Madonna

Madonna
Author: Caroline Sullivan
Publisher: Carlton Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-02-05
Genre: Singers
ISBN: 9781787391796

Written by acclaimed music journalist Caroline Sullivan, this in-depth, lavishly illustrated exploration of Madonna examines the superstar's music, style, and cultural influence. Madonna is the top-selling female recording artist of all time, and a fearless, boundary-pushing artist who constantly reinvents herself and her music. Updated to include Rebel Heart, this authoritative illustrated book examines all 13 of Madonna's studio albums in fine detail, placing each in context and charting the trendsetting musician's influence on fashion and popular culture. Covering every hit record and era-defining image, and featuring a wealth of rare and iconic photographs, Madonna takes a unique look at the legendary star's extraordinary output.

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983
Author: Tim Lawrence
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0822373920

As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, New York's party scene entered a ferociously inventive period characterized by its creativity, intensity, and hybridity. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor chronicles this tumultuous time, charting the sonic and social eruptions that took place in the city’s subterranean party venues as well as the way they cultivated breakthrough movements in art, performance, video, and film. Interviewing DJs, party hosts, producers, musicians, artists, and dancers, Tim Lawrence illustrates how the relatively discrete post-disco, post-punk, and hip hop scenes became marked by their level of plurality, interaction, and convergence. He also explains how the shifting urban landscape of New York supported the cultural renaissance before gentrification, Reaganomics, corporate intrusion, and the spread of AIDS brought this gritty and protean time and place in American culture to a troubled denouement.

Madonna Confessions

Madonna Confessions
Author: Guy Oseary
Publisher: powerHouse Books
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2008-10-07
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9781576874813

In conjunction with this summer's most talked about concert, Madonna's highly anticipated "Sticky and Sweet" Tour, powerHouse Books will release Madonna Confessions, the official book of quintessential images taken by über-manager Guy Oseary during the course of over 50 performances around the world during the Material Girl's sold out 2006 Confessions Tour. With over 250 never-before-seen images, the book showcases various provocative themes from that show including an iconographic equestrian opening to an urban Bedouin segment and on to glam punk and disco fever. The photographs celebrate what the New York Times called "the sheer spectacularity of her physical form" along with show stopping highlights and groundbreaking staging. Oseary, who is also Madonna's manager and has worked with her for the past twenty years, traveled with the artist and was given unprecedented access to each performance. As a result, the photographs in Madonna Confessions capture the essence, sheer energy, and excitement that came alive onstage every night. The photographs were each lovingly handpicked by Oseary and Madonna and are interspersed with quotes from Madonna. Long considered one of the most exciting live performers of our era, Madonna Confessions is a visual delight that highlights the multi-Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee's astounding career. "powerHouse is delighted to collaborate with one of the world's greatest live performers; Guy Oseary's exclusive access to each night's Confessions show allowed him the opportunity to capture unparalleled iconic moments in live performance photography. The intimacy and the sweep of the work put you front row center of an incredible experience." -Daniel Power, CEO of powerHouse Books.

Clubland

Clubland
Author: Frank Owen
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2004-06-08
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0767917359

Outrageous parties. Brazen drug use. Fantastical costumes. Celebrities. Wannabes. Gender-bending club kids. Pulse-pounding beats. Sinful orgies. Botched police raids. Depraved criminals. Murder. Welcome to the decadent nineties club scene. In 1995, journalist Frank Owen began researching a story on Special K, a designer drug that fueled the after-midnight club scene. He went to buy and sample the drug at the internationally notorious Limelight, a crumbling church converted into a Manhattan disco, where mesmerizing music, ecstatic dancers, and uninhibited sideshows attracted long lines of hopeful onlookers. Owen discovered a world where reckless hedonism was elevated to an art form, and where the ever-accelerating party finally spun out of control in the hands of notorious club owner Peter Gatien and his minions. In Clubland, Owen reveals how a lethal drug ring operated in a lawless, black-lit realm of fantasy, and how, when the lights came up, their excesses left countless victims in their wake. Praised for his risk-taking and exhilarating writing style, Frank Owen has spawned a hybrid of literary nonfiction and true crime, capturing the zeitgeist of a world that emerged in the spirit of “peace, love, unity and respect,” and ended in tragedy.

And the Category Is.

And the Category Is.
Author: Ricky Tucker
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0807003484

A 2023 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Nonfiction An Electric Literature “Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2022” Selection A love letter to the legendary Black and Latinx LGBTQ underground subculture, uncovering its abundant legacy and influence in popular culture. What is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations. Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. With each chapter framed as a “category” (Vogue, Realness, Body, et al.), And the Category Is . . . offers an impressionistic point of entry into this subculture, its deeply integrated history, and how it’s been appropriated for mainstream audiences. Each category features an exclusive interview with fierce LGBTQ/POC Ballroom members—Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and more—whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category. At the height of public intrigue and awareness about Ballroom, thanks to TV shows like FX’s Pose, Tucker’s compelling narratives help us understand its relevance in pop culture, dance, public policy with regard to queer communities, and so much more. Welcome to the norm-defying realness of Ballroom.

Jivamukti Yoga

Jivamukti Yoga
Author: Sharon Gannon
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-04-06
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0307486648

The long-awaited, complete guide to the popular, vigorous American method of yoga that is deeply rooted in ancient wisdom and scriptures “In this day and age of health and fitness trends, it is assuring to know that Sharon and David encourage their students to draw inspiration from the classical texts of Yoga and timeless scriptural sources. ”—Sri Swami Satchidananda Creators of the extremely popular Jivamukti Yoga method and cofounders of the New York City studios where it is taught, Sharon Gannon and David Life present their unique style of yoga for the first time in book form. As they explain their intensely physical and spiritual system of flowing postures, they provide inspiring expert instruction to guide you in your practice. Unlike many books about yoga, Jivamukti Yoga focuses not only on the physical postures but also on how they evolved—the origins of the practices in yoga’s ancient sacred texts and five-thousand-year-old traditions—the psychotherapeutic benefits that accrue with a steady practice, and the spiritual power that is set free when energy flows throughout the mind and body. Jivamukti Yoga, which means “soul liberation,” guides your body and soul into spiritual freedom, physical strength, peace of mind, better health, and Self-realization–the ultimate goal of any practice. Gannon and Life help you understand each of the practices that comprise the yoga path to enlightenment: AHIMSA–The Way of Compassion: choosing nonviolence, respecting all life, practicing vegetarianism, living free of prejudice ASANA–The Way of Connection to the Earth: postures and sequences, breathing, transforming energy, understanding the bandhas KARMA–The Way of Action: creating good karma, giving thanks NADAM–The Way of Sacred Music: appreciating the sacred sounds of yoga MEDITATION–The Way of the Witness: how to sit still and move inward BHAKTI–The Way of Devotion to God: living with love, grace, and peace Whatever yoga you practice, Jivamukti Yoga will help you to strengthen and deepen that practice and lead you onto a path of spiritual clarity and self-discovery. “If there is only one book you read about the practice of Yoga, this should be the one. . . . This book is for anyone who wishes to find transformation through Yoga. I’m grateful for their work and teaching.”—Stephan Rechtschaffen, MD, Co-founder & CEO, Omega Institute

Rhythm is The Cure

Rhythm is The Cure
Author: Alessandra Belloni
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2015-07-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1619115174

This book with online video (111 min.) will introduce the reader to the tambourine and folk dance tradition of Southern Italy, the Tarantella. Students will learn the techniques of Tarantella tambourine playing as well as the history of this ancient tradition. This book reflects 25 years of field research and performance by the author, Alessandra Belloni

The Cult of Smart

The Cult of Smart
Author: Fredrik deBoer
Publisher: All Points Books
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1250200385

Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.