Open

A great resource for activists around the country. Packed with addresses and phone numbers of organizations, publications and magazines.

The only possible flaw is that it is 95%+ left/liberal oriented. Not that that bothers me, but I guess it could be considered a flaw to some people.

The first striking quality of Jennifer Hill Kaucher's book is the enormous sense of control and form; the poems are short, rhythmically and spatially balanced, and made with a skilled and deliberate hand. They are clearly careful works of love. The language here is somehow simultaneously terse and rich, vivid in its structure and cadence.

The content of the poems seems almost expressly aimed at challenging the form; from the first poem ("Chanting Outside of Language") to the last ("Reach"), we become acquainted with a narrator whose primary obsession is to express things that fall just beyond the capacities of the language -- she struggles to balance the physical world (coffee, shellac, houses, laundry) against the literary world (codes and forms) and ultimately longs to transcend both, to be, as in the poem "Asleep," a "traveler [who] leaves her belongings." The counterpoint of content against form leads to poems that shine. This is work that compels, mystifies, and resonates in your bones.

This book is an excellent resource for any one interested in straight forward Biblical answers to a wide range of questions. This is one of three Question and Answer books by Guy N. Woods. I highly recommend them to any Bible student.

This is a diverse collection of alternative comics from the late 80's; 203 pages, 24 comics from the hilarious and absurd to the poignant and profound. Some are better than others, but all are unique and refreshingly different from the comics you're used to reading. These artists utilize their medium in a different way, creating bizarre surrealist pieces, dark comedy and visual poetry.
My favorites in this volume include 2 Cowboy Henk strips, a hilarious Belgian comic translated to English, as well as some cool stuff by editor Art Spiegelman, including a chapter from Maus. Other good ones: Wild Heart, Karla in Kommieland, Bulimic, Social Butterfly, Paul, Zephyr.
Beautiful artwork, including some of the most detailed pen and ink work I've seen.

If you not only want to learn SGML painlessly but also want to have a background on the subject, read this book. The author was careful to explain the important aspects of SGML in an easy to read way. When he presents the real code, you will notice how easy it is to read just because he has already explained it in an easy way. I recommend one chapter a day, every day. When you finish it, go back and read again, not in order, but specific parts that interest you.

This book is slender yet packed with thoughts, expressed clearly and succinctly. The author is a poet who lives the alternate lifestyle. The focus of her book is not limited to polyamorous sexual relationships, but goes beyond that to the many forms in which love and intimacy are shared. Although it is about polyamorous relationships, it is more than that -- it is a meditation on love, and invites the reader to think outside of categories about what one truly wants and needs as a human being.

The latest in the Krieger "Open Forum" series, Rediscovering The British Empire, compiled and edited Barry J. Ward, is an impressive and informative selection of learned essays concerning the history and long-term effects of Great Britain's one-time colonization of so much territory that it was described by the phrase: "The sun never set on the British Empire." The British affected and influenced histories of Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Fiji, and much more are authoritatively discussed in these college-level writings contributed by an eclectic variety of educated authors. Rediscovering The British Empire is highly recommended for its fascinating perspective on Great Britain's worldwide influence and legacy.

David Forgacs' monograph on 'Rome Open City' is as thorough an examination of a major cinematic milestone as you could hope for. Roberto Rossellini's breakthrough film, the story of Resistance activity during the German Occupation of Rome 1943-44, was conceived, made and released in the immediate aftermath of the Liberation, and was exultantly acclaimed as a new kind of cinema, where documentary-style authenticity (largely non-professional cast, basis in recent history, real locations etc.) were seen as an answer to the lies of Fascist film in particular, and the illusions of commercial cinema in general, heralding the Golden Age of Neo-Realism.

Forgacs takes as his starting point Italo Calvino's remark that neo-realist works about the resistance were not 'direct representations of events in reality' but 'textual elaborations of already represented events'. Although the major stories depicted in the film - the street murder of a pregnant woman, the torture of a communist resistant, the execution of a dissident priest - were based on real events, they had already been mythologised in oral accounts, newspaper articles, diaries, paintings, sculptures etc., which representations Rossellini synthesised in his film.

More damagingly, the myth of Resistance offered in 'Rome Open City', which Forgacs suggests was necessary to displace collective guilt and anger as well as provide Romans with a narrative of unity and memory, evades or distorts the more troubling aspects of the Occupation - the natives' 20-year complicity with the Fascist regime; the collaboration of the Fascist police and their network of spies with the brutalities of the Germans; the silences and compromises of the Church. The deportations of the Jews, for instance, are not even mentioned. The 'patriotic myth' was also a way for Rossellini to atone for his own Fascist past, having directed three features for the army.

This is not to suggest that Forgacs simply demolishes the film, which was immensely influential and is still the director's most accessible work. After all, Rossellini himself later disowned the more manipulative and melodramatic aspects of thw work, which were incompatible with his more austere and viewer-challenging later films. By offering a detailed historical and cultural context; by recreating the conditions of the film's conception, production and contemporary reception; and by analysing the film's techniques and themes (most brilliantly in his discussion of urban space, the different uses made of it by occupiers and resisters), as well as the 'polluted' (Rossellini's own phrase) ideology that informs the pretensions to objectivity (in particular the demonising of 'bad' sexuality), Forgacs replaces the monolithically 'important' and 'truthful' film of legend with something much more complex, contradictory and intellectually satisfying.

In this exquisite coffee table book Fellman captures the essence & ethereal beauty of flowers. With selective focus there is more feeling than substance. It is as if the flowers have their own secret world that we can only know part of.

A wide variety of flora are presented in 62 sepia toned prints, including delicate roses, elegant calla lilies, exotic orchids & magnificent sunflowers. I love her use of soft focus & the numerous close-ups of petals.

These are the most sensual flower pictures I have seen. The images convey a combination of mystery with remarkable intimacy as you see extraordinary detail emerging from the subtle shapes and tones of the background.

Each plate is numbered with several images spread across two-pages. The type of flower & the year the photo was taken are listed in the back. There is also background information about Fellman and 2 essays on her work.

I'm writing this on behalf of my 6 year old son who is a New Jersey Devils fan and admirer of Scott Gomez. The book is informative and well written. We find out how old Scott was when he took up hockey(age 5)and how Scott worked his way up the league and eventually into the NHL. Scott Gomez is a genuine roll model for young people and especially young Hispanics who don't think other Hispanics played hockey(we are stereotypicaly boxers who don't know how to do anything else). I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the sport or is a new fan of hockey. What is really warm about this is how close Scott is to his dad, Carlos, and what a tight knit family they are.