color images of paintings and works on paper. In addition to the catalog entries, the book contains an interview between exhibit curator Don Bacigalupi, catalog essayist Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, and artist Michael Ray Charles, in which the artist discusses and interprets his work. An essay by writer and cultural historian Marilyn Kern-Foxworth situates Charles' work within contemporary African American culture.

Customer Reviews:

Exceptional. Compelling. Heartbreaking. Angry. And great........2006-08-11

I first came across Michael Ray Charles on a documentary about contemporary art (Art:21) and then again in a documentary series called Art City. Of all the artists -- many far better known than Charles -- he was, for me, the most notable. He was a young (30ish) black man, a family man living in a suburb, creating (inventing) these provocative and undeniably powerful and thought-provoking images that at once spoke to the history and horrors of racism in America, and reclaimed the power and moral sense. I purchased this "book" because I collect art books and because I so liked his art and his personality as it was conveyed in the documentaries. I never imagined when I ordered it, that I would be quite this pleased. The "book" is really two books, one a standard-sized catalogue featuring an illuminating interview and analysis of his work. Additionally, there is an oversized heavy-weight periodical (the actual catalogue featuring images) reminiscent of the old Interview magazine. Almost every page is essentially a small poster of one of Charles' works, and there are several cut-outs (dye-cuts), not to mention the inclusion of a Lincoln-head penny pasted on the back, which is a staple from his paintings. The "book" is a work of art unto itself, managing to be at once modern/contemporary and primitive (it actually comes in an oversized white jiffy bag, with an image on the front and sewn shut) and, in my estimation, is highly collectible -- not to mention just a ridiculous amount of fun. There is something to discover on every page (maybe every inch of every page). This might be the best art book I have ever purchased. If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Michael Ray Charles is an important American artist. Very compelling.

Book Description

The best, full-service guide to the best full-service printer is now thoroughly updated, with the latest information on the new Epson printers, materials, software and other products.

Epson is the company at the cutting edge of digital photo quality printing, and their superb equipment makes possible for everyone to print sparkling photographs at home. With the help of Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto magazines, and this fully updated manual, amateurs can enter Epson's brave new world with all the latest information on printers and papers. Two-page spreads with write-ups and pictures from acclaimed photographers George Lepp, John Shaw, Greg Gorman, Jack Reznicki, Joyce Tenneson, and others explain how Epson printers and digital photography have enhanced their art and expanded their business. There's advice on choosing a printer, selecting standard and specialty papers, using image processing programs to refine photos, adding finishing touches that turn a good print into a great one, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Beware of Books That Say They Are Complete.......2006-03-20

First of all I am a fairly serious amateur photographer, and had my own darkroom before digital cameras came on the scene, and I love working with Photoshop.

That said let's see what exactly is in this book that has received a wide spectrum of reviews.
The first part of the book discusses choices in buying printers. I have always been curious about how many people actually go out and plunk down a bunch of money to buy a book about buying a printer or a camera. To me the best way is to get recommendations from other people or look up reviews of products on the internet.

The author then presents information on the printer software screen that pops up when you want to print your photo. Contrary to what one reviewer wrote, the book does not discuss printers other than Epson, and the discussion and pictures of the software screen are all about Epson printers. He does discuss that old bugaboo of picture resolution vs printer resolution, something that has always puzzled me. One interesting bit of information is that if your picture resolution (not printer resolution) is above 400dpi your picture may deteriorate in the printing process.

Then follows a fairly useless section of about 50 pages dealing with adjusting your photographs in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. The information is very rudimentary, and cannot suffice as a manual for photo manipulation. After all there are 800 page books on this subject. One and a half pages on layers and layer masks? No way. The manual that comes with Photoshop is 400 pages long, and is still inadequate for most people.

There is a section on basic color management which is informative if you've had no real orientation to the subject.

The last part of the book is devoted to subjects such as matting, framing and displaying photographs, and doing special projects such as making letterheads and mailing labels.

The book ends on the topic of changing color prints to black and white, and making panorama shots and prints. Again only a bare bones approach to these subjects.

Finally Mr. Sheppard talks about archival values of printer paper. Interesting, but the discussion involves only Epson papers. That's fine with me as I own 4 Epson printers, but not so fine if you own a Canon.

I bought this book sight unseen because I wanted an entire book on management of photos between computer and printer. To my intense disappointment I found that only 25 pages of this 160 page book were on this subject.

Great information........2006-02-22

I've been using an Epson wide-format printer for quite awhile, but I still learned something from this book. It covers more than the Epson line, too, so I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about how to get the best output of their digital images.

Clear, concice, and to the point........2005-11-11

Many digital photographers are struggling with the ink jet printing process, Rob Sheppard's book is a great guide ot help demystify the terms and procedures that
might other wise stand in the way of making great prints. Rob explains in a clear and concise manner his approach to the printing process. I have recommened this book
to a number of friends looking for a way to get started, the right way, in ink jet
printing. Way to go Mr Sheppard, another helpful book from you!

Great info for anyone who prints.......2005-11-11

Rob has done another outstanding job with this book on digital printing. For anyone with questions on how to get the most out of your image before you print and then how to get the most out of your printer, this is the book for you! When people ask me about books that can help them with their printing, I always refer to Rob's book.

Bill Campbell
Campbell Digital Institute

Who Better??????.......2005-11-01

Who better to write a book on printing than Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto magazines. . . author of many books and a wonderful seminar/workshop leader. If you have read Rob's other books, I suggest you add this gem to your collection - no matter which printer you have!

Book Description

Once again, Flash Gordon battles the forces of repression and evil on the planet Mongo - only this time it's on a daily basis! In 1940, top illustrator Austin Briggs began the first Flash Gordon daily strip, running as a counterpoint to Alex Raymond's classic Sunday page. In this first of a two volume set, Flash, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov are caught in a web of spies, political groups, alien tribes and freedom fighters as they struggle against the despotic ruler of Mongo, Ming the Merciless. Briggs' Flash Gordon art and story compare favorably to Raymond's acclaimed work on Sunday. For action and adventure, it's Flash Gordon - every day of the week!

Customer Reviews:

Comic genius.......2001-08-21

If you are a fan of the Flash Gordon comics...and why else would you be looking at this page...this is a fine purchase. It's comic art at it's most simple and evocative. You don't find story lines like these (teetering between profound and silly) any more. Plus, as an artist, the perfect line work and imaginative compositions are something to view in slack-jawed awe.

Flash Gordon [Dailies], Volume 1:1940-1942

Average customer rating:

Flash Gordon [Dailies], Volume 1:1940-1942
Austin Briggs
Manufacturer: Kitchen Sink Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M7763K

Average customer rating:

God created Arruckus to irritate humanity.

A must read for any Dune Fan

Ideal source material for an unhinged mind

Absolutely hysterical!

Hilarious parody

National Lampoon's Doon
Ellis Weiner
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

The Sillymarillion: An Unauthorized Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's Classic The Silmarillion

The Soddit: Or, Let's Cash in Again

The Da Vinci Cod : A Fishy Parody

Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody

ASIN: 0671541447

Customer Reviews:

God created Arruckus to irritate humanity........2007-05-29

The slender-shouldered Pall must fight off the galaxy, take control of the native pretzel population, take control of the source of beer and take over the Empire. All on an all sugar diet.
A parody of DUNE, one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written. Now one of the funniest story of all times. Ellis Weiner does a great job, from giving us the feel of the way the plots flows, to how the language is used and even starting each chapter with a quote such as:

And there came a time when all eyes in the known universe did turn and look toward Arruckus, metaphorically speaking.

That's pure gold! Fans of DUNE or just people who enjoy a good parody need this book!

A must read for any Dune Fan.......2005-06-13

Before, I read this book. I considered Dune to be the best book I've ever read. But, this book had me cracking up for all of its 200 pages, as the book clearly points out the major flaws of the SCI-FI classic and trashes it.

What I liked most about the book, was how the authors paid attention to the details of Dune, and made fun of them. Everything from parodying how Paul met Chani, to making fun of the private military language of the Atreides, (at one point Duke Leto gives Gurney Halleck the signal to 'shut-up'), is covered in the parody. They even poke fun at the relentless (and horrible) sequals to Dune.

This book is a reminder of just how many flaws there are in Dune and why all these insipid prequals by Herbert's progeny are a waste of paper.

Ideal source material for an unhinged mind.......2004-01-01

I loved this when I was a student, and having had three copies of Bored of the Rings in little bits all over the house, having been read to death, this was amazing. What was REALLY amazing is that this is (if that was possible) even more deranged, witty and addictive. By addictive, imagine recalling the part about the kid chanting the secret recipe ".. Rigeliian fish with Antipas sauce! She CANNOT know it! ... She is an ABOMINATION!" and falling into uncontrollable giggles during class. *

WHEN IS THIS GOING TO BE REPRINTED?

*[That was, of course, when there were grants and we could live like normal people, not the improverished skeletons that students seem to be now...

Good grief, I'm getting so damn old...]

Absolutely hysterical!.......2002-09-09

I read Dune many years ago, and it stuck in my mind as one of the more original works of SF ever. For that reason, all the jokes in Doon were very funny. Each chapter starts with a journal entry or quote from a book, and those are for the most part extremely funny. The style of Herbert's writing that conveys deeper meaning in the smallest detail is aped here to great effect. When "Paul" survives the test of pain, his mother comes in and thinks, "He lives! My son lives! So does the Reverend Mother! And so do I! We all live!"

I found this funnier than Bored of the Rings, but I do recommend both of them for some great parody.

Hilarious parody.......2001-05-31

I started smiling on the first page when the "Schlepping Guild" got caught in "turbulance in the Nether Regions." I enjoyed "Dune," but it took itself way too seriously and didn't have a sense of humor at all. And such books always lend themselves to parody. Here, instead of spice we have beer. Inside of giant worms we have giant pretzels. And no one gets killed, except for the poor kittens that Baron Hardchargin enjoys strangling.

Book Description

The release of Silence of the Lambs in 1991, which swept the major Academy Awards categories, legitimized the serial killer movie, a genre that dates back as far as the silent era. From Absence of the Good to Zodiac Killer, this reference work allows a detailed study of the development of the serial killer film as a distinct genre with its own character types, narrative patterns and styles. An introduction outlines the historical evolution of this film genre and covers the whole range of cinematic interpretations from the response to Jack the Ripper and other real life serial killers through the late 1960s to the current state of the genre.

Arranged alphabetically by title, the filmography covers over 500 feature films and select television movies. Each entry contains a listing of the film's main credits, a synopsis of the film, a summary of the film's respective merits and a discussion of how they fit into the themes and structures outlined in the introduction. Only films that portray the serial killer as a repeat, pattern killer, and directly or by suggestion reveal the killer's aberrant sexual motivations or their craving for manipulation, domination, and control (with subsequent desires to punish women or society) are included.

Book Description

This collection of 80 rounds and canons develops reading and ensemble skills. Every teacher and student will find benefit in this clever mix of original material, folk songs and classical pieces, including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Purcell, Tallis, and Haydn.

Customer Reviews:

Instrumental music, not vocal........2003-04-03

Be aware that this music is written for treble instruments (violin, to be specific) not for voice. No words are provided, even for the folk songs or for other pieces that were originally intended to be sung.
The readability, the typesetting, and the paper quality of this book are good.

Rounds and Canons for Reading Recreation Performance viola

Average customer rating:

Rounds and Canons for Reading Recreation Performance viola

Manufacturer: Alfred Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Rounds and Canons for Reading, Recreation, Performance (Piano, Volume 2)

Average customer rating:

Rounds and Canons for Reading, Recreation, Performance (Piano, Volume 2)
Constance Starr , and William Starr
Manufacturer: Alfred Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This collection of rounds and canons develops sight reading and ensemble skills. Every teacher and student will find benefit in this clever mix of original material, folk songs and classical pieces, in including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Purcell, Schumann, Tallis, and Haydn. Two-part to six-part, with the majority being four-part, most of these rounds and canons are not technically difficult, and may be performed by players of different skill levels. This volume can be used by several students at one, two or more pianos, or in combination with violin, viola and/or cello, since a cross reference with the string edition of the book is provided.

Rounds and Canons for Reading, Recreation, Performance Piano, Volume 1

Average customer rating:

Rounds and Canons for Reading, Recreation, Performance Piano, Volume 1

Manufacturer: Alfred Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0874879833

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Mednis magic.......2004-08-24

Here are thirty-three games annotated over 172 pages in the inimitable Mednis way. In my opinion, Mednis was the best grandmaster at annotating for the masses (not that many even attempted it). Other than the necessity of having this book for games annotated by Mednis, the independent value is that these are modern games, with lots of Sicilians (10). Along with Mastering the Strategic Game, and How Karpov Wins, this is an essential part of my collection. Each chapter oopens with a brief description of the theme to be fleshed out by the games in that section. The whole book consists of complete annotated games. Nicely produced as well.

Book Description

Praise for Credit Risk Scorecards

"Scorecard development is important to retail financial services in terms of credit risk management, Basel II compliance, and marketing of credit products. Credit Risk Scorecards provides insight into professional practices in different stages of credit scorecard development, such as model building, validation, and implementation. The book should be compulsory reading for modern credit risk managers."
—Michael C. S. Wong Associate Professor of Finance, City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Regional Director, Global Association of Risk Professionals

"Siddiqi offers a practical, step-by-step guide for developing and implementing successful credit scorecards. He relays the key steps in an ordered and simple-to-follow fashion. A 'must read' for anyone managing the development of a scorecard."
—Jonathan G. Baum Chief Risk Officer, GE Consumer Finance, Europe

"A comprehensive guide, not only for scorecard specialists but for all consumer credit professionals. The book provides the A-to-Z of scorecard development, implementation, and monitoring processes. This is an important read for all consumer-lending practitioners."
—Satinder Ahluwalia Vice President and Head-Retail Credit, Mashreqbank, UAE

"This practical text provides a strong foundation in the technical issues involved in building credit scoring models. This book will become required reading for all those working in this area."
—J. Michael Hardin, PhD Professor of StatisticsDepartment of Information Systems, Statistics, and Management ScienceDirector, Institute of Business Intelligence

"Mr. Siddiqi has captured the true essence of the credit risk practitioner's primary tool, the predictive scorecard. He has combined both art and science in demonstrating the critical advantages that scorecards achieve when employed in marketing, acquisition, account management, and recoveries. This text should be part of every risk manager's library."
—Stephen D. Morris Director, Credit Risk, ING Bank of Canada

Download Description

The development of better, intelligent credit risk scorecards calls for the use of statistical principles for specific business objectives like being able to predict losses better. Credit Risk Scorecards presents a business-focused process for the development and implementation of these risk prediction scorecards. It describes how risk scorecards can be a powerful tool for risk managers who need to improve the bottom line in their organizations, as well as how they can develop and implement them using internal resources.

Customer Reviews:

Great Starting Point for Scorecard Development.......2007-06-27

This is an excellent resource for people and organizations creating scorecards. It covers a wide assortment of topics in just enough detail to provide the "nuts and bolts." The author provided much of the material for The SAS Institute's training program on scorecard development as well. NOTE: the volume is somewhat slim and should not be considered an "encyclopedia," so if that's what you need, you'll need to augment this with other resources.

Experience. .......2007-06-19

Focuses on the development of in-house scoring capabilities, covering a broad range of development and implementation issues. The author obvious has a lot of experience, but at times the limits show. Very few references.

Excellent.......2006-06-15

Credit scoring is of course of enormous importance not only to lending institutions but also to individual borrowers who benefit from high credit scores when obtaining personal, commercial, and mortgage loans. The details of how the credit scores are calculated though are frequently proprietary, so it is imperative to understand the generalities behind credit scoring if one is to make reasonable judgments on its use and its risks. This short book gives an elementary introduction to credit scoring and is useful to those readers who need to understand it without going into complicated mathematics. Readers who require a more in-depth treatment will have to look at other books on the subject.

Risk scorecards are according to the author a powerful solution to the problem of identifying good and bad credit customers. Key to the success of a scorecard is finding the most effective `population performance definitions' which must be flexible enough to be used for different purposes. A good scorecard must also be successful in its ability to distinguish "bad" customers from "good" ones, and this distinction must respect the attitudes of the institution that is deploying it. The author clearly favors an approach to credit scoring that is based on statistical and data mining techniques. However, he does not believe that the mere use of programs or algorithms to process data will result in an effective scorecard. Such a scorecard can only be obtained by applying concepts from business intelligence, where data in his words "is passed through the business-trained mind of the user." In addition, a scorecard must not be so complex so as to stymie real-time decision-making or diagnostics. The scorecard will probably not be the sole arbiter in the decision-making process, but it still needs to be tractable enough to allow this process to reach fruition in reasonable time scales.

The development of scorecards requires, according to the author, that several individuals be involved. One of these is the actual developer, who does the required statistical analysis, thus ensuring that the scorecard development is valid from a statistical standpoint. Another is the risk manager, who is responsible for the company portfolio and the eventual use of the scorecards. Still another is the product manager, who understands the client base that the scorecard will target. In addition to these the operational manager is needed in order to give advice on how the scorecards will be implemented in actual price; a project manager is needed to oversee the management of the scorecard project; and an IT manager is needed to assess and manage the software development that will be needed to create the scorecard. Lastly, the legal staff of the company needs to be involved to ensure that the scoring conforms to existing regulations.

Any scorecard, no matter how sophisticated in its mathematical formalism or complexity, is dealing with incomplete information, and so it will sometimes omit "good" customers and admit "bad" ones. Subjective measures of preference will also come into play, especially with scorecards that implement some sort of a "cutoff" function to rate or classify credit customers. Such preferences will naturally be different depending on the organization that will be deploying the scorecard. In addition, "seasonal" effects and the choice of time window for tracking customer credit behavior are all issues that must be dealt with when designing a scorecard. These issues are discussed in fair detail in the book.

A successful scorecard should at least confirm what customers are unacceptable in the current data pool. This requires of course an independent judgment of what it means to be an unacceptable customer. The author discusses a few methods by which the scorecard's definition of unacceptable can be confirmed.

The credit scorecard is of course relevant to risk management, and the author discusses how they can be used to assess the risk profile of the credit applicant. The most important part of this discussion is the emphasis on the need for the validation of the scorecard using existing data in customer accounts. As a minimum the scorecard should be able to measure the change in this data from the sole standpoint of the scorecard characteristics.

Credit scoring is a predominantly quantitative exercise, and typically involves techniques from mathematical statistics and artificial intelligence. The author does not discuss in great depth these techniques, since he wants to address a wider audience, but he does allow enough of a peek into the mathematical machinery needed to grant the reader an appreciation of what is done and should be done in finding an effective scorecard.

There are many issues, both technical and legal that have arisen in recent years regarding scorecards, both in their development and in their use. Individual customers have become much more knowledgeable about credit scoring, due to the new ways in which credit issuers are making use of credit scores. Customers are finding out that they must monitor their credit scores continuously to make sure they are optimal, since many credit issuers, particularly those in the credit card industry, are changing the terms of credit based sometimes on only minor changes in the credit score. In addition, legal complaints have been lodged against credit reporting agencies, charging that their use of scoring is biased or even discriminatory. In addition, the current drive towards automation in the financial community has had major ramifications to the implementation of scorecards, due in part to the need for granting exceptions to the scoring predictions. The granting of exceptions is an unpredictable activity, and one that relies heavily on subjective judgment. Machine intelligence, advanced as it currently is, is not yet sophisticated enough to handle these kinds of judgment calls. This will no doubt change in the near future, as automation continues to increase. It will be interesting to see whether credit scoring will become fully automated, but if it does it will be not only because the technology is able to support such automation, but also because credit customers trust this technology and are confident in its fairness.

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