My Last Sigh

Book Description

Luis Buñuel lived many lives-surrealist, Spanish Civil War propagandist, hedonist, friend of artists and poets, and filmmaker. With surprising candor and wit, Buñuel offers his sometimes scathing opinions on the literati and avant-garde members of his sweeping social circle, including Pablo Picasso, Jorge Luis Borges, Salvador Dalí, and Federico García Lorca. These colorful stories of his nomadic life reveal a man of stunning imagination and influence.

Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) was one of the twentieth century's greatest filmmakers. His many credits include Un Chien andalou (1924), which he conceived with Salvador Dalí, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Customer Reviews:

The spirit of a creative man.......2005-12-05

An interesting short semi-bio, in whuch Luis speaks about his life and the people he has met.

A beautiful little book.......2003-09-16

Bunuel gave some interviews towards the end of his life discussing his long list of movies. That's why I was delighted to find that his autobiography--which is one of the greatest, if not the greatest by a filmmaker--does not dwell on them. Instead Don Luis chronicles his childhood and upbringing, the relationships he cultivated, and meditates on life, love, death, art, alcohol and cigarettes. Many of the stories from his younger days are even more surreal than his movies. He writes in detail about his stormy friendships with Garcia Lorca and Dali, about his half-hearted attempt to try Hollywood on for size, meetings with Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and others. The book is not somber or sentimental, it's not over-inflated. Bunuel's voice does not intimidate, it soothes. He's a master storyteller, a very gifted and generous writer.

No One Else.......2002-06-04

As a young person, don Luis helped me find my way out of the hormone fog, ... authoritarian adults and their institutions, and equally lost peers. Years later upon reading MY LAST SIGH, I was not surprised at all at the depth of don Luis' humanity and intelligence.

Nevermind the moniker "filmmaker" when talking about don Luis; he is an artist's artist. With his autobio, he only confirms what an equally supreme being he was. I miss him. However, encounter this book and become lit by life itself.

Gracias, Don Luis.......2001-11-22

Writings by film directors tend to resemble their films, and "My Last Sigh" is no exception. Bunuel's films are anarchic, funny, unpredictable, subversive, and often disturbing in a way that's hard to pin down. So is this, his autobiography!

Though he disclaims literary talent, Bunuel turns out to be a wonderful writer, and the book is stuffed with piquant anecdotes and elegant observations. I'm afraid to quote examples, because this review would go on forever. Suffice to say that, if you could choose to live any person's life, Bunuel's would be a hard choice to beat, just for the adventure and entertainment value. This may be my favorite book written by a filmmaker.

This appears to be a slightly shortened version.......2000-08-17

The US edition has curious omissions compared to the French original. In one omitted passage (IIRC) Bunuel mentions a postcard he received from Andrzej Wajda. It would be nice if the fine print for the book included "Portions of the original have been omitted for this edition." The recent Ken Mogg's book on Alfred Hitchcock has also been shortened for the American market. I find it quite annoying.

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My Last Sigh
Luis Bunuel
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0224020730

Book Description

The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul is a comprehensive, chronologically-ordered study of every aspect of the group's musical life--composition, performance, recording and reception histories--from its beginnings in 1956 through 1965. Richly authoritative interpretations from every available reliable musical document are interwoven through a documentary study of many thousands of audio, video, print, and multimedia sources. The text will enable general readers and musicians as well as educated music theorists to learn new levels of beauty in the music of the Beatles.

Customer Reviews:

Serious scholarship.......2007-03-13

Walter Everett subjects the music of The Beatles to the kind of theoretical examination usually reserved for classical music. This book, along with its companion volume, is serious-minded, intellectually rigorous, extremely well-conceived and yet, for the informed reader, not at all tedious. I know of no other instance where popular music has been subjected to this kind of analysis with such compelling results.

These volumes seem to implicitly ask whether The Beatles' music is actually good enough to withstand the rigor of intensive analytical scrutiny. As Professor Everett ably demonstrates, it truly is. His dissection of the famous medley on side two of "Abbey Road" (in the companion volume) is eye-poppingly brilliant. In all, both volumes are superb treatises, books that set a new and very high standard for scholarship in popular music. They are also a welcome addition to literature on the band that is still the standard by which all others are measured.

A Fine Review Of The Beatles' Early Music.......2005-07-14

As I indiciated in my review of Everett's companion book, which traces the music of the Beatles from "Revolver" through "The Anthology," these books are the definitive works about the music of the Beatles. There are so many books about the Beatles' cultural iconic significance, their sociological and gender influence and a whole host of other irrelevant topics. What matters most is that the Beatles were timeless musicians who defined the music of the 20th century. Everett reviews their music as he would any great composer. If his perspective is too technical and professorial, you may want to consider Riley's "Tell Me Why," which is still my favorite book about the Beatles' music. It provides succinct and probing insights into their music. Everett's book is nevertheless excellent, and I highly recommend it.

Dense, but wonderful........2002-12-10

Yes, this book is very dense and technical, I am not a musician and was a bit lost at times, however, the author structures the book in such a way that you can skim or skip what is over your head (a lot for me) and still get something out of this book.

For me, one of the most important and rare things about this book is the way the author does not fall into the John vs. Paul biases like so many others who have written on this topic. He gives both men the written ananlysis and technical break down of their work they deserve and does not short change Paul in favor of John. This is appreciated as I believe it gives the best description of how the songwriting evolved through the talents of both men.

He also gives the same critical analysis of George Harrison's songs, this is rare indeed.

For these reasons I highly recommend the book for serious Beatle fans.

I am already burning through the second book.

Excellent Beatle book but..........2002-09-23

First, let me make it clear that I really like this book (and its companion volume.) It's pretty difficult to write anything about the Beatles anymore that hasn't been written about ad nauseum already, but both of these books contain a great deal of fresh and intelligent information and insight on the Beatles's music. That said, I have a feeling that a lot of folks looking for new Beatles literature just aren't going to particularly enjoy The Beatles As Musicians. I'm a musician, but at times as I was reading this material I felt as though I might as well have been reading Latin simply because Mr. Everett is often very technical and rather esoteric in his discussions. In some ways (and Mr. Everett admittedly touches on this issue) these books seem somehow to fly in the face of what makes rock music so great in the first place...emotion, borderline chaos, an underlying sense of danger and rebellion, limited musicianship that somehow leads to innovation, chance, improvisation, etc etc. Still, as I noted, I enjoyed these books a great deal even when I didn't have the slightest idea what the author was writing about. But if you're not a musician or you are one who is largely self-taught and as technically stupid as I am, I wonder how much you'll like The Beatles As Musicians. Regardless, in appreciation of the freshness and intelligence of his work, I have to give Mr. Everett's books both five stars.

Worth Every Penny.......2002-06-26

I like the way this author compliments his readers' intelligence by writing about musical theory with clear detail. He describes how the Beatles achieved some of the sounds they did and gives good, in-depth analyses of many of their songs.

This book is truly a must-have for inveterate Beatles fans; musicians and lay people as well will certainly come away enriched after having read this. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul
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The Beatles - Rubber Soul
The Beatles
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Beatles - Abbey Road* (Guitar Recorded Versions)

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

ASIN: 0793531624

Product Description

Matching folio to the classic album featuring: Drive My Car Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Nowhere Man Michelle and more.

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Rubber Soul
The Beatles
Manufacturer: Capitol Records
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W89LS2

The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. (Book Reviews: Popular Musics).(Book Review): An article from: Notes

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The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. (Book Reviews: Popular Musics).(Book Review): An article from: Notes
Daniel Beller-Mckenna
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1262 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. (Book Reviews: Popular Musics).(Book Review)
Author: Daniel Beller-Mckenna
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 59 Issue: 3 Page: 614(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Carousel corner.(THE MUSIC)(Chaos and Creation in the Backyard)(Sound recording review) : An article from: Sensible Sound

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Carousel corner.(THE MUSIC)(Chaos and Creation in the Backyard)(Sound recording review) : An article from: Sensible Sound

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Sensible Sound, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2006. The length of the article is 4907 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Carousel corner.(THE MUSIC)(Chaos and Creation in the Backyard)(Sound recording review)
Publication: Sensible Sound (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 108 Page: 52(8)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul

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The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul
Walter Everett
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKLCLM

Beatles: The Next Three Albums ~ Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver (ISBN: 0881887587)

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Beatles: The Next Three Albums ~ Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver (ISBN: 0881887587)
arranged by Todd Lowry The Beatles
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Publ.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LC6VSC

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Rubber Soul
The Beatles
Manufacturer: Apple Records/Capitol Records, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM
ASIN: B000KYNX3C

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"Rubber Soul": the Beatles

Manufacturer: Music Sales Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Rubber Soul. The Beatles Souvenir Music Book

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Rubber Soul. The Beatles Souvenir Music Book
The Beatles
Manufacturer: Hansen Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Rubber Soul Deluxe edition with music for 12 of the most favorite early Beatles songs. Produced by Dan Fox. Included: I've Just Seen a Face, Norwegian Wood, You Won't See Me, Think for Yourself, The Word, Michelle, It's Only Love, Girl, I'm Looking Through You, In My Life, Wait, and Run For Your Life. Includes early photos, words for songs and a fan letter.

Book of Exalted Deeds (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)
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The White that comes to Save the day

Grab your Holy Avenger and roll initiative!

Sad

Awesome book

I'm Not a Hater

Book of Exalted Deeds (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)
James Wyatt , Darrin Drader , and Christopher Perkins
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book of Vile Darkness (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

Complete Divine: A Player's Guide to Divine Magic for all Classes (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

Player's Handbook II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

Complete Warrior (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

ASIN: 0786931361
Release Date: 2003-10-01

Book Description

Strike Down Evil with the Sword of Enlightenment

“Only those who are pure in word, thought, and deed may look upon the knowledge gathered within this blessed tome. For the blinding truths inscribed within offer nothing but redemption or destruction for the wicked. May these consecrated pages forever illuminate the paths of the righteous.”

-- Raziel the Crusader, ruler of the Platinum Heaven

As the Book of Vile Darkness was a resource book on the most evil elements of campaign play, the Book of Exalted Deeds focuses instead on the availability of good resources and features in the D&D spectrum.

Included are new exalted feats, prestige classes, races, spells, magic items, and descriptions and statistics for a host of creatures and celestial paragons to ally with virtuous characters. The Book of Exalted Deeds also provides descriptions and statistics for a host of creatures and celestial paragons to ally with virtuous characters.

Book of Exalted Deeds is the second title in the line of Dungeons & Dragons products specifically aimed at a mature audience.

To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player’s Handbook.

Customer Reviews:

The White that comes to Save the day.......2007-08-07

I bought the Evil book first and unfortunately, this book is not as wickely clever as that one. But it needs to be written, becuase this is the dawn to evil's night, both sides must be equal. It is a great supplement for an Evil campaign, which I ran for over a year. The "bad guys" were all the paladins and high Preists of good. But once we went back to the usual type of good/neutral campaign, this book came back out and some pc's willingly wanted to become exhalted. It is well worth your money. Great prestige classes and feats are included in this.

Grab your Holy Avenger and roll initiative!.......2006-08-14

This book is an extremely in depth look at how to play good characters. The maturity warning is unwarrented, I believe, because the only thing it does that is mature is cover topics such as good vs evil and how to be a good PC. The content is not innapropriate mature, more like difficult to understand mature. It is the excellent guideline for being a goodguy, and I would almost require it as a rulebook for anyone who treads the Lawful Good path.

Sad.......2005-10-23

I found this book to be more or less devoid of useful or interesting material, with two exceptions. I liked some of the feats presented in the book and I liked the section on creating immortals. The rest of the book was fluff, useless, a waste of space. The book tries to explain goodness to players, all of which know what it means to be good anyway. It presents a whole mess of groupings of deities which anyone could make up on their own, which is basically the way Wizards of the coast present everything divine. Instead of giving 7000 examples of divine beings, why not give us a book about how to build them, details of how divine beings interact, create, and how they fit into the cosmos? Anyone DM truly worth his salt makes all his own stuff up anyway rather than using the junk in books like this and the Manual of the Planes. Spend money on something else like Heroes of Battle, a much better book and more useable.

Awesome book.......2005-08-12

Has good, balanced classes and pretige classes to add to the library of DnD. New items are useful and goes into plenty of detail about using an Exalted character. Excellent addition to any collection of DnD books.

I'm Not a Hater.......2005-04-24

But this book is lame. Especially compared to its companion piece, the Book of Vile Deeds. Vile Deeds was cool--it had crazy pictures, an interesting musing on the nature of good and evil [before whole heartedly abandoning that line of reasoning and presenting such morally ambiguous figures as the "Cancer Mage"], and some really evil stuff to throw at your PCs.

This book... well... it has a great cover. No seriously, it's really neet to look at.

The inside art isn't very attractive. Most of the add-ons are like "if your characters become extra special good, they are just so swell! Let's make everything holy or something like that!" The prestige classes aren't very inspiring either. And it's not really clear [although Vile Deeds wasn't either] about how a non-god figure is more powerful and important than a god figure? I guess it's one of those DnD continuity issues that you just have to grin and bear... or create your own setting!

overall, not really worth your time.

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Dragon Magazine #312 Evil

Manufacturer: Paizo Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VS5MO0

Product Description

The October 2003 issue of Dragon Magazine for Dungeons & Dragons Revised 3.5 Edition focuses on evil classes: necromancers, assassins, and blackguards.

Amazon.com

It's fashionable to assert that television is bad and is inherently doomed to be worse, even evil. However, every now and then, the rabbit ears capture spasms of glory -- and this book makes a reasonably convincing case that shows such as Hill St. Blues, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, and ER are not only good television, but possibly even works of high culture. The flip side of the story is also compellingly reported: that in many cases, these anomalous movements towards quality will be suppressed or even suffocated by the industry, regardless of public sentiment. A good book -- possibly excellent.

Customer Reviews:

An essential book for understanding the development of TV in the past quarter century.......2006-06-23

This excellent book on the development of what is widely known as Quality TV remains one of the finest books published in the field of television studies. Although television has now been around for sixty years, good writing about television shows has only developed in the past twenty years. Not that there wasn't a great deal of writing about television before then; it is merely that most writing was about the medium of television in a somewhat sociological/anthropological mode rather than in a textual analysis mode. Many earlier television scholars were as or more apt to write about the interaction of shows and commercials embedded within them as the shows themselves. In fact, prior to the last fifteen years it is difficult to find many writers who wrote directly about the shows as artistic productions.

The book's greatest strength is in its identification of the qualities that make up quality television shows and the discussion of the development of a series of shows in the eighties and early nineties that encapsulated those qualities. These parts of the book are very, very good indeed and one will be hard pressed to find better discussions of why HILL STREET BLUES, ST. ELSEWHERE, and MOONLIGHTING were great shows. The lead-up chapters that detail the pre-history of quality TV are also outstanding. Most of my review is going to argue with several of Thompson's points, but I want to be explicit that one of the virtues of a good book is that it makes you want to argue with it. Ludwig Wittgenstein told one of his students that a mark of a great book was that it made you want to throw it across a room and yell at it. I think Thompson is very wrong at several points, but he is wrong in important ways, and a reader can learn a great deal by debating Thompson as he or she reads.

One of the parts I want to argue with he is characterization of what counts as a Quality TV show. I'm not quite sure he is correct in dismissing, for instance, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, as a quality TV show. I guess my complaint is that Thompson wants to establish a genre, one that would exclude unrealistic shows such as STAR TREK. But what of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER? This is very widely considered to be one of the truly great series of the past decade. Several of the television critics he quotes with approval--in particular David Bianculli and Ken Tucker--were both passionate admirers of BUFFY, lavishing praise on the show unequaled by any other show. Furthermore, Thompson seems to view the way that shows are received on college campuses as a mark of a show's quality. No show comes anywhere close to BUFFY in the way that it has been received by the academic community. In fact, academic papers on BUFFY come close to matching all papers written on all other shows combined in the past ten years. Yet, Thompson clearly states that two marks of quality shows are that they tend to win awards and that they are realistic. BUFFY received vast critical acclaim (and its reputation seems to grow with each passing year), but much to the consternation of the critics that praised it, it failed to receive any Emmys (apart from some minor ones) or even major nominations. And while it was a hybrid show (a blend of fantasy, drama, comedy, romance, and teen genres), one of the marks of a quality show as identified by Thompson, it was a show about vampires, which would clearly seem to violate the realism rule. Perhaps Thompson would have adjusted his criteria with the appearance of BUFFY (and perhaps he already has). My point is that the criteria of quality TV as outlined by Thompson describes no necessary or sufficient conditions, but more in the way of the "family resemblances" of which Wittgenstein (to refer to him again) wrote in his work. There are qualities that shows tend to have, though some will lack. But I suggest the "realism" criterion should be jettisoned entirely.

The book's greatest flaw is in more or less assuming that the age of quality television had ended. In fact, the group of shows that came after this book went to press far surpasses in literateness and intelligence the group of shows Thompson focuses on. If you watch an episode of THE SOPRANOS and then watch an episode of HILL STREET BLUES, you will immediately be struck by how much more complex and intelligent the former is. I recently started rewatching MOONLIGHTING and doing so confirmed how far television has come since that show, both in intellectual complexity and in production quality. The latter is an important point since as Thompson points out MOONLIGHTING was one of the most expensive shows ever produced. But my main point is this: I'll take THE X-FILES, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE SOPRANOS, FARSCAPE, SIX FEET UNDER, ANGEL, THE GILMORE GIRLS, DEAD LIKE ME, THE SHIELD, OZ, FIREFLY, SMALLVILLE, LOST, DEADWOOD, WONDERFALLS, THE WEST WING, ALIAS, 24, and VERONICA MARS over Thompson's group of shows any day.

I should note that in the final chapter Thompson does express some hope that the age of quality television has not ended, but there is definitely an overarching "rise and fall" tone to the book as a whole. The fact that he bizarrely finds such shows as TWIN PEAKS and NORTHERN EXPOSURE as harbingers that quality TV has pretty much exhausted its possibilities shows this. Thompson may hope that the era of quality TV is not over, but it is pretty clear that he fears that it is.

How did Thompson get it so wrong? I think the answer comes from his assessment of the effect that TWIN PEAKS had on television. Late in the book he writes, "TWIN PEAKS had an overall negative effect on quality drama." This is an absurd statement and I think it stems from Thompson's missing the overall effect that TWIN PEAKS had on television narrative. Although Thompson writes penetratingly and insightfully about most of the shows he takes up, he neglects one aspect of television that TWIN PEAKS changed. Thompson was a contributor to a book on the soap opera entitled WORLDS WITHOUT END: THE ART AND HISTORY OF THE SOAP OPERA. One thing all of the shows Thompson writes about except TWIN PEAKS is that none of them is structured around a master narrative. ST. ELSEWHERE and HILL STREET BLUES might contain six or seven or more lesser story arcs, but there isn't a real overarching story. There is a sense in which none of these shows is about anything in particular. The closest would be MOONLIGHTING with the ongoing flirtation between David and Maddie. What Thompson misses is that TWIN PEAKS introduced for the first time into a series an overarching master narrative. Although the show itself failed to produce a compelling long story arc in its second and disastrous season, the notion of a show being structured around a very long central story had been introduced. The first show that would profit from this would be THE X-FILES, with its seasons-long narrative dealing with alien colonization. The form would first be perfected in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with each of its seven seasons structured primarily around a single main narrative, although there were also a host of smaller arcs as well, some extending over several seasons. This narrative form has been taken to its logical extreme by LOST, which will in the course of its currently projected six seasons tell a single story, very much the way an epic novel would. A substantial number of the shows that I list in the previous paragraph have absorbed the formal structures developed by TWIN PEAKS, THE X-FILES, and BUFFY.

In fact, while Thompson was lamenting what he imagined to be end of television's second golden age, what he was writing about was a group of shows that laid the foundation for an even better group of shows in the nineties and our decade. I have searched to see what Thompson has written since the publication of this book to see if he has repented of his own prophecies, but without success. It is quite possible that Thompson disapproves, but hopefully he has been delighted that television not only did not regress to standards of a previous age, but has actually continued to improve.

The book is out of date in other ways as well. For instance, Thompson speculates that the reason the hour-long drama was fading from the airwaves (a fading away that turned out not to occur) was its poor performance in syndication. This is true, but Thompson was writing before the advent of the DVD and one thing that we have learned is that hour long shows excel on DVD. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has dramatically out performed on DVD most half-hour shows (as well as most hour long shows) that out did it in ratings during that show's seven-year run. LOST with its enormously complex plot, has done exceptionally well on DVD. The economics of DVD packaging is still being worked out, but in conjunction with syndication quality shows have a economic life that continues to make them viable in the industry.

Despite my disagreements with the book, this remains essential reading for anyone interested in the development of television in the past twenty-five years. Unlike Thompson, I remain optimistic about the future of quality TV. I have had my heart broken by a number of asinine cancellations (especially on FOX, where I have had to witness the demise of such great shows as WONDERFALLS, FIREFLY, and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT). I suffer a bit in reading this book about how networks would stick with shows that were doing poorly in ratings to develop and promote them. That happens so rarely now, though I am delighted that the new CW network has stuck with VERONICA MARS, a ratings failure despite being one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV. But as excellent as the book is, it remains a cautionary tale about prognostication. The unstated theme of the book seems to be the rise and decline of quality TV, whereas actual history has proclaimed the rise and further rise of it.

Memories of Great Television.......2006-06-14

This book is great at enhancing the viewing pleasure of classic TV shows now coming out on DVD. I read this book after viewing the first season of Hill Street Blues and the first three seasons of Moonlighting. I loved reading this and learned a lot about my favorite TV shows.

The case for television dramas as the mediums high art form.......2003-06-26

The title of this book is provocative but something of a serious misnomer. Robert J. Thompson points out early on that the original "Golden Age of Television" took place in the Fifties and was built on the variety shows like "Texaco Star Theater" and "Your Show of Shows," the anthology dramas like "Playhouse 90" and "Studio One," and, of course, "I Love Lucy." Thompson also acknowledges that in the Seventies the situation comedy reached its "literate peak" with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "All in the Family," and "M*A*S*H." However, the argument for "Television's Second Golden Age: From 'Hill Street Blues' to 'ER'" covers a period from HSB's debute in 1981 to the present, where "ER" continues to be one of the top dramas on television. That is a period of more than two decades and while Thompson devotes a chapter to "The Second Golden Age of Television: "Cagney & Lacy," "Moonlighting," "L.A. Law," "thirtysomething," and "China Beach," essentially focusing on the Eighties, it is hard to say that the following decade, with "Twin Peaks," "Northern Exposure," "Picket Fences," "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order," "Homicide," "The X-Files," "Chicago Hope," and "ER" was not at least as strong (feel free to add to the list). Even if we are talking about the first decade of the 21st century we have "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "24," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal" and short-lived series like "My So Called Life" and "Once and Again" (and that is without dipping over to HBO and talking about "The Sopranos," "Six Feet Under," and the rest of their kind), all of which speak to quality dramatic programming.

That is why in the final analysis I see Thompson's argument as being not so much for a specific time period of great television, but rather advancing the proposition that the hour-long dramatic television series is the chief art form of the medium (yes, even more so than the situation comedy). I would even extend this argument to the mini-series, from "Roots" and "Shogun" to "War and Remembrance" and "Lonesome Dove," because the guiding principle of the extended narrative form remains the common denominator. "24" takes the idea of season-long story arc a unique extreme, but "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did all of its complete seasons have a first-half story arc (e.g., Spike & Dru in Season 2) that then merged with a second-half story arc (e.g., the return of Angelus) that provided a framework for all of the individual episodes. Then there was "Murder One," which rather successfully devoted an entire season to one sensational murder trial. When a series loses its driving story arc, as when Dave and Maddie consummated their love on "Moonlighting," or when what was supposed to be the hook becomes the line and sinker as well, as when the question of who killed Laura Palmer ultimately derailed "Twin Peaks," the demise of the show simply affirms the principle in the negative.

Thompson's starting point is January 1981 when prime-time television was about to make a sudden and dramatic turn towards quality because of "Hill Street Blues," the show that Steven Bocho did not want to make and that nobody wanted to watch, but which became "television's first true masterpiece." However, Thompson argues that it was "St. Elsewhere" that was "TV's greatest show, ever" (having to do with key notions of "intertextuality" and "self-reflexivity"). Ultimately he is not defining a particular time period (especially since the "golden age" in question is clearly not over), but explaining why in the "vast wasteland" that Newton Minnow bemoaned so many years ago "quality" television is flourishing in terms of hour-long dramatic programming. Within that context Thompson clearly makes his case for much of the best television ever made having appeared on the networks since 1980. The book is half critical evaluation of these programs and half insider's tour looking at the decision-making process as well as the social, economic, and artistic forces that ended up revolutionizing the medium. Thompson also more than adequately proves he knows his television history, which is necessary to help convince those of us who are true students of the medium. Consequently, the fact that the title of this book is not a fair representation of its most significant claim, is not to be held against the author, because he has made in public an argument I have been making in private (okay, in class as well), for several years.

the place to start.......2002-10-07

It's all too easy to assume that simply because we vegetate in front of the TV all day, that we have some kind of understanding of its history and how it works. This book summarises the importance of several landmark shows of the 1980s and 1990s, helping to show how a few select producers (chiefly refugees from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) were able to transform the quality of television, at least for a while. Note that the shows are discussed in their American context -- British viewers may be surprised to hear that anything was innovative about the "MASH without the laughter track", because MASH was always broadcast in the UK without a laughter track. But for placing the history of American TV in its natural home habitat, this remains an important and interesting introduction to quality television.

Required reading for students of television.......2002-02-20

This is a brief but entertaining and convincing argument for the artistic value of one of the most unfairly condemended media outlets -- television. Working from the hypothesis that the quirky dramas that dominated television from the '70s to the '90s (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, thirtysomething, ect.) actually made up television's second golden age, author Robert J. Thompson actually makes a pretty good argument for taking TV seriously. Each chapter provides detailed (and refreshingly witty) analysis of all the TV shows that we previously took for granted and shows how the writers and producers of those shows were able to create great art in the guise of great entertainment. Of particular worth was Thompson's long and informative chapter on St. Elsewhere, over the course of which he manages to break down a few of that show's intricate inside jokes and show how the show's controversial final episode actually served as a powerful and still-relavent statement on the state of television and American culture today. This book is a must read for anyone who sees television as more than just a distraction.

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The " Peaks": Second Series
A.W. Hobson
Manufacturer: Ian Allan Publishing Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers ; Being Excursions By Members of the Alpine Club Second Series Two Volumes

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Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers ; Being Excursions By Members of the Alpine Club Second Series Two Volumes
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Manufacturer: Longman, Green, Longman, And Roberts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KJY4Y4

Rail Portfolios 14 - the Peaks Second Series

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Rail Portfolios 14 - the Peaks Second Series
A. Wyn Hobson
Manufacturer: Ian Allan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TZ49OY

COACHING FOR PEAK EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE (SECOND EDITION) [MANAGEMENT SKILLS SERIES]

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COACHING FOR PEAK EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE (SECOND EDITION) [MANAGEMENT SKILLS SERIES]

Manufacturer: Practical Learning Press Irvine, CA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IADPHM

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