Customer Reviews:
Ross Russell was there .......2005-07-28
I've read hundreds of jazz histories, and Ross Russell's original classic, "Bird Lives!", remains among my favorite. I read it again this week, in fact. Are there more thorough Parker biographies? Well, sure. But Ross Russell was there. He created Dial Records for the purposes of recording Parker. Also, Russell (a pulp writer in his young years) always had literary aspirations, and his writing has that fun, hard-boiled style of the 1930s. Ross was a product of his literary times. I hope this book never goes out of print.
Granted, I'm biased. In the early 1990s, when Ross was in his 90s and living alone in a trailer in the California desert, he and I corresponded frequently. I was writing a chapter on Dial Records for a book, and Ross was so encouraging and helpful. He had an amazing life to ups and downs. Ross was a very funny guy, and that humor runs throughout "Bird Lives!" With Bird, you either laughed or cried. Ross did a fair amount of both.
Read "Bird Lives!" with an open mind, and ignore the bandwagon of critics who attack it. There's no substitute for fascinating first-person accounts, and Ross' personal experiences with the saxophone madman leave every jazz historian green with envy.
Good, but pretentious.......2004-12-11
Ross Russell produced many Bird's historical sessions and witnessed him collapsing in California. So, he's the right man to write about Charlie Parker. On the other hand, his literary pretentions almost spoil his efforts. Buy Rob Reisner's "Bird" instead of this book.
A classic biography.......2004-07-17
For me, this book is one of those experiences that are about as good as it gets with your clothes on. Not only do we get to discover the genius of Parker, but we're taken on the journey with a brilliant writer. Here, Bird does indeed live. Russell vividly captures the essence of the man, the music and the times, and this book is as much a tribute to his superb literary talent as it is to Parker's prodigous musical gifts. A rare combination. If you haven't yet read it, I envy you. They don't get any better than this.
Brings "Bird" soaring to life!.......2004-04-04
Charlie Parker was one of the most influential and important musicians of the 20th century. His musical creations and innovations shaped the face of jazz in many profound ways. In his hands the alto saxophone transcended being a mere instrument and became a means of spreading love and hope. In this classic biography we see all sides and facets of this complex and truly brilliant man. He was; a practical joker, womanizer, alcoholic, heroin addict, charming con man and over-eater extraordinaire. A legend is brought marvelously to life here, unlike in Clint Eastwood's well-intentioned but depressingly one-sided movie "Bird."
Forget the movie..........2003-04-15
Ross Russell was the president of Dial records when Parker was in California. He recorded several sides while there, but Mr Russell, an obvious fan of Parker, makes a huge effort to desribe Parker's whole spectacular and at the same time tragic life and career. When I read this book, I literally could not put it down.
Parker was a great clown and entertainer, something which Clint Eastwood's disappointing movie "Bird" never portrayed, instead sticking to the sad and seedy sections of the great Parker's life. I read this book years before the film came out, and I was shocked because I knew Eastwood to be a big jazz fan.
Anyhow, every major event in Parker's short life is chronicled, giving an excellent narrative of an extraordinary career.
Miled Davis in his autobiography said that Bird was a con, a cheat, and that Ross Russell exploited him. Nonetheless, this book presents many facets to describe Parker's life, in vivid detail. I'd call this essential for any true jazz fan to understand the man, his music, and the truly monumental and unsurpassed contribution Parker made to all music. Also revealed are all the main players of the time and their relation to the music and the man.
Also, there are three books I recommend (in this order) to anyone who really wants the inside scoop on the jazz life: Bird Lives, Miles Davis' in-your-face-autobiography, and Albert Goldman's biography of Lenny Bruce. All three books can be read as companion pieces and give a realistic portrait of 3 of the most influential people of the 20th century and the world that created them. At the same time all three books provide an excellent reality check to anyone contemplating a heroin habit!
Customer Reviews:
A drop of kindness in an ocean of misery.......2007-07-07
Imagine that you are an educated, early-19th century British woman who marries a cultured, wealthy, charming Philadelphia bluestocking and lives a happy and refined life and has two daughters and THEN you learn that your husband's great wealth, passed down through generations, comes from several slave plantations in Georgia. Next imagine that your husband, who wants to check out his property, takes you and the girls to Georgia for a few months. The trip to Georgia is, to the modern eye, a nightmare, but I think it probably represents the travel experience of the time. This journey, however, is as nothing compared to the 4 or so months spent on the various Butler plantations.
This book is not so much a journal, per se, as a collection of letters Fanny wrote to her friend Margaret, describing the land, customs, food, daily life, etc., of the plantations. But above all what Fanny reports on is slavery. She is horrified at what she sees all around her, and with the eye of a documentary filmmaker she records what she learns and experiences---the work in the fields, the diet, the family structure, the economics of the plantation system, the clothing, the illnesses and injuries, the medical care, the conversations, the rewards and punishments. Fanny can't escape from her belief that the Butler slaves are human beings, and the slaves, responding to the tiniest drop of Fanny's kindness in their great ocean of misery, quickly come to believe she is an angel sent by God.
Fanny's letters fueled the flames of the antislavery movement both in the U.S. and in England. Articulate and highly descriptive, her writings were widely published.
This is a can't-put-it-down book--------even if you think you know all about the evils of slavery. Highly, highly recommended.
I wrote a play about her in 1948........2007-01-07
I'm delighted at all the attention NOW being paid to Fanny Kemble. I was in an acting class at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1948 when the teacher asked one of us to write a nineteenth century play, since there were few to choose for our acting class. So I stumbled across her name in "All This and Heaven, Too" and wrote a drama about her life on the plantation and all the slavery conditions. Now, I'm 81, and books are piling up about her. I got my information from a FIRST EDITION of this "Journal" which my grandfather had acquired soon after it appeared, around the Civil War. It kept England from joining the Confederate side.
A Valuable Contributuion to Civil War History.......2002-02-25
I came across Fanny Kemble during a chance visit to a Georgia plantation on the Altamaha River, near Butler Island, where Fanny wrote her journal. An acclaimed Shakespearean actress born into a theatrical family, she had been touring America with her father when she met Pierce Butler, a wealthy member of Philadelphia society with possessions in the South. He courted her with such persistence that she finally agreed to give up her career and marry him. (Needless to say, Philadelphia society did not smile upon the union.) After the birth of two daughters, she persuaded Pierce to take her and the children to Butler Island, where she learned firsthand about the source of the family's wealth: hundreds of slaves worked in the rice paddies on Butler Island and in the cotton fields on St. Simon's Island, where the prized long-fiber Sea Island cotton was grown.
Fanny had been in contact with New England abolitionists and was well aware of the slave problem; but she was unprepared for the appalling conditions she found in the slave quarters, in the fields, and especially in the infirmary. She prevailed on her husband to mitigate the harsh rules imposed by the overseer, procured blankets for the infirmary and sewing material for the women; taught them to make clothes and take care of their babies; and even tried to teach some of them to read - which was, of course, frowned upon. She found that some of the slaves were skilled craftsmen and suggested that they should be paid for their work like any artisan.
An accomplished horsewoman and energetic walker, she also learned to row a boat so she could explore, unchaperoned, the coastal waterways. Her unconventional, spirited life style drew reprimands from her husband, but earned her the respect and admiration of the slaves.
The journal she kept on Butler Island gives a lively account of her daily routine. For those who imagine the lives of southern plantation owners along the lines of Hollywood movies, this book provides a healthy dose of reality. With an outsider's keen and critical eye, she chronicled her own involvement in a dark chapter of American history. She did not publish the journal until 1863, when she was divorced from Pierce and had returned to England. It came out just before the battle of Gettysburg and may have influenced public opinion in England which had been drifting toward favoring the South.
Today, the Butler plantation no longer exists; but neighboring "Hofwyl" gives a visitor a fairly good impression of what plantation life may have been like before and after the Civil War.
Excellent Documentary Resource for Women's History.......2001-09-02
Fanny Kemble Butler was a remarkable woman. In a time, circumstance, and place which precluded her following her life's dream, she settled down into marriage with Pierce Butler, who had adamantly and ardently pursued her hand. She left a very successful career as an actress and gave up, for a time and at her husband's request, her ambition and even her beliefs. She strove to make this marriage work and to "save her husband's soul," when she discovered, after the marriage, the actual source of her husband's family's income, the rice plantations that lay in Georgia. They had two children together before she finally persuaded him to allow her to visit his Georgia rice plantations, where hundreds of negro slaves labored to support the family's wealthy lifestyle in New England. Fanny's heartfelt pleas to free the negroes not only fell on her husband's deaf ears, but he eventually forbade her to even tell him of their plight, and even went so far as to forbid her to continue the practice of helping out in their infirmary. Still, the slaves of her husband's two plantations temporarily benefitted from her visit, which must have been like a ray of light in a very dark existence. The stories speak for themselves, and Fanny makes it her duty to record every one in the slaves' own voices. This book affected me deeply, especially when I read of Fanny's eventual unhappy divorce from her husband, whom she still loved, and her enforced separation from her children. Scholarly reading for every student of the nineteenth century, in the subjects of enslavement, the plight of married women, and general attitudes toward women and slavery by men in power and the common people.
A sobering and melancholic narrative of slavery...........2000-12-05
I purchased this book from Amazon in September but just managed to finish it this weekend. Why the delay? The book is a hard and melancholic read. In page after page Fanny Kemble narrates the abomination and sheer evil of slavery. We are introduced to folks who pious in their ways and beliefs show absolutely no compassion or outrage towards sanctioned barbarism. There is the case of one little girl who cannot conceive or imagine the notion that she can be a free woman. Then there is the sanctimonious Mr. Butler who is supposed to be a "good massa" to the chattel that is his property. I cannot begin to chronicle the innumerable injustices done to fellow humans.
But then in the midst of this filth there is a bright shinning light. That light is Fanny. This brave and intellignet lady fought against big odds to somewhat improve the plight of the slaves on her husband's plantation. Often not taken seriously, or worse treated condescendingly, Fanny nevertheless kept at it.
The first five chapters are a delight to read. They narrate her journey to the plantation along with her experiences at stops along the way. But from then on be prepared for a long sad book. This is an important book that deserves your attention. The next time I visit one of those beautiful antebellum mansions with the aroma of magnolia's in the air I will remember the cost of human lives wasted. I will remember Fanny.
Average customer rating:
|
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation: 1838-1839
Frances Anne Kemble
Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
ASIN: 1426460511
Release Date: 2006-12-02 |
Product Description
From their own sable colour, a pall falls over the whole of Gods universe to them, and they find themselves stamped with a badge of infamy of Natures own devising, at sight of which all natural kindliness of man to man seems to recoil from them.
Book Description
Hey, Einstein! You don't have to be a genius to entertain and educate kids at the same time. Just give 'em The Mad Scientist Handbook--the greatest collection of creepy crafts, insane inventions, and freaky experiments ever devised. Packed with easy-to-understand instructions and simple illustrations, this engaging activity book will show kids how to:
Make oozing green slime
Build a high-speed balloon car
Cook up delicious edible glass
Create a tornado machine
Build an exploding volcano
Pass an egg through the neck of a bottle without breaking it
and much more!
Plus, they'll learn lots of weird facts along the way, like how every experiment in this book works and who figured it out first. It's the perfect handbook for every budding mad scientist.
Customer Reviews:
Debunk this.......2007-09-04
The only value a science teacher could find in the is book is the ample opportunity to debunk so much of the nonsense and to correct the errors. For example, in one place the author says: "Trillions of [cosmic ray] particles pass through the earth's atmosphere every few minutes. Three to six cosmic ray particles strike each square inch of the earth's atmosphere every second." Do the math! I estimate he is off by a factor of one-hundred billion. He says: "Lava ... reaches temperatures up to ten times hotter than boiling water." Do a little checking! Clearly he doesn't understand the relative nature of the common temperature scales. I could go on and on, but I mainly just wanted to help drag down the rating.
Disappointing: Fun, but wrong........2004-09-24
I was considering this book, among others, for use in a course for future high school science teachers. The directions are simple, and the book is definitely pitched to the short attention span. But I was dismayed at several instances of simply and obviously wrong statements: it is clear that the author has failed to do even the most cursory fact-checking in his "Bizarre Facts." (Unless maybe being wrong is what makes a fact "bizzare"?)
Three examples: First, in the "Balloon in a Bottle" experiment, the author claims that "...as the height above sea level increases, the temperature required to boil water also increases, making it difficult to bring water to a boil at high altitudes." This is exactly wrong: water boils at a lower, not higher, temperature at higher altitudes; among other things, this makes some foods take longer to cook than at sea level, because foods that contain lots of water will be cooking at a lower temperature. Shame on the author and the publisher for getting this extremely basic principle wrong.
Second, in at least two experiments, the author includes false statements about things rotating differently in the northern and southern hemispheres. The claim that the rotation of the earth determines the direction water spirals as it drains from a toilet or bathtub, while false, is deeply entrenched; it is unfortunate but not terribly surprising to see that brought up again. (There's a great article on myths based on the Coriolis effect at http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm and it includes a link to a nice page of info for teachers.) But the worse transgression is in the "Paper Helicopter" experiment; here he claims that the rotation of the helicopter will switch below the equator, which is just goofy--essentially the same as claiming that a real helicopter would have to spin its rotor the opposite direction to fly in South America. I was kind of embarrassed for him on that one.
Third (and this is admittedly a minor quibble), he claims that the sparks emitted by wintergreen life savers are due to shattering the crystals of methylsalicylate (wintergreen flavor). In fact it's the crystals of sugar; most hard sugar candy will display this effect. It's just made more dramatic by the methylsalicylate, which fluoresces. (There are several websites addressing this phenomenon. For example, see http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-22-5171806.html or do your own search.)
Those are just the first three that jumped out at me, ones I knew were wrong without having to look them up. I haven't bothered to start a more systematic process of double-checking the assertions of which I'm merely skeptical. For heaven's sake don't quote any of the "Bizarre Facts," or use the information for homework or a science project, without checking on them--the author clearly didn't bother, in spite of how simple it would have been to do so. I wouldn't use this book in a classroom, and I cannot recommend it to a nonscientist; it contains too much misinformation.
Science Teacher Recommendation.......2003-11-30
Smokebombs, stink bombs, slime and other gross interesting things fill this book. There are litterally hundred of interesting facts that go with each experiment. Don't worry about not doing well in chemistry, the directions are simple and the experiments are safe when the directions are followed.
Some good ideas..........2003-11-05
I liked some of the ideas. I like the interesting facts, and found the science explanations are accurate and very complete. I like the choice of experiments, and most of them are fun. (although I'm not sure all of them are especially safe for the younger mad scientist set), but I was disappointed that a decent number of the experiments simply don't work. I understand there's a margin of error, but as an adult (and a science teacher), When I can't make experiments work, I pity the poor children with the book.
How to Cause Mayhem and Get in Trouble.......2002-12-29
Some of these "science experiments" are simple and relatively harmless. Others provide unsupervised children with recipes for disaster. The book should come with a child-proof cover or a trigger-lock. Not that it contains plans for thermonuclear devices, but several of the projects can damage property or cause injury if not properly carried out.
While each project has a set of fascinating "scientific" tidbits & trivia to go with it, the book is almost entirely lacking in helping children understand or use the scientific method or understand much of the basis for what they are doing. This is a "Mad Scientists' Club" handbook, just a several steps short of the Anarchists' Cookbook, but headed in that general direction.
On the other hand, parents may find themselves reliving their own nerdy & awkward years helping their children be "mad scientists." It could be great fun. But keep the book locked up. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!
Average customer rating:
- We need a zero or a negative scale
- this isn't even for kids, it is for infants
|
The Mad Scientist Handbook II
Joey Green
Manufacturer: Perigee Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Magic
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science & Technology
| Teens
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Mad Scientist Handbook
-
Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: How to Turn a Penny into a Radio, Make a Flood Alarm with an Aspirin, Change
-
Entertaining Science Experiments with Everyday Objects
-
Potato Radio, Dizzy Dice, and More Wacky, Weird Experiments from the Mad Scientist
-
Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices
ASIN: 0399527753 |
Book Description
Here's an all-new collection of freaky experiments kids can do with things found around the house-with instructions on how to:
* Make an Alka-Seltzer powered rocket
* Capture clouds in a bottle
* Build a super sonic blaster
* Create disappearing ink
* Make a beach ball elevator
* and much more!
Loaded with easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions, helpful pictures, and the scientific facts behind each experiment, this is one book no mad scientist should be without.
Customer Reviews:
We need a zero or a negative scale.......2007-09-04
Not only are many of the concepts extremely juvenile, but his explanations are often screwy and therefore worst than no explanation at all. He helps perpetuates many false concepts. Worst, he takes some good experiments from other books and mangles the concept. For example, in the light scattering experiment he says: "the blue light waves are trapped" but they are in fact scattered. Buy the books he takes his ideas from, don't buy this poorly reworked nonsense.
this isn't even for kids, it is for infants.......2005-10-26
If you are over the age of 5 this book will not appeal to you. Experiment after experiment it is the same cheesie concept from the same cheesie clown who is dressed to appeal to a 3 or 4 year old. If you want to put mentos in a coke and watch it spew or put a potato in both ends of some pvc and then push another one through it so that the first one pops a whole 5 feet then this is the book for you if not then pass, please save the time and pass.
Average customer rating:
|
Mad Scientist Handbook 2
Joey Green
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Turtleback
Magic
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0606247300 |
Books:
- Blue Blood, True Blood: Conflict & Creation
- Coming Clean: The True Story of a Cocaine Drug Lord and His Unexpected Encounter with God
- Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan's Underworld
- Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Penguin Classics)
- Cottage for Sale, Must Be Moved: A Woman Moves a House to Make a Home
- Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (An Owl Book)
- Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick
- Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness (Kodansha Globe)
- Elia Kazan: A Life
- Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics
- The Poison Master
- The Egyptian Coffin
- The Difference Engine
- The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record
- Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds
- The East-West Quartet
- Greek Imperial Coins and Values
- Retrofitting for Energy Conservation
- Chlorophyta, structure, ultrastructure, and reproduction
Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (Da Capo Paperback)
John Coltrane: His Life and Music (The Michigan American Music Series)
Miles
The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History (Roth Family Foundation Music in America Book)
My Life in E-Flat
