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Magical Fairy Homes and Gardens
by Barbara Purchia E. Ashley RooneyFairies—those mythical sprites of folktales and daydreams—are an enduring source of fascination to humans. Designing, creating, and maintaining fairy dwellings and gardens has become popular as an artistic endeavor, family activity, or form of meditation. Published in 2014, Purchia and Rooney's Fairy Homes & Gardens has transported thousands of readers to the magical realm of fairy gardening. In the ensuing years, fairy homes and gardens have become much more than a fleeting trend, establishing a perennial pastime for people of all ages. A treasure trove of ideas, this inspiring follow-up features • images and stories of more than 50 new projects that encompass a wide variety of fairy dwellings—communities, cottages, houses, castles, chalets, and other serendipitous structures, • creations by more than two dozen of the most talented and innovative artists creating fairy environments, • a special chapter on fairy accessories, including furniture, doors, swings, and the other creature comforts that fairies appreciate, • an appendix spotlighting plants that are ideal for incorporation into fairy gardens, and • a foreword that tells the story of Florence Griswold Museum's wildly popular Wee Faerie Garden event. Appealing to fairy enthusiasts and nature lovers of all ages, this book provides bold inspiration to help readers embark on a creative and relaxing pursuit that takes them directly into the world of fairy magic.
Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons: Make 25 Enchanting Forest Fairies, Gnomes & More from Simple Supplies
by Lenka Vodicka-Paredes Asia Currie25 seasonal, toymaking project for kids, including faeries, gnomes, animals, and more, from the authors of Forest Fairy Crafts.Share the magic of sewing with everyone you meet! The best-selling authors behind Forest Fairy Crafts are back with all-new projects approved by crafty kids. Sew a forest of delightful felt fairies, gnomes, and decorations from simple supplies, using new skills such as embroidery. The illustrated guide teaches you how to stitch patterns and personalize these charming characters and toys through the seasons—summer, spring, fall, and winter. (Plus get tips for adult helpers on how to help kids craft!) Great for children’s parties, classrooms, and other groups, these crafts appeal to boys, girls, and the young at heart! • Felt, beads, and imagination! Sew over 25 fairyland projects from everyday supplies you have on hand• Craft fairies, gnomes, and forest friends with kid-tested patterns carefully developed by two teachers• Embellish your little friends with colorful threads, yarn, buttons, and sequins • Decorate your home, play with handcrafted toys, and celebrate every season
Magical Four-Patch and Nine-Patch
by Yvonne PorcellaNoted fiber artist Yvonne Porcella turns her talents to the most basic quilt block patterns, Four-Patches and Nine-Patches, and she will turn your world upside down! Join her on the journey to creating your own innovative quilts. 10 incredible quilting projects. Quilts are constructed using simple strip piecing and foundation piecing. Yvonne's "e;Magical Numbering System"e; makes choosing fabrics practically painless. Suggestions for personalizing your work to make it yours alone.
Magical Housekeeping: Simple Charms & Practical Tips for Creating a Harmonious Home
by Tess WhitehurstLet your home nourish your soul and uplift your spirits. Swirl magical botanicals into your cleaning supplies, call fairies into your garden, ask a spider for advice. Clear clutter for clarity, perform the oatmeal cookie ritual for abundance, or make a sweet dreams charm for a good night's sleep.In this delightful book, intuitive counselor Tess Whitehurst reveals how your home can be a powerful catalyst for personal transformation and manifestation. She offers a variety of simple, whimsical ways to create a harmonious home while enhancing your own happiness, intuition, and magical power.Praise:"Filled with valuable information and ancient wisdom to activate sparkling energy and create true sacred space in your home. I recommend it!"—Denise Linn, author of Sacred Space
Magical Metal Clay: Amazingly Simple No-Kiln Techniques For Making Beautiful Accessories
by Sue HeaserMake professional-looking metal jewellery and accessories without investing in silversmithing tools, equipment and training, with this essential guide to working with precious metal clay.Metal clay is a magical material: real metal in clay form that can be modelled and then fired to turn it into pure metal. It has taken the crafting world by storm in the past 20 years and its versatility and accessibility means it is used by professional jewellery makers and hobbyists alike. Metal clay is available in many different types – silver, copper, bronze and even steel. It can be sculpted, modelled, moulded, rolled into sheets, cut into shapes, woven, braided and carved to produce an endless array of forms and effects. Equipment needed is minimal and you will probably have most of the simple tools in your home already. This book concentrates on silver clay which is the easiest kind to use because it can be fired without a kiln. After drying the clay, it is fired using either a small blow torch, a gas hob, or camping gas and in five minutes or less the clay becomes pure 999 silver that can be hallmarked. This book will show you how to master all the basic techniques of working with metal clay while later chapters cover more advanced techniques. Twenty gorgeous projects are shown in detail with clear step-by-step photographs. There are pendants, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, charms, brooches, beads, cufflinks and rings and many of the projects give alternative ideas for developing your skills. Embellishment techniques are shown in detail from setting stones and gilding to enamelling with resin, adding inlay, engraving, and oxidising for luscious colours. Whatever your skill level and whatever your craft style you will find this a rich and inspiring guide with tried-and-tested techniques explained in detail, as well as the cutting edge of metal clay creativity and materials. A few projects that need kiln firing are given at the end of the book to show what can be achieved if you decide to go further with this fabulous material. Author Sue Heaser is a prolific crafter who has written over 18 books on the subjects of jewellery making, polymer clay, metal clay and miniatures. Her expert guidance will give even the beginner the confidence and the inspiration to start a love affair with metal clay and all its creative possibilities.
Magical Things: How to Draw Books for Kids with Unicorns, Dragons, Mermaids, and More (How to Draw For Kids Series)
by Alli KochLearn to draw with fun 5-minute drawing lessons for kids—great for young artists, birthday gifts, homeschool art lessons, and elementary art classes!Perfect for budding artists and kids who have never drawn before, this new drawing book for kids will teach your child how to draw unicorns and other magical creatures in no time! Author and professional artist Alli Koch's kid-friendly, mini drawing lessons will help your child practice their basic art skills and teach them how to draw with confidence. This how to draw book is perfect for kids 7-12, but kids as young as 5 with an interest in art will be able to easily follow along as well. No experience required!Easy-to-Follow Instructions: Simple steps and diagrams from start to finish40+ Cool Projects for Both Boys and Girls: Learn how to draw a mermaid, fairy, genie, ogre, and other fun magical creaturesLayflat Binding: Making it easier for kids to keep the book open as they follow alongPerforated Pages and Premium Paper: Easily removable pages that are thick and sturdy, and the foil on the cover will catch kids' eyes!9 x 9 Size: Big pages so your kid has no problem seeing each step
Magical Thinking, Fantastic Film, and the Illusions of Neoliberalism
by Michael J. BlouinConsidering films such as Candyman, Frozen, and The Cabin in the Woods, Michael J. Blouin contends that fantastic tales allow audiences to maintain the status quo instead of inspiring purposeful action.
Magical Transformations on the Early Modern English Stage (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)
by Lisa Hopkins Helen OstovichMagical Transformations on the Early Modern Stage furthers the debate about the cultural work performed by representations of magic on the early modern English stage. It considers the ways in which performances of magic reflect and feed into a sense of national identity, both in the form of magic contests and in its recurrent linkage to national defence; the extent to which magic can trope other concerns, and what these might be; and how magic is staged and what the representational strategies and techniques might mean. The essays range widely over both canonical plays-Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Doctor Faustus, Bartholomew Fair-and notably less canonical ones such as The Birth of Merlin, Fedele and Fortunio, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, The Devil is an Ass, The Late Lancashire Witches and The Witch of Edmonton, putting the two groups into dialogue with each other and also exploring ways in which they can be profitably related to contemporary cases or accusations of witchcraft. Attending to the representational strategies and self-conscious intertextuality of the plays as well as to their treatment of their subject matter, the essays reveal the plays they discuss as actively intervening in contemporary debates about witchcraft and magic in ways which themselves effect transformation rather than simply discussing it. At the heart of all the essays lies an interest in the transformative power of magic, but collectively they show that the idea of transformation applies not only to the objects or even to the subjects of magic, but that the plays themselves can be seen as working to bring about change in the ways that they challenge contemporary assumptions and stereotypes.
Magical Woodland Knits: Knitting Patterns for 12 Wonderfully Lifelike Animals
by Claire GarlandA collection of twelve knitting patterns for animals and birds, accompanied by the author’s sketches and studies of the natural world.Nature lover Claire Garland has studied animals and birds in the environment around her home in rural Cornwall, England—and designed this delightful collection of patterns based on the wildlife she sees there. Choose your favorite from a dozen animals and birds, whether it's a grey squirrel, barn owl, yellow-necked field mouse, wolf, fox, wild rabbit, or roe deer fawn.The patterns, accompanied by striking photography and illustrations, are cleverly designed with the same markings and colors as their real life counterparts, making them irresistible—and capturing the magic of spotting a wild animal in their natural habitat.
Magician of the Modern: Chick Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in America
by Eugene R. GaddisThe story of Chick Austin is the story, in Virgil Thomson's words, of "a whole cultural movement in one man." Becoming director of Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum at the age of twenty-six, Austin immediately set about to introduce modern art to America and to transform this conservative insurance capital into a cultural mecca that would become the talk of the art world during the yeasty years between the two world wars.The first in the United States to mount a major Picasso retrospective, Austin was soon acquiring works by Dalí, Mondrian, Miró, Balthus, Max Ernst, and Alexander Calder. In the museum's new theater (which he designed), he staged the premiere of the revolutionary Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson opera Four Saints in Three Acts (with an all-black cast). At Lincoln Kirstein's instigation, he brought Balanchine to America. And he embraced all the new art forms, making film, photography, architecture, and contemporary music part of the life of his museum. For his own family he built a Palladian villa (now a recently restored national historic landmark), filling it with the baroque and the Bauhaus and inviting all the locals in to see how it felt to be modern.Austin's instinct for quality proved infallible. Whether acquiring a matchless Caravaggio or a startling Dalí, he balanced the old masters with the modern. Mounting provocative shows that linked the past to the present, he created dramatic installations--and he threw himself into everything, hanging fabrics, creating backdrops, stitching up costumes. He loved to teach, to paint, to act, to give lavish costume balls, and to dazzle audiences of all ages with his performances as a magician, the Great Osram.Brilliant at using his magician's sleight of hand, he could manipulate his conservative trustees to get what he wanted--but only up to a point. One more purchase of an incomprehensible abstract canvas, one outrageous party too many, one more shocking theatrical role, eventually led to a crisis. Never one to be idle for long, Austin left Hartford and took on a new challenge--to make an artistic triumph of the pink-and-white palace in Sarasota, Florida, known as the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, which housed the circus king's moldering but magnificent collection.Here is the colorful life of Chick Austin, and as we relish his audacious career--the risks he took, the successes he enjoyed along with the inevitable setbacks--we understand what a far-reaching influence he had on the way Americans look at and think about art. Not only a brilliant portrait of an extraordinary man, this wonderfully American story gives us a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the art world as it was then--and in many ways still is today.From the Hardcover edition.
Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York
by Justin DavidsonFrom New York magazine’s architecture critic, a walking and reading guide to New York City—a historical, cultural, architectural, and personal approach to seven neighborhoods throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, including six essays that help us understand the evolution of the city. For nearly a decade, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Justin Davidson has explained the ever-changing city of New York to his readers at New York magazine, introducing new buildings, interviewing architects, tracking the way the transforming urban landscape shapes who New Yorkers are. Now, his extensive, inspiring knowledge will be available to a wide audience. An insider’s guide to the architecture and planning of New York that includes maps, photographs, and original insights from the men and women who built the city and lived in it—its designers, visionaries, artists, writers—Magnetic City offers first-time visitors and lifelong residents a new way to see New York. Includes walking tours throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx • the Financial District • the World Trade Center • the Seaport and the Brooklyn waterfront • Chelsea and the High Line • 42nd Street • the Upper West Side • the South Bronx and Sugar Hill.
Magnetic Interactions in Molecules and Solids
by Coen Graaf Ria BroerThis textbook is the second volume in the Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modeling series and aims to explain the theoretical basis of magnetic interactions at a level that will be useful for master students in physical, inorganic and organic chemistry. The book gives a treatment of magnetic interactions in terms of the phenomenological spin Hamiltonians that have been such powerful tools for chemistry and physics in the past half century, starting from the simple Heisenberg and Ising Hamiltonians and ending with Hamiltonians that include biquadratic, cyclic or anisotropic exchange. On the other hand, it also explains how quantum chemical methods, reaching from simple mean field methods to accurate models that include the effects of electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling, can help to understand the magnetic properties. Connecting the two perspectives is an essential aspect of the book, since it leads to a deeper understanding of the relation between physical phenomena and basic properties. It also makes clear that in many cases one can derive magnetic coupling parameters not only from experiment, but also from accurate ab initio calculations. The book starts with introducing a selection of basic concepts and tools. Throughout the book the text is interlarded with exercises, stimulating the students to not only read but also verify the assertions and perform (parts of) the derivations by themselves. In addition, each chapter ends with a number of problems that can be used to check whether the material has been understood.
Magnificent Obsession: The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics
by Anthony SlideIn Magnificent Obsession: The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics, author Anthony Slide looks at the way film has dominated the minds and lives of film buffs, film collectors, film academics, and just plain fans of past movies. Based on the author's more than fifty years in the field and his personal, up-front knowledge of the subject, chapters provide unique documentation on film buffs who once created a livelihood from their hobby, including long-forgotten Chaw Mank and the vast array of film clubs that he headed and New York radio and television sensation Joe Franklin. The history of fans and their fan clubs are discussed, as well as the first and only periodical, Films in Review, which catered both to film scholars and film buffs. The histories of several legendary film collectors such as David Bradley and Herb Graff are featured, as is Hollywood's Silent Movie Theatre, where film buffs found a home from the 1940s onwards, sharing it with drug dealers, male prostitutes, fantasists, and hit men.Magnificent Obsession is vast in its approach, discussing the entire history of the phenomenon of the film buff from the early 1910s through the present and documenting the manner in which film buffs have changed--thanks to the internet--from relatively gentle and kind individuals to the obsessive, sometimes overbearing, and often self-important film buffs of today.
Magnolia
by Cheryl L. Baisden Victoria A. JamesIt was the sweet-smelling, flowering magnolia tree dominating the grounds near a rural railroad stop that transformed the South Jersey settlement of Greenland into the tiny borough of Magnolia. But while it may have been named for a tree, it was community spirit that inspired Magnolia's official slogan, One Square Mile of Friendliness. Magnolia celebrates that spirit through an impressive collection of rare photographs. These include Dr. Leslie Lyon, who accepted chickens as payment for house calls during the Depression, the state police substation that protected the region from organized crime during Prohibition, and the home of Aunt Nell, who was always there to lend a hand to those in need. Also included are images of the borough's early citizens; schools; churches; police, fire, and ambulance squads; businesses; and community activities.
Magnolia (Wiley-blackwell Series In Film And Television Ser. #15)
by Christina LaneThere are certain films and shows that resonate with audiences everywhere—they generate discussion and debate about everything from gender, class, citizenship and race, to consumerism and social identity. This new 'teachable canon' of film and television introduces students to alternative classics that range from silent film to CSI. Magnolia is one of those films students know and love. From the over-the-top performances by male and female leads to the "ripped from the pages of the Old Testament" conclusion, it is a cult favorite in American cinema This is the first book to examine the diverse themes, performances, and influences on this polarizing film, encouraging students to look beyond the film's style in order to fully engage with questions about its substance Lane develops a careful analysis of the film, its director, as well as the contemporary context in which it was produced - exploring topics including the role of the auteur, what constitutes cinema / media literacy in the digital age, the politics of postmodernism, and the film's critique of the mass media - in order to challenge students to ask themselves why they are so riveted by this controversial and unusual film
Magnum Opus: The Cycle Plays of Eugene O'Neill
by Zander BrietzkeAn original and provocative analysis of Eugene O'Neill's unfinished cycle play project From 1935 to 1939, Eugene O&’Neill worked on a series of plays that would trace the history of an American family through several generations. He completed just two of the proposed eleven plays—A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions—which Zander Brietzke argues represent the core of the entire cycle. Combining archival research, literary analysis, and theatrical imagination, Magnum Opus invites an audience to see this unusual and exciting epic as a historical drama of our time.
Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History
by Russell MillerThis book is a biography of Magnum, told largely in the words of its photographers. It offers a unique perspective on half a century of world history from an extraordinary group of men and women who were front line witnesses at virtually every major event in the last fifty years. Wars, famines, natural disasters, social, political and environmental crises - Magnum photographers were there. They have been acute observers of the human condition, photographing the richest people in the world, the poorest, the least known and the most celebrated, from Marilyn Monroe to Che Guevara, JFK to Nelson Mandela, Picasso to Krushchev. This is a multi-layered story. At one level, it tells how a small group of photographrs - among them Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger - came together, established and nurtured a co-operative photographic agency that has survived against all the odds to become the most famous in the world. At a secondary level, it is the richly anecdotal story of the photographers themselves, their adventures around the world and their feelings about, and reactions to, their assignments.
Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads: A Modern Knitter's Guide to Discovering and Exploring Style
by Cirilia Rose“Rose explores her myriad inspirations in this collection of twenty-five fashionable knitting projects that show the potential in beautiful yarn . . . marvelous.” —Library JournalCirilia Rose is the epitome of the new knitwear designer—young, educated, curious, and excited to share her passion for all ideas knit and purl. Her attitude toward curating her own collection of designs is informed as much by travel, cultural history, and tried-and-true sourcebooks as it is by modern media and technology. In Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads, Rose takes readers behind the scenes of her design process, showing them how she curates and organizes ideas and translates them into knitwear designs. Through twenty-five projects that fall into three categories—Magpies (accessories for the small amounts of precious yarns that knitters inevitably collect), Homebodies (garments for time spent close to home), and Nomads (garments to wear when venturing out into the world)—Rose shares her modern aesthetic and invites readers to develop their own.“So not only do we have twenty-five patterns—many of them timeless and some of them quirky—we also have a lot of attentive commentary on color selection, styling tips, and useful info on substituting yarns. This is one new book that I would highly recommend. Not only for the patterns, but especially for the spirit of the book and the thoughtful way Cirilia Rose approaches her knitting and explains her process.” —Knit and Tonic“This is a gem of a book.” —Kangath Knits“This latitude that Rose has given herself to combine disparate elements makes all her designs fresh, hip and youthful.” —My Central Jersey
Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves: How the Victorians Collected the World
by Jacqueline YallopDuring the Victorian age, British collectors were among the most active, passionate, and eccentric in the world. This book tells the stories of some of the 19th century's most intriguing collectors, following their perilous journeys across the globe in the hunt for rare and beautiful objects. From art connoisseur John Charles Robinson, to the aristocratic scholar Charlotte Schreiber, who ransacked Europe for treasure, and from London's fashionable Pre-Raphaelite circle, to pioneering Orientalists in Beijing, Jacqueline Yallop plunges us into the cut-throat world of the Victorian mania for collecting.
Magritte's Labyrinth
by Ellen Handler SpitzGertrude Stein once asked why certain painted pictures engrave themselves into our minds with fierce tenacity. Why do they unsettle us? The enigmatic art of Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte has long been subject to art historical and philosophical inquiry and mined by the worlds of advertising, illustration, and film. Yet Stein's questions are rarely asked. "Magritte's Labyrinth" takes them on. It introduces a vital psychological perspective that has gone missing. Beyond manifest cognitive dissonance, it questions the powerful emotional impact of Magritte's painted imagery.Trained in art history, philosophy, and nonclinical psychoanalysis, Ellen Handler Spitz, the author of "Magritte's Labyrinth," was introduced to Magritte's art by a New York psychologist who studied bereavement in childhood. Spitz found the images impossible to expunge. She reflects on them psychologically. She analyzes their subtle engagement with conflict, anxiety, and fear. She reads their humor and pathos as veils that both mask and disclose uncomfortable themes."Magritte's Labyrinth" offers its readers intriguing new ways to understand their own idiosyncratic responses to this mysterious and fascinating art.Dr. Ellen Handler Spitz is a writer and scholar who holds the Honors College Professorship at the University of Maryland (UMBC). She is the author of six books on the arts and psychology: "Art and Psyche" (Yale); "Image and Insight" (Columbia); "Museums of the Mind" (Yale); "Inside Picture Books" (Yale); "The Brightening Glance" (Pantheon); and "Illuminating Childhood" (Michigan). Her most recent research focuses on children's aesthetic lives. She has held residential fellowships at the Getty Center in Santa Monica, California; the Bunting (Radcliffe) Institute at Harvard University; the Clark Art Institute; the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University; and the Camargo Foundation in France, among others. She is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities. Her reviews have been published in "The New York Times Book Review" and "The New Republic" online; she contributes to the website "artcritical" and has written for "The Brooklyn Rail." Her work is translated into Italian, Japanese, and Serbian. She divides her time between New York City and Baltimore. Her website is: www.ellenhandlerspitz.net.
Magritte: A Life
by Alex DanchevThe first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé—by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and BraqueIn this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898‒1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte&’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have become an inescapable part of our visual landscape, through such legendary works as The Treachery of Images (Ceci n&’est pas une pipe), and his celebrated iterations of Man in a Bowler Hat. Danchev explores the path of this highly unconventional artist, from his middle-class Belgian beginnings to the years in which he led a small, brilliant band of surrealists (and famously clashed with André Breton) to his first major retrospective, which traveled to the United States in 1965 and gave rise to his international reputation. Using thirty-two pages of color images and more than 160 black-and-white illustrations throughout the text, Danchev delves deeply into Magritte&’s artistic development and the profound questions he raised in his work about the very nature of authenticity.
Mahabharata
by Ravi Jain Miriam FernandesA contemporary dramatic take on a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit epic that is foundational to Indian culture. Why Not Theatre’s large-scale, once-in-a-generation retelling of Mahabharata brings together a cast of performers entirely from the South Asian diaspora, blending cultures and art forms in a spectacular production at the Shaw Festival and the Barbican Theatre in London. Over two parts (Karma and Dharma) and a communal meal (Khana), this translation and adaptation of Mahabharata spans generations and takes audiences into the hearts and minds of some of the most complex and enduring characters ever created. With warring families and devious revenge plots, Mahabharata tells the story of an ancient feud with philosophical and spiritual questions that are no less urgent today. In times of division, how do we find wholeness? Are we destined to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors? And how can we build a new world when we have nearly destroyed this one? Contains the full text of the play along with materials opening up the behind-the-scenes world of the production, including interviews with the creators, background and context about the source material, production photographs, a Mahabharata family tree, and glossary."Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes’s contemporary take on the Mahabharata is one of the most beautiful emotional journeys I have had the privilege to witness. It is inspiring, mind broadening, and speaks to all the senses. It even brings you back to the origins of theatre itself, when people would gather in the quarries around a bonfire to tell stories. With their tasteful use of technology, dance, and opera, the 4,000-year-old Sanskrit poem comes to life and feels more universal than ever. A captivating theatre experience, from the first flame to the last pixel." – Robert Lepage"In their stunning rendition of the great Indian epic Mahabharata, Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes brilliantly reverse the whole concept of what Bertolt Brecht famously advised theatre directors: to make the familiar, unfamiliar. Jain and Fernandes have turned the unfamiliar into the familiar. The 4,000-year-old saga most Indians grew up with is made accessible to a contemporary audience the world over. No mean feat. ‘The play, true to its source, crosses all boundaries of culture, class, and geography. Its timeless storytelling and evocative stage design is transformed into a saga for the world, with its fundamental emotions of human nature – power, hate, jealousy, greed, and lust. To be gob-smacked by this innovation would be an understatement. Immerse yourself in this take on the Mahabharata and travel with it in time into the past, present, and future of humanity." – Deepa Mehta
Mahanoy Area
by Mahanoy Area Historical SocietyThe Mahanoy area in Schuylkill County is the heart of the anthracite coal region. It is quintessentially defined by hardworking individuals who made their livings around the mining industry, but the area was also the foundation of family fortunes, longstanding business ventures, and political intrigue. Real estate mogul Charles D. Kaier began the mostup-to-date brewery of the day here; early resident John Smith built his lavish fourteen-room mansion for $40,000 in 1908; and the controversial Mollie Maguires--a secret society of Irish coal miners who used violence against mining hierarchy--were based here.
Maharishi & Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles' Guru
by Susan ShumskySusan Shumsky is a successful author in the human potential field. But in the 1970s, in India, the Swiss Alps, and elsewhere, she served on the personal staff of the most famous guru of the 20th century—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi died in 2008 at age ninety, but his influence endures through the spiritual movement he founded: TM (Transcendental Meditation). Other books have been written about him, but this spellbinding page-turner offers a rare insider's view of life with the guru, including the time the Beatles studied at his feet in Rishikesh, India, and wrote dozens of songs under his influence. Both inspirational and disturbing, Maharishi and Me illuminates Susan's two decades living in Maharishi's ashrams, where she grew from a painfully shy teenage seeker into a spiritually aware teacher and author. It features behind-the-scenes, myth-busting stories, and over 100 photos of Maharishi and his celebrity disciples (the Beatles, Deepak Chopra, Mia Farrow, Beach Boys, and many more). Susan's candid, honest portrayal draws back the curtain on her shattering, extreme emotional seesaws of heaven and hell at her guru's hands. This compelling, haunting memoir will continue to challenge readers long after they turn its last page. It dismantles all previous beliefs about the spiritual path and how spiritual masters are supposed to behave. Susan shares: “Merely by being in his presence, we disciples entered an utterly timeless place and rapturous feeling, and, at the same time, realized the utter futility and insanity of the mundane world.” Susan's heartfelt masterwork blends her experiences, exacting research, artistically descriptive and humorous writing, emotional intelligence, and intensely personal inner exploration into a feast for thought and contemplation. Neither starry-eyed nor antagonistic, it captures, from a balanced viewpoint, the essence of life in an ashram.
Maid for Television: Race, Class, Gender, and a Representational Economy
by L. S. KimMaid for Television examines race, class, and gender relations as embodied in a long history of television servants from 1950 to the turn of the millennium. Although they reside at the visual peripheries, these figures are integral to the idealized American family. Author L. S. Kim redirects viewers' gaze towards the usually overlooked interface between characters, which is drawn through race, class, and gender positioning. Maid for Television tells the stories of servants and the families they work for, in so doing it investigates how Americans have dealt with difference through television as a medium and a mediator.The book philosophically redirects the gaze of television and its projection of racial discourse.