Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

• 

  Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd...

  Editors Charles River

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Halfway into the 19th century, Spain's Catalonia underwent a sweeping transformation when it was thrust into not one, but 2 golden eras – the Renaixença and the Industrial Revolution. It was during this explosive period of creativity, thriving prosperity, and invigorated patriotism that a steadfastly nonconforming and fascinatingly eccentric icon was born, one that was about to take Catalonia by storm with his brilliant eye for unorthodox art and his legendary – or as some would say, notoriously – out-of-the-box ideas. Salvador Dalí, the celebrated surrealist, was one of many who would find a fount of inspiration in him, even once raving about the Sagrada Familia, the highlight of this icon's career: “Those who have not heard about the chromatic and shining essence of its color, the astonishing polyphony of its towers as organ pipes and shocked by its mutant naturalism, are traitors.” This icon in question, of course, is none other than what many now consider to be the patriarch of the Catalan Modernism movement: Antoni Gaudí. 
  Across the pond, America’s most innovative and prolific architect was Frank Lloyd Wright, whose works are almost too vast and diverse to list. Recognized for designing unique churches and distinctive commercial buildings, and admired for his geometric style house designs, Wright has been widely imitated, and his work continues to influence architecture not only in the United States but around the world. Laymen often think they know the definition of “a Frank Lloyd Wright,” but they probably don’t fully understand the brilliant mind of the man, nor the intricacies of his Prairie Style. Yet it endures because he has made it so, and in many ways, Wright’s architectural career has overshadowed other aspects of his life.

  Mostra libro

• 

  RD Burman - The Man The Music...

  Balaji Vittal, Anirudha...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Winner of the National Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2011 
  To a nation fed on classical music, the advent of Rahul Dev Burman with his repertoire of Western beats was a godsend. RD revolutionized Hindi film music in the 1970s, and with his emphasis on rhythm and beats, this Pied Piper of Hindi film music had young India swinging to his tunes. At the same time, this genius proved his many detractors who criticized him for corrupting popular taste wrong by composing some of the most influential raga-based songs in Hindi cinema and showing an immense comfort with all kinds of music, including Indian folk. RD: The Man, The Music looks at the phenomenon called R.D. Burman and how he changed the way Indians perceived Hindi film music. Through anecdotes and trivia that went into the making of Pancham's music - the many innovations he introduced, like mixed rhythm patterns, piquant chords and sound mixing - and through interactions with the musicians who were part of RD's team, the authors create a fascinating portrait of a man who, through his music, continues to thrive, even fifteen years after his death.

  Mostra libro

• 

  Transformer - A Story of Glitter...

  Simon Doonan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In this funny and poignant memoir and cultural history, the television personality, columnist, and author of Drag pays homage to Lou Reed’s groundbreaking album Transformer on its fiftieth anniversary and recalls its influence on his coming of age and coming out through glam rock. 
  In November 1972, Lou Reed released his album, Transformer because he thought it was “dreary for gay people to have to listen to straight people’s love songs.” That groundbreaking idea echoed with the times. That same year, Sweden was the first country to legalize gender-affirming surgery, and San Francisco struck down employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. 
  Sometimes an artistic creation perfectly aligns with a broader social and political history, and Transformer—with the songs “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Perfect Day,” and “Vicious”—perfectly captured its time. “Walk on the Wild Side” was banned on radio across the country but became a massive hit when young people threatened to boycott stations that would not play it. The album's cover featured a high-contrast image of Lou, flaunting a new mascara'd glamrock incarnation, shot by legend Mick Rock, thereby underscoring his intention to create ""a gay album."" 
  In Transformer, Doonan tells the story of how Lou Reed came to make the album with the help of David Bowie, and places its creation within the course of Reed’s life. Doonan offers first-hand testimony of the album’s impact on the LGBTQ+ community, recalling how it transformed his own life as a 20-year-old working class kid from Reading, England, who had just discovered the joys of London Glam Rock and was sparked by the artistic freedom of Warhol’s The Factory. Transformer was a revelation—hearing Reed’s songs, Doonan understood how the world was changing for him and his friends. 
  A poignant, personal addition to modern music and LGBTQ+ history, Transformer captures a pivotal moment when those long silenced were finally given a voice. As transgender icon Candy Darling, highlighted in his lyrics, told Reed, “It’s so nice to hear ourselves.” 
  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook. 
  This book would make a great gift for any music lover, LGBTQ+ activist, or history buff looking to learn more about the cultural impact of Lou Reed's Transformer album on the world.

  Mostra libro

• 

  Sirius the Star of the Maltese...

  Lenie Reedijk

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Sirius, the Star of the Maltese Temples invites the reader to look at the megalithic temples of Malta in an entirely new way. The discovery of the temples’ orientation to Sirius explains with mathematical precision the slight shift in the direction of their axes, caused by the movement of the stars called the Precession of the Equinoxes. The resultant astronomical dating of the temples to the Mesolithic, the period immediately after the last Ice Age, is far older than mainstream archaeology maintains and is on a par with other megalithic sites elsewhere, including Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. These findings turn on its head our conception of the accomplishments of ancient people. Instead of being just primitive cave-dwellers, they were primeval astronomers, whose interest in the sky has left us a legacy we never dreamt existed. 
  From the Foreword by Giovanni Bonello: “This is a disturbing book. The author defines its contents as controversial and its conclusions as surprising. I judge it to be far, but far, more than that. It is disruptive of accepted wisdom and unsettles all we believe we knew of the origin of man in Malta, of the sequences of early civilization and the histories of prehistory – not in Malta alone, but throughout the whole of Europe. I started reading it in awe, at first with a deliberate effort at disbelief. By the time I was approaching the climax of the exposition, I ended as mesmerized as I was perplexed.” 
  (Giovanni Bonello is a human rights lawyer and judge who served at the European Court of Human Rights for 12 years)

  Mostra libro

• 

  Powerhouse Radio - Rough Roads...

  Kingsley Smith

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Powerhouse Radio: Rough Roads, Radiance, and Rebirth; My True AM - FM - Satellite - and Audio Streaming Survival Story by Kingsley H. Smith is an authentic true story about adversity, failure, and ultimate success. Smith performed on-air as an engaging radio personality and off-air as a program director in the hyper competitive radio broadcasting field. 
  Despite roadblocks, the author details how he took advantage of growth opportunities offered at both general market and Black commercial radio stations in the Philadelphia radio market. Experiences at Southern New Jersey radio stations are carefully detailed. 
  When the story expands to Washington, DC and Smith’s NPR management responsibilities, this radio memoir documents what public broadcasting really creates. You’ll learn what listener sponsored media attempts to do domestically and internationally, all in the public interest. 
  You’ll come along for the ride at the launch of satellite radio when the author and his team prepare two channels for a new world of digital subscribers across the USA. 
  What you must know to create a memorable internet radio online audio music streaming service is discussed in depth in a chapter about Smith’s fifteen years as a Live365 producer. 
  Music radio personality hosts have opinions about the music they play for their broadcast audience. So does Kingsley. You’ll get five crafted opinions in reviews about five award winning popular culture music artists expressed by the author in the paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 
  Radio is a cultural constant that survives despite innovative competitors. Smith’s Powerhouse Radio story begins in New York City, touches down at multiple USA destinations, and passes through Berlin, Germany. The narrative doesn’t end there. Experience the whole journey, in the full story.

  Mostra libro

• 

  Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key...

  Zeth Lundy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Like all double albums, Songs in the Key of Life is imperfect but audacious. If its titular concern - life - doesn't exactly allow for rigid focus, it's still a fiercely inspired collection of songs and one of the definitive soul records of the 1970s. Stevie Wonder was unable to control the springs of his creativity during that decade. Upon turning 21 in 1971, he freed himself from the Motown contract he'd been saddled with as a child performer, renegotiated the terms, and unleashed hundreds of songs to tape. Over the next five years, Wonder would amass countless recordings and release his five greatest albums - as prolific a golden period as there has ever been in contemporary music. But Songs in the Key of Life is different from the four albums that preceded it; it's an overstuffed, overjoyed, maddeningly ambitious encapsulation of all the progress Stevie Wonder had made in that short space of time.Zeth Lundy's book, in keeping with the album's themes, is structured as a life cycle. It's divided into the following sections: Birth; Innocence/Adolescence; Experience/Adulthood; Death; Rebirth. Within this framework, Zeth Lundy covers Stevie Wonder's excessive work habits and recording methodology, his reliance on synthesizers, the album's place in the gospel-inspired progression of 1970s R'n'B, and many other subjects.

  Mostra libro