Mel Bay's You Can Teach Yourself Accordion

Product Description

A comprehensive method written especially for serious students learning the accordion without access to formal music lessons. Seasoned music educator and performer Neil Griffin guides the student through music reading fundamentals, correct posture and hand positions, use of the bellows, bass buttons, keyboard, and more. Music theory concepts are introduced as required by the generous selection of carefully graded exercises and pieces. Although this book covers concepts that apply to the 120-bass accordion, it only uses 54 buttons (covering 9 rows in easy keys). Illustrated with diagrams and photographs.

Customer Reviews:

What I was looking for.......2007-10-04

I haven't played the accordion in fifty years and I was looking for something as a refresher. This book was just what I was looking for, it reviewed what I had forgotten and I even learned things that I had never learned in the first place. Nice selection of songs too, not a bunch of corny tunes that you never heard of. It comes with a CD and you can hear what you are expected to sound like after a little practice. I have several books on the accordion and most of them are useless but this is a real worthwhile purchase.

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You Can Teach Yourself Accordion
Gary Dahl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 0786627522

Book Description

This is a companion CD for the book of the same title. A comprehensive method written especially for serious students learning the accordion without access to formal music lessons. Seasoned music educator and performer Neil Griffin guides the student through music reading fundamentals, correct posture and hand position, use of the bellows, bass buttons, keyboard, and more. Music theory concepts are introduced as required by the generous selection of carefully graded exercises and pieces. Although this book covers concepts that apply to the 120-bass accordion, it only used 54 buttons (covering 9 rows in keys). Illustrated with diagrams and photographs.

Amazon.com

The title of this scholarly yet remarkably accessible slice of contemporary cultural history has a whiff of paradox about it: what can it mean, exactly, to say that we humans have become something other than human? The answer, Katherine Hayles explains, lies not in ourselves but in our tools. Ever since the invention of electronic computers five decades ago, these powerful new machines have inspired a shift in how we define ourselves both as individuals and as a species.

Hayles tracks this shift across the history of avant-garde computer theory, starting with Norbert Weiner and other early "cyberneticists," who were the first to systematically explore the similarities between living and computing systems. Hayles's study ends with artificial-life specialists, many of whom no longer even bother to distinguish between life forms and computers. Along the way she shows these thinkers struggling to reconcile their traditional, Western notions of human identity with the unsettling, cyborg directions in which their own work seems to be leading humanity.

This is more than just the story of a geek elite, however. Hayles looks at cybernetically inspired science fiction by the likes of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Neal Stephenson to show how the larger culture grapples with the same issues that dog the technologists. She also draws lucidly on her own broad grasp of contemporary philosophy both to contextualize those issues and to contend with them herself. The result is a fascinating introduction--and a valuable addition--to one of the most important currents in recent intellectual history. --Julian Dibbell

Book Description

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age.

Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman."

Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems.

Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.

Customer Reviews:

Hayles Forgets and Didn't do her research.......2007-05-02

Interesting how Ms. Hayles does not mention the transhuman or transhumanism, Max More and his seminal essay "Becoming Posthuman" written several years before Ms. Hayles book was published. Anyone using the book in their course work might want to think about this.

What is the Posthuman Future?.......2005-10-24

This is an important, impressive, and infuriating book that should be read by all those interested in the posthuman movement, the possibility of a cyborg future, and the nature of cyberspace. I agree with other reviewers that it is a penetrating analysis of the cultural revolution taking place in information and what it means for human (and posthuman) society. It is important as a powerful statement of the post-modern concern with embodiment and what that might portend for the future of humanity. It is impressive as a wide-ranging analysis of the inter-linkages of technology, culture, and the human body. It is infuriating because of the jargon-filled text and convoluted nature of the writing. That last criticism is one that is generic for post-modern works such as this, and certainly not a specific criticism of this book.

UCLA professor of English N. Katherine Hayles makes the case that the body (or lack thereof) is central to this posthuman future. She notes that the body is lost in the information age, as disembodied voices/knowledge/data came to dominate thinking about a posthuman evolutionary stage. She also explores the development of the concept of the cyborg, and what the merger of humans and machines might eventually come to mean. She undertakes the analysis through a series of case studies. One of the best of them is her chapter on the science fiction of Philip K. Dick, whose novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was made into the classic feature film "Blade Runner." His obsession with artificial life, and by extension "real" life, consumed much of Dick's writing and has much to say about the essence of the posthuman.

The most challenging and interesting part of this book is Hayles argument that Homo sapiens as a species are endangered in ways we have never conceptualized. Hayles notes that the rise of artificial life will lead to the next stage of the evolution of life on Earth. "If the name of the game is processing information," she writes, "it is only a matter of time until intelligent machines replace us as our evolutionary heirs. Whether we decide to fight them or join them by becoming computers ourselves, the days of the human race are numbered" (p. 243). The author does not view this with serious trepidation. As her last sentence in the book states: "Although some current versions of the posthuman point toward the anti-human and the apocalyptic, we can craft others that will be conducive to the long-range survival of humans and of the other life-forms, biological and artificial, with whom we share the planet and ourselves" (p. 291).

I think Hayles would agree with the Borg's slogan, "resistance is futile," but not with the dystopian concept of the human future it offers.

REDEFINING WHAT HUMAN IS -- into the 22nd Century.......2003-07-20

Yes, this is 22nd Century thinking today. I was fortunate enough to meet the author at a LA FUTURISTS SOCIETY meeting where she was a guest speaker. She looks ordinary-- like a college professor-type, speaks clearly but her writing is the extraordinary talent. She combines humanism and science to see how virtual bodies and informatics are influencing how we live, work and love. One of those books that yearns for you to write in the margins and put your notes in the back. Pages and pages of notes on my copy. No one will share this copy, don't even ask!!!! Not an easy read but well worth the journey. I love to read books in hours or days but this one took weeks (in between other reading) and it was well worth every minute, hour, day spent. Perfect book for this summer when the MACHINES ARE TAKING OVER on our screens at movies and television. The crossover from cybernetics to literature is what is so fascinating. I can't begin to summarize all that I learned and all the questions that it brought up for me to seek out more info. Belongs on every science and literature teacher's shelf. One of the books they should require for every engineer and techie at the beginning of their careers. Make way for the future!!!!!

Too full of jargon for me.......2003-05-22

This is probably one of the hardest books I have ever read--with no background in either philosophy or cybernetics, much of what Hayles discusses is just plain incomprehensible. I also found it difficult to accept the idea of humans already being "post-human." If you are interested in deep philosophical writings on technology and the human condition, with links to literature, read this. If you don't really care about the post-human, skip it.

this book rules, her writing style is near impenetrable.......2003-02-11

This book is worth the effort. Or maybe all the effort you'll put into this triggers a cognitive dissonance reaction: I just spent 4 hours reading one chapter, so it must have been good. Right? Right?

Book Description

The Visible Human Project is a critical investigation of the spectacular, three-dimensional recordings of real human bodies- dissected, photographed and converted into visual data files- made by the US National Library of Medicine in Baltimore. Catherine Waldby uses new ideas from cultural studies, science studies and social studies of the computer to situate the Visible Human Project in its historical and cultural context, and to consider the meanings such an object has within a computerized culture.
Bringing together medical conceptions of the human body with theories of visual culture from Foucault to Donna Haraway, Waldby links the VHP to a range of other biomedicalprojects, such as the Human Genome Project and cloning, which approach living bodies as data sources. She argues that the VHP is an example of the increasingly blurred distinction between `living' and 'dead' human bodies, as the bodies it uses are digitally preserved as a resource for living bodies, and considers how computer-based biotechnologies affect both medical and non-medical meanings of the body's life and death, its location and its limits.

The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future

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The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262195305

Book Description

Prosthesis -- pointing to an addition, replacement, extension, enhancement -- has become something of an all-purpose metaphor for the interactions of body and technology. Concerned with cybernetics, transplant technology, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, among other cultural and scientific developments, "the prosthetic" conjures up a posthuman condition. In response to this, the 13 original essays in The Prosthetic Impulse reassert the phenomenological, material, and embodied nature of prosthesis without dismissing its metaphorical potential. They examine the historical and conceptual edge between the human and the posthuman -- between flesh and its accompanying technologies. Rather than tracking the transformation of one into the other, these essays address this borderline and the delicate dialectical situation in which it places us. Concentrating on this edge, the collection demonstrates how the human has been technologized and technology humanized.

The eclectic approach taken by The Prosthetic Impulse draws on disciplines ranging from gender studies, philosophy, and visual culture to psychoanalysis, cybertheory, and phenomenology. The first section, "Carnality: Between Phenomenology and the Biocultural" concentrates on the organic, describing a body that, by its very materiality, is always and already prosthetic. The second section, "Assembling: Internalization. Externalization," considers the technological qualities and peculiarities of prosthesis, raising questions about the ways in which film, photography, AI, drawing, and literature -- representation itself -- can be situated within the framework of a prosthetic discourse. Taken together, the essays suggest that prosthesis is material as well as metaphorical. "It is just a matter of pondering where the inelegant edges lie," the editors write, "and living them most wonderfully."

Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body

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Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body
Kim Toffoletti
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1845114671
Release Date: 2007-10-30

Book Description

Bringing a lively and accessible style to a complex subject, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls explores the idea of the "posthuman" and the ways in which it is represented in popular culture. Toffoletti explores images of the posthuman body from goth-rocker Marilyn Manson's digitally manipulated self-portraits to the famous TDK "baby" adverts, and from the work of artist Patricia Piccinini to the curiously "plastic" form of the ubiquitous Barbie doll, controversially rescued here from her negative image. Drawing on the work of thinkers including Baudrillard, Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls explores the nature of the human - and its ambiguous gender - in an age of biotechnologies and digital worlds.

How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics.(Review): An article from: The Modern Language Review

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How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics.(Review): An article from: The Modern Language Review
Jeremy Tambling
Manufacturer: Modern Humanities Research Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Modern Language Review, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 679 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: How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics.(Review)
Author: Jeremy Tambling
Publication: The Modern Language Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Volume: 96 Issue: 1 Page: 143(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics

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How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics
N. Katherine Hayles
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPK3LM

Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine.

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Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBLN48

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Bizarre and thoughtful end to the Gazetteer series

The Atruaghin Clans (Dungeons & Dragons/Gazetteer Accessory GAZ14)
William W. Connors
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0880388919

Customer Reviews:

Bizarre and thoughtful end to the Gazetteer series.......2000-05-02

This is the final chapter in the acclaimed Gazeteer series! This one covers the wondrous Clansmen of the far steppes. Included are culture, magic, shaman rules, a giant poster map, new spells, rules for new PC types, and some of the most gorgeous artwork you'll ever see in a D&D module! An ingenious sourcebook that will leave you thirsty for more.

Book Description

With AutoCAD 2000 For Dummies, you'll quickly discover just how easy it is to create professional-quality designs and drawings. Authors Mark Middlebrook and Bud Smith show you how to set up a design, draw and edit lines, add text and dimensions, even incorporate AutoCAD documents into your Web pages-all while avoiding those common gotchas." Whether you're a new AutoCAD user or you've just upgraded to AutoCAD 2000, this easy-to-use reference delivers all the answers you need to get up to speed.

Inside, find helpful advice on how to:

Discover the new AutoCAD 2000 features-and put them to work
Take full advantage of color and lineweight with the new AutoCAD 2000 approach
Use both menu and toolbar access to commands
Set up a drawing so that it prints without problems
Speed up your work by using the command line as an accelerator
Enhance your Web pages with the new AutoCAD 2000 Web access features
Increase accessibility of your AutoCAD drawings by using AutoCAD DesignCenter

Customer Reviews:

A beginners guide with nowhere to go.......2002-03-27

If you have access to AutoCAD but have no reason to use it on a professional level this book may be fine. If you are purchasing this and already own a couple other manuals to look things up in, it's ok for the humor. The book is not large enough to touch on all the facets of AutoCAD and the massive program it has become. If you intend to make a living with AutoCAD look elsewhere. I watched a co-worker attempt to jump a couple revs with this book. He was better off with his previous knowledge than after three days with this book.

Waste of Shelf Space.......2001-12-20

The author starts the book by telling you how great the book is and how clear and straightforwared he's going to be... and to be honest, it does indeed start out quite well (about 3 pages worth?). But it became evident early on that he "lost his legs" as he continued to write the book. His examples quickly degraded into useless collections of codings - they simply did not work as advertised. Worse than this, when he's trying to make a point, he provides examples that are far too complicated for what he's attempting to illustrate (but remember, they usually don't work anyhow). Bottom line: Snoopy has more writing talent than this guy. (...)Trust me on this one -(...)

Autocad Dummies.......2001-09-29

Never picked up a dummies before. Really impressed with the way they breakout the non useful technical stuff. A great way to get started. Plenty of info for use later when you need it for reference.

Excellent refresher for past version users.......2000-02-03

This book is excellent for former users of Autocad 11 - 14. It lets you know what sections you can skip and get down to the newer features that are unfamiliar. This book would be a good guide for those with any CAD background at all.

It is a fun, easy to read reference book.......1999-09-21

9/7/99

I was browsing through AutoCAD 2000 For Dummies in particular Part IV - Having it your way. I was especially interested in some of the 3D features so I started reading this portion of the book. I found the tips and warnings given to be very helpful, clear and to the point. In my opinion, the best part of this book is when the author makes remarks with the new features offered by AutoCAD 2000, like the new 3D orbit, which I consider amazing! This reference book makes it easy to include the new features AutoCAD 2000 has to offer in the day-to-day work without loosing time by having to read one of those huge manuals. It is a fun, easy to read reference book that will help users of AutoCAD to find quick answers. I would say it is definitely a keeper!

Book Description

Since AutoCAD first stormed the market in the early '80s it has grown to define a whole new way of creating architectural, mechanical, and technical drawings.

Let this guide walk you through the options included in the latest version -- AutoCAD LT 2000. For occasional CAD users and professional designers alike, AutoCAD LT 2000 For Dummies is an indispensable resource. It's equally valuable whether you're providing input on existing files or starting drawings from scratch. Look for helpful sections on...

Identifying new plotting architecture in AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD LT 2000
Plotting, reviewing, adding comments, and making changes to existing drawings
Using other Windows programs and the Internet with AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT drawings
Developing the necessary skills to create drawings from scratch in AutoCAD LT
Reusing information efficiently in order to improve productivity and consistency
Sharing and publishing drawings on the Web
Defining key vocabulary in a thoroughly updated glossary of AutoCAD LT terms

AutoCAD 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference

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Fugeddaboudit!
Autocad 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference - GREAT BOOK

AutoCAD 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference
Ellen Finkelstein
Manufacturer: I D G Books Worldwide
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

CAD | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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Autocad 2000 for Dummies

ASIN: 0764505599

Book Description

If you're tired of memorizing all those AutoCAD commands, or if you're just getting started with the basics, AutoCAD 2000 For Dummies Quick Reference is your one-stop guide for breaking down the complexities of AutoCAD 2000. In no time, you'll be effortlessly working on any and every AutoCAD area, from basic drafting to utilizing advanced 3-D images.

Inside AutoCAD 2000 For Dummies Quick Reference, you find virtually all the AutoCAD commands you'll ever need (or want) to know, all listed alphabetically so you can spend less time searching for obscure explanations and more time planning. Get intimate with all the details on your toolbar and discover your options for fine-tuning your copy of AutoCAD. Race through the text knowing exactly what is appropriate to your skill level by using the Full-Brainer and the No-Brainer icons. And to keep yourself from getting in over your head, use the AutoCAD 2000 icon to identify additions to this latest version. Can't use commands yet? This book even has information for the absolute beginner. Save time figuring out the basics on your own and get yourself started setting up drawings, specifying points, viewing your drawings, and even using commands. The book's glossary of techie terms can even help you add some savvy to your vocabulary.

AutoCAD 2000 For Dummies Quick Reference is your fast friendly guide when you don't have time for research.

Customer Reviews:

Fugeddaboudit!.......2001-09-20

Confusing, skimpy, and VERY hard to relate to what you see on your monitor. This gets one star only because that's the least this reviewing system will let me bestow. Dummies books are usually great-but not this thing. Not recommended.

Autocad 2000 for Dummies Quick Reference - GREAT BOOK.......2000-05-27

One of the best "Books". It can be really useful if you work with ACAD 2000, programmer/engineer or just plain human being..... Worth buying...

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AutoCAD LT 2000 for Dummies

Manufacturer: HUNGRY MINDS (TWLD)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSZX5S

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