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Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts, Private Stories
by Paul MyersWant to know more about this Canadian quintet? It's all here, from the births of five Barenaked babies to the triumph of band member Kevin over leukemia.
Bargain Hunt: The Spotter's Guide to Antiques
by Karen FarringtonBargain Hunt is a British institution, entertaining audiences for over 20 years, and encouraging us to look for diamonds in the rough at antique fairs and shops across the country. A Bargain Hunt is more than just a quest for cash, though - from traveller's trunks and tea caddies to walking canes, coins and quirky costumes, each of the items chosen has their own story to tell, forming a small part of our collective social history.The Bargain Hunt Spotter's Guide to Antiques is packed with essential information from the Bargain Hunt experts on identifying quality across a range of antiques. From makers' marks and tell-tale historical styles to details in foils and finials, this will be your one-stop guide to making good choices on your own bargain hunt - while also delving into the fascinating stories behind many of our favourite antiques.With a foreword from Natasha Raskin Sharp, as well as tips, advice, and stories throughout from each of the show's experts (including 'league tables' of best and worst finds), this is the essential companion to all your future Bargain Hunts!
Barkley: A Biography
by Timothy BellaThe definitive biography of Charles Barkley, exploring his early childhood, his storied NBA career, and his enduring legacy as a provocative voice in American pop culture He&’s one of the most interesting American athletes in the past fifty years. Passionate, candid, iconoclastic, and gifted both on and off the court, Charles Barkley has made a lasting impact on not only the world of basketball but pop culture at large. Yet few people know the real Charles. Raised by his mother and grandmother in Leeds, Alabama, he struggled in his early years to fit in until he found a sense of community and purpose in basketball. In the NBA he went toe-to-toe with the biggest legends in the game, from Magic to Michael to Hakeem to Shaq. But in the years since, he has become a bold agitator for social change, unafraid to grapple, often brashly, with even the thorniest of cultural issues facing our nation today. Informed by over 370 original interviews and painstaking research, Timothy Bella&’s Barkley is the most comprehensive biography to date of one of the most talked-about icons in the world of sports.
Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows
by Craig HamrickBarnabas and Company tells the tale of the (mostly) marvelous actors and actresses who came together in a tiny studio in Manhattan to make magic--both on screen and off. "Dark Shadows" innovatively broke all the daytime rules and blazed a trail other soaps are still following. Featuring sympathetic vampires and werewolves, decades before "Buffy the Vampire Killer" made slaying cool, the show captured the nation's attention. In the actors' own words, read about how it happened, and relive your own special memories of those "Dark Shadows" in the afternoon. Plus, a special trivia section includes information on the actors' other roles--on TV, stage and in movies.
Barnum's Own Story: The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum
by P. T. BarnumP. T. Barnum's career of showmanship and charlatanry was marked by a surprising undercurrent of honesty and forthrightness. His exuberant autobiography forms a happy combination of all those traits, revealing the whole story of his world-famous hoaxes and publicity stunts. Here is a pageant of nineteenth-century America's gullibility and thirst for marvels, as told by the master of revels himself.A born storyteller, Barnum recalls his association with Tom Thumb, his audience with Queen Victoria, and his trouble keeping Jenny Lind's angelic image intact during a trying tour. He tells of Jumbo, the most famous elephant in history, from the creature's heroic arrival in America to its tragic death in a railroad accident; of his attempts to transfer Shakespeare's house and Madame Tussaud's Waxworks from England to New York; and of his triumphant reentry into public life after financial failure and five disastrous fires had all but wiped him out. The true-life tale of a man of boundless imagination and indomitable energy, Barnum's autobiography embodies the spirit of America's most exciting boom years.
Barnum: An American Life
by Robert WilsonThe first major biography of P.T. Barnum in a generation, a vivid account of the forefather of American entertainment.P. T. Barnum was the greatest showman the world has ever seen: the cocreator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the man who made worldwide sensations of Jumbo the Elephant, General Tom Thumb, and the “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind. He was the champion of wonder, joy, trickery, and “humbug.” He was, as Barnum argues, one of the most important Americans of the nineteenth century. Nearly 125 years after his death, the name P. T. Barnum still inspires wonder. Robert Wilson’s vivid new biography captures the full genius, infamy, and allure of the ebullient showman. From birth to death, Phineas Taylor Barnum repeatedly reinvented himself. He learned as a young man how to wow crowds, and built a fortune that placed him among the first millionaires in the United States. He also suffered tragedy, bankruptcy, and fires that destroyed his life’s work, yet willed himself to rebuild and succeed again. As an entertainer, Barnum courted controversy time and again throughout his life—yet he was also a man of strong convictions, guided in his work not by a desire to deceive but an eagerness to thrill and bring joy to his audiences. He almost certainly never uttered the infamous line, “There's a sucker born every minute,” instead taking pride in giving crowds their money’s worth and more. Robert Wilson, editor of The American Scholar, tells a gripping story in Barnum, one that’s imbued with the same buoyant spirit as the man himself. Wilson adeptly makes the case for P. T. Barnum’s place among the icons of American history, as a figure who represented, and indeed created, a distinctly American sense of optimism, industriousness, humor, and relentless energy.
Baroque Aesthetics in Contemporary American Horror
by Gabriel Eljaiek-RodríguezThis book traces a trend that has emerged in recent years within the modern panorama of American horror film and television, the concurrent—and often overwhelming—use of multiple stock characters, themes and tropes taken from classics of the genre. American Horror Story, Insidious and The Conjuring are examples of a filmic tendency to address a series of topics and themes so vast that at first glance each taken separately would seem to suffice for individual films or shows. This book explores this trend in its visible connections with American Horror, but also with cultural and artistic movements from outside the US, namely Baroque art and architecture, Asian Horror, and European Horror. It analyzes how these hybrid products are constructed and discusses the socio-political issues that they raise. The repeated and excessive barrage of images, tropes and scenarios from distinct subgenres of iconic horror films come together to make up an aesthetic that is referred to in this book as Baroque Horror. In many ways similar to the reactions provoked by the artistic movement of the same name that flourished in the XVII century, these productions induce shock, awe, fear, and surprise. Eljaiek-Rodríguez details how American directors and filmmakers construct these narratives using different and sometimes disparate elements that come together to function as a whole, terrifying the audience through their frenetic accumulation of images, tropes and plot twists. The book also addresses some of the effects that these complex films and series have produced both in the panorama of contemporary horror, as well as in how we understand politics in a divisive world that pushes for ideological homogenizations.
Barra and Zaman: Reading Egyptian Modernity in Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy (Palgrave Studies in Arab Cinema)
by Youssef RakhaBrilliantly introduced by Nezar Andary, this book is a work of creative nonfiction that approaches writing on film in a fresh and provocative way. It draws on academic, literary, and personal material to start a dialogue with the Egyptian filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Mummy (1969), tracing the many meanings of Egypt’s postcolonial modernity and touching on Arab, Muslim, and ancient Egyptian identities through watching the film.
Barrel Fever
by David SedarisIn David Sedaris's world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz and the National Enquirer, Sedaris's collection of stories and essays is a rollicking tour through the American Zeitgeist: a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tried to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; and in his essays, David Sedaris considers the hazards of rewards of smoking, writing for Giantess magazine, and living with his scrappy brother Paul, aka 'The Rooster'.With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes and reads stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behaviour. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life - and anything can happen.
Barrel Fever: Stories And Essays
by David SedarisIn David Sedaris's world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz and the National Enquirer, Sedaris's collection of stories and essays is a rollicking tour through the American Zeitgeist: a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tried to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; and in his essays, David Sedaris considers the hazards of rewards of smoking, writing for Giantess magazine, and living with his scrappy brother Paul, aka 'The Rooster'.With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes and reads stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behaviour. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life - and anything can happen.
Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage: Affect, Post-Tragedy, Emergency (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Charlotte FarrellThis is the first book-length study of Australian theatre productions by internationally-renowned director, Barrie Kosky. Now a prolific opera director in Europe, Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage accounts for the formative years of Kosky's career in Australia. This book provides in-depth engagements with select productions including The Dybbuk which Kosky directed with Gilgul theatre company in 1991, as well as King Lear (1998), The Lost Echo (2006), and Women of Troy (2008). Using affect theory as a prism through which these works are analysed, the book accounts for the director's particular engagement with – and radical departure from – classical tragedy in contemporary performance: what the book defines as Kosky's 'post-tragedies'. Theatre studies scholars and students, particularly those with interests in affect, contemporary performance, 'director's theatre', and tragedy, will benefit from Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage’s vivid engagement with Kosky's work: a director who has become a singular figure in opera and theatre of international critical acclaim.
Barrie Kosky’s Transnational Theatres (Global Germany in Transnational Dialogues)
by James Phillips John R. SevernThis book, the first of its kind, surveys the career of the renowned Australian-German theatre and opera director Barrie Kosky. Its nine chapters provide multidisciplinary analyses of Barrie Kosky’s working practices and stage productions, from the beginning of his career in Melbourne to his current roles as Head of the Komische Oper Berlin and as a guest director in international demand. Specialists in theatre studies, opera studies, musical theatre studies, aesthetics, and arts administration offer in-depth accounts of Kosky’s unusually wide-ranging engagements with the performing arts – as a director of spoken theatre, operas, musicals, operettas, as an adaptor, a performer, a writer, and an arts manager. Further, this book includes contributions from theatre practitioners with first-hand experience of collaborating with Kosky in the 1990s, who draw on interviews with members of Gilgul, Australia’s first Jewish theatre company, to document this formative period in Kosky’s career. The book investigates the ways in which Kosky has created transnational theatres, through introducing European themes and theatre techniques to his Australian work or through bringing fresh voices to the national dialogue in Germany’s theatre landscape. An appendix contains a timeline and guide to Kosky’s productions to date.
Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker
by Barry SonnenfeldFilm and television director Barry Sonnenfeld's outrageous and hilarious memoir traces his idiosyncratic upbringing in New York City, his breaking into film as a cinematographer with the Coen brothers, and his unexpected career as the director behind such huge film franchises as The Addams Family and Men in Black, and beloved work like Get Shorty, Pushing Daises, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.Barry Sonnenfeld's philosophy is, "Regret the Past. Fear the Present. Dread the Future." Told in his unmistakable voice, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother is a laugh-out-loud memoir about coming of age. Constantly threatened with suicide by his over-protective mother, disillusioned by the father he worshiped, and abused by a demonic relative, Sonnenfeld somehow went on to become one of Hollywood's most successful producers and directors.Written with poignant insight and real-life irony, the book follows Sonnenfeld from childhood as a French horn player through graduate film school at NYU, where he developed his talent for cinematography. His first job after graduating was shooting nine feature length pornos in nine days. From that humble entrée, he went on to form a friendship with the Coen Brothers, launching his career shooting their first three films.Though Sonnenfeld had no ambition to direct, Scott Rudin convinced him to be the director of The Addams Family. It was a successful career move. He went on to direct many more films and television shows. Will Smith once joked that he wanted to take Sonnenfeld to Philadelphia public schools and say, "If this guy could end up as a successful film director on big budget films, anyone can." This book is a fascinating and hilarious roadmap for anyone who thinks they can't succeed in life because of a rough beginning.
Baseball's Even Greater Insults
by Kevin NelsonThere are no lyrical passages here, no fond reminiscences about childhood games, no tributes to "inspiring" players. Too much real stuff has happened since Kevin Nelson collected Baseball's Greatest Insults in 1984. This hilarious all-star review reveals how the players, managers, umpires, owners, and the sports media really feel about one another.
Based on a True Story: A Memoir
by Norm Macdonald<P>Wild, dangerous, and flat-out unbelievable, here is the incredible memoir of the actor, gambler, raconteur, SNL veteran, and one of the best stand-up comedians of all time. <P>As this book's title suggests, Norm Macdonald tells the story of his life--more or less--from his origins on a farm in the-back-of-beyond Canada and an epically disastrous appearance on Star Search to his account of auditioning for Lorne Michaels and his memorable run as the anchor of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live--until he was fired because a corporate executive didn't think he was funny. But Based on a True Story is much more than a memoir; it's the hilarious, inspired epic of Norm's life. <P>In dispatches from a road trip to Las Vegas (part of a plan hatched to regain the fortune he'd lost to sports betting and other vices) with his sidekick and enabler, Adam Eget, Norm recounts the milestone moments, the regrets, the love affairs, the times fortune smiled on his life, and the times it refused to smile. As the clock ticks down, Norm's debt reaches record heights, and he must find a way to evade the hefty price that's been placed on his head by one of the most dangerous loan sharks in the country. <P>As a comedy legend should, Norm peppers these pages with classic jokes and fondly mythologized Hollywood stories. This wildly adventurous, totally original, and absurdly funny saga turns the conventional "comic's memoir" on its head and gives the reader an exclusive pass into the mad, glorious mind of Norm Macdonald. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
Bash: Three Plays
by Neil LabuteA trio of brilliantly scathing plays by the renowned writer-director of In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors. With the success of his first two films, In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, writer-director Neil LaBute has been hailed as a first-rate dramatic talent with a caustic wit reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick. bash—a collection of three stunning one-act plays that mark LaBute’s return to the New York stage after ten years—forms a trio of unforgettable personal accounts: in Medea Redux, a woman tells of her complex and ultimately tragic relationship with her grade school English teacher; in Iphigenia in Orem, a Utah businessman confides in a stranger in a Las Vegas hotel room, confessing a most chilling crime; and in A Gaggle of Saints, a young Mormon couple separately recounts the violent events of an anniversary weekend in New York City. All three are unblinking portraits of the complexities of evil in everyday life, exhibiting LaBute’s signature raw lyrical intensity.
Bash: Three Plays
by Neil LabuteA trio of brilliantly scathing plays by the renowned writer-director of In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors. <P> With the success of his first two films, In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, writer-director Neil LaBute has been hailed as a first-rate dramatic talent with a caustic wit reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick. bash--a collection of three stunning one-act plays that mark LaBute's return to the New York stage after ten years--forms a trio of unforgettable personal accounts: in Medea Redux, a woman tells of her complex and ultimately tragic relationship with her grade school English teacher; in Iphigenia in Orem, a Utah businessman confides in a stranger in a Las Vegas hotel room, confessing a most chilling crime; and in A Gaggle of Saints, a young Mormon couple separately recounts the violent events of an anniversary weekend in New York City. All three are unblinking portraits of the complexities of evil in everyday life, exhibiting LaBute's signature raw lyrical intensity.
Basic Betacam Camerawork (Media Manuals Ser.)
by Peter WardBasic Betacam Camerawork offers a complete introduction to both the analogue and digital beta camera formats: Betacam, Digital Beta, Betacam SX and DV & DVCAM. Step-by-step instructions are given covering everything from pre-recording checklists, to technical camera specifications, instruction on exposure and lighting, composition, editing and sound and techniques for different programme styles. Aimed at TV camera operators just starting out and film cameramen and women converting to video this book will also appeal to students on film and television production courses.Peter Ward is a freelance cameraman and trainer working with the International Television Training Consultancy and ex-Chairman of the Guild of Television Cameramen. He spent many years working on a variety of programmes at the BBC before becoming Head of Cameras at Television South West. Peter is author of the following books for Focal Press: Digital Video Camerawork, Picture Composition for Film and Video , Studio & Outside Broadcast Camerawork, TV Technical Operations and co-author of Multiskilling for TV Production.Basic Betacam Camerawork offers a complete introduction to both the analogue and digital beta camera formats.
Basic Cinematography: A Creative Guide to Visual Storytelling
by Kurt LancasterThe cinematographer must translate the ideas and emotions contained in a script into something that can be physically seen and felt onscreen, helping the director to fulfil the vision of the film. The shots may look good, but they will not serve the story until the composition, lenses, and lighting express, enhance, and reveal the underlying emotions and subtext of the story. By making physical the ideas and emotions of the story, the cinematographer supports blocking as a visual form of the story through these tools. Rather than delve into technical training, Basic Cinematography helps to train the eye and heart of cinematographers as visual storytellers, providing them with a strong foundation for their work, so that they’re ready with creative ideas and choices on set in order to make compelling images that support the story. The book includes tools, tables, and worksheets on how to enhance students and experienced filmmakers with strong visual storytelling possibilities, including such features as: Dramatic script analysis that will help unlock blocking, composition, and lighting ideas that reveal the visual story Ten tools of composition Psychological impact of lenses, shot sizes, and camera movement Six elements of lighting for visual storytelling What to look for beneath the "hood" of cameras, including using camera log, RAW, and LUTs Dramatic analysis chart and scene composition chart to help plan your shoots Case studies from such visually cinematic shows and documentaries as Netflix’s Godless, Jessica Jones, The Crown, and Chef’s Table, as well as examples from classroom exercises Features insights from the DP of Jessica Jones, Manuel Billeter, and the DP of Chef’s Table, Adam Bricker.
Basic Lighting Worktext for Film and Video
by Richard FerncaseBasic Lighting Worktext for Film and Video guides the film and video student through a series of readings, exercises and projects designed to provide the fundamentals of light science. In addition to up-to-date descriptions of equipment and tips on how to use it properly, the book provides numerous set-ups that illustrate the techniques and thoughts behind proper studio and location lighting. From this book, you will learn:* The fundamentals of light and electricity in film* The fine distinction of lighting for video versus lighting for film* How to identify and filter sources such as daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, arc, HNI and industrial discharge lamps* The use of lensed and open-faced lighting fixtures* How to modify with barndoors, scrims, snoots, nets, cookies, and other accessories* Variations on the basic three-point lighting setup* The duties of each member of a lighting unit* How to light night exteriors, day interiors, and campfires* High-key, low-key, and modulated value lighting* How to scout locations, plan lighting, plots, and pre-rig sets
Basic Prediction Techniques in Modern Video Coding Standards (SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering)
by Byung-Gyu Kim Kalyan GoswamiThis book discusses in detail the basic algorithms of video compression that are widely used in modern video codec. The authors dissect complicated specifications and present material in a way that gets readers quickly up to speed by describing video compression algorithms succinctly, without going to the mathematical details and technical specifications. For accelerated learning, hybrid codec structure, inter- and intra- prediction techniques in MPEG-4, H. 264/AVC, and HEVC are discussed together. In addition, the latest research in the fast encoder design for the HEVC and H. 264/AVC is also included.
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet: Russian Ballet Technique
by Agrippina VaganovaAlthough the stars of Russian ballet Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina possessed a national manner of dancing, there was no truly Russian school of dancing until the 1930s. The development of this school was largely due to Mme. Vaganova (1879–1951), not only a great dancer but also the teacher of Galina Ulanova and many others and an unsurpassed theoretician.The principles of Vaganova's system are presented in this well-known book. Mme. Vaganova's aim of creating a personal approach to the Russian dance was based on the critical assimilation of the experience of her contemporaries. Her ability to choose the best of what had been accomplished in the various ballet traditions (French, Italian, and Russian) and combine these into a unified teaching practice in itself amounted to a new school of dance. She firmly believed that the teaching process should be a planned exercise, ever changing with innovations in the dance. She sought from her pupils emotional expressiveness, strictness of form, a resolute, energetic manner of performance, and the understanding of the underlying coordination of movements.Her book discusses all basic principles of ballet, grouping movements by fundamental types. Chapters cover battements, rotary movements of the legs, the arms, poses of the classical dance, connecting and auxiliary movements, jumps, beats, point work, and turns as well as material for a sample lesson. Diagrams show clearly the exact foot, leg, arm, and body positions for the proper execution of many steps and movements. The result is a fundamental theory of dance that offers dancers, teachers, and ballet lovers information often difficult to locate in other books. 118 illustrations.
Basic Studio Directing
by Rod FairweatherAll studio directors need to know the basics of studio directing, whether they go on to direct news, drama, children's programmes or light entertainment. Learning the ropes on air can be costly: this book gives you all the practical and technical guidance you need to deliver a trouble free programme. All studio directors need to know the basics of studio directing, whether they go on to direct news, drama, children's programmes or light entertainment. Learning the ropes on air can be costly: this book gives you all the practical and technical guidance you need to deliver a trouble free programme.Starting with an emphasis on the skills that make a good director, the essential day to day know-how is outlined - from different presentation formats to the roles of the production team, camera technology, composition, lighting, digital video, chroma key, make-up and wardrobe. Whether you are a student or practitioner wishing to sharpen up your technique, this manual is an excellent guide to the technology and skills required.This book:· Provides essential day to day information in one handy source · Offers a combination of theory and practice, technical data and intuitive skill· Is an excellent introductory text for anyone embarking on a career in directingContents:Networks * Cameras and Pictures * Pre-Production * Cutting and Combining Pictures * The Studio Team * Interviews * Magazines * Script Layouts * Electronic Newsrooms * Practical Directing * Communications * Directors Technology * Dealing with Problems.Rod Fairweather is a freelance director and has worked for companies such as SKY TV, GMTV, ITN and MTV Europe. He conducts training courses on directing all over the world including Singapore, India and Australia.
Basic TV Technology: Digital and Analog (Media Manual Ser.)
by Robert L HartwigBasic TV Technology is the essential basic guide to the fundamentals underlying all television and video systems, written for students and nontechnical professionals. You don't need to have a math or science background in order to understand this explanation of how the principal pieces of equipment work, what their functions are, and how they are integrated to form a complex video system. An understanding of this material will be necessary for you to succeed in the real world, where one person often has to perform many different roles and functions within a production. Armed with some basic technical background information, you'll be more effective at figuring out new applications and at problem-solving. The fourth edition of Basic TV Technology has been updated to reflect the industry shift to digital video and includes new information on compression, television standards, LCD displays, HD, and equipment. This book features the accessible Media Manual format, in which every topic is covered in two pages: one of explanatory text and one of figures. Need more information on TV technologies, go to: http://www.insightmedia.info/newsletters.php
Basics of Video Lighting
by Des Lyver Graham SwainsonNow fully updated by Des Lyver to reflect the latest advances, the second edition of Basics of Video Lighting is a primer for anyone wishing to learn about lighting a video production. It describes the principles and processes involved in obtaining professional results in educational, training and corporate environments. Assuming little prior knowledge, this book covers everything from the different types of lights and their control, to basic studio and location settings. It features:· the latest technology, including the use of location and grip gear and changes in lamp and reflector technology · coverage of studio and location work· descriptions of the role of each crew member · full explanations of technical terms· health and safety precautions· practical advice on the equipment available and how to use itBasics of Video Lighting aims to provide the reader with a rapid understanding of what is actually a complex process, without getting too bogged down in technical terms. It is equipment non-specific and references to technical matters are only included where necessary to understanding, for example a short explanation of the simple electricity that is needed to understand the relationship between the camera and the lights.