Since the 1990s, artists and art writers around the world have increasingly undermined the essentialism associated with notions of "critical practice." We can see this manifesting in the renewed relevance of what were previously considered "outsider" art practices, the emphasis on first-person accounts of identity over critical theory, and the proliferation of exhibitions that refuse to distinguish between art and the productions of culture more generally. How Folklore Shaped Modern Art: A Post-Critical History of Aesthetics underscores how the cultural traditions, belief systems and performed exchanges that were once integral to the folklore discipline are now central to contemporary art’s "post-critical turn." This shift is considered here as less a direct confrontation of critical procedures than a symptom of art’s inclusive ideals, overturning the historical separation of fine art from those "uncritical" forms located in material and commercial culture. In a global context, aesthetics is now just one of numerous traditions informing our encounters with visual culture today, symptomatic of the pull towards an impossibly pluralistic image of art that reflects the irreducible conditions of identity.
This book examines the complexities of the hipster through the lens of art history and cultural theory, from Charles Baudelaire’s flâneur to the contemporary “creative” borne from creative industries policies. It claims that the recent ubiquity of hipster culture has led many artists to confront their own significance, responding to the mass artification of contemporary life by de-emphasising the formal and textual deconstructions so central to the legacies of modern and postmodern art. In the era of creative digital technologies, long held characteristics of art such as individual expression, innovation, and alternative lifestyle are now features of a flooded and fast-paced global marketplace. Against the idea that artists, like hipsters, are the “foot soldiers of capitalism”, the institutionalized networks that make up the contemporary art world are working to portray a view of art that is less a discerning exercise in innovative form-making than a social platform—a forum for populist aesthetic pleasures or socio-political causes. It is in this sense that the concept of the hipster is caught up in age-old debates about the relation between ethics and aesthetics, examined here in terms of the dynamics of global contemporary art.
Speech Acts: Richard Grayson and Matt Mullican illuminates the video-based practices of these two internationally acclaimed artists, who use the format of the monologue to construct and narrate hypothetical worlds. British artist Richard Grayson imbues vernacular culture with a sense of classicism, extracting layers of meaning from an array of subject matter, including scientific explanations, flash-mob videos, dinner party conversations and purposefully bad jokes. By contrast, American artist Matt Mullican examines the circularities of language, conducting performances under hypnosis to vacillate between primal and public speech. Who is it we are watching as Mullican performs in an hypnotic state? How do we interrogate and categorise what is being created? The book includes video excerpts of Mullican’s first ever performance under hypnosis in Australia (staged in collaboration with Sydney’s National Art School at the iconic Cell Block Theatre, a former nineteenth-century women’s prison) and a selection of Grayson’s scripted compositions, which combine political acuity with dry wit.
A collection of cartoons, illustrations, and paintings that condense the complicated narratives of famous books into one-page works of art. "A subversive volume that translates a series of complex works of literature into a single-page illustration . . . A variety of artists rise to a unique literary and visual challenge." —Kirkus Reviews The Catcher in the Rye. Lolita. Moby-Dick. Infinite Jest. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Room of One’s Own. Native Son. These are but a handful of classic works spectacularly distilled by Mr. Fish and a very talented group of painters, illustrators, graphic designers, and political cartoonists into succinct snapshots that are at times funny, sad, inspiring, rude, crude, beautiful, profound, stomach-turning, and mind-blowing. Includes original artwork from: Mr. Fish, Ted Rall, Stephanie McMillan, Sarah Awad, Eli Valley, Wes Tyrell, Tamara Knoss, Keith Henry Brown, Sam Henderson, Lodi Marasescu, Surag Ramachandran, Tami Knight, Eric J. Garcia, Marissa Dougherty, Siri Dokken, John G., Andy Singer, Tara Seibel, Gary Dumm, Clare Kolat, Nate Ulsh, Benjamin Slyngstad, Ron Hill, JP Trostle, John Kovaleski, and Beth McCaskey.
In this vivid first-person narrative, a Special Operations Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) and his commanding general give fascinating and detailed accounts of America’s fight against one of the most barbaric insurgencies the world has ever seen. In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Barack Obama authorized a small task force to push back into Baghdad. Their mission: Protect the Iraqi capital and U.S. embassy from a rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality, that would come to be known as ISIS, had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate—an independent nation-state administered by an extreme and cruel form of Islamic law—and was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Soon, a massive and devastating U.S. military response had unfolded. Hear the ground truth on the senior military and political interactions that shaped America’s war against ISIS, a war unprecedented in both its methodology and its application of modern military technology. Enter the world of the Strike Cell, secretive operations centers where America’s greatest enemies are hunted and killed day and night. Plunge into the realm of the Special Operations JTAC, American warfighters with the highest enemy kill counts on the battlefield. And gain the wisdom of a cumulative half-century of military experience as Dana Pittard and Wes Bryant lay out the path to a sustained victory over ISIS. For more information about the book, visit www.huntingthecaliphate.com.
From San Diego to Da Nang, from Hill 55 to Khe Sanh, followed by perplexing prospects in Washington, DC, this is a unique sojourn about a few bizarre events, introspections, and serendipitous choices encountered by a skeptical, eye-squinting Marine. Just Dust: An Improbable Marine's Vietnam Story is the first-person account of a reluctant serviceman. It is the story of how a young man, unprepared to make meaningful decisions, decides to join the US Marine Corps in 1965. Skinny, tall, and a self-proclaimed "wimp," Wes Choc sweats through boot camp, isolating himself and not making many friends. He is so different that only leftover boots from WWII fit his oddly-sized feet. Posted to two historically significant places -- Hill 55 and Khe Sanh -- the author details his time in Vietnam, including jobs examining personal effects of those killed in action to finally returning home to unimagined pursuits in Washington, DC. Despite being at the forefront of the Vietnam War, the author does not tell the typical war story. Evaluative and observational, Just Dust is more journal than history, more about trying to fit in than being admired. This pensive narrative from a contemplative skeptic poses questions that many will identify with from their own parallel journeys. What core values nurtured by the military process also offer important life lessons? Are unconventionalities in experience or attitude things that make one more worthy as a person or less worthy a Marine? What was gained from the Vietnam experience that mattered the most? In the end, the author's meditations lead him to understand what Semper fi means to him.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name from the city: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Selected by Stephen Curry as his “Underrated” Book Club Pick with Literati The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.
Mosaic Pieces: Surviving the Dark Side of American Justice By: Wes Skillings Mosaic Pieces is a nonfiction narrative about a murder, investigation, trial, and conviction in the 1970s you might call the centerpiece of three generations of family history. The murder case itself is fascinating—if only because of what had been learned in the aftermath of the trial at which twenty-year-old Kim Lee Hubbard was decreed guilty in Williamsport, Pennsylvania of the murder of twelve-year-old Jennifer May Hill. Jennifer had been dead in a cornfield, according to the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy, for as many as nine days in the unseasonably warm and dry weather of that October. And yet the body on the autopsy table “was as fresh as if she had died just the day before,” according to the man who picked up the body and later embalmed it. It was just the beginning of a litany of discrepancies in evidence and testimony presented at the trial, as well as questionable investigative practices. The murder may have occurred on an Indian summer day in October 1973, but the story begins some forty-five years before with the compelling lives of Joe and Dorisann Hubbard leading up to their marriage and the tragedies and difficulties throughout their lives together.
From San Diego to Da Nang, from Hill 55 to Khe Sanh, followed by perplexing prospects in Washington, DC, this is a unique sojourn about a few bizarre events, introspections, and serendipitous choices encountered by a skeptical, eye-squinting Marine. Just Dust: An Improbable Marine's Vietnam Story is the first-person account of a reluctant serviceman. It is the story of how a young man, unprepared to make meaningful decisions, decides to join the US Marine Corps in 1965. Skinny, tall, and a self-proclaimed "wimp," Wes Choc sweats through boot camp, isolating himself and not making many friends. He is so different that only leftover boots from WWII fit his oddly-sized feet. Posted to two historically significant places -- Hill 55 and Khe Sanh -- the author details his time in Vietnam, including jobs examining personal effects of those killed in action to finally returning home to unimagined pursuits in Washington, DC. Despite being at the forefront of the Vietnam War, the author does not tell the typical war story. Evaluative and observational, Just Dust is more journal than history, more about trying to fit in than being admired. This pensive narrative from a contemplative skeptic poses questions that many will identify with from their own parallel journeys. What core values nurtured by the military process also offer important life lessons? Are unconventionalities in experience or attitude things that make one more worthy as a person or less worthy a Marine? What was gained from the Vietnam experience that mattered the most? In the end, the author's meditations lead him to understand what Semper fi means to him.
Growing up near the Sabine, journalist Wes Ferguson, like most East Texans, steered clear of its murky, debris-filled waters, where alligators lived in the backwater sloughs and an occasional body was pulled from some out-of-the-way crossing. The Sabine held a reputation as a haunt for a handful of hunters and loggers, more than a few water moccasins, swarms of mosquitoes, and the occasional black bear lumbering through swamp oak and cypress knees. But when Ferguson set out to do a series of newspaper stories on the upper portion of the river, he and photographer Jacob Croft Botter were entranced by the river’s subtle beauty and the solitude they found there. They came to admire the self-described “river rats” who hunted, fished, and swapped stories along the muddy water—plain folk who love the Sabine as much as Hill Country vacationers love the clear waters of the Guadalupe. Determined to travel the rest of the river, Ferguson and Botter loaded their gear and launched into the stretch of river that charts the line between the states and ends at the Gulf of Mexico. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.
Although he never played a day in the white major leagues, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd was one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. A shortstop who could take over a game with his glove or his bat, Lloyd dominated early black baseball, drawing comparisons to the most celebrated National Leaguer of his day, Honus Wagner, who declared it a privilege to be mentioned with Lloyd. Beginning his career years before the first Negro National League was established, Lloyd played for a dizzying number of teams, following the money, as he'd put it, throughout the country and sometimes past its borders, doing several stints in Cuba. He was seemingly ageless, winning two batting titles in his 40s and playing at the highest levels of blackball until he was 48. (He would continue to coach and play semi-pro baseball for another ten years.) Admired by teammates and opponents alike for his generosity and quiet strength, Lloyd was also one of the most beloved figures in white or black baseball.
World War II rages on in the European and Pacific fronts. Troy, ‘Tank’, Connors, an American soldier serving in France is severely wounded. He is discharged from the military and returns home to North Carolina to rehabilitate. Back home he and his young wife must somehow put their lives back together. His life is again turned upside down when he accepts a job at an unknown government town with no name or address in the mountains of New Mexico. There, he joins an elite group of scientists working on a top secret government program; the Manhattan Project, building the first atomic bomb. The twists and turns mount as Tank, at one point, is wrongly accused of international espionage. Tank becomes a hunted man. He has few allies on his side. In the climax scene it takes a daring move to save himself.
Book Two of The B.D. Dawg Series is here and our protagonists, Stumpy, a three-foot Herbalite, Binger, a talking Basset hound, and twenty-two year old Jimmy, are in store for more dangerous adventures. A malevolent evil stalks the land of their world once again. Jimmy and Binger, his loyal friends, leave Smalltown and join Stumpy to rid the kingdom of impending doom before Queen Koray and Condorus, a birdman and king, and several other dignitaries are destroyed. The trio set out to find just who is trying to overtake the other world. They'll travel across vast lands to reach Molevite territory where the castle sits that protects the leader of the evil Molevite horde. Along the way, they'll meet many new friends (or foes), encounter enormous obstacles and face battles that will cause them to question if they can indeed save the world from the insidious force that is present. Can Stumpy, Jimmy and Binger bring the Coven of the Peace back together? And who is trying to upset the balance of power and destroy the kingdom?
Professional triathlete Hobson shows readers how to refine their techniques in swimming, biking, and running to get the competitive edge and get serious about triathlons. 100 illustrations.
Discover the gripping Yorkshire Murders series from bestselling author Wes Markin 'Cracking start to an exciting new series. Twist and turns, thrills and kills. I loved it' Ross Greenwood This boxset contains books 1-3 in the Yorkshire Murders, a crime thriller series from Wes Markin, bestselling author of the DCI Yorke series. The Viaduct Killings The Lonely Lake Killings The Crying Cave Killings The Viaduct Killings Still grieving from the tragic death of her colleague, DCI Emma Gardner continues to blame herself and is struggling to focus. So, when she is seconded to the wilds of Yorkshire, Emma hopes she’ll be able to get her mind back on the job, doing what she does best - putting killers behind bars. But when she is immediately thrown into another violent murder, Emma has no time to rest. Desperate to get answers and find the killer, Emma needs all the help she can. But her new partner, DI Paul Riddick, has demons and issues of his own. And when this new murder reveals links to an old case Riddick was involved with, Emma fears that history might be about to repeat itself... The Lonely Lake Killings When the body of a young local girl is found next to an isolated lake, the main suspect is the old recluse who has lived next to the lake for many years – especially when the young girl’s purse is found on the old man’s doorstep. But DCI Emma Gardner and her partner DI Paul Riddick aren’t so sure. Why would the old hermit leave such an obvious clue? And who would want to set the old man up? As they dig deeper into the murder they discover a community in fear, determined to keep hold of long buried secrets. And Riddick is convinced that his own dark past is somehow linked to this crime, too. Gardner fears that she may never get the answers she needs, until a break leads her down a path she’d rather not face. One that runs directly to her own front door... The Crying Cave Killings DI Paul Riddick is a man tormented by his own actions and determined to right the wrongs of his past any way he can. But when his instincts lead him to follow a child he believes to be in danger, Riddick gets in deeper than he ever imagined...especially when the child is found dead. DCI Emma Gardner doesn’t believe Riddick has blood on his hands, but he’s off the case until she can clear his name. If she can clear his name. Because Riddick seems determined to chase ghosts that only get him into more trouble. Riddick's certain he didn’t kill the kid in the cave. But he also remembers another case, twenty years ago, with shocking similarities...which means someone is trying to trap Riddick. Can Riddick uncover the truth, or will this be the case that finally destroys him once and for all?
Kentucky's culinary fame may have been built on bourbon and fried chicken, but the Commonwealth has much to offer the barbecue thrill-seeker. The Kentucky Barbecue Book is a feast for readers who are eager to sample the finest fare in the state. From the banks of the Mississippi to the hidden hollows of the Appalachian Mountains, author and barbecue enthusiast Wes Berry hit the trail in search of the best smoke, the best flavor, and the best pitmasters he could find. This handy guide presents the most succulent menus and colorful personalities in Kentucky. While other states are better known for their 'cue, the Kentucky style is distinct because of its use of mutton and traditional cooking methods. Many of the establishments featured in this book are dedicated to the time-honored craft of cooking over hot hardwood coals inside cinderblock pits. Time intensive and dangerous, these traditions are disappearing as methods requiring less manpower, less wood, and less skill gain ground. Pick up a copy of this book and hit the road before these great places are gone.
Born in Winchester, Indiana, Robert Wise spent much of his youth sitting in darkened movie theaters enthralled by the swashbuckling heroics of screen legend Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Through these viewings, Wise developed a passion for film—a passion he followed for the rest of his life, making movies in Hollywood. Nationally known film historian Wes D. Gehring explores Wise’s life from his days in the Hoosier State to the beginning of his movie career at RKO studios working as the editor of Orson Welles’s classic movie Citizen Kane. Wise is best known for producing and directing two of the most memorable movie musicals in cinema history, West Side Story (co-director Jerome Robbins) and The Sound of Music, for which he won four Academy Awards—two Best Picture and Best Directors Oscars. But, as Gehring notes, other than Howard Hawks, Wise was arguably Hollywood’s most versatile director of various celebrated genre films.
Beyond the Sangres is a family saga that tells of the life long struggle of Zan and Liette to reconcile their heritage with the forces that run rough shod over their lives in the later half of the twentieth century. Beyond the Sangres reveals what happens to people of mixed ancestry when they are entangled by ties to divergent cultures. This powerful first Novel is a tale about the failure and success of adaptation and the creation of a new ethnicity. It is a story of love: love of the land, love of country, love of a lost way of life, and the love of a woman and man for each other. The heroism of human longing and the anguish of revolution set the stage in Beyond the Sangres for rebirth in a new creation. 'Beyond the Sangre' reveals an America that few know, but many long for. This book is as enigmatic as its title and and has layer upon layer of meaning. If you want a unique read about a yet to be discovered America, read 'Beyond the Sangres.
Rick Lakewood is not a successful man. In fact, he is a pretty consistent failure. If it were not for his talent with circuit boards and his lack of professional or personal morals, he would probably starve. His weaknesses cause him to be on the run. His computer talents bring him to the attention of an even more unscrupulous man and involve him in an adventure and criminal enterprise in paradise.Col. Isaac Smith (ret.) is ambitious if nothing else. His most ambitious and complicated plans are finally beginning to pay off. These plans, formed with military precision learned from a career in special-forces amount to a drug smuggling operation stretching from South America to the U. S. via the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. It is here that he has developed a need for an electronics expert willing to work on the wrong side of the law - someone like Rick Lakewood. Amy Hudson and Alex Clark have created a life for themselves in rural Virginia. Although they first met in college their differing approaches to life - him always with an ordered plan and her driven to conquer her fears by doing what scared her most, regardless of the risk - kept them from being more than friends. That is, until they finally discovered that each could make the other whole by bringing to a relationship what the other needed to be complete. Now they have finally decided that they have time for their long-delayed Caribbean honeymoon. For this happy couple it is off to St. Kitts and, unintentionally, into the middle of the plots of Colonel Smith and the bungling of Rick Lakewood.
For eighty-seven miles, the swift and shallow Blanco River winds through the Texas Hill Country. Its water is clear and green, darkened by frequent pools. Wes Ferguson and Jacob Botter have paddled, walked, and waded the Blanco. They have explored its history, people, wildlife, and the natural beauty that surprises everyone who experiences this river. Described as “the defining element in some of the Hill Country’s most beautiful scenery,” the Blanco flows both above and below ground, part of a network of rivers and aquifers that sustains the region’s wildlife and millions of humans alike. However, overpumping and prolonged drought have combined to weaken the Blanco’s flow and sustenance, and in 2000—for the first time in recorded history—the river’s most significant feeder spring, Jacob’s Well, briefly ceased to flow. It stopped again in 2008. Then, in the spring of 2015, a devastating flood killed twelve people and toppled the huge cypress trees along its banks, altering not just the look of the river, but the communities that had come to depend on its serene presence. River travelers Ferguson and Botter tell the remarkable story of this changeable river, confronting challenges and dangers as well as rare opportunities to see parts of the river few have seen. The authors also photographed and recorded the human response to the destruction of a beloved natural resource that has become yet another episode in the story of water in Texas. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.
Facing a mounting dilemma of a depleting fuel and energy supply in the known world, our Nation had their backs to the wall and began to pressure the worlds leading scientists for a miracle. For Ben Crandall, it was a Godsend, but little did he know to what extreme his discovery of FUSION ENERGY would take him. Backed by the President of the United States, Ben was joined by his three brothers on an adventure unleashing dynamic life threatening consequences. They found themselves heading toward a remote Island in Alaska, encountering explosive accounts of espionage from terrorist agents across the world. Ben's formula was the target of their advances as he attempts an all-important test that could unveil to the world the magnitude of his discovery. If it were successful, it would change the form of energy through\out the world, as we know it today.
An Aerial Adventure! The only thing that kept Mark going in Vietnam was his plan to spend some time wandering the country by air, like barnstormers did 50 years before. In the last days before leaving, he acquires a partner -- a tall, morose girl named Jackie. They spend months on their coast to coast aerial oddessy, falling in love along the way while having adventures that will turn into memories for a lifetime.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.
This scarce classic book details the author's journey to become a Canadian infantryman in the Great War, initially describing his training, and then concentrating on his experiences in the trenches as a machine gunner. Although sometimes humorous and light, this engaging and accessible text describes with the unmistakable grit of authenticity the horrors and vagaries of trench life in vivid detail. A must-have for anyone interested in factual accounts of war, The Emma Gees promises to inform and engage readers with an authentic war-time tale of desperation and fear. Herbert W. McBride was a Captain in the Indiana National Guard whose work is often hailed as the best first-person accounts of World War I. This book was first published in 1918 and is republished now with an new biography of the author.
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