I bought my copy of "The USS Arizona" after a trip to the 'Arizona' memorial in Hawaii last year. I have always been interested in Pearl Harbor and World War Two in the Pacific Theatre, and have read extensively on it (I particularly like the Gordon Prange books, especially "At Dawn We Slept".) I found the 'Arizona' memorial to be a place of beauty and tranquility, yet amazingly solemn and haunting. After the visit, I decided to learn more about the 'Arizona' herself. This is a great book for a start. It is an interesting amalgam of operational history, information on the attack, including an excellent section debunking myths surrounding the attack, personal recollections, and historical preservation efforts today.

The bulk of the book deals with recollections of crewmembers on shipboard life, with emphasis on December 7, 1941, obviously. These recollections form a valuable oral history of the ship, and though there are minor conflicts between the stories on a couple of details, they are heartfelt, well told, captivating, and historically irreplaceable.

Equally important is the story of the current preservation efforts of the National Park Service to manage the wreck. In particular, the stories of survivors who elect to rejoin their fallen comrades when they are interred in Turret Four are moving beyond all expectations, and reinforce the significance of the Pearl Harbor attack in their lives.

There are some minor errors in the book, many of which are typographical, for instance using "savage" instead of "salvage". Some of the errors are a bit more careless as in a reference to 'General Yamamoto', when he was, of course, and Admiral, and going back and forth on whether the 'Arizona' was tied up at quay F-7 or F-8 (I believe it was F-8.) These are pretty nit-picky, but need to be mentioned. The book does have a couple of standout features in the five appendices. Appendix A is an excellent, if brief, overview of the key events in the Pacific war, Appendix B is an 'Arizona' casualty list, Appendix C is a list of 'Arizona' survivors, and Appendix E is a list of ship casualties of Japan in World War Two. Appendix E makes a sobering statement, that I have never heard anywhere else and found utterly fascinating: "Of the attacking Japanese fleet that initiated the war against the United States on December 7, 1941, all ships ended up on the bottom of the sea by the war's end except one midget submarine." As horrible as Pearl Harbor was for the American forces, the whirlwind reaped by Japan, in the end, was no less ferocious.

I bought my copy of "The USS Arizona" after a trip to the 'Arizona' memorial in Hawaii last year. I have always been interested in Pearl Harbor and World War Two in the Pacific Theatre, and have read extensively on it (I particularly like the Gordon Prange books, especially "At Dawn We Slept".) I found the 'Arizona' memorial to be a place of beauty and tranquility, yet amazingly solemn and haunting. After the visit, I decided to learn more about the 'Arizona' herself. This is a great book for a start. It is an interesting amalgam of operational history, information on the attack, including an excellent section debunking myths surrounding the attack, personal recollections, and historical preservation efforts today.

The bulk of the book deals with recollections of crewmembers on shipboard life, with emphasis on December 7, 1941, obviously. These recollections form a valuable oral history of the ship, and though there are minor conflicts between the stories on a couple of details, they are heartfelt, well told, captivating, and historically irreplaceable.

Equally important is the story of the current preservation efforts of the National Park Service to manage the wreck. In particular, the stories of survivors who elect to rejoin their fallen comrades when they are interred in Turret Four are moving beyond all expectations, and reinforce the significance of the Pearl Harbor attack in their lives.

There are some minor errors in the book, many of which are typographical, for instance using "savage" instead of "salvage". Some of the errors are a bit more careless as in a reference to 'General Yamamoto', when he was, of course, and Admiral, and going back and forth on whether the 'Arizona' was tied up at quay F-7 or F-8 (I believe it was F-8.) These are pretty nit-picky, but need to be mentioned. The book does have a couple of standout features in the five appendices. Appendix A is an excellent, if brief, overview of the key events in the Pacific war, Appendix B is an 'Arizona' casualty list, Appendix C is a list of 'Arizona' survivors, and Appendix E is a list of ship casualties of Japan in World War Two. Appendix E makes a sobering statement, that I have never heard anywhere else and found utterly fascinating: "Of the attacking Japanese fleet that initiated the war against the United States on December 7, 1941, all ships ended up on the bottom of the sea by the war's end except one midget submarine." As horrible as Pearl Harbor was for the American forces, the whirlwind reaped by Japan, in the end, was no less ferocious.

"Semantic incontinence" is a term from the list of '100 Comments on Architecture and Hygiene' at the conclusion of this book by Adam Kalkin, and I feel that this two word turn of phrase encapsulates the narrative of this book as well as any other. The book is extremely difficult, no, impossible, to categorize. It is essentially a photographic primer on the stark, almost anarchist, ultra-modern architectural works of Kalkin. I am a great fan of contemporary and industrial architecture, but I have never seen it taken to this level before.

Interspersed with the architectural forays are hand drawn, child-like sketches of concepts that are far beyond the boundaries of normal architecture books. In particular, the "Sphincter of Loneliness" on p. 94 caught my attention, as did the test on p. 59, which features such questions as these:

Diaper is to Sari as:
a) urbanism is to classicism
b) rain is to fog
c) fez is to spanking

Who was the least well known:
a) Plotinus
b) Elvis
c) The Nancy Drew Series

Essay: Write twenty words or less on the following topic
Clinton: Sage or Bedwetter?

Clearly this is no ordinary architect. While some of his works are a bit too industrial even for my tastes, you will be hard pressed to find a more unusual, stimulating, weird, or fun book on contemporary architecture.

It is simply mind boggling.

"An experience so vacuous, it's almost frightening..." is from a review of 'Xanadu' by Ian Birch, and sums up much of the commentary in this amusing little book. The book is a collection of reviews covering several centuries, and featuring many notables (and others you have never heard of) such as George Bernard Shaw, Dorothy Parker, and the wonderfully biting Rick Kushman, who makes reading the 'Sacramento Bee' a singular pleasure. The book is presented in sections on theater, movies, literature, etc., and features some delicious examples of literary witticism. I have my favorites and they are far too numerous to mention, but what follows are just a few examples to illustrate my point.

"'The Birthday Party' is like a vintage Hitchcock thriller which has been, in the immortal tear-stained words of Orson Wells, 'edited by a cross-eyed studio janitor with a lawn mower.'" -Alan Brien

"This is M. Ionesco's first attempt at a social play, and the number of interpretations to which it is susceptible is roughly equal to the number of people in the audience." - Kenneth Tynan on 'Rhinoceros' by Eugene Ionesco, 1960

"They gave us for dinner boiled ant-bear and red monkey; two dishes unknown even at Beauvilliers or Paris.... The monkey was very good indeed, but the ant-bear had been kept beyond its time; it stank as our venison does in England..." -Charles Waterton

"What can I do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."
-Sir Thomas Beecham on the third movement of Beethoven's 'Seventh Symphony'

"The music of Wagner imposes mental tortures that only algebra has the right to inflict." -Paul de Saint-Victor on Richard Wagner in 'La Presse'

And finally, my all time favorite review in the entire book, and probably of all time:

"I love Wagner; but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws." -Charles Baudelaire

My only criticism of the book is that its roughly square shape makes holding it a bit of a chore, as it is quite thick, yet dimuitive of height and width. It's good material, just a less than ideal format. If you want a book filled with some of the worlds all time pithiest reviews, this is the book for you.

I bought my copy of "The USS Arizona" after a trip to the 'Arizona' memorial in Hawaii last year. I have always been interested in Pearl Harbor and World War Two in the Pacific Theatre, and have read extensively on it (I particularly like the Gordon Prange books, especially "At Dawn We Slept".) I found the 'Arizona' memorial to be a place of beauty and tranquility, yet amazingly solemn and haunting. After the visit, I decided to learn more about the 'Arizona' herself. This is a great book for a start. It is an interesting amalgam of operational history, information on the attack, including an excellent section debunking myths surrounding the attack, personal recollections, and historical preservation efforts today.

The bulk of the book deals with recollections of crewmembers on shipboard life, with emphasis on December 7, 1941, obviously. These recollections form a valuable oral history of the ship, and though there are minor conflicts between the stories on a couple of details, they are heartfelt, well told, captivating, and historically irreplaceable.

Equally important is the story of the current preservation efforts of the National Park Service to manage the wreck. In particular, the stories of survivors who elect to rejoin their fallen comrades when they are interred in Turret Four are moving beyond all expectations, and reinforce the significance of the Pearl Harbor attack in their lives.

There are some minor errors in the book, many of which are typographical, for instance using "savage" instead of "salvage". Some of the errors are a bit more careless as in a reference to 'General Yamamoto', when he was, of course, and Admiral, and going back and forth on whether the 'Arizona' was tied up at quay F-7 or F-8 (I believe it was F-8.) These are pretty nit-picky, but need to be mentioned. The book does have a couple of standout features in the five appendices. Appendix A is an excellent, if brief, overview of the key events in the Pacific war, Appendix B is an 'Arizona' casualty list, Appendix C is a list of 'Arizona' survivors, and Appendix E is a list of ship casualties of Japan in World War Two. Appendix E makes a sobering statement, that I have never heard anywhere else and found utterly fascinating: "Of the attacking Japanese fleet that initiated the war against the United States on December 7, 1941, all ships ended up on the bottom of the sea by the war's end except one midget submarine." As horrible as Pearl Harbor was for the American forces, the whirlwind reaped by Japan, in the end, was no less ferocious.

This movie defines the word "malodorous." I award it three stars wholly on the basis of a mathematical average system: if you want to see a genuinely spooky, scary, or entertaining movie, this film would get one star (less would be preferable); if you want a horrible camp classic from the genius responsible for such cinematic mayhem as "The Wild World of Batwoman" and "Frankenstein Island", this is an oft-overlooked five star rarity.

Jerry Warren, my personal touchstone as the worst director in history, is paired up again with star Katherine 'Batwoman' Victor this time in a story of alleged international intrigue. It all involves Victor, a mad scientist, making some mind control capsules on an island which despite being clearly visible from shore, is unknown to everyone but the bad guys. Teenage heroes inadvertently foil the caper and defeat evil in a manner which is comical, yet difficult to comprehend. (When is it a good idea to break INTO jail?) Please also enjoy the ongoing verbal jousting concerning the relative merits of horseback riding versus water skiing! What does this have to do with the plot? Who knows! How prominent is this debate in the film? Very!

The print of the film itself is in fairly awful condition, with many scratches, occasional sound dropouts (not that that really detracts), and many splices. It also has three little transfer marks that dwell perpetually near the top of the frame, yet move around and flicker annoyingly.

If the plot weren't silly enough, the acting and dialogue take this one over the top. The film is very short, and while not as entertaining as some Warren classics, this is an excellent opportunity to see a very bad movie at a very low price.

I have previously reviewed this book and gave it two stars. I have reconsidered that rating, and consider it far, far too high after re-reading this monstrosity. I had previously read the book prior to commencing a graduate research methods class, and thought at the time that it was only modestly awful. Now that I have read it a second time during the class term itself, I must revise my earlier estimation on this book. It is dreadful and appalling. I particularly want to single out the mind-numbingly poor and patronizing faux-case studies, and here I especially single out the wretchedly contrived "MindWriter" example that rears its ugly head every few pages and condemn it with every ounce of energy my being can muster. The statistics portion of this text is also fairly poorly presented, with numerous assumptions made in the text. These are the strong points of the book.

This text, like so many textbooks written by social scientists, is full of pandering doubletalk and obfuscation of factual information. The number of buzzwords alone is staggering. This is the worst text book I have ever used to this point, and I certainly hope it is never challenged for that title.

For those of you who want a vastly more useful, real-world, and utilitarian work, try "The Craft of Research" by Booth, Colomb, and Williams. No book is perfect, but "The Craft of Research" is a far more practical and enjoyable book to read and use, and doesn't talk down to graduate students with moronic fictitious examples as does "Business Research Methods."

A turnip pie technically is food, and can provide nourishment, but it is so revolting you may never get over your food aversions. This book is a turnip pie.

For anyone who must suffer with this textbook in the future, my condolences.

"Passing Gas" is a photographic journey through about sixty oddly named towns during the course of 38,000 miles on the back roads of the United States. Gary Gladstone makes a point of photographing a representative person from each town to help capture the mood in that small part of America. The results are some beautiful photos taken in such unusually named towns as Crapo, MD, Yum Yum, TN, and Boogertown, NC.

Gladstone is a very gifted photographer, and his narration and description of the places and people he discovered is to be savored. You will laugh with him, and occasionally feel a bit of pathos, too. This is a truly unique collection of original photographs that most anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy.

"Hillbillies in a Haunted House" is a sequel to "Las Vegas Hillbillies" and is one of the most entertaining Country and Western monster musicals ever made. Ferlin Husky, Don Bowman, and Joi Lansing are an act on their way to the Nashville Jamboree who decide to spend the night in a haunted house, where they meet up with, among others, Linda Ho, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney, a Gorilla, and best of all, the always cheery John Carradine. Along the way there are many country songs (including one truly dreadful number by Joi all about the history of gowns...) some of which are good, and some of which aren't. I loved "The Cat Came Back", and was amused by the extremely youthful Merle Haggard cameos.

There is a conspiracy involving an agency named M.O.T.H.E.R. and a villain named Dr. Fu. There is a guy in a gorilla suit (George Barrows, perhaps?) Best of all is the television broadcast that Jeepers watches to help him go to sleep in which the hilariously scowling faces of the villains haunt poor Jeepers while a bad C&W song is being performed. Needless to say, John Carradine wins the contest for chewing the scenery. His scowls and eyebrow twitches never fail to make me laugh. There are silly subplots about spies and the like, and homage is paid to Ed Wood in the 'timeless' day/night location shots (and continuity gaffes of positively Woodsian proportions.)

Finally arriving in Nashville, the last fifteen or so minutes of the film are good old C&W stage acts like Merle Haggard, Sonny James, Molly Bee, and Marcella Wright.

If you like Country music, particularly the vintage stuff, or you just like goofy, nonsensical movies that make you laugh, though sometimes you aren't sure why, this film is for you.

This book, the fourth in the 'Source Books in Architecture' series sponsored by Ohio State (Knowlton School of Architecture), is the best coverage to date of the stunning Erasmus Bridge project in Rotterdam. Largely the brainchild of gifted young architects Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, the Erasmus Bridge has now totally captivated the cityscape of Rotterdam, and has endeared itself to modern architecture aficionados everywhere. Personally, this is my favorite bridge of the twentieth century.

This book is essentially a monograph, lavishly illustrated in color that details conceptualization, design fabrication, and assembly of this modern marvel. Extensive interviews with van Berkel enlighten readers to the inner workings of the process and creative considerations that went into the Erasmus Bridge.

The book has many sectional and elevation views and hundreds of illuminating photographs to address details of construction in any level of detail that any reader might wish to see. The most interesting chapter in the book to me was on the design and assembly of the asymmetrical central pylon, although the bascule bridge and lighting chapters are also standouts. In particular, the calculations that went into the folding section of the bascule bridge, which actually leans toward Noordereiland when raised due to the unusual angular construction of the bridge, are stunning achievements in architectural design and engineering.

The entire book is framed by the political, economic, and social impacts that the bridge has had on the people of Rotterdam, and the bridge as a stand alone work of art. I plan on a visit to Rotterdam next year to examine the amazing collection of modern architecture to be found there, of which the Erasmus Bridge is the surely crown jewel. Well done Ben van Berkel for building such a magnificent structure, and thank you Todd Gannon for bringing this valuable book to us.