"Recurrent Neural Networks for Prediction: Learning Algorithms,
Architectures and Stability," approaches the field of recurrent neural networks from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. Starting from the fundamentals, where unexpected insights are offered even at the level of the dynamical richness of simple neurons, the authors describe many existing algorithms and gradually introduce novel ones. The latter are convicingly shown to yield better prediction performances than traditional approaches, when applied to real-world data. They also dedicate a considerable amount of time on the (practical) issue of nonlinearity analysis of time series, which is or should be, indeed, the cradle of all proper modelling and/or filtering solutions: nonlinearity should be assessed prior to choosing the appropriate model and/or filters, since linear ones are to be preferred if sufficient for the problem. I would recommend this book to any researcher who is active in the field of recurrent neural networks and time series analysis, but also to researchers who are new in the field, since the book offers an extensive overview of the current state-of-the-art approaches.

Laurette Goldberg draws upon her expertise as a teacher, performer, founder of several musical enterprises to present Rediscovered Bach: Vocal Chamber Music In The Bach Cantatas. In addition to the music itself, Goldberg has drawn on source materials to create a very "user friendly" format enhanced with clear background of the Baroque period musical styles. Rediscovered Bach is an essential, core title for personal, professional, music school, and community performance groups' reference collections.

DaCapo does it again, bringing back into print the best jazz criticism. I read this collection of Giddins' Village Voice essays a couple of years after it was first published by Oxford in '85. The picture of jazz it captures from the early 80s is, for better or worse, not so different from the picture today. No revolutions, just an ongoing period of recombinations and the uneasy coexistence of various styles.

Giddins is catholic in his enthusiasms, but I was and continue to be more interested in the avant-garde. In addition to swing and bop players (including Monk, from whom he took his title), here are some of the players he writes about, mainly their recordings, but also some concerts: Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Ronald Shannon Jackson, James Blood Ulmer, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, James DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, James Newton, Anthony Davis, Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, the William Breuker Kollektief, and Alexander von Schlippenbach's Global Unity Orchestra.

He concludes a review of the "Young Lions" performance, including the 21-year-old Wynton Marsalis, at the 1982 Kool Jazz Festival in NYC with these prophetic lines: "My intuition tells me that innovation isn't this generation's fate...the neoclassicists have a task no less valuable than innovation: sustenance. [M]usicians such as Marsalis are needed to restore order, replenish melody, revitalize the beat, loot the tradition for whatever works, and expand the audience. That way we'll be all the hungrier for the next incursion of genuine avant-gardists..." (161) Of course "this generation" cannot be reduced to the neoclassical revivalists, but to the extent that they have dominated the jazz world since the mid-80s, Giddins had it right "on the money," in every sense of the word.

I've lost track of Giddens since this book. I hope he hasn't been swallowed up by the Marsalis/Lincoln Center repertory vision of jazz, which aims to turn it into a type of classical music with no future. Contrary to Marsalis, the living soul of jazz is creative improvisation, not ossified composition!

Besides "The Ride of the Valkyries," (from Die Walkuere, 1856) this volume contains these other orchestral highlights from Wagner's Ring: Entry of the Gods into Valhalla (from Das Rheingold, 1854); Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music (from Die Walkuere, 1856); Forest Murmers (from Siegfried, 1869); Siegfried's Rhine Journey (from Goetterdaemmerung, 1874); Siegfried's Funeral Music (from Goetterdaemmerung, 1874). From Dover's Bibliographical Note: "This Dover edition, first published in 1996, is a new compilation of six scores originally published separately. B. Schott's Soehne, Mainz, originally published Der Ritt der Walkueren aus dem Musik-Drama Die Walkuere von R. Wagner/fuer Orchester zum Conzertvortrag eingerichtet, edition No. 22139, n.d.; and Trauermarsch beim Tode Siegfried's aus dem Musik-Drama Goetterdaemmerung/fuer grosses Orchester von Richard Wagner, edition No. 21998, n.d. The other scores in this compilation were originally published in early authoritative editions, n.d., including: Einzug der Goetter in Walhall (from Das Rheingold); Wotans Abschied und Feuerzauber (from Die Walkuere); Waldweben (from Siegfried); and Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt (from Goetterdaemmerung), transcribed by Engelbert Humperdinck. The Dover edition adds lists of contents and instrumentation, a glossary of German terms and English translations of four footnotes. A few errors in the scores have been corrected, including incorrect pitches in "Wotan's Farewell," p. 123, and missing accidentals throughout the timpani part of that work. We are grateful to the Duke University Music Library for the loan of several scores."

When I was first getting seriously into jazz, this book (along with Martin Williams's The Jazz Tradition) was the principal critical aid. Since then I've reread it for pleasure countless times, for it's not only critically perspicacious but also has considerable literary merit. Da Capo is righting a longstanding wrong by putting this book back into print, as the original Oxford University Press edition has been unavailable for some time. Not only new converts, but old sweats who happened to miss it the first time around should read this book, or just anyone who likes well-written prose. One of the nice things about reprints is the chance for an author to put in a contemporary word, and it's very nice to see that this book has a new preface by Giddins, written almost 20 years after the introduction to the first edition. He comments with bemusement on the younger writer represented in these pages, and gives valuble information on the publishing history of Riding On A Blue Note, as well as updating the Red Rodney piece somewhat.

Though this is a book primarily about jazz, it lives up to it's subtitle (Jazz and American Pop) by including chapters on Bing Crosby, Otis Blackwell, Bobby Blue Bland, the Dominoes, and Frank Sinatra, though Giddins gives fair warning in the old intro that they are studied from the viewpoint of a jazz critic. In fact, the chapter entitled "Just How Much Did Elvis Learn from Otis Blackwell?" is one of the most fascinating in the book as it attempts to uncover some of the tangled, subterranean back-and-forth influences between black and white music. The chapter on Red Rodney ("Adventures of the Red Arrow") is funny as hell and functions as an entertaining short story even if it is someday proved to be a Rodney-perpetrated hoax. I'm tempted to say that Giddins is particularly sound on Ellington, Count Basie, and Dexter Gordon, but then I would have to add that he also does well by trombonist Jack Teagarden, Irving Berlin, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker... Though I hate to sound like a jacket blurb, the fact is that this truly is one of those rare collections in which every essay is a gem, both informative on first reading and a delight to reread. The only drawback is that Da Capo charges top dollar for their paperback reprints, but it's worth it. Giddins has written several other fine books over the years but there's something special about this one.

When I read "Running a perfect BBS" by Mark Chambers, I had just started to run my own BBS. I found it to be -extremely- informative and intuitive. It is a book by SysOps for SysOps. Mark Chambers and the co-authors did a wonderful job describing BBS packages. high-lighting the function and benefits of each. Mr. Chambers provided a very insightful look at legal and troubleshooting issues, describing possible legal problems and hardware fixes. Mark does not center on one particular BBS engine over the others, (just a little bit of Wildcat! BBS) and provides a very unbiased view, which is a nice break from David Wolfe's "The BBS Construction Kit & Expanding your BBS". (I am not bashing those two books! they are very good.) Running a Perfect BBS includes descriptions of how to operate BBS doors and external mail programs, as well as Internet connectivity and Satellite interfacing. I still find this book useful for reference and would recommend it to anyone who shows an interest in starting their own BBS. Despite it's age, "Running a Perfect BBS" is still valid, for BBS software hasn't radically within the last couple of years. Pick it up! you will not be dissapointed. (It comes with a disk that has Wildcat BBS, and other utilties)

This book was a gift to my son when he was 2 and at 6 he still likes to read it and put Santa "through the paces" of the Christmas activities. Santa sits at a table, lies in the bed for a nap, rides in his sleigh and of course...goes down a chimney! A great gift idea and will be used for a long time!

This book is great encouragement for singles trying to keep hope of finding a mate. It gives wonderful humorous stories of the authors experiences as a single.

I found the book easy reading for all ages. It is a great tool to be used for teenage girls when they start to date.

It is great to know there are other singles struggling in the world.

The stories, poems, and excerpts convey the briliant language, shape, and humanity of this great author's work. Adjectives like "unusual" or "experimental" may be bandied about, but what I come away with is a deep sense of delight and mystery that is fully accessible and to be cherished.

The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi is a masterpiece of dysfunction. A lord who becomes obsessed with 'woman heads,' noseless heads collected at the ends of mighty battles. The samurai are to collect the heads of fallen foes during battle, but the more kills, the harder it is to carry all the heads, so instead they take noses, and it is the job of a group of women to fit the noses back onto the voided faces. It is this ritual the young Lord of Musashi comes across, and the rest makes for a great read!