Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisContributions by Lanette Cadle, Züleyha Çetiner-Öktem, Renata Lucena Dalmaso, Andrew Eichel, Kyle Eveleth, Anna Katrina Gutierrez, Darren Harris-Fain, Krystal Howard, Christopher D. Kilgore, Kristine Larsen, Thayse Madella, Erica McCrystal, Tara Prescott, Danielle Russell, Joe Sutliff Sanders, Joseph Michael Sommers, and Justin WigardNeil Gaiman (b. 1960) reigns as one of the most critically decorated and popular authors of the last fifty years. Perhaps best known as the writer of the Harvey, Eisner, and World Fantasy-award winning series The Sandman, Gaiman quickly became equally renowned in literary circles for Neverwhere, Coraline, and award-winning American Gods, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie Medal-winning The Graveyard Book. For adults, children, comics readers, and viewers of the BBC's Doctor Who, Gaiman's writing has crossed the borders of virtually all media, making him a celebrity around the world.Despite Gaiman's incredible

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Book SynopsisJoanna Scott (b. 1960) has been one of America's leading writers since the 1990s. Both critically acclaimed and winner of numerous prestigious awards, Scott's unique and probing vision and masterful writing has inspired readers to adjust their perceptions of life and of themselves. Her fiction jolts and illuminates, frequently exposing the degree to which the perverse is natural and the ordinary is twisted and demented.Conversations with Joanna Scott presents eighteen interviews that span two decades and are as much about the process of reading as they are about writing. Witty, probing, wide-ranging, and insightful, Scott's off-the-cuff observations about literature and life are as thought-provoking as some of the most memorable lines and scenes in her fiction. Not only shedding new light on Scott's fiction, Conversations with Joanna Scott also illuminates enduring areas of inquiry, like the challenge of trying to make art out of sentences; the effort to recov

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Book SynopsisFrom the moment Captain America punched Hitler in the jaw, comic books have always been political, and whether it is Marvel''s chairman Ike Perlmutter making a campaign contribution to Donald Trump in 2016 or Marvel''s character Howard the Duck running for president during America''s bicentennial in 1976, the politics of comics have overlapped with the politics of campaigns and governance. Pop culture opens avenues for people to declare their participation in a collective project and helps them to shape their understandings of civic responsibility, leadership, communal history, and present concerns. Politics in the Gutters: American Politicians and Elections in Comic Book Media opens with an examination of campaign comic books used by the likes of Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman, follows the rise of political counterculture comix of the 1960s, and continues on to the graphic novel version of the 9/11 Report and the cottage industry of Sarah Palin comics. It ends with a considera

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Book SynopsisThe superhero Wolverine time travels and changes storylines. On Torchwood, there''s a pill popped to alter memories of the past. The narrative technique of retroactive continuity seems rife lately, given all the world-building in comics. Andrew J. Friedenthal deems retroactive continuity, or retconning, as a force with many implications for how Americans view history and culture. Friedenthal examines this phenomenon in a range of media, from its beginnings in comic books and now its widespread shift into television, film, and digital media. Retconning has reached its present form as a result of the complicated workings of superhero comics. In comic books and other narratives, retconning often seems utilized to literally rewrite some aspect of a character''s past, either to keep that character more contemporary, to erase stories from continuity that no longer fit, or to create future story potential. From comics, retconning has spread extensively, to long-form, continuity-rich

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Book SynopsisDrop the record needle on any vinyl album in your collection, then read the first pages of that novel you've been meaning to pick upthe reverberations between them will be impossible to miss. Since Dylan went electric, listening to rock 'n' roll has often been a surprisingly literary experience, and contemporary literature is curiously attuned to the history and beat of popular music. In The Ink in the Grooves, Florence Dore brings together a remarkable array of acclaimed novelists, musicians, and music writers to explore the provocatively creative relationship between musical and literary inspiration: the vitality that writers draw from a three-minute blast of guitars and the poetic insights that musicians find in literary works from Shakespeare to Southern Gothic. Together, the essays and interviews in The Ink in the Grooves provide a backstage pass to the creative processes behind some of the most exciting and influential albums and novels of our time. Contributors: Laura Cantrell, Michael Chabon, Roddy Doyle, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, William Ferris, Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, Dave Grohl, Peter Guralnick, Amy Helm, Randall Kenan, Jonathan Lethem, Greil Marcus, Rick Moody, Lorrie Moore, the John Prine band (Dave Jacques, Fats Kaplin, Pat McLaughlin, Jason Wilber), Dana Spiotta, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Richard Thompson, Scott Timberg, Daniel Wallace, Colson Whitehead, Lucinda Williams, Warren Zanes.Trade ReviewNovelists, musicians, and other cultural movers and shakers muse on the intersection of literature and rock music in this rich collection of essays. Music lovers with a literary bent will find this worth tuning in to. * Publishers Weekly *Florence Dore has created an excellent collection of old and new writing that explores the convergence of rock and literature. Readers will want to take the time to slowly savor this rich gathering. * Booklist *Florence Dore's search along the seam of rock music and fiction evinces rare moments in the lives of writers and musicians, epiphanies suggesting a shared psyche of art seeking freedom, art quaking with hungers of expression that anyone who has gone stomp-down dancing in a club where the music soars will feel into the bone. * The Daily Beast *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Needles and Pens, by Florence Dore Part 1: The Inescapable Dylan 1. Let it Rock 2. The Genius and Modern Times of Bob Dylan 3. All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): An Interview with Rhiannon Giddens 4. Chronicles: Volume One (Excerpt) Part II: Rock 'N' Roll Saved My Life: Writers on Music 5. Banjo Interlude: An Idle Teen's Life Is Saved by Music 6. Tonight We Improvise: From Sag Harbor (Excerpt) 7. Ubu Lives! Remembering Punk and Its Stories 8. By Heart: From Eat the Document (Excerpt) 9. Precious Resource (Rock and Our Generation of Novelists): An Interview with Jonathan Lethem and Dana Spiotta 10. Whack Fol the Daddy-O: How I Learned to Hate Irish Music Slightly Less Part III: Rock's Literary Identity: Musicians on Literature 11. Dear Dylan: An Interview with Lucinda Williams 12. Iambic Pentameter and the Blues: An Interview with Steve Earle 13. Sir Patrick Rocks! Dragging Ancient Ballads into the Twentieth Century, and What That Can Do to Fragile Young Minds 14. Two Blue Suedes Part IV: Don't Let Anyone Write Your Story: Musings on Rock as Literature 15. When We All Get to Heaven 16. English as a Second Language 17. Cosmic Ray: How Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman" Transformed the Music of Ray Charles, Allowed Him to Keep His Band, and Created a Musical and Social Revolution 18. Ain't It Always Stephen Stills Part V: Losses and Erasures 19. Black Cowboys and Jimi Hendrix: An Interview with Dom Flemons 20. Anatomy of a Canned Heat Hit: "Let's Work Together" by Wilbert Harrison 21. John Prine (The Reluctant Genius): An Interview with Dave Jacques, Jason Wilbur, Fats Kaplin, and Pat McLaughlin 22. The Day the Live Concert Returns 23. Unknown Band on a Forgotten Stage 24. Right on Time: An Interview with Amy Helm,

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Book SynopsisA rigorous study of the social meaning and consequences of racist humor, and a damning argument for when the joke is not just a joke. Having a "good" sense of humor generally means being able to take a joke without getting offended—laughing even at a taboo thought or at another's expense. The insinuation is that laughter eases social tension and creates solidarity in an overly politicized social world. But do the stakes change when the jokes are racist? In The Souls of White Jokes Raúl Pérez argues that we must genuinely confront this unsettling question in order to fully understand the persistence of anti-black racism and white supremacy in American society today. W.E.B. Du Bois's prescient essay "The Souls of White Folk" was one of the first to theorize whiteness as a social and political construct based on a feeling of superiority over racialized others—a kind of racial contempt. Pérez extends this theory to the study of humor, connecting theories of racial formation to parallel ideas about humor stemming from laughter at another's misfortune. Critically synthesizing scholarship on race, humor, and emotions, he uncovers a key function of humor as a tool for producing racial alienation, dehumanization, exclusion, and even violence. Pérez tracks this use of humor from blackface minstrelsy to contemporary contexts, including police culture, politics, and far-right extremists. Rather than being harmless fun, this humor plays a central role in reinforcing and mobilizing racist ideology and power under the guise of amusement. The Souls of White Jokes exposes this malicious side of humor, while also revealing a new facet of racism today. Though it can be comforting to imagine racism as coming from racial hatred and anger, the terrifying reality is that it is tied up in seemingly benign, even joyful, everyday interactions as well— and for racism to be eradicated we must face this truth.Trade Review"This book is an example of the best the sociological imagination has to offer. Pérez advances a powerful theory, elegantly substantiated with historical and contemporary examples. I learned a lot and so will everyone who reads this book."—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism without Racists"In providing the first sustained discussion of racist humor in the United States, Pérez contributes a significant critical intervention to intellectual discussions of racism."—Simon Weaver, author of The Rhetoric of Racist Humour"Theoretically astute and historically rich, this unique study depicts the racial joke—far from being harmless and disarming—as being inseparable from the cementing of white solidarity, from the spreading of racist commonsense, and from easy disavowal of the damage being done."—David Roediger, author of The Wages of Whiteness"It is a commonplace assumption that humor is always harmless fun and vital for our everyday well-being. In this important new book, Raúl Pérez cogently argues that this is not invariably the case, and that jokes and joking relations can be hostile, divisive, alienating and dehumanizing – or in other words, very harmful. Within a strong and well-woven theoretical framework, The Souls of White Jokes offers a major contribution to the critical sociology of ethnicity and racism as well as to the study of humor in key institutions and organizations."—Michael Pickering, author of Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain"Pérez has written the most consequential sociological analysis of humor in the past 20 years... With the current debates over who or what is racist, Pérez has provided a guide that will provoke debates that are essential in a world of comic possibilities and comic cringes."—Gary Alan Fine, Symbolic Interaction"Raúl Pérez has published a much needed addition to the critical study of how racist jokes do the dirty work of constructing racism and racially hierarchical environments."—Michael J. Lorr, Ethnic and Racial Studies"Pérez has written an essential book for both the non-academic and academic audience—one that will undoubtedly serve as an important teaching tool about racial humor and the importance of understanding how racism is reproduced, even in the absence of hatred or negative feelings."—Muna Adem, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity"I find The Souls of White Jokes an important, theoretically rich and thoroughly convincing study of the entanglements of racist humour with white supremacy. I look forward to seeing how this book will influence scholarship in the field of humour studies in years to come."—Lucy Spoliar, The European Journal of Humour Research"In The Souls of White Jokes, Raúl Pérez provides a compelling explanation of how White racist jokes represent a real-time measurement where Americans can see or hear the continued subjugation and disenfranchisement of Non-Whites in the United States."—Cameron D. Lippard, Social Forces"The Souls of White Jokes seeks to counter the concerns of those on the left who believe that targeting racist humor diverts attention from more important issues, such as poverty and diminishing democratic institutions, in the US. More important, Pérez provides a forceful argument to counter those who believe disparaging racial and ethnic humor merits protection as free speech. Recommended."—J. S. Franks, CHOICETable of Contents1. The Racial Power of Humor 2. Amused Racial Contempt, or a Theory of White Racist Humor 3. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Violent Racist Humor of the Far Right 4. Blue Humor: The Racist Insults and Injuries of the Police 5. President Chimp: The Politics of Amused Racial Contempt Epilogue: Racist Humor and the Cult(ure) of Whiteness

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Book SynopsisVirtually anyone who has ever watched a profound movie, a powerful TV show, or read a moving novel understands that entertainment can and does affect us in surprising and significant ways. But did you know that our most popular forms of entertainment can have a direct physical effect on us, a measurable impact on society, geopolitics, the economy, and even the future itself? In You Are What You Watch, Walter Hickey, Pulitzer Prize winner and former chief culture writer at acclaimed data site FiveThirtyEight.com, proves how exactly how what we watch (and read and listen to) has a far greater effect on us and the world at large than we imagine.Employing a mix of research, deep reporting, and 100 data visualizations, Hickey presents the true power of entertainment and culture. From the decrease in shark populations after Jaws to the increase in women and girls taking up archery following The Hunger Games, You Are What You Watch proves its points not just with research and argument, but hard data. Did you know, for example, that crime statistics prove that violent movies actually lead to less real-world violence? And that the international rise of anime and Manga helped lift the Japanese economy out of the doldrums in the 1980s? Or that British and American intelligence agencies actually got ideas from the James Bond movies?In You Are What You Watch, readers will be given a nerdy, and sobering, celebration of popular entertainment and its surprising power to change the world.Trade Review“Pulitzer Prize winner Hickey presents a refreshing analysis of media consumption… A worthy, fun dissection of pop culture that’s full of infographics and data.”—Library Journal, starred review"Hickey’s argument is cogent and original and couched informally, with palpable enthusiasm. He enlivens his research with witty opinions, amusing digressions, and arresting visuals... Hickey’s lighthearted approach will prove especially enticing for fellow data heads and devotees of pop culture.”—Booklist“The trivia surprises and the bounty of colorful charts and graphs offer fun insight into popular culture. This is a blast.”—– Publishers Weekly“Every page is lovingly written, reported, charted, and graphed in a way that only Walt Hickey could do.”—Nate SilverTable of Contents INTRODUCTION 1: HOW CULTURE AFFECTS OUR BODIES 2: HOW CULTURE CAPTURES US 3: HOW CULTURE RELFECTS US 4: HOW CULTURE CHANGES US 5: COMMERCE & CULTURE & COMMERCE 6: HOW CULTURE FUELS EMPIRES 7: HOW CULTURE SURVIVES 8: WHAT STORIES DO TO THEIR CREATORS INDEX SOURCES PHOTO CREDITS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Book SynopsisIn the 1970s, Northern Soul held a pivotal position in British youth culture. Originating in the English North and Midlands in the late-1960s, by the mid-1970s it was attracting thousands of enthusiasts across the country. This book is a social history of Northern Soul, examining the origins and development of this music scene, its clubs, publications and practices. Northern Soul emerged in a period when working class communities were beginning to be transformed by deindustrialisation and the rise of new political movements around the politics of race, gender and locality. Locating Northern Soul in these shifting economic and social contexts of the English North and Midlands in the 1970s, the authors argue that people kept the faith not just with music, but with a culture that was connected to wider aspects of work, home, relationships and social identities.Drawing on an expansive range of sources, including oral histories, magazines and fanzines, diaries and letters, this book offers a detailed and empathetic reading of a working class culture that was created and consumed by thousands of young people in the 1970s. The authors highlight the complex ways in which class, race and gender identities acted as forces for both unity and fragmentation on the dancefloors of iconic clubs such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, Blackpool Mecca, the Torch in Stoke-on-Trent, the Catacombs in Wolverhampton and the Casino in Wigan.Marking a significant contribution to the historiography of youth culture, this book is essential reading for those interested in popular music and everyday life in postwar Britain.Trade Review'Keeping the Faith’s chronological examination of northern soul’s first phase is extensively researched. Stephen Catterall and Keith Gildart deliver a history that presents an untold story that is indispensable for the understanding of an overlooked youth culture and influential underground music scene. Overall, it is a thought-provoking study which will no doubt influence the direction of futureresearch and provides a template for study into other neglected areas of popularmusic.'History'Catterall and Gildart successfully present a nuanced picture of the heterogeneous everyday practices and rituals of northern soul in the 1970s. They indeed deliver on the aim of writing an unapologetically empathetic history from below, and persuasively using this case study to consider how to tell a story of working-class identity which focuses on leisure and pleasure rather than the traditional area of employment. It is an expansive contribution to the ongoing work by social historians of modern Britain and members of the Subcultures Network — including the authors — to take working-class leisure and identity seriously as categories of analysis for social change.'Freya Marshall Payne, Twentieth Century British History'With this pathbreaking contribution, they have shown the significance of Northern Soul, and will hopefully inspire a new generation of historians to explore the many aspects of this and other comparable scenes and subcultures.'Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Marc Collinson -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Mods, Motown and ‘rare soul’ in northern England 2 In the days before Wigan 3 The beating heart of soul: Wigan Casino 4 Soul explosion, fragmentation and decline 5 The chosen few: the experience and practice of northernsoul 6 Locating northern soul: place, class and identity 7 Race, gender, sexuality and the politics of northern soul 8 Going back and checking it out: myth, legacy, history andnostalgia Conclusion Index

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Book SynopsisIn the late 1990s, Manchester was a city in upheaval. The devastation of the IRA bomb and the closure of the notorious Haçienda nightclub were seismic events that rocked the city’s confidence at a time when identikit bands were flooding its clubs and bars, fuelled on anthemic guitar rock and swagger. Stereotypes were everywhere, while the spirit of Manchester was silently suffocating.Mancunians: Where do we start, where do I begin? is the story of those who didn’t fit the typecast: the musicians of colour, the football fans alienated by rampant commercialism, frustrated public figures, optimistic developers and ambitious artists.Through a mixture of memoir and interviews with well-known Mancunians such as Guy Garvey, Tunde Babalola, Sylvia Tella, Badly Drawn Boy and Stan Chow, David Scott portrays the city at the turn of the century in a way never seen before.Trade Review‘Witty and wise... Mancunians is everything a book about Mancunians should be.’Daniel Harris, The Guardian‘Here is someone who is fiercely "Mancunian", with an understanding of the city’s recent past, but not bogged down by the baggage and beholden to it... Highly recommended.'Iain Key, Louder Than War‘A great read from one of Manchester’s finest wordsmiths.’Clint Boon‘An honest love letter to the city.’Christine Bottomley‘A touching and brilliant balance of the personal and the popular, from a time when there was so much change in the city.’Mr Scruff -- .Table of ContentsPreface: A view from the Low1 'Manchester was miserable' / 15 June 19962 'The city that lets down its pupils' / Youth3 'It’s the world of the drama series The Wire' / Crime4 'He’s going to have sex with that girl on stage!' / Nightlife5 'A different success for Manchester' / Music6 'Did horse semen lead to their downfall?' / Football7 'And Tony Wilson didn’t even say it!' / Media8 'Proper Manc' / Identity9 (There is no) ConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThe dawning of the nineteenth century brought with it a new era for entertainment. Vaudeville was the preferred form of entertainment, until the popularization of the silent film. This new medium proved to be a draw for many of the stars of the Vaudevillian stage and soon they migrated to the exciting possibilities that the movies had to offer. Audiences were instantly enthralled and captivated by the stars of the silent screen. The early days of Hollywood were full of glamour and a newfound decadence. The stars in these films were instantly catapulted to fame and fortune and the spotlight of the public eye. The real people behind the glamour were far different than the characters that audiences grew to know and love and much like Hollywood today, the lives of the stars were often full of scandal and debauchery. This book examines the forgotten scandals of yesterday, featuring silent and silver screen stars like Jean Harlow, Mae West, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn. Don't let the romanticized black and white world of yesterday fool you, their stories are rife with sex, drugs and murder.

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Since 1978 Jim Davis' sarcastic, orange tabby cat has entertained millions of people appearing in Newspapers, books, cartoons and even his own films. Why has a lazy, coffee drinking, lasagna loving feline become a worldwide sensation loved by millions of people? From his small-town beginnings in Muncie, Indiana, The History of Garfield explores our relationship with Garfield, Jon and Odie and how Davis' characters have become such an integral part of American pop culture over the decades.

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Book SynopsisTHE CONTROVERSIAL SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. Candid, fearless and provocative – the author of American Psycho on who he is and what he thinks is wrong with the world today. Bret Easton Ellis is most famous for his era-defining novel American Psycho and its terrifying anti-hero, Patrick Bateman. With that book, and many times since, Ellis proved himself to be one of the world’s most fearless and clear-sighted observers of society – the glittering surface and the darkness beneath.In White, his first work of non-fiction, Ellis offers a wide-ranging exploration of what the hell is going on right now. He tells personal stories from his own life. He writes with razor-sharp precision about the music, movies, books and TV he loves and hates. He examines the ways our culture, politics and relationships have changed over the last four decades. He talks about social media, Hollywood celebrities and Donald Trump.Ellis considers conflicting positions without flinching and adheres to no status quo. His forthright views are powered by a fervent belief in artistic freedom and freedom of speech. Candid, funny, entertaining and blisteringly honest, he offers opinions that are impossible to ignore and certain to provoke.What he values above all is the truth. ‘The culture at large seemed to encourage discourse,’ he writes, ‘but what it really wanted to do was shut down the individual.’ Bret Easton Ellis will not be shut down.Trade ReviewThe first work of non-fiction from the American Psycho author is very good . . . the best thing he has published for years * Sunday Times *A winning mixture of incautious autobiography and caustic polemic, with plenty of sharp social observation thrown in . . . What a timely book this is – bursting with wit and diablerie, shameless, bracing and fun. * Mail on Sunday *A splenetic analysis of the culture of today . . . occasionally brilliant, often thought-provoking * The Times *Not everybody is going to like it. He doesn’t care. * New York Times *For the youthful twitterati, I suppose, he’s just another old white man who hates everything -- Hugo Rifkind * The Times *This attack on political correctness in the Twitter age . . . has all the sound, fury and insignificance of a misguided rant posted at 3am * Guardian *Ellis will lose friends over this book. * Wall Street Journal *Best described as a provocation . . . it’s up to you, the reader, to choose to what degree you are prepared to allow yourself to be riled. * Observer *@BretEastonEllis Your book White is staggeringly good. I’m loving it. Thank you so much for your style, your humour and your honesty. -- Eric Idle (on Twitter)

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Book Synopsis''A celebration of human idiosyncrasy and of our talent for building shared meaning and solidarity out of the strangest material'' TLSFans takes the reader on a journey through a constellation of fandoms, and along the way demonstrates some fundamental truths about the human condition.Fascinating and thought-provoking, Fans is a story of communities, of what happens to us when we interact with people who share our passions. The human brain is wired to reach out, and while our groupish tendencies can bring much strife (religious intolerance, racism, war, etc.), they are also the source of some of our greatest satisfactions.Fandoms offer much of the pleasure of tribalism with little of the harm: a feeling of belonging and of shared culture, a sense of meaning and purpose, improved mental well-being, reassurance that our most outlandish convictions will be taken seriously, and the freedom to try to emulate (and dress like) our

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Book Synopsis'Searing and timely' Tarana Burke, founder of the MeToo movement, and author of You Are Your Best Thing'Carefree Black Girls is the testimony I've been waiting to witness.'Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets; creator of Son of Baldwin'Standout... one you'll struggle to put down.'Bad FormINCLUDES A FOREWORD WITH CLARA AMFOIn 2013, film and culture critic Zeba Blay was one of the first people to coin the viral term #carefreeblackgirls on Twitter. As she says, it was "a way to carve out a space of celebration and freedom for Black women online."In this collection of essays, Blay expands on this initial idea by delving into the work and lasting achievements of influential Black women in Pop Culture - writers, artists, actresses, dancers, hip-hop stars - whose contributions often come in the face of bigotry, misogyny, and stereotypes. Blay celebrates the strength and fortitude of these Black women, while also examining the many stereotypes and rigid identities that have clung to them.In writing that is both luminous and sharp, expansive and intimate, Carefree Black Girls seeks a path forward to a culture and society in which Black women and their art are appreciated and celebrated.Trade ReviewBlay is a talent, mixing an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, past and present, with incisive commentary on race and gender. * Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty *Blay's welcome voice is candid, vulnerable and necessary. Her observations about the impact Black women have had and continue to have on pop culture are searing and timely and will have a lasting impact on how much the world sees and understands us. * Tarana Burke, founder of the MeToo movement, and author of You Are Your Best Thing *Alongside perceptive ruminations on everything from colourism to Cardi B, Blay writes with refreshing candour on topics that will resonate with Black women, the world over. Her passion and incredible knowledge on all things race, gender and pop culture-related make this book a standout and one you'll struggle to put down. * Morgan Cormack, Bad Form *Blay's idea of Black womanhood is an inclusive one, where liberation is not just possible, but doable because it has the space for all Black women?cisgender, transgender, rich, poor, old, young, local, global?magnifying the potential for unity (and success) against the forces which mean them harm. Each essay carries with it truths that feel ancestral. Carefree Black Girls is the testimony I've been waiting to witness. * Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets; creator of Son of Baldwin *"Blay's personal experiences with astute cultural analysis to explore how joy has become one of the most useful weapons in a Black woman's arsenal. * Bitch Media *

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Book Synopsis'Ali is one of the best flawed heroines in Irish commercial fiction since Rachel Walsh in Marian Keyes' ground-breaking Rachel's Holiday...' Sunday Times 'Hyper current ... hugely relevant' Irish Independent 'Modern and witty' Emer McLysaght, co-author of the Aisling books'So sweet, so funny -- I loved it' Marian KeyesThe Glossie Influencer Awards are fast approaching and Ali Jones is hell-bent on a win and breaking through 10,000 followers on Instagram. But when Ali inadvertantly leads people to believe she's pregnant, she quickly realises that playing the 'Mummy-Influencer' card could be her ticket to Insta-success. And she's not going to let a small detail like a fake pregnancy get in her way. Even if the reappearance of Tinder Sam, who seems determined to take his role of 'baby' daddy seriously, makes things a little more complicated ...Elsewhere on Insta, Shelly Devine, Ireland's biggest influencer (and Ali's idol) is also guarding secrets from her followers, and her husband ...Both Ali and Shelly have decisions to make but as the night of the Glossies draws near, will they realise what's important before they lose what matters most?'Fresh, current and thoroughly enjoyable' Eithne Shortall'Written with heart and humour, Filter This peels back the social media mask so many wear as a disguise and reveals the real people beneath' Cecelia AhernTrade Review'Hyper current ... hugely relevant' - Irish Independent'Shades of Marian Keyes in this highly entertaining satire ...' - Sunday IndependentWitty and wonderful - I devoured this in a single sitting - ImageHilarious. Like Sophie Kinsella for the Instagram world - Irish ExaminerA cracking read and looking forward to the sequel - Woman's Way

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Book SynopsisSophie Ellis-Bextor shares her experiences, insights and reflections on men, music and motherhood.Sophie Ellis-Bextor's kitchen discos became a source of much needed escapism, catharsis and sequined joy for a swathe of the population during lockdown. From knackered mothers and fed up fathers, to cooped up partiers with nowhere to go, Sophie's gloriously chaotic Friday kitchen performances have cheered and revived us. Now Sophie is bringing that same mixture of down to earth candour and optimistic sparkle to her first book. Part memoir, part musings, Sophie will write about the conjuring act of adulthood and motherhood and how her experience of working while raising her five sons has given her the inescapable lesson of how to navigate life in the face of failure and imperfection. Covering relationships, good enough parenting, the importance of delusion and dancing, Sophie writes about the things that take on greater importance as life becomes more complicated. From the non negotiables (solitude, music, glitter) to the unimportant (clean hair, deadlines, appropriate behaviour), this is a book about learning from our experiences and not being afraid to smash a few plates for the sake of what we actually need want and value.

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Book SynopsisOUT NOW: The new book by Sunday Times bestselling author, Emma Gannon I love Emma Gannon's wise and refreshing perspective on work, and more broadly on the challenges of building a meaningful life in an era of distraction, overwhelm and uncertainty. - Oliver Burkeman, New York Times Bestselling author of Four Thousand WeeksA sensible, kind and useful book about forging a healthier relationship with social media. - Marian Keyes, Sunday Times Bestselling author __________Millennials might have grown up online but now they want to log off. And it's not just millennials. A year of lockdowns, Zoom meetings and reduced physical contact has made us more dependent on the internet than ever before - but has it lost its humanity? Our focus on community and real connection has been sent off-course and we're becoming more aware of how the algorithm manipulates us and how our data has made us a product to be sold. So, where do we go from here and how can we get back on track? (Dis)connected examines these topics and offers tangible tips and advice for those of us who might feel a little lost right now and want to find themselves again.__________Emma Gannon is a cordial and provocative spirit. Read her, listen to her, explore her world and the world at large through her eyes. Hers is a journey well worth taking. - Julia Cameron, New York Times Bestselling author of The Artist's Way Trade ReviewEmma is a guiding light for those who are driven to find purpose and fulfillment. She never fails to encourage me to take an unconventional path to a better way of living and working. - Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer of Google XI love Emma Gannon's wise and refreshing perspective on work, and more broadly on the challenges of building a meaningful life in an era of distraction, overwhelm and uncertainty. -Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand WeeksEmma Gannon is a cordial and provocative spirit. Read her, listen to her, explore her world and the world at large through her eyes. Hers is a journey well worth taking. - Julia Cameron, New York Times bestselling author of The Artist's Way A sensible, kind and useful book about forging a healthier relationship with social media. - Marian KeyesEmma Gannon is a highly relatable writer, who commentates on what it's like to be a millennial today [..] as we increasingly live our lives online. - MetroI highly recommend Disconnected as a book to kick start your year. - Dr Camilla Pang, author of Explaining HumansThis is a much-needed book for maintaining our well-being in the digital era. - Dr Emma Hepburn, author of A Toolkit for Modern LifeFor those who are feeling overwhelmed by the fast-paced and everchanging digital landscape, Disconnected is a welcome reminder that there could be another way. - The i [Gannon] offers tangible tips and advice for those of us feeling a bit lost. - GraziaGannon has an easy writing style, includes lots of personal anecdotes and has solid advice for readers of any age. - Financial TimesI relate to every single thing that Emma Gannon writes. - Alice Snape, Cosmopolitan UKPerfect for anyone who's starting to feel like their relationship with the internet and social media is off balance. - Reader's Digest

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Book SynopsisA phenomenology of the mall: If the mall makes us feel bad, why do we keep going back? In a world poisoned by capitalism, is shopping what makes life worth living?Kate Black grew up in West Edmonton Mall - a mall on steroids, notorious for its indoor waterpark, deadly roller coaster, and controversial dolphin shows. But everyone has a favourite mall, or a mall that is their own personal memory palace. It''s a place people love to hate and hate to love - a site of pleasure and pain, of death and violence, of (sub)urban legend.Blending a history of shopping with a story of coming of age in North America''s largest and strangest mall, Big Mall investigates how these structures have become the ultimate symbol of late-capitalist dread - and, surprisingly, a subversive site of hope."Speaking as a child of PacSun and Hot Topic myself, Big Mall is like a madeleine dipped in Orange Julius. Like a m

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Book SynopsisFrom Black Lives Matter to the ongoingWomen's Marches, we have had some powerful moments over the last decade that have galvanized and created new, but brief, feelings of community. Many of us, however, haven't figured out how to spark that feeling on our own, or how to build off or sustain those moments. Many of us are longing for a kind of sugar-borrowing and stoop-sitting closeness we imagine existed in the 50s. Maybe we even grew up in that environment, but we moved away from home for love, work, or adventure and we don't know how to recreate it in a new place. What so many of us are missing is the closeness that connects us and make us feel like we belong to a community.In How We Show Up, community visionary Mia Birdsong delivers a modern, timely understanding of what true, authentic family and community can look like--outside of the 2-parent, 2.5 kids norm we all have in our heads. Today we have more single parents, couples who raise children outside of marriage, and more people growing older alone. Tackling topics like creating safe spaces, creativity in community, raising children in community, and more, How We Show Up is the antidote to the social fractures we face in our nation today. By sharing stories and actionable advice, and taking cues from marginalized communities--people of color, women, LGBTQ--Mia Birdsong offers us the blueprint we need to build true community wherever we are.

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Book SynopsisIt has been more than 50 years since sacred mushrooms were plucked from the shamanic backwaters of Mexico and presented to the modern world by R. Gordon Wasson. After sparking the psychedelic era of the 1960s, however, the divine mushroom returned underground from whence it mysteriously originated. Yet today, the mushroom’s extraordinary influence is once again being felt by large numbers of people, due to the discovery of hundreds of wild psilocybin species growing across the globe. In The Psilocybin Solution, Simon G. Powell traces the history of the sacred psilocybin mushroom and discusses the shamanic visionary effects it can induce. Detailing how psilocybin acts as a profound enhancer of consciousness and reviewing the research performed by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Johns Hopkins University, and the Heffter Research Institute on psilocybin’s ability to dispel anxiety in the terminally ill and its helpful effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder, he examines the neurochemistry, psychology, and spirituality underlying the visionary psilocybin experience, revealing the interface where physical brain and conscious mind meet. Showing that the existence of life and the functioning of mind are the result of a naturally intelligent, self-organizing Universe, he explains how sacred mushrooms provide a direct link to the wisdom of Nature and the meaning of life.Trade Review“Simon G. Powell has crafted a magnificent, multifaceted argument for the reintegration of psychedelics into science, culture, psychotherapy, and religion to inspire our unbalanced species before we ‘push the biosphere into total decline.’ The Psilocybin Solution persuasively illuminates the profound social value of large numbers of people experiencing communion with and direct personal perception of Nature as a single system of self-organizing intelligence. A massive accomplishment!” * Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studi *“This book provides a clear and up-to-date picture of what goes on in the brain during the visionary psilocybin experience. The author’s intrepid speculations, centering on information as the fundamental stuff of the universe, are clearly signposted. The writing is lucid and a joy to behold, an important contribution.” * Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent, Intelligence in Nature, and The Psych *“The profound experiences unlocked by the visionary psilocybin-containing mushrooms are more than a recreational holiday for the mind. They are, in fact, the key to understanding that consciousness is not an aspect of reality, it is reality itself.” * Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist and coauthor of The Invisible Landscape *“A worthy successor to Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, The Psilocybin Solution takes the reader behind the grand curtain of reality with a compelling hypothesis that approaches a unified field theory of human consciousness in an intelligent and interconnected universe.” * Bill Linton, CEO of Promega *“In this fascinating and provocative book, Simon G. Powell speculates on the nature of reality. He posits that Nature is a deliberate and intelligently behaving system, and he proposes that psilocybin, by altering the neurochemistry of the brain in specific ways, enables novel patterns of information to emerge, allowing the psyche to become a sort of conduit to the Other. If in fact that is what actually happens, then entheogens (psychedelics) are much more important to the human species than has been realized.” * David E. Nichols, Ph.D., president and cofounder of the Heffter Research Institute *“It’s as if these fungi, which grow wild on most of the Earth’s land surface, beckon us to commune with them, Powell hints. And if we do have the chance, we’d do well to heed his advice on the “retuning” process. This communion offers a link with the intelligence of Nature. Opening the doors of perception and returning to entheogenic wisdom could ultimately create a more mystical, meaningful society.” * Nexus Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 6, October 2011 *“Read this book. Follow directions in the last chapter closely. Confirm or deny.” * Diana Reed Slattery, Reality Sandwich, October 2011 *“Overall, another adequate introduction to entheogenic thought but one that, interestingly, broaches questions about neurology more explicitly than others, in attempting to locate entheogenic thought in a wider metaphysics.” * Psychedelic Press, November 2011 *“All in all, this is a stimulating and revolutionary volume, whatever your take on “chemically induced theophany.”” * Mac Graham, Whole Life Times, December 2011 *Table of Contents Foreword by Graham Hancock Preface Prologue A Question of Life and Death One Sacred Ground Two An Ancient Form of Communion Three Psilocybin Flows in and out of the Western Mind Four Investigating the Earth’s Alchemical Skin Five The Mushroom and the Synapse Six The Stuff of Consciousness Seven A Universe of Information Eight Does the Universe Compute? Nine The Fantastic Hypothesis Ten A Neo-Shamanic Climax Epilogue Trick or Treat? Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMany graffiti artists carry sketchbooks, called black books, and they ask crew members and others whose work they admire to inscribe their books with lettering or drawings. A few years ago, the Getty Research Institute invited artists, including Angst, Axis, Big Sleeps, Chaz, Cre8, Defer, EyeOne, Fishe, Heaven, Hyde, Look, ManOne, and Prime, to consider the idea of a citywide graffiti black book. During visits to the Getty Center, the artists viewed rare books related to calligraphy and letterforms, including works by Albrecht Durer and Leonardo da Vinci. The artists instantly recognized the connections to their own practices and were particularly drawn to a liber amicorum (book of friends), a form of autograph book popular in the seventeenth century. Passed from hand to hand, it was filled with signatures, poetry, and coats of arms, like a black book from another era. Inspired by this meeting of minds across centuries, these artists became both creators and curators, crafting their own pages and inviting others to contribute. Eventually 150 Los Angeles artists decorated 143 individual pages. These were bound together into an exquisite artists' book that became known as the Getty Graffiti Black Book. This publication reproduces each page from the original artists' book and recounts the story of an unprecedented collaboration across the diverse artistic landscape of Los Angeles.

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Book SynopsisIn Debord, Time and Spectacle Tom Bunyard provides a detailed philosophical study of the theoretical work of Guy Debord and the Situationist International. Drawing on evidence from Debord's books, films, letters and notes, Bunyard reconstructs the Hegelian and Marxian ideas that support Debord's central concept of 'spectacle'. This affords a reconsideration of Debord's theoretical claims, and a reinterpretation of his broader work that foregrounds his concerns with history and lived time.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Radioactivity Subjectivity, Temporality and Spectacle 1 Interpreting the Theory of Spectacle2 Five Aspects of Debord’s Theoretical Work The New Beauty: 1951–62 3 ‘We are Artists Insofar as We are No Longer Artists’4 The Everyday and the Absolute5 ‘Avant-Gardes Have Only One Time’ ‘Everything that had Formerly been Absolute Became Historical’ 6 Debord and French Hegelianism7 Subjects and Objects: Debord, Lukács and the Young Marx8 Life and Non-life In Pursuit of the Northwest Passage: 1963–73 9 Never Work!10 ‘I am Nothing and I Should be Everything’11 The ‘Fetishism of Capital’ The Integrated Spectacle: 1974–94 12 Moving with History’s ‘Bad Side’13 Strategy and Tactics in the Integrated Spectacle14 The Knight, Death and the DevilBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe amount of fan-generated content about Jane Austen and her novels has long surpassed the author's original canon. Adaptations like Clueless, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen's Fight Club, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries have given Austen fans priceless opportunities to enjoy the classic texts anew, and continue to bring new and younger fans into the fold. Now, through online culture, the amount and type of fan-created works has exponentially multiplied in recent years. Fans write stories, create art, make videos, and craft memes, all in homage to one of the most celebrated authors of all time.This book explores online fan spaces in search of “Janeites” all over the world to discover what fans are making, how fans are sharing their work, and why it matters that so many women and nonbinary individuals find a haven not only in Jane Austen, but also in Jane Austen fandom. In relatable chapters based on firsthand experience, the authors explore how Austen fandom has and continues to build communities around women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. Whether Janeites are shrewdly picking up on the latent sexual tension between women in Emma or casting people of color in leading roles, Luetkenhaus and Weinstein argue that Austen fans are particularly adept at marrying fantasy and feminism.

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Book Synopsis"I lived in a haunted apartment." Davisson opens this definitive work on Japan's ghosts, or yurei, with a personal tale about the spirit world. Shifting from anecdotes to deep research to translation of ancient ghost stories, he explores the persistence of yurei in modern Japan and their continued popularity throughout the West. Color images of yurei appear throughout the book.

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Book SynopsisWarren Zevon and Philosophy is a collection of chapters on Zevon’s life and music, authored by philosophers who are also Zevon fans, providing new and exciting insights into Zevon’s thinking, his cynical lyrics, and the cruel ironies of his roller-coaster life and career.Since his death in 2003 at the age of fifty-six, Warren Zevon’s following has grown, and seven books on Zevon have appeared in the last few years, with more in the works. The Zevon legend continues to attract attention both because of the outstanding quality of his best songs and because of the poignant trajectory of his life. According to the novelist Carl Hiaasen, Zevon “left behind a wildly intelligent and captivating body of music.” Warren Zevon was an American rock’n’roll singer-songwriter, born in Chicago, though associated with the music scene in Los Angeles. His early albums, Warren Zevon (1976) and Excitable Boy (1978) attracted a loyal fan following and ecstatic praise from critics. As a special talent to watch, the teenage Zevon was introduced to several notable people, including even Igor Stravinsky.Zevon’s descent into alcoholism and other addictions, along with his debauchery and erratic behavior, took its toll and his performances suffered, an aspect disturbingly captured in the memoir by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon (2008).In the last few years of his life, Zevon rehabilitated somewhat, and his work returned to an impressive level of quality. His remarkable final albums, Life’ll Kill Ya (2000), My Ride’s Here (2002), and The Wind (2003) have made a lasting impact. The last of these was given the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, while the song “Disorder in the House,” performed by Zevon with Bruce Springsteen, won Best Rock Vocal Performance. John MacKinnon teaches philosophy at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has published scholarly articles on aesthetics and philosophy of literature.Trade ReviewWarren Zevon and Philosophy: Beyond Reptile Wisdom blends philosophy with pop culture music in an inviting manner that considers Warren Zevon's lasting impact, songs, and career. Underlying his music are the philosophical and social references and links essential to understanding his life perspective. These provide thought-provoking food for thought for modern young philosophers, who will find debatable material on everything from "sentimental hygiene" to sonic tonality and beyond. The intersection of music and the mind never sounded so good.-James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief of The Bookwatch

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Book SynopsisAnthony Bourdain is famous for being brave enough to eat things most Americans would not regard as food, including a whole cobra, raw seal’s eyeballs, and unwashed warthog rectum. His book Kitchen Confidential (2000) was his first best-seller, but not his last. Though best known as an authority on food and international travel, Bourdain also wrote popular crime novels and books on history and other topics. He was a fan and friend of The Ramones and dedicated his hilarious book The Nasty Bits (2007) to the members of the band.Bourdain was a heavy user of multiple drugs, a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and an exposer of sexual harassment both in the restaurant business and the movies. All his writings and recorded conversations are witty and penetrating, and express his strong personal opinions on many subjects, from vegetarianism to religion.Anthony Bourdain and Philosophy is a collection of chapters by a diverse group of philosophers on many aspects of Bourdain’s life and work. Among the topics discussed: What counts as food, and what counts as good food? What can we learn from travel that we could not glean from books and movies? Do eating habits bring people together or drive them apart? Is suicide a moral issue or just a matter of personal preference? Is it okay for an addictive personality to indulge his many indications, including addictions to work and sports? Are vegetarianism and other progressive lifestyle features “first world luxuries”?Scott Calef is professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Ohio Wesleyan University. He edited Led Zeppelin and Philosophy: All Will Be Revealed (2009) and has written many scholarly articles on philosophy.

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Book SynopsisConsiders over sixty Hollywood films set in Austria, examining the film industry, the influence of domestic factors on images of a foreign country, and the persistence of clichés. Maria von Trapp, watching the final scene of The Sound of Music for the first time as "her" family escaped into Switzerland, exclaimed, "Don't they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!" Hadshe thought about the beginning of the film, which transports viewers to "Salzburg, Austria in the last Golden Days of the Thirties," when the country was in fact suffering from extreme political and social unrest, she might haveasked, "Don't they know history either?" In The Sound of Music as well as in Hollywood's many other "Austria" films, the projections on the screen resemble reflections in a funhouse mirror. Elements of a "real" place with a"real" history inhabited by "real" people can be found in the fractured distortions, which have both drawn from and contributed to the general public's perceptions of the country and its citizens. Austria Made in Hollywood focuses on films set in an identifiable Austria, examining them through the lenses of the historical contexts on both sides of the Atlantic and the prism of the ever-changing domestic film industry. The study chronicles theprotean screen images of Austria and Austrians that set them apart both from European projections of Austria and from Hollywood incarnations of other European nations and nationals. It explores explicit and implicit cultural commentaries on domestic and foreign issues inserted in the Austrian stories while considering the many, sometimes conflicting forces that shaped the films.Trade ReviewVansant's study is essential reading for students and scholars of film history and criticism, Austrian studies, and intellectual history. . . . It will be an important enhancement to library collections and a key entry on syllabi . . . . -- Felix Tweraser * CONTEMPORARY AUSTRIAN STUDIES *[Shows how] filmmakers drew on the American fascination with the empire, the aristocracy, the baroque, and classical music to address concerns of the day. . . . Students, teachers, and scholars can all draw on Vansant's focused, concise, and clear narrative, a novel and insightful examination of cinematic treatments of national cultures in historical context. -- Alan Lareau * MONATSHEFTE *[W]ould be an excellent addition to a syllabus for a history course on Europe and the United States, or as a country case study for a film course. This is the definitive book on the image of Austria and Austrians in American film. . . . An extraordinary achievement . . . . -- Michael Burri * AUSTRIAN HISTORY YEARBOOK *An immensely readable study: it persuasively illustrates how American films about Austria, both during Hollywood's golden age and at the present time, were and will continue to be projections, which often reveal much more about the contemporary concerns and values of the United States than they do about the Austria they are reconstructing on screen. -- Katya Krylova * AUSTRIAN STUDIES *As a rich source of information on often forgotten celluloid depictions of Austria, this book will be of value to scholars of Austria, and its careful readings of shifting Hollywood depictions of a single subject will make it of interest to many film scholars as well. -- Ted Dawson * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *[F]ills a gap in the history of the great migration of Nazi refugees from Europe to California by concentrating on the image of Austria in commercial products coming out of Hollywood. [Vansant] is most illuminating in her discussion of the generation from Erich von Stroheim to Otto Preminger, including Ernst Lubitsch, Michael Curtiz, Billy Wilder, and Josef von Sternberg. * CHOICE *Vansant's monograph about Hollywood's selection of Austrian topics and themes projected through the lens of the American political and sociohistorical perspective is meticulously researched and thus can serve as an excellent source book for teachers and students of film and literary studies. -- Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger * GERMAN QUARTERLY *[C]oncise [and] enjoyable to read and may inspire readers to search out films that they are not yet familiar with. It should definitely be of interest to film scholars and could potentially be useful with undergraduates or graduate students. And perhaps it will inspire a contemporary American filmmaker to reexamine Austria. -- Laura A. Detre * JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN STUDIES *For far too long in German research on exile and film, Austria and Austrian-influenced works have been all too liberally integrated into the "German." It is exactly for this reason that Jackie Vansant's study is so important. Embedded in historical context and historically stamped motifs, she not only develops Austrian themes in the film production of Hollywood, but also the reasons for them. -- Ursula Prutsch * ZWISCHENWELT *Jacqueline Vansant's book . . . offers a unique look at how Hollywood has imagined Austria in its film production. . . . [It] has many strengths [. . . and] will be a useful reference for scholars of European and Hollywood film. -- Jason Doerre * STUDIES IN 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Erich Stroheim, His Austria(ns). and Their US Contexts Cross-Cultural Encounters of the Intimate Kind: Hollywood's Americans in Love with Austria(ns), 1932-60 The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Austria Fights Nazis, 1938-41 Reflections and Refractions of the Anschluss on the Hollywood Screen, 1941-42 Confronting and Escaping History: The Cardinal (1963) and The Sound of Music (1965) Conclusion: Hollywood's Austria - Its Past, Present, Future Appendix: Hollywood Films Set in Austria Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOver the past decade, many famous entrepreneurs and celebrities have begun to open up about their life-changing experiences with psychedelics that led to their personal successes. But less well-known are the wisdom-bringing psychedelic experiences of many top psychologists, psychiatrists, researchers, and others who have taken what they learned from their entheogenic experiences and applied it in their professions, leading to therapeutic advancements, scientific discoveries, and healing for thousands. In this profound book, Dr. Richard Louis Miller shares stories of psychedelic transformation, insight, and wisdom from his conversations with 19 scientists, doctors, therapists, and teachers, each of whom has been self-experimenting with psychedelic medicines, sub rosa, for decades. We hear from scientific psychonaut Amanda Feilding, founder of the Beckley Foundation; ethnobotanical explorer Dennis McKenna; research advocate and head of MAPS Rick Doblin; and the “Sunshine Makers”: Tim Scully, the scientist taught to make LSD by Owsley Stanley, and Michael Randall, the leader of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. We learn about recasting “bad trips” as unfamiliar challenges from psychedelic swami Dr. Allan Ajaya, therapeutic uses of MDMA from “the love doctor” Charley Wininger, decades of insights from psychedelic professor Thomas B. Roberts, as well as several others. Revealing the psychedelic wisdom uncovered in spite of decades of the “War on Drugs,” Dr. Miller and his contributors show how LSD and other psychedelics offer a pathway to creativity, healing, innovation, and liberation.Trade Review“I love this book! The interviews (really, intimate conversations) are emotionally intense, insightful, and revelatory. Each is a deep dive into a life transformed early on by psychedelic revelations and also matured, deepened, and revised over decades of continued psychedelic use. Finally able to be shared, here is the knowledge and experience of elders, shared life lessons of caring and compassion. A book of gifts, of gratitude, and so much to be learned.” * James Fadiman, PhD, microdose researcher, author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, and coau *“The publishing of Psychedelic Wisdom could not have come at a better time. Psychotherapists, neuroscientists, creatives, and spiritual seekers are discovering and rediscovering the amazing potential of psychedelic substances. These substances can promote psychological healing and facilitate problem-solving. They can be used as tools to study brain function and the nature of consciousness. They can produce feelings of wonder, sacredness, and transcendence. “All of these topics and more are explored in this collection of in-depth interviews with elder scientists, therapists, professors, artists, and doctors. Over the years, these leaders have experimented with and employed psychedelic substances in their personal and professional lives. Their experiences have been well-seasoned by time, and yet they remain fresh as the morning dew.“Dr. Miller has a way, a gift really, of opening the right doors with his questions for his guests. He then encourages them to freely express and follow the stream of consciousness that ensues. As these explorers share their stories, their ‘confessions’ provide a peek into the vast range of experiences accessible with these remarkable substances.” * Nicholas V. Cozzi, PhD, educator and scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School o *“The dialogues featured in Psychedelic Wisdom shimmer with insight. The degree of candor, wit, and understanding reflected in its pages is unmatched among the psychedelic literature that is currently flooding into the marketplace. Lest there be any doubt, the high-minded wisdom of this book is needed now more than ever.” * J. Christian Greer, PhD, research fellow at Yale University Institute of Sacred Music *“Dr. Miller has memorialized the transformational stories of visionary elders who are laying the foundation of a psychedelic renaissance that will illuminate humanity’s future for centuries to come.” * Jerry and Julie Brown, coauthors of The Psychedelic Gospels *“A fascinating, unique, disarming, and intimate glimpse of the earliest taproots of the current blossoming revolution in spiritual and mental health.” * Dean Edell, MD, radio and television broadcaster and author of Eat, Drink, and Be Merry *Table of ContentsFOREWORD The Wisdom of Psychedelic Elders Rick Doblin INTRODUCTION Confessions of the Psychedelic Elder SCIENTISTS 1 Tim Scully and Michael Randall The Sunshine Makers Revisit Their Quest to Turn On the Whole World 2 Amanda Feilding A Consciousness Researcher on Her Self-Experimentation with LSD 3 Dennis McKenna An Ethnobotanical Explorer Reflects on a Lifetime of Curiosity 4 Rick Doblin Pioneering the Legalization of Psychedelic Medicines DOCTORS5 Dean Edell America’s Doctor Spreads the Word 6 Friederike Meckel Fischer A Convicted Psychotherapist Describes Working Underground 7 Howard Levene and David Geisinger Understanding Patients’ Life Experiences THERAPISTS 8 Allan Ajaya Transcendent Awareness of Underlying Unity 9 Charley Wininger The Love Doctor on Happiness-Inducing Experiences10 Mariavittoria Mangini Psychedelics and the Social Matrix 11 Dr. Richard Louis Miller Making Meaning from the Psychedelic ExperienceTEACHERS 12 Thomas B. Roberts Upgrading the Human Mind with Psychedelics13 Clifton RossPsychedelic Breakthroughs on the Road of Recovery 14 Cliff BarneyLiving and Writing in a Different Reality 15 Jerry and Julie BrownScholars of Psychedelics Say There Is Always More to Learn 16 Charles Bush The Psychedelic Cinerama Afterword Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive tour of North American spiritual groups that use psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness. For thousands of years, human beings around the world have used hallucinogenic plants and fungi to alter consciousness and connect with the Divine. Although such practices faded with the rise of organized religion, the last century has seen a revival of entheogen-based spirituality in North America. From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis-sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci presents a comprehensive tour of North American religious sects and spiritual groups that use entheogens and psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness, mystical insight, and spiritual enlightenment. Exploring prominent churches and cults in depth, he examines the lives of their colourful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion. He looks at the Native American Church and their legal battle over their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, the murderous end of the LSD-therapy cult known as the Church of Naturalism, and several other major groups and temples of psychedelic spirituality. He then offers an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations, many of which have never been documented in an authoritative source before. Sharing personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts alongside rare photos and illustrations, this extensively researched study of underground psychedelic religious groups in the United States reveals their spiritual and cultural influence from the 1960s to the present day.Trade Review“A well-researched and adeptly written history of the underground spiritual movement that swept through American popular culture in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s a concise and thoroughly engaging compendium of this important subculture and a must-read for any serious student of this revolutionary and awe-inspiring time.” * Nick Schou, author of Orange Sunshine *“An essential encyclopedia of divine intoxication, documenting the dizzying parade of drug-crazed mystics and self-proclaiming prophets who’ve founded psychedelic cults and entheogenic churches over the past century. A long strange trip, indeed, from the obscure to the notorious, from the ridiculous to the sublime.” * Don Lattin, author of The Harvard Psychedelic Club *“This book not only outlines the history and central principles of well-known modern entheogenic groups like the Native American Church and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love but also pulls from the shadows of history all-but-forgotten characters. Marinacci reproduces intriguing photos from the past as well as discusses the founding scriptures of these far out religions. All future research in this area will owe a debt of gratitude to this unique, well-written volume.” * Thomas Hatsis, author of LSD—The Wonder Child *“Backed by indefatigable research, well-organized, and astonishingly comprehensive, this remarkable work brings together into one volume the true stories of the many saints and sinners, with a preponderance of the latter, who founded organizations that proclaim or proclaimed the religious value of psychedelics and who persisted under the threat and, in many cases, imposition of harsh prison sentences and confiscation of property. What is the point of all this work Marinacci has done? Why does it matter? Consider four possible positions on the issue of the religious value of psychedelics: they are a gift from God; they are a temptation from the Devil; they are both; they are neither. Whichever of these positions you choose and whatever other reasons you may give in defense, if that view is to have any hope of being the one closest to the Truth, it will have to be consistent with the history of the individuals and groups presented in this book.” * Jack Call, author of Psychedelic Christianity *“Mike Marinacci has made the exciting, detailed, and adventurous journey back in time to chronicle the psychonauts of the era. Mike searched, found, and explains in a highly readable fashion some of the histories of those who crave to know more of our reality and more than what we’re legally allowed to find out. What’s beyond the ‘Do Not Enter’ signs? You can now sit comfortably and vicariously journey through the lives of some of the most infamous seekers of the past half century with no risk involved. This book is a reminder of the relatively unknown yet important history of human potential that will likely help make you smile and wonder and appreciate even more the gift of life we’re given on planet Earth.” * Roger Christie, founder of THC Ministry and federal prisoner of the War on Cannabis *“Who other than the likes of Mike Marinacci knew there were so many psychedelics-focused groups, churches, and initiatives in our recent past, and especially in the expansive and chaotic glory days of the 1960s and ’70s? This is rich history in full color with a dose of bittersweet nostalgia for those who lived through and embraced the zeitgeist of the times; a cornucopia of inspiring, cautionary, and simply jaw-dropping true stories told in page-turning prose for younger readers and the rest of us. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mike for rescuing these invaluable segments and snippets of psychedelic and countercultural history from obscurity and giving them new life.” * Stephen Gray, editor of How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World and Cannabis and Spirituality *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword by J. Christian Greer, Ph.D. Introduction PART ONE Major SectsSuperstars of the Entheogenic Spiritual Underground ONE The Native American Church Trouble and Triumph on the Long Peyote Road TWO The Church of the Awakening Heartland Explorations in Mescaline Awareness THREE The Peyote Way Church of God Outlaw Stewards of the Magic Cactus FOUR The Oklevueha Native American Church Bringing Many Medicines to the White ManFIVE The League for Spiritual DiscoveryTurning On and Tuning In with Timothy Leary SIXThe Neo-American Church The Chief Boo Hoo Presents Massive Doses of Acid Absurdity SEVENThe Brotherhood of Eternal LoveThe Orange Sunshine Conspiracy EIGHT Shivalila The Wandering Entheogenic Tribe NINE The Church of Naturalism From LSD Rescues to L.A. Murders TEN The Church of the Tree of Life The Sacramental Garden of Legal Highs ELEVEN Temple of the True Inner Light A DPT Eucharist on the Lower East Side TWELVE The Shiva FellowshipCannabis Communion on Hippie HillTHIRTEEN The Psychedelic Venus ChurchSex, Drugs, and the Goddess of Ecstasy FOURTEENThe Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church Burning Down Babylon with Jah’s Ganja FIFTEEN The Church of the Universe Eden in the Great Green North SIXTEEN The Hawai’i Cannabis (THC) MinistryHoly Smoke in Paradise SEVENTEENThe International Church of CannabisA Gothic Church, Urban Murals, and Elevationism EIGHTEEN Ayahuasca Healings Plant Shamanism in the Internet Age PART TWO Minor SectsAn A–Z Guide from Ambrosia to Zide CONCLUSIONPsychedelic Sects From Prehistory into the Third Millennium APPENDIX Psychedelic Substances and Their Associated Sects NotesBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisLeading minds discuss psychedelics, shamanism, human evolution, and the ecological crisis• Includes conversations with Duncan Trussell, Graham Hancock, Grant Morrison, Hamilton Morris, Erik Davis, Julia Mossbridge, Rupert Sheldrake, and others• Explores the possibility of human extinction, Simulation Theory, Virtual Reality and lucid dreaming, space migration, DMT research, and advanced robotics• Delves deep into the relationship between psychedelics and ecological awarenessBetween war, inequality, biosphere collapse, climate change, and destabilizing advances in technology like AI, humankind is confronted with an almost insurmountable array of challenges. Yet many brilliant experts are working on outside-the-box solutions, looking to psychedelic-inspired visions of the future to lead humanity through these crises.In a series of conversations with leading minds in consciousness studies, psychedelic culture, anthropology, che

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Book Synopsis A reckoning with one of our most beloved art forms, whose past and present are shaped by gender, racial, and class inequities—and a look inside the fight for its future Every day, in dance studios all across America, legions of little children line up at the barre to take ballet class. This time in the studio shapes their lives, instilling lessons about gender, power, bodies, and their place in the world both in and outside of dance. In Turning Pointe, journalist Chloe Angyal captures the intense love for ballet that so many dancers feel, while also grappling with its devastating shortcomings: the power imbalance of an art form performed mostly by women, but dominated by men; the impossible standards of beauty and thinness; and the racism that keeps so many people of color out of ballet. As the rigid traditions of ballet grow increasingly out of step with the modern world, a new generation of dancers is confronting these issues head on, in the studio and on stage. For ballet to survive the twenty-first century and forge a path into a more socially just future, this reckoning is essential.

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Book SynopsisCelebrate more than three decades of filmmaking by diving into the brilliant, twisted mind of Quentin Tarantino, and discover the artistic process of an Oscar-winning legend.Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1963, Quentin Tarantino spent many Saturday evenings during his childhood accompanying his mother to the movies, nourishing a love of film that was, over the course of his life, to become all-consuming. The script for his first movie took him four years to complete: My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987), a seventy-minute film in which he both acted and directed. The script for his second film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), took him just under four weeks to complete. When it debuted, he was immediately hailed as one of the most exciting new directors in the industry. Known for his highly cinematic visual style, out-of-sequence storytelling, and grandiose violence, Tarantino’s films have provoked both praise and criticism over the course of his career. They’ve also won him a host of awards—including Oscars, Golden Globes, and BAFTA awards—usually for his original screenplays. His oeuvre includes the cult classic Pulp Fiction, bloody revenge saga Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and historical epics Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood.  Featuring an all-new chapter on the director’s latest award-winning film Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood, this stunning retrospective catalogs each of Quentin Tarantino’s movies in fascinating detail. The book is a tribute to a unique directing and writing talent, celebrating an uncompromising, passionate director’s enthralling career at the heart of cult filmmaking.

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Book SynopsisAn examination of how the late actor, famed for his role as Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills 90210, shaped a generation's views on masculinity, sexuality, addiction, and privilege.

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Book SynopsisHow does an immortal deal with death?What can an ancient Time Lord teach us about real human nature?Why does the Doctor say he and Freud “got on very well”?How do the Daleks and Cybermen reflect concerns about losing our humanity?And what new challenges loom ahead when the Doctor regenerates as a woman?Hailed as the “most successful sci-fi series ever made” (Guinness World Records), Doctor Who has been a cult-classic for more than half a century. And though time may not be the boss—Rule 408—as times change, so too do social norms and psychological challenges, which have paved the way for a new kind of Doctor who can appeal to the modern viewer.Revised and updated for our changing times, the second edition of Doctor Who Psychology: Times Change explores the alien in us all. Travis Langley’s fascinating in-depth collection delves into the psychology behind the time-traveling Doctor in his many iterations—as men and women—as well as his companions and his foes. With a foreword by Third Doctor Companion Katy Manning, an introduction to the second edition, and new interviews with actors who have played Doctors new and old, Doctor Who Psychology: Times Change travels through the how and why of Who. Contributors to the second edition include:Jenna Busch * Erin Currie * Jim Davies * Kristin Erickson * Wind Goodfriend * Daniel Hand * David Kyle Johnson * Billy San Juan * Deirdre Kelly * Alan Kistler * Travis Langley * Katy Manning * Justine Mastin * Matt Munson * Miranda Pollock * Stephen Prescott * Sarita Robinson * Aaron Sagers * Daniel Saunders * Janina Scarlet * William Sharp

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Book SynopsisCAR MA is artist and musician Alison Mosshart’s first printed collection of paintings, photographs, short stories, and poetry. It is a book about cars, rock n’ roll, and love. It’s a book about America, performance, and life on the road. It’s a book about fender bender portraiture, story tellin' tire tracks, and the never- ending search for the spirit under the hood. ​Mosshart imagines the auto body shop like some other Coney Island. And America’s highways- the last great roller coasters. Shows us that the engine on fire is connected to the guitar feeding back since birth. And the sensation of walking on stage and facing an audience is like the laugh before the scream in a car without brakes. She ruminates that automobiles- with their doors and mirrors and windows, engines and wheels and radios- portray us. Mirror our need to be in or to exit, our inward reflections and outward visions, our lifetimes of tinkering with the mysterious heart. That which runs until it doesn’t. Throughout history the car has been a symbol of freedom and hopeful adventure. It stands to reason it is also a symbol of our subsequent spinning out… over things we never thought could happen during a song that fucking good with the volume up that fucking loud. If you’ve ever found yourself feeling holy, pulling out of the gas station with a full tank, like the last beautiful free soul on this planet- This book is for you. In fact it’s probably about you.Trade ReviewCAR MA is a love letter to the motorcar, a book about rock & roll and love.“Part road diary, part automobile love song, part personal history, Car Ma dives deep into the soul of the American drive.”

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisAre we tired of hearing that fall is a season, sick of being offered fries and told about the latest movie? Yeah. Have we noticed the sly interpolation of Americanisms into our everyday speech? You betcha. And are we outraged? Hell, yes. But do we do anything? Too much hassle. Until now. In That's The Way It Crumbles Matthew Engel presents a call to arms against the linguistic impoverishment that happens when one language dominates another. With dismay and wry amusement, he traces the American invasion of our language from the early days of the New World, via the influence of Edison, the dance hall and the talkies, right up to the Apple and Microsoft-dominated present day, and explores the fate of other languages trying to fend off linguistic takeover bids. It is not the Americans' fault, more the result of their talent for innovation and our own indifference. He explains how America's cultural supremacy affects British gestures, celebrations and way of life, and how every paragraph and conversation includes words the British no longer even think of as Americanisms. Part battle cry, part love song, part elegy, this book celebrates the strange, the banal, the precious and the endangered parts of our uncommon common language.Trade ReviewAn acerbically witty and entertaining survey ... a work of stubborn persistence, or resistance. * Sunday Times *One of journalism's great exponents of English English. -- Peter Preston * Guardian *Throughout his entertaining history, Engel argues for a stout forward defence against this onslaught of "cool" and "fun" and "you guys". -- Tim Adams * The Guardian *Highly entertaining. * Spectator *Engel [hunts] down his prey like a linguistic witchfinder-general ... short-tempered but consistently witty. -- John Sutherland * New Statesman *Praise for Engel's England: 'Wry, rueful, funny, packed with knowledge, and, like all good reporting, entirely personal and subjective, it is simply the most enjoyable commentary on today's England that could be imagined. * Sunday Times *Highly personal and very funny * London Review of Books *The great pleasure in the book - for Engel as much as the reader - is in his love of the entertaining factual nugget * Financial Times *Engel has the perfect light, humorous touch for the task. * New Statesman *Immensely enjoyable... Engel is a wonderfully wry comic writer. * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThis book examines how the political period in Spain following Franco's death, known as the Transición, is being remembered by a group of writers, filmmakers and TV producers born in the sixties and early seventies. Reading against the dominant historical account that celebrates Spain’s successful democratisation, this study reveals how recent television, film and fiction recreate this past from a generational perspective, linking the experience of the Transición to the country’s present political and financial crises. Privileging above all an emotional connection, these artists use personal feelings about the past to analyse and revisit the history of their coming-of-age years. Lost in Transition considers the implications of adopting such a subjective positioning towards history that encourages an unending narrative, always in search of more meaningful and intimate connections with the past. Taking into account recent theoretical approaches to memory studies, this book proposes a new look at the production of memory in contemporary Spain and its close relationship to popular culture, shifting the focus from what is remembered to how the past is recalled affectively to be made part of an ongoing and enduring everyday experience.Trade Review‘Lost in Transition represents another valuable addition to the burgeoning area of studies on memory in contemporary Spain…The author shows awareness and understanding of the existing research on the topic and departs from the existing bibliography by trying new critical approaches and expanding the corpus of recent works, which represents an important contribution to the field.’José Colmeiro, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies Table of Contents[Acknowledgments] [List of Illustrations] 1. Introduction 2. Ordinary Memories: Feeling the Past 3. The Moment of Memory 4. Mediating Memory (or Telling How It Happened) 5. Transitional Stories 6. Conclusion Filmography Bibliography [Index]

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Book SynopsisIf you’re born in the Chinese year of the Rat, what are your characteristics? With whom is someone born in the year of the Ox most compatible? And what are the worst flaws associated with your Chinese star sign? Chinese Astrology is a beautifully illustrated guide with easy-to-use instructions to help you understand the fundamental ideas and determine the more advanced aspects: how does the year of your birth affect your personality? What elements are associated with your horoscope? What celebrities are the same Zodiac animal as you? Each page includes a newly commissioned artwork of a Chinese character, from the 12 animals of the Zodiac and the 12 Earthly Branches to the five phases and 10 Heavenly Stems. This is accompanied by an explanation of each character and its significance within Chinese astrology. Illustrated with more than 85 specially commissioned artworks, Chinese Astrology is the perfect guide to your inner and outer life.Table of ContentsIntroduction Zodiac Animals 12 Earthly Branches Five Phases Wood Fire Earth Metal Water 10 Heavenly Stems Associated Vocabulary Chinese Zodiac Chart The 24 Cardinal Directions Index

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