Robert Rowe

Garage Songs is the story of the Brice Family. The year is 1983 and Galvin Brice is expanding his Chevy dealership in his quest to outwit his rival Skip Lee and sell the most cars in Merriam Hill, Massachusetts. His 18-year-old son, Donny "Donk" Brice, is a golden boy. He's a football player, guitarist, and freelance philosopher with opinions on everything. Can Donk learn his crossover steps and land a football scholarship while figuring out the meaning of life? Meanwhile, his 16-year-old brother, Kuba "Spaz" Brice is hyperactive and insecure. He's a practical joker who loves writing songs, hiking, and trying to impress Donk's buddies. Can Kuba succeed in his quest to become "more loved" than Donk? Perhaps the most talented Brice is the 17-year-old sister Raina who sings in the school chorus and a local rock group. Can Raina navigate the unforgiving music business and find success? Lastly, the mom, Marna Brice is an ex-beauty queen who's trying to raise her children in a rapidly changing culture. Garage Songs mixes comic hilarity with philosophy and tragedy. The cast of supporting characters is memorable. The best friend Scott Pushkoff is convinced every girl in Merriam Hill is "in love" with him. Aunt Bee begins mixing bloody Marys at noon. The Irish salesman Fallon Moran is fast and loose with Galvin's money. Coach Brewer teaches the boys tough love, telling them: "Spare me the labor pains, show me the baby." Pastor MacDonald offers the family spiritual guidance, saying: "You can't fool Him." Above all, Garage Songs is a novel of our times. Galvin Brice's quest for business success in a town that values money over substance, and bankers who place profit ahead of people. Kuba's search for a true friend in a society that doesn't value friendship. Raina's search for success as a singer in a culture that places fame ahead of talent. In short, Garage Songs is a novel about music, those who have music, those who do not, and that rare ability to know the difference. The wonder of Garage Songs is the novel's ability to reveal, amid our human flaws, the redeeming parts that reside in us all.

This book presents the task of creating that all-important portfolio for today's print and interactive design fields in a manageable series of steps. Portfolio Laboratory for Graphic Design serves as a sourcebook for graphic design students who are planning the design of their portfolio for applications to graduate schools, grants, scholarships, employment opportunities, and fellowships. Strategies in design principles are illustrated with examples of successful portfolios from design students along with tips and insights from top professionals in the field.

Musicians begin formal training by acquiring a body of musical concepts commonly known as musicianship. These concepts underlie the musical skills of listening, performance, and composition. Like humans, computer music programs can benefit from a systematic foundation of musical knowledge. This book explores the technology of implementing musical processes such as segmentation, pattern processing, and interactive improvisation in computer programs. It shows how the resulting applications can be used to accomplish tasks ranging from the solution of simple musical problems to the live performance of interactive compositions and the design of musically responsive installations and Web sites. Machine Musicianship is both a programming tutorial and an exploration of the foundational concepts of musical analysis, performance, and composition. The theoretical foundations are derived from the fields of music theory, computer music, music cognition, and artificial intelligence. The book will be of interest to practitioners of those fields, as well as to performers and composers.The concepts are programmed using C++ and Max. The accompanying CD-ROM includes working versions of the examples, as well as source code and a hypertext document showing how the code leads to the program's musical functionality.