Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Chicken scratches vs. Detailed Storyboards
  • of moderate interest to readers of video magazines
  • Mind-opening, even if you aren't interested in directing
  • Useful, pleasurable
  • Learning the Rules Before You Break Them
Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)
Steven Katz
Manufacturer: Michael Wiese Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0941188108

Amazon.com

Film Directing Shot by Shot offers a good introduction to the rudiments of film production. Steven D. Katz walks his readers through the various stages of moviemaking, advising them at every turn to visualize the films they wish to produce. Katz believes that one of the chief tasks of filmmaking is to negotiate between our three-dimensional reality and the two-dimensionality of the screen. He covers the number of technical options filmmakers can use to create a satisfying flow of shots, a continuity that will make sense to viewers and aptly tell the film's story. Katz provides in-depth coverage of production design, storyboarding, spatial connections, editing, scene staging, depth of frame, camera angles, point of view, and the various types of stable compositions and moving camera shots.

Book Description

A complete catalogue of motion picture techniques for filmmakers. It concentrates on the 'storytelling' school of filmmaking, utilizing the work of the great stylists who established the versatile vocabulary of technique that has dominated the movies
since 1915. This graphic approach includes comparisons of style by interpreting a 'model script', created for the book, in storyboard form.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Chicken scratches vs. Detailed Storyboards.......2007-08-19

I have used this book numerous times for my teachings in which students go through the process of making a short film with certain limitations being imposed. It is part of a process that I call "fast filmmaking". I like the examples that Katz presents, specifically that it is not the quality of the drawing, but how the drawing communicates the director's vision to the rest of the crew. I will usually have a student "explain" their storyboard to the class, and it is amazing how a few chicken scratches can give as much details as a fully detailed storyboard. Kudos to Katz for explaining the creative aspect of directing, and Michael Weise Productions for publishing these types of books.

4 out of 5 stars of moderate interest to readers of video magazines.......2007-08-13

as a long-time reader of videographer's magazines, I didn't find much of interest in this book. If I were new to the trade, I'd probably have found it more useful. For that reason, I gave it a rather high rating of 4 stars

5 out of 5 stars Mind-opening, even if you aren't interested in directing.......2007-06-30

I've worked in the graphics design business for years, but more recently I've grown interested in working with video, primarily shorts and documentary work. I was looking for a book that could help teach me the "language" of motion and visual storytelling, and this book fit the bill. In fact, I found it to be incredibly inspiring as a student of art in general. It's extremely well-written, chock full of practical examples, and contains numerous time-worn techniques as well as cutting-edge experimentation. One funny thing: since it was written a few years before the desktop digital video revolution began, it talks about some of the difficult aspects of shooting which are now in many ways moot. But it's good to hear about the history of the craft.

If you have any interest in all in shooting, directing, or producing any kind of motion picture, show, or short, you'll definitely want to buy this book. However, be forewarned: you'll never be able to watch movies the same way again. You'll begin to pick up all the subtle nuances of filmmaking without even realizing it, so don't feel bad if you have to force yourself to re-engage with the actual story as you're watching!

5 out of 5 stars Useful, pleasurable.......2007-05-07

I'm a college student, not at film school, who makes videos as a serious hobby. I thought this book was much better than other titles in the same market, because it's so specific. Instead of telling you what anyone with common sense knows, like "keep continuity" and "composition can affect the mood of a scene," this film lays it all out in detail. I recommend this for everyone who wants to improve. Even if you're not particularly interested in storyboarding, you'll learn how to think about your sequences in advance much better.

5 out of 5 stars Learning the Rules Before You Break Them.......2007-01-13

Even though many of the great filmmakers may have not utilized storyboards, every one of them has pre-visualized their films.

Pre-visualization is the essence of what it means to be a director. A director can only be effective if he/she properly prepares for each scene. Even if one does not have every shot precisely planned out, they will still have an idea of the look and the flow of the process.

There are certainly many people who feel directing should be intuitive, that there should be no structure to the process or else creativity is stifled. This is a valid point from the perspective of the artist.

What is wonderful about this book is that it gives extensive insight into WHY one should cover a scene in a certain way. Directing as a profession requires a certain amount of preparation and PROOF that you have a handle on the film. Producers want reassurance that you have a vision worth pouring tens of millions of dollars into. Armed with the ability to properly express yourself in regard to your vision, you will have a much easier time convincing others to follow you.

So, in the end, if you are interested in studying the language of film and the methodology behind classic film composition and editing, then this book and the accompanying Film Directing: Cinematic Motion are essential.
The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Even The Little People Are Free
  • The enunciatory present
  • I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again
  • Mimicry, Mockery, Menace
  • Even though this is one of the most highly regarded ...
The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics)
Homi K. Bhabha
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415336392

Book Description

Terry Eagleton once wrote in the Guardian, 'Few post-colonial writers can rival Homi Bhabha in his exhilarated sense of alternative possibilities'. In rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity, one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. A scholar who writes and teaches about South Asian literature and contemporary art with incredible virtuosity, he discusses writers as diverse as Morrison, Gordimer, and Conrad. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Even The Little People Are Free .......2007-06-04

Bhabha writes dense, pretentious prose, which is commonplace now among the humanists who feel inferior to scientists, but he does have something to say. This little book does two things: it is in the end a celebration of literature (and not of theory for its own sake) and it defends the little brown people, such as Indians, against the claim of others, such as Edward Said, that whites oppressed them by denying them a voice. Bhabha argues in effect that the oppression created a new voice that subverted the oppressors. Bhabha has little patience for the sob-sister school of academic discourse which seeks out victims of racism. This is a sustained critique of liberal academic bad faith.

5 out of 5 stars The enunciatory present.......2006-02-16

In The Location of Culture, Bhabha argues for a fundamental realignment of the methodology of cultural analysis away from ontology toward the "performative" and "enunciatory present" (p.178). Such a shift, he claims, provides a basis for the negotiation of cultural difference rather than its automatic repression or negation in the face of irreconcilable oppositions. Bhabha's emphasis on the enunciative production of meaning places the emphasis of critical inquiry on issues of representation or signification, thereby producing "a temporality that makes it possible to conceive of the articulation of antagonistic or contradictory elements" (p.25).

This argument represents a critical attack on the Western production of binary oppositions, traditionally defined in terms of centre and margin, civilised and savage, enlightened and ignorant. Bhabha questions the easy recourse to consolidated dualisms by repudiating fixed and authentic centres of truth, suggesting that cultures interact, transgress and transform each other in a much more complex manner than typical binary oppositions allow.

According to him, hybridity and linguistic multivocality have the potential to intervene and dislocate the process of domination through the re-interpretation and re-deployment of received discourse, thus re-focusing critical attention towards the "agonistic space" (181) which exists on the borders of difference, along the edges of alterity, where cultures meet. Bhabha celebrates cultural heterogeneity and the subversive effects of hybridisation.

3 out of 5 stars I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again.......2004-05-26

The fact that this book is influential is generally beyond argument. What astonishes me, however, is that so many people had the endurance to sit through the horrific writing; the author's style is obnoxious in the extreme. The first paragraph, for example, notes that the question of culture is the "trope of our times," characterized by "a tenebrous sense of survival." These concepts are not mind-bending. An everday, or as Homi would say, "colloquial" vocabularly would sufficiently articulate his thesis, yet he seems hellbent on packing his work with obscure language like he needs show off or prove something. Again, his ideas are influential, but he makes reading them as painful as possible.

1 out of 5 stars Mimicry, Mockery, Menace.......2003-01-21

Ambivalence is a key term in Bhabha's Location of Culture. Accordingly, Bhabha's prose might be considered poetry or gibberish, but certainly not scholarship. There is no thesis, no argument, no evidence. That is not to say that Bhabha wouldn't be capable of such writing. Every once in a while, the reader can catch a glimpse of Bhabha's Other: the lucid thinker of post-colonialism. In order to compensate for the lack of clarity, structure and, yes, basic congruity between subjects, verbs and objects, Bhabha enacts the thoughts he fails to express. Indeed, his text is a performance of itself. Take, for instance, his chapter on mimicry. Whatever intelligent thoughts other scholars have derived from this concept, you will not find them in Bhabha's book. But he indeed shows you what he means, as he goes through the motions of scholarship. First, he makes a number of general statements that sound like a thesis. Then he puts a in a few convoluted sentence structures that make no sense-grammatically or otherwise. And finally he slams in a quote or two to prove a point-what point doesn't matter, for he did not make one in the first place. As a reader you will have to decide whether his work is a mimicry (in his definition "almost but not quite") of scholarship or its menace (according to Bhabha, 'not at all but still a little'). About one thing, though, he leaves no ambivalence: he "quite simply mocks its power to be a model." Harvard volunteered to be the evidence.

3 out of 5 stars Even though this is one of the most highly regarded ..........2003-01-11

...theory books of the 1990s, its fame and reputation seem overblown. None of the other reviews posted here have really stated what Bhabha tries to accomplish in "The Location of Culture," so I'll give it a crack, even though I'm no expert on postcolonial theory.

To save you all some time, many of Bhabha's key points are made in the first two pages of his book. For instance: "In-between spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood--singular or communal--that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of defining the idea of society" (p. 1-2). Elsewhere, in-betweenness is easily the key concept in the book, as well as the notion of HYBRIDITY. The reason the modernist model of Colonialism is doomed to fail is not only because it needs the Other (the colonized) to validate its own supremacy (and to fulfill its desires), but also because it engages in what Bhabha refers to as "contra-modernity": modernity in "colonial conditions where its imposition is itself the denial of historical freedom, civic autonomy and the 'ethical' choice of refashioning" (p. 241). Bhabha finds that by examining the borderlines between Colonial power and Colonial oppression, a truer history of global populations can be obtained. In one of the finer passages in the book, Bhabha examines a scene from Salman Rushdie's controversial 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" and descibes how the postcolonial body--shaped by an outside nationalist culture--is representative of the colonizer, yet the colonizers "can never let the national history look at itself narcissistically in the eye" (p. 168).

Now let me preface my explanation by saying this is what I THINK Bhabha is getting at. It's not that his prose is "confusing," as other reviewers have stated here--although it is exceedingly "academic" (and there is nothing wrong with that, in and of itself)--but it is mired in the theoryspeak of the West that Bhabha seems so insistent upon de-centralizing. Bhabha uses the theories of the European male elite with so much blind faith that it easily undermines much of what he is trying to accomplish. Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida are all over this book. These "founders of discourse" (as Foucault called Marx and Freud--and could posthumously call himself given his exhaltation in the academy after his death in 1984) represent an alternate (i.e. "left") critical practice, yet completely dominate Western discussions of theory in literary circles. Is not Bhabha, an Indian scholar, colonized by these minds?

Also, Bhabha's insistence upon in-betweenness at times really seems to undermine his (apparent) intentions. He seems, on the one hand, to claim that it is precisely through in-betweenness that the oppressors dominate the oppressed. Yet, it also seems that this in-betweenness gives the oppressed the opportunity to resist the oppressors. We seem to be back at step zero. Is anything really being said here?

He should have followed better the example of Frantz Fanon, who appears early and often as a primary source in "The Location of Culture." Fanon was surely no stranger to the Western tradition, but was able to write in a critical-poetical-personal style that was accessible to non-academics, a style that had real fire. Bhabha, with all his emphasis on the work of postcolonial theory--which, in his words, seeks to "revise those nationalist or 'nativist' pedagogies that set up the relation of Third World and First World in a binary structure of opposition" (p. 173)--continually relies on the concept of "doubling" (likely a Lacanian theory) as well as his notion of in-betweenness (or liminality, as he calls it) in such a manner that no distinct point of view really emerges. The theoryspeak seems to subsume any important observations he might be willing to make.

While this book has some wonderful moments in it, I would estimate that about 25 of the books 250 pages really says something. I'm worried that this book has been canonized because the mainly white scholars that run the Academy need their theories stated in a dense manner by an Indian man to give them validity. I know that kind of thinking is very conspiratorial, but it is only a concern. I've not read any other Bhabha, or other postcolonial theorists like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak or Arjun Appadurai, but I cannot recommend this an easy gateway into this material. I would recommend the writings of Fanon, though his writing precedes the moment of postcolonial theory by some three or four decades, as a better introduction.
Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Alternate Edition (with CD-ROM)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Alternate Edition (with CD-ROM)
    Lawrence S. Cunningham , and John J. Reich
    Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0534582273

    Book Description

    Trusted by professors of the humanities survey course for over twenty years, CULTURE AND VALUES covers Western cultures along with important non-Western cultures, providing students solid, accessible introductions to art, music, philosophy, literature, and more. Available in two volumes, or as an alternate single volume without end-of-chapter readings, this text remains the most readable and reliable textbook for college and university students in the integrated humanities.
    Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • All Over The Map
    • Better Items Available
    • Enjoyable overview of the Middle Ages & how they formed us
    • An Engaging Writer but Superficial and Wrongheaded History
    • Haven't finished reading it yet...too soon...
    Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe
    Thomas Cahill
    Manufacturer: Nan A. Talese
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    By placing the image of the Virgin Mary at the center of their churches and their lives, medieval people exalted womanhood to a level unknown in any previous society. For the first time, men began to treat women with dignity and women took up professions that had always been closed to them.

    The communion bread, believed to be the body of Jesus, encouraged the formulation of new questions in philosophy: Could reality be so fluid that one substance could be transformed into another? Could ordinary bread become a holy reality? Could mud become gold, as the alchemists believed? These new questions pushed the minds of medieval thinkers toward what would become modern science.

    Artists began to ask themselves similar questions. How can we depict human anatomy so that it looks real to the viewer? How can we depict motion in a composition that never moves? How can two dimensions appear to be three? Medieval artists (and writers, too) invented the Western tradition of realism.

    On visits to the great cities of Europe—monumental Rome; the intellectually explosive Paris of Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas; the hotbed of scientific study that was Oxford; and the incomparable Florence of Dante and Giotto—Cahill brilliantly captures the spirit of experimentation, the colorful pageantry, and the passionate pursuit of knowledge that built the foundations for the modern world. Bursting with stunning four-color art, MYSTERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES is the ultimate Christmas gift book.

    Customer Reviews:

    2 out of 5 stars All Over The Map.......2007-09-16

    Maybe Cahill's a frustrated stand-up comic. Imagine the author as a stand-up inviting the audience to suggest topics for improvised comedic departure. Someone shouts out, "The Middle Ages!" and Cahill thinks, "Yeah. I can go with that." So we're off on tangent after tangent about Frank Zappa or Osama Bin Laden. Spare us the "cute" writing. Please.

    1 out of 5 stars Better Items Available.......2007-09-03

    I agree with most of the negative reviewers of this product. The author is condescending and irritating. While he has a fine grasp of the English language, many of his conjectures are not only incorrect they are idiotic. His personal views, which he feels a need to share, detract from the story he is trying to tell in an unavoidable and irritating way. Stay away from this one.

    5 out of 5 stars Enjoyable overview of the Middle Ages & how they formed us.......2007-08-12

    This is the fourth book in Cahill's "Hinges of History" series, and it is excellent. As others have pointed out it is not in-depth, not scholarly but rather written for people who don't usually read history. He makes it completly enjoyable, ties together main points, major movements, the pivotable people in a sort of quilt of moving shapes and colors that for a moment bring it all alive again. In this book famous and less famous people each are used to illustrate points about an era, and the changes that began in that era, and in fact that person may have been the one of powerhouses of the change, like Abelard, or Eleanor of Aquitaine, or simply a recorder or interpreter of it as Giotto was. Each fingernail sketch of a life in its unique era is memorable. Hildegarde of Bingen, at age 8, was given to the Church by her noble parents, to be interred as an anchorite, a life of complete sequestration, forever. Yet as she grew to adulthood the depth and breadth of her learning, taught to her in her little walled-in cell by a monk, grew to the point that her writings and correspondence was noted throughout Europe and even the Popes knew of her. She was perhaps the best known and best educated woman in Europe in her day and the most influential in the Roman Catholic Church. Made an abbess and allowed to preach and write openly she lived on to age 81, renowned and venerated. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the richest heiress in Europe at age 15, ruler of Aquitaine and other parts of France larger than the remaining lands of France itself was married first to the French king and went on Crusade with him, the first Noble woman known to do so; divorced him to marry her lover the much younger king of England; was the mother of several sons by him including Richard the Lion Hearted, her favorite...from her, most of the royalty of Europe descends. She was a strong, powerful,and free woman for most of her long life. The story of Heloise and Abelard, the great and tragic lovers is retold really well. Dante's story,his long exile due to the great wars of his native Florence and the feuding families at the root of it all reminds one of the Romeo and Juliet story: the "two houses"...But not to miss the point that each life discussed is tied in to a specific time and concept of an age different from us but leading toward us and our time. In fact, as the author points out, the events, the gradual change in thought-- never predetermined-- were how our era as it is now was formed; our way of seeing the world, our political, relgious, cultural and scientific, views were formed from theirs, our immediate cultural forebears.

    1 out of 5 stars An Engaging Writer but Superficial and Wrongheaded History.......2007-07-15

    Though an engaging writer, Cahill is an appallingly bad historian. He compares the medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen to blues singer Bessie Smith (Hildegard's lyrics display a spiritualized eroticism) and the woman in bondage in The Story of O and refers to Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City in the same passage. ("This was one loose sister," is his characterization of Hildegard.) He compares Dante to James Joyce on the grounds that both were exiles infatuated with their mother cities. He characterizes WWI's Gallipoli as a "confrontation between ... Islam and the West," an appallingly bad summary of a complex military campaign which had little to do with religion and a great deal to do with military matters. Throughout the book, Cahill tramples history into a muddled paste of great figures and exalting moments, ignoring nuance or exception. He concludes with a five-page diatribe against sycophancy and buggery in today's Church. The footnotes don't inform much; the bibliography omits essential scholarship (e.g., R. W. Southern on medieval humanism, Roberto Lopez and Lauro Martines on Renaissance humanism). It is difficult to conceive of an audience that would benefit from reading this silly and superficial book.

    5 out of 5 stars Haven't finished reading it yet...too soon..........2007-07-05

    but from the first page I have felt as though this is the easiest and most interesting way to experience history.

    I don't believe anyone else can make reading & studying history such a pleasure. My method is to jot down notes on a small paper pad with the page number noted, so I can go back & make sure I have absorbed the links that have led to the future. There is such a stupendous wealth of detail.

    I have all of Thomas Cahill's Hinges of History books so far and have never been disappointed yet.

    Mary H.
    The Big Idea: Focus the Message-multiply the Impact (The Leadership Network Innovation Series)
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    The Big Idea: Focus the Message-multiply the Impact (The Leadership Network Innovation Series)
    Dave Ferguson , Eric Bramlett , and Jon Ferguson
    Manufacturer: Zondervan Publishing Company
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    4 out of 5 stars High Impact.......2007-09-25

    The Big Idea is helping our pastoral staff focus. The longer you're in ministry the more you need to focus. This book is really helping our dialog about what we are doing as a church. WE have the why nailed down it is the what and how that gets diluted. Ferguson makes an interesting case for little tuths and big biblical truths that must translate into action - helpful. Dan Boyd

    4 out of 5 stars Overcome Information Glut & Decision Paralysis at Church.......2007-08-17

    I am an information junkie. I read newspapers, magazines, books, and blogs. I watch TV and listen to talk radio. I consider myself a well-informed guy. But being well-informed is not the same thing as being wise or effective. Indeed, too much information can paralyze our ability to make decisions.

    Our churches often contribute to this glut of information. The pastor preaches on one topic, Sunday school teachers teach on another, the worship leader sings new songs with multiple verses, and the announcement guy rambles on with the church's upcoming events. No wonder parishioners get stuck in their spiritual lives. They have too much information to act on. They know more than they can do.

    In their new book, The Big Idea, Dave Ferguson, Jon Ferguson, and Eric Bramlett tackle the topic of information-glutted, decision-paralyzed churches. They argue that churches should teach one big idea per week, and that this big idea should be reinforced in all the church's venues (worship services, Sunday school classes, and small groups). They demonstrate the multiple benefits of the big-idea approach. And they offer practical guidelines for how to implement this model of ministry in your church based on their own experience.

    Do you want to make more and better followers of Jesus Christ? Do you want to see a greater connection between people's faith and works? Then, as The Big Idea's subtitle puts it, "focus the message" so that you can "multiply the impact." Teach your parishioners one thing a week. They can do more with less.

    5 out of 5 stars Great book, truly, I just want the moon.......2007-05-08

    This highly practical book on not just preaching, but church-wide discipleship, is written by one of the leading, Biblically conservative churches today in the areas of creative communication, team-based ministry, evangelism and leadership development. Community Christian Church in Chicago is also recognized as one of the top five leading multi-site churches.

    The authors make a clear case that most of our churches send anywhere from 30 to 100 messages a week as to what we want our people to respond to in their growth. Our Sunday services, alone, often send 20-50 messages. In The Big Idea, the authors make a case for focusing the message to one Big Idea throughout the entire worship experience for the week and asking for clear response to that one idea in all areas of our church. They convincingly make the case that, in the long term, better discipleship occurs if we can yield a greater application response to the messages being sent--so people are living what they know rather than knowing far more than they live.

    Don't be intimidated by the author's success and size of church--they communicate very simply. Along the way they give suggestions for how smaller churches can begin to use some or all of what they share. This is not a book about a program, rather it is a book with lots of practical leadership process steps that can be gleaned from and subsequently contextualize to your own style, leadership and setting. You will quickly note this approach to communicating for discipleship is used by their multi-site mega church as well as church plants.

    After reading the first two chapters, I thought this book would make it on my top 10 list of must read leadership skills books for pastors. By the end of the book it was still in my top 25 and probably top 20. While the book is well illustrated throughout, I was left longing for just a few more varied examples. I especially was hoping that the authors would deal more with expositional preaching from the perspective of using that style of preaching to demonstrate good personal spiritual disciplines as a way of modeling. They did a very short, excellent bullet point treatment of ways to approach topical preaching--though this was the primary area I wished for more detailed illustrations of each approach (even if the examples were simply web links to sermons that could be listened to so as to learn more about how to effectively construct each kind of approach). If the authors had more extensively illustrated some of these ideas I would be telling you this is the best book on discipleship and preaching I have ever read. As it stands, it is still a great book that is sure to provide you with helpful ideas you can begin to implement quickly.

    4 out of 5 stars Two Thumbs Up for The Big Idea.......2007-04-11

    Dave Ferguson shares some great ideas and strategies in this book. I like it because it wasn't just a "here's how we did it" church growth text...there are some philosophical principles and transferable ideas. The way that they have outlined a planning process for ministry is really helpful.

    5 out of 5 stars Spectacular Book.......2007-04-11

    If you are searching for a way to simplify what your families are learning in church and get everyone on the same page this book is for you.
    Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • global graff
    • A great over view of art and style.
    • Review For: GRAFFITI WORLD
    • Great reference
    • Good Gift
    Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents
    Nicholas Ganz
    Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    5. Street Logos Street Logos

    ASIN: 0810949792

    Book Description

    Ever since anonymous spray-can art began appearing on city walls in New York and Philadelphia in the late 1960s, graffiti has been a ubiquitous presence in the urban landscape, its artists largely unsung heroes. As hip-hop culture spread from America, graffiti became a worldwide phenomenon, emerging in the 1980s as the symbolic artistic language of young people everywhere and one of the most potent influences on youth-oriented marketing and design. With more than 2,000 illustrations by over 150 artists from all over the world and interviews with many of them, this visually arresting book is the most comprehensive survey of graffiti art ever published.

    Today's young graffiti artists incorporate a variety of mediums-including stickers, stencils, oils, acrylics, and oil-based chalk-as well as an ever-expanding range of social commentary. This evolution in style and subject matter has earned graffiti the respect of the art world and guaranteed its long-lasting influence on art, graphic design, and style around the world. Great fun for graffiti and pop-culture buffs, the book is also an essential reference work for anyone involved in the visual arts today. AUTHOR BIO: Nicholas Ganz (also known as Keinom, his pen name) is a graffiti artist who has traveled around the world to gather material for this book. He lives in Essen, Germany. Tristan Manco is a graphic artist and director of Bristol-based Tijuana Design. He is the author of Stencil Graffiti and Street Logos.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars global graff.......2007-10-08

    This book is just what it says it is... Graff from everywhere. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the different styles. Don't be upset if your favorite writer is not in here, it's not that type of book, even though plenty of writers are represented. It's about seeing the graff scene spread and how the spread has evolved in different locations.

    5 out of 5 stars A great over view of art and style........2007-10-08

    This is a very nice book.For a gift or for your self.Some great photo's of art from around the world.They did a good job on this one.This one well be around for the history books.A+

    4 out of 5 stars Review For: GRAFFITI WORLD.......2007-10-06

    This book is excellent if your interested in seeing real graffiti they show alot of famous such as COPE2,123CREW,ABOVE,and many other famous artist
    they also show art from all over the world such as North America, Europe,Asia,China,and many other places. And another thing is that this book is HUGE! it has around 500 pages and all of them have full color pages of graffiti. This book is great I enjoyed it.

    5 out of 5 stars Great reference.......2007-08-06

    I'm an art teacher, and I have this book in my room for ninth graders to look at during "down" time. It is so popular that I have had to repair it with book-binding tape after only two years. Many of the students just enjoy looking at the variety of impressive artwork, and some of them enjoy copying the styles of letters to create their own names or phrases. There are hundreds and hundreds of photos from around the world, showcasing a wide variety of styles. I find it hard to believe that someone could not be impressed with the artwork contained in this book.

    4 out of 5 stars Good Gift.......2007-07-14

    I bought this book for my sister on her birthday and it's awesome... but some of the art in this book is not as spectacular as I thought it would be. The book is very enjoyable regardless.
    The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • First Impressions are Usually Lasting Impressions
    • Good marketing and general information, opens mind.
    • Very Disappointing
    • Great Information
    • Very inspiring book
    The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do
    Clotaire Rapaille
    Manufacturer: Broadway
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 0767920562
    Release Date: 2006-06-06

    Book Description

    Why are people around the world so very different? What makes us live, buy, even love as we do? The answers are in the codes.

    In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being acts and lives around the world.

    Rapaille’s breakthrough notion is that we acquire a silent system of Codes as we grow up within our culture. These Codes—the Culture Code—are what make us American, or German, or French, and they invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives, even when we are completely unaware of our motives. What’s more, we can learn to crack the Codes that guide our actions and achieve new understanding of why we do the things we do.

    Rapaille has used the Culture Code to help Chrysler build the PT Cruiser—the most successful American car launch in recent memory. He has used it to help Procter & Gamble design its advertising campaign for Folger’s coffee – one of the longest-lasting and most successful campaigns in the annals of advertising. He has used it to help companies as diverse as GE, AT&T, Boeing, Honda, Kellogg, and L’Oréal improve their bottom line at home and overseas. And now, in The Culture Code, he uses it to reveal why Americans act distinctly like Americans, and what makes us different from the world around us.

    In The Culture Code, Dr. Rapaille decodes two dozen of our most fundamental archetypes—ranging from sex to money to health to America itself—to give us “a new set of glasses” with which to view our actions and motivations. Why are we so often disillusioned by love? Why is fat a solution rather than a problem? Why do we reject the notion of perfection? Why is fast food in our lives to stay? The answers are in the Codes.

    Understanding the Codes gives us unprecedented freedom over our lives. It lets us do business in dramatically new ways. And it finally explains why people around the world really are different, and reveals the hidden clues to understanding us all.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars First Impressions are Usually Lasting Impressions.......2007-10-12

    The world molds us into beings that are far different from our inner selves. Perceptions, norms, stereotypes and the like cause us to consciously change. However, even when the child we were doesn't recognize the adults we've become, we're still that child at heart. Dr. R knows this. He has a method for stripping us of our worldly armor and displaying who we really are. He presents many scenarios where he has consulted with business to tap into the inner child so their products can relate to those subconscious core values. A great read for anyone in any line of work.

    4 out of 5 stars Good marketing and general information, opens mind........2007-09-22

    The information and analysis offered by the author are very interesting, it changes the way questions and investigation are offered so that more interesting answers can be obtained.

    2 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing.......2007-09-20

    Seeing the number of strong reviews, I bought this book expecting deep insight into how consumers across cultures differ in how they make buying decisions (as indicated by the subtitle). At the very least, I was hoping for a thought-provoking framework for thinking about this stuff.

    Instead, I got surface-level assertions primarily targeted at the American psyche and seemingly supported only by casual observation and a few focus groups. Indeed, the lack of real scientific rigor and foundational theory supporting his words make it pretty easy to blow holes in every one of Rapaille's arguments (especially the ideas of the Reptilian Brain and America's Cultural Adolescence) and make the book frustrating to read. Like some other reviewers, I also nearly put it down after 100 pages.

    On the other hand, the Codes that he's defined for Americans' views of things like food, quality, health, and money are reasonable enough. So to some foreign audiences and perhaps also to Americans and Marketers without previous exposure to cultural anthropology, I can understand how some of his ideas may seem profound.

    If you don't fit into either of those categories, don't bother buying this book.

    5 out of 5 stars Great Information.......2007-08-15

    I really enjoyed reading his book; it let me understand even some of my aptitudes with life.

    5 out of 5 stars Very inspiring book.......2007-08-14

    This book really helps to understand the most important culture codes for USA. It is very interesting for everybody, it is a must for each marketeers and communitations manager.
    The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • A great overview
    • Fill-in the gaps in your knowledge of history and have fun doing it
    • The Classical World is an excellent introduction to the ancient world for the general reader
    • Sweeping history of the Classical World
    • Readable but not compelling
    The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
    Robin Lane Fox
    Manufacturer: Basic Books
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    Early CivilizationEarly Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 0465024963

    Book Description

    Armies and empires, statesmen and tyrants--the acclaimed historian Robin Lane Fox vividly recounts the history of two great civilizations and one thousand years that forged the Western world

    The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics--these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Augustus. From the Peloponnesian War through the creation of Athenian democracy, from the turbulent empire of Alexander the Great to the creation of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Christianity, Robin Lane Fox serves as our witty and trenchant guide. He introduces us to extraordinary heroes and horrific villains, great thinkers and blood-thirsty tyrants. Throughout this vivid tour of two of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known, we remain in the hands of a great master.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars A great overview.......2007-08-22

    I knew a lot about bits and pieces of classical culture and history, but this book put it all together nicely. It would defenitely be best for people who have an interest in the topic going in. It gets a bit encyclopedic in places, but overall a good and informative read.

    5 out of 5 stars Fill-in the gaps in your knowledge of history and have fun doing it.......2007-05-31

    I enjoy reading history and decided on this book to give me information about an era I know little about, ancient Greece and Rome. This work is an excellent introduction to this topic and is quite enjoyable to read. The chapters are generally twelve pages or less, so it is convenient to sample the material in small doses. And those doses prove to be fascinating enough to tempt the reader to push on through succeeding chapters even as the eyelids grow heavy at night.

    This is a narrative history which chronologically traces the developments of both societies. It is heavy on political events, but provides enough social history to make the period come alive. Fox's work can serve as a fine springboard for later reading in more concentrated areas that the reader may wish to explore. For the person with an interest in history, Professor Fox lays a basic foundation and provides a strong sense of understanding what made Grecian and Roman societies work. In an engaging style, he helps us understand how many traditions, practices, and values evolved in western civilization.

    5 out of 5 stars The Classical World is an excellent introduction to the ancient world for the general reader.......2007-05-21

    Rome was not built in a day. Neither was Athens or Alexandria or your knowledge of the ancient world! "The Classcial World" is a long book with
    small print which will give you a good working understanding of the classical world from Homer (8th century BC) to Hadrian the Roman ruler of the second century AD.
    Fox is an Oxford Scholar best known for his book on Alexander the Great used by Oliver Stone in his making of the movie "Alexander." In being forced to cover over 900 years of history it is impossible for Fox to cover, in detail, all the political, social, literary and scientific advances made in that near millenium. Rather, Fox gives us a political survey of the times with some social history included. The chapters are short and digestable. We learn of what is what like to live in the Athens of Pericles or the Rome of Julius Caesar. Fox teaches us about blood sports, sexual morality, literature and the complicated politics of the distant past over 40 generations ago. We meet such seminal figures in Western culture as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Latin authors such as Tacitus, Virgil, Suetonius as well as Greek historians Herodotus & Thucydides. The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle is explored. We see empires rise and fall. We meet early Christians such as Paul and see the impact of Christianity on the Roman Empire.
    This book is written in a plain easy to comprehend style. The book is well illustrated containing good maps. The most interesting section, to this reviewer, was the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of emperors in the first century BC. Emperors from the Julian-Claudian dynasty are fascinating. Caesar, Augusutus; Tiberius; Caligula; Claudius; Nero are well drawn.
    Fox says three major themes are apparent in the way ancients looked at the world" Freedom-from Athenian republicanism to the tyranny of Roman emperors; justice issues were important to the ancients as were the role of luxury in life. The Spartan Greeks would have been appalled at the wanton luxury and sybratic lifestyle of the Roman aristocracy.
    This book would do well as a basic textbook for Ancient History 101.

    4 out of 5 stars Sweeping history of the Classical World.......2007-02-24

    Robin Lane Fox has authored a sweeping history of what he calls "The Classical World," from Homer's Greece to Hadrian's Roman Empire. While a work of such scope means that there cannot be great depth in discussing any point in that era; on the other hand, it provides a bird's eye view of issues, themes, and change over time. The author himself notes that (page xv): "It is a challenge to be asked to write a history of some none hundred years, especially when the evidence is so scattered and diverse, but it is a challenge which I have enjoyed."

    Some definitional issues. Lane defines "The Classical World" as (page 1) ". . .the world of the ancient Greeks and Romans, some forty lifetimes before our own but still able to challenge us by a humanity shared with ours." Fox ceases his narrative with the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Why? Lane says (page 2): ". . .'classical literature' ends in his reign. . . ." Even more important Page 2), ". . .is that Hadrian himself was the emperor with the most evident classicizing tastes."

    First, Fox focuses on three themes across this span of history--freedom, justice, and luxury. He believes that each of these--and the changes that occurred with time--can help explain the sweep of events.

    Second, he divides the time span into several eras, and treats each separately, although noting how the themes of freedom, justice, and luxury play out in each. "The Archaic Greek World" begins with Homer's Greece and concludes with the great Persian Wars. The next time period is what Fox refers to As "The Classical Greek World." This period runs from the rise of democratic Athens, the Peloponnesian War, Socrates, the rise of Philip of Macedon. The next phase is what he terms "Hellenistic Worlds," beginning with Alexander the Great's incredible success and the development of one of the world's largest empires. This frame runs until the final struggles between Carthage and Rome. Fox then moves on to a discussion of "The Roman Republic." Here, he considers the increase in luxury in Rome, the intrigues among Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Caesar's death. He follows this with a discussion "From Republic to Empire." The chapters in this segment include the rise of Octavian (to Augustus), his conflicts with Mark Antony, the Civil War against the assassins of Caesar, and so on. The last portion of the book, "An Imperial World," traces the post-Augustan period, concluding with Hadrian's rule.

    Under Hadrian, according to Fox (page 571): ". . .the two worlds of this book, the classical Greek and the Roman, came closely together. Hadrian's love of Greek culture is evident in his patronage, his favours for Greek cities (especially Athens) and his personal romantic life."

    In a history as large as this, one sacrifices depth for breadth. It is interesting to note Fox's rather dismissive treatment of Julius Caesar and Octavian/Augustus, as compared with more sympathetic treatments of each in the recent biographies by Goldsworthy and Everitt. Also, Everitt's biography of Cicero provides greater depth on that key figure in the period of time when the Republic was moving toward Empire. All in all, this is a well written book and worth looking at by those interested in this slice of history.

    3 out of 5 stars Readable but not compelling.......2007-02-21

    Overall, TCW is an adequate survey of over-arching trends in Greco-Roman history. I found the writing style strange, however. Perhaps I'm just more accustomed to linear narratives but TCW seems to lack focus (not to mention depth, but that's to be expected in a general survey).

    What is interesting is the theme that runs through the entire work: the correlation between "luxury" (i.e. concentration of wealth and conspicuous consumption) and tyranny/corruption (including sexual mores). I'm not sure if this theme is deliberate or if the author is simply reflecting the values of his sources. Either way, this theme colors the history presented.

    What I did like, however, was that relatively little ink was spent on Alexander and Caesar. IMHO it's too easy to get wrapped up in these individuals at the expense of their greater historical context. (Sure, they're interesting but there are plenty of books dealing with them). I was also pleased with the chapters dealing with the Diadochi (the Successors to Alexander the Great).

    Another interesting aspect of the book was the (to a significant degree) common culture shared between the Greeks and the Romans. More traditional histories seem to treat the Romans as having emerged independent of and isolated from the larger Greek world that was really the dominate culture in much of the Mediterranean (and the Black Sea, for that matter). That was, perhaps, the most enlightening contribution of the book (for me, at least).

    Overall, TCW is an adequate general survey of the subject but not exactly a compelling read.
    Japanese Culture, 4th Edition (Updated and Expanded)
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • I think Japanese should cherish the culture as Japanese too.
    • 10,000 Years In 300 Pages
    • Typical history
    • Amazing detail in such a small amount of space
    • Great introduction to Japanese history and culture
    Japanese Culture, 4th Edition (Updated and Expanded)
    H. Paul Varley
    Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0824821521

    Book Description

    For nearly three decades Japanese Culture has garnered high praise as an accurate and well-written introduction to Japanese history and culture. This widely used undergraduate text is now available in a new edition. Thoroughly updated, the fourth edition includes expanded sections on numerous topics, among which are samurai values, Zen Buddhism, the tea ceremony, Confucianism in the Tokugawa period, the story of the forty-seven ronin, Mito scholarship in the early nineteenth century, and mass culture and comics in contemporary times.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars I think Japanese should cherish the culture as Japanese too........2004-11-13

    I have lived in Tokyo, Japan since I was born here. Though I can say about the case in Tokyo only, even I can not look at the Japanese historical things in my ordinaly Tokyo life. Tokyo is same as another big town over the world, developed town with high stores building, the imported fashion from mainly U.S.A etc. Certainly, the modern life in Tokyo may be comfortable, but I think that the life is not truth things, that is, that may be physical comfot, not mental.

    If I say honestly, in fact, I am very tired in Tokyo life since my birth, especially mental part: the overpopulated city, dirt air from the rannning cars, people followed with benefit.

    In such condition, I think that Japanese should get back the vanished Japanese history again. Japanese long history and cultures is not just culture, I think, they have been made on the reasonable means, for instance Japanese Buddhism would be born on the tender mind that take care of other person. But in modern Japanese city, there are little people that beleive in reliegions.

    Thank you for reading poor writing.

    5 out of 5 stars 10,000 Years In 300 Pages.......2004-07-21

    The tracings of Japanese culture go back some 10,000 years - speaking conservatively. Since then there has been a remarkable continuity of inhabitation on the Japanese islands, which has resulted in one of the richest and complex cultures in the world today. Originally heavily influenced by the neighboring Chinese culture in the period from 300 BC to 300 AD, the islands quickly found their own way and over the ensuing years have developed a breadth of integrated experience that is often baffling to the outsider or curious student.

    Paul Varley's book, in it's fourth edition and showing no signs of losing its value, is an attempt to present the significant cultural and historical developments, covering the past two millennia. OF course, most of the focus is from the eighth century on as Japanese civilization shifted from day to day survival to a complex political framework with a great flourishing of substantive creative art.

    Considering that my standard historical reference on Japan has some seven volumes and thousands of (often tedious) pages, Varley's task is considerable and his success worthy of note. In a mere three hundred pages of tiny print Varley manages to draw a picture of the Japanese people that, while far from complete, misses none of the key culture moments.

    He does this in a plain, business-like writing style that pours out unending amounts of information with merciless patience. He is very readable, but not what I would call enjoyable, since the sheer quantity of information can be overwhelming. If simply read straight through, it is easy to lose track of the thread of ideas. But the book rewards repeated study and the reader will soon find that all this information contributes much towards an understanding of the Japanese experience.

    4 out of 5 stars Typical history.......2004-02-19

    This book is good. I'm not going to call it great, nor will I say that it isn't a worthwhile read; however, it gets wordy at points. It could be improved with an overview of each chapter and then have the in-depth information to follow. Regardless, there is a wealth of information within! I personally love the history parts because I fell asleep when I took east asian history, and this is a good way of refreshing my memory to prepare for my college major of East Asian Studies come 2005 ;).

    5 out of 5 stars Amazing detail in such a small amount of space.......2001-07-04

    I wasn't sure what to expect when i bought this book - after all the title does seem a little generic and it is a pretty small book, but i was pleasantly surprised. Varley's style is incredibly terse yet still very accessible. He deals with Japanese culture chronologically, giving the reader a clear picture of the state of the country at the time any major cultural events took place, although avoiding any unecessarily long forays into the history of Japan which do not relate to cultural happenings. Overall, an extremely diverse and useful introduction to Japanese culture which could provide a thorough grounding in the subject prior to further study, or equally serve as a useful reference book to anyone with a casual interest in the culture of Japan

    5 out of 5 stars Great introduction to Japanese history and culture.......2000-10-07

    This book is fantastic for a thorough introduction to Japanese culture. It was a pleasure to read. This was the textbook used for my Japanese Life and Culture university class, and I was extremely pleased with it. Varley's writing style is straightforward and extremely interesting. What I especially liked about the book was its mixture of history and all aspects of Japanese culture, from the literature to the art to the religions. I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone interested in learning about Japanese culture.
    Dynamics of Mass Communications: Media in the Digital Age with Media World DVD and PowerWeb
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Dynamics of Mass Communications: Media in the Digital Age with Media World DVD and PowerWeb
      Joseph R Dominick
      Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      Media StudiesMedia Studies | Mass Media | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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      ASIN: 0073268704

      Book Description

      Well-known for its balanced approach to media industries and professions, Dynamics of Mass Communication offers a lively, thorough, and objective introduction for mass communication majors and nonmajors alike. This new edition embraces the digital age with a free Student DVD that adds video and interactivity to the student's textbook experience and brings students up-to-date on the latest developments in mass communication,--from the emerging role of cell phones and iPods in the mass media mix to the growing impact of blogs on the practice of journalism.

      Books:

      1. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
      2. Getting Past No
      3. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
      4. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
      5. Gypsies: The Hidden Americans
      6. Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance
      7. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
      8. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
      9. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
      10. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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