Partnership Power: How to Profit and Reduce Taxes Investing in Real Estate Partnerships

Book Description

From the editors of the "showbiz bible" comes an invaluable, insightful, insider's guide to the most important players in Hollywood--from those in front of the camera to those behind the scenes.

The power list: "Warts-and-all" sketches of Hollywood's top actors, agents, directors, studio executives, and writers
Who to see: Contact information for every entry
Getting in: A complete list of the industry's principal guilds in the U.S.

Plus the names, recent sales, studio affiliations, availability, working partners, representatives, awards, failures, successes, strengths, and weaknesses of Hollywood's power people.

Customer Reviews:

A sometimes snide, insider's look at Hollywood.......2000-03-14

More than just the typical Who's Who or magazine power list, this book offers some real insights into who the players are, what their strengths and weaknesses are and occasional funny tidbits about their personalities. It also provides, contact information, making it indispensible for someone looking to break into Hollywood.

Amazon.com

This slim, illustrated volume makes a fascinating attempt at capturing in theoretical, sociological terms the love affair between the Dodgers--the team of Branch Rickey and Duke Snider, of Pee Wee Reese and, above all, Jackie Robinson--and the homely, family-oriented, working-class borough of Brooklyn in the 1950s. Robinson, a complex and courageous man, is captured here, warts and all; few remember that the gifted ballplayer denounced the great actor Paul Robeson to the House Un-American Activities Committee. But it's the glory of those summer days that lingers in the memories, and in the pages of this book.

Book Description

During the 1952 World Series, a Yankee fan trying to watch the game in a Brooklyn bar was told, "Why don't you go back where you belong, Yankee lover?" "I got a right to cheer my team," the intruder responded, "this is a free country." "This ain't no free country, chum," countered the Dodger fan, "this is Brooklyn." Brooklynites loved their "Bums"--Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, and all the murderous parade of regulars who, after years of struggle, finally won the World Series in 1955. One could not live in Brooklyn and not catch its spirit of devotion to its baseball club. In Brooklyn's Dodgers, Carl E. Prince captures the intensity and depth of the team's relationship to the community and its people in the 1950s. Ethnic and racial tensions were part and parcel of a working class borough; the Dodgers' presence smoothed the rough edges of the ghetto conflict always present in the life of Brooklyn. The Dodger-inspired baseball program at the fabled Parade Grounds provided a path for boys that occasionally led to the prestigious "Dodger Rookie Team," and sometimes, via minor league contracts, to Ebbets Field itself. There were the boys who lined Bedford Avenue on game days hoping to retrieve home run balls and the men in the many bars who were not only devoted fans but collectively the keepers of the Dodger past--as were Brooklyn women, and in numbers. Indeed, women were tied to the Dodgers no less than their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons; they were only less visible. A few, like Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Marianne Moore and working class stiff Hilda Chester were regulars at Ebbets Field and far from invisible. Prince also explores the underside of the Dodgers--the "baseball Annies," and the paternity suits that went with the territory. The Dodgers' male culture was played out as well in the team's politics, in the owners' manipulation of Dodger male egos, opponents' race-baiting, and the macho bravado of the team (how Jackie Robinson, for instance, would prod Giants' catcher Sal Yvars to impotent rage by signaling him when he was going to steal second base, then taunting him from second after the steal). The day in 1957 when Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that the team would be leaving for Los Angeles was one of the worst moments in baseball history, and a sad day in Brooklyn's history as well. The Dodger team was, to a degree unmatched in other major league cities, deeply enmeshed in the life and psyche of Brooklyn and its people. In this superb volume, Carl Prince illuminates this "Brooklyn" in the golden years after the Second World War.

Customer Reviews:

An Academic View.......2002-03-16

This addition to the considerable literature about the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1947-1957 is by an academic historian who seeks to place the Dodgers within the broader social and political context of the era. The book captures the atmospherics of the time with a mostly credible and readable account of one of the great teams of all time.
Academic history today means race, gender, class and some of that in this context seems a bit forced. There certainly is an important race story here in the person of Jackie Robinson. The author, consistent with the academic perspective, has difficulty coming to grips with both Robinson's and Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey's support of integration with their views on the Cold War. This reader did not find it unusual that people opposed to the Soviet Union would also support, and take considerable risks in supporting, integration in baseball. Much of the race angle in this volume is familiar territory. Some which is not familiar is questionable. The author brands a player of the era, later a prominent broadcaster, as a racist and does so on what appears to be very thin evidence - a not unusual on the field scrape with Robinson. Similarly forced, on the gender angle, is the characterization of the colorful Dodger fan Hilda Chester as a "single mother", even though her child was an adult. That women were vastly outnumbered by men watching baseball games in bars in the 1950s seems to have little to do with the Dodgers.
The author's best point is his explanation of why the hatred of Walter O'Malley has lasted though successive generations, a phenomena not associated with other franchise moves. The Reason: the Dodger move did not just re-locate a baseball team, it destroyed a distinct culture, which is probably the best explanation.
There are some factual errors in the book, one of them particularly surprising coming from an academic American historian. Perhaps the aversion to "right wing" politicians explains it. In 1952, Richard Nixon made a TV speech which came to be known as the "Checkers" speech - it saved his career in the face of charges of fiscal impropriety. Checkers was a dog given to Nixon's daughters as a gift. The author asserts that the dog was present on the TV set as Nixon gave the speech. That did not occur.
The author also attempts to "deconstruct" the common wisdom about Dodger pitcher Billy Loes. Loes had the reputation as something of a flake, but the author asserts that he was a chess-playing intellect who knew exactly what he was doing. The account given here has Loes planning to make enough money in five years and then quit, having made his fortune and "that is exactly how long his career lasted". The deconstruction does not stand up. Loes' major league career lasted eleven years.
For those who cannot get enough of Dodger literature, this short volume is worth reading if only to see how an academic would view the story. Those who want to read just one book on the subject should stick to Roger Kahn's classic The Boys of Summer or Peter Golenbock's Bums.

The Dodgers don't need politically correct analysis.......2001-06-10

I probably should give this book one star because it goes against everything the Dodgers were about--The Dodgers signal triumph"sociologically" was that they showed that private places both exclusive and inclusive make for a healthy community. A healthy community is not driven by ism's or explicit ideology--rather it is driven by the triumphs and mistakes of ordinary men any women. Women "liberated" McSorley's bar.We are poorer for that Ebbets field provided a real chance for community conversation and for neighborhood stability--a chance that Robert Moses destroyed--that destruction produced a "culture" of which this author is a product.

Average customer rating:

A small quantity of attempted humor

Interesting !

Interesting !

Bluff Your Way in Chess (The Bluffer's Guides)
Publishing Ravette , and Ravette Books
Manufacturer: Ravette Publishing Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 185304654X

Customer Reviews:

A small quantity of attempted humor.......2000-08-06

I was expecting something along the lines of Hartston's "How to Cheat at Chess", which is hilarious. Instead, this book is a tiny, 64-page treatise whose stated purpose is to establish, for the non-chess player, the appearance of knowledge through buzzwords and short stories. There are brief (2-page) biographies of a couple of dozen historical and present-day chess figures. The first is Alexander Alekhine, whose emigration from Russia to France brings out the worst of the author's racism: "To be born French may be accounted ill luck, but to enter into it voluntarily is depravity of a high order...." Come on. But there is some genuine humor on the next page, when he describes Alekhine's Defense (1...Nf6) as "the chess equivalent of hormone weedkiller, stimulating White into such a frenzy of development that he would outgrow his own strength and collapse." The best feature of this book is its low price. You might want to order it along with something else.

Interesting !.......2000-05-12

very nice book ... usefull for winning quickly ! if u like quick & short games .. this is ur book !

Interesting !.......2000-05-12

very nice book ... usefull for winning quickly ! if u like quik & short games .. this is ur book !

The Bluffer's Guide to Chess: Bluff Your Way in Chess

Average customer rating:

The Bluffer's Guide to Chess: Bluff Your Way in Chess
B.W. Malpass
Manufacturer: Oval Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1903096162

Book Description

A snappy little book containing facts, jargon, and inside information--all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.

Book Description

Chris Crawford on Game Design is all about the foundational skills behind the design and architecture of a game. Without these skills, designers and developers lack the understanding to work with the tools and techniques used in the industry today. Chris Crawford, the most highly sought after expert in this area, brings an intense opinion piece full of personality and flare like no other person in this industry can. He explains the foundational and fundamental concepts needed to get the most out of game development today. An exceptional precursor to the two books soon to be published by New Riders with author Andrew Rollings, this book teaches key lessons; including, what you can learn from the history of game play and historical games, necessity of challenge in game play, applying dimensions of conflict, understanding low and high interactivity designs, watching for the inclusion of creativity, and understanding the importance of storytelling. In addition, Chris brings you the wish list of games he'd like to build and tells you how to do it. Game developers and designers will kill for this information!

Customer Reviews:

A decent read, but teaches little about game design.......2006-12-01

I agree with what most of the other reviewers have said, but I guess I enjoyed it slightly less.

The first thing to know about this book is that you'll learn next to nothing about game design by reading it. Crawford even lists some *other* books to read to learn the subject.

This book if first and foremost about curling up by a fireside and listening to (reading) someone with an enormous ego and an equally large chip on his shoulder, rant about the video game industry. He'll tell you you'll never make it, he'll tell you good design is essential in the success of a game project, and laugh at projects that failed due to (he claims) bad game design. Then you'll hear him tell you what a bad designer Carmack (sp?) of Doom fame is, and how the best game he (Crawford) ever designed was a huge commercial flop. And lots of other borderline crazy rantings. There's also a lot of completely worthless fluff in the book, like really long-winded, pointless excercises in trying to define certain words like "game" and "interactive" and so forth.

But tucked in between the ranting, boasting, and fluff, almost by accident, there seem to be a few thought provoking passages and some decently entertaining stories. I'm not sorry that I read this book, but I have trouble giving it a high recommendation to others. You should at least know what you're getting yourself into before reading it.

Worth it for the description of Interactivity alone.......2005-12-15

I agree with some of the other reviewers on this page that Crawford has some very strong opinions. If you disagree with his point of view (that the computer game industry could aim quite a bit higher than it is currently, and ultimately will have to in order to survive) then you might grumble at certain parts of the book, but Crawford's description of Interactivity, and its importance to game design, is spot on. It clarified for me why computer games are entertaining to the complex human animal, and why this particular quality sets computer games apart from all other forms of media. A great portion of the book is devoted to Crawford's own experiences in the game industry. I found these descriptions equally entertaining and illuminating - If you grew up watching the transition from Pong and Atari to Doom and Civilization, I believe you will as well.

a great resource.......2005-12-15

this book is informative and interesting in that you'll-be-thinking-about-it-for-months kind of way. it will confirm your thoughts, and offer insights you have yet to gather. crawford's ego is apparent, yet logical; his points piquant, yet measured.

A Must Read for Serious People Interested in Games.......2005-09-14

I used to think that this book had some sort of flaw in its conception. It's written by one of the greatest game designers of all time, who is also the number one computer game theorist in the world, yet it neither teaches the craft of game design nor does it contain any great theoretical breakthroughs. There are important concepts in here, as well as many useful points, but it really doesn't seem to live up to Crawford's reputation.

But I was wrong. This book is perfect for what it sets out to do. It is designed as a complex, long-winded, utterly convincing argument aimed at the games industry, with the sole purpose of opening the reader's eyes to the sad truth - the computer games industry is in a dire situation from an artistic and creative perspective, and it's only getting worse.

Among other things, Crawford exorcises many of the buzzwords that haunt the dialogue of game design, presenting principles that are so much cleaner and more accurate than we've come to expect from game design books. He contends that "fun" is not a sufficient design goal for a game, indeed, that it's hardly a design goal at all, and presents what served as his goals on his many game projects. He gives examples of several games he'd like to make, each of which is completely different from anything ever seen on the market, although they are all great ideas, and this just serves to prove how narrow the creative emphasis of the games industry is.

This book is the painful look in the mirror that the games industry needs so badly. It lucidly explains what went wrong and why, and what needs to be done differently. If you are a serious person interested in games, then this is an excellent book to learn why today's games are less and less worthy of your attention. If you are actually a game developer, this book will show you the path to a creative freedom and artistic possibilities beyond common imagining, if you're honest and can take the criticism. Either way, Crawford's wit and insight will entertain and enlighten you, as will his stories of the early days of game design.

Highly recommended!

Entertaining and thought-provoking.......2004-11-04

I have been making video games for about 7 years and have reached the top technical position I can at my company. So I wanted to learn some more about game design.

I bought 3 books on game design. The first, I discarded after 5 minutes of browsing as full of common sense and no real meat. (Be warned - there are lots of books on game design like that out there.)

Here's really where I think this book is different. I devoured this book in one siting. It's interesting and thought provoking, and I honestly came away feeling like I had some more insight into making games.

High points:

* Some interesting theories (or perhaps opinions masquerading as theories, but I mostly liked them all) about what is at the heart of a good game. Why do people "play?" Why is interactivity so important
* Lots of examples of games he felt had good design, and some analysis of what made them good.
* A list of common mistakes people make when trying to make games.
* A list of game ideas! He has a list of game ideas he's had that he's never turned into games.
* Plenty of war stories about how some of his games came into being, including the political battles and the evolution of ideas.
* PLENTY of strong opinions. This guy is opinionated. He either likes it or he hates it. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I enjoyed the way in which he pursued his arguments.
* An eye-opener as to just how narrow our industry really is, versus the range of games that we could be making. This, to me, was the most inspiring. He basically says that we've dug a hole for ourselves, and will have a hard time climbing out of it and becoming a mass-market medium. He says that video games we make are primarily making "candy" or "cartoons" to use food or television analgies. But where's the sandwiches, vegetables, salads, the olives, or the sitcoms, mysteries, dramas, or chick-flicks that would be consumed by a more mature and diverse audience? I think a light bulb came on for me and I realized how we are all fighting to see who can get the most piece of this little tiny pie, when there are so many other pies.

He's a bit bitter with the industry, and angry with the path it has taken - he basically says that nothing new has ben done in video games in the past 10 years, which consist of an endless stream of doom-wanna-bes. As I'm starting to become a more veteran person and some of the newness has worn off and I'm seeking new challenges, I can see how this happened to him.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The one negative about this book, is that he is coming from a time when everything was new and games were a lot simpler. To make a hit game, you took one key idea and ran with it - and the entire game was SO focused on that one idea. I mean it really was very simplistic. But that's where the rubber really hits the road, isn't it? Let's ignore graphics, sound, etc. The average game today is FAR more complicated than those simple games of 10 years ago. Even games like SimCity, Civilization, the Sims, Half Life, or GTA3 - which take a new idea and run with it - they are really deep and involved games. Almost all of his examples are 5 or 10 years old - which sort of makes it hard to apply to today's market. This is where I think his book leaves you hanging. Of course, the other design books I've read all suffer from this flaw of putting a bit too much stock in old games and forgetting that with modern games, the devil really is in the details. Buy this book for inspiration, not for practical advice.

The Art Of Computer Game Design: Reflections Of A Master Game Designer

Average customer rating:

Pioneer work but only personal opinion
About the design (not programming) of games.

The Art Of Computer Game Design: Reflections Of A Master Game Designer
Chris Crawford
Manufacturer: Osborne/McGraw-Hill,U.S.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0881341177

Customer Reviews:

Pioneer work but only personal opinion.......2000-09-04

As written in the early eighties, this book is one of the pioneer works seriously about video game. It talks about such topics as what is a game, why people play games, and how to design a game. The author's rich and plentiful experience in game design is undeniable, but the arguments in the book are somewhat restricted only to his own personal opinions. To a certain extent, there is no ground, as backed up from careful research, to justify these claims. Either, the author has not been able to connect his viewpoints to the works of other people. Whether other designers have similar beliefs, thus supporting his arguments? Even though similar works on game design may hardly be found at the time, relating to the experiences transferable from other disciplines is possible. Despite this, as a whole, the author does throw some light on the area, which is enough to make this book well worth reading.

About the design (not programming) of games........1997-12-09

Ever since I played Chris Crawford's "Balance of the Planet" I have been a fan of his. In this book he describes in detail what goes into the game design including many examples from his own experience. The biggest problems with this book are that it is some what dated, and I wish it was thicker. Richard W. Smith

Average customer rating:
We Are Our Own Liberators: Selected Prison Writings
Jalil Muntaqim
Manufacturer: Abraham Guillen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Message To The Black Movement: A Political Statement From The Black Underground

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

ASIN: 189492519X

Book Description

Selected prison writings by the Black Panther Party/Black Liberation Army political prisoner locked down since 1971. It outlines his major theoretical contributions to the Black Liberation and New Afrikan Independence Movements. It includes - On The Black Liberation Army, For The Liberation Of North America, National Strategy For The Front For The Liberation Of the New Afrikan Nation, Handbook For Revolutionary Nationalist Cadres, The National And International Struggle Toward A New Global Revolutionary Pan-Afrikan Strategy and his 1975 sentencing statement. . The author receives a portion of the proceeds.

Customer Reviews:

Writings and observations first published in 1791.......2003-02-13

Collaboratively compiled, edited, and notated by Gregory A. Waselkov (Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Archaeological Studies, University of South Alabama) and Kathryn E. Holland Brand (Associate Professor of History, Auburn University), William Bartram On The Southeastern Indians is comprised of the writings and observations first published in 1791 by William Bartram regarding flora, fauna, and the Native American Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokee that he encountered while touring the American Southeast. This scholarly edition is enhanced for contemporary readers with illustrations, notes, a bibliography, an index, and an informative chapter devoted to the significance of William Bartram's writings in anthropological studies of 18th century southeastern Native American cultures. William Bartram On The Southeastern Indians is a core addition to personal, professional, and academic Native American Studies collections and supplemental reading lists.

Average customer rating:

An Outdoor Guide to Bartram's Travels
Charles D. Spornick , Alan R. Cattier , and Robert J. Greene
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 082032437X

Book Description

From 1773 to 1777, naturalist William Bartram journeyed through the American South from the Carolinas to Florida to the Mississippi River. Bartram's classic account, Travels, documents what he saw: a world of flora, fauna, cultures, and terrains unknown to most readers of his time--and, we too often assume, lost to us today.

An Outdoor Guide to Bartram's Travels reconstructs as closely as possible the original routes Bartram took. Featuring some fifty thoroughly tested and researched tours, the guide takes today's outdoor enthusiasts and history buffs along Bartram's path through what were once colonial towns and outposts, native kingdoms, and unspoiled wilderness. Some tours can be taken by car or bicycle; others can be taken only as Bartram himself would have traveled--on foot, by canoe, or on horseback. The tours are supplemented with more than 140 maps and photographs as well as informative sidebars and listings of nearby points of interest.

As the guide points out details of both the natural and manmade environments to be seen along each tour, it imparts an understanding of the forces at work on the landscape. Visitors to Paynes Prairie in north central Florida, for instance, are urged to notice not only networks of manmade dikes built in the last century but also evidence of current efforts to dismantle them and let the wetlands again manage itself.

At one level, the guide is an invitation into the past, to travel along with Bartram as he visits the lands of the American colonists, the Creek, the Seminole, and the Cherokee--all on the eve of the American Revolution. At another level, it is an invitation to the present: to see how the some parts of the American Southeast have changed in the last two centuries while others have survived in all their wild splendor. From the mountain grandeur of the Blue Ridge to the coastal beauty of Cumberland Island, from the formal gardens of Charleston to the False River plantations near the Mississippi River, the present answers the past in An Outdoor Guide to Bartram's Travels.

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William Bartram On The Southeastern Indians
Gregory A.Waselkov and Kathryn E. Holland Braund
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KBLJCW

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William Bartram on the Southeastern Indians. (book reviews): An article from: The Mississippi Quarterly
Kent P. Ljungquist
Manufacturer: Mississippi State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B00098ADI2
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Mississippi Quarterly, published by Mississippi State University on March 22, 1998. The length of the article is 716 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: William Bartram on the Southeastern Indians. (book reviews)
Author: Kent P. Ljungquist
Publication: The Mississippi Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1998
Publisher: Mississippi State University
Volume: v51 Issue: n2 Page: p351(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Focusing on the characters, events, and moments of genius that comprise the story of science, these 50 short reads are ideal for both read-alouds and reading assignments. The tales take just minutes to read but amply illustrate scientific principles and the evolution of science through history. Discussion questions and additional references correlate each story with elements of the science curriculum and provide direction for students to pursue their own discoveries. Stories are cross-indexed by year of occurrence and by scientist.

Customer Reviews:

Marvels of Science.......2003-11-12

This is a fantastic resource for teachers who are interested in incorporating more reading in science! The stories are written as if they were fiction, with much imagery. The book is fun to read outloud and lends itself to many other activities. Every science teacher to whom I've shown the book has loved it!

Nice teaching resource.......1999-10-29

The stories in this book are nice, short, and work well to fill in extra class time, introduce subject matter, include historical perspectives, or stimulate discussion about the nature of science. I didn't much appreciate the author's liberal use of his storytelling lisence to make up dialougue and such.

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