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  The Strongest Men on Earth -...

  Graeme Kent

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  They claimed to be the mightiest men in the world. For twenty-five years, before the outbreak of the First World War, professional strongmen were the pop idols of their day. Performing apparently incredible feats of strength, they strutted across stages and topped the bills everywhere, earning thousands of pounds a week. Fans included royalty, heads of state, politicians and leading figures in the literary and artistic worlds, as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women, all revelling in the antics of these larger-than-life characters. Seeking to outdo each other in death-defying deeds, the strongmen's performances were thrilling and dangerous: lifting elephants, horses, pianos and their players; breaking chains with their biceps; supporting thirty men on a plank suspended on their shoulders. Some strongmen succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Eugen Sandow, a great self-publicist, was appointed physical culture adviser to King George V. His great rival, the bombastic Charles Sampson, toured the world with his blatant cheating and rigged strongman displays until one day the elephant he claimed to be lifting remained suspended in mid-air. Georg Hackenschmidt, the Russian Lion, was so popular that Theodore Roosevelt himself declared wistfully that he would rather be 'Hack' than President of the USA. In The Strongest Men on Earth, Graeme Kent vividly brings to life the world of strongmen (and women), and shares the stories that defined a sporting and show-business era.

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  Where Have all the Flowers Gone?...

  Pete Seeger

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  This fresh rendition of Pete's classic song is bookended with just percussion and vocals transitioning to Pete's spoken word, classical guitar, and violin - as Pete tells the story, beginning with the Cossack soldiers and ending with the German actress, Marlene Dietrich, of how he came to write his lyrics and how the song was embraced around the world.  This single is part of the ongoing project called PETE SEEGER: THE STORM KING - an audio collection presenting seeger's spoken words as he captivatingly recounts his most engaging stories, narratives, and poems - set to new music, produced by world renowned percussionist/producer Jeff Haynes, from over 50 musicians from traditions as diverse as African Music, Blues, Bluegrass, Classical Guitar, Folk, Jazz, Native American Music, and World Beat.www.PeteSeegerTheStormKing.com Where Have All the Flowers Gone? by Pete Seeger & Jeff Haynes© Copyright - Jeff Haynes, Komunyaka Productions, LLC.Music written by Pete Seeger.Cover photo © Copyright Richard Dorbin (dorbinart.com)

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  The Beatles - Celebrating 50...

  Ben Nussbaum

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  A celebration of the four longhaired, oddly dressed chaps who took over America—filled with facts, stories, and photos.  Within just two months of the Beatles’ debut on Ed Sullivan’s variety hour, the band had secured all five top spots on Billboard’s Hot 100, and before year’s end would sell an astonishing ten million records. Filled with dozens of color and black and white photographs, The Beatles details the rise and fall of the Fab Four, and the stories behind the men, their relationships, the creation of the songs, the tours, the albums, and the unstoppable spread of Beatlemania around the globe. Topics covered include: The band's rise to fame in 1964 and their grueling schedule of sixty-six tours in three yearsThe unique songwriting partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartneyThe Soviet Union's banning and bashing of the band—and how it backfiredA debate over the best Beatles tunesThe inevitable demise of the Fab Four, and the reasons behind itThe long solo careers of the four artists after the dissolution of the bandThe five top contenders for the “Fifth Beatle” (plus ten runners-up)The story of Capitol Records exec who nearly stalled the Beatles’ entrance into AmericaA look at the band’s children, discussing the music careers of Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, Zak Starkey, James McCartney, and Dhani Harrison

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  Japan Triumphant - The Far East...

  Philip Jowett

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  Imperial Japan’s ambitious offensive at the beginning of WWII is captured in dramatic detail in this pictorial history featuring rare wartime photographs.   The Japanese offensive in the Far East in 1941-1942 was extraordinary in its ambition, for their aim was to advance across the entire region. They clashed with an array of forces in a series of lightning campaigns that included famous episodes like the raid on Pearl Harbor and the conquest of Singapore. In this vivid photographic history, historian Philip Jowett covers the whole course of the offensive, portraying not only the Japanese military which achieved such incredible success but the armies they overwhelmed.   In a sequence of over 200 wartime photographs—many of which have never been published before—Jowett covers the land, sea, and air fighting as the Japanese occupied so much of the region. Rare images of the Japanese forces as they prepared for war and then made seemingly unstoppable progress are matched with images of the armies they surprised and vanquished. Japan Triumphant captures the character of the war in the Far East, showing the appearance, equipment, and weaponry of the armies involved as well as the conditions in which they fought.

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  Epic Sound - Music in Postwar...

  Stephen C. Meyer

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  “A well-researched and thorough book examining what the author finds to be a unique facet of film music of the late 1940s and early 1950s.” —Soundtrax 
   
  Lavish musical soundtracks contributed a special grandeur to the new widescreen, stereophonic sound movie experience of postwar biblical epics such as Samson and Delilah, Ben-Hur, and Quo Vadis. In Epic Sound, Stephen C. Meyer shows how music was utilized for various effects, sometimes serving as a vehicle for narrative plot and at times complicating biblical and cinematic interpretation. In this way, the soundscapes of these films reflected the ideological and aesthetic tensions within the genre, and more generally, within postwar American society. By examining key biblical films, Meyer adeptly engages musicology with film studies to explore cinematic interpretations of the Bible during the 1940s through the 1960s. 
   
  “A major contribution to the field of film music studies and ought to be widely read by musicologists with an interest in film. Really, it ought to be read by film scholars as well: although the depth of Meyer’s engagement with the music is felt on almost every page, this is also a powerfully sustained exploration of the biblical epic as a film genre.” —American Music 
   
  “Meyer’s clear and articulate study promises to be a welcome addition to the reading list of anyone interested not just in film but in mid-century music history.” —Journal of the Society for American Music 
   
  “An ambitious and fascinating book.” —James Buhler, The University of Texas at Austin

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  The Insanity of the Artist -...

  Thierry Delcourt

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  Salvador Dalí sublimated his madness without ever falling into it. Antonin Artaud, confronted with the traumas of childhood, oscillated all his life between an overflowing creation and accesses of madness. Niki de Saint Phalle, thanks to artistic expression, cured herself of a deep depression linked to the trauma of incest. Vincent van Gogh, in order to reach the summit of his art, put himself in danger to the point of committing suicide. Camille Claudel exhausted herself in her creation and ended up being interned and never creating again.
  Based on the life and work of a dozen artists of genius, Thierry Delcourt tries to understand these artists’ transition from the summits of creation and the artistic abyss. Why do some people fall into madness while others go through life without a hitch? Why do some sick people find healing through creation? Why do many artists have an obsessive need to create relentlessly?
  To these fascinating questions, this book offers striking answers about creation on the brink of the abyss.

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