In this young adult autobiography, Tony Hawk shares the stories from his life that have helped him become a skateboarding hero. Hawk speaks of being a super-competitive 'demon' child who found peace while on a skateboard. Classmates teased him because of his interest in an 'uncool' sport. Instead of retaliating with violence, he practiced even more. With his story, he will inspire a younger generation of fans to stand up for what they believe in and follow their dreams.
For Tony Hawk, it wasn't enough to skate for two decades, to invent more than eighty tricks, and to win more than twice as many professional contests as any other skater.It wasn't enough to knock himself unconscious more than ten times, fracture several ribs, break his elbow, knock out his teeth twice, compress the vertebrae in his back, pop his bursa sack, get more than fifty stitches laced into his shins, rip apart the cartilage in his knee, bruise his tailbone, sprain his ankles, and tear his ligaments too many times to count.No.He had to land the 900. And after thirteen years of failed attempts, he nailed it. It had never been done before. Growing up in Sierra Mesa, California, Tony was a hyperactive demon child with an I44 IQ. He threw tantrums, terrorized the nanny until she quit, exploded with rage whenever he lost a game; this was a kid who was expelled from preschool. When his brother, Steve, gave him a blue plastic hand-me-down skateboard and his father built a skate ramp in the driveway, Tony finally found his outlet--while skating, he could be as hard on himself as he was on everyone around him. But it wasn't an easy ride to the top of the skating game. Fellow skaters mocked his skating style and dubbed him a circus skater. He was so skinny he had to wear elbow pads on his knees, and so light he had to ollie just to catch air off a ramp. He was so desperate to be accepted by young skating legends like Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, and Christian Hosoi that he ate gum from between Steve's toes. But a few years of determination and hard work paid off in multiple professional wins, and the skaters who once had mocked him were now trying to learn his tricks. Tony had created a new style of skating. In Hawk Tony goes behind the scenes of competitions, demos, and movies and shares the less glamorous demands of being a skateboarder--from skating on Italian TV wearing see-through plastic shorts to doing a demo in Brazil after throwing up for five days straight from food poisoning. He's dealt with teammates who lit themselves and other subjects on fire, driving down a freeway as the dashboard of their van burned. He's gone through the unpredictable ride of the skateboard industry during which, in the span of a few years, his annual income shrank to what he had made in a single month and then rebounded into seven figures. But Tony's greatest difficulty was dealing with the loss of his number one fan and supporter--his dad, Frank Hawk. With brutal honesty, Tony recalls the stories of love, loss, bad hairdos, embarrassing '80s clothes, and his determination that had shaped his life. As he takes a look back at his experiences with the skateboarding legends of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, including Stacy Peralta, Eddie Elguera, Lance Mountain, Mark Gonzalez, Bob Burnquist, and Colin Mckay, he tells the real history of skateboarding--and also what the future has in store for the sport and for him.
Questo libro parla di skateboard. Parla di un ragazzino troppo magro per governare la sua tavola, preso in giro dai compagni di scuola quando a skateare negli Stati Uniti erano solo in pochissimi e, diciamolo, anche un po’ sfigati. Perdere conoscenza, fratturarsi le costole e rompersi i denti più volte pur di chiudere un trick, non per vincere la gara ma per rendere onore a uno sport. Così uno stecchino con le gomitiere sulle ginocchia e una ridicola pettinatura, che per farsi notare da un grande skater come Steve Caballero gli stacca una gomma dalle dita dei piedi e la mastica, diventa il re della tavola e guadagna milioni dagli sponsor. Così si diventa Tony Hawk. Questo libro parla di determinazione. L’unica cosa che conta insieme al coraggio di buttarsi anima e corpo nella propria passione. E per ‘buttarsi’ Hawk intende proprio lanciarsi da una rampa a tutta velocità. Lo skater più famoso di tutti i tempi ci racconta, attraverso gli episodi più assurdi, divertenti e commoventi della sua vita, come è diventato una leggenda. E ci svela, con semplicità e autoironia, gli ingredienti per inseguire i sogni a ogni costo e per fare dei propri difetti delle particolarità uniche, cioè per vivere una vita spettacolare che valga la pena di essere raccontata. Quindi, se sei un fanatico adoratore di Tony Hawk (sei in compagnia di un miliardo di altre persone) e vuoi diventare come lui, o speri solo di imparare qualche parola del gergo skater per impressionare una ragazza, questo è il libro che fa per te.
Test Your Tony IQ: Don't worry, this isn't some busted quiz that counts for anything. It's a simple true or false test about the most famous skateboarder in the world. There's a lot about Tony Hawk's life that might surprise you. He didn't skate out of the crib landing every trick he attempted. He had tons of ups and downs on and off his skateboard -- sometimes he landed and sometimes he slammed. Here he takes you behind the scenes of the skateboard world and describes what it's like to be Tony Hawk: Professional Skateboarder. True or False? a. Tony Hawk ate chewing gum from between Steve Caballero's toes. b. As a child, Tony was so competitive that he pelted his mother with tennis balls in order to win a tennis match. c. Tony failed to land a trick for more than fifteen years. d. Tony was such a spastic nightmare as a child that he was expelled from his preschool. e. Tony was such a small kid that he looked three grades younger and was often picked on by bullies.
With this all-access pass, Tony Hawk shares the joy, the exhaustion, the adrenaline, and the pain of life on the road. Between Boardslides and Burnout puts you right on the edge of the ramp and on the road with him -- from competitions to demos, to store openings, to autograph signings, to movie sets, and back home. Never before has a professional skateboarder offered such a complete look into his life -- and mind.
It's 1988 and radios across the land blast out the Top Ten hit 'Stutter Rap' by Morris Minor and the Majors. The man behind the fake moustache is Tony Hawks. Fast forward to the 21st century and those heady days of pop stardom are a distant memory. That is, until it is suggested that Tony is just another One Hit Wonder. Really? We'll have to see about that ... For two years Tony struggles to have a hit somewhere, anywhere, in the world, changing acts and styles with a bewildering lack of integrity. From Nashville to Amsterdam, from Eastern Europe to Africa, he travels the globe in search of that elusive hit. But it's only after a chance encounter with Norman Wisdom that things get really strange. Is it really possible that together they could storm the Albanian charts? In One Hit Wonderland anything can happen ...
For more than twenty years, Tony Hawks has been mistaken for Tony Hawk, the American skateboarder. Even though it is abundantly clear on his website that he is an English comedian and author, people still write to him asking the best way to do a kickflip or land a melon. One mischievous day he started writing back in a pompous tone, goading his correspondents for their spelling mistakes and poor grammar, while offering bogus or downright silly advice on how to improve their skateboarding. Featuring entries on parents' pain, disappointment, underachievers, Quorn and the Vatican, this is his A to Z guide to the world of skateboarding, as seen through the eyes of someone who knows absolutely nothing about it.
It doesn't take much - "£100 is usually sufficient" - to persuade Tony Hawks to take off on notoriously bizarre and hilarious adventures in response to a bet. And so it is, a pointless argument with a friend concludes in a bet - that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. And with the loser of the bet agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, this one was just too good to resist. The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land. In this inspiring and exceptionally funny book, Tony Hawks has done it again, proving against all odds that there is no reason in the world why you can't do something a bit stupid and prove all of your doubters wrong. Or at least that was the idea....
Recounts the author's experiences hitchhiking on a bet all the way around Ireland with a small refrigerator, and shares his impressions of the people and places along the way.
If you had to pick two things you wanted - if you had to - what would you pick?' I hesitated. This was a bigger question than usually got asked at these post-match debriefs. 'I suppose the honest answer would be,' I said, still accessing the last pieces of required data from a jumbled mind, 'meeting my soul mate, and finding an idyllic house abroad somewhere.' Inspired by breathtaking views and romantic dreams of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here, he plans to finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world. In reality, the chaotic story of Tony's hopelessly ill-conceived house purchase reads like the definitive guide to how not to buy a house in France. It finds him flirting with the removal business in a disastrous attempt to transport his piano to France in a dodgy white van; foolishly electing to build a swimming pool himself; and expanding his relationship repertoire when he starts co-habiting, not with an exquisite French beauty, but with a middle-aged builder from West London. As Tony and his friends haplessly attempt to fit into village life, they learn more about themselves and each other than they ever imagined.
Hawk Davidson tests extreme sports equipment for ACME Extreme Sports Company. Hawk often finds himself in dangerous situations with Samantha Turner and other adversaries from RIVAL Sports, ACME's top competitor. In this adventure, while Hawk is competing in a surfing meet, he discovers that RIVAL has built "The Trap.
Inspired by breathtaking views and romantically dreaming of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks buys a house in the Pyrenees. And here, he imagines, he will finally fulfill his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, all the while overlooking spectacular views as the troubles of the world pass by unnoticed.
In this fully revised edition of his classic guide to falconry for beginners, lifelong falconer Tony Hall presents the most comprehensive information available to newcomers to the sport. Falconry Basics is specifically designed for novices and covers the basics, from different types of birds and their individual characteristics, to acquiring the proper equipment and the care and handling of the birds themselves. Covering all aspects of training, hunting, and maintenance, Falconry Basics addresses every possible scenario a newcom- er may face when training their first raptor, from illness and injury to escaped or overconfident hawks. Hall also provides a wealth of supplementary information for beginners, including notes on anatomy, terminology, and a list of additional resources. Accompanied by diagrams and detailed line illustrations throughout, this book will become a standard manual for future generations of falconers.
In this fully revised edition of his classic guide to falconry for beginners, lifelong falconer Tony Hall presents the most comprehensive information available to newcomers to the sport. Falconry Basics is specifically designed for novices and covers the basics, from different types of birds and their individual characteristics, to acquiring the proper equipment and the care and handling of the birds themselves. Covering all aspects of training, hunting, and maintenance, Falconry Basics addresses every possible scenario a newcom- er may face when training their first raptor, from illness and injury to escaped or overconfident hawks. Hall also provides a wealth of supplementary information for beginners, including notes on anatomy, terminology, and a list of additional resources. Accompanied by diagrams and detailed line illustrations throughout, this book will become a standard manual for future generations of falconers.
LIFE..AND THE DRAMA IT BRINGS IS A FICTIONAL NOVEL THAT HAS LESSONS, LAUGHS, LOVE, DISAPPOINTMENTS, FAITH, HOPE AND REVELATION. THIS BOOK TOUCHES ON LOYALTY IN FRIENDSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIPS. IT EXPLORES WHAT ONE MIGHT DO IN A SITUATION WHERE TELLING A FRIEND THE TRUTH JUST MAY END THE FRIENDSHIP. TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL, THAT IS THE QUESTION? THIS BOOK HAS UNEXPECTED TWISTS AND TURNS THAT TAKES YOU ON A RIVETING RIDE. THE LESSON IN THIS NOVEL IS FOR PEOPLE TO REALIZE THAT WHILE YOU'RE SITTING BACK ACCUSING SOMEONE ELSE OF BEING A FOOL FOR LOVE; YOU MUST LEARN TO NEVER SAY WHAT YOU WOULDN'T DO FOR THE ONE YOU LOVE BECAUSE YOU JUST NEVER KNOW! IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN A SIMILAR SITUATION YOURSELF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD OR WOULDN'T PUT UP WITH FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE. YOU THINK YOU KNOW BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA! EVERYBODY PLAYS THE FOOL SOMETIMES AND IF YOU THINK YOU ARE EXEMPT, THINK AGAIN!
Widely acclaimed as a horror movie actress, Fay Wray is best remembered for her performances in King Kong and four other classic 1930s film thrillers, Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat. Yet Wray appeared in 77 feature films between 1925 and 1958, playing leading roles in 67. Many of her films, including her entire silent film output, have been lost or are available only on a limited basis. This heavily illustrated filmography at last makes obvious her sizeable contribution to the film industry. After an overview of her professional acting career, the filmography is divided into three sections. The first introduces Wray's early silent feature film appearances; the second covers her "leading lady" period in popular horror thrillers and other films in the sound era; and the third covers her latter-day supporting roles. Appendices document her work in film shorts and her television appearances. Commentary throughout includes first-person interviews with Fay Wray.
A celebration of the last two decades of sports success in Boston from the co-host of the #1 sports radio show in New England Boston is a unique sports city. Unlike New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, New Englanders' loyalties are not divided among competing franchises; in the four major American sports, the city has one team each: the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins, and the Patriots. And, as any Boston fan will tell you, that loyalty runs deep. Sports just seem to mean more in New England. Over the last 20 years, those fans have been blessed with an extraordinary run of success, including 12 championships, six runners-up, and many more years of heated contention. In the 21st century, Boston became Titletown. According to Tony Massarotti, longtime Boston sports columnist and host of the #1 sports radio show in New England for the past ten years, this is not a coincidence. Massarotti's This Is Our City paints a portrait of the last 20 years in Boston sports, showing how one team's success has led to the next—how they have fed off each other, tried to one-up one another, and have supported each other. This is an account of an era where successes and failures stitched together the region, all playing out against major events such as 9/11 and the devastating Boston Marathon—which led to a memorably profane speech by David Ortiz, who declared, "This is our f@#king city!" Massarotti's This Is Our City is a valentine to Boston sports and will be loved by those fans, wherever they now live.
The title of Tony Ellis' collection of poems ""there is wisdom in walnuts,"" reflects one of the primary concerns of this collection: the presence and containment of the infinite within its smallest part. Ellis' poems like jewels, spare, serene and pristine in their beauty need no particular setting. They reflect, like clear mirrors unhampered by distortion, the unity and connectedness of all things. Focusing on personal meditative experiences and daily activities, the poems in this collection playfully and longingly touch the edges of eternity. With a minimum of adornment and elaboration, the images presented in these poems move us as through a prism into the center of things. The speaker in these poems seek the oneness and is nourished by his affinity to it. In a single dewdrop the speaker states: from a single drop of dew is the pathway to a million civilizations whose voice we never hear except in the gentle breath of breeze and the quiet hum of life infinitely growing This economy of words, unembroidered, allows for the graceful and effortless slipping of the bonds of the commonplace as we enter timelessness and connect with past and future. The sparkling dewdrop becomes the gateway to connect with the eternal since it carries within itself the essence and the paradigm of all of life and is part of the magnificent and all-encompassing software that is nature. In the poem sometimes, the speaker explains: there is nothing so fulfilling as the white tassle of a carpet seen through the eyes of everything, or a simple green pot sitting clean on a perfect surface
Adaptation Studies is a fast-emerging discipline which has expanded into other areas of media scholarship. With its roots in literature and film, this discipline can be applied to much broader uses, even as a process that governs every aspect of our lives. Indeed, by expanding the scope of “adaptation” to encompass a larger perspective, this discipline can promote lifelong learning that emphasizes communication, social interaction, and aesthetic engagement. In Adaptation Studies and Learning: New Frontiers, Laurence Raw and Tony Gurr seek to redefine the ways in which adaptation is taught and learned. Comprised of essays, reflections, and “learning conversations” about the ways in which this approach to adaptation might be implemented, this book focuses on issues of curriculum construction, the role of technology, and the importance of collaboration. Including a series of case-studies and classroom experiences, the authors explore the relationship between adaptation and related disciplines such as history, media, and translation. The book also includes a series of case studies from the world of cinema, showing how collaboration and social interaction lies at the heart of successful film adaptations. By looking beyond the classroom, Raw and Gurr demonstrate how adaptation studies involves real-world issues of prime importance—not only to film and theater professionals, but to all learners. Covering a wide range of material, including film history, educational theory, and literary criticism, Adaptation Studies and Learning offers a radical repositioning of the ways in which we think about adaptation both inside and outside the classroom.
It's the year after Dan Kawowski and Jane Dockery had eliminated an al-Qaeda terror cell in Des Moines County, Colorado. Kawowski is now the county sheriff and she's an FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism. Dockery's first assignment is to help counter an al-Qaeda threat in the desert southwest. She's teamed with an ancient desert tracker, Old Joe Gannon, and his monster dog, Laddie. Once in the desert, Dockery and her patrol, discover that an al-Qaeda assassination team has made Kawowski, the love of her life, its main target.
James Jones played many roles, including short story writer, social critic, and war novelist. His most famous work, From Here to Eternity (1951), spent 20 weeks atop the New York Times bestseller’s list, won the National Book Award, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, and was named one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library. Despite this and the success of his other novels, Some Came Running (1957) and The Thin Red Line (1962), Jones is widely forgotten today. In James Jones: The Limits of Eternity, literary scholar Tony J. Williams examines the significance of Jones’s work not only for its nuance and daring subject matter but also for its widespread popularity. In his assessment of Jones’s catalog, Williams reveals an incisive novelist who offered groundbreaking interpretations of masculinity, sexuality, gender, and identity. Williams contends that Jones should be recognized as far more than just a popular war novelist, but also as a humanitarian and literary pioneer, particularly in probing gender and queer issues. A quintessentially American novelist, Jones was never afraid to look openly at the flaws of his society, examine how it could adversely affect individual victims, and tacitly suggest possible alternatives. He recognized the presence of gays and lesbians in American culture during an overtly repressive time, which makes his work relevant to many areas of contemporary criticism. Demonstrating his significant contribution to contemporary American literature, James Jones: The Limits of Eternity will be of interest to scholars of war narratives, gender studies, and literary studies.
From the vantage point of years in active politics, Tony Leon provides a lucid analytical balance sheet of SA Ltd 2021. Eschewing political correctness, Leon tells it as he sees it.' – Judge Dennis Davis 'Anyone who wants to understand South Africa today – a country so beautiful, yet so broken – simply has to read this book.' - Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money In his riveting new book, Future Tense, Tony Leon captures and analyses recent South African history, with a focus on the squandered and corrupted years of the past decade. With unique access and penetrating insight, Leon presents a portrait of today's South Africa and prospects for its future,based on his political involvement over thirty years with the key power players: Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. His close-up and personal view of these presidents and their history-making, and many encounters in the wider world, adds vivid colour of a country and planet in upheaval. Written during the first coronavirus lockdown, Future Tense examines the surge of the disease and the response, both of which have crashed the economy and its future prospects. As the founding leader of the Democratic Alliance, Leon also provides an insider view for the first time of the power struggles within that party, which saw the exit of its first black leader in 2019. There is every reason to fear for the future of South Africa but, as Leon argues, 'the hope for a better country remains an improbable, but not an impossible, dream'.
“A charming personal account, accompanied by nearly 100 illustrations, that underscores how owls and other birds enrich our lives.”—Kirkus Reviews Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award For a quarter of a century, Tony Angell and his family shared the remarkable experience of closely observing pairs of western screech owls that occupied a nesting box outside the window of their forest home. The journals in which the author recorded his observations, and the captivating drawings he created, form the heart of this compelling book—a personal account of an artist-naturalist’s life with owls. Angell’s extensive illustrations show owls engaged in what owls do—hunting, courting, raising families, and exercising their inquisitive natures—and reveal his immeasurable respect for their secret lives and daunting challenges. Angell discusses the unique characteristics that distinguish owls from other bird species and provides a fascinating overview of the impact owls have had on human culture and thought. He also offers detailed scientific descriptions of the nineteen species of owls found in North America, as well as their close relatives elsewhere. Always emphasizing the interaction of humans and owls, the author affirms the power of these birds to both beguile and inspire. “Endearing…provides a lot of fascinating information about these reclusive creatures.”—The New York Times Book Review “Angell writes (and draws) with the absolute authority of one who has studied, rehabilitated, lived with and loved the animals his whole life.”—The Wall Street Journal “Steeped in the tradition of Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon, it blends taxonomy, ornithology, biogeography and autobiography.”—Times Literary Supplement
In this comprehensive portrait of horror's definitive director, Tony Williams ties George A. Romero's films to the development of literary naturalism and American culture, expanding the artist's creative footprint beyond his mastery of the "splatter movie" genre. Williams locates Romero's influences in the work of Emile Zola, the Entertainment Comics of the 1950s, and the novels of Stephen King, revealing the interdisciplinary depth of his seminal films Night of the Living Dead (1968), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), and The Dark Half (1992). For this second edition, Williams reads Romero's Bruiser (2000) against his more recent Land of the Dead (2005) and takes a fresh look at Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009), two overlooked films that feature Romero's greatest achievements yet.
This book argues for the importance of Gothic in understanding one of the key elements within the films of Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984). Although occasionally noted in the past, the Gothic has been generally overlooked when most critics consider the work of Sam Peckinpah with the exception of the Freudian based Crucified Heroes (1979) by Terence Butler. This work not only examines the films made after that date, especially the often dismissed The Osterman Weekend (1983) and the two music videos he made for Julian Lennon, but also places the director within the context of the developing work on Gothic that has since appeared. Peckinpah has been identified as the director of one undisputed masterpiece, The Wild Bunch (1969). By focussing on the key role Gothic plays in most of the director’s work, this book offers a way to see Peckinpah beyond The Wild Bunch and the Western, viewing him as a director who had the potential of evolving further, had circumstances permitted, to continue his critique of American life within the developing lens of the Gothic.
For more than forty years, Tony March generously donated most of his fortune and countless hours to help those in need, but no one ever knew—until now. To the public, he was the founder of one of the most successful minority-owned businesses in the country, a champion for minority business owners, and a respected community leader entrusted to manage $1 billion in state funds. Privately, however, Tony indulged his true passion: getting his hands dirty serving the homeless community. In shocking detail, Paying It Backward presents Tony’s incredible journey from poverty, abuse, racism, and depression in a Daytona Beach ghetto to the highest level of business success and a life filled with purpose. More importantly, Tony shows how anyone—no matter who they are or where they come from—can improve their lives, conquer any hardship, and develop a heart for serving others. When you reach the top of the mountain, Tony says, you can either sit at the peak or reach back down and help others climb. In Paying It Backward, Tony reflects on his struggles on the way up—and the joy he found by reaching back down.
A Midwestern biologist presents 52 wonderful stories about wildlife myths such as: A camel's humps do not store water; an elk is really a red deer; elephant graveyards do exist; and flashing insects are beetles, not fireflies.
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