Before Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Julius Erving, or Michael Jordan––before Magic Johnson and Showtime––the Harlem Globetrotters revolutionized basketball and spread the game around the world. In Spinning the Globe, author Ben Green tells the story of this extraordinary franchise and iconic American institution. We follow the Globetrotters' rise from backwoods obscurity during the harsh years of the Great Depression to become the best basketball team in the country and, by the early 1950s, the most popular sports franchise in the world. Green brings to life their struggles with racism and segregation, and their influence upon a nation's views about race and sport. We witness the Globetrotters' fall from grace to the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and their ultimate rebirth under Mannie Jackson today, as they once again amaze kids and families around the world. Now in paperback, this is the true and complete story of their amazing eighty years as a team, told with lyrical prose and masterful storytelling by Ben Green.
Peak music experiences are a recurring feature of popular music journalism, biography and fan culture, where they are often credited as pivotal in people’s relationships with music and in their lives more generally. Ben Green investigates the phenomenon from a social and cultural perspective, including discussions of peak music experiences as sources of inspiration and influence; as a core motivation for ongoing musical and social activity; the significance of live music experiences; and the key role of peak music experiences in defining and perpetuating music scenes. The book draws from both global media analysis and situated ethnographic research in the dance, hip hop, indie and rock ‘n’ roll music scenes of Brisbane, Australia, including participant observation and in-depth interviews. These case studies demonstrate the methodological value of peak music experiences as a lens through which to understand individual and collective musical life. The theoretical analysis is interwoven with selected interview data, illuminating the profound and everyday ways that music informs people’s lives. The book will therefore be of interest to the interdisciplinary field of popular music studies as well as sociology and cultural studies beyond the study of music.
Released in 1996, Kitten Licks catapulted Brisbane indie-rock three-piece Screamfeeder into the '90s alternative-rock boom alongside Powderfinger, silverchair, You Am I and Regurgitator. International tours, regular festival shows, and TV appearances followed. And yet, commercial success for Screamfeeder was comparatively short-lived. By the end of the decade, the band's outlook was bleak: at a career standstill and unable to record new music. Today, both Screamfeeder and Kitten Licks endure as fiercely loved cult icons. In its vitality and idiosyncrasy, Kitten Licks captures a moment of cresting change for a band, a city and a national scene, while continuing to delight and inspire those who discover it anew. This book tells the story of Kitten Licks in the words of those who lived it, and who still do. How it was made, how it was swept up into '90s mythology and what the journey tells us about the fickle nature of music production in Australia, namely: how to survive it.
Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.
Clayson Spangler navigates the wreckage of a strange underground world threatened by nuclear magic and his family’s secrets. I turned fourteen a couple of days ago—maybe. Dad keeps the exact date under a mountain of secrets. On a tranquil evening in the Appalachians, my solitary life crashes into Dad's impossible past: a kingdom under the Rocky Mountains; his wife enchanted to forget her own son; strange metal objects filled with magic; and Dad's most dangerous secret—mithrium—a metal strong enough to level cities. Now, Dad is on the run, Mom is on trial for treason, and I'm ordered to hide in the last remaining safehold—Tungsten City. To stay out of danger, I'll need help from my new mentor, Rugnus, a master of the elements, and Andalynn, the sister Dad kept hidden from me. After years of secrets, I won’t stand by as a world of enemies—both known and unknown—threatens to eradicate my family and ignite a war between the last two cities deep under the Rockies in the Kingdom of Rimduum. Don't let this shimmering world of neon stay only in your dreams. Order now to enter this immersive world!
We are facing planet-sized challenges. Climate change and environmental crises can be pretty immobilizing, and we can fall into the temptation of thinking that we can't make a difference. But it's not just about what we can do on our own to make a difference. It's about what we can do when we mobilize together as a movement and combine for community action. Activist Ben Lowe calls the present generation to come together and care for the earth in a way that recent generations have not. Telling real-life stories of community organizing on college campuses across the nation, Lowe shows us that little things can make a big difference when we all work together. We now have an opportunity to show the world what it looks like when Christians care for the planet God gave us, so that future generations can live sustainably. This is our moment. This is our issue. Come join the green revolution.
In Jim Crow-era Florida, a young black man's courageous fight for equal rights ends in a personal tragedy that remains unsolved to this day, as Green reveals in the untold story of Harry T. Moore, America's first civil rights martyr.
In the inimitable yarn-spinning fashion of Horse Tradin’ and Wild Cow Tales, Ben K. (Doc) Green now takes us back with him to the deep Southwest and the never-a-dull-moment years he spent as practicing horse doctor—working out of Fort Stockton, Texas—along the Pecos and the Rio Grande, in one of the last big “horse countries” of North America. With precious little formal schooling, but with a perfect (if sometimes profane) corralside manner and plenty of natural wit, Doc became the first to hang up a shingle out there in the trans-Pecos country. And he didn’t start small! The territory he had for his practice was 420 miles north and south by 360 miles east and west. And he covered that territory by all means known to man—shank’s mare, horseback, buckboard, and (his standby for long hauls) a beat-up old coupe on whose body panels he kept his books in chalk. To go with Doc on his rounds, visiting his “patients,” is a nostalgic and hilarious journey into a spacious yesterday—and a liberal education in the kind of horse and cow savvy of which precious little remains in the modern world. As a horseman it was a savvy he came by naturally. But perhaps he learned most from his own research: his own book on horse confirmation, privately published in several printings, is still a bible among practical horsemen; his research in his own laboratory on horse colors and pigmentation has made him an expert on what makes a “strawberry roan” or a “coyote dun.” But the meat of Ben Green’s books is in his yarns. To hear him tell the tales of his struggles with mean and friendly stockmen, yellowweed fever, banditos, poison hay, and “drouth”—to say nothing of his canny mix of science and horse sense when treating animals “that ain’t house pets”—is a 100-proof old-time pleasure.
Senior multimedia producer at the Guardian, Ben Green, tells you everything you need to know about podcasting. Ben Green has been podcasting for over a decade. He has been responsible for several top podcasts, including Football Weekly, the UK's number one sports podcast,and the Guardian Guide to Running podcast. In Podcast Master, he provides a one-stop insider’s guide to everything you need to know about hosting, editing and producing online shows. It is packed with recommendations to help you get the right software and gear, advice on sponsorship and advertising, and tips on everything from platform selection to promotional artwork design. Green’s enthusiasm for the medium’s breadth and depth is infectious. With wit and verve, he takes us through the history of podcasting, shares his recommendations for the podcasts you should be listening to, and reveals proven techniques for reaching and building your audience. Whether you're broadcasting from your bedroom, or are a brand looking to enhance your profile, this authoritative, easy to follow and cutting-edge guide will give you the tools to start a podcast from scratch – or maximise your current one.
In this new and entirely revised edition of his study of Green's theory of positive freedom, Ben Wempe argues that the far-reaching and beneficial influence of Green's political doctrine, on public policy as well as in the field of political theory, was founded on a misinterpretation of his philosophical stand, since the metaphysical basis on which Green argued for his political position was largely neglected. The book discusses Green's philosophical development and examines an important, hitherto underrated, influence that went into the formation of his philosophical opinions. It then considers Green's metaphysics and describes how some omissions from the concise version of his metaphysical doctrine, as it is found in his published works, may be remedied by reference to Green's unpublished material.
From the same corral that produced the widely loved Horse Tradin’, Ben “Doc” Green has rounded up fifteen new yarns filled with the ornery yet irresistible “con” that has branded Doc’s books as classics of Western Americana. Some More Horse Tradin’ recounts the go-arounds of Doc and a whole slew of craggy old-timers and rangy characters, including a watermelon hauler “who has a bit of snuff that seeps out a little on his whiskers,” Professor Know-It-All, the “charitable” Mr. Undertaker, and the well-known public cowboy Will Rogers. See all of them matching their wiles and hear a lot of palaver, dealin’ and tradin’ for well-bred usin’-type mares, snorty-like range horses, and even used-to-be bad horses from the tumbleweeded plains of Texas to the mountain meadows of Yankee Vermont. Watch the Doc stretch a city ordinance with a frustrated lawman in “The Last Trail Drive Through Downtown Dallas” and admire the old-time knavery, skill, and salesmanship in such tales as “Gittin’ Even,” “Brethren Horse Traders,” “Mule Schoolin’,” and “Water Treatment and the Sore-Tailed Bronc.” So here you go—with Doc Green and his horse-tradin’ West in finest fettle. As he puts it himself, “These apples come from the same barrel as Horse Tradin’ but they ain’t none of them spotty.”
The Green Day story is very blunt: three school friends grow up together in a cluster of small blue-collar Californian towns, form a band ... and sell more than fifty million albums. Except it wasn't that simple. Self-confessed latch-key children, theirs is far from an easy ride. Inspired by both the energy of British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks and cult American bands such as Dead Kennedys and Operation Ivy, Green Day formed in 1989 when all three members were still at school. Against a backdrop of dodgy glam rock revivalists and mainstream rock-pop, the trio were quickly selling out every underground club that booked them. They toured - constantly. Word spread, fast.Their 1994 major label debut Dookie was a 10-million-selling worldwide smash hit that seized the zeitgest at a time when American rock music was still reeling from the death of Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain. With the arrival of Green Day, suddenly music was dumb, fun, upbeat and colourful again. Many now credit Green Day with saving rock from the hands of a hundred grunge-lite bands. Punk was back on the agenda.In 2004 Green Day reached a career pinnacle with the concept album American Idiot, a sophisticated commentary on modern life - not least dissatisfaction with their president and America's continued cultural and economical imperialism. With American Idiot, Green Day boldly went where few others have dared and as such have extended their fanbase even further - from pre-teen kids to previously sceptical critics. This book is the world's first full biography on Green Day. An authority on punk and hardcore, author Ben Myers charts the band members' difficult childhoods, the context of the band within the US and world punk scene and their glittering rise to success. The author has also interviewed the band for various magazines at different stages of their career, including in the midst of a riot in Los Angeles during the making of 2000's Warning album.Green Day is the biggest punk band in the world.This is how it happened...Unofficial and unauthorised
It was the "late days of the Depression", times were hard and money scarce, and Ben Green "had about used up all the hard ways to make a living a-horseback". So when he heard talk of the wild mustangs free for the taking in the Big Bend country of West Texas, he saddled a road horse, put his camp on a pack horse, and headed west from Weatherford, Texas. Ben recounts his tale at an easy lope, through hot days and cold nights, with dashes of danger along the way.
On the twentieth anniversary of the Coen brothers' cult classic film, the ultimate fan's guide to The Big Lebowski, with a foreword by the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, and a new afterword by writer and film critic Daphne Merkin. When it was first released in 1998, The Big Lebowski flopped at the box office. Twenty years later, the movie has developed a massive, passionate, and cross-generational cult following of Lebowski fans (a.k.a. Achievers), who yearly coalesce around Lebowski Fest, the film-screening/party where bowling pins tumble, costumes abound, and White Russians are the official drink of choice--"kind of a 'Star Trek' convention, but without all the geeks"(Associated Press). Written by the Founding Dudes of Lebowski Fest--and with a foreword by El Duderino himself, Jeff Bridges--this new edition of I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski also features contemporary reflections on the movie by acclaimed writer and former New Yorker film critic Daphne Merkin. This is the fan book to tie every Achiever's room together, a treasure trove of trivia and commentary, illustrations, photos, interviews with every major cast member (plus the real-life inspirations for the Coen-created characters), highlights from the Fest, a handy Achiever translation guide, and tips on how to Dude-ify your life. I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski is a raucous and hilarious celebration of the greatest film ever made (condolences, Citizen Kane) and of the glorious revelry that continues in its two-decade wake.
The follow up to last season’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly blog compilation from The LFC File. This edition charts the 2019/20 season when, after 30 years, Liverpool Football Club were finally successful in their bid to win England’s top football league. Follow the week-by-week ups and downs of the world’s favourite football club in this historic season. Each gameweek is covered where the good, the bad and the ugly along with exerts from relevant Tweets for each story, describe this landmark campaign. A humorous ‘warts and all’ diary from a fan for the fans.
Ben Wempe argues that the far-reaching and beneficial influence of Green's political doctrine, on public policy as well as in the field of political theory, was founded on a misinterpretation of his philosophical stand. The book discusses Green's philosophical development.
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