3 comments about 100 American Flags: A Unique Collection of Old Glory Memorabilia (The Collector's Eye).

1. 100 American Flags is a very well-done, educational little book. Perfect for a Hostess gift for a 4th. of July Party. That's why I bought two - one for me and one for a dear friend who collects Americana and has a HUGE 4th. of July Bash every year.



2. I was very pleased with the quick delivery. I knew what I was ordering because I had seen the author on Martha Stewart. It was a great overview of his book. I am a Patriotic and flag nut, and this was right up my alley. I was not disappointed with this purchase.



3. Compiled by one of the grandfathers of modern print design, this book, which features items from Kit Hinrichs' own personal collection, is a wonderful artistic expression of the Stars & Stripes through antique American flags, patriotic memorbilia, and art. I highly recommend it.
   
   Jeff Bridgman, dealer in antique flags, www.jeffbridgman.com

No comments about Snapshots: The Eye Of The Century.

No comments about Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective.

2 comments about CLAMP South Side.

1. My only complaint is the binding. it doesn't really let you open the book easily to really look at the artwork. However CLAMP does beautiful, intricate artwork and this is a must have for all fans of their art.



2. ~REVIEW~
   
   North...South...what path should you approach, fellow CLAMPER? Which side would you go to reach your temporary niche nirvana? What directions do you have to know which is the right way? I'm gonna help you with those directions. Tokyopop has pulled a Nintendo and release TWO different versions of "CLAMP no eshigoto": North Side and South Side (the "no eshigoto" is the japanese lettering on the title, meaning "artworks"). These Sides contain history of CLAMP's synonymous visual works, from the early years of 1989 to these art books' Japanese release in 2002; forget about looking for "Tsubasa" and "xxxHOLIC" designs on either side, they're from '03. Also, if you're hoping for illustrations of "Cardcaptor Sakura", "Chobits", "Angelic Layer", and "X(/1999)", you're out of luck on either side as well. The Sides are for the real CLAMP manga enthusiams, but those books are by no means a disappointment.
   
   If you read mostly CLAMP manga from Kodansha, then you're a northern bookworm. "Clover", "Magic Knight Rayearth", and others were part of the same company line-up, because "North Side" was released in Japan by Kodansha. Even though I mentioned there's no "Cardcaptor" or "Chobits" artworks here, it does have collaboration works with characters from those series mixed together. Surprisingly, even if Kodansha has more popular and exquisite CLAMP works, this Side is short with only 160 pages.
   
   If you read some CLAMP manga from Kadokawa Shoten, then you're a southern player. Like Kodansha to the North, "South Side" was released in Japan by K-Shoten, along with the manga in this side: "CLAMP School Detectives", "Suki", "Legal Drug", and the anthologies that grabbed my heart. Personally, "Clamp School" along with its spin-offs are, to put it lightly, not great, and at worst, vomitatious (which CLAMP girl thought "Man of Many Faces" was a great idea?). Even so, there are others that love it, and these are in it for a treat with this side, with 40 more pages of illustrations than on "North Side."
   
   If you're buying a CLAMP art book for the abundance of extras, go for the North path. "North Side" has an exclusive CLAMP comic with one of the CLAMP artists as a princess trying to survive a whole day being a normal girl, and eventually got her ass towed up by her mishaps; funny stuff. Not only that, but it include a lengthy, though hard-to-read, interview with THE femme four. Storywriter Ohkawa, and artists Nekoi, Mokona, and Igarashi gave some standard facts of how they met, complications of their careers, and mostly discuss about their work, "Chobits." You might want to get some reading glasses because the text are small...REALLY small.
   
   If you're looking for a CLAMP artbook with some artistic diversity, head to the South path. While "South Side" has only one extra, the "How-to Art" section is plentiful. Three different CLAMP illustrations, three different methods of creating them with detailed instructions and materials needed to create them; reading glasses not included for those squinty text. It's very helpful for those who are following a career in art.
   
   For both sides, they include CLAMP's unreleased illustrations, including those that are titilating (who knew these girls can actually draw nipples in one of their designs), and columns to show where CLAMP's works of art have been (magazines, postcards, etc).
   
   Choosing between "North Side" and "South Side" is like choosing between the red and blue version of "Pokemon": they're different, but they follows the same core. Both sides contain a considerable amount of flaws, while having some advantages by the corner. It would be nice if both would include arts of such popular CLAMP series, but what both sides have is good enough. For CLAMP fans, I gave you enough facts to help you with your decision, but if you have the dough, you should get both, but if you can afford only one, that decision really depends on your taste.
   
   FINAL W()RDS: Whichever wins, nobody loses.
   
   [Reviewer's View] I decided to buy "South Side" over "North Side", because...well, I'm from the south. Plus, it contains arts from CLAMP's manga anthologies, which I enjoy reading so much, even though their amount of arts were sparse.

1 comments about Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 2: African American Vernacular Art.

1. Anyone that has Vol 1 needs to buy this Vol or even if you have an interest in some of the listed artists in this book and don't have Vol 1 buy this one. Vol 1 had a general history of African American Vernacular Art where as this volume has a more in depth look at particular artists and their enviroments. The essays are longer and you get many more examples of each artists work as well as many pictures of the artists in their environments or the art in the original environments or even in a few cases the artists working on pieces.
   
   To see the art in it's original environment gives the proper perspective to understanding the nature of the art.
   
   I think this book is definately the equal or if not better than the first and it is wonderful of the Arnetts to put two books together of such high quality at affordable prices. I dream of a third book.
   
   When these books sell out people will be climbing over the top of each other to get them and the price of secondhand copies will skyrocket.
   Don't miss out

1 comments about The Design of Educational Exhibits.

1. The best book I've read on the topics of Design and educational exhibits. He has the right balance of theory and practice which seems to get overlooked with many academics. Miles is still so relevant in 2004 as the day this was published in 1982. I'm still trying to buy a copy in New Zealand to help with my masters degree - titled 'Exposition Design for Emergency Management'.
   regards Brian Marsom

No comments about Richard Deacon (Contemporary Artists).

3 comments about Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth..

1. This is THE book that try to find the real Cleopatra VII. It has tons of photographs on historical artificts, either they were real portraits of her, image inspired from her, or artificts long mis-identified the image as her, or the artificts from her time, this book carries the invaluable information that is hard to find them anywhere else. And this book carries scholars essays that analyse and discuss all the aspects about this famous pharaoh. Great refernece book for anyone who wants to find historical, non-fictional information about her.



2. This book, I would say, is the best book I have read, (and that's a lot) on the Ptolemaic Period and Egypt's last and fateful Macedonian Queen, who died for her ambition, and desire to restore her country as major power. She was brave enough to challenge the enslaving and powerful force of Rome, and dreamed of an independant Egyptian Empire. But her attempt to achieve her goal cost her her life, and her country.
   After her death, the Romans destroyed most representations of her. They overlooked, however, the many exquisite Egyptian-style statues of the queen, however, and instead destroyed what would have been the many classical depictions of her, which are lost to the Romans wrath. But fortunately, the Egyptian art survived the centuries, and with these gorgeous and mysterious representations of the living goddess herself, Susan Walker, with the help of the British Museum, has pieced together an accurate and enthralling portrait of her eventful life.
   The sections, on subjects such as Alexandria, The Ptolemies, and Cleopatra and Rome, this book contains dozens of well-written and powerful essays on the monarch's life and relationship, and also Egypt at the time. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full color images of Egyptian style artwork depicting the queen, and also many statues of the people that influenced her life such as her lovers Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and her nemesis, the enigma Octavian, later to be Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.
   I recommend very strongly this book to anyone at all interested in Egyptian, Greek, or Roman history, and art. An unearthly account of the last years of Egyptian power.



3. If pressed, I'd almost say that this is the single best book on Cleopatra. Granted, there are critical biographies, historical accounts, and all sorts of other sources, but this massive book is unique in that it shows nearly every sculpture, coin, or papyrus that can be tied directly to Egypt's last independent ruler. Its fascinating to finally see how Cleopatra presented herself to her subjects -- in traditional Egyptian style for the local population, in Greek style to the Greco-Roman world at large. It's also sobering to see how little remains of her reign. The Romans went after her Greek-style statues, but since they didn't understand Egyptian art, many works of art in that style survive. Besides the impressive visuals, the book includes important essays on many different parts of Cleopatra's reign, life in Alexandria, and the legends that have swirled around Cleopatra after her death. A good comprehensive look at this famous queen, scholarly and readable. But boy, those visuals...!

2 comments about The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984.

1. I agree with the previous reviewer: why no Basquiat? Yet that brings me to my major issue with the book, which is the uneven quality of the included essays. Berbard Gendron's essay on downtown music and Matthew Yokobosky's essay on no wave cinema are useful and interesting, yet the reader is punished with Robert Siegle's vague essay on downtown writing, an absurd essay about modernism vs postmodernism, and an absolutely awful essay by Carlo McCormick. Here's a sentence by McCormick:
   
   "Between the communality of the great psychedelic orgy and the mortal dread of viral transmission, the concupiscence of youth proliferated a polymorphous perversity that explored the politics of desire, the social ideals of attraction, and the aesthetics of fetish in a carnal celebration of ideogrammatic Sexpressionism."
   
   Someone get him a copy of _The Elements of Style_.
   
   In any case, the book is filled with some really interesting photos and reproductions, so I'd say it's worth a look. I just wouldn't pay full price.



2. This book indeed contains a good cross-section of the artists, writers & performers navigating around the downtown NY art scene between 74 & 84. Great photographs & an excellent Chronology feature at the end of the book. BUT: How do you get by sub-titling a book The New York Art Scene 1974-1984 without showing one photo of or one piece of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, or writing one full paragraph concerning him? There are only scattered mentions of him here & there & the only photo we get are a couple of stills from Downtown 81. It's true that I didn't buy this book expecting in-depth Basquiat coverage, but still, there could have been at least a bit more on him. I'm only knocking off one rating star for that since besides the lack of Basquiat pictures, this book is an excellent summary/chronology of an increasingly important & often overlooked period of American art.

1 comments about Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue 2009: Countries of the World Solomon Islands-z (Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol 6 So-Z).

1. When you are collecting stamps you need the best reference catalog available, and this is the one, almost every store and auction uses it not only as a price reference but also as a clasification guide. My only concern is why this volume is cheaper than the other five.