5 comments about The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film.

1. I am glad I got this book. It proves to me how much the Big Lewboski really rocks!



2. I've never felt so intellectually abused by a book as to resort to writing a scathing review like this on Amazon. This book is mind-bogglingly aweful! It reads like an 8th grade book report. It has no pretense of a plot and does amazingly little to actually delve into the making of the Big Lebowski. Don't buy it! Half of it is literally just the author monotonously describing what *happens* in the Big Lebowski. YES, repeating what you've watched in the movie!! Page upon page reads like "and then the dude goes into...and then...and then..." Much of the rest is an incredibly egotistical author bragging about how "in" he is with the Coens and prattling on about his interactions with them and how well he knows them. The author's grasp of english is profoundly poor and his "hip" slang falls utterly flat and non-sensical as he tries to invent numerous non-words. Even the pictures have nothing to do with their placement in the text. The ONLY redeeming characteristic of the book is that the author includes many long quotes from the Coens and the people who work closely with them.



3. Every once and while I look for books to re-inspire my need to make films. This is one of those useful books for people interested in the real filmmaking process. This book doesn't have useless interviews about how much fun the actors had working with a director but covers every thought and decision the crew had to make in the production. If you're a Coen Brother's fan, you'll also be interested to gain some insight into how they invent and produce their signiture films.



4. This book was co-written by William Preston Robertson who is someone, if you've studied the end credits of the Coens' early film, who has worked on their films in various capacities. He's often provided voiceovers where needed and even offered a place for them to crash when they developed writer's block while working on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing.

   So, he writes this book with an insider's perspective. At every opportunity he makes fun of them (as only a close friend can) and spends the first part of the book tracing their career up to The Big Lebowski. The rest of the book plays out as a quasi-Making Of that is quite an entertaining read. For example, he places their film in the grand tradition of bowling noir, a very rarified subgenre of the film noir. Robertson is quite funny as he pontificates about this subgenre at some length.

   If I had one complaint about the book is the amount of detail that is gone into about the storyboarding process which I could have done without. But this is a minor quibble at best.

   Robertson's style of writing is very casual and easy to read--it won't take you long to get through this book. If you are a hardcore fan of the Coens, then you will definitely enjoy this book and all the little, inside jokes. It will certainly deepen your appreciation for the film and acts as a great companion-piece.




5. The Big Lebowski is my all-time favorite movie; I bought this book hoping to read lengthy interviews with the cast, see behind-the-scenes photos and stills from the film, etc. Instead, this book deals with the technicalities of the Coen brothers' film making in general, with The Big Lebowski only serving as the most-often referenced case-in-point. So I'd say read this if you're interested in the Coens' film making technique, but if you're interested in The Big Lebowski specifically you won't really find much here.

5 comments about Uncommon Knowledge.

1. Judy Lewis lived a life as a Hollywood star's child that no other offspring of a celebrity can claim - believing that she was the adopted daughter of Loretta Young, she was in fact Young's natural child, conceived during a brief affair with the King Of Hollywood, Clark Gable. However, the Tinsletown of the 1930s, out of wedlock pregnancies were unacceptable, and Gable's status as a married man and Young's Roman Catholic faith forbade any chance of the two ever to be linked in matrimony. Loretta carried out a plan with the help of her mother, in which she let it be known that she was embarking on a trip to Europe, when in fact she was in seclusion, waiting to secretly give birth. The baby girl was placed in an orphange while Young returned to Hollywood to put gossip to rest and resume her career. She reclaimed her infant daughter some months later and let it be known that she had adopted the child. Although the open secret around town was that she and Gable had a love child, it was one that everyone kept mum about. Thus, little Judy grew up with low whispers, a stepfather who turned on her the moment he fathered two sons with her mother, and Loretta's own strange ambivalence and detachment. Although Clark was aware of his daughter (even coming to visit her a few times as an infant), he never publicly acknowledged her. One of the most painful passages recalls Judy's hurt by being called "Dumbo" at a birthday party because of the size of her ears (inherited from her famous father). Young used her little girl's negative experience as an excuse to have Judy undergo excruciating surgeries to reshape her ears so that Loretta's secret would remain safe. When Judy did meet Gable as a teenager, she was still in the dark about her parentage and was awed by the famed actor's visit to her home. Her stepfather became emotionally cold and cruel to his stepdaughter while her mother was off busily doing her work. It wasn't until she was grown that Judy learned the truth about herself - from her fiancee, who admitted that everyone knew that she was the child of two legendary stars. In adulthood, Judy married, had a daughter of her own, and eventually became a psychologist (after working as an actress), and was able to piece together and analyze why her parents made the choices they did, and why her mother continued to deny the truth. With her own background of abandonment, Loretta felt that Gable's distance and lack of financial support of their baby was yet another example of how men were unreliable. Unfortunately, she inflicted her own sense of shame (reinforced by her religion, no doubt), guilt and anger on her daughter. God took the place of a father in Young's life, and she used her religion as a defense with many situations. At the time Uncommon Knowledge was published, Young still had not confirmed that Judy was her biological child, and they two were estranged. Loretta sniffed to the press after the book's initial release, "I cannot imagine why she wrote this book." It was only shortly before Young's death from ovarian cancer in 2000 that the star admitted the truth publicily and mother and daughter reconciled.
   
   Judy Lewis was courageous in revealing what had been denied to her entire life - her father, and the truth. Most of us take for granted our lineage and our identities, but one thing's for certain - looking at photographs of Lewis there is no mistaking who her parents were. Loretta Young's "mortal sin" was in fact something that was hypocrisy at the time, no child is ever a sin, nor is love a sin. But Young's own psychology and the standards of the time prevented her from emotionally stepping up to the plate, the same can be said of Gable, and their child suffered as a result. Judy Lewis continues to inspire with her story, refusing to give into the shame that so affected her mother, and she maintains a close relationship with her daughter and granchildren. She was able to overcome the patterns and cycle that had emotionally crippled her forebearers, and has gone on to live a fufilled life.



2. Great book. Very interesting. I couldn't put it down. I respect Judy Lewis much more than I do, say, Christina Crawford, because she had the guts to write this book while her mother was still alive to defend herself. This book makes me feel bad not just for Judy Lewis, but also for Loretta Young. What a terrible position to be in. I think she did the best she could at the time. I feel awful for Judy Lewis that she never got to know her father, Clark Gable as well. The book was very intriguing, highly recommended!!!



3. When I was a little kid, my mother never missed the Loretta Young Show on TV. I grew up knowing that Young was a big Hollywood star who had always been a devout Catholic and therefore a `good girl' - unlike so many wild Hollywood stars.
   
   I'm not immune to all celebrity buzz, but I missed the news years ago that Loretta Young's "adopted" daughter was in fact her own baby, born out of wedlock and fathered by Clark Gable, no less. When I did hear that recently, I had to read this book by Judy Lewis for all the scoop.
   
   A lesser person could have published a shrill "Mommie Dearest" type of book. Instead, Lewis wrote a thoughtful, heartfelt memoir which takes the reader into the heart of a family - the good, the bad, the lovely and the ugly. That the family in question lived under the spotlight of Hollywood fame, wealth and influence is relevant, but not the focus of the story.
   
   Lewis looks at her mother's family and traces patterns of attitude and behavior through the generations: beautiful, strong and talented women left to raise their children after their men left them, and "giving away" young children temporarily to allow them to have better living conditions than a struggling parent could manage.
   
   A key fact is the devout Catholic faith of Loretta and her mother, Gladys. Already starring in pictures in her late teens, Loretta succeeded in the transition from silent films to the talkies. In 1935, the 22-year-old Young went on location to the mountains of Washington state to film "Call of the Wild" with Clark Gable. The production encountered severe winter weather and serious delays, and the stars fell in love. Young had been briefly married at age 17 (then divorced, but since she hadn't been married in church it somehow didn't "count" in Catholic terms), and Gable was married. When Young learned she was pregnant, abortion was out of the question due to her faith - which also told her that her child was a "mortal sin."
   
   Young's machinations to keep her pregnancy out of the news, and to eventually publicly "adopt" the child when she was 23 months old (or so, the kid's exact age was also fudged as part of the smoke screen), from a children's home out of town where she had sent her baby to stay for months, are chilling to read. By the time Judy Lewis knew the truth about her parentage - facts which were "common knowledge" in Hollywood where she grew up - it was too late for her to get to know her father.
   
   I wouldn't have been surprised if this book had been a long self-pitying whine. But Lewis has the gift of a loving and empathetic nature. She looks beyond her own story - backward to her family of origin, and forward as she revels in her daughter's happiness in adulthood - and thus gives us a frame of reference for the hard decisions taken by a young, beautiful and fiercely ambitious - and fiercely Catholic - movie star in the 1930's.
   
   Lewis dishes up a little more psychotherapy than I thought was really necessary, but it's understandable. At the time she wrote this book, Lewis was a newly-minted therapist, having finally obtained the college education that her mother had so firmly steered her away from when Lewis had graduated from high school. Yet another strange thing to me; you'd expect a wealthy, successful woman to *want* her daughter to get a good education. But this story has many strange turns, and I'm glad I got a copy of this book and read about all of them. Sometimes, you just can't make this stuff up.



4. This book really delivers if you're looking for a fair, in-depth look at what Loretta Young was like and to understand her daughter's difficult journey. This book is especially useful to Loretta Young fans since Young always seemed to want to paint an angelic saint-like image of herself. Loretta's human, just like the rest of us, and it's too bad she never figured out that it is okay to be human and make mistakes. I thought this book gave her mother a fair examination, and I would recommend it to Young fans as well as anyone who was ever raised to feel abandoned and unwanted.



5. I could not put the book down. Even though I am in my thirties, I love old movies. This was a very entertaining book and I am so glad I purchased it. The writer, unlike many other similar books, does not pity herself. She states the facts in a compelling manner. I found myself wanting to just reach out and give her a hug for the way she was brought up and treated. She really makes you feel like you were there. The pictures are great and really lend to the story. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly!!! It left me wanting to know what happened next in their lives.

No comments about The Little Bit Naughty Book of Lap Dancing for Your Lover.

1 comments about Back on Course.

1. This book begins with the testimonials of Gavin and Patti MacLeod as individuals. They both describe their childhoods as well as their point of view of their marriage to each other.

   They review their marriage and why it did not work. It describes their divorce and how God brought them back together and created a new, beautiful marriage that they never thought was possible.

   The book ends with ten steps to having a successful marriage. This book is very inspiring and is a definite must for anyone whose marriage is in trouble.

5 comments about Tango: The Art History of Love.

1. Thompson intends to popularize tango's African heritage, particularly its debt to culture in the Kingdom of Kongo. As a nonpareil scholar of that region, he's the man to trust when it comes to comparing language, body posture, dance forms, and musical structure in Old and New Worlds, finding convincing points of similarity. His enthusiasm for the topic lends to enjoyable, if sometimes over-detailed, prose.
   
   However, amazing blind spots emerge when he examines tango as it is now danced in Argentina and Uruguay. Though he mentions his own fieldwork watching dancers at Buenos Aires dance halls, he seems more comfortable citing testimony from renowned stage performers and choreographers, such as Juan Carlos Copes. Perhaps this is why Thompson seems entirely oblivious about the difference between stage tango, and tango as it is danced by the majority of dancers. His investigation veers into irrelevance as he analyzes the symbolism and African origins of choreographed, only-for-show patterns such as sentadas and ganchos.
   
   It's tantalizing to think what Thompson's brilliance could have brought to a discussion of social tango. Of course he examines the African-ness of tango's improvisational character, yet oddly spends several pages on the exhaustively rehearsed Tango Argentino. Another pleasure not delivered is his take on tango por export, tango as served up to gringos. Surely when he prepared his manuscript at the turn of the millennium he was not unaware of the red-hot tango tourism market in Argentina: many of his interview subjects are also participants in the globalized tango economy, as performers and master teachers.
   
   In all, it's as frustrating as discovering that comely stranger you've accepted as partner can't dance a lick.



2. As an argentino, that grew up listenning to the Beatles and CCR, I must say that this book was quite an enlightning experience.
   It opened my curiosity with regards to the history of Africo-Argentino culture. It is not dead, thank you milonga.
   I have a copy signed by Mr thompson and really didnt know what I'd gotten until I went home and read the book.
   His theories, to my scrutiny, are sound.
   You may not see 'blacks' in Argentina now a days but, an underlined racism still lingers.
   I have had difficulty talking about this book with relatives and friends.
   I think that Mr Thompson has done a great catharthic piece that will test the Argentine historians for years to come.
   Although the lyrics could have been translated closer to the point, using a less literal method.
   I believe that this book is 'heavy' more so than anything else out there.
   It has more knowledge per page and hopefully will inspire a new generation of writers within the Argentino culture.
   Thank you! Mr Thompson.



3. Tango as a song and dance popular genre can't be defined just by one of its constituting elements, the music, its lyrics or its choreography. And much less if the essential element is not the music because the music is the organizing and substantial element. Without the music the others can not exist. Without the music there is neither singing nor dancing. A dance step in itself, a verse alone, does not define anything, inasmuch as an isolated musical chord does not qualify as melody.
   
   In Tango, The Art History of Love, the author's tactics seem to circumvent those concepts in a gratuitously attempt to inject the race card in an otherwise all inclusive popular cultural foreign manifestation. He looks at paintings and reads the painter's mind, he listens to a song and states the composer's intention, he watches a dancer and extrapolates a step or posture making up analogies and pulling hairs in a reckless way.
   
   The least it can be expected from a history book is respect for time lines. Repeating irrelevant urban legends the author jumps all over time lines placing habanera dancing Cuban sailors in Buenos Aires about 60-70 years before Cuba's Armada was created.
   
   On page 216 of Tango, The Art History of Love, the author writes, "(Osvaldo) Pugliese, of course, wrote three black-inspired gems in the 1940s - La yumba, Negracha and Malandraca - affirming the drive of Afro Argentine culture." Of course... of course what, why, how come? How can anyone possibly know what went through Osvaldo Pugliese's mind in 1946 (La yumba), and in 1948 (Negracha, Malandraca).
   
   On page 200 Pugliese's daughter Beba is described as a little girl, racing up and down knocking on doors, her father lovingly calling her "my little rascal" (mi malandraca). Thus, the tango Malandraca could be assumed that it was named after the young Beba. The author, after defining it as a black-inspired gem, adds: "its boiler house intensity melts into yearning, and a factory like ardor, metallic and hard, turns into thought and nostalgia."
   
   What????
   
   The history of tango lyrics is very well documented and verifiable. Chapter 2 of the book is titled TANGO AS TEXT. On page 36 the author takes on Enrique Santos Discepolo (1901-51) in order to promote Celedonio Flores, a third generation mulato and proud Argentine native, as the standard bearer of the injustice done by white Argentines to the rightful owners of the tango, the mythical Afro-Argentines the author has invented in order to justify the claims of his book.
   
   "El Negro Cele was the poet laureate of the people. Enrique Santos Discepolo is the darling of the intellectuals... Yet the true source of Discepolo's style is popular invention, particularly the writing
   of (Celedonio) Flores. He does not copy Flores; in terms of Harold Bloom, he `imprisons' him, willfully misinterprets him, achieving a rueful innovation. In famous lines of the tango YIRA, YIRA (Hit the
   streets, hit the streets, 1930), Discepolo turns a cold shoulder to a woman of the night, precisely where Flores would commiserate or melt."
   
   Page after page of this irrelevant and dishonest history book, the author makes irresponsible claims and insists in implying that white folks stole tango from black folks adding another layer of racist pandering enlightenment.
   
   - Flores = Black = Poet laureate of the people = Commiserates or melts by woman of the night.
   - Discepolo = White = Darling of the intellectuals = Turn cold shoulder to woman of the night.
   
   But here is the problem.
   
   Tango YIRA, YIRA is not about a woman at all. There is no woman in YIRA, YIRA, a fact that anybody with basic high school Spanish could easily verify. The verses of Enrique Santos Discepolo at best reflect upon the inevitable end of our lives and the plight of those who live going around through life without ever finding a purpose. At worst, they are an indictment of the prevalent political and social climate just
   after the Great Depression.
   
   Discepolo begins...
   
   "Cuando la suerte que es grela, (When luck that has feminine gender) fallando y fallando te largue parao' (letting you down, letting you down, leaves you standing by yourself)" ... clearly talking to a male listener, or maybe to himself, using the noun "parao," an uneducated variation of the passive
   participle of the verb PARAR, `parado' which he uses to signify being abandoned on your own. PARADO's gender is masculine. A woman would be left PARADA. Right there and then everyone knows that the tango is not about a woman.
   
   In YIRA, YIRA, Discepolo is not turning a cold shower to a woman of the night. A serious tango historian must know about the lunfardo verb YIRAR - the tour around all the police stations of the city by repeat thieves so they'd become known to all the officers. - Serious tango experts also must know that the noun YIRO , a derogatory word for prostitute. A culture vulture would listen to YIRA, YIRA and rightfully think of a prostitute.
   The sources of most fairy tales in Thompson's book are generations of Argentines who qualify as ignorant culture vultures, and maybe some reassured him that YIRA, YIRA is about a woman. However ignorance is not a reliable source for a book heralded for having discovered in the Argentine tango a racist undertone that ignores African culture.
   
   By accusing Discepolo, under false pretenses to prove his case, if not of outright copying Flores, "the black poet laureate of the people," but at least of willfully misinterpreting him, Thompson may
   have inadvertently fit in the vision of Discepolo.
   
   "Veras que todo es mentira (You'll see that everything is a lie) veras que nada es amor (you'll see that nothing is love) que al mundo nada le importa (that the world couldn't care less) Yira, yira! (go around every police station so they can take a good look at you)"
   
   A total waste of precious resources and an unfortunate source of false pride for trusting blacks who fall in love with the tango.



4. Peoples mind's are set until actual life experience give a wider perspective. The book has close to 30 pages of notes. Tango as dance, music or a way of life is an emotional subject. ,Robert Farris Thompson offers his findings and other person's actual life experience, covering social history, linguistics, evolution, why things changed with this reader even more interested in Tango and related subjects.While having considerable music and dance recordings, movies and books this was an extremely importanty addition. It will take you to many places, times, customs and languages. The book is in greater depth and apparent accuracy then anything else I have read. Result: greater enjoyment of Tango. In "The Tango" by Monica Gloria de le Compte, Published by Maizal Ediciones, 2000 her first paragraph is "Tango is a word of African origin. In some African dialects the word means closed meeting place. At the end of the XVIII century the slaves met to make music and dance." History is often revised but Robert Farris Thompson offers you a more complete and accurate outline.



5. This book was recommended to me by a fellow Tango student. It seems to be one of the best out there for those whose dancing has lead to intellectual curiosity about the Argentine culture, politics, and music. This understanding contributes to how I dance Tango today. As I learn new dances, I hope to get beyond being mechanically competent, to dancing this Tango from some inner place. This is one of those books that is helping me get there.
   
   There is a very good section on the "how-to" of the dance which will be helpful to dancers with some experience. Beginners will need a little floor time to recognize and absorb the instructions.

No comments about Experiencing the Art of Theatre: A Concise Introduction (Wadsworth Series in Theatre).

No comments about History of the Dance in Art and Education (3rd Edition).

4 comments about Imaginary Friends.

1. i love anything written from Nora Ephron's point of view and this book provides some clues to how she got started. It is fun!



2. This book is disappointing since it has no real message except that women fight and never forget. So, it is a very negative message that is projected.



3. I didn't care for this book at all. I liked her other books but was disappointed in this one. Mary Pichette



4. You just don't get the feel of this extraordinary, unusual and unique play of Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman - two rival authors during the communist scare - from reading it. I was given the pleasure of seeing this incredible play starring Cherry Jones and Swoozie Kurts in its Broadway run. When the two authors meet in the afterlife, they tell their audience about their lives, beginning with their cleverly told childhoods and slowly moving forward to McCarthy's accusation of being a Communist and ending with Hellman's death before the trial was set by Hellman and McCarthy to discuss McCarthy's lies about Hellman's so-called memoirs. Still clever and still stunning, Ephron's play is an enjoyable read for McCarthy (THE GROUP) and Hellman (THE CHILDREN'S HOUR) fans.

1 comments about American Theatre Book of Monologues for Women.

1. I got this book looking for a variety of Monologue. I feel this book is lacking in the comic genre. All the monlogues are very heavy. Even Monologues written by Durang and other humorous Authors are the most serious parts in their plays. Also doesn't give much range even in dramatcis genre. Good if you are a female in your mid to late 30's (I'm mid twenties)

2 comments about Television Production: A Classroom Approach Second Edition Instructor Edition.

1. The product was needed for my son's video-editing class. It arrived in a timely manner and was in great condition.



2. As a first year broadcast teacher, I found this book to be very helpful. It was user-friendly, not too technical for my students but loaded with information that they needed to make their classroom videos. Each chapter taught new skills and allowed the students to practice with the provided activities. My state does not have an adopted text-book for this class, and this book has been a life-saver for me.