While not the 1st artist to take on the conceptions of light and its practical uses in art, now Flagstff, AZ. artist James Turrell has brought the perception of light in art to creative and fantastic new levels through his conceptions such as his famous "skyspaces" to "darkspaces," "blue rooms," etc. Many of his pieces offer low light level environments, some almost no light at all, still others brilliant hues of red and blue.

Like most artists, Turrell shies away from giving detailed explinations of his works so that each individual can surmise the piece for themselves. This is not necessarly the case in this work. Turrell wanted, (and did) to build a specific "skyscape" in order to view an eclipse that occurred in England. Like his other "skyscapes," Turrell took the environment and all of its factors, as well as very specific geometry, into account, so that he could construct the perfect medium through which to not just observe the eclipse, but to better magnify the light, or lack thereof, of the eclipse.

The book is a wonderful look at this process, complete with analysis and pictures of the eclipse, the "skyscape," etc. An added bonus is the cd by German composer Paul Schulze, who's approach to his music (a minimalist ambient style, normally) is a perfect match to Turrell's art.

Fans of Turrell, or those who are interested in the interplay between light, our senses, and the reality they both help us create, will find this rather short treatsie to be of invaluable use to them. A wonderfully intriguing work.

James Turrell has long been a major player in the field of light art, and visitors to the Matress Factory museum in Pittsburgh are well aware of his outstanding way of playing with art and images. This amusing meditation on an eclipse is an excellent addition to his body of work

Although the liner notes describing portions of Act 4 in the boxed set I received were a little amiss, it would be hard to see how the performance itself could be improved. Paul Scofield is absolutely extraordinary as Lear as is Alec McGowen as Glouster and Kenneth Branagh as the Fool. Five stars isn't enough! It's rare that a story like this, which can become quite complex if one isn't familiar with the action, can literally jump off the recording and present us with visual images all along the way. Every actor deserves the highest praise for his/her performance!

"Lyrics of Lowly Life," by Paul Laurence Dunbar, was first published in 1896. It was a milestone in the too-short life of Dunbar (1872-1906), a pioneering figure in African-American literature. In his introduction to "Lyrics," William Dean Howells notes that Dunbar portrays African-Americans "with humor, with sympathy, and yet with what the reader must instinctively feel to be entire truthfulness."

Dunbar's poetry generally falls into two groups: those written in a "high" literary English, and those which reproduce American vernacular speech (the "dialect pieces," as Howells calls them). Dunbar's gift is that he excels in both modes. He is adept at using a number of different meter and rhyme schemes; the best of his poems achieve a musicality and technical proficiency that compare favorably with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.

Yes, some of his poems seem quite dated today. They are often excessively sentimental and sometimes tediously conventional. But "Lyrics" is also full of some really outstanding, thought-provoking pieces. Consider "Frederick Douglass," a stirring tribute to the great African-American writer and activist; Dunbar follows 9 stanzas of iambic pentameter in an ABABCC rhyme scheme with a concluding ABABCCDD stanza. (Indeed, I find half the fun of reading Dunbar to be analyzing his diverse poetic structures.)

In poems like "Song" and "Ode to Ethiopia," Dunbar shows a pride in the African-American people. And although some poems seem to present a romantic, sentimental view of slavery, consider the brilliant "An Ante-Bellum Sermon": this "dialect" poem satirically demonstrates how Black slave preachers managed to subvert the racist biblical interpretations of the slavemasters.

Other outstanding selections include "Religion," which envisions a humanistic faith; "The Spellin'-Bee," a longer narrative poem of small-town life; "The Colored Soldiers," a tribute to the "gallant colored soldiers / Who fought for Uncle Sam," and "When de Co'n Pone's Hot," a celebration of traditional soul food.

Dunbar's poetry can be seen as a forerunner for the work of such American poets as Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. And for a fascinating complement to Dunbar's poetry, read the poetry of his American contemporary, Stephen Crane (1871-1900); "The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane" have been edited by Joseph Katz. To sum up, Dunbar is a poet whose life overlapped the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but I believe that he has something to say for contemporary readers and scholars.

I was first introduced to the works of this remarkable poet in my American Literature high school class . My favorite and first Paul Laurence Dunbar poem is We Wear the Mask, and I have found that the rest of his poetry is just as honest and as well as heartbreaking. I would recommend this book of poetry to anyone because it does not just show the tragedy of slavery and effects on the soul of racism, but also represents the feelings of ostracism found anywhere.

In a Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's loveliest comedy, the world of four lovers collides in a magical woods one night during midsummer with hilarious results. Pandemonium reigns and misunderstandings abound; nothing is as it seems, or should be, and that is what makes this play so perfect.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's extraordinary talent for creating poetry that is unrivaled is effective in both establishing character and demonstrating the theme. The characters of this play all speak in poetic form with the exception of the English rustics who speak in prose. This helps to place the fairies and the lovers on a higher and more transcendental plane that the artisans. The artisans, as a result, become even more comical and serve to heighten the misunderstandings of love.

The poetry of Shakespeare's genius also helps to clarify the play^s theme of the extreme confusion and blinding power of love. The rhythmic words help to create a magical setting while the rhyming scheme serves to portray the confusion each character feels while under the power of love.

Those who think that love is only a blissful dream, will find that Shakespeare, in this play of clever intrigue, shows also that love can be a place of extreme confusion. As the audience ponders the revelry they have just seen on stage, Puck steps forth to conclude the confusion:

If we shadows have offended/ Think but this, and all is mended/ That you have but slumbered here/ While these visions did appear/ And this weak and idle theme/ No more yielding than a dream.

The audience is left in as much ambiguity as it felt throughout the performance; the play appropriately ends in a puzzling state of confusion.

The majority of events is this play take place during the night, even the rehearsal for the farcical play-within-a-play. All of the mishaps occur during the nighttime hours and the confusion is not cleared up until the next morning when the four lovers are discovered. This setting of night allows the audience to drift into the idea that the entire play could well have been nothing more than a fantastic dream.

Sleep in another theme that threads its way throughout the play. All of the mishaps and mistakes occur through the guise of sleep. One of the major influences of sleep is that it allows Puck and Oberon to make use of the magic love flower whose power is only effective if its intended victim is fast asleep. The flower, however, causes an hilarious love triangle that is not set straight until Oberon once again finds all of the confused lovers asleep. When they are discovered the next morning and asked to explain their crazy night, the only explanation that can be given is that it was all a dream.

There seems to be no other way for Shakespeare to end this riotous entanglement of lovers, mythological beings, fairies and artisans but to explain it as a dream. Throughout the play, with its nighttime atmosphere and frequent occurrences of sleep, the dreamy state of the characters is passed on to the audience. The play itself is still in an inconclusive state when the characters leave the stage and many questions remain in the mind of the audience. Puck's closing monologue, however, explains that puzzlement is the appropriate emotion to be felt during the course of the play. Puck then goes on to persuade the audience that the only logical explanation for the ambiguity of the play, itself, is that, just as the characters themselves experienced, the audience has just awakened from a comical and fantastic dream.

Yes, Shakespeare has a sense of humor; he proved it in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have enjoyed all of his books, especially Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth, but A Midsummer Night's Dream is, in my opinion, his best work. There are many love stories in this book, one of which is about Hermia and Lysander. They hide in the woods because Hermia's father wants her to marry Demetrius, a wealthy man. In order to win over Hermia's father, a woman named Helena tells him where Hermia is, and they immediately go after the two lovers. What happens to Hermia and Lysander? Does she marry Demetrius? You'll have to read it in order to find out. There are other great stories in this book, including the one of Theseus and Hippolyta -- two royals that are about to get married. With Shakespeare's ability to write a beautiful love story with a touch of poetry and precise comic timing, this is a classic that everyone should read. I highly recommend it!

If you love this play and are thrillled by the stage history and staging minutiae, the this book will send you reeling! The historical reasearch is encyclopediac and captivating. Your rude sea will grow civil with its song.

I thought that the book was fantastic and delight. I couldn't put it down. I loved every minute of the book.

Like suspense, drama, the unknown. Take a trip through this book, Once Again. On the surface it is deceivingly simple but then... Wow... It pulls you in and takes you to the mysterious. Great book!!

Serving aboard the U.S.S.Eldorado in San Diego shortly before the Gulf War, Petty Officer Cheevers becomes involved in a shipboard scandal that ruins his career, endangers his marriage, and threatens his life. He's been blamed for inciting his shipmate, Seaman John Trout, into hanging himself in the ship's brig. Only Cheevers knows the real story--that Seaman Trout experienced a past life vision of dying in the battle of Waterloo nearly two centuries previously. Although Cheevers explains these details to the ship's captain in an investigation, still resulting in a demotion and his dismissal from the ship in disgrace, he withholds the key information that has shattered his perception of reality. Seaman Trout predicted Cheevers will die, too, in a trap set by fate that is impossible to escape. Cheevers learns that his life hangs in the balance of being able to circumvent destiny by proving his shipmate's prophecy wrong, and surviving the conflict that erupts in the Persian Gulf initiated by Saddam Hussein.

This book is very inspirational and spiritual. It is very meditative and relaxing. I just ordered one as a gift for a friend's birthday. That is all I will say.

For anyone seeking the answer to, "Why am I here?" this is one of the world's best books, ranking right up there with "The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha." It is a short lesson about why and who each of us is what we are. I congratulate Paul Williams for his concise thoughts and perfect understanding.

This winter break I went on a Shakespeare buying spree, and this book is one of the fine gems I found. A large, but fascinating book, this work of great scholarship and excitement takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare, even into rather obscure corners of his works (Trollius and Cressida, Timon of Athens). This book is a must read for any would be deep thinker about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker is a must for everyone interested in the political thought of William Shakespeare. This reprint will finally allow new comers to become familair with a commonsensical approach to Shakespeare's plays. The introductory chapter by John Alvis is worth the price. Perhaps the best Shakespearean critic alive, Alvis has an uncanny ability to show Shakespeare's moral seriousness without making the bard an unquestioning adherent to any political school or theological creed. Many of the essays that follow are also well done: Jaffa's chapter on Shakespeare's entire corpus, Laurence Berns' meditation on Lear etc.

The second printing of Shakespeare as Political Thinker gives hope to those interested in relearning ancient wisdom and pays tribute to its inspiration, Shakespeare's Politics (Allan Bloom).

Organized crime doesn't occur in Canada; that's the perception I held until I read this book. Roberts and Snider opened my eyes to a different view.

Through the one-of-a-kind experiences of Cal Broeker, the writers demonstrate that the cancerous and adaptive Canuck underworld, with its global connections, is as gripping to read about as it would be fearsome to experience.

Collaboratively written by Paul William Roberts and Norman Snider, Smokescreen: One Man Against The Underworld is the true story Carl Broeker, an ordinary businessman who was betrayed by his partner and forced to confront a deadly, blacklist world of organized crime and illicit trafficking. Drawn into undercover work with the Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Broeker found himself caught up in a deadly thrill ride of lies, deceits, crime in this compelling biographical narrative of international crime lords, illegal smuggling operations, and political corruption. Smokescreen strips away the subterfuge and lays bare the heretofore murky underworld or organized crime on both sides of the Canadian/American border.

a great book for every serious scientist in the field of sports medicine.In next edition i would be pleasure to see more
photos and details in dynamic stabilization exercises in real situations and criteria for advancing in the rehabilitation
program ,especially for elite, Olympic level athletes in gymnastic.
The spine in sports open new horizons in philosophy and research on spinal disorders with safe return in sports.

an excellent guide for treating spinal disorders in the field of almost all sport situations. In next edition i would prefer to see more photos and details from rehabilitation in real
situations,on dynamic stabilization exercises and criteria for advancing in the program for elite athletes especially in gymnastic.This book open new horizons in the philosophy of rehabilitation spinal injuries in sports.