-o-rama," "have a cow," "space cadet," or "rad," takes me back as well.
In the music section, included are special text sections on Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Wham!, Madonna, Prince, and others who were essentially 80's figures. The Billboard chart figures for them are also included. However, the section on We Are The World, which lists the reasons for why the artists sang, is a bit jokey, making me wonder if the event's impact isn't as big as it is now.
The list of the top music videos, hit songs, and movies of the decade.
I'll list the Top Five of each:
Music videos:
1. Eurythmics: "Sweet Dreams"
2. Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star"
3. `til tuesday "Voices Carry"
4. Duran Duran, "Hungry Like The Wolf"
5. Madonna, "Material Girl."
Quintessentially 80s songs:
1. Prince and the Revolution: "Let's Go Crazy"
2. Kajagoogoo: "Too Shy"
3. Animotion: "Obsession"
4. Asia: "Heat of the Moment"
5. Simple Minds: "Don't You (Forget About Me)"
Quintessentially 80s movies
Ultimate: The Breakfast Club
1. Risky Business
2. Airplane!
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Flashdance
5. Purple Rain
I'm not sure about the top two entries, but of the ones I really liked, Dirty Dancing came in at #10, Fast Times at Ridgemont High at #19, Ghostbusters right behind it, Back to the Future at #38, insultingly way behind at #62 instead of being in the Top Five, both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi-like, I'm so sure-and Gremlins at #70. There are sublists of funny movies, hottest movies, horror, action, camp, overrated and underrated movies. And things aren't complete without a small section on the Brat Pack, i.e. the stars of the Breakfast Club. But yes, the 80's were also a decade where the teen market was exploited in a major way, via comedies and horror flicks. The same market is being mined right now, but the output today makes the 80's oeuvre like Oscar winners. And movies that were PG got an extra edge with that PG-13 rating, where there was more violence and other stuff in non-R movies.
Of the TV shows I watched regularly, The A-Team came in at #11, Diff'rent Strokes at #34, my brother watched Knight Rider religiously (#54). And come to think of it, I don't think I ever watched any of the so-called "Disease of the Week TV movies."
The appendix in the back lists the top Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy, and MTV winners, as well as a list of who sang in Live Aid, in order.
I find myself in somewhat of a midlife crisis, as much of the music I'm trying to get is stuff from that era that I'm still missing. Hey, I had to undergo the transition from cassettes to CDs unlike many Gen Y whippersnappers out there!
Overall rating: Even though I wasn't cool with the movie stuff, I found it like, totally tubular, in a major way. Done with this review, now it's off to play Pacman, or maybe listen to some Cyndi Lauper or watch some Gremlins or Ghostbusters.
A Total Time Warp Into the Greatest Decade In History!!!.......2004-07-01
I wasn't even born in the '80s and I truly love everything about that era. The fashion the trends, and the music was great! I know more about the '80s then my parents do, and they grew up in the decade! Well this book says it all. It covers everything about the decade and more!!! The kids in my school don't even know what A-track tapes are!!! I think that it is a great thing to know about the '80s even though I was born in 1990. Well get the book! It will teach you loads of stuff!
Totally awesome!.......2004-05-23
This book is hysterically funny and has EVERYTHING you'd want re the '80s! I can't recommend it highly enough.
Calling All Children of the 80's.......2004-01-15
Do you love the 80's like I do? This will bring it all back to you in one book. The topics covered are current events, fashion, music, TV, and movies. Special attention is paid to the last three especially. I think fans of 80's music will love this the most. It covers everything from Lionele Richie, to Madonna, to Depehe Mode. As for movies, don't forget E.T., The Breakfast Club, and Back to the Future. In the realm of TV, The A Team comes on strong, the Dukes of Hazard wreck their car, and Arnold says "Whatchootalkinabout Willis?"
This will be a great gift for anyone who was a TV child in the 80's. If you're a child of the 80's, you should get it for yourself.
Book Description
Volume I
New ideas, technical novelties an more on the age old Italian game with 4,d4!, allowing the sharp and forcing "Italian Gambit" to emerge. This move, a surprising one to many, transforms the classic "Giouco Piano" or literally the quiet game into anything but its revered and somewhat sedate namesake.
Black's third move, 3...Bc5 seems "safe" and allows the second player plenty of time to develop (quietly) for positional play. This will occur on White playing almost any reasonable move, except for the center assaulting initiative gaining 4.d4!...being the main focus of this endeavor.
4.d4! is clearly a forcing move, Black must react! Whatever unfolds from this point, White will have central control, lead in development, the initiative and it is White not Black who will get the first emerging opportunitites.
Accurate play by Black is necessary to hold and neutralize the initial gains of opposition, and it will be difficult to demonstrate anything better than equality, or that White cannot claim real compensation for the gambit pawn.
This Book involves no less than three (3) years of study, Master analysis; including complete computer verification of all important variations.
Volume II
This masterful work is short, yet concise and to the point, guiding the 1.e4 player in handling and management of all of Black's classing opening responses.
1. Nf6 - Alekhine's
1. e6 - French
1. d6 - Pirc
1. d5 - Scandinavian
1. c6 - Caro Kann
1. c5 - Sicilian
1. Nc6 - Nimzowitsch
These lines have been studied and developed over many years by the venerable Chess Master and teacher Jude Acers, they are the essential and recommended lines for all play that commences 1.e4, but are especially effective for the new "limited" time controls in present and future tournament play.
All levels, whether they be the first or second side of the board will discover fresh arsenals for both attack and defense. As White, once you embrace (and you will) these "to the point" openings, this book will take you via clear reference to the sources of future study. As Black, you must be prepared. The reader will not be overwhelmed by masses of theory or endless analytical variations, but shall discover how and where to find such material.
- A clear opening guide for the newer player
- A no nonsense opening system for the more advanced player
- New concepts for the Upper Echelon of chess to meet the coming evolution of "Knockout" and "less time" in serious tournament play.
- STAY ON TOP, become a world super star in the global phenomena of mass appeal.
Author: Jude Acers
For more information please visit www.italiangambit.com
"There is brand new theory and some re-discoveries of old forgtten games and ideas...This is a very rich book."
"The Miami Variation (1. e4 e52.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 Bxd4 5. Nxd4 Nxd4 6. Be3[6.0-0 Nf6 could transpose to Koltanowski's line]) was the brainchild of amateur George Laven."
Review by FIDE Master Allan Savage,
SQUARES Magazine (Fall issue, 2003)
FOREWORD by NM Randy Bauer
To read Jeremy Silman's review of this book please visit www.jeremysilman.com
Customer Reviews:
eccentric but fun.......2006-04-15
I enjoyed the references to classical games and the way the author showed how the theory developed. I play the Max Lange whenever possible but castle first before pushing the pawn. Knowing more of the theory here would have saved me working it out myself through a lot of trial and error over the years. There is much in this volume to think about.
That said, it is a rather eccentric piece of modern publishing. The layout and even the typefaces are all over the place. Some of the games referenced annoyingly don't have dates. The Classical Giuocco Piano header notation on page 128 doesn't match its diagram.
The book is a bit like Alice in Wonderland, things get 'curiouser and curiouser' although it is fun to look around.
Very badly organized.......2005-02-27
This book has a lot of original ideas and a lot of colorful stories, but the arrangement of the material is very bad. It is rarely clear what "best" play is supposed to be, and when Acers encounters a theoretical problem he will often cop out with a remark that the line gives good practical chances or is very strong in fast-time-limit games, rather than trying to get to the objective truth. The reader must do a great deal of work to construct a real repertoire from this book -- there are enough good chess ideas that it can be done, but a lot of irrelevant material is thrown in, because Acers can't resist name-dropping or showing some famous brilliancies that don't actually bear on the analysis in the book.
The main theoretical contribution is Laven's "Miami variation" -- 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 d4 Bxd4 5 Nxd4 Nxd4 6 Be3!, which appears to give sufficient compensation to equalize and good practical winning chances against an unprepared opponent. This means that 4.d4, previously thought bad, is actually quite playable, and has many transpositional advantages. The other valuable analysis is in the Two Knights variation 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5! d5!? 6 Bb5! Ne4 7 Nxd4, where it is shown that Black cannot fully equalize and White can maintain an endgame bind with a small advantage (and no losing chances).
A Unique and Entertaining Chess Book.......2004-12-16
This book contains much analysis not found anywhere else. How many currently published chess books can say that? What makes this book so entertaning is the collection of personal stories by Master Acers that permeate the volume. One sees a unique perspective on chess in the trenches and learns unique twists on classic games. This is a great chess book to study or just to read. I highly recommend it.
JUDE ACERS - Great Chess Player and Storyteller.......2004-02-15
It's Awesome!! The simplicity of the read is breathtaking! The Italian Gambit System is one of the best gambits I've ever seen. No other author writes like this!
Italian Gambit -awesome book.......2004-01-31
Jude Acers has written an awesome book ! I love the graphics, the chess stories, the chess analysis, and Jude's commentary. Jude brings to life many American chess players, who played the game with great heart and spirit. Jude's prose is filled with the fighting spirit of Bobby Fischer and Ken Smith. Jude's passion for the game comes out in his lively prose.
HIs chess stories remind me of the oral history style put to prose by the great Studs Terkel. This book is a must read for anyone interested in chess, or the history of its players, including many great american chess players who are not known that well. Honor is due Jude ACERS on his outstanding book ! I hope his book will spark a new american renaissance in chess!
Customer Reviews:
Pure Garbage!.......2001-04-16
The back cover proudly states: DESTROY ANY BLACK DEFENSE. I'm sure the gambits recommended in this book would be sufficient to destroy any Black Defense played by a sufficiently weak player, but who needs this book--or any book for that matter--to beat such a player? Even assuming this book is intended for average players looking to steal a few points from their own kind, the question still remains: Are these gambits good enough for even that modest task? For the most part, they are not. Even author Schiller admits that he doesn't have anything that meets his "standards" to recommend against the Scandinavian. He says that if you really must play a gambit after 1.e4 d5 (why else would we buy such a book, if not to learn something about some sort of gambit against a move that is played very often at the sub-Master level?), go ahead and try your luck with the Tennison Gambit, which continues 2. Nf3?! fxe4 3. Ng5. What I find peculiar is that, rather than offer this dubious gambit, why not recommend transposing to the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit with 2. d4? It's not very good either, but at least it isn't the sort of thing your typical Class C player can refute over the board. The author managed to get his books published and widely distributed by Cardoza Publications, better known for their books on gambling. I don't know if all of Schiller books are as terrible as this one, as I am not masochistic enough to read all of them; however, I have taken the time to examine most of his Cardoza books, and none of them are any better than this one. The book's jacket proclaims its author THE WORLD'S LEADING AUTHORITY ON OPENINGS. I would wager that,if he is an authority on anything, it is self-promotion. With all the bad grammar, misspellings and typos in this dreadful book, one gets the impression that his books are written at a blitz pace and not proofread at all. I suppose the author figures that, as long as people are dumb enough to buy such trash, he has no reason to try to write something good. I suggest that, if you intend to purchase any books from this publisher, stick to the ones on gambling. This book is no gamble; if you buy it, you are a sure loser. And--since you ask--no, I didn't buy it. I read most of it while hanging out at the bookstore's coffee shop.
More A Danger To You Than To Your Opponents.......2000-07-13
I think that the "surprise" gambit value of most of these openings will be minimal; not because they're well-known but because they're generally not difficult to handle over-the-board. For example, the recommended White variation against the French Defence: 1 e4 e5 2 d4 d5 3 Be3 dxe4 4 Nd2 Nf6 5 f3 was easily handled by my 1450 opponent: 5... Nd5 6 Qe2 Nxe3 7 Qxe3 exf3 8 Ngxf3 Be7 which turned out to be the same response Watson gives in "Play the French" with the comment "White has no compensation." Often, you don't even get the fun of having the initiative or an attack to compensate you for your sacrificed material! If you buy this book, be aware that you'll often be more hard-pressed proving your gambit's worth than your opponent will be proving it faulty. This will happen often because you're given (with certain notable exceptions, like the anti-Pirc defence) only two or three pages of info. However, for non-aggressive players like myself, there is a training benefit to be gained from openings that force you to play aggressive sharp moves to avoid winding up a pawn (or two) down in an unwinnable endgame and to that extent, this book is worth it. Just don't expect to win because of these openings.
Disapointing............2000-01-10
As an intermediate club player, I love the attack! And I was very excited to find this book when it first came out. The book promises an 'In Depth Guide to Powerful Opening Repetoires'. Unfortunately, it is not in depth, nor reasonably complete, or particularily powerful. At one stage the author is so brazen as to actually give about 4 pages of treatment for a black defense, examining only 1 or 2 possible lines, and then says to the reader that if you want to learn the opening you should go read a book by another author!
I wish to be fair to Mr Schiller, and I realize that no 'repetoire as white/black book' can hope to adequately treat the majority of possible opening lines, but he grossly abuses this liberty beyond my wildest dreams.
The book's back cover makes promises of 'DESTROY ANY BLACK DEFENSE!'. And yet Mr Schiller freely admits that a number of the gambit lines he offers really are inferior! As gambit players we are willing to take chances, but we have to wonder what an author is really offering us when he admits that a # of his own lines are bad.
It seems yet again that Mr Schiller's efforts are more focused on inflated promises designed to gather your dollars then on making any reasonable effort to provide the goods.
The book's promises are misleading, many of the lines are particularily poor, and there is little that is 'in depth'. I could almost tolerate the substandard product if Mr Schiller was not so deceptive in his bold faced promises that he plasters across the front and back cover of this book.
On The Other Hand: Not For The Faint Of Heart.......1999-12-31
Aggressive nonconformists looking for unusual, little played or unpopular openings to ambush or irritate their opponents might find some interesting variations here. The openings that Schiller recommends are not, he admits, generally highly regarded but do lead to interesting play that may not be solvable over-the-board by a non-GM fighting the clock and an unusual line. Not a complete gambit repertoire to every possible Black line, the book gives ten gambits for 1.e4. About 70 pages of the approximately 183 text pages cover the Goring Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 ed 4. c3). The Sicilian Defense is met by the Halasz Gambit (1. e4 c5 2. d4 cd 3.f4 Nc6 4. Nf3 Qb6) and presented in 10 pages. The French Defense meets the Alapin Gambit (1.e4 e6 2. d4 d4 3.Be3 de 4. Nd2 Nf6 5.f3) with 4 pages of variations. Schiller discusses the Ulysses Gambit to the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nf3 de 4.Ng5 Nf6 5.Bc4) in about 4 pages. The second longest coverage is the Short Attack to the Pirc Defense at about 23 pages (1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bc4 Bg7 5.Qe2 Nc6). Schiller also covers the Modern Defense, Czech, Alekhine, Scandinavian, and Owen. Personally, my own non-master view is ambivalent about this book. On the plus side, you'll get some interesting positions and force yourself and your opponent to think. On the negative side, you'll frequently be down a pawn with very nebulous compensation and some of the gambits just don't have that much "shock" value. For example, the Alapin Gambit to the French, seems impressive mostly if you follow Schiller's variation. If you have Watson's Play The French: Second Ed., Watson's footnote to the Alapin gives 5...Nd5! 6.Qe2 Ne3 7.Qe3 ef 8.Ngf3 Be7 "and White has no compensation," and this response isn't hard to see over the board. The only advantage then is that the Black player doesn't play a typical French like he'd hoped (but he doesn't have a pawn.) Look at this book at your bookstore first, then decide.
Another book worth using as a doorstop, but that's about it........1999-09-09
If you are curious about gambits, get "The Complete Book of Gambits", don't bother getting this. First of all, the reportoire isn't even complete. For example, 1.e4 e5 he gives only the Goring Gambit accepted and Declined. What says that Black will play 2...Nc6 (you have players that play the Petroff, the Philador, and even I have played the Latvian Gambit occasionally). Also, he'll take an unsound gambit, and try to make it sound. For some defenses, there just isn't a good gambit, why force the issue. Also, he has no sources to back himself up. No complete games. No Nothing. Next time you go book browsing, bypass this one!!
Customer Reviews:
Its a Job , not a jail........2003-04-07
This book offers a refreshing view of dealing with a workplace bully. You are not alone. This book provides valuable tips on how to make it until you are able to leave. Going to work should not be considered the same thing as spending the weekend in jail. Help is here. Check this book out.
I wish I had read this 10 years ago.......1999-05-23
A valuable lesson in the workplace dynamic. If you ever observed a co-worker and realized it's not what you do but how you do it - this book is for you. The author instructs you how to learn and become that bullet proof co-worker while keeping your self respect.
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- Rescuing the World: The Life and Times of Leo Cherne
- Rudolf Steiner Speaks to the British: Lectures and Addresses in England and Wales
- Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Media Wizard
- Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama, and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore
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