Shades Of Pipe Dreams
928926
Reminds me of the old Pipe Dreams game without the danger of having the water runout the end of the pipe. A great way to fill up ur time when waiting for ur Drs appointment. This is a great way to keep the old gray matter up and running at full speed. Super for those of us looking for ways to keep r brains from taking a nap. I can see how it would be more pleasing on the Fire. I can only play in gray scale so that's a bummer for me. I guess my next purchase will be the Kindle Fire.
1054289
Imagine you have placed a psychic filter on your senses and traveled thru the world taking in the minutia of daily life. What you would see is a world where every landscape, every situation, every fragment of life exists in a web of previously unrealized interconnections. The Mothman's Photographer is a glimpse of such a world. This collection is really quite admirable in its relentless, single-mindedly driven unearthing of the psychic underbelly of the world we live in. Taken as a whole (and reading the notes and descriptions provided by the artist) the collected images meld into a collage emoting one man's quest for meaning in the seeming detritus of our world.

Considering the natural limitations of the book format (size), the images evocatively weave together a chronicle of related artifacts and observances from the artist's life and travels. I look forward to seeing these images presented in a gallery setting where I can imagine the power of the works would be even further enhanced by larger image formats and room to relate the images in smaller and intimately evocative groupings. I'm sure such an on site treatment would take the strength of the book's presentation and render the artist's vision in an even more oblique and involving meditation on our world of shadows.

This book sneaks up on you and encircles you in the potent evocations of this singular artist's vision. We can all look forward to enveloping ourselves in these images in the future.
2616866
This is written creatively with interesting insightful characters, vivid description of natures beauty and mind provoking discussions.

As I analyze it, the book contains mystical thoughts which can propel someone to look life in a different deeper point of view. What I can't forget about the message that this book brings is about dreams. Ive come to conclude that when we have a dream, especially those recurring ones, wherein we felt strongly, we have to decode on what it says. Something must be done in the waking reality as we will discover the truth on who we really are and why we are here in this world. And when we do, the missing puzzle of our life will then be completed.
2111468
Ursula LeGuin has so much "on the ball" it's almost frightening.  This book is all about the way dreams shape our world, (they really do, if you think about it -- America was FOUNDED on dreams), and also about when dreaming can become problematic.  Her hero has the gift/curse of being able to change the physical universe by dreaming, and because his dreams come from his unconsious mind, he has no control over them whatsoever.  He seems to find that maybe it's best just to sort of muddle through, not basing his world-transforming dreams on judgments about whether things are absolutely optimal or not...  It's funny, but if you read studies on the nature of creativity, they tend to agree with what she's saying.  If you can relax the mind and let things just come to you, your dreams and ideas will flow a heck of a lot more naturally than if you try to force them into some mold.  And they won't be very negative dreams either, they'll be useful to you and to others.
Also, this book is just PACKED with Taoism, just like her Earthsea trilogy.  If you study this at all, you'll find that the way she uses Taoism to work against regimented social planning actually has had many real life counterparts which have occurred over the centuries in China.  There have always been major philosophical differences there between the philosophically free-spirited Taoists and the hard-nosed, state-centered Confucianists, and of course the Buddhists have always fit in in various complex ways too. In a funny way, this book can be a good introduction to a lot of people to the ways issues have historically been framed in that part of the world.  China is expected to become a more familiar part of America's world as time goes by, so maybe this book can play a part in that.  Just a thought.  If anyone's interested, "A Concise History of China" by J.A.G. Roberts is a good introduction to Chinese history -- you'll see what I mean.
And beyond all that, the woman knows how to tell a story.  Whew.  Two thumbs up.
3936008
Although, it's comparing apples and oranges. This finds Dury treading Shoegaze territory while never sacrificing that psychedelic haze. A very sspecial artist. Fans of Spiritualized, Mojave 3, Pink Floyd and [later]The Flaming Lips will feel right at home here.
1255613
This is a collection of eleven stories and three poems populated by characters with wild imaginations.

In The End of the Expert, a man is asked to speak at a conference, but things don't quite go as planned.
Absence of Monster reflects on the changing face of monsters.
Arguments for an empty room is a train of thought on what constitutes the concept of being empty.
In Under ground and over thought, strange things occur above ground while stranger things occur underfoot.
history lessons is a poem about the things we can learn from the past.
In The water rabbits, we meet the inhabitants of a small island community where a writers imagination is sparked after witnessing an unsettling incident with the water rabbits. As it was the last day of autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere as I read this, I found this passage suitably apt: Autumn passes quickly, like it has a pressing appointment elsewhere. It's never really settled, has been looking like it wanted to go from the moment it arrived. So, as soon as the temperature starts to drop, it makes its excuses and is off and out. Did you meet Autumn? No, I didn't, didn't even know it was here.
pep talk is a poem Im not sure I understood. A pep talk given to traveling coffee salesmen?
OPPORTUNITIES explores the process of coming up with the next new fad.
In The new old, we find out what happens when a man decides to say yes to every request.
The Orphan questions the reality of what we see in print.
Pattern recognition is a story that is three pages long but consists of just four sentences, one long, one short, one long, one short. Im not sure if this is the pattern were meant to recognize.
The Bombardier takes a humorous look at the slow cooker.
Tight studies the effects of wearing a high-tensile bodysuit.
The long game is a poem that looks at how the glut of books on the market - due to the self-publishing phenomenon  is leaving authors destitute. (I think.)

The stories and poems are all well-written and eloquent in their use of language. The stories are more about introducing ideas and commentary than providing a narrative. Some are even structured like essays. They are the literary equivalent of a farce, in which high-brow and educated people sublimely discuss the ridiculous. As you can see from my descriptions above, I found it hard to understand some of the pieces and had to read some of them more than once to make any sense of them.

Still, if you're willing to put in the effort, you will reap the rewards.

Favorite pieces: Arguments for an empty room and The Bombardier.

I received this book in return for an honest review.
1739317
Fantasy artist Anne Stokes ventures into the realm of fortune telling with her own interpretation of the tarot. Although I enjoy the dark theme of this deck, I would have liked to have seen more of an effort put into illustrating all 78 cards. The artwork on the Majors and the kings, queens, knights and knaves of each suit are very nice, but the rest of the Minor Arcana are represented by repetitive pip designs. In addition, the backs of the cards are non-reversible advertisements for the artist, making the deck seem more like a game rather than an ancient oracle. The names of the cards are displayed in four separate languages (English, German, French and Spanish), giving the cards a universal appeal. The lwb included is clearly written and concise and follows the Rider Waite concepts with few deviations. This is a good deck for beginners that is better suited for collectors of gothic fantasy art than for serious tarot enthusiasts.
113109
Pre-Raphaelite type of images and themes, and a love triangle revealed in an old diary are intertwined with a modern day love triangle involving betrayal, madness and drug abuse. The story revolves around the mysterious drowning death of a woman, who drowned where her friend was almost drowned many years ago. The old story of characters long dead and the modern story form interesting parallels. Water and glass are very symbolic of themes concerning the power of dreams and the unconcious, linked with madness and substance abuse. Events reveal how no one is as they seem to be, tainting the legacy of a famed glass window depicting a benefactress of a college.
The psychology of the characters, revealed as events unfold, is interesting and strands of plot are drawn together like an ancient tapestry into an exciting climax. The prose has a beautiful flow and is easy to read but stimulating.
3460408
Eggers asks some serious questions by writing about a young woman who gets the job of her dreams.  Only problem is her dreams--and probably the dreams of many techies--are hard to distinguish from nightmares.
2028326
If pop culture were a living entity, this would be its dream journal. Page after page of what could have, or should have, been. Gauntt's illustrations are both poignant and fun, a rare feat.
2625959
This poetry collection is "all currents, eddies, tides and whirlpools". It uses descriptive phrasing to describe a number of sexual encounters, which gives the collection the feel of being one continuous poem, instead of several separate poetic works, or an epic poem, if you prefer that description.

It has a strong use of language that makes even girdles seem sexy.

In a few words, this is narrative poetry. It describes events or happenings more so than feelings or inner workings.

The poet sometimes uses more traditional rhyme schemes, like abab that gives a few poems an almost Shakespearean feel. (The first three quatrains of Shakespeare's sonnets are written in abab rhyme schemes followed by a couplet.)

Because it feels like one continuous poem, it comes across as more of a sensual epic than a poetry collection. It is easy to get lost in the sensual descriptions and difficult to distinguish between poems.

The poet offers some interesting wordplay, puns, and lovely created words like "fleshed".

It also uses slant and subtle rhyming for a softly musical feel.

There is even some very biological and anatomical language like "cerebral cell" that adds a kind of scientific romanticism to some of the imagery.

The collection lacks cohesiveness as a work though here and there it contains some lovely phrasing and imagery. My favorite images include:
"made us monsoon adandonment"
"so now undo me, see legs first"
"I'm delicate/with zips and buttons"
"let's make each other beautiful"
"and be my dizzy charge"
"A whispered, tiptoed entry"
"Sweet juggling of the elements: /Water to fire and earth to air"
4701635
If you're looking for noir that explores modern issues and/or are a fan of dark literary works, this was a great read. There are two running stories at once, past and present: one of a woman explaining her immigration from Vietnam through a series of letters, and the other is Robert, a cop obsessed with his ex-wife Suzy. Hes obsessed enough to drive to Vegas to threaten her current husband, but nothing goes as planned and soon the reader is plunged into the dark world these characters navigate in. The exploration of Suzy through the eyes of the men in her life who never quite understand her is one of those things Ive been unable to shake since reading this novel.
105871
My copy of this first long poem by a poet more famous for his cycle of "Dream Songs" is in mint condition, and the illustrations by artist Ben Shahn are pure delight. As readers know, with this work, John Berryman is not yet at the top of his game. How interesting that this writer, eventually consumed by his father's death and matters of manhood, would first focus on a woman. The drawings add a dimension, Shahn's, not Berryman's, that the poet later develops as dreamscape, his strange and vivid world of visualized sleep.
4015474
We are all, in ways known and unconscious, our civilization's discontents. We are not always happy. We want better lives. And we want our elected government to help us in that endeavor. Just what policies and persuasions we'd like our government to adopt to get us there says much about our own politics and our principles. To those we invest with power, we want them to be like-minded. Like a myriad of separate species, we gravitate to those who we think share our concerns. In America, that gravity pulls us in two seemingly opposite political directions: right and left, Conservative and Liberal.

Kelly Bulkeley explores, in his thought provoking book "American Dreamers: What Dreams Tell Us about the Political Psychology of Conservatives, Liberals, and Everyone Else," that personal differences in political views are more than ideological banners. They are instead deeply held values that manifest in the depths of our psyche, from the reservoir of the unconscious from where our dreams come to haunt us at night. "Dreams," writes Bulkeley, "don't simply mirror people's political beliefs; they provide the raw psychological material for those beliefs."

Conservatives and liberals seem to view the world differently. And the subject of Buckeley's book focuses on the research that tells us that conservatives and liberals even dream differently. Though Bulkeley warns that the differences are not absolute, and that political beliefs are complex with shades of either political ideology woven into the individual, there are trends within the separate philosophical stances.

Bulkeley concludes, or at least posits as a working hypothesis derived from his and other's research, that conservatives are good sleepers and minimal dreamers, while liberals are troubled sleepers and expansive dreamers. A Liberal's dream more often contains bazaar or unusual elements than those of a conservative. Conservative's dreams are usually much more mundane. Conservatives report fewer sexual dreams than do liberals, with liberals reporting such dreams with more variety and in more detail. Earlier research demonstrated that conservatives had more nightmares. More recent research demonstrates an increased incidence of nightmares occurs in liberals. The reason for the disparity may be because of the chance of error due to the paucity of the sample size. But the confounding variable may be that the initial research occurred during the Democratic reign of Bill Clinton (who could terrorize the sleeping of any conservative), and the latter research was completed during the reign of George Bush (enough to keep any liberal tossing and turning with night-sweats).

Despite differences in ideologies and dreams, Bulkeley states that "we share more in common than we know: our differences are a matter of degree, not kind." Dreams, on either side of the spectrum, speak to the continuing power of American spiritual beliefs, faith and search for personal meaning. All of us, conservative and liberal alike, face common issues. We together have more dreams of frustration in our place of work than of any other subject. As a nation, writes Bulkeley, we are sick of working so hard and receiving so little in return. We long for fairness and dignity in our lives.

Perhaps, says Bulkeley, we can bridge our cognitive and political dissonances by actualizing the full range of human possibilities by recognizing the virtues of conservatism and liberalism. And that the aspects of each philosophy reside in every individual.

"I dream of a time when Americans," writes Bulkeley, "develop the psychological capacity to unite the opposites of our political culture - enacting progressive social change without losing traditional wisdom, safeguarding time-honored values while remaining open to new ways of living."

The latter portion of the book includes an appendix of "Dreams of Politics and Politicians."
1656169
Dark Dreams and Decadent Desires is a first release for author Dawn Madena Rueff.
Its a book of erotic poetry based on the BDSM lifestyle, and is broken up into four categories: Dominance, Submission, Desire and Paranormal.  All the poems are well written and live up to the hot, erotic spiciness prevalent in a D/s lifestyle.  Some of my favorites were Just a Fantasy, On the Edge, Desire and Full Moon Craving.  It was a great read and I loved the seductive sexual tone of each poem, and look forward to reading more from this amazing new author.
2522534
Vision 2020 is a richly painted collection of interwoven stories that are part business case study, part futurist fiction, and ultimately scenarios that should stir the creative juices of entrepreneurs, policy makers, and India-watchers alike.  While presented as a series of vignettes drawing upon trends that are recognizable today, these start-up enterprises are sketched out on a bold scale to imagine "what-if":  what if the right resources could be brought together?  what if an entrepreneur had the benefit of deep strategic experience? and, what if existing ideas could be combined in new and innovative ways?  Vision 2020 succeeds in demonstrating the enormous possiblities of the entrepreneurial spirit because it reflects the deep personal story of Sramana Mitra herself - her childhood in India, her education in the U.S., her hands-on work across a large variety of start-ups, and her intense curiosity and passion on a wide range of social, cultural, and business issues.  Imagine what is possible if each entrepreneur were able to tap into his or her own story in the same way.
839012
"Dr. Glass" is an entertaining character, the artwork is beautiful, good interviews and footage of artists at work, and a little anecdotal history of glass pipe art. Two guys on a roadtrip who turned it into a "documentary". It's really just taking a roadtrip with these guys to see meet and talk to some contemporary artists at work and an art showcase. Not a professional, historical or political documentary.