Herb & Dorothy

• HERB & DOROTHY (DVD MOVIE)

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

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Balibo Poster Movie Australian 11x17 Anthony LaPaglia Oscar Isaac Nathan Phillips Gyton Grantley

• Approx. Size: 11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm
• Size is provided by the manufacturer and may not be exact
• The Amazon image in this listing is a digital scan of the poster that you will receive
• Balibo 11 x 17 Inches Australian Style A Mini Poster
• Packaged with care and shipped in sturdy reinforced packing material

Featuring six additional chapters, this revised edition reveals the provocative story of one of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history, providing a firsthand account of the 1975 deaths of five young television reporters killed by the Indonesian military in the East Timor border town of Balibo. Chronicling how the reporters died as well as the eventual execution of a sixth reporter who attempted to investigate their fate, this gripping depiction also documents the personal narratives behind the families of the v! ictims and their heartbreaking struggle for the truth. Contending that the Australian government was always aware of the circumstances of the killings, this argument maintains that their cover-up was a key factor in Indonesia's decision to invade and occupy East Timor. With a striking collection of photographs from its thrilling companion film, this searing recollection is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings.

THE MUSIC IN BALIBO COMBINES AN ORIGINAL SCORE BY WORLD RENOWNED AUSTRALIAN COMPOSER LISA GERRARD, WITH TRADITIONAL TIMORESE SONGS. ADDITIONAL ORIGINAL SCORE IN BALIBO WAS COMPOSED BY MARCELLO DE FRANCISCI AND SAM PETTY. TRADITIONAL TIMORESE SONGS ARE A POWERFUL PART OF THE SOUNDTRACK IN BALIBO, AND INCLUDE A CHILDREN'S CHOIR FROM TIMOR OPENING THE FILM WITH THE POWERFUL O HELE HO, THE FRETILIN MILITARY ANTHEM FOHO RAMELAU, AND THE POLITICAL SONG KOLELE MAI. THE FILM CONCLUDES! WITH EGO LEMO'S BALIBO, A TETUM LANGUAGE SONG COMPOSED FOR TH! E FILM D ESCRIBING THE EXPERIENCES OF THE BALIBO FIVE JOURNALISTS THE NIGHT BEFORE THEY WERE TO DIE. EGO IS ONE OF EAST TIMOR'S BEST KNOWN SINGERS, AND HAS SPENT THE LAST 12 MONTHS TOURING AUSTRALIA WITH GEOFFREY GURRUMUL YUNUPINGU.Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: 2-DVD Set, Anamorphic Widescreen, Behind the scenes, Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Documentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: After five Australian-based journos go missing, veteran correspondent Roger East is lured to East Timor by the charismatic Jos Ramos-Horta to tell his tiny nation's story and investigate the men's disappearance. As the threat of Indonesian invasion intensifies, an unlikely friendship develops between him and Horta. BALIB! O is a political thriller that tells the true story of crimes that have been covered up for 30 years. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Australian Film Institute, ...Balibo ( The Balibo Conspiracy )When foreign correspondent Tony Maniaty goes back to Timor for the first time since he fled for his life thirty years before, he discovers a land of ghosts some he left behind, and some he's brought with him. He's there to watch five young actors play out the last days of five friends of his men who were murdered by the Indonesian army in one of the most infamous incidents (and cover-ups) in Australian foreign affairs. He's also there to talk to some friends who survived Gusmao, Ramos-Horta people he knew as guerrillas and who now run the country. When he arrives, past and present, fiction and fact begin to overlap: at the Hotel Turismo he's assigned room eleven the room he had in 1975. And, he later discovers, the room the actor playing his young self had been staying in. Old contacts a! ppear out of the jungle, and disappear into rooms of state. Bu! t the mo st harrowing overlap is when he watches five young men being taken into a shack on the outskirts of Balibo, towards death.This provocative book reveals the previously hidden details of one of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history, providing a firsthand account of the deaths of five young television reporters killed by the Indonesian military in the East Timor border town of Balibo in 1975. The reporters died as they filmed the advance of Indonesian troops into the town. Cover Up tells their personal stories and of their families' heartbreaking struggle for the truth. It argues that the Australian government was always aware of the circumstances of the killings and that its cover-up was a key factor in Indonesia's decision to invade and occupy East Timor. Part memoir, part history, this searing book is as much an investigation of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor as it is a case study of the Balibo killings.Balibo reproduction Approx. Size: 11 x 17 Inches - ! 28cm x 44cm Australian Style A mini poster print

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The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season Two

• Experience the ABC Family series that has become a cultural phenomenon from coast to coast. THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER is more engaging than ever in its sensational second season. As Amy's due date approaches, her secret marriage to Ben complicates matters even further. Watch as their relationship twists and turns, and discover what the future holds for Ricky, Jack and the rest of yo

Nanette Burstein's 2008 documentary.A documentary following the lives of four teenagers -- a jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl and the geek--in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes be! yond the enduring stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood.Virginity is up against some stiff competition in this uproariously "entertaining" (Boxoffice) comedy about three sex-starved high school buddies with only one thing left to lose. Written and directed by Boaz Davidson with a "bittersweet style" (The Hollywood Reporter) and pulsing with music by U2, The Cars, Devo and more, The Last American Virgin is a devastatingly funny "teen romp [that's] a notch above" (Boxoffice)! This semester, Gary, Rick and David aredetermined to get laideven if it means going toe to toe with a hilarious array of high-strung hookers, naughty nymphomaniacs and naive high school girls. But when Gary falls for the girl of his dreamsonly to learn that she's about to become Rick's latest conquesthe soon discovers that having sex doesn't just mean losing his virginity, it may mean losing his innocence forever.A "let's get laid" favorite fro! m the teen-comedy trend of the early 1980s, The Last Americ! an Virgi n is beloved enough to earn its own fan-driven website, and it's still lots of fun. While tapping into the same zeitgeist that popularized Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which was released just one week earlier), this above-average sex comedy mixes high-school high jinks with the real anguish of unrequited love, as a nice kid named Gary (Lawrence Monoson) falls for Karen (Diane Franklin), a cute classmate who won't return his affections. Gary delivers pizza, leading to the comic highlight when his horny pals (Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo) deliver more than pizza to a lonely Latina bombshell (Louisa Moritz). But Gary wants his "first time" to be special, and director Boaz Davidson smartly avoids the obvious by denying Gary of the thing he wants most. Intended as the first in a series of remakes of the Israeli "Lemon Popsicle" comedies of the 1970s, The Last American Virgin offers abundant nudity, a recycled soundtrack of '80s hits, and plenty of hair mousse, but it! 's genuine hormonal angst that's given it a lasting reputation. --Jeff ShannonStudio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/22/2011Experience the ABC Family series that has become a cultural phenomenon from coast to coast. The Secret Life of the American Teenager is more engaging than ever in its sensational second season. As Amy's due date approaches, her secret marriage to Ben complicates matters even further. Watch as their relationship twists and turns, and discover what the future holds for Ricky, Jack and the rest of your favorite characters. Enjoy every episode of the celebrated series as it tackles the issues of today with humor and heart. Complete with exciting bonus material, The Secret Life of the American Teenager is even better on DVD!High school is challenging enough for most teenagers--doubly so for a pregnant 15-year-old. Amy (Shailene Woodley) and Ben (Ken Baumann) start the year by planning a wedding at the same time her mother, Anne ! (Molly Ringwald, who sings the pop-tastic theme song), looks f! or work and files for divorce from the obnoxious George (Mark Derwin), leaving Amy out of luck in the childcare department. It almost plays like a sequel to Saved!, except the comedy isn't quite so edgy. Amy's friends include good girl Grace (Megan Park) and bad girl Adrian (Francia Raisa), with whom she has something in common: "troubled narcissistic underachiever" Ricky (Darren Kagasoff), the father of her baby, who dates Grace by day and sleeps with Adrian by night.

The Secret Life is, essentially, a teen soap, an impression reinforced by the presence of Beverly Hills 90210's Jason Priestley in the director’s chair and Melrose Place's Josie Bissett as Grace's mom (another familiar primetime face, John Schneider, plays her father), but it still bears comparison to Brenda Hampton's 7th Heaven, since there are several well adjusted Christian characters, like the Bowmans (Grace's family) and the Stones (Grace's sometime-boyfriend Jack's fami! ly).

As the second season swings into full gear, Anne meets a new man, Adrian falls for her stepbrother, Amy's sarcastic 13-year-old sister, Ashley (India Eisley), gets her first boyfriend, and Amy finally decides whether to keep the baby or not. Supplemental materials include the featurette "Character Secrets," in which the actors discuss their roles, and "Cast Close-ups," in which they reveal information about themselves. Ringwald, for instance, cites The Breakfast Club as the top pick from her filmography, while Baumann acknowledges that he used to be a department-store-catalog model. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Diamonds Are Forever (James Bond Novels)

• ISBN13: 9780142002056
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Superspy James Bond (Sean Connery) gets tangled up in the wild world of international diamond smuggling. But hold on--the mission is not quite so simple as it seems; his chase of the jewel thieves leads him to conspirators with plans for unleashing a nuclear armageddon on an unsuspecting planet. The majority of the action takes place on the gaudy glittering streets of Las Vegas as Bond negotiates the grotesque terrain with his customary aplomb and fancy mechanical gadgets. As always he manages to dally with several sexy bombshells along the way including the wonderful Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole. Connery is as suave and entertaining as ever taking on the menacing Charles Gray who is trying his hand at ! playing Bond's archenemy Blofeld. Look for the car chase down a narrow alley.System Requirements:Running Time: 120 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616085412 Manufacturer No: M108541Sean Connery retired from the 007 franchise after You Only Live Twice (replaced by George Lazenby in the underrated and underperforming On Her Majesty's Secret Service) but was lured back for one last official appearance as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. He's in fine form--cool but ruthless--in a sharp precredits sequence hunting the unkillable Blofeld (a suavely menacing Charles Gray in this incarnation), but the MacGuffin of a story (involving diamond smuggling, a superlaser on a satellite, and Blofeld's latest plot to rule the world ) is full of the groaning tongue-in-cheek gags that Roger Moore would make his signature. Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton keeps the film zipping along gamely from one entertaining set piece to ! another, including a terrific car chase in a parking lot, a ba! ttle wit h a pair of bikini-clad killer gymnasts named Bambi and Thumper, and a deadly game with a bizarre pair of fey, sardonic killers who dispatch their victims with elaborate invention. Jill St. John is the brassy but not too bright American smuggler Tiffany Case, and country singer and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean costars as a reclusive billionaire with not-so-subtle parallels to Howard Hughes. Shirley Bassey belts out the memorable theme song, one of the series' best. Connery retired again after this one but he returned once more, for Never Say Never Again 15 years later for a rival production company. --Sean Axmaker Sean Connery retired from the 007 franchise after You Only Live Twice (replaced by George Lazenby in the underrated and underperforming On Her Majesty's Secret Service) but was lured back for one last official appearance as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. He's in fine form--cool but ruthless--in a sharp precredits sequence hun! ting the unkillable Blofeld (a suavely menacing Charles Gray in this incarnation), but the MacGuffin of a story (involving diamond smuggling, a superlaser on a satellite, and Blofeld's latest plot to rule the world ) is full of the groaning tongue-in-cheek gags that Roger Moore would make his signature. Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton keeps the film zipping along gamely from one entertaining set piece to another, including a terrific car chase in a parking lot, a battle with a pair of bikini-clad killer gymnasts named Bambi and Thumper, and a deadly game with a bizarre pair of fey, sardonic killers who dispatch their victims with elaborate invention. Jill St. John is the brassy but not too bright American smuggler Tiffany Case, and country singer and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean costars as a reclusive billionaire with not-so-subtle parallels to Howard Hughes. Shirley Bassey belts out the memorable theme song, one of the series' best. Connery retired again after this! one but he returned once more, for Never Say Never Again 15 ye ars later for a rival production company. --Sean Axmaker Sean Connery retired from the 007 franchise after You Only Live Twice (replaced by George Lazenby in the underrated and underperforming On Her Majesty's Secret Service) but was lured back for one last official appearance as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. He's in fine form--cool but ruthless--in a sharp precredits sequence hunting the unkillable Blofeld (a suavely menacing Charles Gray in this incarnation), but the MacGuffin of a story (involving diamond smuggling, a superlaser on a satellite, and Blofeld's latest plot to rule the world ) is full of the groaning tongue-in-cheek gags that Roger Moore would make his signature. Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton keeps the film zipping along gamely from one entertaining set piece to another, including a terrific car chase in a parking lot, a battle with a pair of bikini-clad killer gymnasts named Bambi and Thumper, and a deadly game wit! h a bizarre pair of fey, sardonic killers who dispatch their victims with elaborate invention. Jill St. John is the brassy but not too bright American smuggler Tiffany Case, and country singer and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean costars as a reclusive billionaire with not-so-subtle parallels to Howard Hughes. Shirley Bassey belts out the memorable theme song, one of the series' best. Connery retired again after this one but he returned once more, for Never Say Never Again 15 years later for a rival production company. --Sean Axmaker Sean Connery retired from the 007 franchise after You Only Live Twice (replaced by George Lazenby in the underrated and underperforming On Her Majesty's Secret Service) but was lured back for one last official appearance as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. He's in fine form--cool but ruthless--in a sharp precredits sequence hunting the unkillable Blofeld (a suavely menacing Charles Gray in this incarnation), bu! t the MacGuffin of a story (involving diamond smuggling, a sup! erlaser on a satellite, and Blofeld's latest plot to rule the world ) is full of the groaning tongue-in-cheek gags that Roger Moore would make his signature. Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton keeps the film zipping along gamely from one entertaining set piece to another, including a terrific car chase in a parking lot, a battle with a pair of bikini-clad killer gymnasts named Bambi and Thumper, and a deadly game with a bizarre pair of fey, sardonic killers who dispatch their victims with elaborate invention. Jill St. John is the brassy but not too bright American smuggler Tiffany Case, and country singer and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean costars as a reclusive billionaire with not-so-subtle parallels to Howard Hughes. Shirley Bassey belts out the memorable theme song, one of the series' best. Connery retired again after this one but he returned once more, for Never Say Never Again 15 years later for a rival production company. --Sean Axmaker Tiffany Case, a cold, ! gorgeous, devil-may-care blonde, stands between James Bond and the leaders of a diamond-smuggling ring that stretches from Africa to London to the United States. Bond uses her to infiltrate this gang, but once in America the hunter becomes the hunted. Agent 007 is in real danger until help comes from an unlikely quarter, the ice maiden herself.

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Endgame

• RISE AGAINST ENDGAME

Greece isn't the only country drowning in debt. The Debt Supercycleâ€"when the easily managed, decades-long growth of debt results in a massive sovereign debt and credit crisisâ€"is affecting developed countries around the world, including the United States. For these countries, there are only two options, and neither is goodâ€"restructure the debt or reduce it through austerity measures. Endgame details the Debt Supercycle and the sovereign debt crisis, and shows that, while there are no good choices, the worst choice would be to ignore the deleveraging resulting from the credit crisis. The book:

• Reveals why the world economy is in for an extended period of sluggish growth, high unemployment, and volatile markets punctuated by persistent recessions
• Reviews global markets, trends in population, government poli! cies, and currencies

Around the world, countries are faced with difficult choices. Endgame provides a framework for making those choices.

Q&A with Authors John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper

Author John Mauldin

What is the debt supercycle?
Over a period of about sixty years, debt levels grew faster than incomes. This increase in debt became particularly pronounced in the 1980s, 90s and finally went parabolic after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to 1% after the Nasdaq crash. The increase in debt was not just a US phenomenon. As inte! rest rates fell structurally with the fall in inflation from 1! 982 onwa rds, people took on more debt because it became more manageable. However, by 2008 the burden of debt became too much to bear and the debt supercycle came to an end. People started deleveraging and banks started collapsing due to low levels of capital and large losses from loans people couldn't pay back.

How does the sovereign debt crisis play into this?
The rapid contraction in debt levels due to default and deleveraging lead to a fall in economic activity as people started saving and cutting spending. Governments immediately stepped in and backed bank debt with explicit guarantees. Governments also started borrowing and spending to transfer money to the private sector, for example via unemployment insurance. So in a very real sense, private borrowing was replaced with public borrowing. Debt was added onto more debt. Rather than free itself of debt, the system now has more debt. The sovereign debt crisis is the recognition that most ! of this debt will not be paid back, and governments are making promises to pay debt and other obligations, for example general spending and pensions, that they simply lack the ability to fulfill.

What is the impact of the end of the debt supercycle?

Author Jonathan Tepper

The end of the debt supercycle and the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis present problems and challenges for investors and governments. Governments will need to either 1) inflate, 2) default or 3) devalue, which is similar to inflate. That is the way governments have historically dealt with too much debt. Some countries will experience deflation and others inflat! ion, depending on what choices governments make. Currently go! vernment s have only bad and worse choices. Let's hope they can choose wisely.

What do you predict for the next ten years?
Central banks globally have shown a predisposition to print money to solve problems. We forsee rising inflation in many parts of the world, reductions in real income as people lose purchasing power due to higher food and fuel prices and more macroeconomic volatility. Some countries that do not control their own money supply or are running pegs may experience deflation as they are forced to delever and cannot increase the money supply to counteract the weight of deleveraging.

You cite the events in Greece as an example of a country continuing to run massive deficits. Is there an example of a country making a better choice?
The UK is making some of the right steps to control spending, but even the UK could be more draconian. In nominal and real terms, government spending in aggreg! ate will not be cut in the UK. Also, Iceland has made positive steps by defaulting on its debt effectively. Default is a good way to cure too much debt.
Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady’s decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascentâ€"and confounding descentâ€"of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer.  Only Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could have written this book, which has much to say about the nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of fame.  Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, this account is unique in that it limns Fischer’s entire lifeâ€"an odyssey that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the world” to notorious recluse.
 
At fi! rst all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was.  Possessing a! 181 I.Q . and remarkable powers of concentration, Bobby memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only 13 when he became the youngest chess master in U.S. history.   But his strange behavior started early.  In 1972, at the historic Cold War showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds of petty demands that nearly ended the competition.
 
It was merely a prelude to what was to come.
 
Arriving back in the United States to a hero’s welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he wentâ€"a figure as exotic and improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced.  No player of a mere “board game” had ever ascended to such heights.  Commercial sponsorship offers poured in, ultimately topping $10 millionâ€"but Bobby demurred.  Instead, he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature. 
 
After years of poverty! and a stint living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, Bobby remerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a multi-million dollar rematchâ€"but the experience only deepened a paranoia that had formed years earlier when he came to believe that the Soviets wanted him dead for taking away “their” title.  When the dust settled, Bobby was a wanted manâ€"transformed into an international fugitive because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S. sanctions.  Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards, and wearing a long leather coat to ward off knife attacks, Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitive â€" one drawn increasingly to the bizarre.  Mafiosi, Nazis, odd attempts to breed an heir who could perpetuate his chess-genius DNAâ€"all are woven into his late-life tapestry.
 
And yet, as Brady shows, the most notable irony of Bobby Fischer’s strange descent â€" which had reached full plummet by 2005 when he turned down yet another multi-million dolla! r paydayâ€"is that despite his incomprehensible behavior, ther! e were m any who remained fiercely loyal to him.  Why that was so is at least partly the subject of this bookâ€"one that at last answers the question: “Who was Bobby Fischer?”


From the Hardcover edition.Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2011: There may be no one more qualified than Frank Brady to write the definitive biography of Bobby Fischer. Brady's Profile of a Prodigy (originally published in 1969) chronicled the chess icon's early years, a selection of 90 games, and (in later editions) his 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky. With Endgame, published two years after Fischer's death, Brady's on-and-off proximity to Fischer lends new depth to the latter's full and twisted life story. Though Fischer's pinnacle artistry on the chessboard may often be discussed in the same breath with his eventual paranoia and outspoken anti-Semitism, the particular turns and travels of his post-World Championship ye! ars (half his life) lend his story most of its vexing oddity: the niggling insistence on seemingly arbitrary conditions for his matches, the years on the lam after flagrantly disregarding U.S. economic sanctions, his incarceration in Japan, his eventual citizenship and quiet demise in Iceland. All told, Fischer's life was like none other, and told through the lens of Brady's personal familiarity and access to new source material, results in an utterly engaging read. --Jason Kirk

Guest Reviewer: Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett is the host of “The Dick Cavett Show”---which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982---Dick Cavett is t! he author, most recently, of Talk Show: Confrontations, Po! inted Co mmentary, and Off-Screen Secrets. The co-author of Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), he has also appeared on Broadway in Otherwise Engaged and Into the Woods, and as narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, and has made guest appearances in movies and on TV shows including Forrest Gump and The Simpsons. His column appears in the Opinionator blog on The New York Times website. Mr. Cavett lives in New York City and Montauk, N.Y.

Even if you don’t give a damn about chess, or Bobby Fischer, you’ll find yourself engrossed by Frank Brady‘s book about Fischer, which reads like a novel.

The facts of Bobby’s life (I knew him from several memorable appearances on “The Dick Cavett Show” on both sides of the Big Tournament) are presented in page-turner fashion. Poor Bobby was blessed and cursed by his genius, and his story has the arc of a Greek tragedy---with a grim touch o! f mad King Lear at the end.

The brain power and concentrated days and nights Bobby spent studying the game left much of him undeveloped, unable to join conversations on other subjects. Later in his life, unhappy with his limited knowledge of things beyond the chess board, he compensated with massive study---applying that same hard-butt dedication to other fields: politics, classics, religion, philosophy and more. He found a hide-away nook in a Reykjavic bookstore---barred from his homeland, Iceland had welcomed him back---where he read in marathon sessions. (After he was recognized, he never went back to his cozy cul de sac.)

In Brady’s telling the high drama of the Spassky match quickens the pulse; the contest that made America a chess-crazed land was seen by more people than the Superbowl. People skipped school and played sick in vast numbers, glued to watching Shelby Lyman explain what was happening. The fanaticism was worldwide. The match was seen a! s a Cold War event, with the time out of mind chess-ruling Rus! sian bea r vanquished.

Arguably the best known man on the planet at his triumphant peak, Bobby is later seen in this account riding buses in Los Angeles, able to pay his rent in a dump of an apartment only because his mother sent him her social-security checks. The details of all this are stranger than fiction, as is nearly everything in the life of this much-rewarded, much-tortured genius.

I liked him immensely, knowing only the tall, broad-shouldered, athletically strong and handsome six-foot-something articulate and yes, witty, youth that Bobby was before the evil times set in, with deranged anti-Semitic outbursts and other mental strangeness preceding his too early end at age 64.

I can’t ever forget the moment on the show when in amiable conversation I asked him what, in chess, corresponded to the thrill in another sort of event; like, say, hitting a homer in baseball. He said it was the moment when you “break the other guy’s ego.” There was a sh! ocked murmur from the audience and the quote went around the world.

Frank Brady’s Endgame is one of those books that makes you want your dinner guests to go the hell home so you can get back to it.

Limited edition pressing. 2011 album from the Chicago-based Punk act. The lyrics of the album touch on real world events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. According to Mcllrath, although the lyrics discuss grim topics, they actually take on a positive view and were written from the perspective of: 'What if the place on the other side of this transition is a place we'd all rather be living in?' Mcllrath tweeted a clarifying message stating that the record is not a concept record and, fret not, has absolutely nothing to do with the Dixie Chicks. The first single from the album is 'Help Is On The Way',

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Rob Zombie 3-Disc Collector's Set

• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC.
• Language: English.
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1.
• Number of discs: 3.

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES - DVD MovieIt's sick! It's twisted! It's House of 1,000 Corpses, and it's more fun than a wholesome bowl of "Agatha Crispies"! Dropped by two studios (Universal and MGM) and doomed to obscurity until Lions Gate Films gave it a limited theatrical release, Rob Zombie's gonzo horror flick is a blood-spattered throwback to the gore-fests of the '70s, lending new meaning to the term "box-office gross." Most critics misunderstood this unbridled exercise in graphic style and violence, but for devoted horror buffs it's a refreshing rebuttal to the comparatively "polite" frights of the post-Scream era. While paying homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, ! Last House on the Left, Motel Hell, and other gory classics, Zombie's ramshackle plot (two young couples are terrorized by an inbred family of homicidal maniacs) lacks a crucial sense of dread, but his pastiche of vivid colors, grainy fetish-films, and photo-negative imagery is guaranteed to hold your attention. A bona-fide cult item, this House is definitely worth a visit... if you dare. --Jeff ShannonIncludes HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (unrated version) and Bonus disc including "30 Days in Hell - The Making of THE DEVIL'S REJECTS."

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Last Days

• TESTED

From the groundbreaking director of GOOD WILL HUNTING and FINDING FORRESTER, GERRY stars Academy Award(R) winner Matt Damon (Best Original Screenplay, GOOD WILL HUNTING, 1997; THE BOURNE IDENTITY, OCEAN'S ELEVEN) and Casey Affleck (OCEAN'S ELEVEN, SOUL SURVIVORS) in a suspenseful and highly provocative story of two men pushed to the limit! A pair of best friends (Affleck and Damon), who've nicknamed each other "Gerry," set out on a desert hike. But what begins as a simple daytime adventure turns into an intense life-and-death journey that will test the strength of human endurance and ultimately, their friendship! Written by Damon, Affleck, and Director Gus Van Sant, this uncommonly compelling and starkly visualized film is a must-see motion picture that has earned the overwhelming praise of critics nationwide!In Gerry, two young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) wander beautifu! l, barren, and surreal landscapes, gradually growing more and more lost. This film from Gus Van Sant (director of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting) has no story, hardly any dialogue, and even less in the way of "action" or "events." Yet the movie is by turns maddening and hypnotic; although few people will agree on which are the maddening scenes and which are the hypnotic ones, you will leave Gerry with one or more stunning images in your head. In fact, Gerry is probably more pleasurable to remember than it is to sit through. Committed performances, flashes of dark humor, and a smattering of visual effects give the movie some shape, but the more you just surrender to the emptiness of the landscape, the more rewarding Gerry will be. --Bret FetzerFrom the groundbreaking director of Milk and Good Will Hunting, Gerry stars Matt Damon (The Adjustment Bureau) and ! Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) in a suspenseful and! highly provocative story of two men pushed to the limit.
A pair of best friends (Affleck and Damon), who've nicknamed each other "Gerry," set out on a desert hike. But what begins as a simple daytime adventure turns into an intense life-and-death journey that will test the strength of human endurance and ultimately their friendship. Written by Damon, Affleck and director Gus Van Sant, this uncommonly compelling and starkly visualized film has earned the overwhelming praise of critics nationwide.In Gerry, two young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) wander beautiful, barren, and surreal landscapes, gradually growing more and more lost. This film from Gus Van Sant (director of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting) has no story, hardly any dialogue, and even less in the way of "action" or "events." Yet the movie is by turns maddening and hypnotic; although few people will agree on which are the maddening scenes and which are ! the hypnotic ones, you will leave Gerry with one or more stunning images in your head. In fact, Gerry is probably more pleasurable to remember than it is to sit through. Committed performances, flashes of dark humor, and a smattering of visual effects give the movie some shape, but the more you just surrender to the emptiness of the landscape, the more rewarding Gerry will be. --Bret FetzerAn official selection in the 2005 Cannes Film festival, GUS VAN SANT'S LAST DAYS is inspired by the final hours of Kurt Cobain. The film introduces us to Blake (Michael Pitt, The Dreamers), a brilliant, but troubled musician. Success has left him in a lonely place, where livelihoods rest on his shoulders and old friends regularly tap him for money and favors. The film follows Blake through a handful of hours spent in and near his wooded home... a fugitive from his own life.

DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes
Music Video:"Happy Song" by! Pagoda
Other:The Making Of
Outtakes:On th! e set of Gus Van Sant's Last Days: The Long Dolly Shot

Gus Van Sant's Last Days is a film about the death of Kurt Cobain. While the name of the main character has been changed from Kurt to Blake and the setting of the suicide changed from a greenhouse in Seattle to a greenhouse in upstate New York, there's no mistaking this film is the product of Van Sant's imagination pursuing the final, lonely moments of the great '90s icon. Rock biopic fans seeking a traditionally gratifying plot should run as fast as they can from this movie and see Rock Star or Sid and Nancy instead; Gus Van Sant's methodology is all about the slow, oppressive creep of time. One shot lingers excruciatingly long on some random foliage outside Blake's (Michael Pitt, The Dreamers) mansion. In another, he makes cereal. Then he sits on a bench for awhile. Or mumbles dialogue to a Yellow Pages ad salesman played by a real-life Yellow Pages ad salesman. Or gradually collapses while ! watching a Boyz 2 Men video. Meanwhile, Blake's parasitical hangers-on are slightly more animated, occupying his chilly house and clearly on their way to becoming as existentially destitute as he. Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon appears, pretty much reprising an interventionist role she must have played with the real-life Cobain, but this rock star is far beyond rescuing from the brink. Later, when Blake ventures into town to see a punk show, he is cornered by an acquaintance played by Harmony Korine, who tells him a hilarious story about playing Dungeons and Dragons with Jerry Garcia. Where the accumulation of small moments like these don't add up to much drama, they create a pervading sense of dread and sad inevitability. In his life, Cobain railed against all that was phony and hyped; by crafting a visual poem resolutely defiant of rock star spectacle, Van Sant honors the late singer as sincerely as he can, by keeping it real. --Ryan Boudinot

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The Dark Knight (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]

• Condition: New
• Format: Blu-ray
• AC-3; Color; Dolby; Widescreen

When a Medieval World theme park worker (Lawrence) is magically transported back to 14th century England, he must do battle with an evil king, deadly assassins - and really bad plumbing!In Black Knight, Martin Lawrence plays an amusement park employee who is magically transported back to medieval times and helps return a queen to her rightful throne (while learning some valuable lessons along the way). Despite the script's lack of logic and originality, Lawrence is an engaging performer, with a loose-limbed amiability that makes him most enjoyable company, even if he's not necessarily a better actor than most comedians. If Lawrence ever does a movie with a decent script, he might really have something; as it is we'll have to settle right now for the cheesy yet funny sight of Lawrence teaching a medieval band ! to play some Sly and Family Stone. --Bret FetzerThe follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all! of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems lik! e faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great--in addition to pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision--is that it bypasses the normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City's new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime rings that have paralyzed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who seems to trust only Gordon--and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the crime bosses a solution--kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

In his last completed role before h! is tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director-cowriter Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism--there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it's a shade too long, and it's much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans--and not just superhero fans--The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi

On the Blu-ray disc
Th! e Dark Knight on Blu-ray is a great home-theater showoff ! disc. Th e detail and colors are tremendous in both dark and bright scenes (the Gotham General scene is a great example of the latter), and the punishing Dolby TrueHD soundtrack makes the house rattle. (After giving us only Dolby 5.1 in a number of big Blu-ray releases this fall, Warner came through with Dolby TrueHD on this one.) One of the most interesting elements of The Dark Knight was how certain scenes were shot in IMAX, and if you saw the movie in an IMAX theater the film's aspect ratio would suddenly change from standard 2.40:1 to a thrilling 1.43:1 that filled the screen six stories high. For the Blu-ray disc, director Christopher Nolan has somewhat re-created this experience by shifting his film from 2.40:1 aspect ratio (through most of the film) to 1.78:1 in the IMAX scenes. While the effect isn't as dramatic as it was in theaters, it's still an eye-catching experience to be watching the film on a widescreen TV with black bars at the top and bottom, then seeing th! e 1.78:1 scenes completely fill the screen. The main bonus feature on disc 1 is "Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene," which is 81 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage about the IMAX scenes, the Bat suit, Gotham Central, and others. You can watch the film and access these featurettes when the icon pops up, or you can simply watch them from the main menu. A welcome and unusual feature is that in addition to English, French, and Spanish audio and subtitles, there's an audio-described option that allows the sight-impaired to experience the film as well.

Disc 2 has two 45-minute documentaries on Bat-gadgets and on the psychology of Batman, both in high definition. They combine movie clips, talking heads, and comic-book panels, but aren't the kind of thing one needs to watch twice. More engaging are six eight-minute segments of Gotham Central, a faux-news program that gives some background to events in the movie, plus a variety of trailers, poster art, and more. The! BD-Live component on disc 1 is more interesting than on some ! earlier Blu-ray discs, which could be simply a matter of the content starting to catch up with the technology. There are three new picture-in-picture commentaries, by Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker), DC Comics president Paul Levitz, and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.--he's a Batman fan who's made some movie and TV cameos), plus you can record your own commentary and upload it for others to watch. There are also three new featurettes ("Sound of the Batpod," "Harvey Dent's Theme," and "Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard") and two motion comics ("Mad Love," featuring Harley Quinn, and "The Shadow of Ra's Al Ghul"). No longer available is the digital copy of the film (compatible with iTunes and Windows Media, standard definition, download code expires 12/9/09). --David Horiuchi

Product description
The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Chri! stian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

Stills from The Dark Knight (click for larger image)

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