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Another Great book bag Article
Books As A Life Saver
Bois
I cannot take credit for writing this, for I am only sharing with you something I found today. It is a very old page, worn and yellowed, from "The New Republic" dated December 8, 1917. What struck me about this article are two things: 1. The letter from the gentleman, and 2. The extreme importance of books to soldiers overseas. The article states that the two most important things soldiers desired were "tobacco and BOOKS". It seems that then, just as now, reading helped folks get through the most adverse, frightening and challenging situations by giving the mind something other than their fear or pain to focus on. I cannot even imagine the terror experienced in battle and how these soldiers kept their sanity about them. I do know that reading played a significant role in the matter.
I will now share with you this newspaper story. It is a chunk of history; a piece of time captured on brittle paper that I was fortunate enough to find within the pages of, yes, you guessed it, a very old book.
December 8, 1917 THE NEW REPUBLIC V
"Who Thought of It- a Soldier?"
A LETTER FROM A CIVIL WAR VETERAN
"...I should like to meet some of the gentlemen in our company, to thank them personally for what they have done for my grandson who is in France. I cannot help thinking that it must have been a soldier, a man who has been through the fighting mill as I have, who initiated the idea of providing such good books, in so convenient
a Veteran. I fought from '62 to '65. I remember well the craving I used to have for something good to read, something to offset the loneliness and homesickness which was harder to bear than all our physical hardships. It was so keen that we used to pounce on scraps of newspaper we found. I tell you there is nothing that will so well keep up the morale of fighting men as good reading matter. They need it to keep their minds off themselves. I know what our boys will go through; the mental agonies are worse than anything else. Yet when my grandson at the opening of the war enlisted in the Canadian Army, I was glorified- that is the word!- to have him go. I sent with him the blessing of God. I knew it was not love of adventure that urged him on, but something of the same spirit with which we boys were filled long ago. It is a spirit as old as Christianity, the spirit of the Crusades. He longed to add his boy's strength to the might of the world to teach an everlasting lesson to those damned Potsdam animals, who were willing to drench the world in blood without mercy, to further such a thing as sordid commercial ambitions. He has fought at Ypres and Vimy. He has been wounded twice. I have seen him again, and he is not the same boy. He has seen, this child, more than I ever saw. War is hell to him, as it was to us; he hates it with all his soul, as I do. But he hates the Kaiser and his crew more, and he will be there to the end. This, gentlemen, is not what I wished to write to you. As you may appreciate, I feel this business keenly, and my feelings carries me away oftentimes. When I saw my grandson he asked me to write to you. Some time after he went away I sent him as many of your little books as I could buy. Before he received them, he and the men with him many a time crouched for hours under heavy shelling- sometimes for days and nights, without relief- waiting, waiting for attacks. They had nothing to think of except what was going to happen to them. I believe only a soldier can appreciate the mental condition of men under such circumstances! The books I sent were a godsend to him and his comrades. They constituted a sort of company library, each man carrying several of the volumes in his pockets, and he told me there was hardly a man in the company who had not read every one of the books....I think it will be interesting, and heartening, for you to know how greatly you are helping to keep up the morale of the men who are enduring at the front mental suffering that is beyond, truly beyond, the imagination of us who stay at home."
_______________
This is the paper's response to the letter above:
We print this letter here with hesitation. We do it because we believe it is a document which New Republic readers will care to have seen, for we believe it is representative of the spirit of American soldiers; we print it also because it brings home more forcibly than we could ever hope to, the vital need of good reading matter for our soldiers and sailors. Our troops had been abroad a short time when General Pershing cabled for books. The French Government, we have been told, in a list of articles men should supply themselves with, put down books as one of the first necessities. Soon we folks at home will hear the same call from the men themselves. "Send me tobacco- and books!" That will be the demand. If you have a boy in service-a brother- a son- a friend- send him books if you send him anything. Abroad, literally millions of pocket size volumes have been sent to men in the trenches by the people of our allies. Put yourself in the place of these men. They must sit still very often, while undergoing the most frightful bombardment, waiting to attack or to be attacked. Many men go mad because of this terrible mental strain. What they need, above all else, is to keep their minds normal. And when they go back into billets, after service at the front, they demand books all the more. They have gone through such frightful experiences that they require something to put them in touch again with a sane world.
REAL POCKET-SIZE VOLUMES NEEDED
Remember this, when you send books. Your soldier boy cannot carry an ordinary size book with him to the trenches. What he needs are real pocket size volumes, so that he can carry several in his pockets without inconvenience. Little Leather Library volumes fill this need perfectly. They are 3 1/4" X 4 1/4" in size, and are bound in genuine leather so that they will stand the hardest wear. Over a million of them were sold before the war to people who wished to read good books while travelling. Since we entered the war, over two hundred thousand of these volumes have been bought for soldiers and sailors as gifts.
If you have a boy or a friend in the service, make your choice of the titles listed below. If they do not prove to be what you expect, your money will be cheerfully refunded.
__________________________________________________
(Just a note. The Little Leather Library Books sold for thirty cents, postage prepaid.)
I hope you have enjoyed this piece of history, and have seen as I have, the inherent value that reading has in our lives. It is not merely entertainment. It is therapy, it is soothing, and under the worst of circumstances, it can give us the strength and the grounding that we need to pull through.
Ellen M. DuBois, MA - Ms. DuBois is engaged and has a dog who loves to critique her work. She is published in vol.2 of God Allows U-Turns with her piece, "The Angel in the Dumpster". She writes to touch the hearts of others. Please visit Writings of the Heart, her award winning writer's resource site- http://writingsoftheheart.homestead.com/index.html
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The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
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When Julie Andrews sang "The hills are alive with the sound of music" from an Austrian mountaintop in 1965, the most beloved movie musical was born. To be sure, the adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway hit has never been as universally acclaimed as, say, Singin' in the Rain. Critics argue that the songs are saccharine (even the songwriters regretted the line "To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray") and that the characters and plot lack the complexity that could make them more interesting. It's not hard to know whom to root for when your choice is between cute kids and Nazis.
 Read our interview with Charmian Carr, who played Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music. |
The DVDs
As if the direct involvement of Julie Andrews weren't enough, the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Sound of Music is a must-have for fans because of the fond sense of nostalgia that will touch all but the worst cynic's heart. Andrews introduces both discs and contributes a commentary track on the film. It's a joy to hear her speak about the film (for example, she explains how she solved her dislike for the lyrics of "I Have Confidence"), and also heard are remarks by Christopher Plummer (who at one point refers to his being 48, which if true would mean his comments were made in about 1975), Charmian Carr (Liesl), choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes Von Trapp (the real-life Maria Von Trapp's youngest son, who admits that his father did have a whistle but claims that he was not as stern as portrayed in the film). Even with all those people involved, there are still significant gaps of silence, however. Retained from the previous two-disc editions is the commentary track by director Robert Wise, which during the musical numbers becomes an isolated score with no vocals. Also new are sing-along subtitles in English, Spanish, and French, which allow you to have your own sing-along at home. In addition, the film's remastering shows off a truer and much warmer sense of color.
On the second disc, Andrews participates in a new 63-minute documentary "My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers." But it's really a general making-of documentary with contributions from a number of principals, including director Robert Wise, who died in mid-2005 (not surprisingly, some stories are repeated from the commentary track and from the 87-minute documentary on the previous DVD). Andrews also shares a warm 19-minute sit-down with Christopher Plummer. Carr, who over the years has become the film's biggest advocate, narrates a new 22-minute documentary, "On Location with The Sound of Music," in which she revisits the places in Salzburg where the movie was filmed, and even joins one of the "Sound of Music tours" that have become a booming industry. And acknowledging another big industry, there's a 12-minute featurette on the sing-along phenomenon, focusing specifically on the audience, costumed and otherwise, that attended a sold-out Hollywood Bowl sing-along in 2005. Making special appearances at the event are four von Trapp great-grandchildren and all seven of the actors who played the children. Thankfully, those actors also appear in a 33-minute documentary "From Liesl to Gretl: A 40th Anniversary Reunion," in which they explain what they do now (many are still in show business) and share stories about the film, who was afraid of Christopher Plummer, and what they feel is their responsibility to the film's passionate fans. What's touching is how the group still considers themselves a family so many years later. Other material includes an A&E documentary on the von Trapps, Mia Farrow's screen test for the Liesl role, and a restoration comparison.
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If you already own the previous two-disc editions, you'll want this 40th Anniversary Edition as well, but you might not want to toss those versions. Probably the most significant omission from this edition is the original 14-minute documentary Charmian Carr made in 1967, "Salzburg Sight and Sound." Carr's new documentary includes only a couple clips from the vintage piece. It's not a great work of art, but it's a notable loss and would have made a good contrast with the new documentary. In addition, the new making-of documentary is about 24 minutes shorter than the old one. Also missing are the audio-only features--the interviews, the radio programs, the Ernest Lehman spotlight--and the historical still gallery examining the history of Salzburg and the film. Granted, this material probably got the least play of any of the old features, but completists might want to hold onto their old discs for it. It would have also been nice to have screen tests other than Farrow's. Tests for all the children and for Christopher Plummer (including singing in his own voice before he was dubbed for the film) were included on Hollywood Screen Tests and Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies. Again, they're not critical but it would have been nice to have them all in one place. So maybe the 40th Anniversary Edition isn't the complete package on The Sound of Music, but it's the most satisfying edition yet, with enough new material to please even the veteran SoM DVD watcher. --David Horiuchi
Customer Review: DVD-Sound of Music
This movie is my Mother's favorite musical. She loves her dress she wears when she sings on the mountain top. It's a true story.
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This movie is my Mother's favorite musical. She loves her dress she wears when she sings on the mountain top. It's a true story.
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I saw this movie at a theater in Chicago when my husband of 39 years and I were dating. My grandchildren now know and love this movie from watching it on TV. When they learned the music to the movie I decided they should have it to watch whenever they wanted. Good movie, good story, clean!!!!
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Customer Review: It sure sucks to be the chosen one.
It sure sucks to be the chosen one.
The Bard's Tale for Xbox and PS2 is a new title in a very old gaming franchise. Before talking about the game directly, let me tell you a brief bit about the history of its genre.
Once upon a time (80's, 90's), you could've roughly split up computer and console role-playing games (RPGs) into two groups: Japanese RPGS and American RPGS. Japanese RPGs tended to focus strongly on a plot. The game mechanics were just a mechanism to move the story forth. Character advancement was not nearly as important as story advancement. Ask anyone who has ever played any Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior game and you will find this is true. Enjoyment of the tale the game presented was the main goal of Japanese RPGs.
American RPGs on the other hand tended to be very open adventures with a very heavy emphasis on exploration, character development, and game statistics in general. The `story' of these games worked more like a general game playing guideline than a strong dramatic plot. The stories presented would give you a rough idea of what needed to be done next, but would rarely push you into doing anything in particular until you really felt like unlocking some new area or getting some special item. Players would often run around the game world trying to build up their character statistics as high as possible. The emphasis of these games was enjoying the gameplay, not the story. Two series that were the hallmark of this type of game were Wizardry, and The Bard's Tale.
This trend has even continued into the new century. Just compare Morrowind to Final Fantasy X: an open book versus a staged Soap Opera. Both titles are good games, just very different.
The original Bard's Tale was a classic example of one these open, statistic driven American games. You created a party of characters using Dungeons and Dragons like statistics. Then you would run around a pseudo 3D dungeon, kill monsters, and collect treasure. After that, you would return to the inn to gain levels, heal your party members, and then repeat the whole process over again.
This new Bard's Tale eschews that type of design completely, opting for instead a Diablo type action RPG style of control and play. The menu based combat of old is replaced with good ol' hack and slash button mashing fun. You control a singular character from an overhead view, while partaking in multiple story and non-story related quests.
Another difference with this Bard's Tale is that it is a humorous game. Unlike the previous titles which had somewhat serious stories to follow, this game is a laugh all the way through. It parodies other games in the genre, picks on common elements such as killing rats, opening random treasure chests, chosen ones, and has a very witty script to back it up with. I found the Bard's dialog to be a constant source of amusement. The character you control and the games narrator often banter with each other, usually to humorous effect. This humorous script writing even shows up when you engage other characters in dialog. You are often give at least two response choices, a nice response, and a `snarky' response. You quickly find out being nice doesn't help you get what you want.
And, in another departure from traditional RPGs, the character you control isn't your typical hero. No wide eye farm boys, elven princesses, or honor seeking knights here. He's a roguish bard who takes advantage of people whenever he can. He is very fond of beer and the ladies, and doesn't have any loftier goals than finding a warm bed to crash in at night, preferably accompanied with a barmaid. This is an attitude that never changes in the game, fortunately.
The basic story is that your character of the Bard gets drafted into being `The Chosen One', and ends up trying to rescue to a trapped princess. You quickly find many other `Chosen Ones' who have met a sad fate, and also discover that all is not as it seems...
The controls are fairly simple. You use the primary buttons to attack, block, jump, and activate things with. The left and right trigger buttons activate your summoning spells. Summoning can get a little tricky in the heat of battle so you generally want to do that in advance. Over all I found that the controls worked pretty well.
I was happy with the graphics. Nothing overly special, but nothing shoddy either.
Other than the script writing and humor, the other place this game shines is the sound effects and music department. The sounds always seem to be on cue, and I loved all the amusing sing-a-long songs they had in the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game and highly recommend.
One would never think that such drunken lout would make such a great chosen one.
Customer Review: I want my money back!
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The drawbacks are almost too numerous to mention. You have to be a bard. You can only have one character in your party. You can summon a few monsters but most of them you don't find until the very last tower. Once you beat the game you cannot replay your character. You can raise levels but it's not that fun and the monsters keep getting stronger as you raise levels. The magic items are idiotic.
iLumina Premium Special Edition Software - Live the Bible
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Nine Inch Nails - Closure
Nine Inch Nails - Closure
Customer Review: Pretty awesome in general.
Before I begin, let me just say that finding this VHS set was borderline impossible. My parents bought it for me as a birthday present from someone who was selling it off amazon for, I think, $36 (not the site but someone who was selling it on the site. Even amazon doesn't carry this!). And their money didn't go to waste. I've been wanting this set for a while so the though that I was getting it in the first place thrilled me.
Closure video 1 is a collection of all of their videos up to the point this was released, including some bonus live material that was Eraser, another version of Wish, and Hurt without David Bowie. The way the whole thing is put together is pretty cool. The best part is that none of the videos are censored, either. The second VHS is a short documentary of NIN's '94-'98 Self-Destruct tour. The concert footage is Pinion, Terrible Lie, Piggy, Down In It, March of the Pigs, The Only Time, Wish, Hurt, and Something I Can Never Have. In between each song there is backstage footage and some short clips of them playing at Woodstock '95 and other venues. A lot of it is pretty funny, especially the part where Trent, Robin, Charlie, Jerome, Danny, and some of their crew and friends are seeing who can knock a cord phone (not sure if that's what it is but I don't know what else it could be) off a cord it's hanging by (Trent wins). Like And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time, the footage is taken from various concerts (especially on this one, since it's all taken from '94 to '98). The concert is great, as Trent shows off how maniacal of a showman he was back in his youthful days: trashing instruments, throwing his bandmates everywhere and sending them to the ER, etc. The songs are also played perfectly, with virtually no errors.
Now, in all fairness, it definitely has its share of flaws. The footage is grainy, sometime REALLY grainy, especially on Piggy, Hurt (with David Bowie), and on interview with Trent talking about his Woodstock performance. The rest is better, but not by a whole lot. Also, on And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time, the quick outfit changes are obvious, as they are on this one, but unlike the aforementioned DVDs, on Closure, sometimes the transition between scenes gets kind of awkward. For example, on Down In It, when the scene changes from Trent to Danny singing "Rain rain go away, come again some other day," it cuts into "Come again some other day" with a noticeable switch in the notes everyone is playing. This seems like a very foolish mistake if you ask me. Lastly, I wish there could have been more than 8 live songs (11 if you include Eraser, Wish and Hurt on the second video, even though the last 2 are already included on the concert part). I mean, there just could have been so much more....
Nonetheless, Closure is an great video set, and no NIN collection is complete without it. It falls just a little short of perfectly documenting the Self Destruct Tour, which is why I had to dock off 1 star, but that's still only a minor flaw. And as for the DVD version of Closure that Trent made of this. Don't bother waiting around for it. There are too many legal problems with his former manager (who, if you ask me, is just pissed that Trent beat him in court after he selfishly kept millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to Trent), so it won't happen. However, you can find most of the bonus material that was on the aforementioned unreleased DVD on Youtube, including the infamous Broken movie (a disgusting masterpiece, by the way).
So, yeah, just buy this and don't wait a second more for its release on DVD, which will never happen.
Customer Review: A must for Nine Inch Nails fans
Though, I wish Trent would reissue this piece on DVD and there are rumors he might, this is a great look at Nine Inch Nails' early years. One of the videos shows us the Self Destruct tour, which as seen on the video was a thriving, aggressive show with all the youth and vigor it could handle. This video was put out after The Downward Spiral so the concert includes every album or single up to that point. The other video contains every music video produced by the band up to that point. The videos include Head Like a Hole, Down In It (subject of a FBI investigation for one of the scenes in the video), Sin, Pinion, Wish, Help Me I'm in Hell, Happiness in Slavery (not for the faint of heart), Gave Up, March of the Pigs (Live), Closer, and Hurt (Live). Every video is the unedited version so the full effect of every video is seen. This collection does NOT include the imfamous Broken movie. It includes songs from the album, but NOT the actual movie that accompanied it. The videos for the songs from the album are separate pieces to the Broken movie.
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Labels: book stands | hardcover book | cell phone book
Another Great book bag Article
Books As A Life Saver
Bois
I cannot take credit for writing this, for I am only sharing with you something I found today. It is a very old page, worn and yellowed, from "The New Republic" dated December 8, 1917. What struck me about this article are two things: 1. The letter from the gentleman, and 2. The extreme importance of books to soldiers overseas. The article states that the two most important things soldiers desired were "tobacco and BOOKS". It seems that then, just as now, reading helped folks get through the most adverse, frightening and challenging situations by giving the mind something other than their fear or pain to focus on. I cannot even imagine the terror experienced in battle and how these soldiers kept their sanity about them. I do know that reading played a significant role in the matter.
I will now share with you this newspaper story. It is a chunk of history; a piece of time captured on brittle paper that I was fortunate enough to find within the pages of, yes, you guessed it, a very old book.
December 8, 1917 THE NEW REPUBLIC V
"Who Thought of It- a Soldier?"
A LETTER FROM A CIVIL WAR VETERAN
"...I should like to meet some of the gentlemen in our company, to thank them personally for what they have done for my grandson who is in France. I cannot help thinking that it must have been a soldier, a man who has been through the fighting mill as I have, who initiated the idea of providing such good books, in so convenient
a Veteran. I fought from '62 to '65. I remember well the craving I used to have for something good to read, something to offset the loneliness and homesickness which was harder to bear than all our physical hardships. It was so keen that we used to pounce on scraps of newspaper we found. I tell you there is nothing that will so well keep up the morale of fighting men as good reading matter. They need it to keep their minds off themselves. I know what our boys will go through; the mental agonies are worse than anything else. Yet when my grandson at the opening of the war enlisted in the Canadian Army, I was glorified- that is the word!- to have him go. I sent with him the blessing of God. I knew it was not love of adventure that urged him on, but something of the same spirit with which we boys were filled long ago. It is a spirit as old as Christianity, the spirit of the Crusades. He longed to add his boy's strength to the might of the world to teach an everlasting lesson to those damned Potsdam animals, who were willing to drench the world in blood without mercy, to further such a thing as sordid commercial ambitions. He has fought at Ypres and Vimy. He has been wounded twice. I have seen him again, and he is not the same boy. He has seen, this child, more than I ever saw. War is hell to him, as it was to us; he hates it with all his soul, as I do. But he hates the Kaiser and his crew more, and he will be there to the end. This, gentlemen, is not what I wished to write to you. As you may appreciate, I feel this business keenly, and my feelings carries me away oftentimes. When I saw my grandson he asked me to write to you. Some time after he went away I sent him as many of your little books as I could buy. Before he received them, he and the men with him many a time crouched for hours under heavy shelling- sometimes for days and nights, without relief- waiting, waiting for attacks. They had nothing to think of except what was going to happen to them. I believe only a soldier can appreciate the mental condition of men under such circumstances! The books I sent were a godsend to him and his comrades. They constituted a sort of company library, each man carrying several of the volumes in his pockets, and he told me there was hardly a man in the company who had not read every one of the books....I think it will be interesting, and heartening, for you to know how greatly you are helping to keep up the morale of the men who are enduring at the front mental suffering that is beyond, truly beyond, the imagination of us who stay at home."
_______________
This is the paper's response to the letter above:
We print this letter here with hesitation. We do it because we believe it is a document which New Republic readers will care to have seen, for we believe it is representative of the spirit of American soldiers; we print it also because it brings home more forcibly than we could ever hope to, the vital need of good reading matter for our soldiers and sailors. Our troops had been abroad a short time when General Pershing cabled for books. The French Government, we have been told, in a list of articles men should supply themselves with, put down books as one of the first necessities. Soon we folks at home will hear the same call from the men themselves. "Send me tobacco- and books!" That will be the demand. If you have a boy in service-a brother- a son- a friend- send him books if you send him anything. Abroad, literally millions of pocket size volumes have been sent to men in the trenches by the people of our allies. Put yourself in the place of these men. They must sit still very often, while undergoing the most frightful bombardment, waiting to attack or to be attacked. Many men go mad because of this terrible mental strain. What they need, above all else, is to keep their minds normal. And when they go back into billets, after service at the front, they demand books all the more. They have gone through such frightful experiences that they require something to put them in touch again with a sane world.
REAL POCKET-SIZE VOLUMES NEEDED
Remember this, when you send books. Your soldier boy cannot carry an ordinary size book with him to the trenches. What he needs are real pocket size volumes, so that he can carry several in his pockets without inconvenience. Little Leather Library volumes fill this need perfectly. They are 3 1/4" X 4 1/4" in size, and are bound in genuine leather so that they will stand the hardest wear. Over a million of them were sold before the war to people who wished to read good books while travelling. Since we entered the war, over two hundred thousand of these volumes have been bought for soldiers and sailors as gifts.
If you have a boy or a friend in the service, make your choice of the titles listed below. If they do not prove to be what you expect, your money will be cheerfully refunded.
__________________________________________________
(Just a note. The Little Leather Library Books sold for thirty cents, postage prepaid.)
I hope you have enjoyed this piece of history, and have seen as I have, the inherent value that reading has in our lives. It is not merely entertainment. It is therapy, it is soothing, and under the worst of circumstances, it can give us the strength and the grounding that we need to pull through.
Ellen M. DuBois, MA - Ms. DuBois is engaged and has a dog who loves to critique her work. She is published in vol.2 of God Allows U-Turns with her piece, "The Angel in the Dumpster". She writes to touch the hearts of others. Please visit Writings of the Heart, her award winning writer's resource site- http://writingsoftheheart.homestead.com/index.html
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Western Digital WDH1CS5000N 500GB My Book Home Edition External Hard Drive
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Customer Review: I got this for my husband
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The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
When Julie Andrews sang "The hills are alive with the sound of music" from an Austrian mountaintop in 1965, the most beloved movie musical was born. To be sure, the adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway hit has never been as universally acclaimed as, say, Singin' in the Rain. Critics argue that the songs are saccharine (even the songwriters regretted the line "To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray") and that the characters and plot lack the complexity that could make them more interesting. It's not hard to know whom to root for when your choice is between cute kids and Nazis.
| Read our interview with Charmian Carr, who played Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music. |
The DVDs
As if the direct involvement of Julie Andrews weren't enough, the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Sound of Music is a must-have for fans because of the fond sense of nostalgia that will touch all but the worst cynic's heart. Andrews introduces both discs and contributes a commentary track on the film. It's a joy to hear her speak about the film (for example, she explains how she solved her dislike for the lyrics of "I Have Confidence"), and also heard are remarks by Christopher Plummer (who at one point refers to his being 48, which if true would mean his comments were made in about 1975), Charmian Carr (Liesl), choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes Von Trapp (the real-life Maria Von Trapp's youngest son, who admits that his father did have a whistle but claims that he was not as stern as portrayed in the film). Even with all those people involved, there are still significant gaps of silence, however. Retained from the previous two-disc editions is the commentary track by director Robert Wise, which during the musical numbers becomes an isolated score with no vocals. Also new are sing-along subtitles in English, Spanish, and French, which allow you to have your own sing-along at home. In addition, the film's remastering shows off a truer and much warmer sense of color.
On the second disc, Andrews participates in a new 63-minute documentary "My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers." But it's really a general making-of documentary with contributions from a number of principals, including director Robert Wise, who died in mid-2005 (not surprisingly, some stories are repeated from the commentary track and from the 87-minute documentary on the previous DVD). Andrews also shares a warm 19-minute sit-down with Christopher Plummer. Carr, who over the years has become the film's biggest advocate, narrates a new 22-minute documentary, "On Location with The Sound of Music," in which she revisits the places in Salzburg where the movie was filmed, and even joins one of the "Sound of Music tours" that have become a booming industry. And acknowledging another big industry, there's a 12-minute featurette on the sing-along phenomenon, focusing specifically on the audience, costumed and otherwise, that attended a sold-out Hollywood Bowl sing-along in 2005. Making special appearances at the event are four von Trapp great-grandchildren and all seven of the actors who played the children. Thankfully, those actors also appear in a 33-minute documentary "From Liesl to Gretl: A 40th Anniversary Reunion," in which they explain what they do now (many are still in show business) and share stories about the film, who was afraid of Christopher Plummer, and what they feel is their responsibility to the film's passionate fans. What's touching is how the group still considers themselves a family so many years later. Other material includes an A&E documentary on the von Trapps, Mia Farrow's screen test for the Liesl role, and a restoration comparison.
What's Missing?
If you already own the previous two-disc editions, you'll want this 40th Anniversary Edition as well, but you might not want to toss those versions. Probably the most significant omission from this edition is the original 14-minute documentary Charmian Carr made in 1967, "Salzburg Sight and Sound." Carr's new documentary includes only a couple clips from the vintage piece. It's not a great work of art, but it's a notable loss and would have made a good contrast with the new documentary. In addition, the new making-of documentary is about 24 minutes shorter than the old one. Also missing are the audio-only features--the interviews, the radio programs, the Ernest Lehman spotlight--and the historical still gallery examining the history of Salzburg and the film. Granted, this material probably got the least play of any of the old features, but completists might want to hold onto their old discs for it. It would have also been nice to have screen tests other than Farrow's. Tests for all the children and for Christopher Plummer (including singing in his own voice before he was dubbed for the film) were included on Hollywood Screen Tests and Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies. Again, they're not critical but it would have been nice to have them all in one place. So maybe the 40th Anniversary Edition isn't the complete package on The Sound of Music, but it's the most satisfying edition yet, with enough new material to please even the veteran SoM DVD watcher. --David Horiuchi
Customer Review: DVD-Sound of Music
This movie is my Mother's favorite musical. She loves her dress she wears when she sings on the mountain top. It's a true story.
Customer Review: The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
I saw this movie at a theater in Chicago when my husband of 39 years and I were dating. My grandchildren now know and love this movie from watching it on TV. When they learned the music to the movie I decided they should have it to watch whenever they wanted. Good movie, good story, clean!!!!
Sound of Music
Sound of Music
Some people may sneer at this 1965 musical, but the truth is the film has earned its status as a perennially watchable romantic-drama, largely on the strength of a fun story and chemistry between stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Veteran filmmaker Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) mostly stays out of the way of the film's appealing elements, which include a based-on-fact tale of Austria's von Trapp family, who fled their Nazi-occupied country in 1938. Andrews is delightful and even fascinating as Maria, who sheds her tomboyish ways as a novice nun to accept the mantle of adulthood, becoming matron of the motherless von Trapp clan. Plummer is matinee-idol handsome and gives a smart performance to boot, and the cast of young people and kids who make up the singing von Trapp children make a strong impression. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, the score includes such winners as "Maria" and the future John Coltrane hit "My Favorite Things." --Tom Keogh
Customer Review: DVD-Sound of Music
This movie is my Mother's favorite musical. She loves her dress she wears when she sings on the mountain top. It's a true story.
Customer Review: The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
I saw this movie at a theater in Chicago when my husband of 39 years and I were dating. My grandchildren now know and love this movie from watching it on TV. When they learned the music to the movie I decided they should have it to watch whenever they wanted. Good movie, good story, clean!!!!
The Bards Tale
The Bards Tale
A truly non-linear game, the player chooses the Bard's responses towards other characters he encounters with either 'snarky' or 'nice' dialogue. Each choice changes the course of events in the game. The action takes place in medieval times in a land based on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland the inspiration for many of the classic fantasy stories. 2003 InXile Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. The name of the title will be The Bard's Tale worldwide (while the
Customer Review: It sure sucks to be the chosen one.
It sure sucks to be the chosen one.
The Bard's Tale for Xbox and PS2 is a new title in a very old gaming franchise. Before talking about the game directly, let me tell you a brief bit about the history of its genre.
Once upon a time (80's, 90's), you could've roughly split up computer and console role-playing games (RPGs) into two groups: Japanese RPGS and American RPGS. Japanese RPGs tended to focus strongly on a plot. The game mechanics were just a mechanism to move the story forth. Character advancement was not nearly as important as story advancement. Ask anyone who has ever played any Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior game and you will find this is true. Enjoyment of the tale the game presented was the main goal of Japanese RPGs.
American RPGs on the other hand tended to be very open adventures with a very heavy emphasis on exploration, character development, and game statistics in general. The `story' of these games worked more like a general game playing guideline than a strong dramatic plot. The stories presented would give you a rough idea of what needed to be done next, but would rarely push you into doing anything in particular until you really felt like unlocking some new area or getting some special item. Players would often run around the game world trying to build up their character statistics as high as possible. The emphasis of these games was enjoying the gameplay, not the story. Two series that were the hallmark of this type of game were Wizardry, and The Bard's Tale.
This trend has even continued into the new century. Just compare Morrowind to Final Fantasy X: an open book versus a staged Soap Opera. Both titles are good games, just very different.
The original Bard's Tale was a classic example of one these open, statistic driven American games. You created a party of characters using Dungeons and Dragons like statistics. Then you would run around a pseudo 3D dungeon, kill monsters, and collect treasure. After that, you would return to the inn to gain levels, heal your party members, and then repeat the whole process over again.
This new Bard's Tale eschews that type of design completely, opting for instead a Diablo type action RPG style of control and play. The menu based combat of old is replaced with good ol' hack and slash button mashing fun. You control a singular character from an overhead view, while partaking in multiple story and non-story related quests.
Another difference with this Bard's Tale is that it is a humorous game. Unlike the previous titles which had somewhat serious stories to follow, this game is a laugh all the way through. It parodies other games in the genre, picks on common elements such as killing rats, opening random treasure chests, chosen ones, and has a very witty script to back it up with. I found the Bard's dialog to be a constant source of amusement. The character you control and the games narrator often banter with each other, usually to humorous effect. This humorous script writing even shows up when you engage other characters in dialog. You are often give at least two response choices, a nice response, and a `snarky' response. You quickly find out being nice doesn't help you get what you want.
And, in another departure from traditional RPGs, the character you control isn't your typical hero. No wide eye farm boys, elven princesses, or honor seeking knights here. He's a roguish bard who takes advantage of people whenever he can. He is very fond of beer and the ladies, and doesn't have any loftier goals than finding a warm bed to crash in at night, preferably accompanied with a barmaid. This is an attitude that never changes in the game, fortunately.
The basic story is that your character of the Bard gets drafted into being `The Chosen One', and ends up trying to rescue to a trapped princess. You quickly find many other `Chosen Ones' who have met a sad fate, and also discover that all is not as it seems...
The controls are fairly simple. You use the primary buttons to attack, block, jump, and activate things with. The left and right trigger buttons activate your summoning spells. Summoning can get a little tricky in the heat of battle so you generally want to do that in advance. Over all I found that the controls worked pretty well.
I was happy with the graphics. Nothing overly special, but nothing shoddy either.
Other than the script writing and humor, the other place this game shines is the sound effects and music department. The sounds always seem to be on cue, and I loved all the amusing sing-a-long songs they had in the game.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game and highly recommend.
One would never think that such drunken lout would make such a great chosen one.
Customer Review: I want my money back!
This has got to be the saddest RPG I have purchased in recent memory. Is this game honestly supposed to compete with Elder Scrolls 3 and 4, Dungeon Siege, Diablo 2, etc etc etc. Look elsewhere for your RPG's, guys. This game is sad.
The drawbacks are almost too numerous to mention. You have to be a bard. You can only have one character in your party. You can summon a few monsters but most of them you don't find until the very last tower. Once you beat the game you cannot replay your character. You can raise levels but it's not that fun and the monsters keep getting stronger as you raise levels. The magic items are idiotic.
iLumina Premium Special Edition Software - Live the Bible
iLumina Premium Special Edition Software - Live the Bible
iLumina is the world's first digitally animated bible and encyclopedia suite. Check out the entire website (www.livethebible.com) for a complete list of features and enjoy the tutorial videos we put together for you!
Customer Review: Bible CD
Fantastic product recommend to anyone who wants access to the bible on their pc. Great service from seller in America and even with shipping cost £60.00 less than buying in UK. There is so much to this cd that you keep discovering new things. Easy to use and navigate around.Well worth every penny.
Customer Review: Wow!
I titled my review "Wow!" because that is what I said the first time I saw the software in action. The information provided, graphics, layout, ease of use, and excellent cross-referencing all make this a must-have for any theological library. Great for pastors or for home use. I would highly recommend this product to any one who wants to learn more about the Bible.
Nine Inch Nails - Closure
Nine Inch Nails - Closure
Customer Review: Pretty awesome in general.
Before I begin, let me just say that finding this VHS set was borderline impossible. My parents bought it for me as a birthday present from someone who was selling it off amazon for, I think, $36 (not the site but someone who was selling it on the site. Even amazon doesn't carry this!). And their money didn't go to waste. I've been wanting this set for a while so the though that I was getting it in the first place thrilled me.
Closure video 1 is a collection of all of their videos up to the point this was released, including some bonus live material that was Eraser, another version of Wish, and Hurt without David Bowie. The way the whole thing is put together is pretty cool. The best part is that none of the videos are censored, either. The second VHS is a short documentary of NIN's '94-'98 Self-Destruct tour. The concert footage is Pinion, Terrible Lie, Piggy, Down In It, March of the Pigs, The Only Time, Wish, Hurt, and Something I Can Never Have. In between each song there is backstage footage and some short clips of them playing at Woodstock '95 and other venues. A lot of it is pretty funny, especially the part where Trent, Robin, Charlie, Jerome, Danny, and some of their crew and friends are seeing who can knock a cord phone (not sure if that's what it is but I don't know what else it could be) off a cord it's hanging by (Trent wins). Like And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time, the footage is taken from various concerts (especially on this one, since it's all taken from '94 to '98). The concert is great, as Trent shows off how maniacal of a showman he was back in his youthful days: trashing instruments, throwing his bandmates everywhere and sending them to the ER, etc. The songs are also played perfectly, with virtually no errors.
Now, in all fairness, it definitely has its share of flaws. The footage is grainy, sometime REALLY grainy, especially on Piggy, Hurt (with David Bowie), and on interview with Trent talking about his Woodstock performance. The rest is better, but not by a whole lot. Also, on And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time, the quick outfit changes are obvious, as they are on this one, but unlike the aforementioned DVDs, on Closure, sometimes the transition between scenes gets kind of awkward. For example, on Down In It, when the scene changes from Trent to Danny singing "Rain rain go away, come again some other day," it cuts into "Come again some other day" with a noticeable switch in the notes everyone is playing. This seems like a very foolish mistake if you ask me. Lastly, I wish there could have been more than 8 live songs (11 if you include Eraser, Wish and Hurt on the second video, even though the last 2 are already included on the concert part). I mean, there just could have been so much more....
Nonetheless, Closure is an great video set, and no NIN collection is complete without it. It falls just a little short of perfectly documenting the Self Destruct Tour, which is why I had to dock off 1 star, but that's still only a minor flaw. And as for the DVD version of Closure that Trent made of this. Don't bother waiting around for it. There are too many legal problems with his former manager (who, if you ask me, is just pissed that Trent beat him in court after he selfishly kept millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to Trent), so it won't happen. However, you can find most of the bonus material that was on the aforementioned unreleased DVD on Youtube, including the infamous Broken movie (a disgusting masterpiece, by the way).
So, yeah, just buy this and don't wait a second more for its release on DVD, which will never happen.
Customer Review: A must for Nine Inch Nails fans
Though, I wish Trent would reissue this piece on DVD and there are rumors he might, this is a great look at Nine Inch Nails' early years. One of the videos shows us the Self Destruct tour, which as seen on the video was a thriving, aggressive show with all the youth and vigor it could handle. This video was put out after The Downward Spiral so the concert includes every album or single up to that point. The other video contains every music video produced by the band up to that point. The videos include Head Like a Hole, Down In It (subject of a FBI investigation for one of the scenes in the video), Sin, Pinion, Wish, Help Me I'm in Hell, Happiness in Slavery (not for the faint of heart), Gave Up, March of the Pigs (Live), Closer, and Hurt (Live). Every video is the unedited version so the full effect of every video is seen. This collection does NOT include the imfamous Broken movie. It includes songs from the album, but NOT the actual movie that accompanied it. The videos for the songs from the album are separate pieces to the Broken movie.
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