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Monty Python Speaks: The Complete Oral History
By David Morgan. 2019
With a Foreword by John Oliver, host of Last Week TonightIn celebration of the 50th anniversary of its BBC debut,…
a revised and updated edition of the complete oral history of Monty Python—an insightful, in-depth portrait of the brilliant and hysterically funny show that transformed modern comedy.Broadcast by the BBC between 1969 and 1974, Monty Python’s Flying Circus introduced something completely different: a new brand of surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness comedy that pushed the traditional boundaries of format, style, and content. Blending brilliant satire with slapstick silliness, The Pythons—Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin—spoke to a generation eager to break free of the conventional. Making their way across the Atlantic and the world, the Pythons’ zany approach to comedy would have a monumental influence on modern popular culture, paving the way for farcical entertainment from Saturday Night Live to The Simpsons to Austin Powers.In Monty Python Speaks, David Morgan has collected interviews with Monty Python’s founding members, actors, producers, and other collaborators to produce a no-holds-barred look at the Pythons’ legendary sketches and films, including Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Spamalot), and The Meaning of Life. Featuring four new chapters that focus on the group’s oeuvre since the first edition’s publication twenty years ago, as well as a new foreword and updated resources, Monty Python Speaks offers a fascinating peek behind the scenes of the Pythons’ creative process—including the friendships and feuds—that catapulted a comedy revolution.Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
By Melissa Maerz. 2020
The definitive oral history of the cult classic Dazed and Confused, featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the cast, crew, and Oscar-nominated director…
Richard Linklater.Dazed and Confused not only heralded the arrival of filmmaker Richard Linklater, it introduced a cast of unknowns who would become the next generation of movie stars. Embraced as a cultural touchstone, the 1993 film would also make Matthew McConaughey’s famous phrase—alright, alright, alright—ubiquitous. But it started with a simple idea: Linklater thought people might like to watch a movie about high school kids just hanging out and listening to music on the last day of school in 1976. To some, that might not even sound like a movie. But to a few studio executives, it sounded enough like the next American Graffiti to justify the risk. Dazed and Confused underperformed at the box office and seemed destined to disappear. Then something weird happened: Linklater turned out to be right. This wasn’t the kind of movie everybody liked, but it was the kind of movie certain people loved, with an intensity that felt personal. No matter what their high school experience was like, they thought Dazed and Confused was about them.Alright, Alright, Alright is the story of how this iconic film came together and why it worked. Combining behind-the-scenes photos and insights from nearly the entire cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and many others, and with full access to Linklater’s Dazed archives, it offers an inside look at how a budding filmmaker and a cast of newcomers made a period piece that would feel timeless for decades to come.Windswept & Interesting: My Autobiography
By Billy Connolly. 2021
In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting…
life.Born in a tenement flat in Glasgow in 1942, orphaned by the age of 4, and a survivor of appalling abuse at the hands of his own family, Billy's life is a remarkable story of success against all the odds.Billy found his escape first as an apprentice welder in the shipyards of the River Clyde. Later he became a folk musician - a 'rambling man' - with a genuine talent for playing the banjo. But it was his ability to spin stories, tell jokes and hold an audience in the palm of his hand that truly set him apart.As a young comedian Billy broke all the rules. He was fearless and outspoken - willing to call out hypocrisy wherever he saw it. But his stand-up was full of warmth, humility and silliness too. His startling, hairy 'glam-rock' stage appearance - wearing leotards, scissor suits and banana boots - only added to his appeal.It was an appearance on Michael Parkinson's chat show in 1975 - and one outrageous story in particular - that catapulted Billy from cult hero to national star. TV shows, documentaries, international fame and award-winning Hollywood movies followed. Billy's pitch-perfect stand-up comedy kept coming too - for over 50 years, in fact - until a double diagnosis of cancer and Parkinson's Disease brought his remarkable live performances to an end. Since then he has continued making TV shows, creating extraordinary drawings... and writing.Windswept and Interesting is Billy's story in his own words. It is joyfully funny - stuffed full of hard-earned wisdom as well as countless digressions on fishing, farting and the joys of dancing naked. It is an unforgettable, life-affirming story of a true comedy legend.'I didn't know I was Windswept and Interesting until somebody told me. It was a friend who was startlingly exotic himself. He'd just come back from Kashmir and was all billowy shirt and Indian beads. I had long hair and a beard and was swishing around in electric blue flairs.He said: "Look at you - all windswept and interesting!"I just said: "Exactly!"After that, I simply had to maintain my reputation...'Track Record: THE REVOLUTIONARY MEMOIR FROM THE UK'S MOST CREATIVE VOICE
By George The Poet. 2023
The ground-breaking memoir by acclaimed rapper and podcast host, George the PoetBorn to Ugandan parents on the St Raphael's Estate…
in Neasden, north-west London, George has always been an ambitious storyteller. Influenced by his hometown, George started MCing , and eventually found his voice in poetry and with it an avenue for change.Track Record: Me, Music, and the War on Blackness sheds light on George's upbringing and artistic career. He looks back at his education, his time at university, and his beginnings as a musician. We are given an insight into the forces that have shaped him and the stories he chooses to tell. As with George's other work, Track Record goes beyond the traditional memoir and takes the reader on a journey throughout history. George dives deep into the complexities of the economy and interrogates the legacy of colonialism. He reflects on music and its power as a political force - how it can be a catalyst for social power and economic change. By weaving a story that is both personal and political, George delivers an incredibly powerful and unique perspective on the world around us. Honest, thought-provoking and lyrical, Track Record is a fascinating insight by an inimitable storyteller.The book explores how theatre, with its performative capacity, has the power to engage with and affect the politics of…
its day. It sets the stage for the reader to discover the revolutionary traditions of Egyptian and Irish theatre, very distinct in their histories and cultures, and understand their enduring relevance in today’s world. The volume takes Ireland as a case study of the interplay between cultural nationalism and politically engaged theatre and compares it to the role of the theatre in Egypt during its Golden era in the 1960s.Through a selection of Egyptian plays by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Mikhail Roman, Yusuf Idris, and Salah Abdul-Saboor, alongside Irish plays by Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Christina Reid, and Samuel Beckett, it maps the political aesthetics of unsteady times and seemingly disparate places to reflect on the dynamics of revolt as a staged act in and of itself. Further, the book examines how playwrights from both nations have engaged with theatre as a medium, focusing on how their contemplations, hesitations, frustrations, and protest have been translated onto the stage in their various plays, and comprehends the transformative role the theatre has always played in politics in shaping history across time and space.Bridging together discussions on transnational modernisms with nuanced cultural histories of protest, this critical work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literary studies, identity politics, cultural studies, theatre and performance studies, and political studies.Interior Design on Edge: History, Theory, Praxis
By Erica Morawski, Deborah Schneiderman, Keena Suh, Karin Tehve, Karyn Zieve. 2024
Interior Design on Edge explores ways that interiors both constitute and upset our edges, whether physical, conceptual or psychological, imagined,…
implied, necessary or discriminatory.The essays in this volume explore these questions in history, theory, and praxis through a focus on different periods, cultures, and places. Interior Design on Edge showcases new scholarship that expands and contests traditional relationships between architecture, interiors, and the people that use and design them, provoking readers to consider the interior differently, moving beyond its traditional, architectural definition. Focusing on the concept of interiority considered in a wider sense, it draws on interdisciplinary modes of investigation and analysis and reflects the latest theoretical developments in the fields of interior design history and practice.With new research from both established and emerging authors, this volume will make a valuable contribution to the fields of Interior Design, Architecture, Art and Design History, Cultural History, Visual Culture Studies, and Urban Studies.This book examines performance practices that involve people in recovery from addiction, theorising such practices as recovery-engaged.Focusing on examples of…
practice from a growing movement of UK-based recovery arts practitioners and performers, it highlights a unique approach to performance that infuses an understanding of lived experiences of addiction and recovery with creative practice. It offers a philosophy of being in recovery that understands lived experience, and performance practice, as a dynamic system of interrelations with the human and nonhuman elements that make up the societal settings in which recovery communities struggle to exist. It thereby frames the process of recovery, and recovery-engaged performance, as an affective ecology – a system of messy connections. Building upon ideas from posthumanist research on addiction, cultural theory on identity and new materialist interpretations of performance practice, it considers how such contemporary theory might offer additional ways of thinking and doing arts practice with people affected by addiction. The discussion highlights the distinct aesthetics, ethics and politics of this area of performance practice.This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in Applied Theatre and Critical Arts and Mental Health studies.Innovation in PMBOK through Industrial Revolution 4.0: An Automated Solution for the Construction Industry
By Muhammad Musarat, Muhammad Irfan, Maria Ghufran, Wesam Salah Alaloul. 2024
In this textbook for upper-undergraduate and postgraduate students, Dr Ali and colleagues provide the reader with information on the effect…
of Industrial Revolution 4.0 on the construction industry, particularly regarding PMBOK knowledge areas.The authors furnish readers with an understanding of IR 4.0 and reasons for adopting it and provide an in-depth insight into the impact of IR 4.0 on technology and society, particularly in the construction industry. Further to this, they also compare traditional and IR 4.0 project manager’s competencies so that readers can develop their understanding of Project Management Knowledge areas and how IR 4.0 can be used to enhance these knowledge areas. The book is structured logically and sequentially to benefit even novice readers as they progress from basic to more advanced topics related to IR 4.0 and PMBOK. The final main chapter of this book provides an in-depth discussion of the enhancement of PMBOK knowledge areas using IR 4.0, including topics such as project integration management, IR 4.0 enhancements such as digitalization, and a conceptual framework for industry betterment. By the end of the book, readers will have the knowledge and skills to apply IR 4.0 techniques in their future careers in the construction industry.This book is an invaluable resource for students of construction engineering and management at upper-undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for existing industry professionals as part of their continuous professional development.Dreams + Disillusions
By Cj Lim, Luke Angers. 2024
Dreams + Disillusions explores the plethora of ideas and ideologies that have shaped and reshaped cities in profound ways. However,…
unlike a conventional title on the history of urbanism and architecture, its research fluctuates between the world of concrete reality and the multiple universes that exist in lucid prose, poetic visions, and the outrageous imaginations of history’s greatest and most (in)famous minds. In their thoughts are the foundations for political trends and new civilisations, alternative mappings and unlikely phenomena. The six chapters reveal dreams that were fundamental to the origin of great cities, underpinning the stories of the many lives within; and how, through circumstance or manipulation, fortunate coincidence or planned perfection, desires are sometimes left defeated and disillusioned.Myth and belief. Tradition and logic. Revolution and marginalisation. Ignorance and hubris. Sins and excess. Seasons and climate. Continuously interacting, shifting to enlighten and to enrage, these themes combine critical thinking with deep-rooted influences and new agencies that are a true sign of the times. The 18 illustrated speculations provide an abundance of curious imaginings, diverse provocations and satirical criticism. While there are distinctions between dreams and disillusions, could virtues be made of sins, or sensitivity be borne from hubris? Could progress advocate tradition, or should we re-attempt revolutions formerly experienced as disillusionments? Whether by bold gestures or by subtle attrition, cities are continually re-written crucibles for the human condition. In this book, we develop a better understanding of the discourse of cities tailored to the determining factors of climate, resources, and humanity’s idiosyncrasies to address a world in crisis.How I Got This Way
By Regis Philbin. 2011
In this entertaining memoir, the irrepressible "Reege" - consummate talk show host, man about town, loving husband, father, and yes,…
obsessive sports fan-looks back at his years in show business. One of the most popular television and cultural icons ever, Regis Philbin entertained television audiences for more than fifty years—as a beloved morning-show host (Live with Regis and Kelly), a nighttime game-show host (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) and also as a fixture on national and local late-night talk shows. The irrepressible “Reege” has regaled television audiences with his stories for more than half a century, but he’s saved the most hilarious, surprising, heartfelt, and inspiring tales for How I Got This Way. Both a fascinating show business memoir and a delightful primer for living the good life rolled into one, How I Got This Way is Reege being Reege, just the way we love him, as he shares the secrets to success and happiness that he has learned from his innumerable celebrity encounters, his close, personal friendships, and, of course, his relationship with his loving wife and family.The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies
By Ben Fritz. 2018
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book Prize at the 2018 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism…
Awards &“Ben Fritz crafts an electrifying and essential book that carefully chronicles how Hollywood tradition is collapsing and new models are fueling the future. A must-read.&”—Ava DuVernay, director of A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, and 13th The stunning metamorphosis of twenty-first-century Hollywood and what lies ahead for the art and commerce of film Ben Fritz chronicles the dramatic shakeup of America&’s film industry, bringing equal fluency to both the financial and entertainment aspects of Hollywood. He offers us an unprecedented look deep inside a Hollywood studio to explain why sophisticated movies for adults are an endangered species while franchises and super-heroes have come to dominate the cinematic landscape. And through interviews with dozens of key players at Disney, Marvel, Netflix, Amazon, Imax, and others, he reveals how the movie business is being reinvented. Despite the destruction of the studios&’ traditional playbook, Fritz argues that these seismic shifts signal the dawn of a new heyday for film. The Big Picture shows the first glimmers of this new golden age through the eyes of the creative mavericks who are defining what entertainment will look like in the new era.Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova
By Laurel Snyder. 2015
The world is big.Anna is small.The snow is everywhere and all around.But one night . . .One night, her mother…
takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. Anna finds a beauty inside herself that she cannot contain.So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova. Beautiful, inspirational, and triumphant, Anna Pavlova's life is masterfully captured in this exquisite picture book.Cultural Property Crime and the Law: Legal Approaches to Protection, Repatriation, and Countering Illicit Trade (Transnational Criminal Justice)
By Michelle D. Fabiani, Kate Melody Burmon, Saskia Hufnagel. 2024
This book explores innovative approaches to using and operating within and around both criminal law and civil law in the…
detection, investigation, and restitution of illicit cultural property.The volume brings together a wide range of authors who research and work in combatting cultural property crime. It explores the normative tensions and intersections between civil and criminal law and where they complement each other in the field. It focuses on innovative legal solutions to the unique challenges presented when facing a transnational form of crime that must consider varying structures of law and order, as well as a deep understanding of the heritage in question, both in past and the present cultures. The collection examines what both areas of law contribute to preventing cultural property crime from occurring, holding offenders responsible before the law, and returning objects to their rightful owners and/or places of origin. Combining the perspectives of academics and practitioners, the volume highlights voices from around the globe, using this range of experience to explore new ideas and applications of legal theory and practice to cases involving cultural property crimes.The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners in cultural property crime in the fields of criminology, law, archaeology, museum studies, political science, economics, and law enforcement.Paris and Her Cathedrals
By R. Howard Bloch. 2022
For history readers, travelers, and scholars alike, an indispensable behind-the-scenes guide to the great cathedrals of Paris. “So infectious is…
R. Howard Bloch’s passion for his subject that even those unable to do the traveling required will find in Paris and Her Cathedrals an inspiring guide to these time-hallowed masterpieces of medieval culture.” —Colin Jones, author of Paris and The Great Nation Over the years, R. Howard Bloch has become renowned for the insider tours of Paris that he gives to students abroad. Long sought after by travelers and history buffs for his near-encyclopedic knowledge of French cathedrals, the eminent French literature scholar finally shares his expertise with a wider audience. In Paris and Her Cathedrals, six of the most sublime cathedrals in the penumbra of Paris—Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Chartres, Sainte-Chapelle, Amiens, Reims—are illumined in magnificent detail as Bloch, taking us from the High Middle Ages to the devastating fire that set Notre-Dame ablaze in 2019, traces the evolution of each in turn. Written from the premise that “seeing is enhanced by knowing,” each chapter is organized along the lines of a walk around and then through the space of the cathedral, such that the actual or virtual visitor feels the rich sweep of the church, “the essence of these architectural wonders” (Antonia Felix). Animating the past with lush evocations of architectural splendor—from flying buttresses and jewel-encrusted shrines to hidden burial grounds and secret chambers—Bloch then contextualizes the cathedrals within the annals of French history. Here thrilling tales of kingly intrigue—as in Saint-Chapelle, where the pious King Louis IX amassed relics, including Christ’s crown of thorns—and audacious abbots are interspersed with anecdotes about the meeting of aristocratic and everyday life, culminating in “a rich, colorful narrative that clearly but expertly explains the history and symbolism of some of the world’s most magnificent buildings” (Ross King). To be read in preparation for an enlightened visit or merely to open a window upon the High Middle Ages in France, Paris and Her Cathedrals is a “revelation,” an “indispensable guide” (Garry Wills) to these awe-inspiring structures. Complete with the author’s own photographs, this beautifully illustrated volume vitally enhances our understanding of the history of Paris and its environs.1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
By Gavin Menzies. 2008
The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 offers another stunning reappraisal of history, presenting compelling new evidence that traces…
the roots of the European Renaissance to Chinese exploration in the fifteenth centuryThe brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434, China—then the world's most technologically advanced civilization—provided the spark that set the European Renaissance ablaze. From that date onward, Europeans embraced Chinese intellectual ideas, discoveries, and inventions, all of which form the basis of western civilization today.Florence and Venice of the early fifteenth century were hubs of world trade, attracting traders from across the globe. Based on years of research, this marvelous history argues that a Chinese fleet—official ambassadors of the emperor—arrived in Tuscany in 1434, where they were received by Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. The delegation presented the influential pope with a wealth of Chinese learning from a diverse range of fields: art, geography (including world maps that were passed on to Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan), astronomy, mathematics, printing, architecture, steel manufacturing, military weaponry, and more. This vast treasure trove of knowledge spread across Europe, igniting the legendary inventiveness of the Renaissance, including the work of such geniuses as da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo, and more.In 1434, Gavin Menzies combines this long-overdue historical reexamination with the excitement of an investigative adventure. He brings the reader aboard the remarkable Chinese fleet as it sails from China to Cairo and Florence, and then back across the world. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 will change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.By Myself and Then Some
By Lauren Bacall. 1978
The epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to project an audacious spirit and pursue on-screen excellence. The…
product of an extraordinary mother and a loving extended family, she produced, with Humphrey Bogart, some of the most electric and memorable scenes in movie history. After tragically losing Bogart, she returned to New York and a brilliant career in the theatre. A two-time Tony winner, she married and later divorced her second love, Jason Robards, and never lost sight of the strength that made her a star.Now, thirty years after the publication of her original National Book Award–winning memoir, Bacall has added new material to her inspiring history. In her own frank and beautiful words, one of our most enduring actresses reveals the remarkable true story of a lifetime so rich with incident and achievement that Hollywood itself would be unable to adequately reproduce it.Offering an alternative mode of visual cultural analysis to the prevalent discursive model, this book proposes to situate analysis of…
Image within ‘formal’ analyses of culture experience.Specifically, the discussion draws on theories of affective aesthetics with the view of addressing the sensual form of culture (i.e. ‘cultural form’). Therefore, the volume puts forward a mode of formalist analysis in visual cultural research which takes purchase on the idea of ‘cultural form’. A continuum of formalist attention between Image analysis (visual media, industrial design) and probing of ‘cultural forms’ establishes the theoretical underpinning of the book. These concepts are expounded through a case study which looks at formal experimentations and debates arising from 1960s avant-garde artistic practices in London.LO: Screendance Remixed (ISSN)
By Alanna Thain, Priscilla Guy. 2024
This edited collection assembles international perspectives from artists, academics, and curators in the field to bring the insights of screendance…
theory and practice back into conversations with critical methods, at the intersections of popular culture, low-tech media practices, dance, and movement studies, and the minoritarian perspectives of feminism, queer theory, critical race studies and more.This book represents new vectors in screendance studies, featuring contributions by both artists and theoreticians, some of the most established voices in the field as well as the next generation of emerging scholars, artists, and curators. It builds on the foundational cartographies of screendance studies that attempted to sketch out what was particular to this practice. Sampling and reworking established forms of inquiry, artistic practice and spectatorial habits, and suspending and reorienting gestures into minoritarian forms, these conversations consider the affordances of screendance for reimaging the relations of bodies, technologies, and media today.This collection will be of great interest to students and scholars in dance studies, performance studies, cinema and media studies, feminist studies, and cultural studies.Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night
By Jason Zinoman. 2017
New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman delivers the definitive story of the life and artistic legacy of David Letterman,…
the greatest television talk show host of all time and the signature comedic voice of a generation.In a career spanning more than thirty years, David Letterman redefined the modern talk show with an ironic comic style that transcended traditional television. While he remains one of the most famous stars in America, he is a remote, even reclusive, figure whose career is widely misunderstood. In Letterman, Jason Zinoman, the first comedy critic in the history of the New York Times, mixes groundbreaking reporting with unprecedented access and probing critical analysis to explain the unique entertainer’s titanic legacy. Moving from his early days in Indiana to his retirement, Zinoman goes behind the scenes of Letterman’s television career to illuminate the origins of his revolutionary comedy, its overlooked influences, and how his work intersects with and reveals his famously eccentric personality. Zinoman argues that Letterman had three great artistic periods, each distinct and part of his evolution. As he examines key broadcasting moments—"Stupid Pet Tricks" and other captivating segments that defined Late Night with David Letterman—he illuminates Letterman’s relationship to his writers, and in particular, the show’s co-creator, Merrill Markoe, with whom Letterman shared a long professional and personal connection.To understand popular culture today, it’s necessary to understand David Letterman. With this revealing biography, Zinoman offers a perceptive analysis of the man and the artist whose ironic voice and caustic meta-humor was critical to an entire generation of comedians and viewers—and whose singular style ushered in new tropes that have become clichés in comedy today.1963: How Youth Changed the World with Music, Fashion, and Art
By Robin Morgan, Ariel Leve. 2013
Beginning in London and ricocheting across the Atlantic, 1963: The Year of the Revolution is an oral history of twelve months that…
changed our world—the Youth Quake movement—and laid the foundations for the generation of today.Ariel Leve and Robin Morgan's oral history is the first book to recount the kinetic story of the twelve months that witnessed a demographic power shift—the rise of the Youth Quake movement, a cultural transformation through music, fashion, politics, theater, and film. Leve and Morgan detail how, for the first time in history, youth became a commercial and cultural force with the power to command the attention of government and religion and shape society.While the Cold War began to thaw, the race into space heated up, feminism and civil rights percolated in politics, and JFK’s assassination shocked the world, the Beatles and Bob Dylan would emerge as poster boys and the prophet of a revolution that changed the world.1963: The Year of the Revolution records, documentary-style, the incredible roller-coaster ride of those twelve months, told through the recollections of some of the period’s most influential figures—from Keith Richards to Mary Quant, Vidal Sassoon to Graham Nash, Alan Parker to Peter Frampton, Eric Clapton to Gay Talese, Stevie Nicks to Norma Kamali, and many more.