Review #56
11/05
Title: A Fantasy, The Untold Studio Secret, Portrait for Barley
What is it?: Book , an illustrated fantasy of painted figures coming to life.
Technical Quality: Good. 91/4": by 81/2" picture book is well made with very nicely reproduced color and b/w illustrations Book design and illustrations by the author, cover design and graphics by Marvin Krieger with the author.
Innovative Quality: Above average. The painter tells a story of how his painted characters come to life, leave their paintings, and explore the studio. What's innovative is the series of oil paintings that show these pixies mischevious adventures.
Review: Author Donald S. Vogel was better known as an impressionist styled painter, and the founder of The Valley House Gallery in Dallas "the first gallery of importantce in the South and Southwest that dealt with major 20th century art". In 1992 the gallery published this painting fantasy. The story is slight, light, and playful, with the oil painting illustrations as the star of the book.
Story: The painter realizes that some of the characters in his paintings seem to have lives of their own outside his control. These mini nude men and women step out of their paintings and scamper across his studio, or they emerge out of tubes of paint with 1 person per tube, or they climb into other paintings of his. Overall they get into mischief. One female pixie , Barley, hides in his paint box on a painting trip to the shore. When the painter opens the box , he finds Barley and paints her at the beach. The final painting shows little Barley gazing at her portrait. Beyond the story are the series of 28 oil paintings that illustrate the action (plus 11 drawings that were not as impressive to me as the oils). The paintings could stand alone and tell the jist of the story by themselves. As a series of impressionistic story paintings, I think they are quite acomplished. Some of my favorites are: 5 pixies emerge from paint tubes. 3 pixies, the top two standing on the shoulders of the person below them, with the back of a canvas behind them, and half of the huge face of the painter behind it. The pixies investigating the picture frames. The pixies investigating a stack of drawings. Numerous paintings of pixies stepping into or climbing out of other paintings. Here's one example in detail. We see a painted canvas of yellow/gold positioned on a slant from lower left to upper right with the ground all around it, in brown. 8 pixies are dancing and cavorting inside the gold painting within the painting, while 2 more are stepping into the painting and one is coming around the corner of the canvas. Throughout all the oils, the compositions are good. Coloring is good. Figure drawing skill is ok - it reminds me of the less structured works of Vuillard or Bonnard. And finally fantasy element and storytelling ability are very good with a sense of wonder and fun throughout. . Overall a charming series of paintings that raise an average fantasy to a very special one. I would love to see the complete series of paintings and illustrations in one gallery show. Note his dedication: "To my friends - both real and imaginary - mostly the painted ones who have made all things possible.
Contact Info: Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Tx. www.valleyhouse.com
Overall Grade: 6.5
Title: All That's Left Of Us
What is it?: Sixth album by the Jeff Berry Band, a contemporary Christian rock band. Technical Quality: Extremely high on all levels. Jeff Berry’s breathy, passionate voice was clear, exact, and strong. With him was an accomplished band that played with the precision of studio musicians. Everyone had solos and they were all highly competent and well crafted. Good engineering and good production values throughout the CD. (Note there was no cover so I can’t comment on album art.)
Innovative Quality: Not much new here. Very little groundbreaking in either style - they sound like rock bands sound; or lyrics, their Christian message is similar to other Christian rock bands . Instead they’ve refined the basic genre. Arrangements were above average and showed real skill. They were never predictable - example the recitation at the end of You are God Alone (NOT a god).,p> Review: This is the sixth album of the Jeff Berry Band, and that experience shows. The 14 songs have been composed by assorted writers, all of which have talent. Most impressive was the emphasis on good solid choruses on all songs - a skill rare in contemporary songwriting. I found them even more hummable, and contagious on the 2nd hearing. The songs generally start quiet, with mostly just a bass and drums. Then they build to full sound on the choruses. Four songs are written by guitarist Steve Miller - note these have the best guitar solos too. Four songs are written by the entire group. Two by lead singer Jeff Berry and assorted co-writers, and 4 by composers outside of the band. Usually with such an assortment one would find an assortment of quality with some much better than others. I didn’t here. I thought that ALL were reasonably good and in my song by song look, I personally thought nine were topnotch, and that may well be personal opinion more than any comment on the quality of the rest.
Those favorites included rockers Great is Thy Faithfulness, You are Good, You Are God Alone (NOT a god), Sing to the King, If You Say Go (best drums), and the more quiet Covering, Bring Us Near, In You, and the piano only Prayer. The lyric message overall can be summed up by the phrase, “praise thy name.” At times the lyrics are somewhat vague in their meaning. At other times many of the verses have references that only other Christians would understand. But at their best, there are also moments of straightforward first rate poetry too. Here are three favorite examples:
From Fade:
All the earth in one voice
Calls to You our maker
We offer up
To You the King of Kings
And we worship
From Prayer:
Thou hast said to walk on water
But I stumble in the sand Oh, to run and not grow weary
Jesus come and hold my hand
From Sing to the King:
For His returning we watch and we pray
We will be ready the dawn of that day
We’ll join in singing with all the redeemed
Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King!
I would love to hear this band set music to the book of Job, or Ecclesiastes, or a psalm. Overall, a very passionate and stirring recording of contemporary Christian music well produced and well crafted.
Contact Info:
David Alvey
dlalvey@sbcglobal.net
www.jeffberry.org
Overall Grade: 6.2
Title: Bukowski Never Did This: A Year in the Life of an Underground Writer & His Family.
What is it?: Three short novels in one by Jack Saunders.
Technical Quality: The technical quality of the writer is very good. His writing style is smooth and well honed. He has written over 250 books, about one a month, and it shows. Technical quality of the book itself is similar to any published trade paperback.
Innovative Quality: The writing gets high marks for innovation. He mixes everything into the work: rants, Q. and A. self interviews, novel synopses, diary entries, poems, even liner notes for a CD.
"Reading one of my books is like surfing the Internet, or reading several library books - and magazines and newspapers - at the same time."... "I write in a variety of genres. Poetry, fiction, drama, memoir, self-interviews, replies to rejection slips, letters to a friend. Sometimes in a single book."
Throughout the work he switches back and forth between a novel with the main character , Brew, a struggling unpublished, prolific writer; and entries from a diary by Brew. He even says IN the novel what it's about - a sort of Catch-22 review/synopsis of the novel within the novel!
"Bukowski never wrote 250 books without selling a word to New York or Hollywood. He also didn't "create a body of work, his stack, and invent a form to present it in, daily typewriting." Nor did he publish his books, himself in real time, daily, and respond to reader comment, in the work, so that his books were not only written, and published in real time, they were interactive, and responded to reader comment after he had had time to think about the matter. The book shows how Art Brew combines writing, work and family. And fights the nomenklatura, the Retread Mafia the old ennui, out on a quiet spree. The book is divided into alternating sections, Diary, and Novel. The novel is an underground writer procedural novel and the diary is the diary of writing an underground writer procedural novel. And working etc."
The book cover is not as accomplished. It seems disjointed and looks too busy with the sensory overload you see on most website main pages.
Review: FIRST A DISCLAIMER. This reviewer, is a member of the ULA, the Underground Literary Alliance, a writers group. Both author Jack Saunders, and publisher Lit Vision Press are members of the ULA. IF you think this is a conflict of interest - stop reading this review now. If not ...
This novel is written in a very free form that oscillates between a writer’s diary/notes and a novel about his life. The story is straightforward enough. Art Brew has got writing in his blood. All he wants to do is write his novels or talk about them. He writes one each month, sometimes every two weeks. But he can't get published and to support himself and his working wife Brenda, he must take jobs as a technical writer, usually with all the red tape associated with government work. His jobs are always temporary so he seems to be out of work as much as in. And though he can't get published, (though in reality he is here - another Catch-22) he continues to write prolifically.
And what does he write about?
"Stories about the writing life," such as writing, his novels, synposes of them, writers he likes, the “Buzzard Cult“ - a group of followers of his writing, his query letters to publishers, quotes from other writers, etc. There is some events outside of writing but they're not in the majority. He struggles with low finances at home, his long suffering wife supports him, they both love a band called Dread Clampitt, he sometimes drinks too much, they visit relatives, enjoy good food, and they move more than once to find work.
Here is a sample of his writing on writing:
And here's a sample of his writing not on writing:
Overall it's a rich book that book lovers will enjoy. What you won't find is much emotional depth, characterization, or plot. What you will find is a seasoned writer full of bits of info, sparks of ideas, and totally committed to his writing, even in his writing!
Some more quotes that I enjoyed:
"That's what my book is about. Producing a body of work and inventing a genre to present it in. For a world that's hostile or indifferent to it."
"What happens if I (1) lose my job, and (2) don't sell my book? I write a book about that. I look for another job."
Contact Info:
Pat Simonelli
c/o LitVision Press
7711 Greenback Lane #156
Citrus Heights CA 95610
editor@litvision.org,
www.litvision.org
Overall Grade: 6.4
Back to Previous Reviews or on to the Next Reviews or Main Page