Would that it were so - that artists today understood, or at least vaguely approached, the metaphysical impetus that spurred artists through the centuries, up to and including the first modernists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Klee, and Brancusi. Only a rare few artists today remain on track and seem to know what being an artist entails -- Martin, Steir, Colomar, Laib, Marden.... The vast majority are occupying themselves in meaningless egomania. Art is focused on, at best, a quick, zippy, kitschy riff on popular culture, no more or less engaging that a mildly clever advertizing billboard. Robert C. Morgan is on target in his diagnosis that art has lost its way, that it no longer even knows enough to seek to strike a deep and lasting internal cord, and that the establishment of curators and critics generally are clueless to find and present weighty art.

"To deal with serious art requires a certain preparation of the mind, a relaxed synthesis whereby the mind comes into contact with the body, where there is a rejuvenation of seeing, and where thought is required to pull the act of seeing into the sensorium of feeling..." - R.C.M.

It could hardly be better stated that body, head and heart must be up to the game of both making and perceiving art. Like Jed Perl's "Eyewitness", this book asks for a more personal art and art world, where the invisible threads of theoreticians no longer bind imagination, where art is done for kicks.

A sticky discussion of meta-critics (almost, but not quite, art philosophers) ends with the hope that criticism can help the quality of art by intervening between art and market/fashion manipulation. Morgan's guess for the future of art is more kitsch, but hopefully revealing rather than reinforcing market culture.

Although this is a book about the historical development of that fertile field in Art called "Conceptual", it is really a ground work on understanding and using the ideas found in the history of the field for use on computers and telecomunications devices.

The essays gathered here will give the reader much to think about in how they perceive Art and Technology and the philosophical basis for a new aesthetics.

Once thought passe, the reader will find that the foundations of Conceptual Art is alive and well, and that it is anything but passe with our relationships to new developing technologies.

Most students who have taken a semester course in compiler would agree that a semester is too short even for just building a compiler, not to include the time used to learn the basics like parsing. This book is a good start at where your course left off. It covers many interesting and modern topics on building an _optimizing_ compiler, a compiler that generates compact and speedy code.

As a comparison to the Muchnick one, this book is slightly less advanced but contains sufficient details to start one in this field. This book also excels in its clear and informative explanations.

An interesting feature of this book (and also Muchnick) is that no concrete code/implementation is included. The focus is on the concepts of building an optimizing compiler and the theory behind code optimization, not exactly on how to build one (from scratch) using whatever programming language. The reader must come up with the implementation side of the story if she wants to apply the techniques to her own compiler.

As a final note, this is not an introductory book on compilers. If you want one, go find the classic Dragon book (by Aho, Sethi, Ullman) or the newly written work by Appel.

I read a four-volume set of the collected writings of Clement Greenberg and consider this to be the fifth book, even though a different editor put it together. It wraps up what I read earlier and clarifies what little Greenberg had left to clarify of his aesthetic. Granted it is only one man's opinions, but what opinions! Even if you don't agree with many of his individual ideas, he gives off a profound sense of understanding the ins and out of Modern Art. Further, if what he states is Modern, you are left with a sense of what must be Postmodern. He touches briefly on that topic as well.

I recommend this book both for artists and for anyone attempting to understand Modern Art. Greenberg's writing became a little thicker as he aged, but he is about as down-to-earth as a critic of his type can be. You might have to run to the dictionary here and there, but that is a small price to pay for what you get in return. If you are frustrated with other art critics being too opaque, Greenberg is a good alternative. Well, I can't help but add that, to me, he is one of the definitive critics of Modern Art!

Dorothea Tanning shows an incredibly wide range of artistic styles in this compilation of her works. Some of the most intruiging and inspiring paintings I have ever seen!

Very simple book to read ,down to earth,very informative in biblical times,on dinners and what and how they where use by jesus into becoming the our savior the christ. also Robert C Morgan encludes the important people at these dinners who makes his story a real love history that is revived again.

Some funny and well-taken points on MCO's. But when I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the author might be just as abusive to his patients as the MCO's he takes hits at. Is the author using this forum to serve the people or himself?

The author is brilliant and witty in his illustrations of the insanity that exists in health care today. A must read!

The author focuses our attention on the inherent problems of business-oriented people making decisions on our medical care. With humor and insight into patient concerns, Bransfield takes us through the various pitfalls that managed care can present to the consumer - also popularly known as the patient! The problems of confidentiality, right of consumers to make informed decisions, and the place of the profit motive in medicine are addressed. I consider this a MUST READ for anyone who relies on health insurance to pay their bills.