notanotherbookreview

MIAMI MY VENICE, a Photo Essay by Rafael Manresa Manresa's lovely photo essay is a journey to a timeless city of canals and waterways, evocative of and yet contradictory to Venice. In MIAMI, which is accompanied by a wise and sensitive text, Manresa says that if Venice is the serenity, Miami is the agitation. Yet his images of Miami have much of the same ageless, meditative quality as Venice. His distressed images of Miami in feeling resemble the palazzos of Venice. The titles, in Italian further the link. Below are some images from the ebook, which can be purchased and the images viewed at  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/miami-my-venice/id624066113?mt=11 .

The Orphanmaster's Son by Adam Johnson is a book I wanted to like, lots of people I respect do, and I am always willing to champion a book that's against totalitarian repression and meglomaniacal dictators. So what's the problem? It's unrelenting in its narrative of atrocities so viscerally frightening in this "no exit" world that they would have been the envy of Kafka's Castle or Dostoyevsky's The Lower Depths or Solzenetsyn's Gulag or any concentration camp history....and that's my problem. I don't know if Mr.Johnson's N.Korea is meant to be mythic or real or a combination of both. Why does this matter? If it's historical truth or fiction based on it, then I accept the necessity to shock so we can be outraged and perhaps contribute to some change or resolve it won't happen again. If he's created this world in order to indict N.Korea, that would be an endeavor made more believable by a novel with more than one note--des...

From Dixon Place Production 5/1/2016. https://vimeo.com/269716307 The Wapshot Whatever: The Secret Lives of Computer Programs. Tonight is dress rehearsal of The Wapshot Whatever, small but decent stage. Thanks to all coming to show. And to the terrific Director,  Vincent Santvoord  and Cast,  Sara Minisquero ,  Chelsea Rodriguez ,  Nathaniel Taylor-Leach , D.Anisfield Tay. T he Wapshot Whatever: The secret lives of computer programs previously received a staged reading @manhattanrep   Random Dialler Worm, circuit boards, the inhuman souls of an Off-shore Server & a Rogue Program bundled together. The secret life of your devices?  Ever wonder what happens, after you have shut down?  Sparks fly, when a Rogue meets an Off-Shore Server. Then there's a Dialing worm, App book, Data miner and more in this unnatural play. The Wapshot Whatever: The Secret Lives of Computer Programs full script on NPX, New Play Exchange n...

THE CHAPERONE by Laura Moriarity, THE TESTAMENT OF MARY by Colm Toibin, FORGED BY FATE by Amalia Dillon explore mythic duality in women’s lives.  At first glance, these three novels would seem to have little in common. THE CHAPERONE tells the story of a fictional Wichita matron, who in 1922 chaperones fifteen year old Louise Brooks in New York City. The Testament of Mary tells the story of Christ from the viewpoint of his mother. Forged by Fate combines Norse, Greek, Hindu and Buddhist mythology in a world, where an estranged Adam and Eve must forever be apart.  Yet in each of these novels the heroines struggle to reconcile their internal understanding with the role in which they find themselves. Yet they are aware of being participants in multi-layered dramas, as the fate of the world,and personal happiness, hinges on their strength to fulfill a unique destiny.  In THE CHAPERONE, modest pleasant-looking Cora has had the luck of marrying Alan, an uncommonly h...

THE NIGHT SHE SLEPT WITH A BEAR by Holly Anderson (Publication Studio, Portland, OR) is like visiting an alien country, you think you remember--from dreams you might have forgotten.  It’s a novel-like fiction made up of mesostics and flash fiction. I checked Wikipedia:   A   mesostic   is a   poem   or other   typography   such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an   acrostic , but with the vertical phrase intersecting the middle of the line, as opposed to beginning each new line. The practice of using index words to select pieces from a preexisting text was developed by   Jackson Mac Low   as "diastics". It was used extensively by the experimental composer   John Cage   (Walsh 2001). The Night She Slept with a Bear also comes with music by Chris Brokaw on itunes.  And since the fiction resembles a musical composition, with themes repeated and intersected, it’s probab...

Robin Hathaway was an original mystery writer. Her Doctor series was wryly funny and the Philly setting was used in very creative ways. Who knew in back of Jefferson Hospital there was an Indian burial ground?  Or that an herb garden in a hospital could have a nefarious purpose?  She was discovered in a St. Martin's contest, in her 60's, and had begun writing a decade before. Robin showed age is  irrelevant to writers and went on to develop another series. Here is a link to her obit. http://articles.philly.com/2013-02-21/news/37202639_1_mystery-author-mystery-writers-mystery-scene-magazine On a personal note, Robin was an inspiration to me. Through knowing her, I went on to finish writing I had lost confidence in,  respected my art work and became a better parent. Her message to me was have faith in yourself and move on.  I believe we are all in the process of becoming who we are. As people and our work, life seems to be about process. Success or failur...

This nonfiction work is a rare classic. There are lots of books on Communications, Public Relations, Public Affairs, Social Media, TV & Radio, Internet Marketing, Media strategy. But no other book I’ve seen looks at the permeable borders of these categories as they contribute to the big picture of political campaigns, national security—Strategic Communications.  In PERSUASION AND POWER (Georgetown University Press), James Farwell shows that skill in the use of images, words, and symbols, does not necessarily guarantee success. The end result often depends on the content of the message and its goal.  Deception is not as successful as truth, consistent, and persuasive. It also helps to remember that any success is within a specific time-frame.  With the speed and incessant change of the 24/7 news cycle, a permanent end result is a chimera. Yet this book analyzes the strategic communications embodied in our Declaration of Independence, a document of enormous i...