They All Laughed At Christopher Columbus

Author : Elizabeth Weil
Publisher : Bantam
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2010-10-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780307767196

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They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus by Elizabeth Weil Pdf

This is a classic American tale of dreams and obsession--the suspenseful, brilliantly written account of one eccentric man’s hunger to open space travel to us all: to let us rocket into orbit, return to earth, and soar yet again--thus transforming space travel forever. They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus Gary Hudson was seven years old when Sputnik flew, nineteen when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and all he ever wanted to do was to travel into space. Between 1970 and 1996 he founded and disbanded five separate rocket-building companies, none meeting with much success. Then, in 1997, at the age of forty-seven, he launched Rotary Rocket. His goal was to develop and build the Roton, the world’s first manned, single-stage-to-orbit, fully reusable spaceship, capable of shuttling ordinary people into orbit and back in a single day. Elizabeth Weil followed Gary for two years, and in this book she brings to vivid life a seductively--perhaps delusionally--optimistic world where science and science fiction meld and fuse, and where imagination and invention collide. In California’s bleak and windswept Mojave Desert, Gary assembled a fanatical, mismatched crew of engineers and technicians, and Weil bears witness to their Roton endeavor, from first conception to final test flight. The cast includes a pyromaniacal engineer, a world expert on composite airframes, two former Navy test pilots, Gary’s infinitely patient wife, a third-generation Mojave motel owner, and an enigmatic and resourceful financier. At their center shines Gary himself, a man eternally reflecting the glow of a better, lighter, higher world--a world that, despite his flaws and failures, he perpetually convinces us we’re all about to reach.

Author : Michael Feinstein
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012-10-16
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781476709420

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The Gershwins and Me (Enhanced Edition) by Michael Feinstein Pdf

This special enhanced eBook includes twelve Gershwin classics performed by Michael Feinstein and commentary from the author on the music and the lives of George and Ira Gershwin. From celebrated entertainer Michael Feinstein comes a beautifully illustrated account of the lives and legacies of the Gershwins—told through stories of twelve of their greatest songs. The “Ambassador of the Great American Songbook” Michael Feinstein was just twenty years old when he got the chance of a lifetime: a job with his hero, Ira Gershwin. During their six-year partnership, the two became close friends. Feinstein blossomed under Gershwin’s mentorship and Gershwin was reinvigorated by the younger man’s zeal for his and his brother George’s legacy. Now, in The Gershwins and Me, the only book of its kind, Michael Feinstein shares unforgettable stories and reminiscences from the music that defined American popular song, along with rare Gershwin memorabilia he’s collected through the years. From “Strike Up the Band” to “Love Is Here to Stay,” each of the twelve chapters highlights one of the Gershwins’ classic songs, exploring the brothers’ lives, illuminating what the music meant to them, and telling the stories of how their iconic tunes came to life. Throughout the star-studded narrative, Feinstein unfolds the moving chronicle of his own life with the Gershwins, describing his vision for their enduring presence today. No other writer could give us such an authoritative inside perspective on these titans of American culture—and no other writer could include such a soulful collection of music as Feinstein’s original recordings of the twelve songs. A timeless classic and the definitive account of the Gershwins and their legacy, The Gershwins and Me will having you humming with every turn of the page.

Author : Michael Feinstein,Ian Jackman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2012-10-16
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781451645309

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The Gershwins and Me by Michael Feinstein,Ian Jackman Pdf

Michael Feinstein was just 20 years old when he got the chance of a lifetime: a job with his hero, Ira Gershwin. During their six-year partnership, Feinstein blossomed under Gershwin's mentorship and Gershwin was reinvigorated by the younger man's zeal. Now, in The Gershwins and Me, Michael Feinstein shares unforgettable stories and reminiscences from the music that defined American popular song, along with rare Gershwin memorabilia he's collected through the years. Includes an accompanying CD packed with Feinstein's original recordings of 12 Gershwins' songs.

Author : Robert Gottlieb,Robert Kimball
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 738 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2000-11-21
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780375400810

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Reading Lyrics by Robert Gottlieb,Robert Kimball Pdf

A comprehensive anthology bringing together more than one thousand of the best American and English song lyrics of the twentieth century; an extraordinary celebration of a unique art form and an indispensable reference work and history that celebrates one of the twentieth century’s most enduring and cherished legacies. Reading Lyrics begins with the first masters of the colloquial phrase, including George M. Cohan (“Give My Regards to Broadway”), P. G. Wodehouse (“Till the Clouds Roll By”), and Irving Berlin, whose versatility and career span the period from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “Annie Get Your Gun” and beyond. The Broadway musical emerges as a distinct dramatic form in the 1920s and 1930s, its evolution propelled by a trio of lyricists—Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, and Lorenz Hart—whose explorations of the psychological and emotional nuances of falling in and out of love have lost none of their wit and sophistication. Their songs, including “Night and Day,” “The Man I Love,” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” have become standards performed and recorded by generation after generation of singers. The lure of Broadway and Hollywood and the performing genius of such artists as Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, Ethel Waters, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Ethel Merman inspired a remarkable array of talented writers, including Dorothy Fields (“A Fine Romance,” “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love”), Frank Loesser (“Guys and Dolls”), Oscar Hammerstein II (from the groundbreaking “Show Boat” of 1927 through his extraordinary collaboration with Richard Rodgers), Johnny Mercer, Yip Harburg, Andy Razaf, Noël Coward, and Stephen Sondheim. Reading Lyrics also celebrates the work of dozens of superb craftsmen whose songs remain known, but who today are themselves less known—writers like Haven Gillespie (whose “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” may be the most widely recorded song of its era); Herman Hupfeld (not only the composer/lyricist of “As Time Goes By” but also of “Are You Makin’ Any Money?” and “When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba”); the great light versifier Ogden Nash (“Speak Low,” “I’m a Stranger Here Myself,” and, yes, “The Sea-Gull and the Ea-Gull”); Don Raye (“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Mister Five by Five,” and, of course, “Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet”); Bobby Troup (“Route 66”); Billy Strayhorn (not only for the omnipresent “Lush Life” but for “Something to Live For” and “A Lonely Coed”); Peggy Lee (not only a superb singer but also an original and appealing lyricist); and the unique Dave Frishberg (“I’m Hip,” “Peel Me a Grape,” “Van Lingo Mungo”). The lyricists are presented chronologically, each introduced by a succinct biography and the incisive commentary of Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball.

Author : Deena Rosenberg
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0472084690

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Fascinating Rhythm by Deena Rosenberg Pdf

Offers special insight into some of the most popular songs of the twentieth century

Author : Steven Wilf
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 518 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351562669

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Intellectual Property Law and History by Steven Wilf Pdf

Intellectual property has become a dominant feature of our knowledge based economy in recent years, but how has property rights in intangible items developed? This book brings together for the first time exemplary scholarship with diverse approaches to the history of United States intellectual property protection, including trade secrets, trademark, copyright, and patent law. These articles, written by leading experts in the field and often challenging conventional narratives, underscore the importance of historical perspectives for understanding how an extensive, evolving framework for the regulation of knowledge emerged in the modern period. By tracing intellectual property from an historical perspective - not merely providing justifications in philosophy or economics in the abstract - this book draws upon the past to address contemporary debates over such varied topics as: access to knowledge; policing copyright infringement; whether employees should own the products of their minds; the role of national borders in an age of digital information; and the very future of intellectual property as stakeholders and consumers contest the extent of its legal protection.

Author : Reynold Levy
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2015-05-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781610393621

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They Told Me Not to Take that Job by Reynold Levy Pdf

When Reynold Levy became the new president of Lincoln Center in 2002, New York Magazine described the situation he walked in to as "a community in deep distress, riven by conflict." Ideas for the redevelopment of Lincoln Center's artistic facilities and public spaces required spending more than 1.2 billion, but there was no clear pathway for how to raise that kind of unprecedented sum. The individual resident organizations that were the key constituents of Lincoln Center -- the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard School, and eight others -- could not agree on a common capital plan or fundraising course of action. Instead, intramural rivalries and disputes filled the vacuum. Besides, some of those organizations had daunting problems of their own. Levy tells the inside story of the demise of the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera's need to use as collateral its iconic Chagall tapestries in the face of mounting operating losses, and the New York Philharmonic's dalliance with Carnegie Hall. Yet despite these and other challenges, Levy and the extraordinary civic leaders at his side were able to shape a consensus for the physical modernization of the sixteen-acre campus and raise the money necessary to maintain Lincoln Center as the country's most vibrant performing arts destination. By the time he left, Lincoln Center had prepared itself fully for the next generation of artists and audiences. They Told Me Not to Take That Job is more than a memoir of life at the heart of one of the world's most prominent cultural institutions. It is also a case study of leadership and management in action. How Levy and his colleagues triumphantly steered Lincoln Center -- through perhaps the most tumultuous decade of its history to a startling transformation -- is fully captured in his riveting account.

Author : Alistair Conquer,John Pymm
Publisher : Rhinegold Publishing Ltd
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2004-08
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9781904226291

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A Student's Guide to AS Performance Studies for the OCR Specification by Alistair Conquer,John Pymm Pdf

Author : H. J. P. Bergmeier,Rainer E. Lotz
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300067095

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Hitler's Airwaves by H. J. P. Bergmeier,Rainer E. Lotz Pdf

This is an account of the range, dexterity and ingenuity of Nazi public relations. In addition to obvious historical interest, this is the authors' complete discography of 500 commercial and propaganda recordings, with text of the insidious lyrics.

Author : Rafał Borysławski,Justyna Jajszczok,Jakub Wolff
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2016-08-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781443898546

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Histories of Laughter and Laughter in History by Rafał Borysławski,Justyna Jajszczok,Jakub Wolff Pdf

Laughter is often no laughing matter, and, as such, it deserves continued scholarly attention as a social, cultural and historical phenomenon. This collection of essays is a meeting ground for scholars from several disciplines, including historians, philologists, and scholars of social sciences, to discuss places and roles of laughter in history, in historical narratives, and in cultural anthropology from prehistory to the present. The common foci of the papers gathered in this volume are to examine laughter and its meanings, to reflect on the place of laughter in Western history and literature, to disclose laughter’s manipulative potential in historical and literary narratives, to see it in the light of the concepts of carnivalesque and playfulness, to see it as a reflection of hysterical historicizing, to see its place in comedy, farce, grotesque and irony, and to see it against its broadly understood theoretical, philosophical and psychological aspects. The book will appeal chiefly to an academic readership, including students, historians, literary and cultural scholars, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists.

Author : Ned Sherrin
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 574 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2008-09-25
Category : Humor
ISBN : 9780199237166

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Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations by Ned Sherrin Pdf

This hilarious collection of humorous quotations, full of wisecracks and wit, snappy comments and inspired fantasy, has been specially compiled by the late broadcaster and raconteur Ned Sherrin, with a foreword by leading British satirist, Alistair Beaton. Now packed with even more quotes and covering more subjects than before, from Weddings to the Supernatural, Australia to Headlines. Find the best lines from your favourite jokesters and wordsmiths, add that extra something to a speech or presentation, or just enjoy a good laugh. 'A chair is a piece of furniture. I am not a chair because no one has ever sat on me.' Ann Widdecombe on the announcement that Parliamentary language will now be gender-neutral. 'No wonder Bob Geldof is such an expert on famine. He's been feeding off 'I don't like Mondays' for 30 years.' Russell Brand On deciding to run for governor of California: 'The most difficult decision I've ever made in my entire life, except for the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.' Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Wanting to know an author because you like his work is like wanting to know a duck because you like p--acirc--;t--eacute--;.' Margaret Atwood 'I am so sorry. We have to stop there. I have just come to the end of my personality.' Quentin Crisp, closing down an interview

Author : David Bouchier
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2008-11-03
Category : Humor
ISBN : 9781462041770

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A Few Well Chosen Words by David Bouchier Pdf

David Bouchier brings humor and insight to the quirks and puzzles of everyday life, from buying vitamin pills to reading poetry on the subways. These entertaining commentaries were first broadcast on public radio stations in Long Island and Connecticut, where Bouchier's quirky and clever humor has made him the most popular public radio personality in the region. Every week for the past twelve years Bouchier has plucked a topic from the chaos of ordinary life and subjected it to his special brand of ironic scrutiny. Nothing is too small or too vast to attract his attention: stuffed bears, NASCAR racing, reincarnation, the federal tax system, and shopping in Florida all find a place in this spirited and funny collection of astute observations and whimsical opinions. A Few Well Chosen Words is the third collection of Bouchier's public radio commentaries on his life as an immigrant in America. Readers will relish his fresh approach to subjects like time and memory, the rituals that carry us through the year, our obsession with health and fitness, the horrors of travel, and the many annoyances of modern life.

Author : Mark W. Edwards
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2009-01-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781400824830

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Sound, Sense, and Rhythm by Mark W. Edwards Pdf

This book concerns the way we read--or rather, imagine we are listening to--ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Through clear and penetrating analysis Mark Edwards shows how an understanding of the effects of word order and meter is vital for appreciating the meaning of classical poetry, composed for listening audiences. The first of four chapters examines Homer's emphasis of certain words by their positioning; a passage from the Iliad is analyzed, and a poem of Tennyson illustrates English parallels. The second considers Homer's techniques of disguising the break in the narrative when changing a scene's location or characters, to maintain his audience's attention. In the third we learn, partly through an English translation matching the rhythm, how Aeschylus chose and adapted meters to arouse listeners' emotions. The final chapter examines how Latin poets, particularly Propertius, infused their language with ambiguities and multiple meanings. An appendix examines the use of classical meters by twentieth-century American and English poets. Based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 1998, this book will enrich the appreciation of classicists and their students for the immense possibilities of the languages they read, translate, and teach. Since the Greek and Latin quotations are translated into English, it will also be welcomed by non-classicists as an aid to understanding the enormous influence of ancient Greek and Latin poetry on modern Western literature.

Author : John Eliot, PhD
Publisher : Diversion Books
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2015-12-01
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 9781626819467

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Overachievement by John Eliot, PhD Pdf

Were you ever advised to "just relax" before making a big speech? Don’t. From Texas A&M professor and celebrity advisor, Dr. John Eliot, this insightful guide takes a sledgehammer to what most of us think we know about doing our best. Eliot explains how mainstream psychology moves us in the wrong direction when it comes to stress management and performance enhancement; techniques like visualization and goal setting, based on pseudoscience rather than empirical evidence, often get in our way rather than propel us forward. Drawing on field-tested experiments and extensive research in neuropsychology, Eliot shares why these “common sense” strategies tend to come up short for the majority of people—and how, instead, great accomplishments are more likely to result from "Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket", "Thinking Like a Squirrel", and "Embracing Butterflies As a Good Thing". These counterintuitive practices not only trigger your full natural talent, but also teach you how to thrive under pressure, not dread it. OVERACHIEVEMENT incorporates Eliot’s work with Fortune 500 companies, Olympic athletes, renowned surgeons, military pilots, and Grammy-winning musicians, providing you with a powerful combination of inspiring stories and life-changing tools, offering the skills needed to overcome stress and rise above your peers in the boardroom, on the playing field, or in the normal day-to-day of life.

Author : John Ingledew
Publisher : Laurence King Publishing
Page : 541 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2011-10-10
Category : Design
ISBN : 9781780674902

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The A-Z of Visual Ideas by John Ingledew Pdf

The A–Z of Visual Ideas explains the key ideas, sources of inspiration and visual techniques that have been used throughout design history. Showing where ideas and inspiration come from, the book provides numerous strategies to help unlock the reader’s creativity. Using a dynamic and easy-to-understand A–Z format, the book reveals techniques that can be exploited to deliver ideas with greater impact, each entry offering a different starting point. Looking at everything from, Art to Zeitgeist, Intuition and Instinct to Happy Accidents and Hidden Messages, the book also features a section explaining how to use the idea or technique, providing readers with an infallible ‘tool kit’ of inspiration. Including hundreds of inspirational quotes and packed with great examples of advertising campaigns, posters, book and magazine covers and illustrations, this is an indispensable primer that shows design students and professionals how to solve any creative brief.