LAST HEAT by Peter Blair is one of the best poetry collections of the year. Blair tells us subtly everything a man needs to know about being a man through an unrelenting yet rapturous gaze into the furnace of the steel mill. We see metaphors made of footlockers, of chipped ham on rye in sandwich machines, and of all the everyday details of blue collar existence.

Not since Carl Sandburg has an American poet managed to ennoble the daily existence of the laborer with the seeming effortlessness of these liquid verses.

As a former resident of Pittsburgh -- the setting for the poems in this collection -- I found Last Heat by Peter Blair to be somewhat of a "you can go home again" collection for me. Blair writes from the honest and provoking point of view of a man who has worked in Pittsburgh's steel mills, seen their decline, and who has been personally affected by the blue-collar towns that died as the mills closed down.

Last Heat was the winner of the 1999 Word Works Washington Prize, an annual poetry book competition that awards $1,500 and publication to a living poet. And it's easy to see why Blair's book was selected for publication.

Blair's poems are sensitive and emotional an engaging contrast to the furnaces and mill-hunks that pepper his poems. For example, Blair captures the all-too-human side of a co-worker, nicknamed Smoke, in these lines from the poem "Smoke":

His words drift down
from somewhere a tap explosion has scattered them
years ago. His chest heaves slowly,
an old furnace, a molten story. How many blacks
do you see on the river, even today?
I was their sport, see? That was the Forties.
All I remember is fighting. When the foreman calls us
for the next cast, the light in his eyes
vanishes, nothing there now but gray smoke.

Many of Blair's poems capture the intricate bonds between foremen and crew, between co-workers, juxtaposed with poems showing bonds between fathers and sons and brothers. These are true "manly-men", putting up brave fronts, hiding any emotion. But while Blair depicts the outer fronts of his co-workers, you hear his own voice telling you what is inside his head, the emotions he feels seem to speak for the men who won't speak the emotions themselves. One fine example of this is "What It Takes":

But tonight in Pittsburgh,
this old man hobbles on the bridge
toward the rusted streetcar cab
nailed to the outside wall of Chiodo's Bar
like a steel mask

The day has forgotten Graz,
old Pittsburgh, and Big Steel,
but night might remember,
so I lean over the bridge rail
above the silent Slab and Palte Division
and ask my brother's face:
Do I have what it takes?

Blair's words are quite close to being love poems to an era that will never return to Pittsburgh the steel era. His fond recollections of the furnaces and coal cars, the smokestacks and rivers, show a melancholy for a time that was rough, but important to not only his own history, but the history of the families of the "thousands of men and women who worked at Homestead Steel" that he acknowledges at the front of his book.

In the poem "What Love Is", Blair gives us a glimpse of his own family's struggle in a blue-collar town:

Across the kitchen table, we fight again.
I shout, It's MY future, leave the steak
my father grilled for me. Stomping up the steps,
I think of the veins bulging on his forehead,
the white collar he so desired tight around his neck.

When you think of steel mills, you think of machinery, heat, boiling metal, foul smells, etc. But Blair's descriptions of the intricate workings of the mill, down to its steaming slag pits (a trivial hell, one of many / up and down the river.) are so moving, so evocative. If you've ever thought a blue-collar worker could not also be a poet, Peter Blair will convince you otherwise.

...

Harris looks at the Britpop phenomenon in 1990's UK. Special attention is played to central bands Suede, Elastica, Oasis and Blur and to key personalities like Tony Blair and Alan McGee of Creation records. It's a worthy redux of the underlying commercial, political and drug-addled machinations of the Cool Britannia gang. Only Tony Blair remains newsworthy. Despite their arty, salt of the earth aspirations of these would-be Eastenders, it's clear they were in it for one thing - themselves.

Harris likes to centre the development of the genre around the personal relationships of the central players - in particular, the Justine Frischmann, Brett Anderson and Damon Alban triangle of love, breakup, jealousy and narcissism. This makes for interesting reading as he blends in the context of Tory Britain, the failure of Red Wedge, tiresome US influences of Nirvana and dullards like Bruce Springsteen, post-Duran Duran and pre hip-hop happenings. The Stone Roses, Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, Smiths, Morrissey - they're all here too. Manchester and London are given equal credit.

However, Harris gives far too much prominence is given to Elastica - bizarrely, there is no mention of what they're remembered for best - their Wire and Stranglers plagiarisms. The inclusion of Menswear as meriting any credit is a mistake too. They were purely bargain basement poseurs.

A perfect reprise for anyone who realizes that the codology of Nick Hornby football luvvies and their awful taste in music provides no insight into the human condition, but is little more than middle England menopause.

Great book. Everything you need to know about the mid-nineties scene known as Britpop. Now if only the film Live Forever would be available in the states I would be fulfilled. Definitly, not maybe buy this book.

For new millenium ArtSpeak, bow to the demons of consumerism with "Let's Entertain: Life's Guilty Pleasures" edited by Phillip Vergne. Walker Art Center Director Kathy Halbreich mentions that artists adroitly adapt corporate techniques to 'create a spectacle of quotidian experience' with various intentions.

Here's some of those, from their biographies:

"investigate the global landscape" | "attempt to discuss and understand" | "sidestep precise categorization" | "appropriate and deconstruct television imagery" | "cool analysis of an aesthetic of everyday America" | "analysis of American celebrity and excess" | "examine issues of present day art production" | "metaphysical reflection on our collective consciousness" | "sculptures that incorporate decaying fish" | "humorous and at times aesthetically subversive interventions" | "commentary on contemporary reliance on tchnological and consumerist promise" | "address issues of colonial hangovers" | "large scale spectacle of the ordinary" | "hold up a mirror to the viewers dysfunction" | "mix conceptual rigor with socio cultural investigation" | "re-imagine themselves as figures of popular culture" | "seemingly banal readymades" | "sound installation of songs popular" | "reflect on the artistic system" | "attempt to bridge the rift between man and nature" | "raise larger questions about the definition of art and authorship" | "collage media reports" | "react against the legacy of Joseph Beuys" | "the hand of the artist is not the important issue" | "use video camera to record own failure, again and again" | "intimations of bodily functions play an important role" | "witty use of diverse clichés" | "artistic nomadism" | "belonging to a humanistic philosophy of proximity" | "invesigate the sense of seduction in society dominated by spectacle" | "fascination with cliché" | "making the commonplace strange" | "blur lines between artifice and nature" | "use sound sculpturally to create aural landscapes" | "use pop culture as a ready made artistic vocabulary" | "cute doodles, friendly words, pointing arrows" | "disruption of games like rugby" | "involve audience in environment" | "purvey the glamorous celebrity lifestyle" | "create a sense of unease by odd juxtapositions"

That's gotta be inspirational! An effort is made to keep the scholarly parts short enough to skip over comfortably, and some interesting points are made convincingly, if somewhat dispiritedly.

This book will help you grapple with the mysteries of modern art practices and is a good overview of the work and motivations of artists who are numbered among the top of the generation born since the 60's.

Painters especially will be pleased that oil on canvas was not represented among this company. Certainly the future beckons ever more brightly!

This book is an excellent companion to the great exhibit, but also good on its own. It is bound well and has glossy pics of the art as well as explanations and commentary by the artists. A wonderful book

If you are looking for a quick overview of the history of submarines and submarine disasters, "Lost Subs" provides several hours of interesting reading.

The book describes the historical development of the submarine, from Bushnell's Turtle and Fulton's Nautilus, through the Hunley, the Holland, and the U-boats of the two World Wars, and on to the nuclear boats of the Cold War. The text is filled with photographs of submarine wreckage and rescue efforts, dramatic paintings of submarines at sea, and diagrams showing how sumarines work. Especially interesting is a detailed recreation of the CSS Hunley's pyrrhic victory against the hapless USS Housatonic during the American Civil War, together with some interesting speculation about why the Hunley sank after its successful attack.

The book's main weakness is that it surveys a big field that has been thoroughly covered in other works. If you enjoy digging into the details, this book may disappoint you. But if you like your maritime narratives to be accompanied by dramatic and often moving photographs and paintings, "Lost Subs" will be a very enjoyable adventure.

If you would like to explore the subject in more detail, try:
Peter Hutchhausen, "Hostile Waters" (a near catstrophe when a Soviet boomer experiences a missile tube failure);
Brayton Harris "The Navy Times Book of Submarines: A Political, Social and Military History" (everything you always wanted to know about the history of submarines, from the 1620s on)
Edwin Gray, "Few Survived: A History of Submarine Disasters" (the title says it all)
John Craven, "The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea"
Sontag & Drew, "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" (hard to put down)
Hicks & Kropf, "Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine"

From the Civil War submarine Hunley through the 2000 sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, this 176-page medium format book has eight chapters about the loss and subsequent discovery or recovery of several famous American, Russian German, Japanese, British, Australian and Israeli submarines. By far the best feature of the book is the large quantity of well-reproduced paintings and photographs. There are terrific paintings depicting nighttime images of the CSS Hunley stalking the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor in 1864 and dramatic paintings of German U-Boats stalking their prey in the stormy WWI-WWII Atlantic. The most unique and haunting images are underwater photographs of sea growth-encrusted submarines taken on research and archeological expeditions around the world. There is a small bibliography, list of relevant websites and source for each reproduced painting or photo.

I recommend this book. While not providing full details on any of these famous incidents (virtually all the submarines are the topic of at least one full book and numerous articles) this book is a good overview for anyone interested in naval and submarine history. It makes a photographic/painting supplement for the more demanding submarine researcher or buff.

Looking for an "edge" in the gym (or in life, because the lessons of Mind and Muscle translate very well outside of the weightroom? This book offers some very helpful practices for involving the mind in your workouts.
Mr. Whitmarsh's book centers on the idea that tremendous gains in size and durability can be made through an active mind-muscle connection. Through the use of various assessment exercises, the program is designed to teach you training strengths and weaknesses, and how to use mental tools to increase your effectiveness in goal setting and strength gains.
If you spend any time in a weight room, its clear that most people go about their lifting as a passive participant, especially from a mental standpoint. While involving mental tools is a slow learning process (as Whitmarsh admits), when incorporated into your program, the benefits are substantial. Using some of his methods, I've increased my bench presses over 20 pounds in the last month. I also have an increased desire to excel.
My trainer is big on the idea that "Intensity + Intelligence = Results". If your program requires a mental boost, or if you fail to recognize the importance of the thought process in your lifting regime, I encourage you to pick up this book.

This is a wonderful book. The explanation of mental skills for bodybuilding is done in a creative way. The exercises are easy to follow and they are truly helpful. I have become much stronger mentally since reading this book and it has helped me shape my body. I now know that I can have the body that I always wanted. I recommend that every bodybuilder, strength training coach and those interested in fitness buy this book. It is one of a kind. There is simply nothing out there that compares to this book.

Fadhma Amrouche became a well known Berber poet and singer in Paris in the 1960's. She is the mother of the famous writer Marguerite Taos, and the Berber singer Jean Amrouche. Her detailed autobiography explains what it was like to grow up the illegitimate outcast of her village. A bright and strong-spirited girl, she was educated in French an age when few women were educated. The book describes her constant worry to provide for her eight children, a fascinating look at traditional family dynamics in a polygamous household, and a passionate love for Berber culture. It ends with a collection of some of her poetry.

This book presents the life history of an ordinary- -yet very unique Kabyle woman. Fadhma Amrouche was born in 1882/1883 in an Algerian village. Never legitimized by her father, she was subject to endless ridicule by the villagers, prompting her mother to send her away to convent school for her own protection. It was at another convent where her future husband first noticed her, and where they were married, necessitating her conversion to Christianity. In the pages of this book, Amrouche describes her schooling, her marriage, and her children. Her personal and family struggles are the clear focus, while world wars, epidemics and the war of independence flicker through the background. She never had it easy, and she never felt at home, not in France, Tunisia, her husband's house, or even her own village. But when you consider the time period she lived through, how different was her experience, in the end, from those of her compatriots? This book is well worth reading for the wealth of information it contains about conditions in late Nineteenth Century Kabylia as well as for its story of simple endurance.

This book is for real world NDS applications. This book wont help for taking the Novell D&I test as this book is how it should be done. Novell's test is not interested in the right way.

This book is the standard. If you are installing NDS this is the book you MUST read before you begin. Critics of NDS are typically those who do not understand what a directory is and what it can do for you. This book will set them straight. Complaints about NDS installations arise due to poor installations. This book can prevent that. This book breaks down the information and is very easy to digest. This is an amazing book, and if you can find a copy of it, buy it. It's all about doing it right the first time, something far too few IT professionals understand. If you work with Netware and NDS, this is book should be in your library.

When I think about Point Reyes, images of beautiful lighthouse, geographically peculiar landscape, boats on the serene Tomales Bay. Point Reyes Visions has captured some stunning views of Point Reyes. The book is unique in its coverage on oysters, the fire, and lives on the peninsula. If you are looking for many breath-taking views of Point Reyes landscapes, Point Reyes Visions would be a disappointment.

MaryKae and I saw this book at the Olema Inn this afternoon when we stopped for a latte' and a mocha. It was on the coffee table in the lobby. The photographs are wonderful. Marin County is a treasure, and this book captures its beauty exquisitely. It will be a number one selection for us to send to friends for Christmas so we can share with them the beauty of our beloved Marin County...

I have been below average in Math for most of my life but thanks to Prealgebra by Blair, Tobey and Slater my grade went up considerably. I managed to maintain a B average thanks to this comprehensive and easy to follow book. It set a steady foundation for me. Thanks

This book worked good for me, I also had a good teacher though. Never found mistakes in it. Good beginning book to learn Pre-Algebra concepts

its a wake up call, it was my first book on the subject of interracial marriages I ever read, it sure widened my horizon.

Mariama Ba brings to life the true realities and complexities of interraccial marriage. She writes poignantly and beautifully. She is a master narrator, and will amaze you with her fabulous storytelling. I have read "Scarlet Song" numerous times, and wrote my senoir thesis about this book.