Book Description
Each card in this inspiring deck offers an idea to stretch your approach to observing and chronicling the daily events around you. You'll learn how to harness the power of words (what to write about, and what to write with), explore extreme photography techniques without having any previous photography experience, focus on the little things (like a two-inch section of a painted mural you drive by every day), and discover unusual ways to create a self-portrait (from plastic wrap and tree lights, to close-ups of your hands). Includes 50 cards and a creativity notebook to record your own art-journal explorations.
Customer Reviews:
Very Cool Concept.......2007-09-26
I love these creativity cards! The graphics on one side are unique, interesting, colorful, and eye catching. The prompts on the flipside are thought-provoking, meaningful, and different. The small journal is a great creative jumpstart in itself. I love the colors and techniques that were used to produce the backgrounds. Think I'll even attempt to create some of those myself. The box housing the creativity cards and journal is sturdy and pleasant to look at.
This is a fresh concept, and I am enjoying this package very much.
By the way, this is in no way a "how to" of any type. It is intended to make you think about doing old things in a fresh way or to help you attempt something new altogether.
Highly recommended.
Wow!.......2007-08-05
these cards are amazing. each one is a little piece of art in itself. you'll want to frame and hang them. except then you wouldn't be able to turn them over and get a shot in the arm of inspiration... yummy. i'm too afraid to work in the little workbook as yet, tho. i don't wanna mess it up. :)
if you're looking for cutesy, pretty art, tho, look somewhere else. this is real, gritty from-the-soul art. the kind that hits you "right there". and hopefully will help you make your own journal pages that do the same.
several of them are geared towards photography but lots of it is the kind that can be done with even an el cheapo camera. the author will also have you using tape, glue, spraypaint, and maybe a few things you never thought of as art supplies before. this is the kind of journaling that begs you to jump in and get messy.
if you do any kind of visual journaling, i highly recommend these cards and workbook.
So Much Fun.......2007-08-05
I got this after much thought. I figured it was just another "how to do a journal book". But, I found it to be much fun to do the exersizes and if you are an artist with a block, this will help to unblock you. It can give you ideas you never really thought of before on approaching your art work. Plus, as I said, it is a lot of fun to do the exersizes suggested on the individual cards. The kit also includes a fun little notebook/journal book to do as you please with. If you teach art, these are also fun ideas to inspire your students. I plan on doing that with my students this Fall.
This is a Gem.......2007-07-26
First of all, this will make a perfect gift for anyone crafty or involved in journaling, scrapbooking, altered books, ATCs, etc. It's a very affordable gift that keeps on giving.
The author opens your eyes to new ways to be creative in a way anyone, whether an "artist" or not, can use everyday observations to create real, unique, personal, fun, journal pages. She'll encourage you to take in all your surroundings and find a common element - she was able to find the common element while sitting in an Italian restaurant and watching war protesters: she, the waiter, the protesters were all waiting, caught up in a moment in time which was the theme she used for one one of her journal pages. She uses paint, photography and any object that she can use to express herself in her work -and makes no apologies. I LOVE this little gem. Just lovely and real. You won't be disappointed.
Great things come in little boxed sets..........2007-07-04
I noticed that there was a 1 star review of "Wide Open...". No offense, reviewer, but clearly you don't have a clue. Yes, the cards in the set are sort of vague -- if you are looking for step-by-step instructions for making something, don't waste your money on this. And, yes, you do need to own... and have some very basic knowledge of... art supplies (again, no offense, but if you've been within spitting distance of an art supply or craft store, then you'll know what gesso is).
[Ok, stepping off my soap box and done with the snarky comments.] Randi Feuerhelm-Watts is such an inspiration! I love her style and the ideas for inspiration that she presents on the cards go way beyond some of the tired, old suggestions that seem to always crop up in art/craft publications.
I read all the cards in one sitting (because I'm obsessive like that!) and I did notice that some of them related to each other. Not that they are dependent on each other or that you would be lost if you pick them at random... but I did observe some links between the individual ideas. I think this is great for continuing themes in your art work. Also, while she references photography quite a bit (she is a photographer after all), I definitely do not feel that any of the ideas are pigeonholed by the techniques. The author's basic ideas translate really well no matter what kind of visual artwork you might do.
The cards themselves each feature snippets of the author's artwork on the back. This alone is incredibly inspirational. You almost get double the bang for your buck - pull out one of the cards to interpret the visual side and then come back to it later for inspiration from the narrative side.
My only complaint would be about the Creativity Notebook... I wouldn't really call it a complaint, persay. I guess I'm just ambivalent about it's inclusion in the set. On one hand she has provided some great backgrounds to help you combat "white page syndrome" as well as some random instructions to offer a jump start to someone who is new to visual journaling. But on the other hand, I don't see myself personally using it since I already have half a dozen journals and prefer to make my own backgrounds (once you get on a roll, its half the fun).
The ideas and techniques are presented in Randi's conversational style, along with her great little stories. While I have not had the pleasure of taking a class with her or meeting her, she comes across as the kind of person you'd love to have as an art friend because she'd always be inspiring and challenging. I think that's the greatest thing about this kit... she's managed to package a ton of her personality and a lot of what I imagine she teaches in her workshops into one cool product. This set definitely gets a front row spot on my art-bookshelf.
Book Description
Tennessee Williams’s Notebooks, here published for the first time, presents by turns a passionate, whimsical, movingly lyrical, self-reflective, and completely uninhibited record of the life of this monumental American genius from 1936 to 1981, the year of his death. In these pages Williams (1911-1981) wrote out his most private thoughts as well as sketches of plays, poems, and accounts of his social, professional, and sexual encounters. The notebooks are the repository of Williams’s fears, obsessions, passions, and contradictions, and they form possibly the most spontaneous self-portrait by any writer in American history.
Meticulously edited and annotated by Margaret Thornton, the notebooks follow Williams’ growth as a writer from his undergraduate days to the publication and production of his most famous plays, from his drug addiction and drunkenness to the heights of his literary accomplishments. At one point, Williams writes, “I feel dull and disinterested in the literary line. Dr. Heller bores me with all his erudite discussion of literature. Writing is just writing! Why all the fuss about it?” This remarkable record of the life of Tennessee Williams is about writing—how his writing came up like a pure, underground stream through the often unhappy chaos of his life to become a memorable and permanent contribution to world literature.
Customer Reviews:
A Brilliant Mind.......2007-09-25
Thornton, Margaret Bradham, ed. "Tennessee Williams Notebooks", Yale University Press, 2007.
A Brilliant Mind
Amos Lassen
What a job it must have been compiling the notebooks of Tennessee Williams. They cover almost every aspect of the playwright's life and Margaret Bradham Thornton has done an amazing job. Through his own words and Thornton's meticulous editing, we get a look into the unique life of an American literary titan. The man who penned such beautiful works for the American theatre led quite a life. He suffered from his only internalized homophobia even though he was himself a gay male--he felt somewhat out of place in a world that did not approve of his sexuality. He was haunted by his sister, Rose, and the guilt he felt about allowing her institutionalization and with these two strikes that he felt he had against himself, still managed to write some of the most endearing drama ever seen on the stage.
Williams' notebooks take us behind the scenes of the man and his writing. Williams tells us, in his own words, so much about himself that at times it is staggering to read. His view of the world fascinates and enthralls.
In reality, this is two books--one, a look at the man's private life and the other a look at the mind of a genius. Thornton provides on each page. The thoughts and the background to those thoughts placed opposite the pages of his journals. To get a glimpse of the mind of such a man of letters is a wonderful treat. The book is filled with notes and photographs, copies of poetry written by hand and entries from the diaries as well as biographies of those people that Williams had contact with. On the right hand side of the book are the notebook entries and on the left hand side are the notes. Also included are Williams' own criticisms of his dairies.
Thornton provides a very readable and detailed narrative and her research is nothing short of amazing. She does not spend a great deal of time oh is sexual proclivities with other men but neither does she ignore them. There is no question whatsoever that Williams' homosexuality influenced his writing and world view and that is all carefully explained by the editor. It is a book that you do not want to stop reading even with its 800 plus pages. And it is more than just a look at the playwright; it is a look into American culture and how all of the worlds of the arts come together.
Diary of a Horny Artist.......2007-06-03
This is one of the handsomest books I have read in years. The notes by the author/editor, who has annotated the daily diaries of playwright Tennessee Williams, are spectacularly thorough, covering virtually every actor, director, known and unknown, Williams ever met. Loads of fun reading the notes, and the diaries themselves on facing pages, with marvelous and copious photographs, goofy illustrations, maps - you name it. Williams hasn't much to say about his writing life, but lots to say about his state of mind, which is usually spinning out of control along with his life. Williams was part of that first real jet set, living in a given year in a dozen places. The first and last question on his mind was how to find "trade" by which he meant pick-ups for casual sex. Fascinating and then really boring like most pornography.
An Incredible Look into the Mind of a Literary Genius.......2007-05-07
Margaret Bradham Thornton is to be commended for compiling Tennessee Williams' journals with such painstaking attention to detail, in-depth analysis and thorough research. Her efforts afford the reader an amazing, unique glimpse into the life of an American literary giant -- a man whose plays, including The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire, have become classics for the ages, not to mention a man who led an intriguing life in and out of the public eye. There is no shortage of skeletons to be found in Williams' closet; his homosexuality is a particular source of angst to him in a world that did not approve of such a thing. He dallies with male prostitutes, and in one instance gets severely beaten for his troubles. Meanwhile, he is haunted by his sister, who underwent a frontal lobotomy after being institutionalized (it is his guilt over leaving her to pursue his writing that drove him to write "The Glass Menagerie," which features a very Williams-esque young man desperate to escape his dreary life with a crippled sister and needy mother in order to pursue his dreams).
Through his notebooks, Williams provides you with a backstage pass to one of the most thrilling talents Broadway has ever seen, and through extensive footnoting Thornton puts it all into a clear narrative for you to follow along. She also includes countless photographs and pieces of artwork. There are moments when what Williams writes does not match up with what other interviewees recall, forcing Thornton and the reader to speculate as to which version is closer to the truth, but in "Notebooks" Williams does nothing short of bare his soul to the reader. It is utterly fascinating to experience his artist's-eye-view of the world, and I would highly recommend this book.
Grade: A+
Excellent.......2007-04-10
Item was in mint condition, will not hesitate to buy from this seller again.
Keep up the good work
Not To Be Missed.......2007-02-23
This is a magnificent book, really two books, as Tennessee Williams' journals are powerfully augmented by Thornton's meticulously researched and engaging annotations. Opposite every page of journal entries, one finds the sources and background on Williams' musings; Thornton gives us a map to Williams thoughts, and her notes enhance the journal entries immeasurably, making this book essential reading. It's tough to put down, and almost impossible to read properly, that is, in order-- no matter where one opens the book you are transported into the private life of this playwright whose works are so much a part of our literary and theatrical heritage. Thornton has also included a fascinating array of photographs which place Williams in the context of his time and his peers, and scribbled illustrations which add a whole other element to understanding this great writer-- this book is not to be missed.
Average customer rating:
- Anecdotal Book on How To Compromise to Avoid the "Hairball"...
- Inspiring, creative, and a thought-provoker. Not to miss.
- A Guide to Chaos, Confinement, and Creativity
- How to become a Corporate Fool !
- Ignore How It Looks
|
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
Gordon MacKenzie
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Book Description
Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Gordon McKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, many of which he spent inspiring his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit--to a mode of dreaming, daring and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares the story of his own professional evolution, together with lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius.
Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the intersection between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available to bookstores. It will be a must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees, and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work.
Customer Reviews:
Anecdotal Book on How To Compromise to Avoid the "Hairball"..........2007-10-06
Unfortunately for me, I have bad habits- like eating good food and sleeping in the climate controlled indoors. That means getting paid, and in corporate America you don't get paid orbiting the hairball. You get paid only if you're in the thick of it. This book is essentially a book on compromising to avoid, rather than confronting the obvious problems of working in the typical corporate environment.
I rated it three stars because some of the information is actually useful, it's well written (though the artwork and type are annoying) for the fence-sitters it's aimed at.
I enjoyed reading it in the context of vague memories of corporate life I have dating back to 2002 and prior. When I finally lost my last job-- well, I didn't actually lose it, I know where it is (Bhopal I think)-- I decided I'd stay way far away from the hairball. Orbit is too close.
Read it for what it's worth- but if you're reading it because you're really discouraged with life in the cubicle, and being on the electronic leash with your laptop and crackberry wherever you go-- I suggest OUT, not up.
Inspiring, creative, and a thought-provoker. Not to miss........2007-09-22
"Orbiting the Giant Hairball" by Gordon MacKenzie is a not-to-miss book for anyone who is looking to tap into their creative mind.
The book is not for the dull-minded, however. MacKenzie recalls several situations in his career at Hallmark cards, and offers advice in the form of examples.
The last chapter of the book was what made this book completely worth while. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I guarantee you will not regret it.
A Guide to Chaos, Confinement, and Creativity.......2007-08-21
What Orbiting the Giant Hairball (OTGH) is not is another book on corporate management, although heads of creative departments would do well to understand the principles Gordon MacKenzie suggests. OTGH is a guide to chaos, confinement, and creativity. As an artist, I've worked most of my career in the corporate world (the Hairball). The paradox is that creation takes an entirely different set of rules (mainly the defiance of them), which puts creativity at odds with the organizational compulsion of the Hairball. On the one hand, a company can't exist without structure; on the other, artistic expression is antithetical to defined limits. How do you find congruence as a Creative hemmed in a left-brained organization? MacKenzie suggests the middle ground is an orbital path that is free to explore the infinite, but not independent of the organization.
MacKenzie's book is an effortless read, laid out to take advantage of white space. Doodles mark the margins and gaps, with chapter heads and illustrations taking up 4-page spreads. Some chapters break out in freeform cartoons on lined notepaper, with Chapter 19 devoted to the statement, "Orville Wright did not have a pilot's license." Often digressing, you feel there's always a point to the random character of the work. The book presents itself as an artistic exploration, even if the drawings are primitive in the style of a child's hand. What MacKenzie has to say is thought-provoking. Don't get tangled in the hairball, becoming another crony of the institution. Mentoring is not the same as managing. Dynamic forces exist in the chaos of uncertainty. Orbit provides a place for creative expression that isn't stifling. Find your unique voice and express your one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
How to become a Corporate Fool !.......2007-05-26
What a delightful book! You have to read this - if you interested in fostering creativity within a corporation.
The author is Gordon McKenzie, who worked for Hallmark Cards (the main greeting card company here in the US) for 30 years. His last title at the company was ¡¥Creative Paradox¡¦.
The main point in his book is that corporations come into existence through the creativity of their founders, but subsequently start to become stratified and ossified because of the need to do things ¡¥that we know work¡¦, thereby discouraging creativity.
The bias against creativity does not just exist in large corporations. I particularly liked his story about asking school children in different grades how many thought they were artists. Invariably, the older the kids, they less hands would go up. They have been taught that they were not creative, or that being creative is not ¡¥normal¡¦.
The giant hairball is his analogy for the corporate body with all the rules and regulations, and his prescription is to know how to keep within the orbit of the corporation without being absorbed and suffocated into the main mass. Another useful analogy is how when water-skiing, you do not need to follow directly in the wake of the boat, but can at times move in an arc around the back of the boat, or even sometimes get ahead of the boat.
This is a small book full of gems! I highly recommend it.
Here is a quote I really like:
¡§If we do not let go, we make prisoners of ourselves¡¨
The book¡¦s subtitle is: ¡§A Corporate Fool¡¦s Guide to Surviving with Grace.¡¨ So, go ahead and read it. You too can become a Corporate Fool º.
Ignore How It Looks.......2007-03-15
This book sat on my shelf for five years before I ran out of things to read and picked it up. Had I know then what I know now, I would have dropped everything and read it then and there. Mr. Mackenzie encourages individual thinking and creative looks at how things can be in a corporate culture, where dollars and cents are more important than pressing forward and being truly innovative. There is not a business where this sort of creativity cannot be applied.
Book Description
An extensive, up-to-date guide to curtain design, from Renaissance to Victorian. 300 sketches of curtain treatments, ranging from valances, tieback and pole designs.
Customer Reviews:
Great Resource for Ideas.......2007-10-11
This book of only sketches is a great resource to jumpstart the creative process. I believe it is intentionally black and white so as not to distract with color and pattern. There are a wealth of ideas categorized so that you can mix and match within a particular category. It is a good inspiration piece from which you can proceed to either commission or design and create your own personal window treatment.
Mainly Classic Designs.......2003-06-17
This book will not teach you how to sew curtains but it will give you loads of ideas for your window treatment.However, it is only ideal for those looking for classical designs since no modern styles are shown.
It also lacks new creative designs, I always felt that each design is familiar to me.
Great source of ideas for elaborate window treatments.......2003-04-20
The book contains line drawings of styles for all the various elements of a window treatment as well as ideas for dealing with different kinds of windows. The book decomposes window treatments into pelmets, valences, etc., etc., etc., with pages of line drawings of styles for each element. Then, it pulls the various elements together into a total look.
I was leant this book, but I found it so helpful I bought my own. It has drawbacks. If you want something simple and/or you plan to make them yourself, this probably isn't the book for you. There are no instructions or measurements of any kind, just the drawings. But if you're working with a decorator who knows a professional, or are a decorator yourself, then this book will help your imagination run wild.
The Curtain Sketchbbok 2 by Wendy Baker.......2002-06-13
This book is really great for any windows. Mostly if you are a interior designer. It gaves you lot of good examples which curtains will good in what rooms with different types of furnitures. This book gaves you something that no one esle has. You will be the first one to have that design in your room before someone esle does
Curtain Sketchbook 2.......2000-03-28
This is a great book if you're looking for unique window treatments. I wanted something everyone else didn't have. It is not a how-to book but the illustrations are very detailed.
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) possessed arguably the greatest mind the world has ever known. Artist, draftsman, inventor, and philosopher, his contributions to modern society are profound and wide-reaching. Throughout his life, Leonardo kept dozens of notebooks, elegant studies on topics ranging from architecture to botany to philosophy—indeed nearly anything of which the human imagination could conceive.
Leonardo’s Notebooks collects a variety of the most fascinating of these studies and compiles them into one monumental volume that demystifies his insights and clearly illustrates his ideas, experiments, and observations with hundreds of his original sketches, line drawings, and paintings. Topics include Anatomy and the Movement of the Human Figure; Botany and Landscape; Engineering and Military Engineering; Physical Sciences; Aerodynamics and Flight; Geography—and more.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-09-16
This is a great book that I had been looking forward to getting for a while. The images and writting is good, although a bit hard to understand at times. The ONLY problem I have with this book that gets it a 4 out of 5 stars for me is the fact that it is so tall and wide. Granted it makes looking at the pictures much easier but it also makes storage of this book MUCH harder. The book is to tall to stand on any but the top shelf on all of my book shelfs and it is so wide that it protudes from the edge of the shelf.
Don't let this distract you from getting this book however. It's detailed pictures are wonderful considering the orginal size of the works and the translations help with the reading. There's a section for each catagory, such as anatomy and lighting, which really helps if you want to look at certain types of works. The greatness of these pictures will have you looking at each page for hours, just to see all the details.
I would suggest this book for anyone from an art lover to a history fanatic. I use it as a reference book for one of my drawing classes. It's a great buy for anyone and everyone.
Excellent.......2007-08-21
Not one single problem with this book, I would recomend buying it for anyone anytime
Just what I wanted.......2007-06-27
I have always wanted a book just with Leonardo's sketches and annotation. Printed on beautiful paper and in great detail. This is a wonderful book, that I will draw much inspiration from.
Noteworthy notebooks.......2007-02-23
If you enjoy researching from old documents, you will enjoy this book. It isn't an easy read, however, if you're looking for just an armchair novel. Leonardo had his opinions on many subjects, and wrote fairly technically. The drawings are wonderful, as you might expect, and the diversity of subjects gives the reader a glimpse into his wide range of interests.
Gift.......2007-01-15
This was a Christmas gift for my father. He liked the background detail and all the glossy pages of artwork.
Book Description
The artistic versatility of tattoo artists has frequently been overshadowed by the negativity that surrounds tattooing in general. Many tattoos are made by would-be artists who copy overused designs. A perfectly tattooed body requires the skills of a professional and talented artist, who creates a unique and personal design. These designs are often inspired by one or more of the various tattoo styles of Japanese, Maori or other tribal origin. The Sketchbook offers the reader a selection of 80 of these unique designs by well-known and less famous, but very promising, tattoo artists from around the world. Each artist was requested to create a sketch unrestrained by commercial demands and which reflects their own personal motivations.
The book is divided into two sections: the first comprises an explanation of how this collection was brought together, along with a brief illustrated overview of the history and various styles of tattooing. The second section is devoted to the artists, each sketch being accompanied by a biography and favourite quote.
The concept of this book was developed by Marco Bratt, a tattoo artist from The Netherlands, and his partner, Germanborn lifestyle photographer Nancy Heimburger, who also wrote the introductory chapter.
Customer Reviews:
Not as Expected, very disappointed!.......2006-08-31
Sadly I purchased this volume based upon other reader reviews. Although I have given it 3 stars- as the book production itself was very nice- oversize square small coffee table book, printed on high quality thick stock, with well printed art work- makes this volume attractive on the outside. The contents and sketchbook is rather a let down. 60% of the sketches are very crude and unattractive (even considering them just sketches from a sketchbook) and the remaining art being just okay, maybe there is 10-12 eye opening pieces. If your looking for inspiration or eye candy this is not your book
Ever feel like you've been swindled?.......2005-12-22
I'm not an artist, but I do have a few tattoos. Just over 100 hours of custom work all done at the Smilin' Buddha in Calgary, Alberta. I've even managed to get 3 pictures of my work (one full page) in Paul Jefferies' vanity press book celebrating his 25 years in the industry.
In the course of getting my work done, I've bought more than my share of tattoo books and have looked through dozens of books at the Buddha including the owner's private library and I'm sad to say that this book is tied for last place with one other book.
The previous reviewer, the one who's an artist with 35 years experience says it best.
The work in this book for the most part is sub-par. Except for a few, the work in this book looks like it was done by scratchers not artists. There's no way in the world I'd leave this book on my coffee table, let alone wear anything done by most of these "artists".
BTW, I'm pretty sure one reviewer here must have ties to this book. My guess is the publisher.
Save your money. I wish I had.
Crappy Bar napkin sketches.......2005-11-24
The following is an opinion for which we are all entitled: Although this book does tell you something about each artist and shows one sketch from each artist, it is more like a "Collection of bar napkin sketches". Most are of poor quality as if the artist could care less when he/she had drawn them and a very few are of some quality. As an award winning artist of over 35 years experience, I felt it was a complete waste of money as far as being helpful to further my talents or to "just plain enjoy". I would never show such "doodles" in a book to represent what I can do. For something to glance through to kill time, I would say fine, go nuts. Overall....I AM NOT IMPRESSED!
graphic gems from tattoo artists: a pathbreaking book.......2004-11-03
Rarely has the tattoo art form enjoyed a presentation in a volume as remarkable as Heimburger and Bratt's "The Sketchbook: 80 Unique Designs by the World's Finest Tattoo Artists." For starters, the "Sketchbook" does not feature photographs of tattooed bodies but rather brings together a set of original graphic designs produced by artists expressly for this collection. Then there is the beauty and quality of the book itself, which has been published by Hotei, the Leiden-based publisher best known for its first-class books on Japanese prints.
Most of the artists represented in the "Sketchbook" are fairly young and, with the exception of several members of the Leu Family of Lausanne, are not yet well-known. Their work is complex, however, and the short autobiographies provided by each artist provide insights into the special world and close relationships of the international community's best tattoo practitioners. Traditional Japanese tattoo themes dominate the graphic work, but fans of modern art in general will note and enjoy the resemblance of much of the work to that of the 20th-century surrealists and even to the specialized art genre known as exquisite corpses. Indeed, the artwork presented is so fascinating and potentially rich in symbolism that I wish it had been displayed at The Drawing Center in New York's Soho district and introduced by scholars of modern graphic art.
A very different kind of artbook.......2004-08-10
The Sketchbook is a large coffee-table compendium showcasing eighty unique designs by some of the world's finest body art tattoo experts. An introductory essay explores the history of body tattoos, and both Japanese and Western views of the art practice. The eighty designs themselves are showcased largely in black-and-white, in their original drawn concept form rather than a photograph of the tattoo on human skin. With a photograph of its artist along with a paragraph by the artist about his or her background and philosophy. A very different kind of artbook, in which East truly meets West.
Book Description
When contemplating what to name their strip, Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman sought the insight of Charles Schulz, who told them that Zits was "the worst name for a comic strip since Peanuts." It makes perfect sense then that Zits has achieved Peanuts-like notoriety.
Equally enjoyed by teens and their parental counterparts, Zits appealingly tackles teen issues with equal parts grace and wit. Parents Connie and Walt masterfully guide fifteen-year-old Jeremy Duncan through the pratfalls of teenagedom accompanied by his girlfriend Sara and best friends Hector and Pierce.
Customer Reviews:
Spoiled Brat........2007-08-10
That overgrown brat makes fun of his father's age and weight, aggravates his poor old mother even though she tries to make things nice for him, and treats his girlfriend like a sex object while she wants a romantic relationship with him.
And he stays blissfully oblivious through it all - just like a typical clueless young male.
So he makes me very sick to my stomach.:P
Well, I remember all those things!.......2007-06-15
I am a 63 year old cartoon addict. That plus the fact that this is how boys are (as teenagers) makes these througly enjoyable chracters and cartoons; this book is no exception.
Download Description
Contains many of the key elements of Gramsci's writings, including 'The Modern Prince' and 'Americanism and Fordism' and observation on the state, Italian history and the role of intellectuals.
Customer Reviews:
An important thinker, an abstruse text........2006-10-26
"Precision of terms is a revolutionary imperative." -Lenin
Gramsci's name gets bandied about on the academic left enough to make the rest of us feel as though we're missing something if we haven't read him. I took a look at the two chapters that are supposed to be the most relevant to political struggle, "The Modern Prince" and "State and Civil Society", and I'm here to tell activists not to bother slogging through it.
The few key insights the book does offer are easily summarized, and though they might have been fresh in the 1930s, they are by now commonplace: the struggle for socialism must be waged on the terrain of social and cultural insititutions, capitalism exerts its influence not only through brute force but through ideological conditioning using the schools, legal system, and other institutions, etc.
The book itself is very difficult going-- first, it was written under the watchful eye of the prison censors, so it is couched in very vague, allusive, and cryptic terms, and second, it presupposes a great deal of knowledge in the reader of Italian political and intellectual history, and the history of the European Communist Parties. Third, Gramsci's writing style is slapdash and disorganized (though perhaps clarity is too much to expect from someone who was denied medical care in a Fascist prison until it killed him).
It's not surprising that this book has launched a thousand PhD theses and become a cornerstone of ivory-tower socialism. Its abstruse writing makes it perfect fodder for mandarinism and intellectual bluster.
Students of social change would spend their reading time better elsewhere.
The Lost World.......2003-11-25
Michel Foucault once remarked that Antonio Gramsci is a figure much cited and little read. Once upon a time (in the 90s, when things seemed more dismal, then they really were) neoconservatives were warned that Gramscianism was conducting a "long march through the institutions": leftists of a freethinking and free-wheeling bent threw around "organic intellectual" as denoting indigenous members of collective subjects not quite proletarian, and wondered whether "hegemony" was being orchestrated by hip-hop provocateurs.
But in yet another retrenchment of yet another cruel decade, Gramsci has fallen off the map. The neocons wonder if Hillary Rodham Clinton is "angry" about things other than her man and Whitewater; the bohemian leftists wonder about Empire, or stay silent. Which is probably well enough, when it comes to the Gramscian corpus. For although this is the work of an ill-deserved confinement courtesy of one of the world's more notable totalitarian regimes, its stated aim is to be itself "totalitarian" in conception. Antonio Gramsci was something much more complex than a "freedom fighter", and his pronouncements regarding a multitude of subjects in this selection from his *Quaderni del carcere* deserve to be analyzed critically rather than sympathetically.
"Open Marxism" this is not: Gramsci has three major tasks, all of which are compatible with Leninist-Stalinist orthodoxy. Firstly, to analyze the "passive revolution" which has put forth another alternative to progressive political change yet left the productive forces of the economy modernizing with all due speed; secondly, to celebrate the fact of the Communist party's Russian dominance by studying not-necessarily-democratic "hegemony" as a form of political expression throughout modern history; thirdly, to advocate a form of Marxism thoroughly divorced from the materialist scruples of mechanics and keeping its eyes focused firmly on the historical here and now.
All of which are interesting projects, worthy of the best political science and historical ontology that the bourgeois world has to offer, but all of which compete with more explicitly liberatory ideologies (Trotsky's "permanent revolution", representative democracy, Encylopedic enthusiasm for a truly popular science) and offer nuance rather than redemption. Gramsci's communism is, cliched though it may be, somewhat Jesuitical and overly "disciplined" in the face of historical setbacks and core organizational shibboleths of the Comintern: we are offered only details filling out a party line we should believe in anyway, rather than a stirring defense of people power. This book is brilliant, rather than inspirational, and its theses should be troubling, if enlightening, for a member of the democratic left.
A marxist must read!.......2003-06-28
This selection from Gramsci's "Prison Notebooks" contains his most important work written during his imprisonment from the italian fascist regime. It includes "the Intellectuals", texts on Education, Notes on Italian History, "The modern Prince", "State and Civil Society", "Americanism and Fordism" and notes on the philosophy of praxis, together with a very informative introduction on the italian Communist Movement in the first decades of the 20th century. In this collection Gramsci's theory of "hegemony" in class societies is fully presented, together with his intepretation of Marxism both in philosophy and in the analysis of the modern world.
Gramsci was on of the foremost leaders of the Italian Communist Party; in his trial in 1927 the fascist Public Prosecutor proclaimed that his brain must be stopped from functioning for twenty years. Fortunately, Gramsci proved to be a devoted fighter in prison and his Notebooks furthered -in many points- the analysis of Marx and Lenin of how capitalism functions and how it could be overthrown.
One of the century's most important political works.......1998-07-10
Gramsci's Prison Notebooks marks one of the nodal points of Western Marxism's break with Leninism and the breed of marxism born of the Bolshevik Revolution. Exploratory and incomplete, the insights contained in this volume marked a turning point in marxist thinking, indeed leading many right through the marxist fold and out the other side. Gramsci's insights into philosphy, cultural criticism, political economy, and politics make this a crucial resource for anyone interested in any of these themes today ... marxist or otherwise. And for those interested in the 'fall' of marxism, Gramsci is perhaps the most important starting point. A veritable critical goldmine!!!!
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- Read What Frost Himself Published
- Frost Revived and Rejuvenated
- Buyer Beware
- An essential tool in understanding America's most famous poet
- To better understand the man and the poetry
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The Notebooks of Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
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ASIN: 0674023110 |
Book Description
Robert Frost is one of the most widely read, well loved, and misunderstood of modern writers. In his day, he was also an inveterate note-taker, penning thousands of intense aphoristic thoughts, observations, and meditations in small pocket pads and school theme books throughout his life. These notebooks, transcribed and presented here in their entirety for the first time, offer unprecedented insight into Frost's complex and often highly contradictory thinking about poetics, politics, education, psychology, science, and religion--his attitude toward Marxism, the New Deal, World War--as well as Yeats, Pound, Santayana, and William James. Covering a period from the late 1890s to early 1960s, the notebooks reveal the full range of the mind of one of America's greatest poets. Their depth and complexity convey the restless and probing quality of his thought, and show how the unruliness of chaotic modernity was always just beneath his appearance of supreme poetic control.
Edited by preeminent Frost scholar Robert Faggen and annotated to help readers with the poet's more elusive references, the notebooks are also thoroughly cross-referenced, marking thematic connections within these and Frost's other writings, including his poetry, letters, and other prose. This is a major new addition to the canon of Robert Frost's writings.
Customer Reviews:
Read What Frost Himself Published.......2007-04-14
The few finished essays that Robert Frost offered to his public ("The Figure a Poem Makes," e. g.) are so extraordinarily memorable, so full of canny, down-to-earth shrewdness and overall scintillation that I picked up his _Notebooks,_ edited by Robert Faggen in this attractive, 809 page book from Harvard with anticipation.
I am sorry to say that I was disappointed. The drafts or starts of poems seemed to me mostly flaccid and unfocussed. Of course, these are drafts; they were never meant to be read. Frost seems to have used most all his best lines in his published work. The work here never breaks into the dead-on, stunning revelations, the suggestive aphoristic brilliance of the crystallized Frost. Moreover, there are pages and pages of fragments like "A few words of policy now and then A stroke of policy now and then." That is either obvious and not with saying, or obscure in reference. There are thousands of phrases here that hold no meaning by themselves--e. g., "Not fantastic." So what? What is not fantastic? "What is philosophy. Education as inuring. Tom-tom in poetry." What is that all about?
Faggen has dutifully chased down everything an editor could be asked to chase down--references, dates, connections to other Frost material, sources of quotations. He has reproduced these notebooks with all their cross outs so indicated (and faithfully crossed out), and indicated when Frost switches from pen to pencil. On occasion there are nuggets--blasts against Roosevelt and the New Deal, bracing comic flashes ("And oh but it was fetching / To see the wretches retching"), and insight breaking through obviousness or obscurity every seventy pages. However, as a whole I don't think all this is worth it by itself, nor I'm not sure how much it helps read the Frost that is worth it, which is the Frost we already had.
Frost Revived and Rejuvenated.......2007-03-19
I had read and heard Frost too often and had come to think of him as an old poet, too familiar, too crotchety, too tired. This volume re-ignited my interest in his life and his poetry because more than any other volume it reveals his thinking. He thinks all sorts of ways other than poetically, and thinks about poetry as well as anyone ever has.
He acknowledges that the poets "at whose metric feet we worshipped and bowed down were Arnold Keats Browning Tennyson Kipling (wooden music xylophone) Emerson Longfellow" and declares "Poetry is that in us that will not be terrified by science." In Notebook 17 (26-30) he lists 39 things that can be done with a poem besides read it.
For me, this volume makes him more intriguing and much more exciting than he has ever been before. I have gone back to the poems with enthusiasm. Readers are advised to sample back and forth to get a sense of the whole before starting from the beginning and reading through: the first notebooks are by no means the most interesting, or even typical.
As Robert Faggen's introduction emphasizes, this volume presents Frost as a first-class aphorist, comparable to Francis Bacon and Friedrich Nietzsche. Faggen's intimacy with Frost's life, poetry, and other works adds much to the introduction and notes. This must have been an exceedingly difficult task.
A prior reviewer objected to the "dark" Frost. Faggen explains that by "dark" Frost meant a great deal, not least the need to grope in the dark in order to advance. The notebooks have meditations on the dark, including this from Notebook 23:
"Dark darker darkest.
"Dark as it is that there are these sorrows and darker still that we can do so little to get rid of them the darkest is still to come. The darkest is that perhaps we ought not want to get rid of them."
I have two complaints: (1) I wish the book had a better index. Only names and book and poem titles are indexed. Of course, any kind of subject index would have been laborious, but it would have added greatly to value of this very rich book. (2) The proofreading for the editor's introduction and notes is atrocious, so plainly bad that I worried about the accuracy of the transcriptions. For instance, this note: "Enoch Lincoln (1788-1829), a Congressman for Massachusetts and Maine when the two states were one. When Maine was made separate, he represented that state from 1921 to 1926."
Even so, a huge book, hugely wonderful.
Buyer Beware.......2007-03-17
Why am I skeptical about "the dark side of Frost". Academics need to get their work published to get tenure or to get promoted--why not claim that one of America's greatest poets had secrets and a shady past?
However, having heard about academics who studied the Frost material at UVA and Pinkerton Academy, I challenge other scholars, poets, and experts in handwriting to compare Robert Faggen's work with the original sources. The Financial Times said that Faggen "meticuously catalogued and cross referenced Frost's thoughts." If this is true, why did Faggen claim that Frost's handwriting was "abyssmal" and utterly illegible in places, and therefore had to do a lot of guessing as to what Frost had written. Other scholars have found the handwriting legible. Also, Faggen's friends assert that he reprinted all the Frost material in its entirety. I beg to differ--having noticed some glaring ommissions. I hope that a competing publisher will give another scholar or starving graduate student a chance to present an alternative transcription of this material to the reading public. With no other text to compare it to, we are asked to accept it as the gospel according to Faggen.
An essential tool in understanding America's most famous poet.......2007-03-11
Robert Faggen has forever changed the course of poetry scholarship with this finely tuned and sensitively annotated collection of all the known notebooks of Robert Frost, our most famous and controversial poet.
Faggen's comments are helpful without being intrusive and the material itself is all Robert Frost without interpretation or added punctuation. Previously this material would have only been accessible by visiting the special collections of the major insitutional libraries that keep it under archival lock and key.
It's the kind of book you can open at random and find something fascinating to read. However, if you take advantage of the well organized and cross-referenced notes, the context in which Frost created these notebooks becomes much clearer, and the poet's creative process is revealed.
Recently, a great deal of publicity was generated when the Barrett library at the University of Virginia uncovered a previously unpublished early poem by Frost in their archives - here in this one collection are 688 pages of material that only a few scholars have ever seen. Frost fans should be lighting some serious fireworks in celebration of such an important addition to the Frost canon.
To better understand the man and the poetry.......2007-03-07
This volume includes the forty- eight notebooks which Frost wrote during his lifetime from the 1890's to the 1960's. It contains much about Frost's credo as a poet, and much of his aphoristic thought about a whole range of matters from the political and educational to the philosophical and poetic. Meghan O'Rourke in an outstanding review of the book in the 'Los Angeles Times' points out its inherent contradictions in bringing together two sides of Frost the popular public poet and the dark and difficult skeptic.
" The author was a set of inconsistencies: a Romantic bent on critiquing Romanticism; a pragmatist and quasi-Social Darwinist who wasn't quite convinced of his own views. As Faggen points out in an insightful introduction, Frost returns again and again to the feeling that life "can consist of the inconsistent."
Frost defined himself as an exception in all things, and he truly made a difference by taking the road not taken.
There is a stubborn recalcitrant quality to both his personality and prose which often give the reader a hard-won pleasure in struggling to understand his often deceptively simple sentences. Often only through indirections could his directions be found out.
This is an invaluable work for all students of Frost and all lovers of his poetry.
Customer Reviews:
Only for collection..........2000-08-08
This book is a very expensive item, and I think only people who are in Love with Martha, should have that book. The printing is actually very interesting, because it respects the way she wrote in her original Notebooks, if you are not familiar with her work, or her life, you might need, to use other books to support your reading. Inside you will also find, very precise description of her pieces, and how she wanted them. If you want to have that book, make sure to get other books, such as, "Goddess", "Sixteen Dances", and "Martha" from Agnes DeMille, these books will help you to know who's who, Have a wonderful reading, and an amazing day...
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