Product Description
As an international speaker and consultant to virtually every business sector over his more than thirty-five years of research and development in technology-based instruction, Michael Allen now speaks out about his frustrations with e-learning and brings fundamental issues to light. He shares specific, commonsense guidelines that reliably produce effective and practical learning solutions. From his pioneering work on learning management systems, to authoring systems, and now on instructional design, experts and buyers alike follow his leadership and respect his opinion:

"Every subject area has its bible. This is it for e-learning. This is the how-to book for both instructional designers and executives responsible for corporate e-learning programs. Especially well done and unique to this book are the chapters on learner motivation and how effective instructional interactivities are created. The bottom line, from our experience working with Michael Allen and his team, is the methods and principles defined in this book work–and work well."
–Mike Groszko, Manager, DaimlerChrysler Quality Institute

"Michael Allen has done it all. He has designed and developed huge amounts of effective e-learning. He has built several very successful businesses providing programs to sophisticated clients. He has managed development. He personally led the creation of Authorware, the benchmark authoring system used throughout the world. He has lectured. He has written. He has taught. His opinions and perspective are sought by many. But mostly, he thinks. And the results of that thinking are to the benefit of us all. I am glad he wrote down what he thinks."
– Gloria Gery, Gery Associates ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Brilliant!
Excellent book. Refreshing ideas in an easy to follow sequence. Written in a friendly manner. This book doesn't contain wreaths of information about e-learning, but instead focusses on a few key concepts that are illustrated extremely well with practical examples. Definitely not an e-learning Bible, but absolutely vital for anyone who wants a few ideas to kick-start their flailing e-learning courses. Most of the concepts presented are also applicable to regular classroom learning as well.

Excellent, Practical Resource!
This is one of two books for an online e-Learning class I am taking. Well organized. Easy to understand. Clear examples and exercises. CD easy to order and helpful. I was able to put the design ideas into use at work my first day at work after reading the design chapter. Began to move from boring, PowerPoint-like Captivate modules to entertaining, challenging modules that engage the user. I strongly recommend this book for designers, managers, and executives/business owners who are or are considering implementing or improving their e-learning offerings!

Great addition to your library
As a Training Manager for a large wireless company I was charged with rolling out our online learning system.As you would expect, I and my company, did a good deal of research before we purchased our system.Michael Allen's book was very helpful in identifying the questions we needed to identify, as a company, before we took the step.

I highly recommend this book. Even though you will likely experience some frustration in your search for the most effective online learning system, his book will make the process less painful.

The book really focuses on the "how to" of developing and designing your online courses.It honestly lays out the pros and cons of online learning.You will find it helpful.

Emphasizing the essentials
This book takes e-learning to its core mandate, that of engaging and involving the learners, so that they learn the key skills and knowledge required.

An excellent and easy read, with lots of good examples and non-examples, nicely compared side by side.

Must have for new designers
This book is a must have for the aspiring e-Learning developer.It reviews enough theory to make the point and directs the reader quickly through the logic and science of good e-Learning design. ... Read more

Product Description
This new textbook is an abridgment of the author’s earlier Woody Allen’s Angst: Philosophical Commentaries on His Serious Films (McFarland, 1997; “invaluable”—Choice.)

Five main topics are explored: the desire of many of his characters to ground their lives in traditional ethical values despite their realization that such values may no longer be certain; the opposition between pessimism and optimism throughout his films; gender issues relating to romantic love, sexual desire, and the ongoing changes in our cultural expectations of both men and women; the idea that contemporary American society is rapidly descending into barbarism precisely because of societal failure to maintain a sense of individual moral responsibility; and a critique of psychoanalysis as a method for understanding human behavior. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Analyze This.
You've got to be alive, awake, and alert to get everything Mr. Lee has to offer you from this book. He doesn't miss any of Woody's tricks (whether Woody himself put it in his film consciously or unknowingly), and he doesn't get involved in the private life of Mr. Allen either. Sander is strictly business.

I read this book several times, as its contents surpass science and spacial relations in terms of how much one can fit in a book so small. If you put a book in water and it floats (which, I believe, is what happens when one puts a book in water) then Mr. Sander Lee's book would sink like a proverbial stone. And if reading the book in the States it would go all the way to China. Anyway, i found it best to view a specific film (let's say Stardust Memories) and then follow the viewing with the chapter dedicated to said film (in this case, Stardust Memories). Because if you saw the films like, oh I don't know, a decade ago, it's just not going to work out for you. Cause Sander is a genius. And you probably aren't.

Buy the book. Watch the movies (except Hollywood Ending, Anything Else, and Curse of the Jade Scorpion of course). ... Read more

Product Description
allen ginsberg and gregory corso posing naked in tangier timothy leery and neal cassady en route to millbrook psychedelic research center on ken keseys merry prankster bus jack kerouac and william burroughs in ginsbergs new york apartment lawrence ferlinghetti and his dog whitman in san franciscos city lights bookstore these are just a few of the bizarre snapshots of enduring beat era personalities appearing in this remarkable collection by one of the beat movements most celebrated founders poet alien ginsberg spanning more than three decades from 1953 to 1988 Snapshot Poetics contains candid photographs of legendary beat writers and artists as well as their disciples including norman mailer lou reed richard avedon kathy acker willem de kooning anne waldman and russian poet yevgeny yevtuchenko all accompanied by ginsbergs quirky handwritten captions a veritable whos who of the beat era and the ongoing literary scene it engendered ginsbergs classic images re-create the movement in all its glory ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

nice album
Ginsberg's on-and-off fascination with photography left some intimate records of the lives around him.We see a slim and young full-mopped Ginsberg, smiling on a ship "smoking what," and candid shots of Burroughs, Kerouac, and other less famous Beats as they interacted with each other.You will find that there's much more to the camaraderie of these guys than just trying to get laid (re: the other review).

nice album
Ginsberg's on-and-off fascination with photography left some nice intimate records of the lives around him.We see a slim and young full-mopped Ginsberg, seen smiling on a ship "smoking what," and candid shots of Burroughs, Kerouac, and other less famous Beats as they interacted with each other.You will find that there's much more to the camaraderie of these guys than just trying to get laid (re: the other review).

All the old men and their boys
It is interesting to see all the old men with their 'boys' in the photographs from the 1980s. Seems that the beats' endless search for kicks and highs always ended up with the ego-centered desire to prove that they could get laid. Yes, we know that the beats got laid, although their writing about sex always was at about a 9th grade level.

What is weird to a mature eye is that they never got over their childish obsessions with young flesh. And the boys, some cute, most just young, live out their lives as footnotes to the stars. In the age of AIDS, most of the beats would have died before becoming famous at all. Something for young new 'beats' to think about now--before they too become just dead footnotes.

Ginsberg showed love in the early pictures--later, just cold views of the famous and their young sex objects--over and over and over. The beats used people; many in the photographs killed themselves or were pushed out of history. Ginsberg gives us a snapshot of how the myth was created. ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive guide covers all of the music used in Woody Allen's films from Take the Money and Run (1969) to Match Point (2005). Each film receives scene-by-scene analysis with a focus on how Allen utilized music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

It's truly a complete guide
Adam Harvey gives us a truly complete guide to the songs and music in every Woody Allen's film, from 1969-2005.

All details, like tune tittle, the composers, year writen, the performers, year recorded, etc, etc, are there.

Besides, Harvey comments the soundtrack of every film.

Higly recommended.

Play It Again, Woody!
If you, like me, are interested in the music Woody uses in his films and want to find out more then get a copy of this excellent book.It lists all of the music (together with writers and performers) in each film and tells you where it appears.So, you are now able to pinpoint any piece of music that you might like, even if you do not know what it is.This is especially helpful with some of the earlier ("funny") movies such as "Bananas", "Sleeper" and "Love and Death" where the songs are not listed in the end credits.There are also a number of useful appendices, including one which details where to find the same recordings of the music used by Woody.This isn't just a book of lists though.There is a detailed introduction which overviews Woody's interest in music and goes into some detail to describe how he employs music in his films, with numerous quotes by the director himself.Altogether this is a well-researched and thorough guide to Woody Allen's soundtracks, filling in the gaping hole in the literature about this film maker. ... Read more

Product Description
Such Allen works as Annie Hall (1977), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Mighty Aphrodite (1995) are analyzed for the common philosophical themes they share. Gender issues, Allen's love-hate relationship with God, narcissism and moral relativism, and the use of the so-called existential dilemma are among the topics discussed. A rare question and answer appendix with Allen is included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best book about Woody's films!
I have to say that I haven't read any book that gets to the heart of Woody Allen's movies like this one does. Each of his films is analyzed and the different philosophical issues that are tackled in each film are discussed.This book will open your mind up to the whole world of philosophy and thestruggle with how we should live that is at the heart of Woody's films. Inot only learned a lot about these films so that I can appreciate them evenmore(which I didn't think was possible considering how much I liked thembefore this book)but I also learned a lot about philosophy and life. Icannot highly enough recommend this book. I wish I could give it twentystars! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Wise as Bentley, unpretentious as Moliere
Quite simply, this is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. The author is as wise as Eric Bentley and unpretentious as Moliere. I first got this book when I was seventeen years old, and it changed the way I looked at comedy - it introduced me to Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, and Woody Allen. It encouraged me to consider comedy as a profession for myself and I am forever in its debt. It is still a book that I return to and keep finding new things in; I learn more from it as my own experience grows. I think that this is one of those books that nearly anyone could get something out of. I strongly encourage at least taking a look at it. It is very hard to put down again. I do not give my five-star rating very often but this book easily deserves it.

Wide ranging, informative and somehow funny
It is not easy to draw a line through a few thousand years of drama and find similarities, but Bermel manages to do so in a way that should satisfy and surprise both general readers and the more academically inclined.Rather than look on the dramatic heritage of a few thousand years,collecting a body of works into a category called 'farce' and thenexplaining that body of work away, Bermel instead finds farce as a mode ofexpression, finding it in (hitherto) unlikely places. I found his writingon Joe Orton a wonderful introduction to that playwright's work; but hisfinding of farcical modes in places such as Beckett's work and theabsurdists gives the reader good food for thought, and good things to thinkwith for the next time they go to the theatre, or even rent out a video. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

A scholar's book
I am not sure why this book saw the light of day.It is mostly about minor money matters, travel plans and gossip.It belongs in the archive where biographers and literary scholars could use it in writing more comprehensive narratives or literary critiques of both men.Such scholars are used to plowing through trivial details to find the gems which fit into a larger picture more interesting to the reading public.
I got several things out of the book: a few juicy tidbits of gossip; an occasional glimpse of where I was and what I was doing when the two were similarly or differently engaged and a rare insight into the men but not their poetry.It was a window on my past particularly in the 60's and early 70's.I was a grad student then outside agitator in Berkeley CORE and the Free Speech movement when the two were in and out of the area.I remember Allen, just back from Asia in the early 60s, speaking with I. F. Stone at the Longshoremen's hall about the coming conflict in Vietnam.Allen appeared very holy although he and Stone were similarly New York Citybred.Then in '65 or '66 marching with Allen and Peter in an NYC protest.One or the other of them was playing a harmonium and in Hindu robes.
From the book I tried to figure out how "political" each man was and how much and what kind of spiritual practice they did.It was a bit hard to follow.At first it seemed that Allen won in both categories but then later I was not at all sure.I didn't know that Gary studied with Aitkin Roshi, one of my favorites.That I liked learning but still it would have been easier to have a biographer sum its implications up for me.Also it is impressive how much jet setting they did and how many different celebrities they knew.Again, it was hard to tell how difficult their financial lives were trying to make a living as poets but also impressive how easy it was for them to get anything they wrote in print which may be why this volume appeared.
I look forward to Gary's memoir which he is reported to be writing.I have to check on an Allen bio.

Charlie Fisher,author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

Gary Snyder is NOT a Beat writer!
Allen Ginsberg along with Kerouac, Burroughs and Corso were the icons of the Beat movement but others like Gary Snyder jumped on the Beat bandwagon as soon as they saw quick fame and $$$. Read Snyder's poetry and see that his poetry is nothing but safe, bourgeois and academic. Beats by definition were anti-establishment and progressive. Gary Snyder is neither. Through 8 years of the last adminstration's horrors, he never spoke up. Never took a political stand. And now he's calling himself the last standing Beat writer! Sorry, but I think not.

Captivating
If you've paid attention to cultural events over the past 50 years then you've heard of these two poetic, literary, and, yes, Beat, stars. Kerouac gets the top billing, but without Snyder and Ginsberg guiding him and that heralded movement, it simply wouldn't've happened. And here we get insights into this special relationship. Trials, tribulations, travels, favors asked, jokes played ... it's all here. This very insightful and informative collection is a must read for anyone who is (or was) a free spirit, a poet, a believer.

Beat poets bond
Allen Ginsberg was, of course, the Great Beat(nik) Poet who achieved early fame/infamy with "Howl" and thereafter maintained a very public profile.Gary Snyder was the model for Jack Kerouac's Japhy Ryder in "The Dharma Bums" and is an excellent, if lesser known, poet (Snyder won a Pulitzer Prize for "Turtle Island" in the 1970s) and environmental activist.The two met shortly before their participation in the legendary San Francisco 6 Gallery reading in 1955 and maintained a correspondence until near the time of Ginsberg's death in 1997.

The selected letters offer insight into the personalities and lives of two key figures in the 1950s beat literary movement which would form a foundation for the 1960s counter-culture as well as the ecological movement of the present day.Ginsberg roamed the world and made his way into the inner sanctums of pop culture.When you run across references to Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and even Uma Thurman in the book's index, rest assured their mention comes in a Ginsberg letter.Meanwhile, Snyder spent the last half of the 1950s and much of the 1960s in Japan studying Zen Buddhism.The two, along with their companions, traveled around India in the early 1960s and later organized the San Francisco Be-In.In the 1980s and 1990s academia slowly came around to recognizing the literary accomplishment of the beat movement and both writers found themselves re-cast as honored elder statesmen.Snyder served as a member of the California Arts Council under Governor Jerry Brown and accepted a teaching post at UC Davis.

As Gary Snyder observes in his introduction (he's one of the last of the beat pioneers standing), he prodded Allen into walking more and Allen prodded him into talking more--and he feels the results were beneficial for both.Certainly reading these collected letters is beneficial to those of us who admire the work of both and appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the persons behind the personas. Read this and ponder if our email and cell phone culture will preserve the entertaining interplay of lofty thoughts and low gossip between two noteworthy individuals as this collection of letters has. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

quite funny
i found this book at my school's library, and i enjoyed it.a lot of the jokes are ones that he also used in his films, but that did not deter the fact that they are funny.
worth checking out from a library for a nice rainy day read if you like woody allen.
plus, the drawings are exactly the same as the cartoon bit in "Annie Hall" ... Read more

Product Description
Alphabetically arranged, the entries in this encyclopedic study cover Woody Allen's movies, plays, fiction, television shows, and stand-up comedy from 1964 through 1998. Film entries begin with basic production information followed by a literary analysis of the work, which considers how and why Allen develops new narrative forms for conveying his stories. The dominant themes in Allen's work and the literary and cultural traditions he draws upon are discussed. Entries draw connections among Allen's works, outline his relationships with specific cinematographers and actors, point out major influences, and demonstrate how Allen fits into the Western canon of literature, film, and philosophy. Collectively, the entries reveal a serious and substantial artist whose experimentation with narrative form and structure enables him to explore human nature and human relationships in a new, innovative, and insightful manner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Great Little Book
To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting much when I first picked up this book. I'm a Woody fan but I thought the encyclopedic format (topics are alphabetized as in an encyclopedia) would be too superficial or unfocused. However, once I started I couldn't put it down. Actually, I did put it down because I have a busy life. But that's why this book was perfect for me. I could read it in "airtight compartments." I could read a section, get my fill, put it down, and come back to it an hour or day later and dive right in again.

I learned a lot about Woody, his movies, major themes, the people he's worked with -- and, most importantly, life in general. I'm particularly interested in the Woodman's ideas about love and relationships (yes, I need the eggs). This book allowed me to review a lot of his movies fast in an overview type of way and discern some of his patterns about "eggs" I hadn't perceived or had only perceived blurrily. In fact, I think rereading it in this way will yield newer and deeper insights each time because the author, a professor, writes with great depth and insight (yet in a very readable and economic style).

Although, as I said, I'm a Woody fan I have to admit that there were a number of his works I either didn't understand or didn't even know about. This book gave me a new appreciation to see movies I had dismissed (or simply missed) for one reason or another.

If you're a Woody fan this is a great book to have. In many ways, it transcends Woody by putting his work in the context of modern thought and art. But it's still a great Woody book and one that any thinking fan is going to enjoy. ... Read more

Product Description
Intimate detail and reflection inform the noted poet's journal account of his emotions, affairs, friendships, family relationships, and travels during the mid-1950s and of the events and discoveries that shaped his controversial poetry. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. Tour. ... Read more

Product Description
The Floating Lightbulb is Woody Allen's bittersweet comedy set in 1945 Brooklyn. As Enid and Max Pollack grapple with each other and their unfulfilled dreams, their stuttering teenage son Paul retreats from his fear of people into a world of magical illusions. ... Read more

Product Description
Short Plays / Comedy / 2m, 3f / 3 ints.This long-running Off Broadway hit features the work of three gifted playwrights. David Mamet's AN INTERVIEW is an oblique, mystifying interrogation. A sleazy lawyer is forced to answer difficult questions and to admit the truth about his life and career. The why and where of the interrogation provide a surprise ending to this brilliant twenty minute comedy. In HOTLINE by Elaine May, a neurotic woman with enough urban angst to fill a neighborhood calls a suicide crisis hotline late one night. The counselor who gets the call is overwhelmed - it is his first night on the job. This dark and desperate, wildly funny forty minute piece ends Act 1. A well to do psychiatrist has just discovered that her best friend is having an affair with her husband in Woody Allen's wildly comic second act, CENTRAL PARK WEST. She has invited the friend over for a confrontation after getting thoroughly soused. Meanwhile, the husband is about to run off with a college student. CENTRAL PARK WEST provides an hour of constant hilarity. "A wealth of laughter."-N.Y. Newsday "Lighter than air, an elegant diversion."-N.Y. Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Assuming this is the book I think it is...
... there's insufficient information provided here to be certain, but judging by title, publisher and date of publication, this should be the text of three short plays by David Mamet, Elaine May and Woody Allen. I sawthe plays and have since been hoping to come across a copy of Elaine May'sbrilliant sketch about a suicidal prostitute and a first-time volunteer ata suicide hotline. David Mamet's play was little more than a drawn-outjoke, a bit tedious, but I often quote it for an example of a wilfulmisunderstanding that gets out of hand. And I don't remember a thing aboutthe Woody Allen play so I can't comment on it, other to say that it was thelongest of the three and evidently the least memorable. ... Read more