Saturday, November 5, 2011

High Crimes

  • ISBN13: 9780312378820
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Ashley Judd stars as Claire Kubik, a high-powered attorney whose perfect life comes down when her husband is charged with high crimes of murder. Enlisting the aid of a shrewd military lawyer (Morgan Freeman), Claire will risk her career and even her life to find the truth in this "head-snapping thriller" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).A welcomed reunion of Kiss the Girls costars Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman makes High Crimes a worthwhile thriller with vivid, likable characters. Efficiently directed by Carl Franklin, this military mystery doesn't have the unpredictable edginess of Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress, but its twisting plot is sure to hold anyone's attention. Judd plays ! a successful, happily married lawyer whose husband (Jim Caviezel) is accused of killing innocent citizens during his military service in El Salvador some 13 years earlier. A cover-up implicates a powerful Brigadier General (Bruce Davison), but when Judd hires a maverick attorney (Freeman), Judd is caught in a potentially lethal trap of threats and deception. Attentive viewers will stay ahead of the action, and alleged villains are posed as obvious decoys. Still, Judd and Freeman have an appealing rapport (shared with Amanda Peet, playing Judd's vivacious sister), and Freeman's character flaws add worldly spice to yet another rich performance. --Jeff Shannon

"The perfect follow-up to Krakauer's riveting account of a perfect storm."
--Miami Herald

"Kodas's absorbing description of the narrow moral compass governing human interaction at the top of the world is bound to shock both armchair adventurers and seasoned mountaineers."
--C! hicago Tribune

"(Kodas) discovered more deceit! , thieve ry, and double-crossing among his climbers than you find in a Martin Scorsese gangster film. High Crimes is both an adventure story and an exposé of a sport riddled with danger and corruption."
--Washington Post Book World

"Kodas's descriptions of the struggles confronting even the best-prepared climbers leave the reader breathless."
--Dallas Morning News

"[High Crimes] is hair-raising and lays bare the excitement and fear that face great explorers at the top of the world. . . . Well written, and as deftly plotted as the finest mystery novel, Kodas brings to life a disturbing picture of society at high altitude."
--Austin Chronicle

"Kodas does an excellent job exposing the ways in which money and ego have corrupted the traditional cultures of both mountaineers and their Sherpa guides. . . . His narrative is as hard to turn away from as a slow-motion train wreck."
--Publishers Weekly!

High Crimes is journalist Michael Kodas's gripping account of life on top of the world--where man is every bit as deadly as Mother Nature.

Ashley Judd stars as Claire Kubik, a high-powered attorney whose perfect life comes down when her husband is charged with high crimes of murder. Enlisting the aid of a shrewd military lawyer (Morgan Freeman), Claire will risk her career and even her life to find the truth in this "head-snapping thriller" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).A welcomed reunion of Kiss the Girls costars Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman makes High Crimes a worthwhile thriller with vivid, likable characters. Efficiently directed by Carl Franklin, this military mystery doesn't have the unpredictable edginess of Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress, but its twisting plot is sure to hold anyone's attention. Judd plays a successful, happily married lawyer whose husband (Jim Caviezel) is accused of killing innocent citizens during his ! military service in El Salvador some 13 years earlier. A cover! -up impl icates a powerful Brigadier General (Bruce Davison), but when Judd hires a maverick attorney (Freeman), Judd is caught in a potentially lethal trap of threats and deception. Attentive viewers will stay ahead of the action, and alleged villains are posed as obvious decoys. Still, Judd and Freeman have an appealing rapport (shared with Amanda Peet, playing Judd's vivacious sister), and Freeman's character flaws add worldly spice to yet another rich performance. --Jeff Shannon

Meet Claire Heller Chapman. A criminal defense attorney who’s made a name for herself by taking onâ€"and winningâ€"the toughest cases, Claire still manages to have a relatively calm life as a Harvard Law School professor, devoted wife, and proud mother to six-year-old Annie. Until one night, when the family is out having dinner, a team of government agents bursts onto the scene…heading straight for Claire’s husband.

Tom Chapman has been arrested for an atrocious crime he swe! ars he did not commit. Claire is desperate to believe himâ€"and prove his innocenceâ€"even when she learns that Tom once had a different name. And a different face. Now, in a top-secret court-martial conducted by the Pentagon, Claire will put everything on the line to defend the man she loves. But as the evidence keeps piling up, the less she knows who her husband really is…and the more he appears to be a cold-blooded murderer.

When (not if---the deal has already been signed) this terrific thriller gets made into a movie, you might see Morgan Freeman as a crusty lawyer who specializes in taking on the military establishment tell the actress playing ace Boston barrister and Harvard Law professor Claire Heller Chapman, "Every civilian who's ever gone into a military general court-martial and tried to attack the foundations of the military has lost his case. No exceptions. The military is a tight, closed fraternity. They take it real ! serious. Military justice is a deadly serious business." Cla! ire has to realize this as she prepares to defend her husband--the man she knows as Tom Chapman, but who the Army says is Ron Kubik-- on charges that he took part in a massacre of 87 civilians in San Salvador 13 years before. Full of doubts about Tom's innocence and her own ability to prove it in an unfamiliar arena, Claire is brought to exciting, moving life by the extravagantly gifted Joseph Finder, whose previous thrillers (Extraordinary Powers, The Zero Hour) are available in paperback.

Cradle Will Rock

  • As labor strikes break out throughout the country during the 1930s, the art and theater world of New York City is a growing cultural revolution. Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center, while Italian propagandist Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon) gives Da Vincis to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini w
Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed CRADLE WILL ROCK, starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, and Susan Sarandon, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America. From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins (DEAD MAN WALKING) brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. It's a time when DaVincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort and Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rive! ra to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical "The Cradle Will Rock." As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give into censorship. Based on actual events, CRADLE WILL ROCK will move you."Based on a (mostly) true story," according to the opening titles, Tim Robbins's dazzling dramatization of one of the great stories in American theater indeed takes a few liberties with history. Ostensibly the story of the mayhem surrounding Marc Blitzstein's worker's opera The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles for the WPA at the height of the Depression, Robbins paints a veritable mural around this incident, a city alive with plotting industrialists (John Cusack as Nelson Rockefeller), radical artists (Ruben Blades's Diego Rivera), and struggling citizens (Bill Murray's frustrated vaudeville ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw). Lightnin! g strikes when the government closes the show before it even o! pens and the cast marches 20 blocks to an empty theater and tosses the staging aside to perform in the aisles, the balconies, and the seats. It's a rare moment of cinema capturing the immediacy and charge of live theater on the screen and it's the heart of Robbins's often exhilarating film. His heroes are Blitzstein (a warm, gently impassioned Hank Azaria) and cheery WPA Theater director Hallie Flanagan (Broadway star Cherry Jones), but in the process he snidely turns Welles and producer John Houseman into sour, silly caricatures. The stew of artistic creation and political action gets murky and at times contradictory, but vivid performances and Robbins' driving pace and staccato crosscutting keep it humming through even the most didactic moments. The songs are by Blitzstein, and the character-rich cast also features Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Emily Watson, and Philip Baker Hall. --Sean Axmaker

Tucker's Claim

  • ISBN13: 9780373776276
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
A WESTERN TRAIL BLAZER DIME NOVEL (SHORT STORY):

GOLD... Seeking a fortune from a pile of rocks or out of a streambed. Men from all walks of life are digging and panning for gold in the West and the Blackwell brothers are no different. But along with gold mining comes rough towns like Grizzly Gulch, fighting the elements, and those pesky claim jumpers. Raised tough in the hills of Tennessee, are the Blackwell brothers up to the challenges of prospecting?

Read the whole Blackwell series!
 
  • The Blackwell Claim
  • Blackwell's Stand
  • The Divided Prey
  • Blackwell's Run
  • The Windigo
  • A WESTERN TRAIL BLAZER DIME NOVEL (SHORT STORY):

    GOLD... ! Seeking a fortune from a pile of rocks or out of a streambed. Men from all walks of life are digging and panning for gold in the West and the Blackwell brothers are no different. But along with gold mining comes rough towns like Grizzly Gulch, fighting the elements, and those pesky claim jumpers. Raised tough in the hills of Tennessee, are the Blackwell brothers up to the challenges of prospecting?

    Read the whole Blackwell series!
     
  • The Blackwell Claim
  • Blackwell's Stand
  • The Divided Prey
  • Blackwell's Run
  • The Windigo
  • A Simon & Schuster eBook

    “Comprehensive, readable, and replete with current, useful examples, this book provides a much-needed explanation of how to be a critical consumer of the scientific claims we encounter in our everyday lives.”

    â€"April Cordero Maskiewicz, Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University

     

    “Seethaler’s book helps t! he reade r look inside the workings of science and gain a deeper understanding of the pathway that is followed by a scientific findingâ€"from its beginnings in a research lab to its appearance on the nightly news.”

    â€"Jim Slotta, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

     

    “How I wish science was taught this way! Seethaler builds skills for critical thinking and evaluation. The book is rich with examples that not only illustrate her points beautifully, they also make it very interesting and fun to read.”

    â€"Julia R. Brown, Director, Targacept, Inc.

     

    Don’t Get Hoodwinked! Make Sense of Health and Science News...and Make Smarter Decisions!

     

    Every day, there’s a new scientific or health controversy. And every day, it seems as i! f there’s a new study that contradicts what you heard yesterday. What’s really going on? Who’s telling the truth? Who’s faking it? What do scientists actually knowâ€"and what don’t they know? This book will help you cut through the confusion and make sense of it allâ€"even if you’ve never taken a science class! Leading science educator and journalist Dr. Sherry Seethaler reveals how science and health research really work...how to put scientific claims in context and understand the real tradeoffs involved...tell quality research from junk science...discover when someone’s deliberately trying to fool you...and find more information you can trust!  Nobody knows what new controversy will erupt tomorrow. But one thing’s for certain: With this book, you’ll know how to figure out the real dealâ€"and make smarter decisions for yourself and your family!

     

    Watch the news, and you’ll be overwhelmed by snip! pets of badly presented science: information that’s incomplete, confusing, contradictory, out-of-context, wrong, or flat-out dishonest. Defend yourself! Dr. Sherry Seethaler gives you a powerful arsenal of tools for making sense of science. You’ll learn how to think more sensibly about everything from mad cow disease to global warmingâ€"and how to make better science-related decisions in both your personal life and as a citizen.

     

    You’ll begin by understanding how science really works and progresses, and why scientists sometimes disagree. Seethaler helps you assess the possible biases of those who make scientific claims in the media, and place scientific issues in appropriate context, so you can intelligently assess tradeoffs. You’ll learn how to determine whether a new study is really meaningful; uncover the difference between cause and coincidence; figure out which statistics mean something, and which ! don’t.

     

    Seethaler reveals the tricks self-interested players use to mislead and confuse you, and points you to sources of information you can actually rely upon. Her many examples range from genetic engineering of crops to drug treatments for depression...but the techniques she teaches you will be invaluable in understanding any scientific controversy, in any area of science or health.

     

    ^   Potions, plots, and personalities: How science progresses, and why scientists sometimes disagree

    ^   Is it “cause” or merely coincidence? How to tell compelling evidence from a “good story”

    ^   There are always tradeoffs: How to put science and health claims in context, and understand their real implications

    ^   All the tricks experts use to fool you, expo! sed! How to recognize lies, “truthiness,” or pseudo-expert! ise

    < /DIV>From Amazon best selling author Tawny Taylor, a story of passion, intrigue, romance and dark erotic hunger...

    SYNOPSIS
    When a man is found murdered in Sophie Durand's nightclub, she has no idea she is about to tumble head first into a world of danger and forbidden sexual pleasure. The mysterious Burke Langton is her only ally. His powerful body and commanding spirit calms her fear, and his dominant nature stirs her lust.

    But he isn't what he seems. His secrets are darker and more treacherous than Sophie could ever imagine.

    As danger draws nearer, they are joined by the commanding Miko Dvorak. Together, Sophie, Burke and Miko plunge into a world of sinister evil and unrestrained ecstasy, where all of their lives hang in the balance. If the killer doesn't destroy them all, the dark passion they share just might...

    WARNING: This full length erotic romantic suspense novel contains graphic menage a trois sex ! scenes with BDSM elements.

    SAMPLE

    Brett's apartment wasn't exactly your typical bachelor pad, though it wasn't nearly as showy as the car he drove. The furnishings boasted simple lines. The colors were muted -- tans, browns. They gave her an instant feeling of calm tranquility. She felt safe.

    "This is very nice," Sylvie said as she followed him through the living room.

    "Thank you." He led her down a narrow hallway, pointed to the right. "This is the bathroom." Then he stopped at the first door on the left. "And this is the guestroom. I hope you'll be comfortable here." He pushed open the door to reveal a gorgeous room decorated in a slightly darker version of the living room's color scheme. The bed was covered in rich-looking fabrics and piled high with pillows.

    Heaven!

    She sat, gave it a quick bounce test. Soft. Just the way she liked it. "How could anyone be anything but comfortable in here? It's nicer than! a five-star hotel."

    He looked pleased. His smile m! ade her feel all soft and girly and warm. "Excellent," he said, his voice like a low purr.

    Oh, how she wanted to rub up against that dangerous feline.

    Lulu circled a few times then curled up for a nap in her lap. No doubt it was the heat radiating from certain body parts that inspired her dog to settle there. Her face warming, her heart hopping around in her rib cage like a toddler on a sugar buzz, Sylvie ran her hand down Lulu's back. "Th-thanks."

    He stepped out of the room. "You're welcome. If you need anything else --"

    "Wait!" Before he got too far, she set Lulu down, hopped off the bed, ran to the door and caught his wrist. Their eyes met and she swore someone had cranked up the heat to ninety. "No, I mean thank you. For everything. I haven't been exactly cooperative tonight. I jumped to all kinds of conclusions and suspected the worst --"

    "You were frightened."

    "Yes," she heard herself whisper as she stared at hi! s mouth. Those really were the most amazing lips she'd ever seen on a man. She wondered what it would take to convince him to kiss her.

    Suddenly, she wasn't holding his wrist, he was holding hers. He pulled and she fell against him. She gave a shocked squeak when he looped an arm around her waist and turned, stepping forward until her body was sandwiched between the hallway wall and his amazing body.

    What a wonderful place to be! Sweet, hot desire pulsed through her center in rhythmic waves.

    He lowered his head, and her insides broke into a cha-cha. "I don't know what it is about you. I can't... dammit, I can't resist." His mouth came down on hers in a crushing kiss. His tongue pushed at the seam of her lips until she parted them. Then it stroked and tasted and took.From Amazon best selling author Tawny Taylor, a story of passion, intrigue, romance and dark erotic hunger...

    SYNOPSIS
    When a man is found murdered in Sop! hie Durand's nightclub, she has no idea she is about to tumble! head fi rst into a world of danger and forbidden sexual pleasure. The mysterious Burke Langton is her only ally. His powerful body and commanding spirit calms her fear, and his dominant nature stirs her lust.

    But he isn't what he seems. His secrets are darker and more treacherous than Sophie could ever imagine.

    As danger draws nearer, they are joined by the commanding Miko Dvorak. Together, Sophie, Burke and Miko plunge into a world of sinister evil and unrestrained ecstasy, where all of their lives hang in the balance. If the killer doesn't destroy them all, the dark passion they share just might...

    WARNING: This full length erotic romantic suspense novel contains graphic menage a trois sex scenes with BDSM elements.

    SAMPLE

    Brett's apartment wasn't exactly your typical bachelor pad, though it wasn't nearly as showy as the car he drove. The furnishings boasted simple lines. The colors were muted -- tans, browns. They gave her an instant feeling! of calm tranquility. She felt safe.

    "This is very nice," Sylvie said as she followed him through the living room.

    "Thank you." He led her down a narrow hallway, pointed to the right. "This is the bathroom." Then he stopped at the first door on the left. "And this is the guestroom. I hope you'll be comfortable here." He pushed open the door to reveal a gorgeous room decorated in a slightly darker version of the living room's color scheme. The bed was covered in rich-looking fabrics and piled high with pillows.

    Heaven!

    She sat, gave it a quick bounce test. Soft. Just the way she liked it. "How could anyone be anything but comfortable in here? It's nicer than a five-star hotel."

    He looked pleased. His smile made her feel all soft and girly and warm. "Excellent," he said, his voice like a low purr.

    Oh, how she wanted to rub up against that dangerous feline.

    Lulu circled a few times then curled up for a nap in her lap. No doubt i! t was the heat radiating from certain body parts that inspired! her dog to settle there. Her face warming, her heart hopping around in her rib cage like a toddler on a sugar buzz, Sylvie ran her hand down Lulu's back. "Th-thanks."

    He stepped out of the room. "You're welcome. If you need anything else --"

    "Wait!" Before he got too far, she set Lulu down, hopped off the bed, ran to the door and caught his wrist. Their eyes met and she swore someone had cranked up the heat to ninety. "No, I mean thank you. For everything. I haven't been exactly cooperative tonight. I jumped to all kinds of conclusions and suspected the worst --"

    "You were frightened."

    "Yes," she heard herself whisper as she stared at his mouth. Those really were the most amazing lips she'd ever seen on a man. She wondered what it would take to convince him to kiss her.

    Suddenly, she wasn't holding his wrist, he was holding hers. He pulled and she fell against him. She gave a shocked squeak when he looped an arm around her waist and turned, steppi! ng forward until her body was sandwiched between the hallway wall and his amazing body.

    What a wonderful place to be! Sweet, hot desire pulsed through her center in rhythmic waves.

    He lowered his head, and her insides broke into a cha-cha. "I don't know what it is about you. I can't... dammit, I can't resist." His mouth came down on hers in a crushing kiss. His tongue pushed at the seam of her lips until she parted them. Then it stroked and tasted and took.Orphaned in a massacre, abused as a "half-breed" child, trained as a ruthless Texas Ranger, Tucker McCade's learned the hard way that you have to fight to survive. So he is shocked when he falls for Sally Mae, a Quaker nurse.

    Unable to resist Tucker, Sally Mae throws herself into their torrid affair. Tucker's occupation, however, is the one thing she can't embrace. A staunch pacifist, she can't understand how his gentle hand can clench in fury or pull a trigger to take a life.

    But when Sally Mae becomes ! pregnant, Tucker is willing to do whatever it takes to have hi! s family â€"including hanging up his guns. Every night they spend together binds them ever closerâ€"until the day his past comes calling….

    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 MoviePart history, part love letter, Ballets Russes may be the most purely delightful! documentary in years. The movie follows the birth of the Ball! et Russe de Monte Carlo in the early 1930s, an event that eventually led--after years of exhilarating experiments, bitter artistic battles, and exhausting tours--to the establishment of modern ballet around the world. Ballet Russes combines astonishing film footage of fantastical ballets (featuring extravagant sets designed by Salvador Dali and costumes by Henri Matisse) and interviews with surviving dancers in their 70s, 80s, and 90s (ranging from Dame Alicia Markova, who was a prima ballerina with the original Ballet Russe under impresario Sergei Diaghilev, to Yvonne Craig, who went on to become Batgirl in the '60s tv show Batman); the result is a breathtaking range of scholarship and depth of feeling. The heart of the film is the dancers themselves, who are sly, thoughtful, gossipy, and amazingly youthful in spirit--even the most difficult times are discussed with humor and honesty. Ballet fans will find this an essential document, while anyone who's never even thou! ght of going to ballet will be completely caught up in these dancers' passion and wonder. A beautiful, entrancing movie. --Bret FetzerThe Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever since Russian-born Sergei Diaghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company. Diaghilev brought together 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 cost umes 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 complemented by a number of contextual paintings, drawings, and other artifacts, 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 appe! arance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest ch! oreograp hers 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.

    Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

    • This film is a smart, rueful and dead-on portrait of life's unending quest to fit in; and the girl who solves it by completely breaking out - introduces a feisty outsider hero unlike any other seen on screen. Esther Blueburger's quest begins when she escapes from her Bat Mitzvah party and is befriended by Sunni., the effortlessly cool girl who is everything Esther thinks she wants to be. With the
    HEY HEY ITS ESTHER BLUEBURGER - sometimes to fit in you have to stand out.

    A hilarious coming of age comedy

    Hey, Hey Its Esther Blueburger is a hilarious coming of age comedy that explores what its really like to be an outsider in your own world. Esther (newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) is not like other girls; she befriends a duck, talks to God through the toilet and break-dances at her bat-mitzvah. Her school is a daily torment of mind-numbing conformity and bell-ringing rituals. Home i! s a pressure cooker driven by her mother Graces (Essie Davis) demand for perfection. But life changes when Esther meets uber hip Sunni, (Keisha Castle- Hughes) and her off beat single mother Mary (Toni Collette) and slips out of her oppressive all-girls private school and into a public one under the guise of a foreign exchange student. She learns that its ok to be different and that being true to yourself is more important than fitting in.

    Amexicano

    • Bruno, an unemployed Italian American, is offered a job doing repairs for his landlord, who also suggests that he hires a Hispanic day laborer: Ignacio. Bruno ends up loving and admiring both Ignacio and his wife, but the specter of deportation continues to loom large. Run time: Approx. 84 min Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: 13+ Age: 812034010494 UPC: 8120
    Bruno, an unemployed Italian American, is offered a job doing repairs for his landlord, who also suggests that he hires a Hispanic day laborer: Ignacio. Bruno ends up loving and admiring both Ignacio and his wife, but the specter of deportation continues to loom large.

    Mister Lonely

    • When a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) living in Paris falls for a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) during a performance at a retirement home, the lovestruck pair retreats to a seaside castle in the Scottish highlands populated by a commune of reclusive impersonators. Earning a living can be a difficult endeavor in the City of Lights, and in order to make ends meet, one man
    From Harmony Korine, screenwriter of Kids, comes a haunting portrait of life in small-town America. Through a collection of dreamlike and devastating images, Korine offers a glimpse of Xenia, Ohio, a world existing in the aftermath of a tornado.JULIEN DONKEY-BOY - DVD MovieFrom Harmony Korine, screenwriter of Kids, comes a haunting portrait of life in small-town America. Through a collection of dreamlike and devastating images, Korine offers a glimpse of Xenia, Ohio, a world existing in the aftermath! of a tornado.Filmmaker Larry Clark reunites with Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine, with some additional directorial assistance from cinematographer Ed Lachman, for this look at a group of troubled teens and their guardians living in Southern California. Ken Park takes its name from the skate park where an ancillary character takes his own life in the film's opening moments, and then proceeds to chronicle the somewhat-interrelated lives of his classmates.

    The audience is introduced to Tate (James Ransome), a young man living in relative misery with his board-game-playing grandparents. Also tormented by his living situation is Claude (Stephen Jasso), a quiet, shy teen constantly henpecked by his brutish father (Wade Andrew Williams). Meanwhile, the vapid Shawn (James Bullard) occasionally trades verbal spars with his mother, in between leaving the house for erotic sessions with his girlfriend's mom. Finally there is Peaches (Tiffany Limos), living alone with her devoutly religious father as she covertly experiments with her boyfriend (Mike Apaletegui).

    Though Ken Park played at such festivals as Toronto and Telluride in the fall of 2002, it would languish on the shelf for months and months afterward, as its non-commercial content made finding a U.S. distributor near-impossible.

    Uncut & Uncensored Anamorphic (16:9) Widescreen Version
    English 5.1 & Russian 5.1 Audio Options
    Optional Russian SubtitlesAfter five years in prison for a crime he didnt commit billy brown a down-on-his-luck-romantic comes home to seek revenge on a local field goal kicker who cost him his freedom and buffalo its super bowl dreams. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/01/2005 Starring: Vincent Gallo Ben Gazzara Run time: 110 minutes Rating: RWriter-director-composer Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci star in this quirky and deliberately grimy little movie. Gallo plays Billy Brown, recently released from prison and unable to find so much as a decent bathroom in his cold hometown. Billy's parents are unaware that he's been locked up; in a pathetic attempt to impress them with how successful he's become, he hits on the novel plan of kidnapping young dance student Layla (Ricci) and forcing her to play the role of his wife. Billy's distant--to say the least--parents are played to the hilt by Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara, Huston in particular bringing a dement! ed glee to her role as Billy's football-obsessed mother. As the movie unfolds, we learn more about Billy's tormented childhood and unfortunate tendency to bet on the Bills in the Super Bowl. Gallo boldly throws himself into the task of playing a complete sleazebag, and Ricci does lovely standout work as the one ray of hope in the grinding darkness of Billy's life. This odd little love story is just the thing to make you feel better about your own relationship--especially if you're not in one. --Ali DavisMISTER LONELY - DVD MovieFollowing an eight-year hiatus, Harmony Korine returns triumphantly with Mister Lonely, a more traditionally structured drama than his previous experiments, Gummo and Julien Donkey Boy. First recognized for writing the Larry Clark film, Kids, Korine ruled the 1990s for expressing disenchanted youth. As his previous films focused on self-destructive characters, Mister Lonely is a departure though it ! still points to Korine's interest in the carnivalesque. In thi! s far-fe tched fairy tale, a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) living in Paris is invited by a Marilyn Monroe look-alike (Samantha Morton) to join her commune of misfits in a remote Scottish castle. Upon arrival, Michael meets the likes of Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant), Abe Lincoln, Madonna, the Queen of England (Anita Pallenberg), and the Pope (James Fox), who is usually drunk. As a dark romance unfolds between Marilyn and Michael, a second narrative involving missionary nuns in Panama unfolds, revealing stunning footage of them jumping out of planes sans parachutes to test faith. Their airplane is piloted by Father Umbrillo, played by Werner Herzog, who at this point could be called Korine's patron saint. The absurdist, comitragic plot challenges the viewer's suspension of disbelief, and is much less reality-based than Korine's previous movies. His filmic experiments work best when the nuns' story intertwine with the impersonators', presenting deep commentary on faith, emb! odying another person, and escapism. Throughout, rich color and costuming provide a visually provocative experience. As each film of Korine's is unique in structure and approach, Mister Lonely has been long anticipated and will prod fans to guess what Korine has up his sleeve next. --Trinie Dalton

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