If you've seen the film enoughto be fiarly familiar with it's structure and narrative,this script will be a revelation.As stated in the title,this is a "shooting script",the original version submitted to the producers at the onset of the film's production,before the actors and director started fiddling with it.There are many,many scenes and passages here that greatly clarify the direction of the story and provide crucial motivations and psychological subtexts that you may miss in the completed film.However,scriptwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaczewski provide insight into this in the fantastic forward to the script,in the process giving a fascinating glimse into all the labirynthine exigencies involved in getting an original spark of insiration into the multiplex.They explain the step-by-step process of telling Kaufman's story-what to put in,what to leave out,how to handle certain aspects of his life,shaping the messy,complicated,and open-ended events of his career into something resembling a coherent,three-act drama.Ultimately,they decided-wisely-to treat the film as Andy would have,to let his art and performances define the film,just as they defined his life,and to use a constantly shifting base of perspective to keep the audience on thier toes,a brilliantly executed exercise in what-is-real and what-isn't.If you loved the film,this script provides an essential companion that will give you a new appreciation for it,but even if you're not particularly fond of it,or even Andy Kaufman hiomself,this is still a fascinating look at the creative process,and how it holds up throughout the production of a film.Highly recommended.

WOW! This is a GREAT example of a shooting script, something that was very different before the movie, and was molded into a more "managable" form through shooting and editing.

But is managable a better thing? Scott and Larry are great screenwriters, and crafted a great screenplay here. However, Milos Forman (the director) took the movie and made it into something not as personal as it could have been. Oh well.

But this is why shooting scripts that are actually the original script before any shooting ever took place are important (you hearing this American Beauty?). To show us how a screenplay can change when it goes from paper to celluloid.

Read this screenplay to see what the movie could have been like :)

"Man on the Moon" has to be on my top three best screenplay list for 1999-2000. It's a great screenplay with great words and conversations. I love it and I'm sure you will too.

I listened to this book over a few nights with my wife, after having read it first some sixteen years ago. It is a masterpiece, and known widely as such, but what surprised me on hearing it was how the book I'd remembered as terribly romantic was actually rather clear-eyed and dark. My wife, who had never read it, listened spell-bound, and at the end burst into tears at the sadness of it. A word about Scourby as reader - he is restrained but emotional, captures the personality of each character with a slightly different tone, and - most importantly for me - brings out the fact that the closing pages, which are often quoted out of context as deeply romantic, are in fact painfully cynical, a voice of disenchantment about the cost of America, not its promise. A masterpiece on the page and on tape. Can't recommend it too highly.

After living abroad in the Middle East for a year and traveling through more than twenty-five countries, I recently re-read The Great Gatsby, seeking the familiarity of America. The Great Gatsby captures what is different about Americans and the American experience. At its most basic, America represents endless striving for greatness. Whether in business, science, athletics or world affairs, Americans imagine and seek the best. Though we often stumble and fall short; though we often cut corners to achieve our dreams - striving for greatness is the essence of America. In Gatsby, we feel what it is like to want something so badly, to succeed in reaching it and to ultimately fail. How many of us have not shared these experiences in some way or another? American writings today, such as David Ebershoff's Pasadena (2002) and Scott Gaille's The Law Review (2002), continue to explore Gatsby's central theme of obsession with greatness. In this time of global uncertainty, we can get back in touch with what it means to be an American by reading such books.

This was a book that stayed with me long after hearing it read. I found Gatsby to be a very intriguing character because of his singleminded passion. I enjoyed understanding the thoughts and ideas of Carraway. The writing provided vivid imagery of a time gone by and yet it was a timeless story. Highly recommend.

Hello,
My name is Scott Neely and I liked the spot illustrations that I drew for this book. It has an X-Files feel to it and is a great supplement to the role-playing game. Enjoy!
Scott

The Conspiracy X rpg is one of the coolest around, and the Aegis organisation definitely needed a source book of its own. And here it is. It has loads more stuff on Aegis, including some cool new skils 'n professions. The stuff on Aegis rocks, and the advice on operations and tactics has helped my players get further into character. All in all, an invaluable addition to any Con X player's/GM's library.

I have made this book mandatory for all of our advanced emt students. It provides a step by step manner of acquiring the psychomotor skills necessary for today's prehospital professional. It provides consistency of presentation that concurs with our local protocols. RJH, Paramedic Instructor, Massachusetts

A very good boo

A wonderful collection of ideas to help you implement spirituality into your life. There are several chapters that provide ideas on how one might include spirituality into daily living. Not every idea is going to appeal to every person, but there is enough variety and depth that everyone should come away with helpful ideas. This book is especially appropriate for persons who are willing to consider other avenues to spiritual living besides only Christianity.

Everyday Spiritual Practice is for anybody who wants to deepen their spirituality, but isn't entirely sure how. Each chapter focuses on a particular spiritual practice (meditation, prayer, fasting, for example)offering an inroduction to the practice. Some things not typically understood as spiritual disciplines are included here, such as marriage, gardening, and cooking, giving the reader valuable insights into daily mindfulness. The recommended reading list provides further direction for seekers. Ptactical and wise, I highly recommend this book.

this is a great motivational book that everyone should read every month. it would sure help to ward off the darts of negativity that we all encounter evey day

One of the best motivational books. A very good addition to Rhinoceros Success and Advanced Rhinocerology. We hope that Scott keeps on CHARGING !

I have a shelf full of books on UU. This was the one I most enjoyed reading. It contains about 20 essays by different UU leaders, exploring different aspects of improving our ministry. The piece by Suzanne Meyer was particularly useful to me as a Worship committee chair. My congregation is beginning to build Covenant Groups - small lay-led group ministries. These are on the Meta-Church model. The meta-church literature (Carl George, and others) is good, but very much out of an Evangelical Christian tradition. For UUs to make small-group ministry work, we need to be able to articulate what special gifts *our* tradition holds. I found this book so useful in that regard that I've bought eight copies of it, and been giving them away to other members of my congregation.

A collaboration of UU authors share how they have been successful in promoting congregational growth. There are many great ideas and inspiring stories.

Acclaimed for his reading of the Bible as well as his stage and screen portrayals veteran actor Alexander Scourby now gives articulate voice to four short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. To many, the stories of Fitzgerald epitomize the Roaring 20s. Listeners will be delighted with this selection which includes a quartet of the author's best.

Written in December, 1930, "Babylon Revisited" is probably the most frequently reissued Fitzgerald story, surely the most examined. Written during a time of personal emotional difficulties, it is considered by many to be at least partially autobiographical in its tracing of tragedy. The story of the effects of a man's unseemly past, the time frame includes the Jazz Age and the Depression.

"The Lost Decade" captures the stunned reactions of a man who has somehow missed the last ten years, and "The Bridal Party" is a consummate appraisal of what money can and cannot bring about.

An unexpected visitor arrives in "Three Hours Between Planes" when childhood sweethearts are briefly reunited.

What a difference a little time can make. What a difference Alexander Scourby makes to the readings of these memorable stories.

- Gail Cooke

The Collected Poems of Alexander Scott, ed. David S. Robb, The Mercat Press, Edinburgh, 1994, 260pp.

Alexander Scott (1920-89) was a pioneering teacher of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, and a poet and dramatist of genius. This collection, edited by David S. Robb, contains the greater part of Scott's verse, written between 1940 and 1987, and incorporates work from his first collection 'The Latest in Elegies' (1949), right through to his 'Selected Poems (1943 - 1974)'; Scott was preparing a final selection of his poetry for publication as 'Incantations: Poems and Diversions' at the time of his death in 1989.
The poet was a leading figure in the late second wave of MacDiarmid's Scottish Renaissance, along with others such as Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch (Sutherland), Norman MacCaig and fellow Glasgow University academic Edwin Morgan, all friends and contemporaries of Scott. Although not all of his poetry is in Scots, certainly the best of it is, and readers will of course find here all of Scott's most famous works in this medium, notably, his long, heavily rhetorical poem on his native Aberdeen 'Heart of Stone' (Robb No. 91, or R.91), the life-affirming love poem 'Continent o Venus' (R. 49) and the much anthologised satirical reflection 'Calvinist Sang' (R.10), which contains a memorably bleak testimony to the short-comings of our modern age: 'The day ye need a hert and harns / As dour as the diamant, cauld as the starns'.
Literary readers will also be familiar with the popular 'Scotched' series of satirical squibs, in which Scott offers terse penetrating insights into the pretensions, flaws and foibles of his native people. Favourites include 'Scotch Passion' (R. 203): 'Forgot / Mysel', 'Scotch Poets' (R. 212): 'Wha's the / T'ither?' (Burns and who else, presumably? ... there cannot possibly be more than two!), and 'Scotch Education (R. 148): 'I tellt ye / I tellt ye', the perennial cry of the frustrated Scottish teacher.
For the first time in too many years, general readers can at last have easy access to exquisite, intensely musical lyrics such as 'Great Eneuch' (R.80) or to the sorrowful, sympathetic and harrowing war poems 'Coronach' (R. 22), 'The Sodgers' (R. 46), 'Stravaiger's Sang' (R. 41) and 'Twa Images' (R. 58). Scott was a resolutely modern poet, as his subject matter often shows (consider 'To Mourn Jayne Mansfield' (R.98) or 'A Gey Flash Gordon' (R. 290)), but he was also a traditionalist, whose consummate command of verse forms and Scottish literary traditions (look at 'Truth and True Thomas' (R. 278) or 'Sir Patrick Spens: The True Tale' (R. 20)), should be an inspiration to the younger Scottish poets of today.
The present reviewer's own favourites among Scott's poems must include the beautiful song 'Love is a Garth' (R. 60) with its reverent re-working of the 'seize-the-day' motif, 'Mouth Music' (R. 73), which contains a wonderful celebration of dance: 'Dance it, dance it, skirl it, birl it, swing / Wi a tipperan tae, wi a sway, wi a flourish, a fling', or 'Problems' (R. 217), with its audacious act of association between the plight of astronauts adrift in space, and the massacred peasants of Vietnam. Those whose taste runs to more substantial fare will find much to satisfy them in the major long poems, such as 'Deathsang for An Auld Man Young' (R. 51), 'Seaman's Sang' (R. 14), from the Anglo-Saxon', 'Deir Deid Dancer' (R.96) and 'Grace Ungraced' (R. 313). Notable English poems include 'From You, My Love' (R. 83), 'Landfall' (R. 105) and 'Greek Summer '74' (R. 276). But, at the end of the day, Scott's greatest poetic achievement must be 'Heart of Stone', not least because of its magnificent introductory image of the desolately circling sea-gull:

The sea-maw spires i the stane-gray lift
Owre sworlan swaws o the stane-gray sea,
Flaffers her wings - a flash o faem-white feathers -
And warssles awa i the wake o the trauchled trawler
That hirples hame hauf-drouned wi the weicht o herrin.

Robb's edition contains an introductory essay on Scott which is particularly informative about the poet's earliest attempts at writing verse, and gives us a fascinating textual insight into Scott's compositional process. There are two Appendices which contain an early version of 'Scotched' and list the contents of his individual collections such as 'Cantrips' (1968) and 'Double Agent' (1972). There is also a substantial glossary of Scots vocabulary which is essential for predominantly English-speaking readers. The book itself is simply but attractively designed, with a startling photographic image of Scott by Angela Catlin, set against a stark black background. A close-up of the poet's penetrating eyes is featured on the back cover and reminds us pointedly of one of Scott's most haunting lines (from 'Dreams', (R. 267)): 'There's een that only makars hae / To look on wae'.
David S. Robb and Edinburgh's The Mercat Press are to be heartily congratulated for bringing out this sterling collection of work by one of the 20th century's greatest Scots makars; would that we had similar one-volume editions of Scott's plays and other miscellaneous writings

I'm the kid that Scott Alexander mentions in his book in the chapter called "No Alimony". What can I say... Being a Rhino is a great way to live your life. I love to try and turn my ideas and hobbies into new businesses. Scott Alexander has been a great friend over the years and I treasure his books. (especially this one). I give the Rhino book series my highest recomendation.

I started reading the series of these books years ago. My father raised me to be a Rhino,before the books came out.I loved them so much I let dad read them. I couldn't get them back.I've traveled a bit.And seemed to misplace mine.So I'm going to purchase them again.Excellent review from entire family.Best book on life,I can relate to.It's a book that won't come out of your hands easily! My first time reading it,I read whole book in one setting.And read it again a week later. Go one and all learn to be a Rhino.Life just gets better.

I look back at all the people that I have admired and now I know they were RHINOS. This group of books are great for everyone. I think they would be great for high school student also. Just a great idea and way of living.