Ms. Chave's book is quite a good introduction to 1950's abstract-expressionist art in general, and to Rothko in particular. She convincingly traces his development from realistic imagery through Miro-like surrealism to his distinctive ethereal but emotional rectangles. Along the way, she makes a good case for his stubborn insistence that his work did, in fact, have a subject. At least one other art-thinker, Georgia O'Keeffe, caught on to this (in a documentary made a few years before she died, O'Keeffe commented that a Rothko piece in the MOMA seemed like a timeline of a man's life), as did at least one of Rothko's more sensitive collectors (this is chronicled in the book). This, in my opinion, is why Rothko's work isn't ideally suited for calm meditation, unlike that of some other abstract artists (which is not to say that being meditative is a bad thing, by the way). I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't quite get modern art, and is willing to put some effort into the task.

"Bunnies and Bees" is an exhibition catalog collecting the work of artist Mark Ryden. There are over 50 full color images depicting 8 major works (The Last Rabbit, The Magic Circus,YHWH, Little Boy Blue, The Ringmaster, Puella Animo Aureo, Jessica's Hope, Sophia's Mercurial Water) including sketches and reference drawings. With an artist and craftsman like Ryden, an examination of 8 paintings is far more satisfying than it sounds. There is an enjoyable introductory essay titled "Tracing the connection between bunnies, bees, and Abe Lincoln" written by Mike Mcgee. Followers of Ryden's work will be relieved (or amused) to know that the article examines the repeated appearance of Mr. Lincoln in the current body of work. The most valuable content is a descriptive essay on each of the paintings by Mark Ryden. This commentary alone is worth the price of the book, as it is rare that an artist will so generously illuminate his own work. He even explains to us how and why he creates his frames. It is a softcover book printed on heavy paper stock with a superior binding.

The exhibition is introduced as "paintings created to illustrate divine truth in accordance with the principles of science and soul" and was shown in New York and California. Mark Ryden creates magical realms which are beautiful and subtly disturbing, richly layered with playful symbolism. They are surreal yet not quite surrealist and often just short of kitsch. The inhabitants are ethereal children and their animated toys inhabiting alien landscapes. The otherworldly subjects are juxtaposed with familiar nostalgic icons. Ryden also distorts sizes and uses cultural references in unexpected places. The writings of Lewis Carroll come to mind when viewing his work. It is similarly warped and whimsical. Ryden claims that he doesn't really paint his paintings. He describes a magical monkey who sneaks into his studio late at night, causing mysterious things to happen. I almost believe him.

"I often use prehistoric landscapes in my paintings. They recall the strong and unique feelings I had as child when I first looked at these bizarre environments in schoolbooks. These pictures represented worlds entirely different from the one I saw around me. This is when I first asked those monumental questions; Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" - Mark Ryden

I have read this book as well as the CD program. I used to use the characters' names as code names when playing baseball, also I used to turn off the lights and act this story out around Halloween. Also, I have now suspected that the story is a play on words with the word, "curve ball"(a curve ball is also a term for something that happens unexpectedly as well as a baseball term). The adventure in the house was a curve ball- and now I know the connection with baseball to this story. Great computer program for Halloween!

This book should be a must buy (or borrow from the library if you are really frugal) for all wage earners. A simple step by step guide to get you out of debt and on the road to financial freedom. The book gives you the tools to get started on Day 1. Highly recommended.

One of the most fun cookbooks, Jewish or otherwise. Using cartoons and exciting lettering, Stark offers the readers fun cooking projects for the whole family for Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and other meals. The recipes are in easy to read step-by-step form and well illustrated. Recipes include those for roasted chicken, strudel, borsht hallah, bagels, dill pickles, falafel, hummus, hamantaschen, apple sauce, latkas, lox with onions and eggs, matzah, kugel, coleslaw, blintzes, passover dishes, knishes, kasha, soup, and rugalach.. to name a few

The name of Marc Blitstein -- an extrordinarily talented and nearly forgotten 20th cnetury American composer -- resurfaced last year when Tim Robbins' film "Cradle Will Rock" lovingly resurrected the New York cultural scene during the Depression. The film builds to the glorious moment in 1937 when Orson Welles, John Housman and a bunch of courageous performers (all of whom risked forfeiting their W.P.A. paychecks and rejoining the breadlines) defied the Government's lockout and marched 20 blocks to a hastily rented theater for the opening performance of Blitzstein's delightful agitprop musical. The film doesn't tell us much about Blitstein, who comes across a driven, somewhat strange songwriter who recently lost his wife. Eric Gordon's remarkable biography fills in the blamks.

Marc Blitstein was a superbly trained classical composer whose serious music is largely forgotten (the only instrumental work available on CD via Amazon.com is his 1931 piano concerto; the CD his magnificent opera "Regina," based on Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes," is not to be found; his agitprop opera, "No For an Answer," which was first performed in 1939, has never been releaded on CD; his "Airborne Symphony" largely written while on duty in the Army Air Force." has also unavailable.)

Blitzstein was raised in Philadelphia, the son of Russian Jewish immagrants. His family was comfortably middle class (they operated a bank that served the immigrant community) but never lost touch with their socialist roots. Marc was a prodigy who scratched out a living during the 1920's from lecturing and writing on the new music. (Some of his reviews trashing some of his far better remembered contemporaries such as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson and Kurt Weill made me wonder about his critical judgement.) He became swept up in the social ferment of the 1930's and tried his hand writing inspiring songs for the masses. He was captivated by the Soviet social experiment and saw it as the only chance to achieve social justice for the common man. He joined the Communist Party in the mid-30's and closely hewed to the oscillations of the Party line. (Although his enthusiastic fellow traveling earned him FBI surveillance throught the J. Edgar Hoover era and a 4-page entry in "Red Channels" -- he was hassled very little by HUAC and Joe McCarthy. Blitzstein testiified before HUAC on 1949; he freely admitted Party membership but refused to name names. He quit the Party in 1949 over the Soviet Party's campaign against "formalism," which he considered an invasion of his artistic freedom. One delicious tidbit unearthed by Gordon is that the US Air Force orchestra peformed Blitzstein's choral "Airborne Symphony." which was composed while he was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Wright Brother's first flight. )

Blitztein -- along with Aaron Copland and Virgil Tmompson -- is in the pantheon of America's homosexual composers. Gordon's book thooroughly explores this aspect of his life, which includes a trooubled marriage to a neurotic young woman writer who died of anorexia nervosa at 31, with remarkable sensitivity and insight. (Blitzstein's obsessive pursuit of macho sex partners led to his death at 59; while vacationing in Martinique he was beaten by 3 young sailors he picked up while cruising waterfront dives and died of internal bleeding.) Blitzstein's homosexuallity provides some hilarious touches (his wartime experiences in London before the era of don't ask/don't tell are worth the price of the book).

Despite a valiant try, Blitzstein never made it on Broadway. During the 1940's and 50's he literally knew everybody worth knowing in the world of American theater -- Lenny Bernstein was a close friend -- and it seemed that he was on the edge of glorious success. Alas, it never happened. He was a much better composer and lyricist than librettist (Bertstein stole one of his melodies for "Maria" in "West Side Story"). Both of his lavishlly produced 1950's musicals --"Rueben Rueben" died a horrible death in Boston and "Juno," based on O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock," closed after a short run -- have disappeared without a trace. Ironically, his only success was off-Broadway: his briliant adaptation of the Brecht/Weill masterpiece "Der Driegroschenoper" ("The Threepenny Opera"), which ran for 6 years at the Theatre de Lys. Royalties from the casr album and the single "Mack the Knife" constitute the vast bulk of Bitstein's estate.

Blitzstein's greatest ambition was to become America's premier operatic composer. Alas, this too was not to be. is first true opera, "Regina," has has several regional productions but has not been produced in New York since 1960. He devoted the last 4 years of his life to an opera about Sacco and Vanzetti, which had been commisioned by the Ford Foundation and optioned by the Metropolitan Opera. He got bogged down in research for this project -- he wanted every detail to absolutely right -- and it is doubtful that he would have ever completed this magnum opus. Late in life he rediscovered his Jewish roots while on an extended visit to Isreal and completed one of two short operas based on the stories of Barnard Malamud; "Idiots Come First" has been praised as his finest oeratic work but, alas, is not available on CD.

Marc Blitzstein was a remarkable man. And this meticuolously researched and beautifully written book thoroughly captures the man and his facinating times. I highly recommend it.

I find this book to be expecially useful to me as a teacher. I will be teaching _Huckleberry Finn_ this coming year, and the book's entries have led me to some fascinating biographical material that helps in understanding the book's creation. The descriptive entries, themselves, read like a biography, offering bits and pieces about Twain's life waiting to be connected by readers.

I actually haven't read the book. But give it 5 Stars for the title alone. I will read it to determine the relationship of Twain to the Starches.

This book traces Twain's indebtedness to the humorists of the antebellum South and his adaptations of their literary techniques. The final chapter deals with Twain's unpublished papers, which Dr. Lynn described as "the broken ruins and unfinished monuments of a great talent." For anyone who wants to understand the provenance of Twain's art.

This is a great book once you get used to Mark Twain's diolect. From the very beging to when they fill the prize frog with Buck Shot so he couldn't jump as high. Anouther A+ short story by Mark Twain