On a Scale that Competes with the World: The Art of Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz

Customer Reviews:

The msot intelligent book on the artists; groundbreaking.......1999-06-13

The most intelligent book on the artists. A groundbreaking study that is also highly readable.

On a Scale that Competes with the World: The Art of Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz.

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On a Scale that Competes with the World: The Art of Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz.
Edward and Nancy Reddin]. Pincus, Robert L. [KIENHOLZ
Manufacturer: Berkeley: University of California
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

Practical archive of extraordinarily beautiful and decorative letters of the alphabet splendidly ornamented with geometric and curvilinear motifs interwoven with royal and saintly figures, mythical creatures, knights in battle, exquisite florals, and much more. A wonderful glimpse of the ancient art of manuscript illumination.

Customer Reviews:

Nicely put together!.......2007-09-07

This is especially helpful for letter-illuminating, though you need to know what you're doing because there are no guiding instructions.

Calligraphy book.......2007-09-02

I didn't get as much from this book as I'd hoped. It is beautifully illustrated.

Unexpected.......2007-05-14

This was not what I expected. The letters are back to back so you will need to make a copy of the page you want otherwise you cut into the letters on the back of the page

Illuminated Initials in Full Color : 548 Designs

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Illuminated Initials in Full Color : 548 Designs
Carol Belanger Grafton
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MU84NS

Customer Reviews:

"The Forbidden Grove".......2004-01-17

If you like magic, battles, and mysteries you will love this book. The characters are cool, and the locations are neat. For example, the character's names (such as Treestump, Skywise, Cutter, Rayek, and Winowill) are interesting. The artwork is great because of the shading and the dimensional work. When warriers are fighting and strange things are happening the characters say things like "I'LL CUT OUT YOUR GUTS AND ROAST 'EM IN THE FIRE PIT!" and the trolls say "BY GRAYMUG'S BLACKENED BONES!" and the humans say "YOU'RE BOUND FOR NOWHERE BUT THE DOOM PIT!". So as you can see ELFQUEST "The Forbidden Grove" is a super cool book!

Brothers.......2003-04-04

True to their relationship in Fire and Flight, Cutter and Skywise prove to readers that they are indeed "brothers in all but blood", as they travel the world of two moons in search of other elves, so that all the children of the High Ones may be reunited. They meet some of the most Enchanting dangers along the way, that perhaps any work of fantasy may boast, and the artwork By Wendy remains SUPERB as ever. You cannot help but be touched by the relationships in this and the other seven original full color elfquest graphic novels by Wendy and Richard Pini.

Elfquest: "Journey To Sorrows End" (paperback).......2000-02-29

Beautifully crafted! The greatest story ever told comes to paperback! Wendy and Richard Pini bring the legend of Elfquest to paperback along with all the details they had to leave out of the illustrated series. Discover the adventure for the first time, or embark on it all over again through written word.

Hauntingly beautiful ....the amazing saga continues!.......1999-07-12

The second book in the elfquest saga following Fire and Flight. This is simply the best in fantasy writing!

Buy this book!.......1999-02-08

I have read all the original eight graphic novels and I must say this one is my favorite! Cutter and Skywise are really funny, and what can I say, who DOESN'T love petalwing? Plus this novel is the perfect transition between Sorrow's End and Blue Mountain. The artwork is superb and the storyline is great too.

Book Description

In The Satanic Nurses, J. B. Miller offers a laugh-out-loud 'antho-logy' of the modern literary masterpieces-Jack Kerouac's 'On the Bus,' Cormac McCarthy's 'All the Pretty Sentences,' John Updike's 'Rabbit Rocks,' and Edward Albee's 'Annoying Play w/ Dog,' to name a hilarious few. Extremely perceptive and meticulously researched, the forty--three pieces are remarkable for their on-target mimicry. Other high-lights include Martin Amis stalking Saul Bellow for a blurb, Philip Roth being visited by Zuckerman, Shackleton figuring out the London bus system, and Bridget Jones's 'Diary of Anais Nin.' The Satanic Nurses is a perfect gift for the readers of The Onion and The New Yorker's 'Shouts and Murmurs' column.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely modern comedy.......2003-10-07

Some people think it is fun to do a parody of a song, but this book extends comedy to make fun of literary personalities for more than half a century. I have fond memories of being in the presence of three of the authors mentioned in this book, usually for readings from a book that I had not read. Just knowing that such people exist is part of the omniscience of our journalistic age, but I have read books by more than a dozen, most of which were pretty funny. Comedy skits are becoming a fundamental part of the way in which many people develop an understanding of the world. At the cutting edge, the raw material which the world provides is more mysterious than the nature of jokes. Entertainment values can skewer select lives in ways that are most amusing when the punishment is self-inflicted, and education can become an effort to addict people to reading with this kind of expectation. My life is as prone to this addiction as any, with several movies adding to the knowledge that I have of a few more creative efforts. Comedy is a habit that has become widely admired as the nature of reality has become so skewed that a major reason everybody is not equal has to be because we know different jokes. Parody is a pretense which allows J. B. Miller to make obvious how difficult any effort to produce a meaningful reflection of our times became in a century which followed the great minds, Freud and Jung, joking about polymorphous perversity.

You ought to be curious about what is in this book, if you have any appreciation for how funny people's thinking has been lately, but you can't depend on anything that it says because the disclaimer on the page before the Contents says: "Don't believe a word of it." With 44 selections in the 235 numbered pages, at an average of 5 pages per author sampled, selected, folded. spindled, or mutilated, which were preceded by a ten-page introduction dated May 2002, in which the satirist claims he was nine when he pocketed pages from Virginia Wolff's journal dated 1936, which could mean J. B. Miller was born before 1928, and might have been 74 when he produced these reflections on "these ink-stained wretches" (p. xi) who supposedly "entrusted these pieces to me on the understanding that I would never share them with anyone. So here they are." (p. xii).

Was rock funny? In the "Rabbit Rocks" by John Updike, Harry Angstrom is in a man band, leaping and tripping on a speaker cable, falling off the stage for a compound fracture of his right leg. Janice tells him, "You're a joke. They're calling it Lame Rock." (p. 100). Then in the List of Works by Joyce Carol Oates, there's "I'm a Believer: Musings on the Monkees." (p. 112). That's more like a reminder than a joke, coming after "Whodathunkit (I did)" (p. 111).

People don't always plan to get old, but "Harry Potter and the Rolling Stone" by J. K. Rowling describes Keith as something worse: "The heap coughed and then closed its eyes. Harry assumed it had gone back to sleep." (p. 223). The theme is how quickly things get old in this culture. "Even Harry was getting a little long in the tooth for the kids these days; every six months they were on to a new action figure or boy band. He was thinking of retiring himself--after all, who wanted a nineteen-year-old boy wizard?" (p. 225).

There is something great about freedom: a culture which allows so much to be going on that none of it fits together. The ideal moment in the book, THE SATANIC NURSES, for me, was in a set of rules by Norman Mailer on meeting women, designed to avoid the problems he had, and learning from his mistakes. Try to picture the dating scene from Norman Mailer's point of view: "How was I to know? I had two tickets to the Timothy McVeigh Lethal Injection, which the press had made out to seem like the hottest event in town." (p. 32). This did not turn out to be a great date for Norman Mailer, however much it reminds me of the old-fashioned procedure by which someone might be pictured dancing upon the air in the great poem by Oscar Wilde, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." The wit in this book is like the wry verse from this poem by Wilde:

It is sweet to dance to violins
When Love and Life are fair :
To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes
Is delicate and rare :
But it is not sweet with nimble feet
To dance upon the air !

The J. R. R. Tolkien parody, "Lord of the Strings," has a brilliant idea about string which was magic, so when a string was tied around Balbot Biggins' finger, "he found that he was able to remember things." (p. 38). Evil Knitting Needles and The Return of the Yarn finally result in a "(Big battle with string.)" (p. 39).

The song parody in this book, "penned by an evidently irate Cole Porter," (p. 40), reversed the idea of the famous song, "You're the Top." Typical ideas:

"You're a fiend
I'd say more but it'd be obscene." (p. 41).

That idea might be quite common, now, as everything becomes more uninhibited. The wit is in being able to say things that take some thinking to figure out what it sounds like, not just how it looks. "You're an ist that's Fash" (p. 41). In the song, it might be twisted around like that so it would rhyme with "You're the stock market crash," but I suspect there is a deeper meaning. Normally, it would not be polite to say some of the things in this song, or this book. I shouldn't even tell you what line rhymes with "A stupid joker." (p. 42).

Fine line between funny and stupid.......2003-03-22

When I read the list of authors parodied, I couldn't wait to dive into this book. I've read a majority of the originals and always enjoy a good parody. Unfortunately, this book wasn't it. Sometimes there's a fine line between funny and stupid - but this book never gets close to that line; it stays well over on the stupid side. Miller did manage to capture the style of the originals, but the attempts at parodies were senseless and void of humor. Don't waste your money; don't waste your time. If you're faced with getting a root canal or reading this book, go to the dentist; you'll enjoy it more.

Smart, pithy hilarity.......2003-01-25

This is the stuff your English teacher never told you about.
Miller has put together a fine collection of satires. He's not only well read, but well versed in The Marx Brothers, Mad Magazine, Beyond the Fringe, Monty Python, and Jackass.

The funniest book!!!!.......2003-01-08

I haven't laughed so much since the last time I laughed this much, which never happened before. This book is HILARIOUS! If you like literary satire, this book is for you. The Harry Potter spoof had be falling off my chair. Unfortunately I was driving at the time. When I woke up in the hospital I asked the staff where my copy of THE SATANIC NURSES was. They thought I was making fun of them, so they had me operated on by Dr. Thousxisamspams. I think he was the guy who killed Andy Warhol. Anyway, during the operation he started reading the book, which he must have found somewhere (it was probably MY copy), which made him laugh so much (I think it was the piece called She's a Right Ho, Jeeves, the send-up of P.G. Wodehouse) that he botched the operation, and now I have a dirty grin stuck on my face. Anyway, the book is pretty funny. But read it on a train or something.

Satanic Nurses & Other Literary Parodies

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Satanic Nurses & Other Literary Parodies
J B Miller
Manufacturer: THOMAS DUNNE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Parodies | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000UCZ1HK

The Satanic Nurses (The satanic Nurses-And other literary parodies)

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The Satanic Nurses (The satanic Nurses-And other literary parodies)

Manufacturer: St. Martins Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Parodies | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0965741427

The Satanic Nurses: And Other Literary Parodies

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The Satanic Nurses: And Other Literary Parodies
J. B. Miller
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Parodies | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OTDJ3C

Amazon.com

Charlie Chaplin is an enigmatic figure: famous throughout the world in the early days of Hollywood, his celebrity as the silent movie tramp/clown endures; yet he was also active in radical social politics, and later went into exile amid a swirl of rumor and invective concerning his Communist Party connections. Chaplin wrote his own rather selective autobiography, and has been the subject of several memoirs. Milton deals with his tempestuous marriages and with his work, but concentrates on his political life. She analyzes his political naiveté and inconsistency, while locating the source of his left-wing sympathies. The image of the tramp, it transpires, was no accidental movie persona.

Customer Reviews:

In the tradition of Kenneth Anger..........2005-11-11

Probably no biography is without some value, but this is one of the two worst Chaplin books published. The comedian was hardly a perfect man, and there are things about him even a long-time fan might find bothersome, but much of this biography is trashy and filled with unsubstantiated ugly rumors. David Robinson's CHAPLIN: HIS LIFE AND ART, published twenty years ago, remains the best way to learn about Mr. Chaplin's complex life and work, while Glenn Mitchell's CHAPLIN ENCYCLOPEDIA I have found very helpful. This book is best ignored and forgotten.

There ought to be a law . . . or at least a Fatal Mallet!.......2005-08-16

This merciless attack is filled with unsubstantiated pronouncements (not to mention typos) about Chaplin including a diagnosis of manic-depressive personality disorder offered nearly twenty years after his death and with no research nor expertise to support it. And is Joyce Milton herself qualified to make this judgment? Of course not. While this discourse is passed off as well-researched, one look at the notes and citations shows a limited selection of sources with a clear intention--to topple Chaplin whom Milton simply does not like. It seems as if the thesis of this book was in place well before the "research" began. Such is the tone of personal invective Milton fobs off as insight. I would never claim that Charlie Chaplin was a saint; no one can reasonably make that assertion about anyone. Unfortunately, Joyce Milton shows how imperfect a writer can be. Sadly for her, she picks up where Kitty Kelly leaves off. Shameful.

not for chaplin fans.......2005-01-30

due to a snafu with my computer, the first review i wrote for this book was lost. i could have just given up, but i am determined to implore those of you considering adding this book to your library to please resist! only because i had to choose a star rating did i give it a one star. i would have chosen 0 star if given the choice. though milton is obviously a talented writer and did much research for this project, she obviously has some kind of grudge against chaplin. true, he unfortunately left a great deal to exploit with the scandals, both personal and political. but what she so obviously neglected was his creative genius that earned him the title King of Comedy. she emphasizes rumors as facts and takes it upon herself to tell us what chaplin was more than likely feeling or thinking about any particular subject, when there is no way she could assume. for instance, in describing 'city lights,' a clear masterpiece, she completely distorts, in my opinion, the best movie ending EVER. that look on the tramp's face as he looks at the girl he loves - his face so full of love, fear, hopefulness - it is unbelievably touching and beautiful, but milton insists that he is using it to manipulate his audience - hopeful he still has their devotion and fearing his hold on them has passed. she portrays him to be an absolute monster. clearly, he couldn't have been the easiest person to live with, but it gives her no right to drag him through the mud as she did. i hate to think of the people out there just discovering the genius of charles chaplin - seeing her book and thinking it will be a good, truthful read. start with the david robinson book, or jeffrey vance - they are much more honest and fair. i keep my milton book only because i refuse to turn it over to a library or used book store to infect a future reader's mind.

Tramp - no insight into Chaplin as a filmmaker.......2004-08-16

I wish I had done a little research on this book before reading it. As it turned out when I was near the end of the book it struck me that I wish I hadn't bought or read it. Undoubtedly the author is a talented writer and an impressive researcher, but the book's almost nonexistant focus on Chaplin as a filmmaker should be a caution to any reader.

Before getting to the bulk of the book I will point out the one positive aspect of the book. Chaplin's childhood left me in awe. To say that it was tough doesn't even come close, and I couldn't help thinking how lucky he was to rise from nothing to the succesful filmmaker that he became. Then there is the rest of the story.

In the +500 pages of 'Tramp,' Joyce Milton concentrates on two aspects of Chaplin's life. First, the author details the many sad and destructive relationships Chaplin had with his wives, mistresses, and countless others in Hollywood. Almost no one comes out looking good in any of these relationships - not Chaplin or most of the women. For about thirty years, until his marriage to Oona O'Neill, it is one tarnished and ruined experience after another. Paulette Goddard is one of the few who comes out in any positive light. And of Oona O'Neill, the one woman that Chaplin seemed to be able to have anything resembling a successful relationship, we end up learning the very least.

Second, the author dedicates an excessive amount of space on Chaplin's Marxists views. The point is clear - it is the highest irony that a multimillionaire actor had such strong opposition to free enterprise. A lot can be said of that, and Milton takes every opportunity to do so. The endless cast of insigificant Communist sympathizers goes on and on. What a boring lot they were! Eventually I read over these parts with no care to retain any of the information. In the end it was just plain tiresome.

It was largely surprising how little space Milton spent on Chaplin as a filmmaker. Many of the chapter titles are Chaplin's own movie titles. Yet, for example, in the nearly 30-page chapter 'City Lignts,' if you were to string together the few paragraphs that actually deal with the movie 'City Lights' you'd be lucky to put together 2 or 3 pages. At the end of the book, Milton makes the point that if you want to know Chaplin as a filmmaker, watch his videos, they are readily available. I second that - rent or buy his videos, skip this book.

horrid...........2004-05-06

very biased & catty...she made him out as a monster, HATED this book, really

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Tramp - the Life of Charlie Chaplin
Joyce Milton
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O68X4A

TRAMP: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN

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TRAMP: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Joyce Milton
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PJDIS2

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TRAMP The Life of Charlie Chaplin
Joyce Milton
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEDVDU

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Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin
Joyce Milton
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSA73S

Book Description

The interplay between emotional and intellectual elements feature heavily in the research of a variety of scientific fields, including neuroscience, the cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence (AI). This collection of key introductory texts by top researchers worldwide is the first study which introduces the subject of artificial intelligence and music to beginners.
Eduardo Reck Miranda received a Ph.D. in music and artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has published several research papers in major international journals and his compositions have been performed worldwide. Also includes 57 musical examples.

Customer Reviews:

Good introduction on music and AI.......2001-01-20

I was pleased to come across this book during my research for my master's thesis on music and artificial intelligence. Although there are a number of books on the subject, they tend to be collections of previously published articles or conference papers and are intended for an audience that already knows the subject of AI fairly well. This book, however, is not a compilation of articles, but a collection of chapters by various authors who were commissioned to write new material for the book. The result is a book with good introductory material in the field of AI and music, covering composition, analysis, knowledge representation, connectionism, and even music education/intelligent tutoring systems. At the end of each chapter, there is a bibliography pointing the reader towards more sources on that particular topic. I also think this would make a good textbook for an introductory class on AI and music for undergraduates (upper division) and graduate students that would appeal to all majors: theory and composition, musicology, and music education (and perhaps to a lesser extent, performance majors). I only wish this book had been available when I first began my research for my thesis - it would have made life a lot simpler! I highly recommend this book as the first book for any reader interested in this subject.

Customer Reviews:

Good collection of mostly reasonable problems.......2007-02-01

Danny Roth has a great approach, one that I've not seen any author use, and is only found in Fred Gitelmans Bridge Master software.

When a problem is presented, teh author doesn't tip you off and sak "what do you do on trick 3?

Instead the cards will be played, and at somepoint you will be asked to make a decision or make a plan. You wont be guided that "this is the crucial trick". For example on trick 2 you are asked to make a plan. In teh answer the author shows taht unless you unblocked/signaled yoru plan will fail.

Most of the problems are good. Not simple, but not involving advanced technique either. You need to count and visualize.

The negatives are the bidding is not 5 card majors USA style. Since teh author is British thats no surprise, but it made it hard to count or draw inferences on a few hands. Also, a few hands I thought the problems were not so good, kind of far fetched, or the bidding stupid.

You still get 45-50 good problems.

Worth the price

Book Description

An essential guide for any small group that must deliver team performance.

With the demand for project-oriented work and faster, more nimble responses, successful small-group performance is more crucial than ever. Katzenbach and Smith, authors of the international bestseller The Wisdom of Teams, have again joined forces, revealing how to implement the disciplines, frameworks, tools, and techniques required for team- and small-group performance. Combining their insights and practical strategies, they offer concepts and pragmatic, doable exercises for team leaders and team members to deliver results. Hot topics covered include: why small-group performance demands expertise at two disciplines, team level and leader level, instead of one; virtual teams; and global teams. This book combines practical exercises with cutting-edge insights, and both authors are authorities on the subject.

Attend a featured author workshop at the 13th International Conference on Work Teams: Collaborating for Competitive Advantage, September 23-25, 2002, in Dallas, TX. For information, contact the Center for the Study of Work Teams at 940 565 3096 or visit them online at www.workteams.unt.edu.

Download Description

An essential guide for any small group that must deliver team performance

Customer Reviews:

Sparks great ideas!.......2007-03-08

This was a great read! 15 pages into the book I came up with a great idea for my restaurant. I continued to the read the book and within 2 days, I completed it and had written an Executive Summary for my business. Very motivational and provides tons of information. I'm glad I purchased the book.

A 'must have' for any consultant who works with teams........2006-08-27

I won't write a detailed review, here's what I found helpful:
- the distinction between performance and activity goals.

A re-cap of their original research into the five basic elements fo effective group work.
1. Have or develop an understandable charter.
2. Communicate and co-ordinate effectively.
3. Establish clear roles and responsibilities.
4. Create time-efficient processes.
5. Develop a sense of accountability.

Clear distinction between when a single leader 'discipline' is warranted or when a real team discipline is warranted.

Great re-cap about establishing clear outcomes.

Once the background is set-up, it becomes an issue of delving deeper into the application of their recommendations. It is great stuff! But you'll have to buy the book to 'get it'!

They do a good job in dissecting how virtual teams are different and similar to teams with co-located members.

Finally, I really like their road to getting a team 'unstuck'. Their observation that teams that become stuck revert to single-leader leadership is absolutely true. They posit that it's necessary for a good team to become stuck. As pain as it might be, you have a great opportunity to:
- clarify goals
- identify missing skills
- address attitude issues
- grapple with changing members
- address time pressures
- work on lack of discipline

The chapter on change is pretty decent, the rest of the content is golden.

I've rated this five stars as it's a must for anyone who works with teams.

Damien Faughnan

Skip the text and go to the exercises.......2005-05-08

This so-called sequel to The Wisdom of Teams is a "workbook" with exercises. It offers no new insights/guidance for readers of the 2002 paperback update of The Wisdom of Teams.

I am a fan of Katzenbach and Smith. As a business consultant, I have introduced clients to their work and worked to adapt and apply their insights. Wisdom of Teams is a great foundation. Their other books--Peak Performance and Why Pride Matters More than Money--offer useful new insights even though they are better understood if readers are familiar with The Widdom of Teams.

Nice overview, but lacks concrete guidance.......2005-03-10

This book excels at drawing the line between leader-driven and team-driven groups of individuals. It also characterizes some of the failure cases very well -- teams that are too large, teams that don't have a clear vision and purpose, teams that are disconnected from the rest of the organization, etc.

However, I struggled to see how to clearly draw the line between which style to guide your team into. The rough guidance seemed a bit self-referential: "when the task can best be done with a single leader, do it with a single leader." What about if you're not sure? Try both and take it as a lesson learned? Maybe I just missed it, but the book lacked the critial information I needed to be able to fully apply it in my situation.

Discipline of Teams.......2001-06-29

As the sequel to The Wisdom of Teams, John Katzenbach and Douglas Smith return to uncover the tools, techniques, frameworks and disciplines required to unlock the performance potential that lie within today's teams and virtual teams.

Performance potential is not guaranteed, and you need to become an expert at the two disciplines - team and single leader and, you must be able to implement the right discipline to suit the performance need of your team.

Katzenbach & Smith identify and discuss the Six Basic Principles of Team Discipline: 1) keep team numbers to a minimum, 2) ensure that team members possess skills that compliment one another, 3) identify a clear performance purpose, 4) agree on outcome based goals, 5) provide clear roles and responsibilities and, 6) ensure mutual and individual accountability.

As a follow-up to their insights and strategies, Katzenbach and Smith provide practical exercises at the conclusion of each chapter for both team members and leaders to get them on the road to optimal performance.

The Discipline of Teams is easy to read and will provide the reader with tools, techniques and strategies to assist in becoming top performers within today's organizations. On a personal note, The Discipline of Teams provided me with some new techniques to help develop and maintain effective teams for today and in the future.

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