<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Essays on Seattles "Ultimate Grunge" scene.
Review: Don't be read this "Advanced Course" and think that you're going to learn anything technical. This book is creative non-fiction, a hint at a broader field of inquiry... a ... chant of a "No World Order" and a first draft of a Doctrine of Discards worthy of Foucault, as interpreted by Henry Miller. I know because I was there. I'm Biker Bill (introduced on page 9). Hoffman sent me the book in the mail today and I've underlined the sections where I'm mentioned, then I tried to reconcile my feelings of those days of Seattle's cultural rise and materialistic fall. Myself, I left in early '99 and gave it all up as a lost cause. This is Fear and Loathing time! A real Hunter S. Hoffman treatment. He's not delusional or a liar... a bit manic, perhaps, but he's honest. The best thing the reader can do is set aside all preconceptions about what the book "should be." Hoffman's trying to explain what we found in the back alleys of the U-district in the 90's. You want Grunge? It's deeper... Dig a little. There's a cosmology to be discovered this ... heap of a book and it's not pretty.... this is a primal, raw, transcendental leap into America's Vomitorium of Unabashed Excess: the discards of society in the mental wards, linked loosely to his father's maybe encounter with Thomas Pynchon and the odd entropic chill of a hopeless task... to bring existential meaning to a life lived at the edge of a society hell-bent on devouring itself to death. There's a Solid Waste Sutra in this collection of essays, and it may be different to each one who reads it. While I've never really agreed with Hoffman's politics, I still admired his brash ability to shake things up, keep ideas moving forward... shaking loose the cobwebs... I still have the key he gave me. It's an arrowhead trophy of that time and place... Hoffman's rendering make it sound like we were among the Beat poets in '50s San Francisco. Perhaps we were. So read the book and start a Enlighted Diver's Cult, maybe... DumpsterFest Weekend is the last weekend of school in the U-district each May. You meet a lot of nice folks there! Maybe get your church youth group or girl scout troop to join in! But you must dive for your own wisdom. It's better than Yoga for stimulating the bloodflow to your brain. Find that diamond for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Essays on Seattles "Ultimate Grunge" scene.
Review: Don't be read this "Advanced Course" and think that you're going to learn anything technical. This book is creative non-fiction, a hint at a broader field of inquiry... a ... chant of a "No World Order" and a first draft of a Doctrine of Discards worthy of Foucault, as interpreted by Henry Miller. I know because I was there. I'm Biker Bill (introduced on page 9). Hoffman sent me the book in the mail today and I've underlined the sections where I'm mentioned, then I tried to reconcile my feelings of those days of Seattle's cultural rise and materialistic fall. Myself, I left in early '99 and gave it all up as a lost cause. This is Fear and Loathing time! A real Hunter S. Hoffman treatment. He's not delusional or a liar... a bit manic, perhaps, but he's honest. The best thing the reader can do is set aside all preconceptions about what the book "should be." Hoffman's trying to explain what we found in the back alleys of the U-district in the 90's. You want Grunge? It's deeper... Dig a little. There's a cosmology to be discovered this ... heap of a book and it's not pretty.... this is a primal, raw, transcendental leap into America's Vomitorium of Unabashed Excess: the discards of society in the mental wards, linked loosely to his father's maybe encounter with Thomas Pynchon and the odd entropic chill of a hopeless task... to bring existential meaning to a life lived at the edge of a society hell-bent on devouring itself to death. There's a Solid Waste Sutra in this collection of essays, and it may be different to each one who reads it. While I've never really agreed with Hoffman's politics, I still admired his brash ability to shake things up, keep ideas moving forward... shaking loose the cobwebs... I still have the key he gave me. It's an arrowhead trophy of that time and place... Hoffman's rendering make it sound like we were among the Beat poets in '50s San Francisco. Perhaps we were. So read the book and start a Enlighted Diver's Cult, maybe... DumpsterFest Weekend is the last weekend of school in the U-district each May. You meet a lot of nice folks there! Maybe get your church youth group or girl scout troop to join in! But you must dive for your own wisdom. It's better than Yoga for stimulating the bloodflow to your brain. Find that diamond for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: It motivates you
Review: Dumpster Diving: The Advanced Course takes trash picking to a level far beyond the occasional find on the side of the road. In a world of "extreme" games and "survival" shows this book could easily provide the base for a few Michael Moor-ish "reality" shows. One of these shows would have teams competing to unveil the most corporate crime, another could have teams competing to create the largest Media moment for social/political/environmental change (not implying that any of these topics are separate from each other in any way). Less challenging and more network marketable would be something that goes along with the new Millionaire mania... "Treasure Trash". Who ever makes the first million through selling trash-picked items wins. The last show (and probably the least likely to air) would drop a few millionaire types off on an island dump site. These folks would have to live on our garbage for an entire decade. What could we possible offer someone of such wealth that would motivate them to play such an extreme game? Maybe they could be President of the United States...or President of the world? It wouldn't be very different from the way thing's are currently run... and the optimist in me says that maybe such a person would have some revelations over that time period, and actually DO something that positively affects the whole of the planet instead of positively affecting the hole in their own pocket. Ok , enough of that ranty tangent! If you don't mind tangents, this book will certainly entertain you. Hoffman's backward and forward style artfully mirrors some of his explanations and beliefs about time, the power of thought, and the big effects of small actions. And you have to make it to the "Really, Really Weird Chapter." May your wings cause a hurricane of change! If political change is one of your motivating factors, check out this book. If the idea of recycling for a living, a GOOD living, motivates you, check out this book. If living on less motivates you, check out this book. If nothing motivates you - check out this book and get moving!
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as his first book but a worthy addition
Review: I bought Hoffman's "Art and Science of Dumpster Diving" years ago and really liked it (as much as you can like a book about profiting from others waste and laziness)so I decided to get this book when it came out. Both books are semi- autobiographical, telling about how Hoffman was raised doing this subject, but this new book goes a lot more into the political and other commentary stuff. I found that you could almost ignore the first six chapters (out of only nine) of the book and still get most of what there is to learn in the book.
If you want this book as a companion to the first (the readers testimonials here will either fascinate or sicken you depending on your point of view) buy it, but if you really want to learn how people dumpster dive get the first book.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I have to agree with the other reviewer who said that this sequel is not as good as the original. While "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving" was a great how-to book, "The Advanced Course" is more of a long rant about dumpster diving.
I found that only two of the chapters contained any real information, while the rest of the book only contained interesting stories. One of the biggest differences from this book and the first one is the change in the attitude of the author, John Hoffman. In his first book, Hoffman came off as a far right wing, gun welding, isolationist. While is this new book he has become a left wing, peace loving, hippie. If this is a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. Needless to say this book is a complete 360 turn from its predecessor. I must confess that I was disappointed in this book. I expected to find alot more useful information, but often the book falls short. Such as in the chapter on finding keys to locked dumpsters. Hoffman simply recommends asking for the key from a person who works for the business that the dumpster is used by. I have to believe that getting the key is not that simple as just asking for it. The rest of the Key chapter is filled with a long story about how useful the key that Hoffman once found (by accident) was in his dumpster diving. The author offers no "plan B" in case the dumpster's owners don't feel like handing over the key to a total stranger. Also, there is a chapter that is called "The really really weird chapter." This chapter title could not be more fitting. I could not make heads or tails of this acid trip of a book chapter, I ended up skipping it entirely after just a few paragraphs. I really wanted to love this book. But sadly it left me feeling diappointed. None of the original DIY feeling of the first book is to be found in its sequel. Instead, Hoffman seems to be more focused on telling us about how his first book made him a "cult hero" and all the fame and fortune it brought him. Time after time Hoffman continues to brag about how he is "street wise" and "famous" and "stands still while going down on a dumpster so the reporters can get a good picture." Blah! If Hoffman's first book left you hungry for more useful tips on scoring great dumpster goodies, I suggest you speak to other divers in your area for the real straight dope. No information will be found here that is of use to the experienced diver.
Read Hoffman's first book, and forget the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I have to agree with the other reviewer who said that this sequel is not as good as the original. While "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving" was a great how-to book, "The Advanced Course" is more of a long rant about dumpster diving.
I found that only two of the chapters contained any real information, while the rest of the book only contained interesting stories. One of the biggest differences from this book and the first one is the change in the attitude of the author, John Hoffman. In his first book, Hoffman came off as a far right wing, gun welding, isolationist. While is this new book he has become a left wing, peace loving, hippie. If this is a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. Needless to say this book is a complete 360 turn from its predecessor. I must confess that I was disappointed in this book. I expected to find alot more useful information, but often the book falls short. Such as in the chapter on finding keys to locked dumpsters. Hoffman simply recommends asking for the key from a person who works for the business that the dumpster is used by. I have to believe that getting the key is not that simple as just asking for it. The rest of the Key chapter is filled with a long story about how useful the key that Hoffman once found (by accident) was in his dumpster diving. The author offers no "plan B" in case the dumpster's owners don't feel like handing over the key to a total stranger. Also, there is a chapter that is called "The really really weird chapter." This chapter title could not be more fitting. I could not make heads or tails of this acid trip of a book chapter, I ended up skipping it entirely after just a few paragraphs. I really wanted to love this book. But sadly it left me feeling diappointed. None of the original DIY feeling of the first book is to be found in its sequel. Instead, Hoffman seems to be more focused on telling us about how his first book made him a "cult hero" and all the fame and fortune it brought him. Time after time Hoffman continues to brag about how he is "street wise" and "famous" and "stands still while going down on a dumpster so the reporters can get a good picture." Blah! If Hoffman's first book left you hungry for more useful tips on scoring great dumpster goodies, I suggest you speak to other divers in your area for the real straight dope. No information will be found here that is of use to the experienced diver.
Read Hoffman's first book, and forget the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Profoundly funny and subversive
Review: It would be hard to top Hoffman's *magnum dumpus,* The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving, but this book does it. Hoffman brings dumpster diving into the computer age, concentrating on stuff like how to get dirt on big corporations and then get the media to write about what you find, dumpster diving as the "dirty, common secret" of eBay, lots of wild stuff about the Battle of Seattle, new places to dive, new wild tales about his "white trash" family (you won't believe what happened to Slash...well, you WILL but you have to hear it) and, best of all, the "key" to super successful diving in a world filled with evil compactors. Hoffman glories in helping to raise the national consciousness about his, um, "alternative lifestyle" and then suggests where it is all going with stuff about "dumpster dot coms" starting up. ...It must be said that portions of this Abbie Hoffmanesque book are profoundly offensive, gloriously subversive, and the FBI is probably going nuts analyzing it right now and trying to figure out what it will do to society in the next ten years like Hoffman's first book, which had a heck of an impact. This trashy reading material makes the perfect Christmas gift for people who make a point of saying they aren't materialistic. In celebration of Hoffman, and my 37th birthday, and "Buy Nothing Day," .... His poem about Heather the Lesbian Avenger in the Battle of Seattle nearly moved me to tears, dude. If you must buy SOMETHING, buy this book or, well, get it some other way, as Hoffman suggests in the first chapter.
Rating:
Summary: The followup that shouldn't have been...
Review: Rambling and has very little useful information to warrant the title. The layout of the information is terrible and makes tummy hurt. The section on industrial diving, however, is decent. One can find much better information on the Net.
Rating:
Summary: The Dumpster is where this book belongs!
Review: This book is pure garbage. It is no more than the asinine ramblings of a deranged mind trying to further capitalize on past success.
Don't waste your money!
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first.
Review: This book was not as well-written or as useful as the first. I consider it to have been a waste of money because there was little in the way of practical advice. Compared to the original, with its no-nonsense prose, clearly-organized chapters, sprinkled with philosophy, this book was a rambling diatribe that went nowhere. It did have some good tips for the EXPERIENCED diver who wants to make money faster by diving behind electronics stores, etc. but if you are not sure whether diving is your cup of tea, I would buy the first book and try those tips first.
<< 1 >>
| 
