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Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Part One : Millennium Approaches; Part Two : Perestroika
Tony Kushner
Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group
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ASIN: 1559361077 |
Amazon.com
Tony Kushner's Angels in America is that rare entity: a work for the stage that is profoundly moving yet very funny, highly theatrical yet steeped in traditional literary values, and most of all deeply American in its attitudes and political concerns. In two full-length plays--Millennium Approaches and Perestroika--Kushner tells the story of a handful of people trying to make sense of the world. Prior is a man living with AIDS whose lover Louis has left him and become involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative whose wife, Harper, is slowly having a nervous breakdown. These stories are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (a fictional re-creation of the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs.
But such a summary does not do justice to Kushner's grand plan, which mixes magical realism with political speeches, high comedy with painful tragedy, and stitches it all together with a daring sense of irony and a moral vision that demands respect and attention. On one level, the play is an indictment of the government led by Ronald Reagan, from the blatant disregard for the AIDS crisis to the flagrant political corruption. But beneath the acute sense of political and moral outrage lies a meditation on what it means to live and die--of AIDS, or anything else--in a society that cares less and less about human life and basic decency. The play's breadth and internal drive is matched by its beautiful writing and unbridled compassion. Winner of two Tony Awards and the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Angels in America is one of the most outstanding plays of the American theater. --Michael Bronski
Book Description
HBO Films will present Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols from Tony Kushner's own adaptation of his Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The remarkable cast features Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon and Simon Callow.
Angels in America is one of the most remarkable and celebrated plays of our time. Over 350,000 copies have been sold in paperback since their original publication in 1993.
Praise for the play:
"Angels in America is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time."-Jack Kroll, Newsweek
"A vast, miraculous play . . . provocative, witty and deeply upsetting . . . a searching and radical rethinking of Ameri-can political drama."-Frank Rich, The New York Times
"Something rare, dangerous and harrowing…a roman candle hurled into a drawing room . . . "-Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard
"Playful and profound, extravagantly theatrical and deeply spiritual, witty, and compassionate, furious and incredibly smart . . . It's impossible to imagine anyone captivated by the beginning not wanting-needing-to go back for the end."-Linda Winer, Newsday
"An enormously impressive work of the imagination and intellect, a towering example of what theatre stretched to its full potential can achieve."-Clifford A. Ridley, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Perestroika is a masterpiece."-John Lahr, New Yorker
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Read.......2006-12-19
After watching the Angels in America DVD, I wanted to see how it was originally as a play, and it does not disappoint. In many ways, I think it's a better experience reading this play than it was to see it on my tiny television. Angels in America is essentially a theatrical work, and the miniseries came off just as that, a filmed stage play, espcially in Part 1: Millenium Approaches, so that it seemed really static, even with, if not because of, Mike Nichols' direction. It was, on the other hand, tremendously faithful to the play script. As far as I could tell, not a word was changed.
Part 2: Perestroika, however, had a few changes from the script to screen, and those changes worked well, making the filmed version far more dynamic than Part 1. There's some additional backstory that got dropped in the translation, but the spirit is very much the same.
Ultimately, I recommend that you watch the DVD to get an idea of the characters' mannerisms and the staging, then read the script to fully appreciate the poetry of Tony Kushner's language. Buy it and love it!
Masterpiece.......2006-10-01
Angels in America is probably one of the most important pieces of American theatre of the last twenty years. Outside of musicals, probably one of the few contemporary plays of the period that has had a significant mainstream impact outside of an adapted form (and probably significantly more important then a large number of the adapted ones even before it became an excellent miniseries). And for that reason alone, it is worth reading.
But there is more then that.
The play actually is one of the most influential plays for a reason. It speaks to a number of socially relevent themes about the American experience. It deals heavily with the roles of gays in society giving a fascinating dialectic about the potential roles that gays can play in society. One of the most interesting social arguments in the play has to be the complete failure of the traditional nuclear family on every level, a statement that can echo the larger social issue where the image of the nuclear family has failed. As a tangent to that, the play deals heavily with the Mormon church, being both one of the only major religions founded in America and one of the religions with the heaviest focus on the family (and one of the ones with the harshest line towards homosexuality).
This probably isn't a great play to read if you like to read things out of a larger social context. Honestly, though, I really can't imagine how any American could read this play without connecting it to the larger social issues (and I think that would be true for people of a lot of other nationalities as well, though to what degree I'm not sure).
In terms of the actual play, its quite good. But I found (and just about everyone I've asked) has said that they found Part I to be much stronger then Part II.
Well written.......2006-07-08
Wow, I don't usually read plays, but this one is the exception, its astonishing! I even went out to rent the play from HBO studios! I strongly reccomend this book.
Deeply Flawed But Nonetheless Brilliant.......2004-10-05
A playscript is a blueprint for a performance--a document that is intended to be interpreted by those trained in theatre arts. For this reason most non-theatre people find reading a play akin to a tour of purgatory: it is often extremely difficult for the layman to imagine how these strings of words on a page will actually play on a stage before a live audience. This is particularly true of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA, a play which even many theatre arts people (myself included) find very, very flat on the page; consequently, I do not really recommend it for those without a background in theatre arts.
Set in 1980s New York and subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," the play concerns a group of largely homosexual men who find themselves caught up in series of disasters that range from love to religion and from politics to philosophy--and most specifically caught between the rising tide of AIDS and a generally unsympathetic society. In the midst of this, AIDS patient Pior Walter begins to have a series of visions, which may be fever dreams, medicine-induced hallucinations... or, most unnerving of all, real. His long dead ancestors rise to speak to him, the floor cracks open to reveal a burning book--and at the conclusion of the play's first half a beautiful woman with majestic wings crashes through his roof. She is the Angel of America. He is, she tells him, a prophet, and she has come to bring him a message for mankind.
Intertwined with Prior's other-earthly experiences are oddly parallel lives. Joe and Harper Pitt are a deeply dysfunctional couple doubting their faith in the Mormon Church, Joe a closeted homosexual, Harper a valium-addicted and mildly psychotic woman given to visions as strange as those of Prior Walter's. And as further counterpoint historical figure Roy Cohn (1927-1986), among the most sinister figures of 20th Century America, finds himself taunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he drifts toward his own AIDS-induced death. The characters swirl in and out of each other's lives and dreams, playing to stereotypes and yet defying them, arguing politics and philosophy and love and death--and it is fascinating stuff. And the play, which ran six hours and had to be performed across two consecutive evenings, astounded theatregoers: nothing similar had been seen on Broadway since the days of Eugene O'Neill's MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA.
But for all of this remarkable vortex of dreams and realities, issues and ideas, there is a tremendous problem with ANGELS IN AMERICA, and even the most casual reader should be able to spot it. When an angel crashes through the roof you naturally expect startling revelations to follow--but having spent the first half of his play building to this amazing climax, Kushner seems to have painted himself into a dramatic corner. The ideas, issues, and characters continue to swirl as brilliantly as before, but the angelic revelations and their gradual unraveling seem to be born more of desperation than of true originality.
Is ANGELS IN AMERICA a play that will resonate through time? It is possible, but I think it unlikely. To return to MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, that play is very much of its era in terms of style--but it deals with themes and ideas that are of all times and places, and in consequence it remains as powerful today as it was when it startled Broadway some seventy years ago. But ANGELS IN AMERICA is not only stylistically of its place and time, it is also a play that deals specifically with issues peculiar to its place and time, and as our thinking about these issues change the play's authority begins to fade. While it remains required reading (and ideally required viewing) for any one who is seriously interested in theatre, it seems unlikely that it will forever maintain that status.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Couldn't put it down.......2004-09-16
As an actor I have a very discerning eye when it comes to plays, and i was amazed with this piece of literature. I decided to read the first few pages before bed, and before i knew it i had finished and it was almost dawn.
No matter what personal views you have on the subject of politics, AIDS, or religion there is a clear message aimed at all of us as Americans, regardless of beliefs. I found Kushner's ideas compelling, making me think and even more so, feel. there's nothing like reading a great book and becoming enveloped by it and this is one of the best plays of our time; hands down.
Book Description
Mix one American expatriate, "inherited" managers, Soviet-trained bakers, and a Danish baking instructor with an Irish accent. Blend in the collapse of the Soviet legal system, derelicts that heave bricks through windows for sport, and mafiya racketeers. Put all them together in a decrepit bakery plant, and you will have just a taste of what lies between the pages of Boris Zemtzov's charming new travelogue, "The Merry Baker of Riga." An American businessman with no roots in Latvia, Boris Zemtzov nonetheless decided to establish a Western-style bakery there in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet. Forced to ramp up to speed with learning the culture of a new country, he must also find a common language with the managers he "inherited" from the Soviet Enterprise. Together they divide tasks and work to establish "The Merry Baker," repairing a decrepit bakery plant, finding retail space where almost none exists, and re-training Soviet-trained bakers. Along the way, Zemtzov's experience with Russian mafiya, racketeers who threaten to drive him out of business results in the first "sting" operation launched by an expatriate in the former Soviet Union.
Customer Reviews:
Great Buy.......2007-03-10
The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.
One man's remarkable determination to succeed.......2004-06-12
The Merry Baker Of Riga: An American Entrepreneur Ventures Into Eastern Europe is the true story of an American expatriate who decided to establish a Western-style bakery in Latvia in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His run ins with language barriers, having to re-train Soviet-trained bakers, the threats of Russian mafia racketeers who menaced his business, culture shock, and much more fill the pages of this rousing travelogue and business tale filled with twists, turns, unexpected challenges and one man's remarkable determination to succeed.
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Rysqo, the Black Dragon
Ryan Clark
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1411637364 |
Book Description
How much would you sacrifice for love? That's the question one man is forced to answer as the sins of men eons earlier start to take their toll on all of existence and the fate of life is to be judged by the heart and compassion of man. There was a mistake made long ago. A mistake that is too late to change or take back, and if fate was to take its course, oblivious to consequence or morality, this mistake, would bring about what all cultures commonly fear...the end of the world, a cease to all living existence throughout the galaxy; the apocalypse. Now, in a world where love is scarce and hate runs wild, one man is sent on an incredible journey to answer the question; how much would you sacrifice for love? Rysqo, the Black Dragon not only stimulates your imagination, but it challenges your sense of reality. RBD has been described as the ultimate love story, one in which sacrifice of live and love are equally valued. A decision does need to be made though; one man's love, or the continuance of existence?
Customer Reviews:
Speechless.......2006-02-01
Rivetting and engaging. A story of love and triumph unfolds in a fanciful world of a conflicted warrior. I was truly amazed at how the story unfolded. Rysqo is a challenging read that will alter the way that you experience relationships and deal with inner struggle.
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- The Arthritis Foundation's Guide to Good Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, 3rd Edition
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The Arthritis Foundation's Guide to Good Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, 3rd Edition (Arthritis Foundation's Guide to Good Living with Rheumatoid Arthriti)
Dorothy Foltz-Gray
Manufacturer: Arthritis Foundation
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The Arthritis Foundation's Guide to Good Living with Osteoarthritis, 2nd Edition
ASIN: 0912423501 |
Book Description
From the Arthritis Foundation, a trusted source of health information and guidance for more than 50 years, Good Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis, 3rd Edition, explains new research and treatments in clear, simple language. Readers will learn how to be proactive patients, how to stretch daily to reduce pain and increase flexibility, and how to judge the many over-the-counter drugs and supplements on the market today.
Customer Reviews:
The Arthritis Foundation's Guide to Good Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, 3rd Edition.......2007-03-09
Excellent up to date information.
Great Information!.......2006-08-21
This book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn about Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). It explains, in very good detail, the process a person who is diagnosed with RA will go through. It explains medically what is happening; how to understand the "medical team" that you will have; what treatments exist and their most common side-effects; and coping skills. Anyone who has recently been diagnosed with RA should definitely read this book. Anyone who is supporting a person with RA would also benefit from reading this book. I would highly recommend it.
Book Description
A basic guide to understanding, treating and living with rheumatoid arthritis, an often debilitating illness that affects more than two million Americans.
Customer Reviews:
Good General Guide to RA.......2007-02-15
So far this book has been very helpful, especially with various issues that affect people with RA. It is up-to-date on the pharmaceutical options for the treatment of RA. A good general guide.
The best book out there........2003-12-28
I've been very disappointed in the quality of books out on the market about inflammation disesases such as RA. This is the only one I would recommend. It has all the info you need, neatly laid out with great, easy-to-read graphics. Definately 5 stars! Also look for their book on Alternative Therapies. Buy extra copies for your family/friends so they understand what you're going through.
This book is a must.......2001-08-29
If you or a family member or a close friend has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, this is the book to read. It explains the various aspects of the disease, what one can expect to happen, how to cope with the pain and how to organize your life in order to minimize the stress the disease can cause. The book does not candy-coat the disease, but does show how it can be managed. It explains the different drugs that are available to help and it explains their side-effects, also. There are helpful hints to diet and exercise, as well. I found this to be a very important book for me because it gave me the ground-work for dialog with my doctor. I am glad I found this book.
Customer Reviews:
Wokka Wokka!!.......2006-09-22
After taking a cooking class from the owner of a Thai restaurant about 18 years ago, I began a collection of Oriental cookbooks. I have to say that Yan's "Everybody's Wokking" - despite the cheesy title - is one of the best. Many of the recipes are extremely flavorful (not necessarily hot-spicy, although there are those, too), and the recipes feature flexibility and SIMPLICITY. Few have more than a dozen ingredients, and although you'll need an Asian food store for a few items, most of the ingredients can be found in a typical grocery store.
I cook more recipes more consistently from this book than from any other. Lemon chicken - chunks of chicken breast, dipped in cornstarch and walnuts, deep fried and dipped in sweet and sour sauce built from lemon and ginger! The best pork chop recipe of my entire life, featuring Chinese five-spice, orange juice and carmelized onions! Chicken thighs marinaded in cilantro, garlic and turmeric and baked or grilled. Sweet and sour shrimp soup - with lime juice, cilantro, green onions, jalapeno, and mint! Flavors coming out your ears and eyes!
Get it. Use it! It's great!
One very well-used cookbook.......2004-01-12
My wife bought me this cookbook a few years ago and recipes from it are now a key part of our weekly menu planning. Each of the recipes we've tried is easy to do just by following the clear, extremely practical instructions. The pages of such well-loved recipes as the Pad Thai, My Uncle's Poached Fish and Tomato Beef are splattered with soy sauce and ketchup (one of Martin Yan's favorite ingredients). Now I'm planning to buy a copy for my niece who got married this year. Buy this book if you need a Chinese/East Asian cookbook that you plan to use throughout the year !
Quick and Easy Chinese Food.......2000-01-19
This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to cook Chinese food. The recipes are simple to follow and they don't take up a lot of time. The dishes are delicious. It's a good cookbook for someone just starting to learn how to cook, too. My friends all borrowed this book when I first got it; now they all have their own.
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Everybodies Wokking
Manufacturer: Harlow & Ratner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GWZC7I |
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Guide to Vintage Trade Stimulators & Counter Games
Richard M. Bueschel
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
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Book Description
The perfect vintage collectible is one with a beginning and an end, and yet still numerous enough to enable enthusiasts to build collections. Here's a comprehensive guide to just such a collectible. Coin operated trade stimulators and counter games got their start in the saloons of the 1880s. Things changed with the coming of the Prohibition and the disappearance of saloons in 1920. Checkout counters in stores, restaurants, and cigar shops became the primary locations, where these counter games helped stimulate trade. The Great Depression, followed by the Repeal of Prohibition in 1933 propelled the industry to new heights and prominent makers such as Groetchen Tool, Buckley, Bally, Pierce Tool, and many others were kept busy until the 1960s. You'll get to know all the makers and their machines by name, date, and appearance in this colorful collector's guide. Over 800 photos, detailed machine descriptions, manufacturer production data, and an interchangable machine name list will make you an instant expert, ready for shows, auctions, and collector trading. The accompanying price guide will insure that you buy or sell smart and well. Plus, you'll enjoy every page for its interesting history and content in the most complete book on this subject to ever see print.
Customer Reviews:
Great Guide!.......1999-12-23
On top of hundreds of fantastic photos the book has game discriptions and prices. Many that are not pictured are still in the price list and described there. The dates of manufacture as well as the maker and the origin. Includes a fantastic history of trade stimulator as a whole, and offers contacts for restoration and evaluation. I need another copy, I have worn mine out!
Book Description
Coin Machines is a thorough look at slot machines, jukeboxes, arcade, counter and pinball games, trade stimulators, vending machines, and coin operated scales, all described in detail and abundantly photographed in color. These coin operated machines-- invented in England, adopted in America in the 1880s, and most prolifically produced in Chicago, Illinois--have been a part of everyday life for over one hundred years. "Automatic machines," as they were first called, are imaginative, entertaining, useful, colorful, and reflect changing technology as well. The text presents methods for identifying different types of machines, their history and development, and helpful hints on where to look for themachine of your dreams.
Customer Reviews:
Great guide to coin-op machines.......1999-05-19
If you have any interest in collecting coin-operated machines or in their history, you should get this book. There are a large number of color pictures of historic slot machines, arcade machines, pinball machines, trade stimulators, and jukeboxes. In addition to the pictures and market prices, there is a lot of information about the history of these machines, and tips for collectors. This book was a great help when I purchased a vintage slot machine.
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Beautiful pictures of wonderful dyed fabrics used in a variety of designs accompany detailed advice on the materials required, preparing the fabric and the dyeing methods. Using Shibori techniques - folding, pleating, clamping, stitching and pole wrapping, the author illustrates all the different stages, using clear step-by-step photographs and easy-to-follow text. A stunning sequence of inspirational projects have been specially chosen to develop skills and build confidence, with instructions on how to make a tea cosy, a jacket, a silk scarf and more.
Book Description
Create a pleasant, safe, and useful haven for baby with
The Smart Approach to®
Baby Rooms. The latest title in our best-selling The Smart Approach to® series explains all of the aspects of design as they relate to newborns, infants, and toddlers, including how to analyze space, use color, and select furnishings. Other topics that are covered in the book include: sleeping options, an overview of infant-related products from changing tables to baby monitors, storage, safety, and special needs. A series of Smart Steps and Smart Tips throughout the book provide guidance for accomplishing design goals and achieving professional-like results.
Customer Reviews:
Great designs and picture full of ideas.......2005-09-13
This book is very colorful and gave me ideas of how to do a room but on a cheap scale than in the book. The book has varies themes and wallpaper murals. However, after recently removing wallpaper from a baby's room I decided painting would be easier and more functional. Children grow so fast and a nice light color with updating enhancements can give a room a fresh new look for your child-toddler-preteen. I choose a nice light blue for my daughter. She has a nice cherrywood bed and the blue looks nice together. Also many of ther toys can be incorporated into her room of color until a theme is selected.
I love this book.......2005-07-19
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for nursery ideas. The pictures and ideas are beautiful!
This is the baby room book to own!.......2005-05-18
This is a complete resource for planning a baby's room. It goes beyond the visual decor and provides practical advice for for everything from flooring to bedding. As the youngest of 4 siblings I've been around & babysat several babies and toodlers, yet the smart tips feature proved to be very educational as I prepare a room for a baby of my own.
Book Description
There's a powerful fascination in creating fantasy characters and their bewitching environs on the computer screen. Written for anyone who works- or plays-in 3D graphics, Digital Fantasy Painting supplies a treasury of tested techniques that can be applied to any illustration software package. This extraordinary resource is packed with dozens of step-by-step exercises for designing photo-realistic 3D creatures and their strange worlds. Readers will see how to produce simple human skin and bone textures, as well as an entire host of ethereal creatures such as ghosts, spirits, robots, and cyborgs. They'll discover how to design realistic atmospheric effects as well as capture the surreal world of nightmares, futurescapes, and planetscapes. Computer artists will also find tested techniques for modeling, surfacing, staging, and lighting as well as creating water, glass, and other true-to-life motion effects. Digital Fantasy Painting features a dazzling showcase of the very best fantasy artwork, complete with dozens of tips, examples, and shortcuts that help put the creative process on the fast track. Plus, a special section outlines the myriad software illustration packages available on the market today. For graphic designers, fans of fantasy and science fiction art, and anyone else who wants to try their hand at creating incredible creatures on their computer screen, here is a definitive one-stop resource.
Customer Reviews:
Long on Art, short on tutorial.......2007-10-02
I bought this book impressed by the variety of digital art reproduced within it. However, I also expected that there would be some helpful tutorials discussing how to achieve the effects in the artwork. While some tutorials are included, they are hardly of the helpful, step-by-step variety - the eager learner is given short-shrift and the tutorial explanations are very shallow and less-than-helpful. For those looking for some nice art to look at, certainly pick this book up. However, if you want a book to learn from, go somewhere else.
A great starting point!.......2005-07-12
Hello there. I am a 3D artist and a wannabe indie game designer. A year or two back I had no clue how to start on making art and or what to use. I didn't know what NURBs meant, I didn't know about rigging, texturing, animation, rendering, anything like that. Well, this book isn't going to tell you how to do that but it certainly helped me start out. This book contains breath-taking art from a massive amount of programs and tells you a short walkthrough on how they made it. This is a great book for beginners to get started on, learn some technical terms, know the names of these programs so they can do a little research on them, and get inspiration. This book is amazing! Even if you are an artist you should get this book. It's great!
Good for beginners.......2003-09-13
This book mostly contains some step by step screen shots. The book talks mostly about using photoshop as a tool for texturing, and painting. It goes a little bit in other 3d programs such as Maya, 3d max, and Poser. But only covers a few modifiers or special effects. There is no real indepth explanation. As someone who works with 3d max and photoshop, I only recommend it if you are a beginner. The instruction are more like tips here and there.
A must have for any digital artist's collection.......2003-03-17
How this book slipped under my nose for so long is amazing. I just recently found it and the book contains some amazing artwork. True, a lot of the book is just gallery work and the "step-by-step" section is more of a step-by-step overview of how certain effects were created. If someone is looking for a how-to book, this isn't the one. The interesting part is that the book fails to focus on any singular 3D app. One masterpiece may be done with poser, another with Lightwave, another with 3D max, another done strictly with photoshop, and yet another may use multiple application.
It truly opens your eyes on the quality available with soem of the apps. This book belongs on your shelf alongside the other non-app specific titles like Digital Lighting and Rendering and Digital Texturing and Painting.
Very Well Done.......2003-02-08
Despite the other reviews, I found this book a worthwhile buy as a beginning digital artist. It does not provide an in depth explanation of every program in it, however, it shows a wide variety of artwork from various fantasy artists and gives basic tutorial steps and multiple tips. The work can be found online with some of the tutorials admittedly, but I found it very handy to have good examples and techniques for work sitting in front of me rather than clicking back and forth between multiple online tutorials and whatever program I was working on.
I am not familiar with 3d programs yet but this book gives examples of many different programs and gave me an idea of what programs I might like to try later. The tutorials were comprehensible and easy to follow as well as showcasing a variety of styles. They were not just sketch-detail sketch-end product the way that I've found many other tutoral books to be. Instead it shows the layering and painting process with each of the pieces, which is exactly what I was looking for. If you want nitty-gritty details, I suggest buying the "bible" for whatever program you want to find out more about. There's only so much you can do in a 160 page book, especially if you want an index and title page and whatnot ^.~
Book Description
Fantasy painting has a long tradition.It went through a stylistic revolution in the 1980s with the widespread adoption of airbrush as a medium of choice. Now, with the emergence of various computer modeling and rendering applications, fantasy painting is going through another revolution. Digital tools and techniques have made it easier for artists to realize their visions and the images they now create are more vivid, more realistic, and more compelling.
A must-have book for anyone working in the area of fantasy art and for anyone who admires the work of fantasy illustrators. Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop tackles the genre's three main categories-fantasy; science-fiction; and horror-and employs detailed step-by-step walkthroughs to show exactly how the images are produced. Featuring work from some of the world's leading fantasy artists, the book also explores the “tradigital” movement of mixing traditional and digital skills.
Customer Reviews:
Good, but a little dated.......2007-03-23
This book is a little dated, and many magazines cover the same techniques, although in less detail. That's the problem with writing (and publishing) a book that's based in changing technology: By the time the book comes out, it's already a little old.
If you're interested in creating digital fantasy images for your professional work, this book probably offers enough unique material to make it a worthwhile purchase.
I'd also recommend this as a fine reference for public and school libraries.
However, for personal use--unless you specialize in this field--it's probably better to look for newer versions of similar books.
It wasn't bad but could have been better.......2006-08-06
This book was a great for ideas but there was no detailed instruction. This book was more of an overview of digital painting and not a teaching book-
The photos were very good
a must have for students, and nice for pros to flip through.......2005-08-12
Good Step by step illustration examples and some general 'how to' stuff that is worthy of print.
I've seen quite a few books like this out there - this is one of the best 'how to' books of its nature currently. Maybe because they're talking about the digital medium - but hey - Computers are the way much of the art you see today for games and movies are generated. Been that way for me for the past 10 years anyway.
A good companion to Martin McKenna's other book - the SCifi digital painting book. Both of these are good little reads with competent people delivering good infomration in each them.
Think what i like best is the step by step work actually shows progress and real tips - not just 1,2,3 and BAM the artist is done and it looks good through their sheer talent with no real insight for the reader. McKenna really lets things unfold so you can see them - which is really nice - oh not in all the examples but in enough
Book Description
This fifth installation from the world-renowned Goetz Collection showcases eight artists born between 1949 and 1976, including James Casebere, Barnaby Hosking, Zilla Leutenegger, Magnus Plessen, Wilhelm Sasnal, Dana Schutz, Laurie Simmons and Matthias Weischer. Casebere and Simmons are likely the best known to most readers; the third featured American artist, Dana Schutz, born in 1976, creates politically tinged fairytale figures and narratives in paint, like "the last man in the world." Among her European compatriots are Hosking, born in 1976, who makes video installations on how works of art are created, from paintings to bowls for Japanese tea ceremonies. Wilhelm Sasnal, born in 1972, began by studying architecture; his films use press photos, collages, videos, comics, old-master paintings and simple snapshots. This series' topic is broadly defined as contemporary painting, and its hallmark--as the genre's--may be that its canvases vary widely from the traditional cloth.
Average customer rating:
- An invaluable insight into early film-making.
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The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin
Joseph P. Eckhardt
Manufacturer: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
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An invaluable insight into early film-making........1999-04-24
Joseph P. Eckhardt should be congratulated for this wonderful biography of pioneering film-maker Siegmund Lubin. I had assumed the book to be interesting, if probably a bit technical, and was not prepared for how entertaining the text would be. Using humor, understanding and affection for his subject, Eckhardt describes Lubin's rise from poor immigrant to King of the Movies; his battles with Thomas Edison; the creating of Lubinville, the producer's plant in Philadelphia, and, later, the move to suburban Betzwood. The benevolent mogul had enough chutzpah for two Goldwyns, it appears, and although he might not have paid his actors the salaries they could claim elsewhere, many nevertheless chose to stay in the congenial atmosphere of Lubinville. Like all the other pioneers, Lubin's era was over by the late 1910s, but until then, the German immigrant had entertained millions with his little "fillums." "The King of the Movies" is of course not only a biography of Siegmund Lubin himself, but an invaluable insight into the Lubin Mfg. Co., arguably the until now least understood of the early film companies.
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