jayfurr | Cake decorating -- suggestions requested

My #1 deficit as a baker and cook is that I can't make cakes that look good. Give me a cake and a tub of grocery store frosting and I'm going to give you back something that looks like a third-grader did it. I don't know why I'm so impossibly bad at it, but it's probably something that can be corrected.

I've looked into taking a class -- the local Michael's does offer a class, but it seems that I'm always out of town when it's on the schedule. They offer it four Thursday evenings in a row and I'm hardly ever in town for consecutive weeks.

I've looked into DVDs -- but for every DVD I see out there there are always reviews that go "I'm a novice and I was left utterly confused -- the actor moved on from basics to advanced techniques way too fast" and "I'm actually a pretty good decorator and watched this for tips, and the actor was REALLY sloppy." So I have no idea what DVD actually would be good for tyros like me.

I've looked into books -- but guess what? Same gamut of comments -- too advanced, too sloppy, didn't cover essentials, and so on.

So: can anyone recommend a really good DVD or book for someone who really WANTS to be able to make nice-looking cakes but just has no idea where to start?

Thanks!