History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation

Average customer rating:

An Absorbing and Enlightening Page-Turner, with Few Errors
Absolutely riveting
what an amazing book
This one's for the radio geeks
All Hail Rock 'n Roll!

Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation
Marc Fisher
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History & Criticism | Radio | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0375509070
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

A sweeping, anecdotal account of the great sounds and voices of radio–and how it became a bonding agent for a generation of American youth

When television became the next big thing in broadcast entertainment, everyone figured video would kill the radio star–and radio, period. But radio came roaring back with a whole new concept. The war was over, the baby boom was on, the country was in clover, and a bold new beat was giving the syrupy songs of yesteryear a run for their money. Add transistors, 45 rpm records, and a young man named Elvis to the mix, and the result was the perfect storm that rocked, rolled, and reinvented radio.

Visionary entrepreneurs like Todd Storz pioneered the Top 40 concept, which united a generation. But it took trendsetting “disc jockeys” like Alan Freed, Murray the K, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie, and their fast-talking, too-cool-for-school counterparts across the land to turn time, temperature, and the same irresistible hit tunes played again and again into the ubiquitous sound track of the fifties and sixties. The Top 40 sound broke through racial barriers, galvanized coming-of-age kids (and scandalized their perplexed parents), and provided the insistent, inescapable backbeat for times that were a-changin’.

Along with rock-and-roll music came the attitude that would literally change the “voice” of radio forever, via the likes of raconteur Jean Shepherd, who captivated his loyal following of “Night People”; the inimitable Bob Fass, whose groundbreaking Radio Unnameable inaugurated the anything-goes free-form style that would come to define the alternative frontier of FM; and a small-time Top 40 deejay who would ultimately find national fame as a political talk-show host named Rush Limbaugh.

From Hunter Hancock, who pushed beyond the limits of 1950s racial segregation with rhythm and blues and hepcat patter, to Howard Stern, who blew through all the limits with a blue streak of outrageous on-air antics; from the heyday of summer songs that united carefree listeners to the latter days of political talk that divides contentious callers; from the haze of classic rock to the latest craze in hip-hop, Something in the Air chronicles the extraordinary evolution of the unique and timeless medium that captured our hearts and minds, shook up our souls, tuned in–and turned on–our consciousness, and went from being written off to rewriting the rules of pop culture.

Customer Reviews:

An Absorbing and Enlightening Page-Turner, with Few Errors.......2007-09-30

I had to read this book twice. The first time I started with the Jean Shepherd section, then skipped around. After I made it through all the pages, I didn't want the book to be over, so I read it from beginning to end. That is how absorbing Something in the Air is; Fisher has put together fascinating strings of anecdotes and facts, well-cemented with narrative and a bit of his own opinion, and given us the evolution of radio as experienced by listeners, station owners, management, deejays, and other air personalities, and he's shown us all the angles--legal, commercial, esthetic, and ethical.

The book won't please everyone, and anyone who reads it is going to say "What about ____?" and "Why didn't he tell the story of _____?" The answer to that is, of course, that everything wouldn't fit into the book. Having written quite a bit on radio history, I can tell you that Fisher's research and interviews probably left him with half again as much material as he put into the book. That's always the burden of the competent author: what do put in and what do I leave out?

As other reviewers have pointed out, there are a few errors here and there. I won't dwell on those; the book is so valuable that they are of little consequence. It would be nice if the author posted an errata sheet at his blog, though.

And I have to say that the story of the WOR I, Libertine hoax that Jean Shepherd and Ian Ballantine perpetrated, aided and abetted by Theodore Sturgeon's ghost-writing, is worth the price of the book on its own. And there are other anecdotes that equal that one.

Fisher might have overdone some of the topics, falling at the feet of radio "gods," for instance. But I was pleased to see that he didn't harp on Don Imus or Howard Stern to please readers, nor did he haul out other celebrities the way some overly self-conscious writers feel obligated to do when writing about the famous.

Did I mention how good the writing is? Good enough to keep you turning the pages. Fisher is a good stylist. He also has a journeyman technique, as illustrated by the fascinating build-up to Rush Limbaugh's triumph. Among other things.

There's nothing more to say, other than this book does for radio what Michael Korda's Another Life did for book publishing.
--Mike

Absolutely riveting.......2007-08-27

This is less a review and more an enthusiastic recommendation. As a Brit, many of the presenters' names in this book (apart from, say, Stern and Limbaugh) meant little to me but I still found this book absolutely unputdownable. This is testament to a) my radio "geekiness" and - more importantly - b) Marc Fisher's skills as a writer, historian and storyteller. A fascinating history of radio in the US with many a good story tucked away in the endnotes. Highly recommended.

what an amazing book.......2007-07-24

Everyone should read this compelling book by Marc Fisher. It brilliantly uses radio to tell the story of Americans in the last several decades. Funny, powerful, commanding, and lyrical, Fisher is a beautiful storyteller.

This one's for the radio geeks.......2007-07-08

For anyone who's interested in the history & future of radio,look no further-Marc Fisher has written the ultimate history of the medium-Definitely worth your time & money.

All Hail Rock 'n Roll!.......2007-06-20

Simply stated, "Something in the Air" is the best book on Radio I've ever read. Congratulations to Marc Fisher on a wonderful skip through time without a single trip. Excelsior!"

Peter Cavanaugh

wildwednesday.com

The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness

Average customer rating:

An intriguing read on iPod and its impact
Insightful and Absorbing Read on iPods, Apple, Innovation and Marketing
Cool Device: search wheel, no on switch, the LCD, video, iPhones, fireware, g4, and iTune
Levy Nails It!
Far From Perfect (But Still Pretty Good)

The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
Steven Levy
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

High-Tech | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Culture | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

iPods | Digital Music | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

iTunes | Digital Music | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Technology & Society | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Social Aspects | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0743285220

Book Description

On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer, a company known for its chic, cutting-edge technology -- if not necessarily for its dominant market share -- launched a product with an enticing promise: You can carry an entire music collection in your pocket. It was called the iPod. What happened next exceeded the company's wildest dreams. Over 50 million people have inserted the device's distinctive white buds into their ears, and the iPod has become a global obsession. The Perfect Thing is the definitive account, from design and marketing to startling impact, of Apple's iPod, the signature device of our young century.

Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in decades, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer electronics giant. It has remolded the music business, altering not only the means of distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its ubiquity and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation." Now the iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. Meanwhile millions of Podheads obsess about their gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers them, basking in the social cachet it lends them, even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences.

Steven Levy, the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and a longtime Apple watcher, is the ideal writer to tell the iPod's tale. He has had access to all the key players in the iPod story, including Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom Levy has known for over twenty years. Detailing for the first time the complete story of the creation of the iPod, Levy explains why Apple succeeded brilliantly with its version of the MP3 player when other companies didn't get it right, and how Jobs was able to convince the bosses at the big record labels to license their music for Apple's groundbreaking iTunes Store. (We even learn why the iPod is white.) Besides his inside view of Apple, Levy draws on his experiences covering Napster and attending Supreme Court arguments on copyright (as well as his own travels on the iPod's click wheel) to address all of the fascinating issues -- technical, legal, social, and musical -- that the iPod raises.

Borrowing one of the definitive qualities of the iPod itself, The Perfect Thing shuffles the book format. Each chapter of this book was written to stand on its own, a deeply researched, wittily observed take on a different aspect of the iPod. The sequence of the chapters in the book has been shuffled in different copies, with only the opening and concluding sections excepted. "Shuffle" is a hallmark of the digital age -- and The Perfect Thing, via sharp, insightful reporting, is the perfect guide to the deceptively diminutive gadget embodying our era.

Customer Reviews:

An intriguing read on iPod and its impact .......2007-06-27

Why do people ask for an iPod when they want an MP3 player? Other players hold as many or more songs, and play them just as well. Owning an iPod is more about music than about keeping up with the latest trends. That is why the iPod still holds the top spot in MP3 player sales. Author Steven Levy explores how the iPod came to be and how it earned its status as a cultural icon. Even the book's iPod-looking cover could evoke emotion from an iPod fan. We recommend this book to iPod lovers who will relish its story. Businesspeople, trend spotters and marketers also will gain insight into the way Apple made millions from selling music, machines and coolness.

Insightful and Absorbing Read on iPods, Apple, Innovation and Marketing.......2007-05-31

The iPod has that certain something that leads its users to adore it like nothing before. People want nothing but an iPod. No substitutes even when the non-iPod has more memory, comes in your favorite color and costs over $100 less than an iPod. So how did the iPod earn this special treatment and the ability to compel people to say, "Cool" when they hold one?

A book cover in the disguise of an iPod, albeit on paper, still manages to ooze coolness though it isn't the real thing. Scroll your finger over the cover's button and scroll wheel and you can feel the smooth button extend slightly above the scroll wheel. Apple has established itself as a company that goes all out when creating a product, but there's much more to the iPod story than people realize. The Perfect Thing explores many aspects of the story.

While reading The Perfect Thing, I couldn't help but order an iPod Nano straight from Apple's Web site complete with my name engraved on its beautiful red skin -- as a replacement for my stolen iPod video. I also bought a cover to protect the iPod as I don't like it when my gadgets get marks on them. But then I reached the part where Steve Jobs took offense to seeing Levy's iPod covered up. Because of that, the beautiful red color and the way the aluminum felt -- I took off the cover for good.

The chapters, like iPod's shuffle feature, are independent and don't go in a specific order except the first chapter. I don't know if that's true, as I haven't seen another hard copy of the book.

"Perfect," goes behind the scenes of iPod's launch in October 2001, not the greatest timing after 9/11. "Download" covers the revolution of downloading and digitizing music including codec, MP3s, WinAmp, Napster and the record companies suing. "What makes an item cool?" sets the tone for the chapter titled, "Cool." Can there be a formula for coolness? This chapter teaches great marketing lessons from Apple's design, packaging and advertising of the iPod.

"Origin" returns to the iPod's roots on its development and the things that came before iPod that affected the iPod's creation. There's a reason we use the word podcast instead of audiocasts when referring to audio feeds. "Podcast" visits the formation of citizen broadcasting from CB radio to podcasting.

People judge each other by the clothing they wear, they do the same by the playlists they carry in their iPods as "Identity" delves into the fashion statement of playlists. No one expected Apple to make a comeback, not even when Steve Jobs returned in 2000, and "Apple" touches upon the comeback and how Apple surpassed the market's expectations. The iPod attracts thieves and the earbuds send a message to the public "to leave me alone" as the "Personal" chapter looks back at the Sony Walkman, the white earbuds, hearing loss and how users personalize their iPods.

The shuffle feature scrambles music hence the name for the cheapest and smallest iPod Shuffle. The feature is simple, yet the chapter on "Shuffle" offers fascinating insight into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the shuffle formula. Some people swear that some songs, artists and whatnot get more attention than others do. But everyone at Apple, including the engineers, says shuffle works randomly. Intriguing stuff anyway.

Marketers, iPod lovers, Apple lovers, Mac lovers, business people, technology people, gadget people. The book will appeal to all of them. After all, Levy writes, "The iPod is a pebble with tsunami-sized cultural ripples."

Cool Device: search wheel, no on switch, the LCD, video, iPhones, fireware, g4, and iTune.......2007-03-08

1. iPod will encourage the creation of virtual bookselves: music, movies, and books.
2. When Apple leaders began working on the iPod they saw the project as an enhancement of the Macintosh computer. Apples G4 cube significant reduced the bulky space requirements for desktop computers.
3. iPod changed Apple from a computer company to a consumer electronics company in four years and represented 60 percent of the income from the music related business.
4. Type "iPod" in google and you'll get a half a billion hits
5. By the end of 2005, Apple had sold 42 million iPods from $99 to $599 and had capture 75% market share; iTunes sold more than a billion songs at 99 cents, representing 85 percent of all legal downloads. Apple's stock had increased 700 percent.
6. When people encounter a machine that is easy and fun to use, they like it. The cool factor. IPod is cool.
7. iPod's success is the result of an uncanny alignment of technology, design, culture, and media thrust in the center of the digital age. Ipod makes a dull day come alive.
8. iPod initial capacity astounded consumer providing a 1,000 songs in the pocket.
9. Steve Jobs initial reaction to iPod was, "I haven't picked up any MP3 player that has made me go, `Wow, okay, I want to carry this everywhere I go. OK'. Everyone is going to want to have one of these."
10. Apple dispatched a pair of couier too hand delivered the iPod to a few select technical writers. On launch day the Apple couriers reached Newsweek.
11. Jobs relied on Firewire transfer speeds to make iPod feasible. There were seven and half million Mac users with firewire. Jobs said, "iPod will be a landmark product." Five to six minutes to rip a CD into iTunes and a few seconds to load to load an albums worth of songs into the iPod.
12. Playlist represent the character of the listener. We seem to be immersed in an age of musical voyeurism and musical exhibitionism.
13. Status comes from cool music libraries. "Such libraries distinguish one as a thinking person, a discerning individualist, a lover of fun, a blender of high and low culture, and a bird dog in unearthing undiscovered gems."
14. Learning through accumulation: "The ability to easily compile one's favorite songs in one place may make it easier to accumulate a collection of dazzling obscurities but also increase the capability of those libraries that are less than stellar."
15. At iPod's download headquarters, you can find more than a hundred celebrity playlists.
16. Reformulation: iPod circular scroll wheel search interface allowed searching of large lists, fast. It made the complicated digital music collection, easy.
17. iTunes software from Macintosh was built into iPod. IPod would sync effortlessly with a music library. "It was a recipe for something, well, perfect."
18. Cool is a term that is strong linked to iPod. Levy tells Bill Gates Tablet PC, Microsoft pen-based laptop, in spite of the technical virtuosity of many brilliant people was not cool. Gates replied, "It sounds to me like you're saying volume equals cool." Levy replied, "Profits are not necessarily tied to coolness". Gates challenged Levy to come up with an example of something cool that didn't sell well. Gates said, "In a sense, to be cool, you've got to have high market share. High market share is something that comes after hard work and making the hard decisions." Levy previously had showed Gates the iPod and Gates at the time thought the iPod would sale, but Gates tells Levy, "I knew the music player devices would sell well. And I knew as soon as they got this high volume, you would declare it cool. As night follows day."
19. iPod gives you a feeling your in the tribe.

Levy Nails It!.......2007-01-25

I didn't hold out much hope for Levy's latest effort, "The Perfect Thing". I had found his last Apple-based effort, "Insanely Great", to be decidedly less than, and strongly suspected this would be nothing more than a shallow Apple PR effort. How very wrong I was - forgive me Steven.

In what I think is his most effective, tightly written book to date, Levy combines a strongly personal narrative with great bits about the history of music media. Along the way he offers up a pretty darned comprehensive view of the various facets of the wide and complex subject of digital music - while at the same time painting a vivid, yet objective portrait of the iPod. I actually had to restrain myself from popping over to the nearest Best Buy and shelling out money I don't have to spend on one.

His gimmicky-sounding "shuffle" of the chapters (there are several editions of the book with the chapters in differing order, in a nod to the iPod's shuffle feature) did not become a distraction or a turn-off like I'd feared - although, I can't say it added much. I was struck, however, by how smoothly the book flowed despite the shuffle - which simply emphasized to me how well written the various essay-style chapters were.

I'll freely admit that I'm a big (BIG) Levy fan - but please don't let that fact turn you off. I simply can't find a weak spot in the whole package - and I'm typically pretty hard to please. This is really a remarkable book, that I strongly recommend.

Far From Perfect (But Still Pretty Good).......2007-01-17

People looked at me in a strange way when I told them I was reading a 300-page book about the iPod. "No, seriously. It's a whole book about the iPod!" Steven Levy, author of The Perfect Thing is senior editor and chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and the author of five previous books. Levy is a technophile and over the course of his career has seen many products, many technologies, come and go. But I doubt any new product has aroused his interest like the iPod. Levy is absolutely in love with the iPod and with Steve Jobs, the man responsible for overseeing its creation. This book often reads like a hagiography of the man and his little technological marvel.

Interestingly, the book is "shuffled" so that different copies of the book will have the chapters in different order. While this is a neat idea, and a unique one that fits well with one of the iPod's most popular features, it means that there is no flow from chapter-to-chapter and also that there is some repetition. I can only imagine the logistical nightmare this represented for those who had to edit and proof the book!

In some ways it seems silly to write a biography of the iPod since it is, after all, only five years old (having released on October 23, 2001). It seems akin to writing a biography of an actress like Dakota Fanning. Sure she's a fantastic little actress, is highly sought after in Hollywood, and has already made her mark in Tinseltown (and we loved her in Charlotte's Web), but the fact remains that she is only twelve and her career is only beginning. Surely it would be too easy to write her biography. And surely it is too early to write seriously about the iPod. Then again, the iPod is not going anywhere soon and seems to be gaining both acceptance and prominence so perhaps a book is in order.

Despite displaying more than a little bias (how is this for hyperbole?: "The iPod nano was so beautiful that it seemed to have dropped down from some vastly advanced alien civilization. It had the breathtaking compactness of a lustrous Oriental artifact. It wasn't really much bigger than a large mint left on your pillow at a fine hotel.") this is an interesting and even an important book. The iPod is a significant device that has been accepted and embraced by countless millions of people. It may well come to define a whole generation. And if not that, it will surely speak volumes about a generation. It also represents a technology that Christians would do well to consider. After all, when we listen to our iPods we tend to tune out the world around us. In some ways I think the iPod is representative of the self-centered, individualistic culture we live in. By parking the little white buds in our ears, we can enter a little world all our own. We can turn off and tune in. We can listen to what we want to hear while ignoring everything around us. We can easily allow this good invention to become destructive to our relationships and even to our faith.

I was disappointed that the author spent the vast majority of the book looking at the past and the present with very little time dedicated to looking to the future and attempting to understand what the iPod's long term effects will be. Maybe a philosopher or historian or sociologist would be more qualified to attempt to predict how the iPod will be remembered ten or a hundred years from now. Is it a piece of technology that will be lost to history or will it be remembered as groundbreaking and as a product that changed the world? In the absence of such analysis, the most interesting chapters are those dealing with the history and development of the iPod. Ones dealing with identity, coolness and the personal nature of the iPod are also well worth reading.

One awfully tedious chapter deals with the "shuffle" feature and whether or not it is truly random (the answer being yes and no - no because computers cannot be truly random because they need to have some kind of a starting point, but yes because the songs are chosen as randomly as is possible). Levy decides, and this is true, I'm sure, that the human mind just doesn't cope well with randomness. Thus when our iPods seem to favor a particular song or artist, it is really just our minds playing tricks on us (which, of course, rings hollow when we hear a song for the third or fourth time in a day!).

Despite a few less-than-stellar chapters which seemed to be little more than filler, this was a valuable read as I sought to understand the iPod generation. The Perfect Thing is far from a perfect book (you probably saw that line coming!). Still, it is interesting enough for the most part and raises some interesting questions and concerns. At the very least it helped me understand the incredible, growing phenomenon that is the iPod.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Medieval | World | History | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mythology & Folklore | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Celtic | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Berlin Cabaret (Studies in Cultural History)

Average customer rating:

Thoroughly excellent
Berlin Cabaret
Outstanding chronicle of a very unique period
Jelavich, mixing culture and politics

Berlin Cabaret (Studies in Cultural History)
Peter Jelavich
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Comedy | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0674067622

Book Description

Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down.

Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient "nude dancing," and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment.

Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt.

This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.

Customer Reviews:

Thoroughly excellent.......2007-02-22

One caveat: this is an academic study, and you won't find the quantity or quality of photographs published in more coffee-table oriented books on the subject. That said, it is thoroughly excellent, and what you won't find in the coffee-table books is a discussion that is anywhere near as complete or insightful.

Berlin Cabaret.......2007-01-10

I bought this book because I needed research for a film script of that period. Without a doubt, for me, it contained more hard to find facts than I had ever uncovered before.
That special period of time when Adolf Hitler was about to take over Germany and The Cabarets were as avant garde as they could be, is well documented here. So are The Cabarets that opposed The Third Reich.
I'd reccomend this book to anyone who has an interest in that period.

Outstanding chronicle of a very unique period.......2001-06-30

Sadly there are few books that give one a real sense of the Weimar years in Germany when the economy collapsed, near-anarchy reigned & bourgeois morality was evaporating along with the value of the mark. Berlin was the quintessential moderne city. Literature, painting & architecture all seemed to explode into new worlds in a kind of Big Bang. This book does a masterful job of documenting the evolution of cabaret theater from the innocent reviews of the early 1920s to the biting political commentary of the late 1920s & early 1930s when the last performances succumbed to the growing influence of the national socialists (nazis). Along the way you get the syncopated nude musical reviews & stage tableaux. There's a lot of careful considered analysis, but also a great feel for the time & place. Very well written & with many fascinating illustrations.

Jelavich, mixing culture and politics.......2000-04-15

Jelavich's goal in this historical book is to relate the culture of the berlin cabaret at the turn of the century with a political context. Each chapter focuses on a different cabaret, such as Sound and Smoke, and its satires on Berlin life. The book was extremely informative following a tradition that Carl Schorske started with his book "Fin de Siecle Vienna". Though mainly easy to read, I found their was too much information at times, and it became difficult to follow the different characters that Jelavich illuminated.

Breaking the Silence: Art Therapy with Children from Violent Homes

Average customer rating:

Breatking the Silence is only the beginning
A thought-provoking and practical text that provides a framework for working with traumatized children.
outstanding resource in work with children

Breaking the Silence: Art Therapy with Children from Violent Homes
Cathy Malchiodi
Manufacturer: Brunner/Mazel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Violence in Society | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Adolescent Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Compulsive Behavior | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Obstetrics & Gynecology | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Social Issues | Teens | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0876308248

Book Description

This volume demonstrates the power of art therapy as a tool for intervening with children from violent homes. Emphasis is given to the short-term setting where time is at a premium and circumstances are unpredictable - because within this setting, mental health practitioners often experience a sense of helplessness in their work with the youngest victims of abusive families.; In this new edition, the author describes the intervention process from intake to termination, highlighting the complex issues involved at various levels of evaluation and interpretation. The text is augmented with 95 children's drawings, which serve to fill the gap between theory and reality.; Specific topics include: inherent frustrations for therapists working in battered women's shelters; what to include in art evaluation; evaluating child abuse and neglect; group art intervention in shelters; and art expression as assessment and therapy with sexually abused children.

Customer Reviews:

Breatking the Silence is only the beginning.......2006-11-10

This book offers extensive knowledge of both the children's perspectives of their home life and shelter life. Working with this population is trying at best, one never knows if the mother is going back; because of this children learn to cope in ways that are mostly nonverbal. They've learned to stay quiet for the sake of family. Cathy Malchiodi explores this silence; in ways that, only art and other expressive therapies can offer. This book offers insight for new and experienced therapist who are working with this population.

A thought-provoking and practical text that provides a framework for working with traumatized children........1997-12-18

This text offers a solid framework for working with children who have been exposed to violence and who need to ventilate their concerns in a safe and supportive environment. With clinical skill and masterful teaching, Cathy Malchiodi provides an instructive manual that offers clear and informative information on how drawings can be used to help children overcome their negative life experiences. A significant contribution to the mental health field.

outstanding resource in work with children.......1997-10-15

The author's extensive experience makes this an outstanding resource that provides the guided direction needed to give traumatized children the opportunity to find relief from the terrors of their traumas. A must for all mental health professionals who work with traumatized children. Readers in general will find the more than 90 drawings by children from violent homes both fascinating and poignant. Author presents the use of art therapy with clarity and simplicity,so that therapists can immediately learn the use of this tool in their work with children who have been abused.

The Kinks' The Village Green Preservation Society (Thirty Three and a Third series)

Average customer rating:

Sufficiently Kink-y
quick, but insightful reading
A Must Have Book
Erudition without pretension
A Perfect Compliment to the Album

The Kinks' The Village Green Preservation Society (Thirty Three and a Third series)
Andy Miller
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Entertainment | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0826414982

Customer Reviews:

Sufficiently Kink-y.......2007-06-27

The album with that may have the longest name in rock history, The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, is now a book. It is part of the "33 1/3" series, now comprising over 40 volumes, with more on the way. Each volume is about an album, with musical acts far ranging from The Band to The Beastie Boys.

This particular volume, about the Ray Davies-led 1968 effort The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, is written by Andy Miller (many different authors have contributed to the series thus far). Seeing is how there wasn't one about Rush, I immediately picked up the one about The Kinks, one of the most underrated bands of the British Invasion.

TKATVGPS is a wonderful album, and being born almost 20 years after its initial release I was completely unaware is was a flop upon release. Miller's volume sheds light on the creation of the album, the recording sessions, and the relationship of the band to the album's material.

It tops out at 150 pages, and it's about six inches high, so it's a nice little volume. It doesn't, however, go into the meaning of the lyrics as much as I'd like, but I think that's a point of personal preference.

Overall, this volume of the 33 1/3 series is pretty well written, and a great gateway to understanding a great album. My only reservation is that the cover price on these is about $10. A couple dollars off of that and I'd be quick to buy several more.

If they have one about an album you're especially fond of, pick t up. This is a very cool series of books, and I hope it continues long into the future.

quick, but insightful reading.......2007-03-09

this book offers track-by-track commentary about the album. i kinda wished there was more information about the begginigs of the band, as there is on other books of this collection. still worth reading though.

A Must Have Book.......2007-02-07

I won't go into specifics, as John Murphy's review did an admirable job already. Miller's book is the best I have read so far in the 33 1/3 series, and is a must own for anyone who loves this album. I'm currently on my 7th time around reading through it.

One thing I want to point out, that I think John Murphy misunderstood, is that at the time this book was written and published (2003), the 3-CD reissue of Village Green had not yet been released (it would come out the following year). The reissue Miller mentions is actually the 1998 CD on Castle, as stated in the Notes at the end of the book.

Erudition without pretension.......2007-02-05

Erudition without pretension, Andy Miller's book eschews the fawning quality of many tributes to classic rock in his thoughtful and well-written study. Not only does he examine the actual tracks that appeared on the original 1968 LP, but he sifts through the many tracks also made around this time by the Kinks, or more specifically it seems nearly all of the time, Ray Davies. Ray definitely is the prime mover here over brother Dave and Mick Avory and Pete Quaife, and the shift by this time from a band to more of a backing band for Ray's ambitious vision and undeniable talent does make for honest if rather sad reading. For, it foreshadows the 70s permutation and the subsequent relegation of musicians to back Ray D. under the Kinks name-- rather than as the earlier band of four musicians working together.

The pressures that Ray was under, the frustration of the band with their own stagnation, the neglect by this time of 1968 to the Kinks' already dated impact, and the semi-obscurity within which the band labored: all make for illuminating background. It's an album that seems an anomaly at first, but Miller carefully shows in convincing fashion the satirical and ironic elements that Davies and mates used to embed trenchant commentary on the foibles both of hidebound eccentric villagers in Little Britain and the hip cognoscenti and acid casualties of the Summer of Love and its aftermath.

Miller does not skim over the album's lesser tracks, nor does he inflate the passable songs into undeniable triumphs. He notes each song and how it strengthens, supports, or merely adds to the layers of observation on a musical and social level of modernity and nostalgia. It, like the LP, makes its points in much more appealing manner than it sounds like on the page! Rather than unmitigated bombast common to so many authors on pop music, Miller takes himself out of the scene. He steps aside. He gives a straightforward account of what works best and so-so and not so well on the album and its complicated history, when practically a whole "lost" Kinks album haunts the tracks officially released.

Of course, you must have heard the album many times to appreciate the comments Miller makes. One difficulty I had was that the newest 3-CD British reissue was mentioned, but not scrutinized in sufficient depth. Since this version of the mono and studio recordings as well as ancillary tracks and discarded and alternate songs is for now the most (if not THE) definitive version fans will have the chance to hear, the lack of in-depth analysis given it remains surprising. The lack of coverage given the choices made for better and worse by the compilers of the 3-CD reissue does make this book less useful than it should have been. Since the long-awaited remastering and reissue of this album filled--if still incompletely--a crucial gap in definitive versions of 60s classic albums in rock and pop, I argue that this (imperfect but the best we will have for awhile if ever) reissue should have been made the standard source upon which Miller based his critique. While the new 3-CD set has many shortcomings, it is the most complete picture to date of how the Kinks sounded at the time around this, their landmark recording.

Although this little volume also suffers since key song lyrics seem to have been quoted only sparingly, perhaps for copyright reasons, if one is familiar with the album already, the encounter with print that enriches the recordings will be more rewarding than not. I do wish much more of the verses Ray D. penned could have been appended; the book suffers severely from its limited quotes of the actual song lyrics. Apposite allusions to Orwell, Goldsmith, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the English poetic pastoral tradition of renewable pessimism in the guise of nostalgia make this book an intelligent and welcome entry in the Crossroads series.

My wife was reading the Crossroads volume on the Replacements' "Let it Be" by the Decemberists' Colin Meloy at the same time I read Miller on TKATVGPS, and my choice certainly shone all the brighter by comparison with the rather puerile gush and self-conscious autobiographical take Meloy did for his album choice. Miller keeps away from such potential pitfalls. He gives us a reading of the album that brings primary research, archival investigation, and carefully nuanced criticism together for an efficient, worthwhile, and satisfying read.

A Perfect Compliment to the Album.......2006-06-05

Though the 3 cd reissue of Village Green Preservation Society is excellent, it lacks extensive liner notes that shed more light on it. This book details everything about the album, the band during that period, the recording sessions and how it translated live. The analysis is crucial. While the Kinks after their sound matured were masters at social commentary what they were expressing in their songs was not always obvious if you weren't there at the time. For example the song on Village Green "Last of the Steam Powered Trains" is referring (at least according to the book) about a blues rave up by Howlin' Wolf "Smokestack Lightning" that was a live staple of all the bands at that time until psychadelia encroached which made the music instantly nostalgic. The book expertly picks through the threads that that the album is woven from. I find all the books in this series to be enlightening but the ones that are the notable discuss albums that haven't been already picked apart by rock critics (e.g. Neutral Milk Hotel) and while the Kinks have been around for a while this book offers a fresh perspective on an album that not only has not dated but with its then unique mix of nostalgia and cynicism become ripe for discussion.

The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750-1950

Average customer rating:

A milestone for piping
A History of Pipe Music

The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society 1750-1950
William Donaldson
Manufacturer: Tuckwell Press, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Scotland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1862320756

Customer Reviews:

A milestone for piping.......2001-04-13

Dr. William Donaldson's work is perhaps the most well-researched and sensible study of Highland bagpipe music yet published. His exhaustive work examines both the positive and negative impact that the Scottish "societies" had on the music. His conclusions are startling illuminating and founded on totally solid ground. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Scottish music and culture. For anyone who plays the Highland pipe, it is required reading.

A History of Pipe Music.......2001-02-27

This book was quite interesting. I am new to the piping world and this book made me want to know more of the history of the pipes and piobaireachd especially. I want to learn to play even more than before.

At the same time, I was saddened by the apparent loss of the traditional style of play and the music written before the 1700s. But I suspect that to be true of many historical arts, especially those passed on in a bardic style.

I felt the author had a somewhat negative opinion of the modern standards of piobaireachd and The Piobareachd Society. He was apparently displeased with their decisions on the way piobaireachd should be played. He, or people with his opinion, should form a second society with a different idea on standards and what they consider to be the "true" traditional style.

Regardless, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of piping and the changes that have taken place in the last 250 years. The evolution of the notation was interesting and I am not any kind of music expert. The book does read a little slowly in many places, but a short session with it here and there and you will find that information gathered was very worthwhile.

Average customer rating:

a primer for the uninitiated

A Catalog of Style Leaps.

Reeling, heady, and fun

What do dada, the Orioles, and the Sex Pistols have in common?

Brilliant, engaging take on a much-covered subject

Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century
Greil Marcus
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Punk | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll: Fourth Edition

The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice

England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'N'Roll

Society of the Spectacle

ASIN: 0674535812

Book Description

Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, widely acclaimed as the best book ever written about America as seen through its music, began work on this new book out of a fascination with the Sex Pistols: that scandalous antimusical group, invented in London in 1975 and dead within two years, which sparked the emergence of the culture called punk. "I am an antichrist!" shouted singer Johnny Rotten--where in the world of pop music did that come from? Looking for an answer, with a high sense of the drama of the journey, Marcus takes us down the dark paths of counterhistory, a route of blasphemy, adventure, and surprise.

This is no mere search for cultural antecedents. Instead, what Marcus so brilliantly shows is that various kinds of angry, absolute demands--demands on society, art, and all the governing structures of everyday life--seem to be coded in phrases, images, and actions passed on invisibly, but inevitably, by people quite unaware of each other. Marcus lets us hear strange yet familiar voices: of such heretics as the Brethren of the Free Spirit in medieval Europe and the Ranters in seventeenth-century England; the dadaists in Zurich in 1916 and Berlin in 1918, wearing death masks, chanting glossolalia; one Michel Mourre, who in 1950 took over Easter Mass at Notre-Dame to proclaim the death of God; the Lettrist International and the Situationist International, small groups of Paris--based artists and writers surrounding Guy Debord, who produced blank-screen films, prophetic graffiti, and perhaps the most provocative social criticism of the 1950s and '60s; the rioting students and workers of May '68, scrawling cryptic slogans on city walls and bringing France to a halt; the Sex Pistols in London, recording the savage "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen."

Although the Sex Pistols shape the beginning and the end of the story, Lipstick Traces is not a book about music; it is about a common voice, discovered and transmitted in many forms. Working from scores of previously unexamined and untranslated essays, manifestos, and filmscripts, from old photographs, dada sound poetry, punk songs, collages, and classic texts from Marx to Henri Lefebvre, Marcus takes us deep behind the acknowledged events of our era, into a hidden tradition of moments that would seem imaginary except for the fact that they are real: a tradition of shared utopias, solitary refusals, impossible demands, and unexplained disappearances. Written with grace and force, humor and an insistent sense of tragedy and danger, Lipstick Traces tells a story as disruptive and compelling as the century itself.

Customer Reviews:

a primer for the uninitiated.......2006-05-30

a close, "academic" reading of L.T. would render great many imperfections-factitious or otherwise. However, this is a freely associative account offered as post-structural fodder. When written in ('90) there was little stateside interest in situationism/lettrism/fluxus et. and scholars of the a.garde (i can only think of a handful) were slow to consider art/lit. movements beyond the hegelian arc. yes I had read "society of the spectacle" , knew of the lettrists work, dada, lautremont bla bla-all very predictable stuff for those in the "avant know"-but what I found alluring about L.T. was its anti-academic, messy essence- a welcome shift from hackneyed scholasticism.

A Catalog of Style Leaps........2006-02-11

I agree that this book is a page turner. A great balance of text and contexts. If you are intrigued by it's subject matter (Pistols/Dada/etc..) you'll have a hard time putting it down.

Reeling, heady, and fun.......2005-11-21

Don't start this one looking for a textbook - or anything bland, well-researched, and scholarly. The writing style fits well with the Punk idea - Marcus is clearly quite intelligent and well-read, but you can't possibly forget that he's a journalist at heart. The book is sensationalist at times, but that's allowed - I don't think he means for it to be read like a research paper. It's really long and free-associative, so it can be exhausting to read, but if you have the time and the interest it will certainly expand your view of the past century, and maybe change your ideas about the world in general just a little bit.

What do dada, the Orioles, and the Sex Pistols have in common?.......2005-09-13

Very little. But a sometimes interesting stroll through Greil Marcus's random brain farts.

"It's just a bunch of stuff that happened."

-- Homer Simpson

Brilliant, engaging take on a much-covered subject.......2005-07-09

Ludicrously dismissed by punks and academics alike (revealing something that links them: a profound lack of imagination), Lipstick Traces is the most audacious and brilliant book ever written about popular music, one that barely mentions its purported subject (punk rock). In his absurd attack on Marcus, Richard Meltzer quotes some critic's dismissal of LT as a failed version of his (Meltzer's) own The Aesthetics of Rock; in truth, that book itself is more like a failed version of itself, in which brilliant ideas are let down by virtually unreadable prose. What Marcus does is easy to miss at first, but it becomes obvious over the course of the book: he's not just trying to show us the Guy Debord in Johnny Rotten, but the Johnny Rotten in Guy Debord. And so a book devoted almost entirely to obscure artists, barely given a footnote in any "real" history of art or rock or whatever (the Pistols and the Clash aside, none of the punk bands Marcus admires - the Buzzcocks, the Slits, X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, the Adverts, even Public Image Ltd. - will ever get much time on VH1) becomes unbelievably exciting and visceral.

Marcus doesn't bother writing much about the Sex Pistols themselves, though his descriptions of their records are almost more amazing than the records themselves. The first half of the book is a rambling screed, taking in subjects as unlikely as Adorno and Michael Jackson's Victory Tour. Marcus doesn't dumb down anything he takes on, and he shuttles back and forth between seemingly unrelated topics so often that some readers may be frustrated. Persevere, and you'll find that Marcus's writing, imposing at first, is ultimately vibrant, witty and illuminating. The second half is a much more straightforward account of the "heroes" of Marcus's vision - Tristan Tzara, Michel Mourre, Debord - though he still has room for a lovely meditation on the Orioles' 1948 "It's Too Soon to Know," which he considers the first rock'n'roll record. What's fascinating about this section is that Marcus either digs up information on people you'd never hear of otherwise (Mourre, a deadbeat sometime-surrealist who made headlines around the world by marching into Notre Dame Church dressed as a monk to proclaim the death of God, may be the most intriguing character here) or writes about them in an engaging manner that you wouldn't find in a more traditionally scholarly book. Finally, in the epilogue, Marcus brings it all home, revealing for the first time why he decided to write a book about revolutions that never happened.

There is little historical connection between any of these figures, but that's the point - all these would-be revolutionaries really shared was a certain tone, and Marcus takes on something of that tone himself. It's the voice of Charlie Chaplin's tramp at the end of "The Great Dictator": someone willing, even for a moment, to address the entire world, to refuse to censor oneself, and to accept whatever consequences may follow.

Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business

Average customer rating:

The Essential For ALL Musicians
Solid law basics w/ clear presentation
Everything you'd need to know!!
It will prove that practical and popular a pick.
Good title

Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business
Richard Stim
Manufacturer: NOLO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Business | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Entertainment | Intellectual Property | Law | Subjects | Books

Performing Arts | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1413305172

Amazon.com

Some musicians recoil at the thought that their band is a business. They believe that their music is their art, and don't want to sully it with commerce. That's all well and good--but wouldn't you give up your day job if you had the chance? Music Law can help you see your band as a business and turn it into a successful one. Musician and attorney Richard Stim has filled this useful book with helpful advice on solving disputes between band members, dealing with lawyers, managers, and record companies, and even the increasingly important matter of sample clearance. The advice is extremely thorough; for example, the chapter on band names includes information on researching your band's name to ensure it isn't already in use, what happens if two bands have the same name, and even how to register your band's name and logo. Because he advises getting all agreements in writing, Stim has provided dozens of sample agreement forms, both as blank hard copies in the book and as templates on the enclosed disk. Throughout the book, Stim provides important legal advice, all translated from stilted legalese into simple English. Both big and little names get into these difficulties sometimes; the book is peppered with cautionary tales of real musicians and their legal squabbles. Music Law can help you avoid such pitfalls and get your band's business running smoothly--so you might be able to quit that day job, after all. --C.B. Delaney

Book Description

The No. 1 bestselling business book for bands!

If you belong to a band and love the art of your job, but sing the blues when it comes to the business, you need Music Law. Composed by musician and lawyer Richard Stim, the book explains how to:

find the right manager
buy, insure and maintain equipment
get gigs and get paid
tour on a budget
use samples
do covers legally
protect your copyright
trademark your band's name
choose a recording studio
sell your music
manage your website
understand record contracts
deal with taxes
and much more

Music Law provides all the legal information and practical advice musicians need. The 5th edition -- completely updated to provide the latest in the law -- covers music downloads and other trends affecting the digital-music scene. It also provides up-to-date legal forms on CD-ROM.

Customer Reviews:

The Essential For ALL Musicians.......2007-08-23

Like all carpenters needing important tools to build a house, this book is the tool for all musicians. It covers all the important music business information and will help cut down unnecessary misfortune for musicians. Definitely a MUST BUY!!!

Solid law basics w/ clear presentation.......2007-06-01

This offers a great foundation to Music Law. It is clear & easy to read w/ room in the margins for notes. Richard Stim even mentions a few legal loopholes you can benefit from.

You can also recieve free book updates on the Nolo website, which is a cool perk.

Everything you'd need to know!!.......2007-03-20

I've been in the business for a while and I thought I knew a lot but this book opened my eyes to so many other facets of the music business that hadn't even crossed my mind!! The contracts on the CD are very helpful and because they are in a word format, it's easy to customize certain ones to fit what I need!!

From Copyrights to Publishing to Taxes to Lawyers, This book talks about it all in a very understandable way!!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants their music and band to be their business and want to do it right!!

It will prove that practical and popular a pick........2007-02-06

If you're a recording musician serious about entering the business, you can't be without the 5th updated edition of Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business. It covers all aspects of music protection and music making, whether you're budgeting a tour, making an album, protecting songwriting efforts, or entering into a partnership with band members. Here under one cover is everything you need to do it right, from sample contracts and explanations of legal issues to handling taxes and choosing a recording studio. Libraries from public to college collections who obtain this book will want to keep it in the reference section: it will prove that practical and popular a pick.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Good title.......2006-05-20

Running and taking care of the band's business could be a tough and demanding job! If you need help in managing your financials, contracts and especially legal stuff you may choose this book but music business isn't limited here! Apparently that is the aspect most of the people are focused on but that doesn't make a great record and great publicity and you need those before even thinking about managing your business. So if you really want to get to this point first you should read: "How To Make A Furtune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" which teaches you everything from scratch not only parts of this amazing tough world.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books