Henry And Mudge And The Sneaky Crackers
July 26, 2008
With his new spy kit and his faithful sidekick Mudge, Henry is ready to look for clues, steal secrets, and flirt with danger. One of the first things Henry and Mudge find is a coded message — could there be another spy in the neighborhood?
Customer Review: NEPHEW LOVED THIS ONE TOO
I bought a bunch of these for my 9 year old nephew who was 7 and he loved them. This one he really liked. He enjoyed reading about the adventures of Henry and Mudge. These books are fun, enjoyable, entertaining, and easy to read. I’ve read some myself and my son Ramon who is now in second grade loves them too. His cousin loves them as a second grader now he loves them. These are great starter books to help kids on their way to reading. They really motivate kids to read because of the funny, and entertaining stories.
Customer Review: Adorable and fun!
Henry buys a spy kit. He and his dog, Mudge, canvas the neighborhood to “flirt with danger” and “steal secrets”. One day Henry finds a secret code and is determined to crack it. Funny, adorable, irresistable Mudge is a favorite at house! He can even get my reluctant reader eager to see what happens next. Easy reading level with short chapters gives the hesitant reader a real sense of accomplishment. Buy from here…
ArtisanStreet’s Woven Wool Purse. Features Gray And Cream Diagonal Weave. Includes One Inside Velvet Paisley Pocket. Hand Crafted, One Of A Kind
July 26, 2008
Gray and cream diagonal weave bag is lined with gray wool and features one inside velvet paisley pocket. Price includes free ground shipping within the continental U.S. Buy from here…
From Here We Go Sublime
July 26, 2008
Electronic music usually profits from simplicity, a point the Field’s Axel Willner understood well when he made From Here We Go Sublime. Hailing from Sweden, Willner’s record has a weightless allure built out of droning spaces and populated with puffy cloud melodies that float and hover. It’s not exactly minimalist, because the layers are too complex and full of forward motion. But the assured way they repeat and loop into a dance-friendly texture would make both Brian Eno and Underworld proud.
FHWGS has no interest in the usual peaks and valleys of trance, and yet its consistent anthemic oomph makes it a distant relative of that oft-derided genre. Willner’s patience and his emphasis on muted beats enable him to get maximum impact with only slight tweaks. “Over the Ice” sets the table with soft tones and scattered, wordless voices before dropping a hyper cross-rhythm, while glitch-y sidebars frame the exceedingly kind melody that drives “A Paw in My Voice.” Even when the BPM notch gets kicked up on a relative burner like “Everyday,” it fits right in with the record’s benevolent disposition. It’s brilliant stuff, a less-is-more epic that wafts onto the dance floor like a gust of summer wind. –Matthew Cooke
Customer Review: Overpraised; enjoyable, not earth-shattering.
More than any other album in the past few years, From Here We Go Sublime reaches back to the “artistic” style of techno that was associated with Warp Records in the early nineties. Like the work of Autechre and Aphex Twin, it’s very minimal. The music doesn’t really have much forward development, and instead alternates between two or three different phrases for five to seven minutes at a time. Also like the work of Warp artists, the album as a whole seems designed for quiet contemplation, even though many of the individual songs are upbeat. The title gives away Axel Willner’s ambition — the album wants to be more than merely danceable, energetic or fun, it wants to be “sublime.”
On the first side, it succeeds to a large degree. The first six tracks are very listenable and make for excellent driving music. Willner’s secret weapon is the hazy production, which puts a slight hissing echo on the rhythms while keeping the volume low, so that they sound distant and mysterious. This technique appears on the first track “Over The Ice” and then is repeated exactly on “Good Things End.” The piano in “A Paw In My Face” and the keyboards in “Everday,” which might have sounded fit for some loud rave track in another context, are similarly treated. The effect is very hypnotic, drawing one into the rhythms.
But there’s a big difference between Aphex Twin and The Field. Willner doesn’t have the ability of Richard D. James to write simple but inventive and easily memorable instrumental melodies. In fact, he can’t really write an original drum track either. Instead, he relies on the most recognizable, generic dance beats, which he then gives the foggy echo treatment. You’ve probably heard all of them before in popular dance songs. The unvarying pulse of the backbeat makes many tracks seem very similar to one another. For its entire duration, “Over The Ice” repeats the exact same rhythm in different ways. A cut-up vocal sample is brought in, but again, it just follows the beat. There are no melodic lines, nor does the track build up to anything.
And that’s actually one of the best parts. The very insistence of the rhythm can be bracing, and after each occurrence of the vocal sample, there’s a well-timed break with a chugging counter-rhythm that raises the danceability factor. Under the right circumstances, it’s an enjoyable track. But it is limited. Even at its best, the album doesn’t have the evocative power of the best techno albums, since it avoids so many of the techniques that make electronic music appealing in the first place, without really substituting anything in their place. Even Willner’s use of samples results in less variety than one might think. “A Paw In My Face” uses a sample of a guitar from some disposable pop song, but then the sample is manipulated into a very simple two-note guitar line. As an earlier reviewer observed, the second it sounds like the guitar is about to really do something, the song ends.
The one exception to the ultra-minimalist rule is “Silent,” which starts out very similar to the other tracks, but introduces a cooing flute-like melody (possibly a manipulated vocal sample) halfway through. All of a sudden, the track really does come to resemble Aphex Twin’s best work. Instead of repeating the rhythm, the melody gently snakes around it. The end of the melody flows seamlessly into the beginning, and the unhurried repetition induces a blissful trance. It’s also placed quite well in the album, as the culmination of the strong first side and as an airy contrast to the shimmering, processed keyboards of “Everday.”
But as the album goes on, the music becomes even simpler and more repetitive, and comes to rely entirely on the echoing production for its effect. “Sun And Ice” goes back and forth between two different keyboard notes in the background, both set to a straightforward house thump. Pleasant as background music, but wearyingly long as a main focus. “The Deal” is a ten-minute succession of repetitions of one sample of airy female vocals, singing one note. Again, unintrusive and airy if kept in the background, but tedious if unaccompanied by some other activity. The title track is a confident demonstration of Willner’s method of composition — after playing a simple loop made out of a sample from some sixties song, he abruptly changes from the loop to the original sample, almost unchanged — but the fact is, its sole value is as a demonstration. Once you get past the surprise of the old song’s sudden appearance, the fact remains that there’s nothing of particular musical interest going on. Shortly thereafter, the song ends with a bunch of spastic and not very graceful bleeps.
So, overall I tend to agree with the reviewer who suggested that the album could best serve as a repository of techno “templates.” The album can be fun to listen to if you’re in the right mood, and it’s good as a complement to a setting. If you have something else to concentrate on while you’re listening, and you tune into focus only periodically, you might then feel like the album lives up to its name. But if you concentrate exclusively on the music, it may be difficult to sit through the whole thing.
Customer Review: Give it time
I had no patience for this album at first. It is highly repetitive and simple. I’ll admit that I was bored. I gave it some more chances, though. I listened to it while doing other things as background. I highly recommend doing the same. The beauty comes out in the details. It is written on a micro-level. It takes some work rather than the typical instant gratification of a macro composition. You come to expect some of the detailed tiny changes that happen. The gratification is well worth it. This is beautiful if you give it a chance. Buy from here…
STREET LIFE Women’s Cut T-Shirt
July 26, 2008
Pop-art is defined by themes from popular mass culture,advertising,comic books, pop art is a reaction to dominant ideas of abstract expressionism and expansion upon them. Pop art aims to employ images of the popular,the banal or kitschy any given culture. Category: Anarchy Buy from here…
Cat and Book Long Sleeve T-Shirt
July 26, 2008
Cat on the book. Comical pose with more than a hint of reality. Buy from here…
The Cemetery Club
July 23, 2008
In the heart-warming tradition of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, an all-star cast lights up the screen with irresistible laughter and captivating charm! Once a week, a circle of lifelong friends meet to pay tribute to the past. But when life throws them a few unexpected curves, they happily discover the best times are still ahead! Academy Award(R)-winners Olympia Dukakis (MOONSTRUCK) and Ellen Burstyn (ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE), plus nominees Diane Ladd (RAMBLING ROSE) and Danny Aiello (DO THE RIGHT THING), team up to deliver genuinely delightful performances in this enchanting comedy treat! Join them for a fun-filled celebration you’re sure to enjoy.
Customer Review: The Cemetery Club
It really is changed too much from the original play. Changing characters names is just too much of a change.
Customer Review: Movie Review
The Cemetery Club has been one of my favorite movies for years. Before purchasing the movie through Amazon, I had been searching all video stores for the movie. I wished I had thought of Amazon before searching for the movie elsewhere because it was so easy to find on Amazon and just as easy to puchase, as well.
The Cemetery Club is a movie for all ages. It is especially fun to watch with family members. The cast is fantastic; Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis, Ellyn Bursten and Diane Ladd and Christina Ricci has a small part in the film as a young girl.
I highly recommend this movie. Buy from here…
Compendium of Club Juggling
July 23, 2008
A club juggling guide with over 700 hundred tips, tricks and patterns, it is well illustrated, and completely cross-referenced. A must have for any Club Juggler. This book is authored by the same man who wrote the Encyclopedia of ball juggling. With the same style that we fell in love with in the EBJ, he now brings club juggling and club passing to us. Buy from here…
Enigma 3: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
July 23, 2008
With Over 17 Million Albums Sold Worldwide, Enigma Returns with their Third Album featuring 12 New Lush and Moody Tracks.
Customer Review: Awesome, great New Age!
I have to say, I downloaded “The Child in Us” on IMesh, and I fell in love of the whole aura the song portrayed. I bought the CD just for this song, but I fell in love of it all. Enigma is one of those artists who really makes music, and every touch, detail, and passion can be felt. The songs with lyrics, as well as those without each have a special meaning which transports you to someplace inside and make reflections. Even though some songs do not have lots and lots of lyrics, are brief but just right and DO HAVE A MEANING. Another point is that the music never stops from a song to the other, it is just a pleasant trip and the changes between songs are just well worked so each escence does not get lost or has an abrupt ending. Powerful “The Roundabout” and “Why…! bring an interesting mixture of soft and agressive vocals, maintaining the concept of new age music blends; meanwhile, soft and beautiful “Child in Us”, “Prism of Life”, and “Shadows in Silence” totally brings auras of peace and thought. New Age is the music of the future as many already have that concept in mind, and will possibly be. This is way better than most of the musical crap among popular music, and when I listen to each song here I am just transported to a NEW ERA, and forget about what is being heard outside =)
Customer Review: Mesmerizing………
To listen to Enigma is to
go out of your mind……
but in a good way.
Take the trip–
it’s well worth it.
I highly recommend them to
one and to all. Buy from here…
The Skulls 3
July 23, 2008
Clare Kramer of TV’s “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” stars as Taylor Brooks, a sexy, young undergrad who is determined to become the first female member of the secret Skulls society. After she coerces the Council into including her in the initiation rites of the elite brotherhood, Taylor soon finds herself engulfed in a sinister world of deception, intimidation and murder.
Customer Review: Clare Kramer lifts this one
I bought this one only because I saw gravedancers and I thought Clare Kramer was good in that. I did not see the second Skulls movie, but I thought the first one was okay. (not great - just okay). This was a decent movie if you want to kill a couple hours. It is pretty predictable and the resolution is obvious early on, but it is fairly entertaining. Clare (who is in virtually the entire movie) does a good job carrying the film, although for all her character’s struggles with conscience and the tragedies that have led her to this point, I thought she was kind of shallow when she got what she wanted. She was also a bit unbelievable as the most competent of the pledges trying to make it into the Skulls. She was the best man in the group. I don’t see those guys as the future movers and shakers of America. Barry Bostwick was solid and the rest of the cast did a decent job. I would recommend this movie based on an interesting (if not completely original) concept, sincere acting, and a lack of bad language. I’ve never been one who thought that foul language just for the sake of foul language added anything to a film. It’s nice when you find a film that doesn’t abuse it.
Customer Review: [Out of Five] Not bad, Clare Kramer is fine, but…
This Series is running out of steam. See
it on TV if you can, but see the first 2
in the Series first (Who’s?) Barry Bostwick
[he’s better in Leslie Nielsen’s ‘Spy Hard]
is also diabolical in here about Fraternity
boss who has plan to infiltrate his Co. into
US Military with help of CLare’s father - until
killed by his son (!) at the end. Good ending! Buy from here…
The Open Championship - The 2006 Official Film
July 23, 2008
The return of the Open to the Royal Liverpool Gold Club after a gap of 39 years produced one of the greatest Championships of the modern era with a display of near-flawless shot-making by defending champion Tiger Woods. This film not only tells the story of Tiger’s triumph over the world’s finest players to claim his third Open title and his first Major since the death of his father, but also provides a definitive record of the drama and excitement that surrounded the 135th Open Championship.
Customer Review: Wonderful to watch again!
Tiger’s emotional win at Royal Liverpool, the first after the loss of his father (and best friend) Earl, is one I’ll never forget. His golf was calculated, precise, and nearly flawless. Chris DiMarco’s attempt to catch Tiger on Sunday made for better drama than most Hollywood movies. Tiger’s brain gets him trophies, but it was the rare glimpse of his heart that will always make this Open memorable. A must for Tiger fans, or for anyone who enjoys spectacular golf or high drama on a Sunday.
Customer Review: Worth the read
The book offers what feels to be a valuable revelation about improving your game. The information is well presented and the CD is a nice addition…but really i think counting the the tempo/timing to yourself would be more effective; at least that worked better for me. Buy from here…
This site offers tips and guides how to open a community book club.
