If Hawaii or the aloha shirt has ever gladdened your heart, you'll want to own THE ALOHA SHIRT. Dale Hope conveys the TRUE SPIRIT (colorful, soft, peaceful, flowing) of the Hawaiian Islands by presenting both the fascinating history of the aloha shirt and 500 or so beautiful illustrations. These illustrations are so varied and exquisite that you'll get high just by perusing them. They also help you see how the aloha shirt can be an art form in and of itself. Hopefully, this book will inspire people to wear their aloha shirts more often -- not just when they visit Hawaii -- and to buy the new ones that are being created by the best artist designers.

Dale Hope grew up in the Hawaiian garment industry, taking over his father's clothing business at the age of 26. As the art director of Kahala Sportswear, Hope oversees the creation and manufacturing of 150 new Aloha shirt designs annual. In The Aloha Shirt: Spirit Of The Islands, Hope collaborates with writer Gregory Tozian to offer a magnificent, coffee-table artbook dedicated to the history of the unique and famous Hawaiian shirt style. This impressive treatise covers the history of Hawaiian clothing, the evolution of the tailor shop into the modern clothing factories, the designers, textiles, printmakers, and retailers that made the Hawaiian "aloha shirt" famous around the world. There are chapters focusing on Duke Kahanamoku, celebrities, shirt makers of the 60s, labels and buttons, and aloha shirt collectors. Profusely and beautiful illustrated, the text is informative, at times fascinating, and highly recommended for students of American clothing history and fads in general, and Hawaii's contributions to the garment industry and American popular culture in particular.

The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands is unique, as a historical and artistic book documenting the Aloha shirt, from its historic beginnings as a cottage industry, to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today. This definitive text has been extensively researched, with textile artists, designers, garment manufacturers and their families and friends all contributing to the consistency of the history as researched by Dale Hope. An educational and artistic book bringing over 500 aloha shirts with their Hawaiian inspired origins paralleled with the history and times of Hawaii. For those who have memories of Hawaii, and for those who share their memories to others, this elegant coffee table book is a "must have" for all!

I took a course with Dale and found out first hand what it takes to make a truly great cocktail--and found out how bad most cocktails in bars really are. This book not only tells how to create really memorable drinks for yourself and guests, it also delves into the history of the various spirits and how they've been combined by savvy bartenders to create classics old and new. I've read through it several times, lapping up classics like the sidecar and DeGroff signature drinks like the Ritz. If you like cocktails, this is an amazing book. Nobody cares about getting the best results like Dale.

First of all, I am just a pretender, and I have no intention of ever becoming a professional bartender. With that said, this is definitely one of the best books I have picked up, and definitely the best bartender book I have ever seen. It contains vivid pictures of everything that Mr. Degroff is trying to explain and he gives great tips on everything from knowing what glassware and alcohols to have in your bar to unbelievable mix drink recipies. For those who do not drink, it even contains an unbelievable non-alcholic drink (the citrius cream). This book also makes a great coffee table book. Vistors that come by cannot keep their hands off of it! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to bartend for fun or professionally.

This book is one of the top drink mixing resources for the home bartender. Mr. DeGroff's approach to bartending is a culinary one; at his bar, taste is king, with restrained but elegant garniture. The book is loosely organized alphabetically by drink name, but there are subsections that deal with drinks thematically. One of my favorite "featurettes" is his idea for a Bloody Mary Buffet, where guests create their own beverages. Little touches like these make this book ideal for the home bartender wanting to throw an elegant occasion.
The elegant layout somewhat masks the thoroughly researched nature of the work-- a look at the bibliography reveals a goodly number of cocktail books that could represent a good history of beverage-craft in the United States.
An excellent book.

PHARMAKO-DYNAMIS and PHARMAKO-POEIA by Dale Pendell contain much of interest to gardeners, artists, historians, drug counselors, and drug users. Pendell suggests that how a plant substance is defined (poison, drug, medicine) depends on the dosage, length of use, and intent of the user. In other words, if plant-based drugs are "abused" the problem lies not in our plants but in our selves. He says the reader can begin anywhere in either of his two books and arrive at the same place. I read PHARMAKO-POEIA last, not because it isn't interesting, but because coffee, tea, and cocao are covered in DYNAMIS. As a tea drinker, I wanted to find out more about my herb of choice before I ventured onto others.

POEIA includes a wonderful section on Absinthe which may be related to the seduction of angels. Students of 19th Century French art history and the Belle Epoch know about Absinthe. Absinthe is that lovely green substance the Impressionist painters liked to portray, which according to some was the devil's own drink (he being a fallen angel). Wilde was fond of Absinthe, and may have been using it when he wrote "The Portrait of Dorian Grey." On the other hand, it may have been his drug of choice when he developed his witty and amusing stage plays. Readers associated with Lewis' Screwtape Letters will recognize Absinthe's plant name-Wormwood. Wormwood was probably the bitter herb offered Christ in his last hour of agony and Revelations 8:10,11 has something to say about it. Artemisia is Wormwood's proper name, and the Greek Artemisia is the Roman Diana, Goddess of the Moon. Pendell says Oberon uses 'Dian's bud' to reverse the effects of a love potion in A Midsummer Night's Dream. What was Shakespeare thinking??

Besides Artemisia and Valerian, Pendell discusses a few other suspect plants I grow in my own garden, such as Papaver, the Opium Poppy. Oh the feds tried to ban it once, but all the little old ladies came after them and Poppy reigns supreme in American cottage gardens. According to Pendell, the worldwide persecution of the Poppy plant continues even though Poppy plants (and Cannabis) have killed far fewer people than tobacco plants. This is wonderful wise book for crafty gardeners and their friends.

I am an herbalist, and I found this book by Pendell and Snyder to be full of information that was presented in a fascinating way. Interestingly, finding information about herbal poisons isn't as easy as it might seem, but is still important. I can honestly say I learned a few things from this book that I did not realize, particularly from a historical standpoint! I can't wait to get my hands on the other two volumes as soon as they become available - however I have been waiting for almost a year for the promised second and third volumes of the book. I am hoping that the publisher or author can give us a firmer lead time for their final release.

All medicine is poison, and all poisons have some medicinal quality to them. "Pharmako/Poeia" is a scientific AND poetic exploration of common and uncommon plant poisons for the magician/alchemist. Pendell explains how nicotine is similar to acetylcholine (part of why it is chemically addictive--- it is spookily similar to neurotransmitters in the brain); he offers transphysical images for certain plants (Salvia divinorum, for example, vibrates to the quantum signature of Shrodinger's Wave Equation); as well as mystical and religious points (wine's Tarot card is the High Priestess, its Humour is phlegmatic). Highly recommended if you're into alchemy, poetry, and pharmacology. Avoid if you're seeking an easy high. As Pendell himself says, "If you can't kick a tobacco habit you are no doctor, and had best not proceed." Five stars, but don't look for the companion volume any time soon. The publisher, Mercury House, has been promising its availability in the "next few months" for five years now.

Covered poisons: Mad River Plant, Bulrush, Tobacco, Pituri, Alcohol, Aether, Absinthe, Cale zacatechichi, Opium, Kava Kava, Salvia divinorum, Marijuana, Nitrous Oxide. Beware: here be dragons.

Update 3/8/2003: "Pharmako/Dynamis" is now available. It covers stimulants only, so there will probably be another book in the "Pharmako/" series (but expect to wait 5-7 years until it's released).

This boook includes, well, a thousand interesting facts about the South. Being Southern myself, I never knew what was in a mint julep (along with 90% of the rest of the South). This is a book that you can pick up, flip to any page and just read. Everything is interesting, and you might learn something, too. Recommended!

Slowing down along all those back roads of the world that is the South is the only way to appreciate the unique outlook of the southern spirit where life and events are often taken with a grain of salt due to the fact that the important things were the same yesterday, and the day before, and all the days before that. Emotional health is probably the most valued commodity, and perhaps the most scrutinized quality of southern communities. In many cases, it is the most important development to watch and gauge since much of the south is far from the pyramids of power that are often created in locations like New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago or Los Angeles. It is eons away from foreign influences of Paris, London, Asia or Japan. The living is easy and the sun is hot requiring local dynamics to be the most valuable in terms of acceptance. It gives a new meaning to the idea of majority and minority but not necessarily confined to color. To know the south, time spent there is a must. Southerners appreciate the meaning of home grown and honor their own perspective on life, which sometimes isn't the same as it is in other parts of the country. Rebel yells have a different meaning than up north and don't always reflect the civil war years. It helps to understand Hank Williams, Jr. and some of the other country singers who have it in their blood. 1,0001 facts about the south can only help people appreciate this unique part of the country where life is meant to be savored, not swift. It is greatly aided by a partner of commensurable sentiments.

Born in Texas of Texan parents, but raised outside the South (except for six years or so in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, which aren't nearly as Southern as they used to be), I've always felt self-consciously removed from what I'd like to consider my heritage. Thanks to John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed's great book, I've not only discovered I'm more Southern than I realized, but know a lot more about that section of the country than I did before.

'1001 Things Everyone Should Know about the South' is a book anyone can open at random and start reading anywhere. But if you read it straight through, systematically, I'm willing to guarantee almost anyone they'll discover things about the South they never knew before.

This book is not a fancied-up version of 'You Know You're a Redneck When ...'.

The Reeds are serious researchers and writers, and they look at the South through the lenses of history, geography, ethnology, linguistics, religion, art, music, literature, architecture, cooking, politics, economics, and more. There are the obligatory sections on the Confederacy and the War, of course, but the Reeds understand, as other historians and writers have also noted, that the CSA was a period of barely five years out of more than 400 years of Southern history. (One of the things everyone should know about the South is that there were European settlers in Virginia, Texas, and Florida before anyone save Native Americans had set foot on Plymouth Rock.) This is one of the things that made '1001 Things ...' a far more satisfying book for me than was Michael Andrew Grissom's 'Southern by the Grace of God,' which had a tendency to view everything through the prism of the War.

There is an enormous amount of interesting material in this book, ranging from the difference between 'Cajun' and 'Creole,' to the differences in habits between Southerners and folks in other parts of the nation (northerners subscribe to more dog magazines but Southerners own more dogs), to regional differences in linguistics and cuisine (finally I've found someplace that explains regional varieties of barbecue, though as a loyal son of Texas I have to agree that brisket, not pork, is the proper barbecuing meat [#647]).

Among the other interesting things I learned: 80 percent of Southern parents teach their children to say 'sir' and 'ma'am' to adults (mine sure did), whereas only 46 percent of non-Southern parents do [#148]; 80 percent of Southerners also admit to using 'you-all' or 'y'all' occasionally as the second person plural, whereas most non-Southerners almost never do [#147]; one of the characteristics of Southern writers is that many of them only discovered their 'Southernness' when they lived outside the South [#472 -- hey! Like me!], and that Southern artists, or at least artists from the South, include Jasper Johns, Charles Willson Peale and Rembrandt Peale, John James Audubon, and Robert Rauschenberg, among many others.

My favorite living writer, Florence King (author of 'Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady,' among much else), said of this book, 'Every page is a treat!' As usual, I agree with her absolutely.

I haven't finished the book yet, I keep reading Chapter 2 over and over "the alcoholic mind"...A great first book for those interested recovery.

The book is extremely comprehensive and well written, the best I have found on this subject. Its material has been very extensively researched. I am grateful to Dale for chapter two that provided me with a personal introspect of "The Alcoholic Mind", it helped tremendously to understand where all this came from in me, and for what I will always need to be on guard.

Material for the book has been very, very extensive researched. The book is extremely comprehensive and well written. It is the best book I have found on this subject. I thought it was written about me personally.

This is a pretty good book that tells you about how to make a movie without a lot of money. There's a lot of good nuts and bolts info. But if the thought of haggling and begging for everything doesn't strike you as very fun then you might want to look elsewhere. Also, DV film is changing so fast that there's a world of technical info that makes books like these obsolete the by the time they get published. (Props to the authors for noting this themselves)

Collaboratively written by film production experts Dale Newton and John Gaspard, Digital Filmmaking 101: An Essential Guide To Producing Low Budget Movies is a highly practical and informative guide to the creation of low-budget movies utilizing innovative film making technologies and the personal computer. From how to handle digital video equipment, to scripting and casting, production and distribution, to working the film festival circuit, Digital Filmmaking 101 is a superbly organized and presented resource recommended for all aspiring student and independent filmmakers.

This is the book I've been looking for. If you are looking to make your first digital feature or short, this is the place to start. After purchasing 15-20 books on shooting film and video, this is the book I wish I had read first.

The book describes in plain terms (without being patronizing) what is needed to produce a digital feature. From finding scripts, to casting actors and crew, all the way through to post-production and distribution, this book will guide you all the way. It gives examples of special effects, breaking down your script and creating a shooting schedule, sample actor and location release forms, even inexpensive meal suggestions for feeding your cast and crew during production!

Dale Newton and John Gaspard know their craft. They've shot feature films in both film and video formats, and have many essential tips for the low/no budget filmmaker. The book is written with a sense of humor. The authors laugh at some of their mistakes while helping us avoid those same problems.

If you are a novice or budding filmmaker but need a little direction to get started, this is the book for you.

The Ronin tells the story of a masterless samurai who lives a violent, debauched life until one day he is made aware of the enormity of his crimes. As a sort of penance, he decides to dig a tunnel through a mountain which can only be crossed by a high and dangerous pass.
The book is based on a Zen koan (a problem which cannot be solved by logic, on which practitioners of Zen meditate in order to find enlightenment).
The Ronin is a fascinating book and many years later, I am still troubled by the tough questions that it posed, such as: are we only good because we have to be; is there justice in revenge; and can human beings ever really make up for the terrible things that they do?
This was my favourite book when I was in high school and although now that I am older and can see that there are a lot of weaknesses in the book, I still say that it has the best ending of any book I have ever read and highly recommend it.

I've been studying this culture for years, but this book is the best book I've read over here. It's not educational in the sense that you'll understand Japan more, but you will understand a little more about life afterward.

A rare book, dazzling prose, brutally graphic and yet alive with the subtlety and understatement appropriate to the Zen aesthetic. So good I read it twice in a row, starting over as soon as I had finished!

I ordered this book because everyone told me to ... despite some misgivings. I thought this would be a novel dripping with good ideas, but [I feared] poorly written. But that was not the case! This book is both chock-full of good ideas, and surprisingly funny, complex, and well-crafted. The author is obviously a fan of Vonnegut and Keillor, both of whom I can see in his style. And his philosophy is all freethinking humanism, a refreshing philosophy in modern fiction. While it is not perfect, it succeded surprisingly well. I hope it is not McGowan's last book.

The book gets four stars, by the way, because of the tense. McGowan tells his story in the present tense, instead of the more common (for fiction) past tense. It took some getting used to, which dulled the impact of the earlier parts of the book ... and bugged me a bit throughout. Not enough to make this a bad book [not even close!], but enough to lose it a star. Let's hope McGowan is a bit more traditional in his storytelling with his next novel!

This book is not only fun to read (I actually laughed out loud a number of times), but it really makes you think, and not about anything less trivial than the meaning of life, the origins of the universe, and the ignorance of the masses. McGowan's character names never ceased to make me smile (Robert Frapples was one of my favorites) and the dialog was very convincing. At some points I really felt as though I was sitting in a college bar with the author debating the intricacies of Faith vs. Reason over a pitcher of beer. Ultimately I felt both entertained and educated. This is a great book for anyone not afraid to think for themselves.

Not a beach read, this one --- it's something much more wonderful and rare, a smorgasbord for the intellect. Rich and funny and clever situations and characters. Not to be missed.

The first volume in the Matsuyama Kaze trilogy (followed by Jade Palace Vendetta and Kill the Shogun) transports the reader to Japan in 1603, the first year in the long reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate. When the army of Emperor Hidyoshi was defeated at Battle of Sekigahara, hundreds of lords were killed, leading to thousands of samurai becoming masterless warriors, ie. ronin. Matsuyama Kaze is one of these, wanted by Japan's new rulers, he wanders the country under an assumed name on a quest to find and rescue his former lord's young daughter. The book and mystery begins with Kaze discovering a rural charcoal-seller standing over a dead merchant lying at a crossroad. The peasant is soon named as the murderer by the local authorities, who don't seem too concerned with the truth of the matter, and Kaze comes to his defense. For, Kaze is one of the few samurai who feel that peasant's aren't necessarily subhumans, and that justice is worth expending energy on.

The mystery is fairly simple, and most readers will and unraveled all the connections well ahead of Kaze, but the book is pleasurable nonetheless. First, unlike so many mysteries, it's a pleasantly compact tale, easily digested in a single night's reading. Secondly, the cast of characters is small and vivid. There's the stoic charcoal-seller, the village prostitute, a nasty bandit leader, and a weirdo lord who lives according to the customs of six hundred years previously in the Heian period. Finally, the most enjoyable element is Furutani's weaving of period detail throughout the book. Often, a ritual or object will lead to a brief tangential discussion of its development and use. These asides are not always subtle, but are fascinating slices of history and custom. On the whole, the book is reminiscent of a Kurasawa film, with a small story, small cast of regular people, and elegant delivery.

This is a new series for Furutani. It features ronin Matsuyama Kaze, a freelance samurai, in 1603 Japan. Kaze is on a quest to find the child of his former master. He is following one small lead after another with dwindling hope of finding the child he has been looking for during the proceeding two years. On his way to his next destination, he comes across a charcoal gatherer who is examining the dead body of a merchant. In spite of himself, Kaze stays around to see what happens and finds himself embroiled in the small town's politics and rivalries as he attempts to unravel the mystery of who killed the merchant and why.

Furutani's writing is lyrical and the reader finds himself enveloped in a cadence that transports the reader to medieval Japan. Like all first books in series, this one must not only develop the character's personality, but provide us with a mystery and a story as well. The latter is no mean feat in and of itself, but Furutani accomplishes the task with ease. Furutani does not set flaunt his research by using every bit of minutiae he picked up, but, rather, he uses it subtly to advance his story and, in the process, educate his readers. For those who, like myself, do not care for Furutani's previous books, be rest assured that the writing here as well as the characters are a very welcome change. The uniqueness of the setting adds to quality of this book.

Writing with the longtime eloquence of an established prose-writer, Dale Furutani paints a sweeping, grandiose picture of Japan in the beginning of an oppressive (somewhat backward and yet modernistic) era-The Tokugawa Shogunate- in 1603.The hero of the novel, a ronin (a samurai sans a master), stumbles across a corpse on a misty mountain pass. In the course of his adventure, Kaze (the ronin), discovers a remarkable collection of characters that Dame Agatha Christie herself would be hard to match. The cast ranges from Aoi, the luckless prostitute, to the ultra-refined Lord Manase (who insists on living life as in Heian period Japan, a period six HUNDRED years ago! ), to the greedy and ambitious Lord Nagato. We also meet the humble Jiro and the somewhat noble Hachiro and Ichiro, while facing the aggravating, and shortlived Boss Kuemon.A captivating yarn, with a little too much blood for the elegant story, nonetheless fails to disappoint. Get a copy today!I can hardly wait for the next two books in the trilogy.

Peter Dale Scott poses essential questions and his investigations lead to very disturbing answers.

He uses the JFK assassination as a paradigm for the revelation and understanding of the real powers in the US.
With parallels to 3 other political scandals (MacCarthyism, Watergate, Contragate) he shows that there are deep continuities in the US political system. He arrives at the most alarming conclusion that the US power system is intrinsically vicious, violent and murderous and that conspiracies form an essential part of it.
He shows convincingly that the real powers in the US lay in a symbiosis of public government, organized crime and private wealth.
Most diabolic are the FBI (lead by the insidious Edgar J. Hoover) and the CIA, which are both responsible for the ruthless destruction of opponents and dissidents without legal or moral restraint.
This book gives an appalling picture of the Agency, fighting for the justification of its existence and its resources by prolonging the Cold War. It infiltrated the media in order to preach its Gospel. It used organized crime and drug traffickers as means for its ends.
Very revealing also is the fact that 20 percent of the shares of General Dynamics were in the hands of the mob.

His final analysis is devastating: 'how far our office-holders, including our Presidents, have been reduced to the status of clients, dispensable when the more enduring patronage is withdrawn?' and 'To what extent has our visible political establishment become one regulated by forces operating outside the constitutional process?'
After reading this book, I confess that posing these questions is answering them.

A provocative, dark and disturbing book.
A must read.

Scott's account explores the reasons behind John Kennedy's murder, which he regards as a highly complex crime. He explains it in terms of "deep politics," or an "intelligence, mob, corporate gray alliance." This was an odd coalition of big-city political bosses, Mafia, CIA, FBI, anti-Castro Cubans, and generals eager to escalate the Vietnam War, working to eliminate a president perceived as threatening the status quo. Scott begins by examining JFK's decision to withdraw 1,000 American advisors from South Vietnam and continues with a discussion of Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald's alleged mob and government connections. On the issue of Vietnam withdrawal, Scott borrows heavily from John Newman, who alleges that Kennedy planned to withdraw from Southeast Asia. Scott repeats this claim, ignoring the consensus view that this merely was a rotation, not a withdrawal of troops. Scott's assertion of Ruby and Oswald's connections is based simply on circumstantial evidence. He accuses no one, but seemingly implicates everyone. Despite this flaw, Scott's work is a stimulating piece that does not rehash the mechanics of the assassination but examines the political roots of a political crime. All levels.

In a country such as ours, anyone attempting to voice an opinion that falls outside the mainstream is ridiculed and margainalized until no one takes them seriously. Not so with Professor Scott. Incredibly well researched and documented, he makes a strong case for who actually runs this country, and why.

It is books like this that show you why your vote is meaningless, protest is generally futile, and how the US can skip around the world, bringing down governments (and at home) and no one says boo. Frightening book, and required reading for anyone interested in the death of JFK, a landmark event.