School Daze

• New

HIGHER LEARNING - DVD MovieThis ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, but Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of! the surrounding culture--is not to be dismissed. --Tom KeoghThis ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, but Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the surrounding culture--is not to be dismiss! ed. --Tom KeoghHIGHER LEARNING, BOYZ N THE HOOD, POETIC! JUSTICE This ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college life in the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of defining some conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood, particularly the desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with like-minded allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide themselves along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously, levels of paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner drawn to a local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel dramas, but Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the surrounding culture--is not to be dismissed. --Tom KeoghA NOT SO POPULAR YOUNG MAN WANTS TO PLEDGE TO A! POPULAR FRATERNITY AT HIS HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGE.Spike Lee's follow-up to his unlikely hit She's Gotta Have It was this ambitious--some would say too ambitious--attempt at a musical about college life. But Lee, ever the provocateur, doesn't settle for a simple college comedy. Rather, he wants to make a point about the social divisions within all-black colleges: between the socializers and the socially conscious, and between light and dark-skinned blacks. Laurence Fishburne plays a politically aware student trying to bring his fellow students together; Giancarlo Esposito plays the fraternity boss who constantly seeks to insert a wedge between the haves and have-nots. Lee himself plays a pawn in the middle, a would-be frat boy undergoing a wicked Hell Week as a pledge. The story doesn't pull together and the musical numbers--more spoof than anything else--only serve to fragment it. While it offers interesting points, it never does so in a particularly cohesive way! . --Marshall Fine

Read more »

Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

• ISBN13: 9780306808784
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The Ballets Russes was a phenomenon of the early twentieth century, permeating daily life wherever the company traveled and leaving a lasting impact on dance, theater, and the visual arts. Sergei Diaghilev, impresario from 1909 until his death in 1929, fused the most avant-garde, groundbreaking movements in dance, choreography, art, design, and costume into unique and stunning productions. The work was exciting, and always new, and it stretched the limits of the possible in art. The color, form, and material in costume and set design astonished audiences, transforming every corner of Western culture in the twentieth century.

Fashion and decor designers and visual artists in particularâ€"inclu! ding Coco Chanel, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Léon Bakst, and Pablo Picassoâ€"found inspiration in the Ballets Russes. Designers and artists moved past old boundaries and created costumes and set designs for these extravagant productions, bridging the gaps between tangible and abstract artistic genres.

The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design explores these revolutionary icons and ideas, illuminating Sergei Diaghilev's profound revitalization of the arts, which continues to influence us today. Ten essays by internationally recognized experts and 200 color and black-and-white illustrationsâ€"many from private collections and never-before-publishedâ€"discuss a broad range of topics, including set and costume designs, graphic design and poster art, photographs and postcards, Diaghilev's presence in the media, and private and museum collections of Ballets Russes treasures.

While the early 20th centu! ry was r ich with creative energy, no one brought theater and dance to the forefront of culture quite like Sergei Diaghilev did with his extraordinary Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929, the Ballets Russes attracted the involvement of major artists, composers, and designers. Now,  this major book, published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, examines the origins, development, and long-term influence of the Ballets Russes and celebrates the centenary of their first appearance in 1909. 
Diaghilev's extraordinary company revolutionized ballet for all time. The book shows Diaghilev's use of avant-garde composers such as Stravinsky, dancers such as Nijinsky and Massine, and designers such as Bakst, Goncharova, Picasso, Matisse, and Chanel, and even a very young George Balanchine, all of whom helped to create true collabrations never before seen in the performing arts. works This beautiful book showcases artistic collaboration at its fin! est.

PRAISE FOR DIAGHILEV AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE BALLETS RUSSES

"The best accompaniment for the exhibition is the sumptuous illustrated catalog, edited by Jane Pritchard, who co-curated the exhibit along with Geoffrey Marsh. In its close-up details of costume, its black and white images of ballet and its lucid and intelligent texts, the book covers subjects that are not discussed in the museum show. This fascinating book should be on every ballet lovers’ holiday gift list."--Suzy Menkes, The New York Times

"The most newsworthy dance item in Europe during the remainder of 2010 is not occurring onstage. It’s an exhibition: “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-29” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (through Jan. 9, 2011). " --Alaistair Macaulay,  Sunday New York Times 

BALLETS RUSSES - DVD MovieThe Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever since Russian-born Sergei Dia! ghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company. Diaghilev bro! ught tog ether some of the most important visual artists of the 20th century--Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, AndrŽ Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Natalia Gonchorova and Mikhail Larionov, and more--who worked as costume and stage designers with composers such as Igor Stravinky, choreographers such as Michel Fokine, and dancers such as Vaslav Nijinsky, infusing new life and creative energy into the performing arts of the time.

Premiering in Paris, the Ballets Russes, for the brief period of its existence (1909-1929), created exotic, extravagant, and charming theatrical spectacle but also critical discussion and technical innovation, as well as exuding glamour--and often creating scandal--wherever it appeared.

The costumes featured in this book are drawn entirely from the National Gallery of Australia's world-renowned collection of Ballets Russes costumes and ephemera. Through the costumes, drawings, programs and posters, the visual spectacle ! of the Ballets Russes is brought back into view for a contemporary audience to appreciate the revolution it was and the ongoing influence it continues to have today.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the performing arts, the intersection of art and design, and costume and fashion.In May 1909, Sergei Diaghilev astonished the world of dance with his first ballet presentations in Paris that demonstrated an unprecedented combination of vitality and grace, originality, and technical sophistication. This catalogue of over three hundred artworks related to the Saisons Russes between 1909 and 1929 is the official companion to an exhibition in Monte Carlo. The legendary productions are brought to life through stage designs, costumes, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and programs. The artwork comes from a wide variety of public and private collections, including the Fokine collection in the St. Petersburg Theatre Museum. Diaghilev’s scenic achievements are complem! ented by a number of contextual paintings, drawings, and other! artifac ts, which help to define Russia’s cultural renaissance of the first decades of the twentieth century. The documentary section of the catalog contains rich archival material, including letters, photographs, choreographic notes, and memoirs, many published here for the first time.

In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. Under the direction of impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev (1872â€"1929), the Ballets Russes radically transformed the nature of balletâ€"its subject matter, movement idiom, choreographic style, stage space, music, scenic design, costume, even the dancer's physical appearance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest choreographers in dance historyâ€"Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchineâ€"and created such classics as Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Les Noces, and Apollo. Diaghilev brought together some ! of the leading artists of his time, including composers Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev; artists Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and poets Hoffmansthal and Cocteau. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes is the most authoritative history of the company ever written and the first to examine it as a totalityâ€"its art, enterprise, and audience. Combining social and cultural history with illuminating discussions of dance, drama, music, art, economics, and public reception, Lynn Garafola paints an extraordinary portrait of the company that shaped ballet into what it is today.

Read more »

An Education

• ISBN13: 9781934633854
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

When jenny a bright young school girl who longs for adulthood meets david a dashing older man he introduces her to his world of glamorous friends chic jazz clubs and her own sexual awakening. Will she let this affair ruin her dreams of attending oxford as her headmistress fears? Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/30/2010 Starring: Carey Mulligan Alfred Molina Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Lone ScherfigA young girl seduced by an older man may be a common story, but An Education is no common movie. As Jenny, a precocious middle-class British schoolgirl charmed by a small-time criminal, newcomer Carey Mulligan is luminous; her face can be plain and beautiful at t! he same time, her eyes expressing a restless intelligence and a hungry soul. As David, the seducer, Peter Sarsgaard (Year of the Dog, Garden State) gives yet another rich, thoughtful performance. The script, adapted by Nick Hornby (whose novels High Fidelity and About a Boy have been made into movies), is full of unexpected details that bring every moment to life. Director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners) has made sure that every character is vivid and real; even seemingly minor moments have texture and vitality. The supporting cast--including Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour (Adaptation), Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), and Olivia Williams (Rushmore)--is simply impeccable. In a small but memorable part, Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) shows an unexpected (and marvelous) comic side. In short, An Education is a funny, smart, and compassionate movie that will launch a great career for Mull! igan and be a jewel on the filmographies of everyone involved.! See thi s movie. --Bret Fetzer


Stills from An Education (Click for larger image)

EDUCATION - Blu-Ray MovieA young girl seduced by an older man may be a common story, but An Education is no common movie. As Jenny, a precocious middle-class British schoolgirl charmed by a small-time criminal, newcomer Carey Mulligan is luminous; her face can be plain and beautiful at the same time, her eyes expressing a restless in! telligence and a hungry soul. As David, the seducer, Peter Sar! sgaard ( Year of the Dog, Garden State) gives yet another rich, thoughtful performance. The script, adapted by Nick Hornby (whose novels High Fidelity and About a Boy have been made into movies), is full of unexpected details that bring every moment to life. Director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners) has made sure that every character is vivid and real; even seemingly minor moments have texture and vitality. The supporting cast--including Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson, Cara Seymour (Adaptation), Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), and Olivia Williams (Rushmore)--is simply impeccable. In a small but memorable part, Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) shows an unexpected (and marvelous) comic side. In short, An Education is a funny, smart, and compassionate movie that will launch a great career for Mulligan and be a jewel on the filmographies of everyone involved. See this movie. --Bret Fetzer


Stills from An Education (Click for larger image)

The inspiration for the award-winning motion picture: "Candid, unsentimental and extremely funny. I read it in one glorious go, laughing and crying throughout."â€"Zoë Heller

When Lynn Barber was sixteen, a stranger in a maroon sports car pulled up beside her as she was on her way home from school and offered her a ride. It was the beginning of a long journey from innocence to precocious experienceâ€"an affair with an older man that ! would change her life. Barber’s seducer left her with a taste for luxury hotels and posh restaurants and trips abroad, expensive habits that she managed to support in later life as a successful London journalist whose barbed interviews at once terrorized and fascinated her smart-set subjects.

A poignant, shockingly candid account of the stages in a literary lifeâ€"from promiscuity at Oxford to a stint at Penthouse to a complex marriage that enduredâ€"An Education is a classic of English memoir.

Read more »

Cowboys & Angels

• An award-winning, exhilaratingly funny coming-of-age film. Cowboys & Angels tells the witty story about two Irish lads-one straight and one gay-from their youthful career ambitions to romance to entanglements with the law. Shane (Michael Legge, Angela's Ashes) is a shy civil servant striking out on his own. Vincent (Allen Leech) is a gay fashion design student looking for a roommate. When they

An award-winning, exhilaratingly funny coming-of-age film, Cowboys & Angels tells the witty story about two Irish lads-one straight and one gay-from their youthful career ambitions to romance to entanglements with the law. Shane (Michael Legge, Angela's Ashes) is a shy civil servant striking out on his own. Vincent (Allen Leech) is a gay fashion design student looking for a roommate. When they cross paths, a friendship begins with Vincent helping pull Shane from his shell and sending him on the road to ! fabulousness. However, Shane becomes involved in drug running and falls for Vincent's best friend Gemma (the luminous Amy Shields).

Read more »

Air Force One

• TESTED

DVDYou know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) keeps the action moving so fast you won't be sweating the details.! Don't forget your parachute! --Jeff Shannon

Read more »

The Shepherd Trilogy: A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm / A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd / A Shepherd Looks at the Lamb of God

• ISBN13: 9780551030701
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

This omnibus edition brings together Phillip Keller's three devotional classics, A Shepherd Looks and the 23rd Psalm, A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd, and A Shepherd Looks at the Lamb of God. As a shepherd, Phillip Keller knew what it was to protect a vulnerable flock on a daily basis. The special skills of a shepherd demanded compassion, care, and guidance. His practical experience provides a wellspring of profound spiritual insight, reflected in these timeless meditations on the most famous psalm of all, on the relationship between the Good Shepherd and his sheep, and on the sacrificial role of Christ the Lamb of God.

Read more »