The Great Debaters

• Denzel Washington directs and stars in this uplifting drama based on a true story about a small East Texas all-black college in 1935 that rises to the top of the nation's debate teams in a duel against Harvard. A poet and debating coach at Wiley College, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) sees debating as "a blood sport" and recruits the meanest and brightest, including troubled Henr

An inspirational drama, Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne); her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in th! e Scripps National Spelling Bee and in turn unites her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe the excellence of Akeelah and the Bee. Superbly written and directed by Doug Atchison, this PG-rated family drama covers the same dramatic territory as the acclaimed 2002 documentary Spellbound and the 2005 drama Bee Season, but the fictional story of 11-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is, if anything, even more entertaining, inspiring, and full of hope for the potential of children everywhere. Although reluctant at first (and fearful of being labeled a "brainiac" by classmates at her under-funded middle school in South Central Los Angeles), Akeelah grows determined to win the district, regional, and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee, aided by the able coaching of an English professor (Laurence Fishburne) who, like Akeelah's overworked sing! le mother (Angela Bassett) is slowly recovering from a devasta! ting per sonal loss. Structured like a conventional sports drama, Akeelah and the Bee rises above its generic trappings to become an uplifting and deeply moving study of friendship, pride, fair play, and above all, the value of self-confidence and realization that there's more to life than winning. As played by the young Palmer in an award-worthy performance, Akeelah is a winner in the best sense of the word, and so is this wonderfully positive movie. --Jeff ShannonAn inspirational drama, Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne); her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in th! e Scripps National Spelling Bee and in turn unites her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe the excellence of Akeelah and the Bee. Superbly written and directed by Doug Atchison, this PG-rated family drama covers the same dramatic territory as the acclaimed 2002 documentary Spellbound and the 2005 drama Bee Season, but the fictional story of 11-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is, if anything, even more entertaining, inspiring, and full of hope for the potential of children everywhere. Although reluctant at first (and fearful of being labeled a "brainiac" by classmates at her under-funded middle school in South Central Los Angeles), Akeelah grows determined to win the district, regional, and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee, aided by the able coaching of an English professor (Laurence Fishburne) who, like Akeelah's overworked sing! le mother (Angela Bassett) is slowly recovering from a devasta! ting per sonal loss. Structured like a conventional sports drama, Akeelah and the Bee rises above its generic trappings to become an uplifting and deeply moving study of friendship, pride, fair play, and above all, the value of self-confidence and realization that there's more to life than winning. As played by the young Palmer in an award-worthy performance, Akeelah is a winner in the best sense of the word, and so is this wonderfully positive movie. --Jeff ShannonDVDSPELLBOUND - DVD MovieTwo-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington (American Gangster) directs and stars with Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) in this important and deeply inspiring page from the not-so-distant past (Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper). Inspired by a true story, Washington shines as a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an h! istorical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite. DVD Special Features:

Deleted Scenes
The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective. That's What My Baby Likes; Music Video.
My Soul Is A Witness; Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks: Grace is Gone, Cassandra's Dream, I'm Not There, Hunting PartyInspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earn! hardt Story), anchors the story with the team’s measurab! le progr ess, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film w! here one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh

Enchanted (Widescreen Edition)

• A fairy tale comes to life in this thoroughly original, new Disney Classic. Drawing inspiration from itsic heritage, Disney creates an inspired story unlike any you've experienced before. Filled with excitement, fun, and incredible music from the legendary Alan Menken, ENCHANTED is the ultimate fish-out-of-water adventure. For princess-to-be Giselle, life is a fairy tale -- until she's ba

Movie DVDLife is idyllic in the fairytale world where conflict is minimal and breaking into song solves every problem, but what happens when a princess from the fairy world gets magically transported into the real world? Enchanted begins in the animated fairytale world of Andalasia where Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is destined to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) and live happily ever after. Problem is, Edward's step-mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) doesn't want to give up the throne and will! do anything to get Giselle out of Edward's life. Queen Narissa's solution is to push Giselle into a well that magically lands Giselle smack in the middle of the real world--the center of Time Square in New York City, to be exact. This launches the live-action portion of the film where Giselle immediately realizes that things are frighteningly different in this new world and that she is ill-prepared for the callous ways of the people who inhabit it. Giselle finds herself alone on a stormy night in the wrong end of town, but a chance encounter with Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his princess-loving daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) leads to a warm, safe place to spend the night and the beginnings of a complicated, yet compelling relationship. As Giselle begins to question the fairy-tale truths she's always inherently believed, Robert's outlook on life and love also begins to change significantly. Parallels to the classic Disney fairytales, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty abound in the form of a King! 's and Q ueen's ball, small animals and rodents who clean house when called, the threat of poisoned apples, characters impulsively breaking into song, and the power of the kiss of true love and the absurd juxtaposition of fairytale idealism and stark reality is hilariously funny. Features music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz of Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame fame, Wicked's Broadway Elpheba Idina Menzel as Nancy, and even a brief appearance by former Princess voice talent Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas). Enchanted is one of the best, most entertaining Disney films of the year. (Ages 6 and older with parental guidance due to some scary images and mild innuendo) --Tami Horiuchi

Beyond Enchanted

Disney Princesses on DVD

Paperback

Soundtrack

Stills from Enchanted (click for larger image)

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Hannah Montana: The Movie

• Get ready to be dazzled by Disney's big-screen smash hit -- HANNAH MONTANA THE MOVIE -- filled with laughs, adventure, family fun and fabulous music! Come along for the ride and see Hannah like never before as she returns to her roots and faces the most important decision of her life! When Miley Stewart (aka pop-star Hannah Montana) gets too caught up in the superstar celebrity lifestyle, her dad

Get ready to be dazzled by Disney's big-screen smash hit Hannah Montana the Movie, filled with laughs, adventure, family fun and fabulous music! Come along for the ride and see Hannah like never before as she returns to her roots and faces the most important decision of her life! When Miley Stewart (aka pop-star Hannah Montana) gets too caught up in the superstar celebrity lifestyle, her dad decides it's time for a total change of scenery. But sweet niblets! Miley must trade in all the glitz and glam! our of Hollywood for some ol' blue jeans on the family farm in Tennessee, and question if she can be both Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana. With a little help from her friends and awesome guest stars Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts and Vanessa Williams, will she figure out whether to choose Hannah or Miley? Hannah Montana the Movie is a heartfelt major motion picture perfect for the entire family.It's easy to forget that superstars are real people, but when Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) shows signs of forgetting her roots as Miley Stewart, her father Robbie Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus) puts his foot down. Miley has always strived to live a relatively normal teenage life, but when late stage entrances, exclusive shopping trips that end in brawling catfights, and ditching friends and family in favor of Hannah appearances become commonplace, Robbie Ray whisks her away from a date at the New York Music Awards for a dose of hometown reality at her grandma's in Crowley Corners, Tenn. Unfortu! nately, she's followed by Oswald (Peter Gunn), a relentless re! porter f rom Britain's Bon Chic Magazine. Miley's initial fury at being tricked into staying at Grandma's spurs her to commence operation Save Hannah Montana, but her bad attitude eventually gives way to resignation and then the beginnings of reconnection between Miley and her family. As the days progress, Miley glimpses her growing self-absorption, finds she's attracted to old elementary friend Travis (Lucas Till), realizes that her selfishness has negatively affected her dad's personal relationships, and is drawn into her grandma's fight against the commercialization of Crowley Corners. A boastful impulse leads to Miley being charged with bringing Hannah Montana to Crowley Corners for a benefit concert; when Miley's worlds collide onstage, she reveals her true identity and declares that Hannah Montana is no more. Can Miley's hometown possibly keep Miley's secret, silence the reporter, and convince Miley that she can have the best of both worlds, or is this the end! of Hannah Montana? Well-known Hannah Montana songs, including "Best of Both Worlds" and "Let's Get Crazy" are featured in the film as well as the fun new song "Hoedown Throwdown" (complete with line dance instruction), the heartfelt "Butterfly Fly Away," and the inspirational "The Climb." More important than the great music is the film's wholesome message about staying true to oneself and one's family and friends. (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi


Beyond Hannah Montana: The Movie on DVD

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Hannah Montana: The Movie on Blu-ray

Explore more Hannah Montana

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Chakra Clearing (Book & CD)

• ISBN13: 9781401902773
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Clearing clutter is magical! It not only creates a beautiful vibe in your home, it also clears the decks for health, wealth, romance, success, harmony, and every kind of positive change.

Magical Clutter Clearing Boot Camp presents fun, motivational, and eminently doable clutter clearing strategies for getting started, keeping at it, getting the good mojo flowing, and having fun in the process. Infused with popular author Tess Whitehurst's signature balance of whimsy and practicality, its sections include:

* Clear the Decks - a reminder that everything is connected, and that clearing clutter from your home creates the space for positive change in your life,
* Meet Your ! Clutter - a concise orientation to clutter varieties and how they affect your holistic well-being, along with advice on how to discern what is clutter and what isn't,
* Get Your "Buts" in Gear - a list of common excuses, how to override them, and why they don't really add up, and finally,
* Ready, Set, Clear - unique strategies to get started and keep moving.

A lovely follow-up to the beloved home improvement bestseller Magical Housekeeping, the succinct Magical Clutter Clearing Boot Camp is a great companion when you're ready to change your energetic momentum and start living the magical life you've always dreamed about.Clearing clutter is magical! It not only creates a beautiful vibe in your home, it also clears the decks for health, wealth, romance, success, harmony, and every kind of positive change.

Magical Clutter Clearing Boot Camp presents fun, motivational, and eminently doable clutter clearing strategies for ! getting started, keeping at it, getting the good mojo flowing,! and hav ing fun in the process. Infused with popular author Tess Whitehurst's signature balance of whimsy and practicality, its sections include:

* Clear the Decks - a reminder that everything is connected, and that clearing clutter from your home creates the space for positive change in your life,
* Meet Your Clutter - a concise orientation to clutter varieties and how they affect your holistic well-being, along with advice on how to discern what is clutter and what isn't,
* Get Your "Buts" in Gear - a list of common excuses, how to override them, and why they don't really add up, and finally,
* Ready, Set, Clear - unique strategies to get started and keep moving.

A lovely follow-up to the beloved home improvement bestseller Magical Housekeeping, the succinct Magical Clutter Clearing Boot Camp is a great companion when you're ready to change your energetic momentum and start living the magical life you've always dreamed about.

Wh! en you clear away negative energy residues from fear and worry, your natural spiritual power awakens. This innate power allows you to know the future; freely communicate with God and the angels; and heal yourself, others, and the planet. In Chakra Clearing, Doreen Virtue guides you through meditations and visualizations to clear your chakras, which activates your inborn healing and psychic abilities.

 

Enclosed you’ll also find a meditative CD that complements the material in the book. The CD starts with a morning meditation designed to begin your day with a bright, positive energy frequency and surround you with healing light. The relaxing evening meditation that follows clears away energy that you may have absorbed during the day, and invites angels to enter your dreams and give you divine messages.                

 

“This book and CD will help you understand the functions of the major chakras,

and esoteric methods for clearing them of fear. Your natural state is one of high energy,

intuition, and creativit! y. You d on’t need to add anything to yourself to enjoy

these characteristicsâ€"you already own them within yourself. Just like a sculptor needs to

chip away the parts of the statue that aren’t part of the ultimate creation, you only

need to clear away fear to reveal your innate qualities.”â€" Doreen Virtue

For readers who seek a straightforward guidebook on learning about the chakra system and how to keep it healthy, this is an excellent resource. Virtue, who is a bestselling author (Messages From Your Angels, Healing With the Angels) and clairvoyant doctor of psychology, identifies the placements and functions of these "energy centers" in the body. She then teaches readers how to keep these chakras clear and clean, leading to greater health and energy.

The chakras themselves are a beautiful progression of shifting colors, starting with the re! d root chakra at the base of the spine and moving up the body,! shade-b y-shade, and ending with the royal purple "crown" chakra at the top of the head. Each chakra interacts with a person's issues and concerns in the world. For instance, the root chakra relates to basic survival, such as money, shelter, and material needs, according to Virtue. If a person feels stable in this arena, the "root chakra looks like a brilliant ruby held under a spotlight," she explains. However, if people feel fearful about money or become overly obsessed with their career or possessions, this chakra will be come "dirty" and have a muddy, dark red color.

Virtue offers an extensive assortment of original, guided meditations that are effective in cleaning and clearing all the chakras. The information is well organized and clearly presented with a corresponding CD to help readers integrate the meditations into daily life. She also touches upon other cleaning tools, such as what foods and crystals support the chakra system. Advanced energy workers may find this m! aterial basic, but beginners should find it an outstanding primer. --Gail Hudson

Friends With Money

• Jennifer Aniston
• Joan Cusack
• Catherine Keener
• Frances McDormand
• Directed by Nicole Holofcener Full Screen 88 minutes

Explores the long friendship between a group of adult women and the changes in their relationships that occur as their financial situations fluctuate.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-NOV-2007
Media Type: DVDWith her third feature, Friends With Money, writer-director Nicole Holofcener continues to develop one of the most distinctive voices in American independent filmmaking. While not as purely satisfying as her previous films Walking and Talking and Lovely and Amazing, Holofcener's third feature is admirably ambitious in establishing a diverse and dynamic range of relationships among long-time girlfriends, their spouses (for better and worse), and the way in wh! ich money (or lack of it) affects them all. The have-not of the group is Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), a teacher-turned pot-smoking housecleaner in the upscale neighborhoods of West Los Angeles. She's drifting, uncertain of her future both professionally and romantically, while her friends Franny (Joan Cusack), Christine (Catherine Keener), and Jane (Frances McDormand) cope with the relatively enviable problems of wealthy discontentment. They've all got personal crises to resolve, and while Olivia juggles the affections of a likable louse (Scott Caan) and a lonely slob who's secretly rich (Bob Stephenson), Holofcener taps a rich vein of humor and melancholy as these women go about their daily routines, attending benefits, chatting over meals, and doting over Olivia as the "needy one" in their closed circle of friendships. All of this is richly observed and wonderfully acted (with male costars played by Greg Germann, Jason Isaacs, and Simon McBurney), but reaction to Friends! With Money is strictly a matter of personal taste. Holofc! ener isn 't telling a story so much as examining lives in various states of disarray, and she offers no false comforts or simple resolutions. Like life, Friends With Money just continues on its way, with some friends happier than others. There's plenty of truth to be found, if you know where to look.--Jeff ShannonJennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack star in a film the New York Times hails as "a bittersweet comedy about the drama of being alive . . ." - Manohla Dargis. FRIENDS WITH MONEY - the story of four best friends whose comfortable lives are thrown off balance as the realities of early middle age set in. It paints a painfully hilarious portrait of modern life in the class-sensitive west side of Los Angeles. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (Lovely and Amazing), Friends With Money was the Opening Night Selection at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and is being hailed as "Smart, witty and alert." - Peter T! ravers, Rolling Stone, "Acutely perceptive and slyly quick-witted" - Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune.

Bra Boys

• Are Sydney's Bra Boys a violent gang or just a loyal bunch of surfers? This documentary narrated by Russell Crowe (AMERICAN GANGSTER) explores this underground culture from the inside courtesy of writer-director-producer Sunny Abberton. The filmmaker and his three brothers--Koby, Jai, and Dakota--lie at the heart of this engrossing true story about some of Australia's most notorious people

Bra Boys is a documentary film about the cultural evolution of the Sydney beach side suburb of Maroubra and the social
struggle faced by its youth, the notorious surf gang known as the Bra Boys.
Featuring Koby, Sunny and Jai Abberton and narrated by Russell Crowe, the film follows their success in professional big
wave surfing and explores their reputation for hard partying and rough justice. The film touches on the Bra Boys running
battle with authorities and shows their reliance on one another! to survive in a society in which they are displaced.

Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction

• ISBN13: 9781434103079
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Bestselling author Mike Schmoker describes a plan for radically improving student learning that is built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum (what we teach); clear, prioritized lessons (how we teach); and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy.

With this "less is more" philosophy, educators can help students learn content at a deeper level, develop greater critical thinking skills, and discover more clearly how content-area concepts affect their lives and the world around them.

Both a call to action and a blueprint for creating more effective classrooms, Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved Student Learning will cha! llenge your assumptions about schooling and show how educators who have embraced this approach quickly achieved spectacular results.

Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In this book, we travel inside Emily and Paul's brains as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they're presented with, figure out how to prioritize it, organize it and act on it. Fortunately for Emily and Paul, they're in good hands: David Rock knows how the brain works-and more specifically, how it works in a work setting. Rock shows how it's possible for Emily and Paul, and thus the r! eader, not only to survive in today's overwhelming work enviro! nment bu t succeed in it-and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

YOUR BRAIN AT WORK explores issues such as:

- why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources

- why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions

- how to maximize your chance of finding insights that can solve seemingly insurmountable problems

- how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible

- how to collaborate more effectively with others

- why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier

- how to be more effective at changing other people's behavior

The author writes, "At the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals, to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion.! That key is itself simple: focus. Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven't in years. It'll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It'll allow us to simplify and focus on less-on the essential things, the things that matter most.