Posts Tagged ‘reed business information’

How to Be a Working Comic: An Insider’s Guide to a Career in Stand-Up Comedy

From Library Journal

Schwensen, former talent coordinator for A&E’s An Evening at the Improv, reminds us that comedy is a business and provides specific and useful advice on basic issues such as headshots, resumes, and agents. While Schwensen sensibly advises novices to be original and to work steadily at stage time, Jay Sankey’s Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy (LJ 5/1/98) offers much more on the craft of performance. Nearly half of this book is devoted to brief interviews with 12 top comedians (e.g., Drew Carey, Rhonda Shear, and Rene Hicks). While Jeff Dunham observes that “comedy has taken such a nose-dive,” Schwensen does not otherwise acknowledge that comedians face a shrinking stand-up industry. For strong performing arts collections.?Norman Oder, “Library Journal”Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This truly funny book about being funny is also a serious guide to the business of laughter and how to make it pay off. New Yor… Read more…

Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity

From Publishers Weekly

Film critic and author Schickel examines the “celebrity system” that pervades popular culture and judges that it has, among other things, confused the realms of public and private life, encouraged fantasizing at the expense of reason, and trivialized and simplified complex issues. “Provocative, disturbing and often brilliant,” PW commented. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A fascinating, disturbing book. — Library JournalCogent…Schickel offers white-hot jeremiad. — Melvin Maddocks, TimeIntimate Strangers is, simply, in my estimation, the single most important book about celebrity. — Neal Gabler

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Guess Who?

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-As in Miller’s previous two titles, a question is posed with the initial photograph in each double-page spread and followed by four silly possible responses; the following spread shows the correct answer, illustrated with a full-page photograph. Gender and ethnic representation are deftly handled. The author’s sharp, clear full-color photographs are well composed, and her use of cropped photos and white space alternating with bled photos is an effective tool for involving youngsters. The level of difficulty here is a bit higher than in earlier books, and some of the answers may take kids a minute to come up with, offering a nice challenge. They will love shouting out “No!” to such questions as “Who cleans your teeth? A rubber duckie?” or “Who wakes you in the morning? A military band?”-Emily Kutler, Summit Free Public Library, NJCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 2-5. “Who goes… Read more…

The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School

From Publishers Weekly
Claiming that our current educational system teaches students to worship technology and consumerism, Postman argues for more humanistic “narratives” as the basis for schools. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
After 20 books (e.g., Technopoly, LJ 1/92), Postman, social critic par excellence, has returned to his original turf: education. Sharp, witty, and frequently quotable, he demolishes many leading popular themes as lacking in meaning. Education without spiritual content or, as he puts it, without a myth or narrative to sustain and motivate, is education without a purpose. That purpose used to be democracy and could still be, if only we were willing to look for the elements that unite rather than separate. Postman considers multiculturalism a separatist movement that destroys American unity. Diversity, however, is one of the themes he would employ in teaching language, history, and culture. Postman offers a nu… Read more…

Career Day

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-In three previous books, Mrs. Madoff’s class celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving and participated in show-and-tell. Now, the children are introducing their family’s careers to their classmates. One mother is a judge, a grandmother is the school crossing guard, and the teacher’s husband is a paleontologist. A father is a construction worker, a mom is a nurse, and another mother is a veterinarian. Each profession is depicted on a double-page spread; a page showing the curious child with the family member is opposite a full-page picture of the contented adult at work. The text is written in a large font, which makes it easy to read, and the colorful pictures are equally appealing. Useful for units on careers and community helpers.Wendy S. Carroll, Montclair Cooperative School, NJ Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
From the ongoing series about Mrs. Madoff’s classroom, including Halloween Day (1997)… Read more…

Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

Review
Neil Postman is one of the most level-headed analysts of education, media, and technology, and in this book he spells out the increasing dependence upon technology, numerical quantification, and misappropriation of “Scientism” to all human affairs. No simple technophobe, Postman argues insightfully and writes with a stylistic flair, profound sense of humor, and love of language increasingly rare in our hastily scribbled e-mail-saturated world.

From Publishers Weekly
Mixing provocative insights and cliched criticisms, Postman defines the U.S. as a society in which technology is deified to a near-totalitarian degree. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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