Eddie Van Halen - Know the Man, Play the Music (Fretmaster)

Book Description

Part of the Fretmaster series, this book is geared to teach players both the history and technique of one of rock's greatest guitarists. It explores the musical life and legacy of Eddie Van Halen, from his high school days in Pasadena, California, to the present day, provides detailed accounts of his most significant recorded work, and offers commentary from Van Halen himself and the well-known guitarists he has influenced. Lessons on technique provide the skills and encouragement players need to emulate this musical master.

Customer Reviews:

A complete joke.......2006-02-06

The word extensive shouldn't be used to describe it and it's as bad as everyone's saying. The only thing worse than the book was the press release Backbeat Books put out. False advertising to the enth degree. They said Eddie would be telling his story in his own words by recounting each step of the band's career. That was a grotesque lie. Eddie was in no way involved in the making of this book and neither was anyone else in the band. Eddie's own words were nothing more than a few ancient quotes cut and pasted into the book. They said the book pours over Eddie's style with expert detail. Another lie. The lessons if you can even call them that are sad to the point of being hysterical. They didn't even include the tablature for any Van Halen songs! The lessons are some hamhanded attempt at copping Eddie's style that fall well short. The history if you can even call it that is more a discography masquerading as a history. They said the book included quotes from all the different guitar players Eddie influenced. Another lie. There's one or two quotes from Leslie West and no one else. I could go on and on but I don't care to. You get the point. They even messed up Eddie's birthday. He was born in 1955 not 1957. If you need a good Van Halen book pick up the VH Encyclopedia by CJ Chilvers or the recently released Van Halen 101 by Abel Sanchez. The knowledge those two men have about VH is a million times stronger than that of anyone involved in this pathetic attempt to cash in on the Van Halen name. By a country mile. Dome and his crew couldn't carry Chilvers or Sanchez jock.

more the man than the music.......2006-02-04

Its not as bad as everyone is saying. It has a very extensive history of Van Halen (the band) and their ups and downs. I did not notice any mistakes. The writer is British and uses interesting phrases at times. I appreciate that he gives some opinions or makes some speculations rather than the cold hard facts, and includes quotes from others too. I actually learned a number of little details I didn't know before. There are also a lot of details about Eddie's guitars and their modifcations and other equipment through the years, and there are some decent black and white photos from over the years.

The "play the music" section is weak I agree. Its geared toward beginners, and most advanced players already know many of the tricks. It does come with CD to accompany the method, and the book is hard bound but with a spiral to lay flat - so thats great.

I guess I would sum it by saying this is a good book about Van Halen but not a definite advanced study on his technique.

Horrible Book!.......2006-01-11

Malcolm Dome is an idiot! It's sad that classic VH went right over this rock journalist's head. He couldn't even comprehend Van Hagar either. He seems very bitter VH did not tour Europe so he spews his venom here. Kiss Van Halen's American ass! This book is filled with inaccuracies, mispellings, and grammatical errors. Too many to mention. He's a professional journalist? It seems the only recording he understood was Van Halen's debut. Stay clear of this garbage and get Van Halen 101 written by a fan who knows what he is talking about. Abel Sanchez is a huge fan, but can still write objectively and has done his homework. "Van Halen is America's Led Zeppelin!"

Very disappointing.......2005-10-13

I got good news and bad news. First, the bad news. This book is terrible. It's 106 pages, half of which contain pics. So you're looking at only about 50 pages of text. Oh, and the text itself is terrible. A virtual plethora of mistakes. Very embarrasing.
The good news? I just saved a buncha money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!

Jokes aside, steer clear of this one. If you want a quality VH book, check out the recently released "Van Halen 101." That book is the genuine article.

Not Impressed..........2005-09-25

All show and no go. I could pick up an issue of Guitar One with Eddie on the cover and find more insight into the man and his music than is offered here. I like the fact that a spiral binding was offered so one could place it on a music stand, but so very little of his HUGE pantheon of music was offered here that I would be in error to tell you to purchase it.

Product Description

Ritual and World Change in a Balinese Princedom is an ethnography of a contemporary Balinese princedom as it engages with globally influenced circumstances. A ritual of ancestral deification serves as a vehicle for talking about the Balinese negara (or state), power, subject formation, and local approaches to the changing nation-state. The stage is set in chapter one with a narrative of the large-scale ritual performed by a minor noble house in the highlands of eastern Bali, presented as it unfolds in counterpoint with the national political upheaval surrounding President Suharto's fall from power in 1998. Through the lens of the ritual, the deliberate reconstitution of ancient forms of caste hierarchy can be observed Pedersen then looks more closely at the ritual s political dimensions, and at how and why the various participants became involved. Two discourses join in a surprising way, as questions posed about modern politics and the broader meaning of the ritual lead back to issues debated at the level of the nature of the Balinese state. In the modern era, where the princedom lacks obvious forms of power to coerce, the question that rises to the fore is "why?". Why do the subjects still follow and work for the princes? This question recurs as subsequent chapters investigate what the ritual reveals about the dynamics of the princedom, why it was significant, and how it relates to other aspects of Balinese culture, society, history, and politics. Ritual and World Change examines local approaches to being princes and princely subjects, but also to being agents of or subjects of the nation-state in times of turmoil. This book is part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series edited by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh.

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.

Book Description

* Presents the capabilities of Photoshop Elements in an easy-to-understand language geared to the home user
* Enables readers to restore damaged archival photos, repair scratches and tears, enhance color, and correct poor exposure
* Makes the reader a digital plastic surgeon who can correct wrinkles, blemishes, figure flaws, and "bad hair days"
* Includes information about printing, storing, and protecting images
* Appeals to the growing market of consumers interested in genealogy and preserving family heritage

Customer Reviews:

MY FAVORITE PHOTOSHOP/ELEMENTS AUTHOR.......2004-02-06

This is my third book by Laurie Ulrich on Photoshop and Elements, and it's great. I got the Elements Bible, and had her Complete Reference on Photoshop, and they're both great. This author is GREAT at explaining things, and gives really realistic examples that make sense. I wrote to her with a restoration question after I got the Bible, and she not only answered the question, but she retouched the photo I sent her and told me how she did it. That made me want this book so Icould do what she did without help, and it's been a great investment. GET THIS BOOK!

Just what I was looking for.......2003-12-27

I am reasonably new to the world of digital photography and restoration of old photos, and have been searching for "the" book that will guide me as to the best way to approach certain situations in restoring my old photos. I found exactly what I was looking for in this book. This book is not about Photoshop Elements generally, but specifically addresses the restoration and retouching of photographs. It is the perfect resource that I have been searching for.

This may be my favorite computer book ever!.......2003-06-05

I usually search the web and ask friends for help when I have to learn software, but the cover of this book made me want to check it out, and I'm glad I did. This is a great book!!! Laurie Ulrich really knows about retouching and restoring photos and you can tell she really cares about her readers and has a feel for the kind of stuff people want to do with their family photos, old pictures, and so on. The book is fun to read and is written in a very easy friendly and readable style. She doesn't talk down to you and she doesn't make a lot of jokes (like in a Dummies or Idiots book) to make her point. The author respects her readers and what they want to accomplish and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to really learn Photoshop Elements and start making use of all those photos you have lying around or the really damaged ones you thought would never be useable again. GET THIS BOOK!

Must Have for photo and elements users.......2003-05-17

I have been retouching photos for awhile now and recently bought this book just to check it out. I found myself not being able to put it down. From beginning to end Laurie has done an oustanding job presenting each step in simple easy to understand steps. I dont think anybody will be dissappointed buying this book.

This book is just what I needed........2003-03-23

I've been given the job of restoring my family's huge collection of photos. We have some going back to the 1800's, along with newer ones taken with Polariods where everyone has red-eye. I'm using the photos to make a big family tree book and a web site for both branches of my family. Restoration and Retouching with Photohop Elements 2 has taught me so many great tricks and I've been able to salvage a ton of the photos I thought were completely lost forever. We had burned photos, pictures that kids had drawn on, and one that a dog had chewed up. I've been able to put most of them back together and its all thanks to this book. I recommend this well written and fun book to anyone who has pictures they love and want to keep, because it even tells you how to care for your printed photos so you'll have both the scanned version you fix up and the original picture. Another thing I've also learned how to turn photos into presents by adding cool frames and making photos look like paintings and drawings.

Teach Yourself Visually Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2.0

Average customer rating:

Retouching and Restoration with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Useful Introduction for beginners

Teach Yourself Visually Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2.0
Sherry Willard Kinkoph
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764526014

Book Description

* Covers the features users want most in restoration and retouching: scanning existing prints, correcting color and lighting problems, hiding dust and scratches, repairing holes in the image, improving focus, and printing and posting the retouched images
* VISUAL format uses step-by-step, full-color screen shot accompanied by minimal text to make learning quick and easy
* Simple-to-use features, top-quality photo editing tools, cross-platform capabilities, and an affordable price make Photoshop Elements 2 extremely popular with the booming market of digital camera users
* New elements of Windows XP are expected to produce even faster growth in the imaging market, with digital camera sales expected to triple over the next five years

Customer Reviews:

Retouching and Restoration with Photoshop Elements 2.0.......2005-09-18

The book came as scheduled. Unfortunately it was left behind upon my evacuation from Katrina. I may not see it again
But I was very satisfied of your service.

Useful Introduction for beginners.......2004-07-24

I wish I had got this book immediately after purchasing Photoshop Elements 2. I know I would not have needed to buy a bunch of other books on PE2.

This books makes it easy to get familiar with the basic interface and features of PE2 and gets you up and going, gets you productive very quickly and painlessly. Photo editing is what I do most and this book is the simplest and easiest to follow.

Later on perhaps you might have to get a more advanced book, but I feel that as you practice what you learn in this book, your skills will evolve in accordance to your needs.

Lest you think this book deals only with simple basics, here I found the simplest and clearest explanations about Layers and how and when you should use them. Every page has full color graphics and hence the painless learning.

I recommend this book to anyone who is just starting with PE2. Adobe should ship this book in the box if they want users to have an easier experience with their software.

Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2

Average customer rating:

Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2
Laurie Ann Ulrich
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Adobe Photoshop | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0613918789

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