The Eccentropedia

Author : Chris Mikul
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Page : 524 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2012-10-02
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781909394018

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The Eccentropedia by Chris Mikul Pdf

An A-Z of eccentrics! 250 true stories of the most original and outrageous people on earth, from bad poets to transsexual evolutionary theorists this encyclopedic guide covering ancient times to the present, includes reams of material never seen in book form before. Famous eccentrics like King Ludwig, Salvador Dalí and Howard Hughes rub shoulders with a host of lesser-known, but equally colorful, characters in these -- mostly -- life-affirming stories. There are unsuspected parallels and connections throughout creating an alternative, off-kilter history of the world.

Author : Chris Mikul
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2020-07-21
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781909394711

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My Favourite Dictators by Chris Mikul Pdf

“I’m personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets, but it’s what the people want.” — Saparmurat Niyazov, dictator of Turkmenistan Dictators may be among the worst people in history, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t laugh at them. In My Favourite Dictators, Chris Mikul tells the stories of eleven of the twentieth century’s most colourful and reviled human beings, including Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il. In each case, he examines the political backgrounds to their rise to power and eventual downfall, but the focus here is on the personalities, peculiarities and private lives of these very strange men. You’ll be amazed and appalled by their effortless cruelties, voracious sexual appetites, absurd personality cults, ostentatious uniforms, promotion of dreadful art and pretensions to being great writers – not to mention their terrible taste in interior decoration.

Author : Chris Mikul
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2018-07-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781909394490

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Bizarrism II by Chris Mikul Pdf

Bizarrism II collects further tales of high weirdness from around the world, including: • The curious death of Sherlock Holmes scholar Richard Lancelyn Green. • Baroness Eloise de Bosquet and the mystery of Floreana • The strange odyssey of William Seabrook – writer, adventurer, cannibal. • JLB Smith’s obsessive search for the coelacanth. • The cult that promised eternal life. • The unexpectedly appalling story of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and the American Atheists. • Leonard Lawson – comic book artist and killer. • Padre Pio, Italy’s celebrity stigmatic. • The strange fate of Napoleon’s penis and other illustrious male members. • Ferdinand Sauerbruch – the senile surgeon. • Murder and mayhem among the Hare Krishnas. • The enduring enigma of ‘Somerton Man’. Mikul brings these stories to life in meticulously researched accounts that will amuse, appal and intrigue, and leave you marvelling at the infinite strangeness of human beings.

Author : Chris Mikul
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781909394339

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Bizarrism Vol 1 by Chris Mikul Pdf

Bizarrism is a collection of strange-but-true tales, featuring a grand parade of eccentrics, visionaries, crackpots, cult leaders, artists, theorists and outsiders of every stripe. First published in 1999, this new, fully revised and expanded edition revisits a host of unique individuals, including: William Chidley, who believed that, when it comes to sex, we’ve all been making a terrible mistake; Arthur Cravan, who combined poetry with boxing; Slim Gaillard, jazz singer and dispenser of ‘vout’; William Lindsay Gresham, author of the classic noir novel Nightmare Alley; Rosaleen Norton, Australia’s most notorious witch; Harry Crosby, poet, sun worshipper and the best looking corpse of 1929; Reginal Levgiac, author of the mysterious pamphlet Drugs Virus Germs. In writing their stories, Mikul does not judge, but instead celebrates these characters for their fabulous weirdness. For him, they are the “beacons of shining if erratic brilliance in a world of sensible conformity”. The world would be a poorer place without them.

Author : Nancy West
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2020-11-27
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781538134481

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Masterpiece by Nancy West Pdf

"The definitive guide for scholars and fans alike to all things Masterpiece and Mystery!" Library Journal, Starred Review On a wintry night in 1971, Masterpiece Theatre debuted on PBS. Fifty years later, America’s appetite for British drama has never been bigger. The classic television program has brought its fans protagonists such as The Dowager Countess and Ross Poldark and series that include Downton Abbey and Prime Suspect. In Masterpiece: America's 50-Year-Old Love Affair with British Television Drama, Nancy West provides a fascinating history of the acclaimed program. West combines excerpts from original interviews, thoughtful commentary, and lush photography to deliver a deep exploration of the television drama. Vibrant stories and anecdotes about Masterpiece’s most colorful shows are peppered throughout, such as why Benedict Cumberbatch hates Downton Abbey and how screenwriter Daisy Goodwin created a teenage portrait of Queen Victoria after fighting with her daughter about homework. Featuring an array of color photos from Masterpiece’s best-loved dramas, this book offers a penetrating look into the program’s influence on television, publishing, fashion, and its millions of fans.

Author : Chris Mikul
Publisher : Headpress
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Alternative lifestyles
ISBN : 1900486067

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Bizarrism by Chris Mikul Pdf

A funny and entertaining look at outlandish ideas, wacky religious cults and the extremes of human beliefs, both in Australia and overseas. It is a celebration of strange and eccentric lives, with an emphasis on unsung Australian eccentrics, bringing together the best ten years of "Bizarrism" magazine.

Author : Hannah Hightman
Publisher : Blurb Inc.
Page : 24 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781389027079

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Never Be Sane by Hannah Hightman Pdf

Never Be Sane is a monograph focusing on young people who did something different with their youth, despite adolescence usually being the time when people begin to become what society wants them to be. This book profiles the antics and accomplishments of 18 people during their teens/youth (including Tavi Gevinson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Aaron Swartz, Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, and Akiane Kramarik) in an effort to promote individuality in the face of conformity. It features brief excerpts on each person with accompanying visuals and ink sketches.

Author : E.L. Doctorow
Publisher : Random House
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2009-09-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781588368973

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Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow Pdf

“Beautiful and haunting . . . one of literature’s most unlikely picaresques, a road novel in which the rogue heroes can’t seem to leave home.”—The Boston Globe SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • Booklist Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers—the one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness, or perhaps greatness, by mustard gas in the Great War. They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, scavenging the city streets for things they think they can use, hoarding the daily newspapers as research for Langley’s proposed dateless newspaper whose reportage will be as prophecy. Yet the epic events of the century play out in the lives of the two brothers—wars, political movements, technological advances—and even though they want nothing more than to shut out the world, history seems to pass through their cluttered house in the persons of immigrants, prostitutes, society women, government agents, gangsters, jazz musicians . . . and their housebound lives are fraught with odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves. Praise for Homer & Langley “Masterly.”—The New York Times Book Review “Doctorow paints on a sweeping historical canvas, imagining the Collyer brothers as witness to the aspirations and transgressions of 20th century America; yet this book’s most powerfully moving moments are the quiet ones, when the brothers relish a breath of cool morning air, and each other’s tragically exclusive company.”— O: The Oprah Magazine “A stately, beautiful performance with great resonance . . . What makes this novel so striking is that it joins both blindness and insight, the sensual world and the world of the mind, to tell a story about the unfolding of modern American life that we have never heard in exactly this (austere and lovely) way before.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Wondrous . . . inspired . . . darkly visionary and surprisingly funny.” —The New York Review of Books “Cunningly panoramic . . . Doctorow has packed this tale with episodes of existential wonder that cpature the brothers in all their fascinating wackiness.”—Elle

Author : Mick Farren
Publisher : SCB Distributors
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-17
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9781909394001

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Elvis Died For Somebody's Sins But Not Mine by Mick Farren Pdf

You cannot believe a word Mick Farren tells you!” John Lydon A literary life railing against the machine, in the company of Johnny Cash, Frank Zappa, Chuck Berry and more. Mick Farren has spent more than 4 decades in the thick of the culture wars as a commentator, activist, essayist, poet, performer, and rebel with multiple causes. A founding figure of the 60s underground press, he careered on through the London birth pangs of punk, the intoxicated madness of Lower Manhattan under Ronald Reagan, earthquakes and urban insurrection in LA. Here you'll meet Frank Zappa, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and Gore Vidal, and steam open correspondence between the author and Pete Townshend.

Author : William McGonagall
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1979-09
Category : Electronic
ISBN : UCSC:32106005319733

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The World's Worst Poet by William McGonagall Pdf

Author : June-Alison Gibbons
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2023-05-30
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781913689728

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The Pepsi Cola Addict by June-Alison Gibbons Pdf

The legendary lost novel in which fourteen-year-old Preston Wildey-King must choose between his all-consuming passion for Pepsi Cola and his love for schoolmate Peggy. "He walked into the turbulent super market. There were people everywhere. His eyes swept over the shelves and stabilised on a large stack of Pepsi-colas. He could almost experience the cool fizzy liquid descending his parched throat." Written by June-Alison Gibbons when she was only 16, The Pepsi Cola Addict is considered one of the great works of twentieth-century outsider literature. More than just a literary curiosity, however, this tale of a teenager whose passion for a well-known cola drink threatens to ruin his life is the uniquely vivid expression of a young woman trying to make sense of the confusing, often brutal world she in which found herself. Published in 1982 by a vanity press who took £800 from its young author and gave her only a single book in return, it's thought that fewer than ten original copies still exist in the world. Shortly after its publication, June-Alison and her sister Jennifer would become infamous as "The Silent Twins" and find themselves cruelly incarcerated for over a decade in Broadmoor Hospital. This author-approved edition makes June-Alison Gibbon's remarkable vision widely available for the first time.

Author : Tom Crites
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-06-09
Category : Art
ISBN : 1909394300

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Crites' Coloring Book by Tom Crites Pdf

A talented artist with a thirst for music and literature, Tom Crites self-published zines and contributed to the small press for over two decades. He designed album covers and t-shirts, but also created art simply because he loved to do it, often leaving his work in public places for others to find. Throughout all of this, Tom struggled with mental health issues. In August 2013, at the age of forty-five, he committed suicide. The artworks collected here were produced by Tom over many years and are representative of his unique and largely unsung talent. Some pieces were drawn at home in his apartment, watching films he would later review for zines or online; others he sketched whilst in hospital. All are suitable for framing. Be forewarned: There are no 'mindfulness mandalas' here, no kitsch exotic flowers to relieve the stresses of your desk job. Here is a darker beauty: macabre mysticism, human-animal hybrids, hallucinatory patterns, a melding of the sublime and the horrific. The works contained in this book are evidence of a symbolic anthropology and they embody the creative spirit that carried Tom through much of his life. Do not colour them lightly.

Author : David Kerekes
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Art
ISBN : 1900486229

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Headpress - Powered by Love by David Kerekes Pdf

The 24th edition of Headpress features an exclusive in-depth interview with John Stagliano - the man known the world over as 'Buttman', with Laurence O'Toole, author of 'Pornucopia', as well as much, much more.

Author : Sally Wright Cobb,Mark Willems
Publisher : Rizzoli International Publications
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Beverly Hills (Calif.)
ISBN : 0847819256

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The Brown Derby Restaurant by Sally Wright Cobb,Mark Willems Pdf

Features photographs and anecdotes from the famous Hollywood Brown Derby during its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, and includes many of the restaurant's recipes.

Author : David Kerekes
Publisher : Critical Vision
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2000-11-19
Category : Popular culture
ISBN : 1900486016

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Headpress by David Kerekes Pdf

The leading journal devoted to all aspects of popular culture and cult media, "Headpress 25 "turns its attention to the Dream, or Flicker, machine. On this subject, it features interviews with William Burroughs-following a chance meeting at a bus stop by writers Johnny Strike and Gregory Daurer-and Paul Bowles. The cover is a striking oil painting of Burroughs in Tangiers. "Headpress 25 "also includes a detailed look at the neglected life and career of the late Luis de Jesus, a "star" of diminutive stature whose film appearances range from sadistic sidekick in the cult 1976 feature, "Blood Sucking Freaks," to numerous hardcore porn features, of which the most notorious is "The Anal Dwarf,"