2 comments about The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking and Writing Critically.

1. I appreciated the information presented in this book but the political point of view of the authors is continually pressed upon the reader through the examples chosen and the wording in the text. In other words, the rhetorical stand of the authors gets in the way of what they want to say about rhetoric! A textbook should be written to illustrate the subject in a balanced way. The reader ought to be able to read such a book as this one and end up knowing absolutely nothing about the political views of the authors and much about the subject of rhetoric. I felt like I had been beaten over the head, that a point was intended to be made quite apart from enlightening the reader about rhetoric, a pity because there is much good material here. For an example of proper balance, I'd recommend anything written on rhetoric by Prof. David Zarefsky.



2. Thank you!! book is exactly what I needed and arrived in a timely manner!

5 comments about Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation.

1. For the cost of this book plus shipping, I didn't feel I got value. Also, some of his instruction for the particulars of tango is very different than instruction I've received from many teachers from Bueno Aires where Argentine Tango originated.



2. "Tango Zen is an innovative yet natural way of meditating while dancing Tango..." Chan Park, p 9. I mistakenly thought the book was about Tango. - I had hoped it might give me some insight or means to finding that elusive communication between dancers. I should have read the fine print before buying: 87 pages, 5" X 5".
   
   What you get is an attractive small book, very nicely laid out, with 17 B&W full page head-shots of couples with eyes closed in embrace and 24 pages of quotes on Zen, Dance and other topics (the kind of quotes that make nice signature tag-lines). Tango Zen Exercises begin on page 69. The exercise are comprised of instruction and photos: 1 paragraph on Warm Up, 2 pages on Individual Standing, 3 pages on Stretching, 3 pages on Individual Walking, 2 pages on Couple Standing and 2 pages on Couple Walking.
   
   That's it.
   
   My advice is to take one of Mr. Park's live workshops on Tango Zen - the book might have more value for you then, it has little value to me now. But then it was only $10.



3. As a tango dancer, I am all too aware of the tension in tango between the show and stage style and the more intimate milonguero style. There has been a tendency for the showy style to be considered to be more advanced but, in truth, the levels of skill, musicality and connection are so much higher in milonguero. I was so delighted to discover this book which encapsulates within a fusion of tango and zen, all that is wonderful in tango. This book ought to be required reading for all those who find the athletic, gymnastic form of tango neither possible nor to their taste. Power to your elbow Chan Park! You have made an old tanguero very happy.



4. Tango and Zen - this sounds like a culture clash. But it isn't. Of course everything is Zen once you are in it. But maybe Tango is a little bit more, just because there is no direct familiarity.
   
   For everybody doing Zen this familiarity is quite obvious, because one should try to reach maximum awerness every single moment.
   
   But for most Tango Dancers this is a new approach. Normaly we just dance, try to do the correct step, stay upright, opening our mind for what the partner is up to now. Once we get in the Zen-Mind, all this is not important anymore. We are there, floating free, just music, all movement. Doing Tango-Zen helps us to reach this state of mind, it combines the best of both worlds.



5. Tango is hot! If there aren't tango dances or classes taking place in your town now, get ready: they will be there soon! The tango is on MTV, in new movies, and young people worldwide are discovering that it is the best way to have fun, meet people, and be incredibly beautiful and sexy all at once!
   
   So who knew that you could combine the tango with meditation? It seems that not only can you do so, but even Buddha himself practiced meditation while walking. Zen meditation can be practiced in more active ways than the sitting posture. Chan Park says "One can meditate while dancing Tango, experiencing deeper appreciation of physical, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of inner-self." You know those books that offer a new idea whose time has come? This may well be one of them. Tango zen is such a beautiful concept that it is bound to catch on.
   
   This book includes a bit on Zen philosophy as well as well-illustrated exercises which should help any beginner to get started. It is a small book, but it contains all you need to learn this fascinating new meditation/dance technique - and the book can be easily held in the hand while learning to do the exercises. It does not attempt to give extensive instruction on all tango moves.
   
   Anyone can benefit from this technique, and Chan Park's book is highly recommended. Personally, I would be very happy to see our parks full of people doing tango meditation together! What a civilized sight that would be!

4 comments about Naked Masks: Five Plays.

1. Whenever I see anything either written by Pirandello or edited by Bentley my interest is immediately piqued. This volume, however, goes above expectations. The Nobel Prize winning Pirandello delves into the nature both of theatre and of human beings. My favorite of the plays here is "Six Characters in Search of an Author," which somehow straddles the border between realism and absurdism in exploring psyche and dramatic construct. For fans of modern theatre and renaissance drama alike this book makes an excellent addition to the home library.



2. After reading these plays, I can understand why Pirandello won the Nobel Prize. All of the plays deal with illusion and reality in ways that contemporary writers still struggle with. Both Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Each in His Own Way play with the idea that the audience willfuly suspends reality in order to watch a play (or a movie for that matter). He plays with the idea that what something appears to be is as important, if not more important, that what it really is. Again, illusion versus reality. Although all of the plays were interesting,and entertaining, the two standouts were "Six Characters...," and "It is So! (If You Think So)." The former deals with an acting troupe that is approached by six characters who have been conceived by a writer, but not fully realized. The Characters attempt to get the manager of the troupe to write their script, and thus give them artistic life. "It is So..." deals with the nature of how we know what we know, and how we decide what to believe in terms of what is real and what is not.

   The only problem with this collection of plays (and the only reason that I didn't give it five stars) is that in the introduction to "Six Characters..." the editor discusses "Six Characters in Search of an Author," "Each in His own Way," and "tonight We Improvise," as a trilogy. He takes the time to discuss the relationship between these plays, and yet "Tonight We Improvise" is omitted from the collection. Thus, we are left with only the first two plays of the trilogy. What makes it worse is that they are both excellent plays (making me wish I didn't have to scrounge up another book to get the third). Other than that, this is an outstanding collection. Eric Bentley (the editor) writes an informative introduction to Pirandello, and adds Pirandello's own thoughts on "Six Characters...," as well as biographical information on the playwrite, in the appendix. I would recomend this for people who are, or aren't familiar with the work of Luigi Pirandello. It's definitely worth the read.




3. I would recommend this collection to anyone interested in modern drama. Focus particularly on Henry IV. The play in itself is incredibly bizarre upon the first reading. Upon later readings, however, deeper meanings arise. A worthy read.



4. I would recommend this collection to anyone interested in modern drama. Focus particularly on Henry IV. The play in itself is incredibly bizarre upon the first reading. Upon later readings, however, deeper meanings arise. A worthy read.

No comments about Twentieth Century Opera: A Guide.

No comments about The Actor in You: Sixteen Simple Steps to Understanding the Art of Acting (4th Edition).

2 comments about World Film Directors: Volume One 1890-1945.

1. This work covers the major world film directors who had at least made a significant start on their careers by 1945. As a film historian who frequently analyzes directors and their films, I found this volume extremely valuable. It gives one a perfect opportunity to quickly cover the scope of a director's entire career, reading quotes from the director as well as opinions of prominent critics about significant films from that individual's career.

   "World Film Directors" also provides a film historian or fan with the opportunity to enhance his or her perspective of a particular movie by receiving important information on the making of the film, as well as the director's view of the subject matter, as well as opinions of reviewers.

   What impressed me most about this work was the exhaustive manner in which it covered film history from 1890-1945. While the breadth is spectacular, the book never bogs down into trivia or fact recitation for its own sake. The directors' lives and careers, as well as their significant films, are covered with the microscope applied to substance rather than minutiae.




2. If you are a serious film buff, you will want to get Volume One of John Wakeman's incredible 247 page work on about four hundred film directors born before 1920 and well launched on their careers before 1945, primarily in the U.S. and Europe. Wakeman's book includes a photo, detailed biography, critical film reviews and a complete filmography for every director listed. All of my favorites are here along with many fascinating directors that I've only heard mention of elsewhere. Flipping through this volume, I come across Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Maya Deren, King Vidor and many other notable and under appreciated directors. A small critiscism is that artists who dabbled in film and influenced other filmmakers, such as Joseph Cornell, are not included. Wakeman also acknowledges that his plan to include a few of the most admired Chinese directors "were undone by a lack of reliable information" in the early-mid 1980's. Despite these lapses, this is the only reference book to cover many of these directors and to go into such detail about their lives and their films. If you love film and its history, it is well worth having.

4 comments about Rock Hudson.

1. Rock Hudson by David Bret is interesting but poorly reserched and edited.Bret's book features glairing inacuracies such as stating that James Dean was nominated for best supporting actor oscar when in fact he was co-nominated for best lead actor along with Rock for this film. Bret states that Robert Stack won the oscar for Written on the Wind when in fact he lost to Anthony Quinn! How sloppy these mistakes are. In his plot description of The Mirror Crack'd he states that Elizabeth Taylor is playing Elizabeth the Great and Kim Novak Mary Queen of Scotts in the movie within the movie when in fact it is the other way around!
   If Mister Bret can't even get the most obvious facts straight so to speak how is one to take or trust all the gossip about the many loves and lovers of Rock? The book is readable and entertaining but disapointing due to so many mistakes. As was stated by a previous reviewer, this book is filled with many plot summaries of Hudson's films, love it or hate it, I for one like it in my film star bios but once again, sloppy and inconsistant. Bret goes into great depth about "Embryo",totally ignores "avalanche",and doesn't do "Pretty Maids All In A Row" justice.
   David Bret has fifteen other biographies listed to his credit beware of this hack, I'm sure he has more on the way.



2. A friend recommended this author to me for his biography of Joan Crawdord. I have since read his biographies of Tallulah Bankhead and now Rock Hudson. The author does not gloss over any of the sordid details in any of these three biographies. All the dirt is there whether you want it or not.



3. Balanced, straightforward biography of Hollywood's favorite leading man of the 1950's. The fact that he was both gay and promiscuous meant endless headaches for Hudson and his career managers during that most repressed of decades. The tension between big libido and big box-office underlay the actor's entire career, which author Bret tracks in pretty unsparing terms from early fan mags to coverup marriage to final tragic outing. The emerging portrait is generally favorable, particularly that of a generous on-screen professional, who at the same time could be a fickle and sometimes ungenerous lover off-screen. Names are named and there is a gossipy dimension for the curious. But the intimations remain pretty forthright without becoming catty or distasteful. Bret has handled this difficult but necessary aspect with understandable sensitivity. Still and all, he fails to clear up that murky veil drawn around Hudson's marriage to studio secretary Phyllis Gates, or the exact nature of his relationship with the controversial Marc Christian. So readers looking for resolution of these troubled phases of Hudson's personal life may be disappointed. My one real misgiving is with the plot synopses of Hudson's many films, big and small. Their inclusion in the text interrupts the flow and serves no discernable purpose other than padding the book's length (not that it needs padding). I found myself skipping entire pages as a result. Anyway, the biography comes across as an honest attempt to deal with the conflicted life of a movie legend, who, for better or worse, symbolizes an entire entertainment era.



4. I've never had the pleasure of reviewing anything by David Bret before, but his new biography of the late film star Rock Hudson is one of the best biographies I've read in years. There are some figures for whom there can never be enough biographies to suit my taste, and I've read five or six or seven apiece on Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Hitchcock, Emily Dickinson, Custer and who knows how many more. To that list add the improbable name of Rock Hudson. Bret is a British journalist who seems remarkably free of Hollywood cant. He tells it like he sees it, and when he doesn't know something, he says so.
   
   Hudson was born Roy Scherer Jr in 1925, in Winnetka, and had what seems to be a difficult relationship with his family. Before long he had sort of drifted into acting, becoming the protege of the he-man director Raoul Walso, who directed him in several early pictures. Hudson also informed Walsh of his homosexuality, and the two of them apparently didn't think it would be much of a problem. Hudson did the Cary Grant-Randolph Scott thing at first, living openly with a lover or two on the fringes of Hollywood society, but as his parts and his fanbase grew bigger more censorious minds prevailed and Rock became a ladies man in the press, although hardly to his friends and intimates.
   
   As an actor Hudson was more of a star than anything else, but he was so great in all of his pictures that one hardly cares about his "skills." After all, you don't pay money to see good acting, you buy your ticket to get close to your dreams. And Rock Hudson was the man of everyone's dreams, male or female, straight or gay, for a good ten years in a row, during which time he made several films for Douglas Sirk.
   
   Bret names names, and you will be startled, as I was, to find out exactly how many Hollywood leading men of the 1940s and 1950s were actually gay but hiding it. By the time the book was over my mind was reeling with all the names. On the set of AIR CADET, so Bret tells us, troubled leading lady Gail Russell was more troubled than usual when she found her new husband Guy Madison in bed with one of the cadets. The story of Hudson's "beard" romance with the equally troubled dacing star, Vera-Ellen, is a pathetic parable of Hollywood truths and illusions.
   
   Of course the charade eventually came to an end, first with Hudson's spectral illness which no one could identify, then with his accepting a romantic role on TV's DYNASTY which would require him to kiss Linda Evans, and then with his admission that he was gay and he had AIDS. Even after his death the glamor continued to evaporate as his onetime boyfriend, Marc Christian, sued the Hudson estate for concealing the fact that Hudson was seropositive. A parade of gross details followed on the stand, things that made one's heart sigh. I suppose in the end it doesn't matter. The pictures that he made will live forever and I predict that each year from now his stock as an actor will rise until the day comes when people will show him the respect they now give to, oh I don't know, that old fraud Spencer Tracy.

No comments about Young Women's Monologues from Contemporary Plays 2: Professional auditions for aspiring actresses.

1 comments about A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare).

1. I bought this audio recording of MSND to use as I taught the play to my 10th graders. The actors do well, and this is the complete version of the play. However, some of the character sound effects can get annoying, as well as some of the music.
   
   For whatever reason, the faeries' voices have a slight echo effect, which isn't too annoying, but when a faery--such as Puck or Oberon--is placing a spell on someone, there is an extreme echo placed on the voice. The echo was so extreme for the end of Act III, when Puck is confusing Lysander and Demetrius, that it gave me a slight headache. Also, while the use of a little music can be nice, many of my students didn't like it and I found that the music was on a little too long in some places and it stalls the progression of the play. The "braying" of Bottom sounds more like a pig grunt, which gets really old after awhile.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this version to those who don't mind slight annoyances like these--and maybe I'm being nitpicky--but if you think that those will wear on you, try to find another version.

No comments about World Cinema: Critical Approaches.