Shoot Out Review

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Shoot Out ReviewI enjoyed reading "Shoot Out". It is filled with behind the scenes stories of how movies were made. This is really how the business of movies really happens.
If you are learning to be an actor or a director or screenwriter, and want to know what happens when you hit "the big time" - this book will give you lots of examples. Amazing stories about famous stars, the movies, deals and the biz.
Well-written and easy to understand. I learned alot about everything that happens before a movie hits the big screen.Shoot Out OverviewHollywood calls it the "shoot out"... the point during the making of a movie when star-fits and power struggles turn into standoffs, walk-outs, and clashing egos. How a film ever gets made is a wonder. Leave it to two industry icons to unreel the true story...

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Actor's Survival Guide: How to Make Your Way in Hollywood Review

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Actor's Survival Guide: How to Make Your Way in Hollywood ReviewJust by looking at the contents of this book, I could tell this would be worth reading. Unlike so many other books on this topic, this book goes beyond the generalizations of other books.
In order to prepare for this book, Robbins returned to Hollywood after many years to rekindle his acting career, by applying the academic and professional advice he had received through his own experiences, interviewing qualified professionals and struggling actors and conducting research into the various actor friendly neighborhoods in LA. By doing this Robbins was able to discover what is truly effective.
This book is anything but just another book covering the general aspects for a career in acting. I would highly recommend that any Actor pursuing a career in Hollywood not leave home without it.
Karen JohnsonActor's Survival Guide: How to Make Your Way in Hollywood OverviewWhile college drama programs primarily focus on training and technique with western theater history and aesthetics providing the context, nowhere in those programs does one find the study of business or marketing skills to facilitate the serious young actor's transition to the world of professional work. Inevitably, many thousands of these aspiring actors each year end up in Hollywood.
But newcomers will find Hollywood a minefield and a maze, wasting limited resources of time and money out of ignorance of its business realities. The Actor's Survival Guide functions both as a business handbook and a guidebook for newcomers to Los Angeles planning to pursue a professional acting career.
From the experience of relocating to LA, to the casting process, to the identifying (and finding work with) the key players in the film and television industry, The Actor's Survival Guide offers a business-centered road map through the pitfalls and wrong turns that derail too many promising careers and frustrate even the most dedicated of actors, and-for those who have the skills and determination to persevere-provides an extra competitive edge of experience and know-how.


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Frommer's Los Angeles 2010 (Frommer's Complete Guides) Review

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Frommer's Los Angeles 2010 (Frommer's Complete Guides) ReviewLots of good information. Like the suggestion of tour and places to visit. Easy to use.Frommer's Los Angeles 2010 (Frommer's Complete Guides) Overview
Catch a show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the acoustics are as stunning as the architecture. See chapter 7.


Foldout map, plus detailed maps throughout

Exact prices, directions, opening hours,and other practical information

Candid reviews of hotels and restaurants,plus sights, shopping, and nightlife

Itineraries, walking tours, and trip-planning ideas

Insider tips from local expert authors


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Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation) Review

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Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation) ReviewWhile growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s and 1960s, I often wondered why most ethnic and racial minorities lived almost exclusively in one small northeast corner of the Valley -- in Pacoima and San Fernando. At all of the schools I attended -- Winnetka and Chatsworth Park Elementary, Columbus and Lawrence Junior High, and Chatsworth Senior High School -- you could count the number of minority students on your hands. Laura Barraclough skillfully explains why this was the case back then. The San Fernando Valley was racially segregated, despite the Civil Rights Movement, until around 1968 and even later. Barraclough explains the historic, cultural and political trends and events that allow the Valley to remain segregated 10-15 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the Freedom Riders, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and all of the other civil rights activism of the 1950s. Barraclough's analysis is solid and thorough -- and very readable. I highly recommend this book for those interested in Southern California history and minority and urban studies. If you were one of the lucky ones who rode horses during the Valley's more rural times, this book is for you.Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege (Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation) Overview
In the first book-length scholarly study of the SanFernando Valley— home to one-third of the population of Los Angeles—Laura R. Barraclough combines ambitious historical sweep with an on-theground investigation of contemporary life in this iconic western suburb. She is particularly intrigued by the Valley's many rural elements, such as dirt roads, tack-and-feed stores, horse-keeping districts, citrus groves, and movie ranches. Far from natural or undeveloped spaces, these rural characteristics are, she shows, the result of deliberate urbanplanning decisions that have shaped the Valley over the course of more than a hundred years.

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I Just Kept Hoping Review

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I Just Kept Hoping ReviewI found Gloria's biography to be a pleasant way to spend a few hours.Not great,but fairly interesting look at a forgotten movie star of the 1930's.Frankly,I was hoping she would provide more detail about two classic horror films she made in the 30's,"The old Dark House"&"The Invisible Man",but then again,it 's probably hard to come up with amusing anecdotes about movies she made nearly 70 years ago!I wasn't bothered at all by details of her sex life.Some people are probably just shocked to learn that people actually had sex in the 1930's!I Just Kept Hoping Overview

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New Hollywood Cinema Review

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New Hollywood Cinema Reviewrequired read for film class.
dropped class, but enjoyed the book.
A must read for anyone trying to break into the entertainment business.
However, it is written as an academic text, so the writing gets a little dense at times.
A pretty comprehensive overview of the history and developments in HollywoodNew Hollywood Cinema Overview

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Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdoors Review

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Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdoors ReviewArmchair movie aficionados beware! Leave your remote control behind and visit hundreds of famous movie locations in person! This one-of-a-kind travel guide (very few authors can claim that) is the result of exhaustive research covering hundreds of film shooting sites and is a must have for anyone who loves movies and the great outdoors. I liked this book so much, I bought TWO copies - one to keep clean and one whose margins are already filling up with notes as I visit the places featured. Get this book and go touch Hollywood history in person!Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdoors OverviewLET THE MOVIES BE YOUR GUIDE!* Hike THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Trail!* Behold the KILL BILL Chapel!* Enter THE DOORS Indian Caves!* Swim at BEACH BLANKET BINGO's Malibu!* Escape to SOME LIKE IT HOT's Resort!* Raft the STAGECOACH River!* Explore HIGH PLAIN DRIFTER's Ghostly Lake!* Trek to the LOST HORIZON Waterfall!* Discover the STAR WARS Sand Dunes!Here is the first comprehensive guide to Southern California's outdoor filming locations taking you to more than 50 of the Golden State's most cinematic beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls. Illustrated with over 100 scenic photos and 20 easy-to-read maps,Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdours not only takes you to movie history's most memorable destinations, but also recommends places to dine and lodge along the way, from mountain hideaways to beach side resorts. Written by inveterate movie buffs and outdoors enthusiasts Harry Medved and Bruce Akiyama, these two native Southern Californians have interviewed dozens of actors, filmmakers, location scouts and rangers to help you explore Hollywood's most spectacular scenery.

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The Family Review

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The Family ReviewI'm not sure how anyone could ever dismiss Ed Sanders' "The Family," a detailed account of Charles Manson and the murders his Family committed during the summer of Woodstock, 1969. A superb companion book to Vincent Bugliosi's "Helter Skelter," Sanders' "The Family" is an alternative trip through the madness that defines one of the most infamous and horrifying crimes in American history.
While "Helter Skelter" is a factual, by-the-numbers recount, "The Family" is an attempt to get beneath the surface of these unimaginable crimes. Sanders, a pseudo hippie himself, well-versed in the howling of beatnik eras and the twang of Bob Dylan travels, had unparalleled leeway into the lives of Manson's followers before and during the criminal trials of 1970. He hung with the waifs at Spahn ranch before it burned to the ground. He camped with these very weird kids in Death Valley. And he caught wind of the numerous crazy rumors that floated around like so much LA smog while writing alongside the army of TV/print reporters covering the trial. His work is valid, and his opinions cut through much of the myth and legend of this case. It is also the first true book ever released on this case, having been published in 1971.
Sanders' flippant disregard for Manson's con, and the con of his worshipers, is refreshing. His style reminds me of the extraordinary ruminations of Evan S. Connell in "Son of the Morning Star" - a fantastic work dealing with another rather bloody historical event (Custer and Little Big Horn). Sanders refuses to accept the myth or the legend, and reveals the dirty, flea-bitten truth. His is an unconventional, creative approach, told from the eyes of a most intelligent mind.
But I still find much of Sanders' work to be extremely irresponsible. He recounts many of the urban myths surrounding this crime, including Manson's supposed alliances with Satanic cults, weird mysterious videotapes existing (yet disappearing) that reportedly show eventual victims with the Family, filmed sacrifices, CIA involvement, political connections stretching all the way to Washington D.C., and so on add nausea give me a break.
The Manson trial was a circus, and the conspiracy theories that spewed forth rivaled the theories surrounding yet another 1960s crime known as the JFK assassination. These were horrible times in American history, California Dreaming or not, and the simple fact of the matter is that Charles Manson and his family lived a counterculture lifestyle that was hip with middle class and upper-middle class culture during this era. They hung, ever-so-briefly, with the young in-crowd of Hollywood. But when the constant use of psychedelic drugs, combined with the unique isolation of Spahn ranch, began to take hold, Manson and his family entered a deadly alternative world having no touch with reality. The in-crowd slams the door in their face, the hope for rock and roll superstardom disappears, Manson becomes God, it's time to strike back at the rich and powerful piggies. It's such a sad and ugly story.
Sanders perhaps gets closer to the truth than any writer ever truly has with these crimes. It's all here, urban myths, unsolved crimes in the same neighborhood, animal bones, dirty laundry, uneducated white trash motivation spawned by years of institutionalization. It's Group Think at its worst formed by the hangover of one endless lost summer weekend.
"The Family" is my third book to read on Manson's pathetic crimes. I find it telling that after reading Sanders' influential work, I realize I now know all I ever really want to know.The Family OverviewIn August of 1969, during two bloody evenings of paranoid, psychedelic savagery, Charles Manson and his dystopic communal family helped to wreck the dreams of the Love Generation. At least nine people were murdered, among them Sharon Tate, the young, beautiful, pregnant, actress and wife of Roman Polanski. Ed Sanders' unnerving and detailed look at the horror dealt by Manson and his followers is a classic of the true-crime genre. The Family was originally published in 1971 and remains the most meticulously researched account of the most notorious murders of the 1960s. Using firsthand accounts from some of the family's infamous members, including the wizard himself, Sanders examines not only the origins and legacy of Manson and his family, but also the mysteries that persist. Completely revised and updated, this edition features 25 harrowing black and white photos from the investigation. "One of the best-researched, best-written, thoroughly-constructed, and eminently significant books of our times…. A masterpiece."-Boston Phoenix

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The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects Review

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The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects ReviewNot only students and scholars of the history of art, architecture, film, animation, western culture can rejoice at the publication of Norman Klein's epic and illuminating history of special effects illusionism, from the 17th century to the present. This book also promises delight to the common reader interested and engaged with the peculiar culture our times. As spectacle morphs to ever stranger forms, Klein offers an invaluable set of tools for analyzing, understanding, critiquing and surviving its massive leveling wash.
Klein's thesis, that large-scale special effects consistently function within a dialectic of political power and powerlessness, not only newly opens important influential fields for his spectacular research and interdisciplinary penetrations, but delights, in a rich and novelistic narrative,sparkling with brilliant characters (Ben Jonson, Mary Shelley, Edgar A. Poe, Charles Babbage, Jules Verne, George W. Bush) and bubbling over with cascading, interconnected information. The writer also lays bare his own private history, how special effects intervened in his Coney Island Youth and his Los Angeles adulthood, as a useful, literary casestudy. Special Effects emerges not simply as a hegemonic tool of repression but as a perplexing and evolving field of invention, influence and ambitious expression still as liable to charm as depress.
In particular, Klein's research on the history of technology was of particular use and interest to me. But the book serves happily, with its brilliantly organized index and "search engine" as a hand-book of effects history and theory in all disciplines. Klein crosses boudaries between history, theory, sociology and literature, offering important new realizations without ever overlooking, or short-shrifting the achievements of scholars dedicated to those particular fields. Vatican to Vegas, indeed, offers a brilliant example of the promise that interdisciplinary engagement offers writers of the future. I haven't read Klein before, but I'm telling you, I'll start now.
I won't start praising the pictures, though they're fascinating.
Buy this book and nail it to your desk or bedside table. In our current "Electronic Baroque" (a key Kleinian term), it grows more and more relevant every day.The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects Overview

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Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten Review

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Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten ReviewIf you love Hollywood, architecture or are just curious about what kind of homes the movie stars live in, you will find this book fascinating. It includes over 350 entries - from silent greats (Garbo, Valentino) to modern day stars (Brad Pitt & Jennifer Anniston) - although the majority of the entries are the classic stars of yester-year. Each entry includes the address, a brief sentence or two about their career and fame followed by a paragraph about the house itself and a black and white photo. The photos are usually good although there are some that are very small and others in which you can only see a fence or a driveway. The captions note that some of the stars only lived in the houses for a few years. You might be surprised at how modest a lot of the homes are! An appendix gives "movie star homes by region" and "theme tours." If you are taking a trip to Hollywood, you will definately want to take this book with you, and it is a fun book to browse even if you are not going there.Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten OverviewFrom Gloria Swanson's 1918 Hollywood bungalow to Brad Pitt's Beverly Hills estate, this compendium of movie star homes profiles the extravagant, lavish, and eccentric residences of the rich and famous. Each of the nearly 400 entries includes a photo of the star and brief summation of the star's career, the address of the star's home, a photo of the home as it looks today, and fascinating facts about the site. In addition to magnificent mansions, the homes where celebrities lived before they became famous are also featured, such as Natalie Wood's humble 1945 residence and the home of Buster Keaton before he built his famed Italian villa in Beverly Hills.

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Hit and Run Review

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Hit and Run ReviewI read this book three years ago and I'm still laughing.
Griffin & Masters have created THE required reading book on everything that is wrong with Hollywood. They were able to tell the inside stories of multi-million dollar deals and make them understandable. Jon Peters, a barely literate hairdresser who happened to be friends with Barbara Streisand, and his business partner Peter Guber schmoozed their way through the 80s and were picked by Sony to run their newly acquired Columbia/Tri-Star pictures. Billions of dollars in losses later (Last Action Hero, I'll Do Anything) they got kicked out.
It is really an incredible story. If it was fiction, you'd think it completly impossible to believe, but it is all true.Hit and Run Overview

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An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles Review

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An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles ReviewThe long-awaited fifth edition of an LA guide that's often called "the bible" is a major disappointment. Robert Winter is a perceptive scholar of Victoriana and arts and crafts, but he sensibly left modernism to his collaborator, the late David Gebhard. Now he has attempted to do it all, by providing entries on key buildings of the 1990s that he neither likes nor understands, and the result is embarrassing. Gehry, Maltzan, Mayne, Moss, Pei, and Yazdani will be surprised to find themselves bundled together under the label "Neo-Expressionism (Postmodernism)." Disney Hall, which is pictured on the cover, is described in terms of what happened ten years ago (plus cloddish public reactions to the first pictures of the model); there's not a sentence on the completed building. Other adventurous work is dismissed as "very strange." A long-winded entry on the Getty reads like a chatty letter to a friend; most are absurdly brief. The revisions add almost nothing, and are woefully incomplete; the publisher is guilty of gross negligence for not wielding an editorial pencil. Earlier selections have been edited, but the William Cameron Menzies house in Beverly Hills is still there, even though it was demolished three editions ago, along with Gehry's Venice restaurant, Rebecca's. The original 97 percent of the guide remains invaluable and engaging. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles Overview
Known as "the bible" to Los Angeles architecture scholars and enthusiasts, Robert Winter and David Gebhard's groundbreaking guide to architecture in the greater Los Angeles area is updated and revised once again. From Art Deco to Beaux-Arts, Spanish Colonial to Mission Revival, Winter discusses an impressive variety of architectural styles in this popular guide that he co-authored with the late David Gebhard. New buildings and sites have been added, along with all new photography. Considered the most thorough L.A. architecture guide ever written, this new edition features the best of the past and present, from Charles and Henry Greene's Gamble House to Frank Gehry's Disney Philharmonic Hall. This was, and is again, a must-have guide to a diverse and architecturally rich area.

Robert Winter is a recognized architectural historian who lives in Los Angeles, and has led architectural tours through the Los Angeles area since 1965. He is a professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles.


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Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook for a Successful Career in Los Angeles, Expanded Gold Review

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Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook for a Successful Career in Los Angeles, Expanded Gold ReviewI started reading this book thinking I could jot down a couple useful pieces of information and quickly advance to another book on acting. Boy was I wrong!
This book is overflowing with so many sources that you may as well toss out the Yellowpages. Judy Kerr did a flawless job of providing step-by-step instructions regarding the business-side of acting and how you can get started.
Sure, there are useful quotes from all kinds of big names and experienced veterans about the technique, but Judy was very wise to simply refer readers to all types of classes, coaches and workshops rather than attempt to write a book on how to act. Experience is the only way you truly learn, not by reading about others who experience it.
I'm currently saving up to take the 2-week trip to Los Angeles to research the city which is mentioned in the book with detailed stops to make.
If you're wondering whether or not this book should be on your bookshelf at home, buy it now. No, don't continue reading my review!! You're not listening and I feel disrespected. You could've been entering your shipping address and credit card info by now you lazy bum! Ya wanna act? Okay, your character is shopping for a book by Judy Kerr... ACTION!!!Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook for a Successful Career in Los Angeles, Expanded Gold OverviewThe accomplished author shares her lifetime of techniques and tricks of the trade. For the student and professional actor, here's the ultimate guide for planning, promoting and expanding an acting career. What you need to know to truly master acting is everything you need to know to master your life because acting is everything. When actors are ready to make acting not only a career, but a lifestyle as well, then this book can be a lifetime guide. It includes up-to-date resources for everything from * headshots * fake cigarettes * changing one's name * acting nude * great plastic surgeons. It's all here, including incredible web sites and valuable phone numbers.A wonderful intro to the world of show biz. -- Jerry SeinfeldFirst rate primer, excellent refresher course. -- Jason Alexander

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Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles Review

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Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles ReviewWhat a nice book. I live in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, and a friend suggested this book to me. I realized I had read a novel by the author a few years ago that I really enjoyed, "The Ivory Coast" a jazz/noir set in Vegas, so I picked up a copy. Now I'm planning to take the walks written about in the book. Wow. As a kid, one of my favorite "Three Stooges" was shot on a stair street. They had a job delivering ice, and Curly has a huge block of ice in tongs, and when he gets to the top, he's holding a little ice cube. What I love about L. A. is how much history and mystery exists here, particularly on the east side, and parts of Hollywood. Because it was run down over here for so long, large swaths of the east side weren't touched when all of the money moved in a little west, and few of those monstrous developments occurred; there are still little nuggets and gems you can find. My only quibble is that I would have loved pictures of the stair street, but on the other hand, the descriptions are great, and leaving the mystery makes me want to go there myself. Which I plan to.Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles OverviewIn a city known for its fast cars and freeways, this guide reveals a unique feature of the Los Angeles cityscape: more than 200 stairways across the hilly sections of the city, many of which are remnants from the days when most city residents depended on streetcars and buses for transportation. Containing more than 40 walks and detailed maps, this handbook highlights the charms and quirks of this quintessential feature of Los Angeles' development and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical features of each staircase and the neighborhoods in which the steps are located. Rated for duration and difficulty, the circular walks deliver tales of historic homes, their fascinating inhabitants, and troves of historic trivia-such as where William Faulkner lived while he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not, where Graham Nash lived, and where actress Thelma Todd was murdered-while other walks highlight spectacular homes by some of southern California's most important architects, including Neutra and Schindler. From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena and walking the vintage Red Car Loop in Silver Lake to taking the Beachwood Canyon Hollywoodland hike and enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, these staircases present a new way for urban explorers to discover a little-known side of the City of Angels.

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Frommer's Los Angeles 2011 (Frommer's Complete Guides) Review

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Frommer's Los Angeles 2011 (Frommer's Complete Guides) ReviewGot this for an upcoming business trip since it's the only digital guide I can find for LA. Moving thru the book is tedious on an iPad and must be a real nightmare on Kindle. The table of contents is linked, but there is no index. My downtown hotel is not listed at all. The contents aren't organized by area, so in any given section you'll find items in downtown or far-flung suburbs in any direction. Lots of history and touristy things, but I expected better and more useful maps. (The print version comes with a fold-out map.) The print edition of the Fodor's Los Angeles 2011 I got from the library is much more useful, but I hate to lug around a big paperback. For maps, you're better off using Google Maps.
As a print book, I'd give it three stars, but it's just too cumbersome in its current digital format. If publishers are going to create digital versions of their print books, they need to find out how people use these books and design digital versions accordingly. I'd recommend downloading the sample first, but there are 17 screens (on iPad) of front matter before you get to any real content so I doubt you'll get a good sense of it.Frommer's Los Angeles 2011 (Frommer's Complete Guides) Overview
Completely updated every year, Frommer's Los Angeles features enticing color photos of the sights and experiences that await you.
Our author, a native Californian, hits all the highlights, from the Sunset Strip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He's checked out all the city's best hotels and restaurants in person, and offers authoritative, candid reviews that will help you find the choices that suit your tastes and budget.
You'll also get up-to-the-minute coverage of shopping, spas, and nightlife; in-depth coverage of Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm; and advice on side trips to Long Beach, the South Coast, Santa Catalina Island, and Santa Barbara.
Frommer's Los Angeles also includes a tear-resistant fold-out color map.


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Top 10 Los Angeles (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides) Review

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Top 10 Los Angeles (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides) ReviewI took this guide book with me on my first visit to LA recently. I was interested in doing all of the typical tourist things. This book was indispensable. I also bought Frommer's guide book and I never opened it.
I rented a car and traveled through LA. I was driving alone and the maps in this book were a huge help. They are very detailed and held up through being thrown in the car and in and out of bags. The pictures are great. The decriptions are short and to the point. I also loved the size of this book. It is small enough to easily carry in a larger purse or backpack.
I didn't use the Top 10 book to plan my trip - only what to do and where to go when I got there. A more detailed book might serve you better if you need help decided where to stay and what hotels to use.
You can't go wrong with this guide book - it is really the only guidebook you need for LA.Top 10 Los Angeles (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides) OverviewDrawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, each book in DK's Top 10 series uses evocative color photography, excellent cartography, and up-to-date travel content to create a reliable and useful pocket-sized travel guide. Dozens of Top 10 lists provide vital information on each destination, as well as insider tips, from uncovering a city's most memorable sights to finding the best restaurants and hotels in each neighborhood. And to save you time and money, there's even a Top 10 list of Things to Avoid. Each Top 10 contains a pull-out map and guide that includes fold-out maps of city metro systems, useful phone numbers, and 60 great ideas on how to spend your day.

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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood Review

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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood ReviewThis book is a terrific read: an amazingly revealing insight into the workings of the Hollywood machine and a convincing explanation of why the film industry is the way it is today. Fascinating for any film fan but truly essential for those particularly interested in Coppola, Scorcese, Altman and the other enfants terribles of the 70s. I learned more than I ever thought I would about the strange habits, curious peccadilloes and psychological frailties of these legendary directors and producers. Seminal figures such as Dennis Hopper, William Friedkin, Peter Bogdanovich and Scorsese all come across as frighteningly deranged, emphasising the fine line that separates genius from insanity - and many of these characters clearly ended up on the wrong side of the divide. One of Biskind's great strengths is that he seeks to portray all sides of the story, and it's hard not to believe the majority of what is reported simply for the fact that if wasn't true you can bet your life that lawsuits would have stopped publication in its tracks.
The spirit of the times engendered by the rise of the anti-Vietnam, hippy counterculture, generated a climate where a new form of creativity was allowed to enter the mainstream for the first time. This produced a fabulous glut of films - Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, The Deerhunter, Star Wars, MASH and dozens of others. Biskind's belief is that the rise of the super director destroyed this astounding period in Hollywood history - egos and pay checks became so over inflated that eventually the studios realised that they had to seize back control. As a result the industry more or less stopped producing original pictures and opted for the safe bet of formulaic blockbusters which were more likely to draw big crowds - through excessive marketing and merchandising campaigns and extravagant special effects.
Biskind's style is compelling and the anectdotal evidence at times hilarious, at others horrific (Peter Bogdanovich's fall from grace is particularly gruesome). `Easy Riders Raging Bulls' must be one of the best books yet written about Hollywood and one of the best non-fiction books I have read in many years.Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood Overview

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Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios Review

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Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios ReviewOrson Welles is often cited as the classic example of an artist who peaked too early. His great work for the Mercury radio theater (including the infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast) was followed by his 1941 film debut "Citizen Kane," consistently rated in polls as the greatest film of all time. After that, embarrassment...a long, slow decline until he became the pathetic figure in wine commercials before he died.
The usual explanation for this focusses on Welles' own character flaws. He was self-indulgent, this explanation says, irascible, unable to bring a film in on budget, constantly trying gimmicky scenarios that didn't have a chance of working or of garnering an audience. Welles supposedly left us a clue to his own personality in "Citizen Kane": the self-obsessed loser who finishes his days alone due to his own inability to relate to others.
Clinton Heylin thinks otherwise. He believes Welles could have accomplished a string of cinematic miracles, perhaps as great as "Kane," had the Hollywood studio system just given him the chance. Heylin has done his homework. He carefully reconstructs what happened to each of Welles' films within the studio system, beginning with "The Magnificent Ambersons" and continuing to "Touch of Evil." It is a fascinating look at what went wrong, and why.
The book has its faults. It is written with breathless prose at times, and you won't find much objectivity about Welles within its pages. Occasionally, the author seems so full of adulation for Welles that he refuses to see his faults. The book accepts Welles' own praise for his relatively untampered-with version of Kafka's "The Trial," for example, which I found (on a first viewing, at least) to be hilariously self-indulgent. (Anthony Perkins and Orson Welles turned out to be a very bad combination, in my opinion, though I know there are people who adore this film.)
Overall, this book makes a valuable contribution to understanding Welles and his struggles with the studio system during the years 1942 through 1958.Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios Overview

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The Monkey's Raincoat Review

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The Monkey's Raincoat ReviewThe Monkey's Raincoat, grabs you from the first chapter, puts you on the edge of your seat and keeps you there to the climactic end of the book. Meet Elvis Cole, Viet Nam vet, ex-security guard turned private investigator. He's a hard boiled, wise-cracking detective who gives Mike Hammer and Sam Spade a run for their money. The case begins as Ellen Lang hires Elvis to find her missing husband, Hollywood agent, Mort, who's taken their son and disappeared. Unfortunately, the case is a bit more complicated than just a simple missing person. Mort is soon found shot dead in his car, there's no sign of the son and Ellen is missing too. Elvis Cole is now on a mission to find mother and son and it involves missing drugs and some pretty frightening bad guys. Robert Crais has created a great mystery with a tight plot, full of terrific, interesting characters. His writing is crisp and sharp with witty and irreverent dialogue and action packed scenes. This is a fast paced, page turner that won't let you down. Mr. Crais deserved all the nominations and awards this book won.The Monkey's Raincoat OverviewTaking the mystery community by storm, this Elvis Cole novel was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards and won both the Anthony and Macavity for Best Novel of the Year.

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Lonely Planet Los Angeles San Diego & Southern California (Regional Travel Guide) Review

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Lonely Planet Los Angeles San Diego & Southern California (Regional Travel Guide) ReviewOk, I was raised in Los Angeles area, and I secretly wanted to know what I missed out on since I left for Alaska. Boy, after going through this book, I see I missed so much, better think about returning soon. This book is well laid out with it's new Top 25 Experiences, itineraries that work for short or long time frames, maps that zero in on what to see in a truly large area. The Understanding SoCal is written for anyone, for me who is an X, or someone going for a first visit, well written!
Lonely Planet puts out guides for regular people, meaning I think anyone can get into a guide, learn with they want, and get busy enjoying. And since I got the soft bound version, it's a size that really fits under your arm to be carried, yet, not too big, or I could have opted for digital chapters for my iPhone or iPad device, those work well too. I like maps that keep me where I'm going. I use a rental car gps, but I still want to know on a bigger scale the area, what sights I'm after, and this book was perfect, for they could go to areas - like Palm Springs & the Deserts, Santa Barbara, and give detailed suggestions, San Diego's Balboa Park - home to museums, parks, and nearby places to stay or eat, well done. The book shows what's FREE, what's a Top Choice, the map of that area was right on. I just went there a few months ago, and boy, I wish I'd had this book with me! The Survival Guide aspect, really helps get you into the proper head space, meaning understanding the locals, their mind set.
Because architecture and culture are gaining in popularity in the area, I went through the author's suggested ideas as Must See's, and again, right on the money. So interested in Post Modernism @ the 1997 Getty Center created by Meier or the Getty Villa, a recreation of an Italian villa in Malibu, it talks about it. The coverage of festivals, there are so many, from the awesome Festival of the Swallows or also known as Fiesta de la Golondrinas with website link included. This is a thinking person's guide, when I anticipated a question, it was answered most of the time. I think you'll use this book, not just put it on a shelf, and want to share it with friends also traveling to Southern California.
Want to visit Disneyland, the guide is thorough in it's multi-page planner with many insights that will save the visitor time and money, and cranky kids. Since the authors know it's a popular site, they created a special trip planner. Helpful information for your cell phone, websites of local interest, or even where to spot a celebrity is there. Amazing breadth of information for the reader. Take Santa Monica, maps, suggested places to go the best beaches, eat, walk, bike, bike rentals, stay by area and price, rated by real people, excellent. I can't wait to try so many new places since our last visit, that's what I am attempting to convey, the book really sets the stage for a well planned trip, Lonely Planet pays for the places it reviews, no freebies, no pay for a review stuff, and you get good quality advice you can count on. Thanks!
Get the book, or digital chapters directly from Lonely Planet, great value.Lonely Planet Los Angeles San Diego & Southern California (Regional Travel Guide) Overview'Perhaps LA is best defined by those simple life-affirming moments. A cracked-ice, jazz-age cocktail on Beverly Boulevard, a hike high into the Hollywood Hills sagebrush, a swirling pod of dolphins off Point Dume'" - Adam Skolnick, Lonely Planet WriterOur PromiseYou can trust our travel information because Lonely Planet authors visit the places we write about, each and every edition. We never accept freebies for positive coverage, and you can rely on us to tell it like we see it.Inside This Book'3 local authors16 weeks of research47 maps44 stunning beachesInspirational photosClear, easy-to-use mapsIn-depth backgroundEasy-to-read layoutComprehensive planning toolsDisneyland trip planner

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