Page 18 RAIN Jan./Feb. 1984 ACCESS: Regional Literature Places: A Quarterly Journal of Environmental Design, $20/yr. for individuals, $40.00/yr. for institutions, from: MIT Press 28 Carleton Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Environmental design, the field of study that is in-between architecture, landscaping, and urban planning, now has an academic voice in this journal compiled jointly by the College of Environmental Design at the University of California and the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The premier issue has an extensive tribute to the late Donald Appleyard, recently killed, as the journal's editors note, by a careening automobile—one of "the very devices whose rational control he had so long been advocating." Apple- yard's work is explored through some of his published and unpublished manuscripts. The issue contains articles, speeches, interviews, and photo essays. The author of Peyton Place, Grace Metalious, is described in a new light as an acute observer of New England landscape. Several urban parks developed by single- minded citizens are explored in "Labors of Love in the Public Landscape" by Randy Hester. Included are the Gas Works Park in Seattle and Jules Park in Manteo, North Carolina. In order to rally discussion about places and environmental design, the editors, Donlyn Lyndon and William L. Porter, call for contributions from others, including: visual essays that evoke the quality of place in new ways; contrasts of similar places in different cultures; fantasy design schemes that reach beyond the practical into the scarcely possible; and perceptions, memories, hopes, and gripes of individuals and groups about their environments. Here's hoping for a continuing evolution for this new journal devoted to our relationship to places. —SJ All Area, $20.00/yr. for individuals, $30.00/yr. for institutions, from: All Area P.O. Box 492—Canal Street Station New York, NY 10013 All Area calls itself a journal on "method and place, which appears two or three times a year." Number two (spring 1983), is an impressive collection of material. An over-sized format with striking and clear graphic design. Wonderful photos. One photo of New York City as it went from squatty brick buildings to futuristic towers like the Empire State Building is almost worth the price by itself. This is not light reading. I've fingered through the thing more times than I've settled down with it—even though I've marked the articles to return to knowing they will be "good for me," like nutritional yeast. Some favorite esoteric word magicians and physicians are present. There is a long interview with literary critic/linguistic philosopher Kenneth Burke, for example, and a piece by Charles Olson. Off in the arena of the communications era there is an intriguing, though some- what-hard-to-follow article, "Teleconferencing, Computers, and Art," by Frank Gillette and Brendan O'Regan. Several articles follow related media/ communications themes, including the "Implosion of Meaning in the Media" by Jean Baudrillard, and a long review of The Geopolitics ofInformation by Anthony Smith. Articles on geography and place are well covered, including a review of Beyond Geography by Frederick Turner, and an article by Peter Berg entitled "Bioregion and Human Location." Somewhat like City Country Miners (see review below), but less place-specific and more academic. All Area is a powerful collection of ideas. —SJ City Country Miners: Some Northern California Veins, edited by Michael Helm, 1982,256 pp., $7.95 from: City Miner Books P.O. Box 176 Berkeley, CA 94701 City Country Miners is a bioregional anthology. And what, pray tell, is that? Well, it is not a collection of local writers From: City Country Miners
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