Too often we treat popular music as wallpaper surrounding us as we live our lives. Jude Rogers shows the emotional and cerebral heft such music can have. It's a personal journey which becomes universal. Fascinating' Ian Rankin 'Moving and absorbing, The Sound of Being Human mixes memoir, analysis, anecdote and personal chronicle into a mosaic that evokes what music means to the individual and the human tribe. A candid, beautiful read' Stuart Maconie The Sound of Being Human explores, in detail, why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last days. At its heart is Jude's own story: how songs helped her wrestle with the grief of losing her father at age five; concoct her own sense of self as a lonely adolescent; sky-rocket her relationships, both real and imagined, in the flushes of early womanhood, propel her own journey into working life, adulthood and parenthood, and look to the future. Shaped around twelve songs, ranging from ABBA's 'Super Trouper' to Neneh Cherry's 'Buffalo Stance', Kraftwerk's 'Radioactivity' to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' 'Heat Wave', the book combines memoir and historical, scientific and cultural enquiry to show how music can shape different versions of ourselves; how we rely upon music for comfort, for epiphanies, and for sexual and physical connection; how we grow with songs, and songs grow inside us, helping us come to terms with grief, getting older and powerful memories. It is about music's power to help us tell our own stories, whatever they are, and make them sing.
It’s December 24th, 1999. Byron Easy, a poverty-stricken poet, half-drunk and suicidal, sits on a train at King’s Cross Station waiting to depart. In his lap is a backpack containing his remaining worldly goods—an empty wine bottle, a few books, a handful of crumpled banknotes. As the journey commences, he conjures memories (both painful and euphoric) of the recent past, of his rollercoaster London life, and, most distressingly, of Mandy—his half-Spanish Amazonian wife—in an attempt to make sense of his terrible—and ordinary—predicament. What has led him to this point? Where are his friends, his family, his wife? What has happened to his dreams? And what disturbing plan awaits him at the end of his journey? Byron Easy is an epic, baroque, sprawling masterpiece of a novel—a unique portrait of love and marriage, of the flux of memory, and of England in the dying days of the twentieth century from a young British writer of exceptional promise.
Cocaine Hoppers provides empirical evidence to explain the involvement of Nigerians in the global cocaine trade. Investigating the criminogenic environment created by the Nigerian ‘state crisis,’ Oboh traces the geographic, demographic, economic, historical, political, and cultural factors enhancing cocaine culture in Nigeria. Based on years of research, Oboh reveals this social network that relies on “reverse social capital” wherein wealth and power are achieved through illegal means solely to benefit the individual. This lively, theoretically grounded study examines the new trend of traffickers dominating the illicit cocaine trade through West Africa to destinations across the globe to provide an account of Nigerian involvement in international drug trafficking as it has never been divulged before. This book will be appreciated by criminologists, social scientists, policymakers, drug researchers and organized crime scholars. And eagerly be read by those interested in Nigeria, and problems of African immigrants, and in the international drug trafficking.
The collected writings of cult English artist and rock musician Jude Rawlins, including extensive liner notes and specially written anecdotes and biographical details.
As if recovering from a raucous dream of the 1960s, Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek arrived on 1970s American radio with a sound that echoed disenchanted hearts of young people everywhere. The three American boys had named their band after a country they’d watched and dreamt of from their London childhood Air Force base homes. What was this country? This new band? Classic and timeless, America embodied the dreams of a nation desperate to emerge from the desert and finally give their horse a name. Celebrating the band’s fiftieth anniversary, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell share stories of growing up, growing together, and growing older. Journalist Jude Warne weaves original interviews with Beckley, Bunnell, and many others into a dynamic cultural history of America, the band, and America, the nation. Reliving hits like “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” and of course, “A Horse with No Name” from their 19 studio albums and incomparable live recordings, this book offers readers a new appreciation of what makes some music unforgettable and timeless. As America’s music stays in rhythm with the heartbeats of its millions of fans, new fans feel the draw of a familiar emotion. They’ve felt it before in their hearts and thanks to America, they can now hear it, share it, and sing along.
This book is a collection of poems, long and short, covering a variety of topics, some sad, some heartwarming, some about cats, about heartbreak, about trauma. This book is to be used as a tool to lift your spirits and is best read by moonlight.
For Peter Fox, being a bowling alley proprietor was a calling. Right from the beginning, the Upstate New York village of Koopersville embraced Peter's glistening new bowling alley with its modern automatic pinsetters, and Koopersville Bowl quickly became the heart and soul of the village. Peter's dream business opened in 1962, and year after year, the bowling alley was the place where the trials and tribulations of growing up in a small New England town were transformed into the dreams and hopes of the future. Anything was possible at Koopersville Bowl. But one day Peter Fox died, and the village stopped breathing. The moral fabric of the entire community broke, yet Peter's extended family tried to adjust to their loss. As Peter's eldest son, Paul Fox knew it was his duty to help his mother carry on; what's more, it was what his father would have wanted. And that's exactly what he did. Even so, sometimes unexpected things do happen. In the game of bowling there is only one way to salvage your score, and that is to throw strikes. Perfect games are hard to come by. But in life, as Paul soon finds out, there are always new beginnings, new games to be played, and old memories that can never be taken away.
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