{"product_id":"the-possibility-machine-9780252045417","title":"The Possibility Machine","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSingular and star-studded writings on America’s neon-lit playground\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e At once a Technicolor wonderland and the embodiment of American mythology, Las Vegas exists at the Ground Zero of a reverence for risk-taking and the transformative power of a winning hand. Jake Johnson edits a collection of short essays and flash ideas that probes how music-making and soundscapes shape the City of Second Chances. Treating topics ranging from Cher to Cirque de Soleil, the contributors delve into how music and musicians factored in the early development of Vegas’s image; the role of local communities of musicians and Strip mainstays in sustaining tensions between belief and disbelief; the ways aging showroom stars provide a sense of timelessness that inoculates visitors against the outside world; the link connecting fantasies of sexual prowess and democracy with the musical values of Liberace and others; considerations of how musicians and establishments gambled with identity and o\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Introduction: Flash!--Splash\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJake Johnson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part One: The Road to Vegas \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 1 On the Edge of the Desert \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobert Fink\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 2 Reimagining the Popular on the Vegas Circuit: Helen Traubel, Diva Populism, and the Labor of Publicity \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichael M. Reinhard\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 3 It Was Better When the Mob Ran the Town \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJanis McKay\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part Two: Overheard \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 4 Music as Misdirection \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJason Leddington\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 5 Presence, Absence, and Live Virtuality: Soundscapes in Cirque du Soleil on the Las Vegas Strip \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLynda Paul\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 6  Pura Alegria: Young Adult Musicians Learning Mariachi in Schools and Participating in the Las Vegas Mariachi Scene \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCassaundra Rodriguez and Celine Ayala\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part Three: Second Chances \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 7 The Master and the Mob: Noël Coward’s Musical Identity in the Golden Age of Las Vegas \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArianne Johnson Quinn\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 8  Elvis in Vegas: The King of Rock ’n’ Roll and the City of Second Chances \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrian F. Wright\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 9 Celine Dion and Cher’s Vegas Residencies: The Envoiced and Embodied Spectacle of Feminine Aging on the Vegas Stage \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJessica A. Holmes and Michael Kinney\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part Four: Virtuoso Fantastique \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 10 Viva Viagra: Vegas, Elvis, and “A Little Blue Pill” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Deaville and Kirstin Bews\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 11 Shall We Go for It? The Hermeneutics of Celine Dion’s Las Vegas Show \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSam Murray\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 12 Liberace’s Surfaces: Democratic Virtuosity, American Fantasies, and Vegas Pianism \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePheaross Graham\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part Five: Making Book \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 13 Comedy Tonight: Broadway Musicals on the Las Vegas Strip \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArreanna Rostosky\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 14 “Trouble Is, We Don’t Make the Rules”: The Las Vegas Years of Jazz and Classical Violinist Ginger Smock \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaura Risk\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 15 “For Adult Audiences Only”: A History of LGBTQ Performers on the Las Vegas Stage \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLouis Niebur\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Part Six: Leaving Vegas \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 16 The Real Deal: Impersonation and the American Dream in Branson and Vegas \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoanna Dee Das and Maddie House-Tuck\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 17 Salaciously Family Friendly: The Unlikely Porousness of Sin City and the American Boob Tube \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKelly Kessler\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 18 Representation and Value in Michael Daugherty’s Las Vegas Works \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaura Dallman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 19 Specters of Mine: Musicological Research in the Desert of the Opera \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarlo Lanfossi\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Contributors \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Index \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400459329879,"sku":"9780252045417","price":87.55,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780252045417.jpg?v=1730470732","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-possibility-machine-9780252045417","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}