Empires of Industry: Black Gold - The Story of Oil

• It is the most valuable substance on earth. It has brought riches to poor nations and bankrupted wealthy ones. It has spurred wars, and given immense fortunes and power to the men who control it Filled with interviews with industry insiders and industrial historians, BLACK GOLD is the definitive portrait of the oil industry. Discover how unrefined oil was used through history, from ancient Chin

Their wolves are howling at the moon. Their human halves are on different planets.

Takhini Wolves, Book 1

Lone wolf Shaun Stevens’s automatic response to the words “happily ever after”? Kill me now. Yet with all his friends settling down he’s begun to think there may actually be something to this love-and-roses crap.

One thing’s for sure: his dream mate will have to out-cuss, out-spit and out-hike him. So he never expected the one to push his foreve! r button would be a blue-blooded Southern debutante with a voice as dark and velvety as her skin.

When Gemmita Jacobs steps off the plane in Whitehorse, Yukon, it’s about more than her caribou research project. It’s her declaration of independence from an overprotected upbringing. Except there’s something in the air she can’t quite defineâ€"something that unexpectedly rouses her mating instincts.

Moments after their eyes lock, the deed is doneâ€"and done thoroughly. When the pheromone dust settles, though, all the reasons they don’t belong together become painfully clear.

It’s enough to make a wolf learn a whole new set of cuss words…

Warning: Two strong wolves getting exactly what they deserve. Includes wilderness nookie, shifters being naughty in public places, the Midnight Sun as a canopy for seduction and grizzly shifters on the loose. Oh, and don’t forget the sarcasm.

Their wolves are howling at the moon. Their h! uman halves are on different planets.

Takhini! Wolves, Book 1

Lone wolf Shaun Stevens’s automatic response to the words “happily ever after”? Kill me now. Yet with all his friends settling down he’s begun to think there may actually be something to this love-and-roses crap.

One thing’s for sure: his dream mate will have to out-cuss, out-spit and out-hike him. So he never expected the one to push his forever button would be a blue-blooded Southern debutante with a voice as dark and velvety as her skin.

When Gemmita Jacobs steps off the plane in Whitehorse, Yukon, it’s about more than her caribou research project. It’s her declaration of independence from an overprotected upbringing. Except there’s something in the air she can’t quite defineâ€"something that unexpectedly rouses her mating instincts.

Moments after their eyes lock, the deed is doneâ€"and done thoroughly. When the pheromone dust settles, though, all the reasons they don’t belong together become painfully clea! r.

It’s enough to make a wolf learn a whole new set of cuss words…

Warning: Two strong wolves getting exactly what they deserve. Includes wilderness nookie, shifters being naughty in public places, the Midnight Sun as a canopy for seduction and grizzly shifters on the loose. Oh, and don’t forget the sarcasm.

Film is for HOME USE ONLY! Copies for public screenings or use in the classroom can be purchased from California Newsreel at www(dot)newsreel(dot)org
After oil, coffee is the most actively traded commodity in the world. But for every $2 cup of coffee, a farmer receives only a few pennies. Black Gold asks us to face the unjust conditions under which our favorite drink is produced and to decide what we can do about it. The film traces the tangled trail from the two billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce the beans. Founder of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, Tade! sse Meskela is fighting to help his 70,000 Ethiopian coffee fa! rmers by seeking out buyers willing to pay a fair price. Through his journey, Tadesse begins to expose the web of greed and corruption inherent to the international trading system, including the World Trade Organization. Black Gold reminds viewers of their power to affect positive social change by way of their consumer vote. After seeing this film your coffee will never taste the same.
Film contains overprinting warning against public use in 3 points during the film, at 5 second intervals.Billy "Goldie" Goldean is the biggest pop star in the world and he's harboring a terrible, career-killing secret: he's gay. Even with song titles such as "Astral Glider" and "Winking Brown Eye," few question Goldie's squeaky-clean teen heartthrob status. That is, until Jethro "Jett" Black, an infamous womanizer and underground punk icon, names him in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine as the celebrity he'd most like to fuck.

After Goldie and Jett hook up at an indus! try party, Goldie's management dumps him, Jett's exes come back to haunt them, and even Goldie's mother makes a public plea for him to come to his senses. Goldie wants to trust his untamed new lover but the pressures of fame may tear them apart.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices.Billy "Goldie" Goldean is the biggest pop star in the world and he's harboring a terrible, career-killing secret: he's gay. Even with song titles such as "Astral Glider" and "Winking Brown Eye," few question Goldie's squeaky-clean teen heartthrob status. That is, until Jethro "Jett" Black, an infamous womanizer and underground punk icon, names him in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine as the celebrity he'd most like to fuck.

After Goldie and Jett hook up at an industry party, Goldie's management dumps him, Jett's exes come back to haunt them, and even G! oldie's mother makes a public plea for him to come to his sens! es. Gold ie wants to trust his untamed new lover but the pressures of fame may tear them apart.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices.The most valuable substance on earth has brought wealth to poor nations and nearly bankrupted wealthy ones. It has created cities overnight--sometimes destroying them just as quickly--and has caused rampant international warfare. When a Canadian chemist found a way to turn petroleum into kerosene in the 1850s, the need for oil exploded. "Black gold" burns at the heart of the modern age, making those who control it the wealthiest and most powerful men on earth. Black Gold: The Story of Oil narrates the stories of these men--including John D. Rockefeller and William Mellon--and the empires they built. Learn how oil came to dominate American industry--and about the nation's current dependency--and discover why the r! esource continues to cause global flare-ups. EMPIRES OF INDUSTRY presents the comprehensive history of "black gold," the resource that continues to govern our world. DVD Features: Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

Empires of Industry

Empires of Industry is a mini-series which explores the cornerstones of America's economic might that established the United States as a world leader. Each of the one hour programs in this remarkable series focuses on an industry which played a unique ro! le in America's rise to world economic dominance. The stories ! of chang ing fortunes in the steel, coal, brewing, ship building and textile industries reveal much about our country's past and present. Empires of Industry would be useful for classes on American History, History of Science and Technology, Economics and American Culture. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

Black Gold: The Story of Oil

Modern America depends on a steady source of petroleum and petroleum by-products to satisfy its ever-increasing and voracious appetite for fuel. Oil, the “black gold” of the ground, is one of America’s most precious and abundant commodities, and yet America still need’s the oil exports of Arab nations to fill its need. Black Gold, The Story of Oil chronicles the birth and rise of the oil industry in the United States, from its fledgling beginnings, through the days of John D. Rockefeller and the robber barons, to the Gulf War and the p! resent.

Vocabulary

• antithesis
• apex
• commodity
• cower
• culmination
• deploy
• derivative
• embers
• extract
• extrovert
• illuminant
• introvert
• invincible
• kerosene
• monopoly
• oblivion
• persistence
• resolve
• sovereign
• tailspin

Discussion Questions

1. Oil is sometimes called “black gold.” Why is it called by this name?

2. Prior to the discovery of kerosene, Americans illuminated their homes with candles or whale oil. How did kerosene change the lives of Americans? How did the discovery of kerosene change the process of gathering petroleum?

3. What is persistence? How did Edwin Drake’s persistence finally pay off? What other figures in American history have displayed remarkable persistence?
4. Standard Oil made John D. Rockefeller one of the r! ichest m en in American history. How and why did Rockefeller get into the oil business?

5. Discuss the concept of a boom/bust economy and the boom/bust towns that surrounded the oil industry. What industries today still have boom/bust characteristics?

6. How did Standard Oil eliminate most of its competition?

7. Besides being one of the richest men in America, John D. Rockefeller was also one of the most criticized. Why did Rockefeller face so much criticism?

8. Why did Thomas Edison’s light bulb threaten the oil industry?

9. How did the automobile industry save the oil industry?

10. In the early years of the 20th century, Spindle Top in Texas erupted into the largest oil well in America. How did Spindle Top change the oil industry?

11. What is OPEC? Why did it place and embargo on the United States in the 1970s? What were the results?

Extended Activities

1. Cr! eate a poster that illustrates the uses for petroleum and petroleum by-products and also suggests some other alternatives for these products.

2. Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter. Write an account of the eruption of Spindle Top that conveys the magnitude of this oil strike to your readers.

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Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story (Full Screen Edition)

• brings a lot of laughs

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 12/09/2008 Run time: 92 minutes Rating: Pg13How's this for impressive trivia: Dodgeball faced off against The Terminal in opening-weekend competition, and 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber aced Steven Spielberg by a score of $30 to $18.7 in box-office millions. That's no mean feat for a newcomer, but Thurber's lowbrow script and rapid-fire direction--along with a sublime cast of screen comedians--proved to be just what moviegoers were ravenous for: a consistently hilarious, patently formulaic romp in which the underdog owner of Average Joe's Gym (Vince Vaughan) faces foreclosure unless he can raise $50,000 in 30 days. The solution: A dodgeball tournament offering $50K to the winners, in which Vaughan and his nerdy clientele team up against the preening, abhorrently narcissistic owner (Ben Stiller) of Globo G! ym, who's threatening a buy-out. That's it for story; any 5-year-old could follow it with brainpower to spare. But Thurber, Vaughan, Stiller, and their well-cast costars (including Stiller's off-screen wife, Christine Taylor) keep the big laughs coming for 96 nonsensical minutes. With spot-on cameos by champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, Hank Azaria, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner, and a crudely amusing coda for those who watch past the credits, Dodgeball is no masterpiece, but you can bet Spielberg was unexpectedly humbled by its popular appeal. --Jeff ShannonYou'll dodge, duck, dip, dive. . . and laugh out loud watching Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller settle their differences in a winner-take-all dodgeball competition. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ, Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn), Peter LaFleur (Vaughn) and his Average Joes take on the Purple Cobras, led by egomaniacal fitness guru, White Goodman (Stiller). It's an over-! the-top underdog tale filled with hilarious sight gags and bal! ls-out f un!How's this for impressive trivia: Dodgeball faced off against The Terminal in opening-weekend competition, and 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber aced Steven Spielberg by a score of $30 to $18.7 in box-office millions. That's no mean feat for a newcomer, but Thurber's lowbrow script and rapid-fire direction--along with a sublime cast of screen comedians--proved to be just what moviegoers were ravenous for: a consistently hilarious, patently formulaic romp in which the underdog owner of Average Joe's Gym (Vince Vaughn) faces foreclosure unless he can raise $50,000 in 30 days. The solution: A dodgeball tournament offering $50K to the winners, in which Vaughn and his nerdy clientele team up against the preening, abhorrently narcissistic owner (Ben Stiller) of Globo Gym, who's threatening a buy-out. That's it for story; any 5-year-old could follow it with brainpower to spare. But Thurber, Vaughn, Stiller, and their well-cast costars (including S! tiller's off-screen wife, Christine Taylor) keep the big laughs coming for 96 nonsensical minutes. With spot-on cameos by champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, Hank Azaria, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner, and a crudely amusing coda for those who watch past the credits, Dodgeball is no masterpiece, but you can bet Spielberg was unexpectedly humbled by its popular appeal. --Jeff ShannonYou'll dodge, duck, dip, dive. . . and laugh out loud watching Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller settle their differences in a winner-take-all dodgeball competition. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ, Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn), Peter LaFleur (Vaughn) and his Average Joes take on the Purple Cobras, led by egomaniacal fitness guru, White Goodman (Stiller). It's an over-the-top underdog tale filled with hilarious sight gags and balls-out fun!How's this for impressive trivia: Dodgeball faced off against The Terminal in opening-weekend c! ompetition, and 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Th! urber ac ed Steven Spielberg by a score of $30 to $18.7 in box-office millions. That's no mean feat for a newcomer, but Thurber's lowbrow script and rapid-fire direction--along with a sublime cast of screen comedians--proved to be just what moviegoers were ravenous for: a consistently hilarious, patently formulaic romp in which the underdog owner of Average Joe's Gym (Vince Vaughan) faces foreclosure unless he can raise $50,000 in 30 days. The solution: A dodgeball tournament offering $50K to the winners, in which Vaughan and his nerdy clientele team up against the preening, abhorrently narcissistic owner (Ben Stiller) of Globo Gym, who's threatening a buy-out. That's it for story; any 5-year-old could follow it with brainpower to spare. But Thurber, Vaughan, Stiller, and their well-cast costars (including Stiller's off-screen wife, Christine Taylor) keep the big laughs coming for 96 nonsensical minutes. With spot-on cameos by champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, Han! k Azaria, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner, and a crudely amusing coda for those who watch past the credits, Dodgeball is no masterpiece, but you can bet Spielberg was unexpectedly humbled by its popular appeal. --Jeff ShannonYou'll dodge, duck, dip, dive. . . and laugh out loud watching Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller settle their differences in a winner-take-all dodgeball competition. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ, Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn), Peter LaFleHow's this for impressive trivia: Dodgeball faced off against The Terminal in opening-weekend competition, and 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber aced Steven Spielberg by a score of $30 to $18.7 in box-office millions. That's no mean feat for a newcomer, but Thurber's lowbrow script and rapid-fire direction--along with a sublime cast of screen comedians--proved to be just what moviegoers were ravenous for: a consistently hilarious, patently formulaic romp i! n which the underdog owner of Average Joe's Gym (Vince Vaughan! ) faces foreclosure unless he can raise $50,000 in 30 days. The solution: A dodgeball tournament offering $50K to the winners, in which Vaughan and his nerdy clientele team up against the preening, abhorrently narcissistic owner (Ben Stiller) of Globo Gym, who's threatening a buy-out. That's it for story; any 5-year-old could follow it with brainpower to spare. But Thurber, Vaughan, Stiller, and their well-cast costars (including Stiller's off-screen wife, Christine Taylor) keep the big laughs coming for 96 nonsensical minutes. With spot-on cameos by champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, Hank Azaria, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner, and a crudely amusing coda for those who watch past the credits, Dodgeball is no masterpiece, but you can bet Spielberg was unexpectedly humbled by its popular appeal. --Jeff Shannon

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Warren Miller's Higher Ground

• Crisscrossing the globe, hitting the steeps of Alaska, terrain parks in Colorado, deep powder in British Columbia and cliffs in Switzerland, Warren Miller s Higher Ground brings to life the ultimate skiing and snowboarding footage from around the globe! Warren Miller s Higher Groundchronicles skiers and snowboarders in their never-ending search for new and thrilling ways to ride the snow. Part

A riveting memoir of one woman's immersion into fundamentalist faith, and her decision twenty years later to leave it all behind. Beautifully written and powerfully told, this memoir is a fascinating look at the nature of faith, and the inspiring story of one woman's struggle to find her place in the world. Originally published as This Dark World, this book has been adapted into the screenplay Higher Ground, now a film directed by and starring Vera Farmiga.

Carolyn Briggs grew u! p with modest means in the Iowa Heartland. Pregnant at seventeen and married to her musician boyfriend, by the age of eighteen she found herself with little hope for the future. Until an unexpected encounter with the Divine.

Soon she had immersed herself into a close-knit and patriarchal New Testament church. But as Carolyn began to realize that her religion left little room for what she wanted out of life-as a mother, as a wife, as an intellectually curious woman-cracks began to appear in her all-encompassing sense of faith, and slowly she began to question the religion that had given her hope.John Denver stars in this dramatic thriller set against the awesome backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness. A disillusioned FBI agent decides to retire and join his buddy running an air freight business. When his friend is murdered and unjustly branded a bootlegger, the former agent sets out to clear his friend's name.Singer-songwriter John Denver sought to reboot his career a! nd carve out a new role for himself as an action hero with ! Higher G round. This TV movie, clearly intended as a pilot for a possible series, stars Denver as former FBI agent Jim Clayton, who goes to Alaska when the incompetence of his superiors at the bureau becomes unbearable. In the vast wilderness, he teams up with an old friend named Rick, who has an air freight business. But Rick soon turns up dead and it's up to Jim to clear his friend's name of bootlegging charges and bring peace to Rick's wife and son. Along the way, of course, there's an occasion for Denver to pull out his guitar and exercise his soaring tenor. The plot and overall quality is standard television fare of the 1980s: The bad guys are obviously bad, a young boy needs to regain his faith in humanity, and solving the case doesn't involve detective work so much as looking earnest and getting into awkwardly choreographed fist fights. Still, Denver's sincere and likable personality comes through and fans will enjoy his performance. Also starring John Rhys-Davies (Raid! ers of the Lost Ark, the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Richard Masur (Risky Business). --Bret FetzerNo Description Available.
Genre: Vocals
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 11-NOV-1997She's been eclipsed by a generation of newfangled power divas, but Babs still has it--superior repertoire in the Tin Pan Alley tradition, deep-pile production from the likes of Foster, Mardin and Afanasieff, and those zillion dollar pipes. Cuddlesome James Brolin gets a credit "for giving me the love I sing about" on tunes like "Leading with Your Heart," while the title track, "At the Same Time," and "Everything Must Change" could one day be used in a Broadway musical about pre-millennial spirituality. --Jeff BatemanCrisscrossing the globe, hitting the steeps of Alaska, terrain parks in Colorado, deep powder in British Columbia and cliffs in Switzerland, Warren Miller’s Higher Ground brings to l! ife the ultimate skiing and snowboarding footage from around t! he globe !

Warren Miller’s Higher Groundchronicles skiers and snowboarders in their never-ending search for new and thrilling ways to ride the snow.

Part action/adventure, part documentary, Warren Miller’s Higher Ground also features legendary athletes such as World Cup mogul champion Jeremy Bloom, big mountain skiers Jeremy Nobis and Seth Morrison, ski-base jumping innovator Shane McConkey, and the sport’s hot-dogging icon, Glen Plake, as well as up and coming stars like five-year-old phenom Bridger Gile.

Special Features Include:
• " Glen Plake - Through The Ages" Featurette
• 5.1 Surround Sound
• And more!

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City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 3)

• ISBN13: 9780345515599
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

IT’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.
 
Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess’s bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city’s most notorious crime bossâ€"and Chess’s drug dealerâ€"gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn’t bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he’s not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with! the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magicâ€"all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

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The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Box set; Black & White; DVD; NTSC

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 01/12/2010 Run time: 110 minutes Rating: RThe remarkable documentary Brothers at War begins with a simple premise: Jake Rademacher wants to understand the experience of his younger brothers Isaac and Joe, both serving in the American military in Iraq. What unfolds proves amazingly complex, fusing a troubled family history (another Rademacher brother died at home), wrenching interviews with wives and girlfriends left behind, and a startlingly unfiltered portrait of on-the-ground soldiers in the middle of a combat zone. Because the filmmaker is already part of these people's lives, he's able to capture a kind of emotional nakedness you don't often see; when Joe's girlfriend talks about how Joe's military service has changed him, a window opens into her life that's! almost uncomfortably intimate. Because of his relationship to one of their comrades, the soldiers in Iraq accept Jake in a completely different way than they'd respond to a typical journalist. They don't present a manicured image; Jake films them talking about why they're there, how they treat girls, shooting people (one soldier describes nearly shooting a child who was carrying a toy gun), and watching The O.C. Driven by sibling rivalry, Jake even puts himself in harm's way by going out on combat missions. Brothers at War doesn't have an ideology. Soldiers in the field defend each other out of personal solidarity, not abstract ideas; the same impulse drives this movie forward. It's unlike any other war documentary and can't be recommended strongly enough. --Bret FetzerCaptain Sam Cahill (Maguire) is embarking on his fourth tour of duty, leaving behind his beloved wife (Portman) and two daughters. When Sam’s Blackhawk helicopter is shot down in the m! ountains of Afghanistan, the worst is presumed, leaving an eno! rmous vo id in the family. Despite a dark history, Sam’s charismatic younger brother Tommy (Gyllenhaal) steps in to fill the family void.Screenwriter David Benioff (The 25th Hour) didn't have to do much to relocate Brothers from Denmark to America. The story remains the same: Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) loves his family, but he's equally devoted to his career. Just as his ne'er-do-well brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), exits prison, where he did time for robbery, the Marines deploy Sam to Afghanistan. Tommy starts looking in on his wary sister-in-law, Grace (Natalie Portman), but then Sam's helicopter crashes in the mountains, and the military informs Grace that her husband has died. Unbeknownst to the Cahill clan, the Taliban has taken Sam hostage and tortures him to elicit information. Sam resists, but his colleague caves, leading to an unthinkable act. Back in New Mexico, Grace and Tommy grow closer, stopping just short of a full-blown affair (in Susanne! Bier's original, they take the plunge). Even Tommy's disapproving Vietnam vet father, Hank (Sam Shepard), sees his son in a new light after Tommy renovates Grace's kitchen. But when Sam is rescued by his company, he returns a broken man and is convinced that his wife has fallen in love with his brother. Even his daughters are afraid of him (Bailee Madison impresses as the eldest). As in Bier's film, Jim Sheridan (In America) elevates redemption and forgiveness over tragedy and loss, and his well-meaning remake gets off to a solid start, but it loses steam by the end. Brothers offers a compelling scenario, but the telling is too overstated to capture the full heartbreak of the situation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Brothers (Click for larger image) < td>
BROTHERS AT WAR is Jerold S. Auerbach's probing and poignant exploration of the tragedy of the Altalena, the doomed ship whose arrival in Israel ignited Jewish fratricidal conflict only weeks after its declaration of statehood in 1948. The destruction of the Altalena, with sixteen of its fighters killed by Israeli soldiers in a bitter two-day batt! le, threatened the new nation with civil war. This is the first history of the Altalena by a historian and the first to locate it within the context of ancient Jewish and contemporary Israeli history. The Altalena remains embedded in Israeli memory, Auerbach suggests, still framing unresolved issues of political legitimacy and will in the Jewish state. This new book tells the story, and the present profound implications, of a moment in the birth of modern Israel that has angles and repercussions relevant to many issues today, in Israel and beyond.This set includes seven of only thirteen Marx Brothers films ever made! Collection includes: "A Night at the Opera" (1935) - The Marx Brothers turn Mrs. Claypool's opera into chaos in their efforts to help two young hopefuls get a break. It contains the famous scene where Groucho, Chico and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom with wall-to-wall people, gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs. "A Day at the Races" ! (1937) - Groucho stars as Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a horse veterina! rian dis pensing horse pills and quips with equal glee. Chico selling racing tips, Harpo destroying a piano to turn it into a harp and favorite foil actress Margaret Dumont make this thoroughbred comedy wall-to-wall hilarity. "A Night in Casablanca" (1946) - This parody of the Bogart/Bergman 1943 classic features the Nazis vs. the "nutsies" as the Marx Brothers foil Axis criminals when they find stolen jewels and paintings Nazis have hidden in a hotel. "Room Service"/"At the Circus" - These two films are combined on one disc to provide double doses of laughter. In "Room Service" (1938), Lucille Ball and Ann Miller provide comic co-star support while the Marx Brothers play producers trying to keep their show above water and a hotel room over their head. In "At the Circus" (1939) Groucho stars as professional shyster lawyer J. Cheever Loophole in the middle of big-top bedlam as the boys try to save the circus and look to Margaret Dumont for the money to do so. Groucho sings one of his ! famous songs, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." "Go West"/"The Big Store" - Another Marx Brothers twin bill makes this a hilarious comedy "two-fer." In the first, the Marxmen "Go West" (1940) to the land of outlaws and Indians where the fun never stops and where they outwit a land grabber. In "The Big Store" (1941), Groucho plays Attorney Wolf J. Flywheel who with sidekick Wacky (Harpo) and bodyguard Ravelli (Chico) are investigating the shady dealings of a crooked department store owner. Bonus extras include commentary by Leonard Maltin.When it comes to long-awaited treats like The Marx Brothers Collection, you can never get too much of a good thing. These seven comedies can't compare to the sheer lunacy of the five classics (The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup) that the Marx Bros. made for Paramount between 1929 and 1933 (available in The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection), but when ! uber-producer Irving Thalberg signed Groucho, Harpo, and Chico! to an M GM contract in 1935 (by which time sibling costar Zeppo had become the team's off-screen manager), he knew just how to cure their box-office blues. As a result, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were critical and commercial hits, lavishly produced according to the "Tiffany" studio's golden-age formula of glamorous set pieces and musical numbers combined with sensible plots that smoothly integrated snappy, well-written Marxian antics. Opera is the jewel of this set, with timeless scenes (the Stateroom, the Groucho-Chico contract negotiation, etc.) that rank among the greatest bits of silver-screen comedy... not to mention Groucho's flirtatious insults at Margaret Dumont's upper-crust expense.

A Day at the Races deserves near-equal acclaim ("Get-a your tootsie-fruitsie ice cream!"), but Thalberg's death in 1937 dealt a devastating blow, and the Marxes suffered from studio indifference, resulting in a succession of comedies that are time! lessly enjoyable even as they fall prey to diminishing returns. By the time they made Go West and The Big Store, the Marxes were out of their element, and a few of the musical interludes indulge racial stereotypes that were common in the studio era. Despite this, these movies remain fresh and frantic, and Warner Bros. (holder of the RKO and MGM libraries) has done a marvelous job of packaging The Marx Brothers Collection to nostalgically approximate the filmgoing experience of the 1930s and '40s, with vintage shorts (Our Gang, Robert Benchley comedies, MGM cartoons, etc.) from the time of each feature's original release. Archival materials are slim but worthwhile (especially Groucho's 1961 interview with TV talk-show host Hy Gardner), and while Glenn Mitchell's commentary on Races is sparse and superficial, Leonard Maltin brings his usual superfan's enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge to bear on a full-length Opera commentary track. The ! new documentaries are somewhat redundant, but essential viewin! g for Ma rx Bros. neophytes. With all seven films presented in pristine condition, this is definitely a Marx Brothers Collection worth having. --Jeff Shannon

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Head In The Clouds : Widescreen Edition

• Widescreen

Adelaide Proctor is a young woman with her head in the clouds, longing for a real-life storybook hero to claim as her own. But when a husband-hunting debacle leaves her humiliated, she interviews for a staid governess position on a central Texas sheep ranch and vows to leave her romantic yearnings behind.

When Gideon Westcott left his privileged life in England to make a name for himself in America's wool industry, he never expected to become a father overnight. And five-year-old Isabella hasn't uttered a word since she lost her mother. The unconventionality of the new governess concerns Gideon--and intrigues him at the same time. But he can't afford distractions. He has a ranch to run, a shearing to oversee, and a suspicious fence-cutting to investigate.

When Isabella's uncle comes to claim the child--and her inheritance--Gideon and Adelaide must work together t! o protect Isabella from the man's evil schemes. And soon neither can deny their growing attraction. But after so many heartbreaks, will Adelaide be willing to get her head out of the clouds and put her heart on the line? As war clouds gather over Europe, a free-spirited socialite and her two lovers live a life of pleasure and privilege until the Spanish Civil War tears them apart. Starring Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz.If movies were solely about the cheap pleasure of watching gorgeous people make grand gestures in epic circumstances--because, sure, sometimes movies are--director/screenwriter John Duigan's goopy, obvious, overwrought contemplation of how global unrest really messes with your love life would be Oscar-worthy. Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, and Penelope Cruz are headstrong 1930s playthings who each discover that they need to pull their attractive heads out of their inviting behinds if they're going to play a part in stopping the spread of Europe! an fascism. Charlize is socialite Gilda, who ensnares both bro! oding, C ambridge-educated Irishman Townsend and Spanish rebel Cruz (who is particularly ill-defined) in a love triangle while seemingly caring not a whit for the imminent goosesteps of the Nazis. Charlize wears a lot of fabulous outfits, and she and real-life paramour Townsend do impetuous things like sport fedoras while romping in a milky-white bathtub; Cruz, meanwhile, performs a passionate impromptu striptease. Hey, there are worse ways to be entertained. Unfortunately, you don't really give a damn about any of them, and you can predict what's going to happen to all of them well before it actually does. It's an efficient, glamorous, hokey, ultimately downbeat time-killer for anyone willing to spend two hours trying to decide which of the doe-eyed trio you'd save from destruction first. --Steve Wieckingdvd

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Herb & Dorothy

• HERB & DOROTHY (DVD MOVIE)

In the early 1960s, Herb & Dorothy Vogel a postal worker and librarian began purchasing the works of unknown Minimalist and Conceptual artists, guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. They proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists. HERB & DOROTHY provides a unique chronicle of the world of contemporary art from two unlikely collectors, whose shared passion and discipline defies stereotypes and redefines what it means to be a patron of the arts.This unique documentary debut by Megumi Sasaki is a surprisingly entertaining look into what some artists consider a mundane topic: art collecting. Herb & Dorothy transforms potentially dry subject matter with humor and intrigue into a story that! will warm artists and collectors to each other, not to mention expose the public to an elusive business. Organized chronologically, Herb & Dorothy profiles the Vogels, a Manhattan couple who met in 1960 and began collecting art with their meager incomes from the post office and the Brooklyn Public Library. Starting at a Robert Mangold opening, the documentary shows the now elderly Vogels in action among artists and curators as they attend events as they have for the past 40 years. The film moves between the Vogels in their art-crammed apartment and interviews with artists such as the Christos, Richard Tuttle, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, and James Siena, who have appreciated the Vogels' loyal patronage. Indeed, footage of artists speaking so fondly of collectors is a rarity. But besides the praise that is bestowed upon the Vogels here, and the historical recounting of how they constructed one of the best Minimalist and Conceptual art collections to date, Herb & Doro! thy is strengthened by its presentation of alternative per! spective s. Gallerists are interviewed to discuss the problem with collectors buying direct from artists, undercutting the system, so to speak. This capitalist approach seems all the more absurd when one realizes the personal relationships that have been forged between artist and collector. This film shows how the collectors begin from scratch to purchase art, train their eyes to artistic movements, support those movements, and then eventually donate the collection to a museum. It is a story portraying a sheer love of art that transcends the commodification of creative work. Herb & Dorothy is not only a film for art world aficionados; it will surely please anyone in the community who can use a reminder about artistic exchange in an ideal state. --Trinie Dalton

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The New Big Book of U.S. Presidents: Fascinating Facts about Each and Every President, Including an American History Timeline

• ISBN13: 9780762433377
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The president who served the shortest termâ€"just a single monthâ€"but whose victorious election campaign rewrote the rules for candidates seeking America's highest office

William Henry Harrison died just thirty-one days after taking the oath of office in 1841. Today he is a curiosity in American history, but as Gail Collins shows in this entertaining and revelatory biography, he and his career are worth a closer look. The son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Harrison was a celebrated general whose exploits at the Battle of Tippecanoe and in the War of 1812 propelled him into politics, and in time he became a leader of the new Whig Party, alongside Daniel Webster and Henr! y Clay. But it was his presidential campaign of 1840 that made an indelible mark on American political history.

Collins takes us back to that pivotal year, when Harrison's "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign transformed the way candidates pursued the presidency. It was the first campaign that featured mass rallies, personal appearances by the candidate, and catchy campaign slogans like "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Harrison's victory marked the coming-of-age of a new political system, and its impact is still felt in American politics today. It may have been only a one-month administration, but we're still feeling the effects.

Every day, President Obama reads ten representative letters among the thousands he receives from citizens across the land. The letters come from people of all ages, walks of life, and political points of view. Some are heart­breaking, some angry, some hopeful. Indeed, Obama reads as many letters addressed “Dear Jackass” as “Dear Mr. Pre! sident.” Eli Saslow, a young and rising star at the Washi! ngton Po st, became fascinated by the power of these letters and set out to find the stories behind them.

Through the lens of ten letters to which Obama responded personally, this exceptionally relevant and poignant book explores those individual stories, taking an in-depth look at the misfortunes, needs, opinions, and, yes, anger over the current state of the country that inspired ten people to put pen to paper. Surprisingly, what also emerges from these affecting personal narratives is a story about the astounding endurance and optimism of the American people.

Ten Letters is an inspiring and important book about ordi­nary people and the issues they face every dayâ€"the very issues that are shaping America’s future. This is not an insider Washington book by any means, but a book for the times that tells the real American stories of today.

Up to Date for 2008!

This is the perfect introduction for young readers to the lives and times of Americaâ€! ™s 43 most influential leaders. Just as the new president is inaugurated, readers can easily relive the course of American history through a detailed timeline, more than 50 vivid photographs and illustrations, information about each president’s term in office, and the major political issues of each era. Quick-reference sidebars provide brief summaries of the major events and important people who emerged during each presidential term. Famous quotes and fun facts about each president ensure that this perennial favorite continues to be an entertaining and enlightening addition to any child’s library.

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