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To Fill the Unforgiving Minute
Donald Patrick Foster
Manufacturer: iUniverse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0595289320 |
Book Description
The story of a man who believes in making the most of opportunities. His constantly changing world prepares him mentally to be a more fulfilled human being.
By creating a brain trust, including current living people as well as lives of minds gone before, he lives the unforgiving minute. He better understands himself as being a reflection of those he meets, the books he reads and how he spends his time.
This determines who he is and who he is becoming; imagining where he wants to be ten, twenty years hence. The short time on earth is his only once.
Customer Reviews:
Oddity? Sure. Fun as Hell? You Bet!.......2006-07-31
Now that Donald Hall has been named poet laureate of the United States, maybe Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball will get a little of the attention it's long deserved. This is one of those fun books (like David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, or Nicholson Baker's U and I, or Steve Almond's Candyfreak) that Hall wrote because he had come to a place in his career where he could. It doesn't aspire to art, but by taking seriously baseball's class clown Dock Ellis, it achieves it. Ellis took himself very seriously, and his on-the-field antics and the contemporary newspaper accounts that made light of them did not begin to account for the articulate, interesting, complicated character Hall found while following him around baseball diamond after baseball diamond.
Now, these many years removed from the book's immediate post-Civil Rights era setting, the book goes a long way toward helping younguns like me understand what it was like to live and breathe and be in those fragile years.
It's amazing that this little gem is still in print, and who knows how long it will be so? I'm grateful to the publishers, and I hope more readers will become acquainted with the pleasures of Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball.
excellent insight into baseball in the 60's & 70's, strange.......2004-05-15
Dock Ellis was a frustratingly inconsistant pitcher with excellent stuff. He pitched for the Pirates from the late 60's to the mid-70's, moving to the Yankees for one last terrific season before a seeming lack of dedication/interest left him wasting away in Texas. He had a less than glorious return to Pittsburgh in 1979 before calling it a career. This is not your usual sports bio. Donald Hall brings his poetic style to the narrative and Dock brings his own strange blend of stubborness,talent & inconsistancy to the table. While the book does hit some sluggish spells, you should be able to overlook its flaws to learn more about a man who pitched a no-hitter following a night of LSD (talk about performance enhancing), was maced by security before a start, made a surreal trip to Vietnam with should-be-Hall of Famer Bobby Bonds & began one game with the sole purpose of trying to drill every Reds batter he faced. There are also clubhouse & field tales involving such greats as Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson & Jim "Cy or Cry" Palmer. Dock angered many people during his career, but he was often delivering the truth in an absurdly blunt package. This is not a great book by any stretch of the imagination. It is, however, a very entertaining and revealing look at one of the most colorful players of his generation. Ellis does not pull any punches on personal issues, but, unlike Jim Bouton, he and Donald Hall have gone to great lengths to make certain that their inside stories don't bring harm, in a personal manner, to those who played alongside or against Dock. It is not a reckless tell-all tome, but it does tell quite a bit about the talented enigma that is Dock Ellis, who wore out many a pair of spikes loping from the penthouse to the doghouse and back again...and again...and again- ad nauseum. --R.H.Conner
Amazon.com
In this followup to The Official Splatter Movie Guide of 1989, John McCarty and his dauntless team of splatter scholars have assembled another 400-odd reviews of the messiest movies ever made. As in the first volume, the films represent every manifestation of the splatter aesthetic, from the abjectly trashy (The Corpse Grinders) to the best of Hollywood (The Silence of the Lambs), including horror, sci-fi, action, thrillers, documentaries, and even a few comedies; McCarty's foreword includes some perceptive remarks on the genre-crossing properties of graphic gore. This volume also boasts some 24 pages of stills (not all of them well chosen) and arresting cover art. Once again, English-language movies predominate: European splatter is represented chiefly by the major Italian directors, and only one Asian entry appears.
This volume improves on its predecessor in a couple of ways. First, there are several appendices, including an index of directors and one called "Carnographic Pleasures," which groups films in categories such as "Simply Putrid," "Yuppies Get Slaughtered," and "You Think Your Family's Dysfunctional?"--a valuable aid in planning video theme evenings. Also, the reviews themselves are more extensive; the writers clearly decided to indulge themselves this time, and their remarks often have decidedly more entertainment value than the films. This is not to say that the book exists primarily as an excuse to lambaste cheesy movies, but McCarty and company do not spare the vitriol when it's called for.
Informative, intelligent, and amusing, this volume and its companion make a valuable resource for any viewer with a taste for the grisly. --Mary V. Burke
Customer Reviews:
Splatter Movies- Taboo's are are blown apart in this book.......2000-05-11
Having purchased and read the first Splatter Movie Guide (also by John McCarty) I was wondering what to expect from this book. There was only a three year gap written between the two, and in the original almost every splatter movie you could think of was included. All of the expected were featured in the original- Friday the 13th, low budget Italian shockers produced with hardly any budgets, and mainstream American films. In the period between when the books were written there was very few splatter films to come out, so I thought the author and his cohorts would have have very few materials to work from. I was inncorrect. It seems this book actually includes more reviews than the first. Obscure titles such as Brain Dead (aka Dead Alive) are featured, and the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series are updated. All reviews are informative, scathing (in some cases) and each has a dash of humor, as is expected when dealing with a subject as ridiculous as the Splatter movie. The book inspires you to go out and track down some of the films that he mentions ( some of which can be found on this site). The only problem however is the lack of movies mentioned from futher afeild such as the Eastern European splatter film (although I doubt there are many) and some of the reviews are sparse. Despite that setback, I would recommend this book to any horror enthusiast, aswell as the more mainstream thriller fan (as films like Silence of the Lambs are included.)
Amazon.com
John McCarty writes about splatter movies with some authority, being the man who coined the term. Splatter was born in 1963 with Herschell Gordon Lewis's Blood Feast, and, as McCarty predicted in his 1984 study Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, it has outgrown the confines of the horror world and influenced practically every other film genre.
With The Official Splatter Movie Guide, McCarty (with a team of knowledgeable colleagues) set out to produce a reference book that would "give readers a broad view of the many different routes the genre has taken since its debut." The result is a collection of more than 400 reviews, encompassing the obviously splattery (e.g., the slasher films of the 1980s) as well as mainstream movies with significant splatter elements (e.g., Raiders of the Lost Ark). Each review gives basic cast and production information and a brief plot summary, with comments on notable gore sequences, as well as trivia and related credits. The films do not receive individual quality ratings, but the reviewers comment freely on their merits (or lack thereof) in an informal but literate style. There are also several dozen pages of unusual black-and-white stills and posters.
Readers should be aware that coverage of European movies is limited and of Asian ones nearly nonexistent. Despite this limitation, however, the Guide is an indispensable source for both aficionados and relative newcomers to the genre, ranging as it does from the classics to the obscurities. It's also just plain fun to read.
McCarty went on to produce the equally impressive Official Splatter Movie Guide, Volume II in 1992. --Mary V. Burke
Book Description
This new book is a dream come true for splatter aficionados: a film-by-film guide to more than four hundred masterworks of blood and gore, arranged in a handy alphabetical format. 16 pages of photos.
Customer Reviews:
Did John McCarty coin the term "Splatter"?.......2006-07-03
I enjoyed both books in the Official Splatter Movie Guide series - I urge any fan of this type of film to purchase both of them. I have one argument, however, as to whether McCarty truly coined the term "Splatter" or helped it become more genre-fied. In all fairness to him, he did say George Romero had mentioned the term on one occasion - but claims he is the coiner... I own a poster from 1982 - of a 1981 film called Mardi Gras Massacre. On this poster, it reads in red print - American Splatter Movie (and "Splatter Movie" is dripping blood). This is a couple of years before his first book, Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen. This single shred of historical evidence is pretty powerful against a statement like that. Please advise.
>John McCarty Kindly Replied:
The 1984 edition of my book SPLATTER MOVIES to which the reviewer refers was actually an expanded and updated reprint (by St. Martin's Press) of the first edition of that book, published by FantaCo Enterprises in 1980 that was heavily promoted in Fangoria magazine. The film "Mardi Gras Massacre" to which the reviewer refers came out afterward. The FantaCo edition in turn was was spawned by a cover article titled "Splatter Movies" that I wrote for a local alternatrive newspaper upon the release of the first "Friday the 13th" film, in 1980. Judge for yourself how much or how little I had to do with "coining" the term.
Schematically informative, but biased!!!.......2002-04-04
I liked this book more than 'blitzkreig', but not much more. On the plus side it has some, admittedly very short, reviews on some 400 horror films, and is therefore useful as a basic reference work, but, having also read McCarty's earlier book on Splatter Movies, I cannot say I really agree with his opinions about alot of the films in question. At the risk of alienating US horror films fans, McCarty shows a clear bias towards American horror films at the expense of European horror film directors. Almost every Argento film ever made is noted as being 'incoherent', yet McCarty quite happily sings the praises of Tobe Hooper (who only made one fairly decent film, and that was overrated!) and lists the merits of such films as the Nightmare on Elm Street/Friday the 13th franchise movies. Whatever you think of the likes of Argento, Fulci et al, their films are often nastier, bloodier and considerably more stylish than the majority of lame American 'slasher' films. Indeed, where would the likes of Friday the 13th have been without Mario Bava's 'Bay of Blood' for example. McCarty has strong views on what constitutes a good horror film and who the 'giants' of the genre are. So do I, but my opinions differ considerably from those of McCarty.
Gore hounds beware!.......2002-01-28
Of the few sample pages I read, it seems there are many faults within this book. First of all, the reviews are short and the writing lacks descriptive quality. He spends too much time on obscure films from the 60's and 70's with little or no gore and doesn't spend enough time on the ground breaking films of the genre. He called "An American Werewolf in London" "hollow, pointless and sleazy" that in my opinion is a horrible review of a great film, and very misleading. He didn't write much on why he felt that way about the movie, and I'm sure potential viewers will be lost because of that review. What a shame. This guy's opinion isn't more important than anyone else's, and I think the book should be renamed as "A bunch of unofficial opinions, not a guide at all". Then his review of the Beyond was pretty bad too. He said Fulci was "far from original"... please! Fulci was brilliant, and the Beyond is a gore masterpiece. Who is John McCarty trying to fool? To tell you the truth, this book is a joke. Another major complaint is that there is no ratings given for the movies. Not even a 4 or 5 star rating. His comments aren't enough to go on in most cases to know what movies are worth seeing. Gorehounds beware! I recommend Chas Balun's "Gore Score 2001: The Splatter Years" if you want to hear some real reviews by someone who truly appreciates horror/splatter movies and knows all the good flicks, even foreign films I'm sure McCarty hasn't even heard of. Plus he actually uses a rating system (imagine that!) 1-5 skulls for the overall movie and 1-10 on the splatter meter for people who want to know how much blood is spilled. Chas gives it to you straight, he covers all the good stuff! Lucio Fulci even called Chas Balun "the King of splatter films!" Chas is a fan and a critic, where McCarty seems to be just a critic, and a snob at that (huge difference). The Official Splatter Movie Guide is extremely outdated (1989) leaves out monumental films, dis-respects classics, and is written amateurishly. Take my advice and get
"Gore Score 2001" you'll be much better off, trust me.
Gore hounds beware!.......2002-01-28
Of the few sample pages I read, it seems there are many faults within this book. First of all, the reviews are short and the writing lacks descriptive quality. He spends too much time on obscure films from the 60's and 70's with little or no gore and doesn't spend enough time on the ground breaking films of the genre. He called "An American Werewolf in London" "hollow, pointless and sleazy" that in my opinion is a horrible review of a great film, and very misleading. He didn't write much on why he felt that way about the movie, and I'm sure potential viewers will be lost because of that review. What a shame. This guy's opinion isn't more important than anyone else's, and I think the book should be renamed as "A bunch of unofficial opinions, not a guide at all". Then his review of the Beyond was pretty bad too. He said Fulci was "far from original"... please! Fulci was brilliant, and the Beyond is a gore masterpiece. Who is John McCarty trying to fool? To tell you the truth, this book is a joke. Another major complaint is that there is no ratings given for the movies. Not even a 4 or 5 star rating. His comments aren't enough to go on in most cases to know what movies are worth seeing. Gorehounds beware! I recommend Chas Balun's "Gore Score 2001: The Splatter Years" if you want to hear some real reviews by someone who truly appreciates horror/splatter movies and knows all the good flicks, even foreign films I'm sure McCarty hasn't even heard of. Plus he actually uses a rating system (imagine that!) 1-5 skulls for the overall movie and 1-10 on the splatter meter for people who want to know how much blood is spilled. Chas gives it to you straight, he covers all the good stuff! Chas Balun is a fan and a critic, where McCarty seems to be just a critic, and a snob at that. The Official Splatter Movie Guide is extremely outdated (1989) leaves out monumental films, disrespects classics, and is written amateurishly. Take my advice and get
"Gore Score 2001" you'll be much better off, trust me.
Great!.......2000-05-24
Being a huge gore fan i found this book great! I even discovered some gory movies that I didn't even know existed! The photos aren't that great, but they do help illustrate the book. Definetely worth the price!
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating font of factoids.......2002-10-30
Seven years ago, my wife and I thought we were going to be clever and original if we named our daughter "Hannah". We didn't know any Hannahs in our generation. But now it seems every other family had a "Hannah" in the 1990s. After reading Lieberson's book, I understand that we got swept up in one of the many waves of name-fashions that he so ably chronicles.
This is an entertaining book, remarkably so considering the author's intention which was to write a serious work of academic deep-think. So there's a great deal of sociologist talk, which is decidedly not entertaining. But, just as the cartoons redeem even the worst issues of the _New Yorker_ , this book is worth getting just for the many statistical charts. You can follow the spectacular career of "Jennifer", the ups and downs of Biblical names, learn about names and social class, and so on.
Finally, I recommend this book to economists who are interested in fads and herd behavior.
What's in a name? Lieberson knows!.......2001-09-04
Lieberson has written a scholarly, witty, and extremely informative book about the factors influencing parents' choices of first names for their children. Using data from 7 countries plus the states of Illinois and California, he shows that "fashion" affects children's names just as much as it does choices in clothing or music. Names became objects of fashion several centuries ago in the West, when, among other influences, state regulations and religious customs loosened their hold over what names parents could choose. With the changes concomitant upon nations entering the modern era, name choices subsequently became more matters of individual preference rather than custom and tradition. However, parents made their choices within the context of changing tastes driven by forces "internal" to the naming process itself, rather than being "determined" by external technological or mass media forces.
The sounds of names themselves display explicable trends, such as the preference for names ending in "a" or "n." Groups of names with similar endings rise and fall together, in fairly orderly, long-term movements.
Lieberson does a brilliant job in presenting evidence, using simple graphs and tables, rather than elaborate quantitative statistical analysis. His chapter on trends in name choices among ethnic and racial groups is particularly compelling, as he shows the joint affects of internal mechanisms (e.g. how names "sound") and external influences (e.g. a group's desire to assimilate quickly).
Want to know why your parents named you "Judy" rather than "Judith"? This book has the answer!
A Taste of names.......2000-09-15
A MATTER OF TASTE is a powerful contribution to our understanding of the factors underlying the popularity of first names. Lieberson has brought together a wealth of ideas, concepts, and principles to the analysis of social change. He has used empirical data from the research on names to do this. The data come from several locales including various parts of the United States, England and Wales, Scotland, Denmark and France. Extensive attention paid to the media influence (or lack of) on the popularity of names. For anyone interested in first names this is a valuable background source to understanding their importance.
Customer Reviews:
To cool!!!.......1999-04-24
This is so much fun i was reading for hours!!!!!
Book Description
Offering breakthrough video capabilities and powerful run-time effects, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 is poised to upend the Web video market, posing a serious challenge to Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Apple’s efforts in the process. Here to make sure you’re ready for it–and can start taking advantage of its creative tools, authoring power, flexibility, and rich video capabilities immediately–is the official Macromedia training for the program. Through 20-plus hours of project-based instruction, you’ll learn how to program for the enhanced Flash Player; use ActionScript to create dynamic interactivity; take advantage of new Flash 8 features like the improved script editor (which includes a visual interface), revamped library interface, and new Undo feature; and more. Simple step-by-step instructions peppered with plenty of visual aids and a CD that includes lesson files and a trial version of Flash Professional 8 leave you with a solid understanding of Flash development and the techniques required to tap your creative potential by producing dynamic, interactive content.
Customer Reviews:
Found an error, like the others.......2007-08-20
Like the other reviewers, this would have been good if not for the errors. I was working lesson 2 making a dynamic TV remote and was frustrated that it didn't work. Well, I did my own troubleshooting and found that on pg.59 they refer to a movie clip titled "cableBox_mc" when their demo file has the clip named "cableBox" and so it doesn't work. On top of that, the dynamic text field is defaulted to black text on a black background, so even after I found the first bug, the text didn't show right. Once I changed the dynamic text attributes to white text instead of black, the code worked fine. However, I am a beginner (like the other reviewers), and shouldn't need to troubleshoot my teacher's code.
Damn, I wish I'd read the reviews first!.......2007-06-26
Just like one of the other reviewers I was appalled to find that the files referred to in chapter 1 of the book were not on the training disk--and that the author referred to an as-yet unstarted exercise as a starting point. Well, I tried...I tried to deconstruct--to pick the files out of the finished piece, and reconstruct---but nothing worked---layers, evverything--not the right information. Do these books and training disks get revised contantly, independently, independently of one another? Or is this miserable book part of the dissolution of Macromedia as it merged with Adobe. Book sucks!
AWFUL...AWFUL....AWFUL!!!.......2006-11-14
Do not buy this book!!! I was naive to believe that because this was coming from Macromedia that it would be worth the $40+ dollars to get "Training From the Source". It wasn't!! It is hands down the worst instructional book that I have ever used and would strongly recommend that you do not waste your money.
I am a fulltime graphic designer who has used Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, etc. for years. I am not new to web, but had very little experience with Flash. I was hoping to become more flash savy, but I don't even know if I can make it through this entire book. The author doesn't always remember to tell you what project you are opening up, doesn't call buttons in the toolbar by correct name, fails to tell you to switch from one layer to another...and in general makes the entire experience a confusing guessing game.
I'm amazed that this book was actually edited, published and then that Macromedia put thier stamp of apporval on it...wow what a disaster!!
AWFUL!.......2006-10-19
Did anybody proofread this book? If Macromedia had bothered to have someone unfamiliar with the book work through the exercises they would have discovered that just the first chapter has more errors than you can shake a stick at. The book refers to files on the disk that don't exist. You're told to load a file that 'you created earlier in this lesson' which has never been mentioned before. It's as though entire pages have been deleted from this book, yet the information on those pages is refered to later. After a few very frustrating hours with this book I'm ready to pitch it out the window.
This is one of the most poorly edited books that I've ever seen. Macromedia should be embarrassed to have their name on it. It is a total waste of both your money and your time.
Try another training manual.......2006-10-03
The examples that the manual goes through is not applicable to using flash for website design. The examples in the book are more gear towards creating a flash application. I wish I didn't spend money on this.
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