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  Andrews Sisters The: The Lives...

  Charles River Editors

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  The vaudeville era of the early 20th century dominated American entertainment with an endless array of “specialty” acts. Thousands of performers emerged from familiar American lives to test their novel talents with a voracious public in search of the next fad. Violin concertos were played on bicycle pumps, and contortionists defied gravity and the limits of human anatomy. Animal acts of every variety sought to up the ante in bringing the exotic to the American stage. One thread held most of these oddities together. Whatever the talent, it was virtually obligatory in most cases that both humans and animals incorporate singing and dancing into the act. This was particularly true for women regardless of the talent level or genre of specialty. 
  	As radio personalities, the Andrews Sisters became ubiquitous and iconic for a public that had clung to the apparatus through every manner of national catastrophe. Radio networks were operative throughout the day and night, but generally offered a diet of round-the-clock news, much of it grim. Eventually, the trio came to break the onslaught of national and international events with six to eight appearances each day. In these breaks, war-weary Americans were treated to snappy rhythms clothed in an overt musical patriotism to spur them on. In financial terms, the three sisters broke every record ever set by a female singing group, eventually rivaling Elvis Presley and The Beatles as commercial juggernauts. While Uncle Sam was recruiting troops destined for the European continent and Asia, teenagers were home “doing the jitterbug.” The Andrews Sisters, overthrowing the worn out and vacuous personality of the vaudeville model, took the step and rode it to fame and national adoration, adapting to current styles along the way.

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  Inner City Teens Struggle to...

  PBS NewsHour

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  The jobs report for June 2013 found that among teens alone, the jobless rate was almost 25 percent — more than three times the rate for the nation as a whole. Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to young people struggling in their search for work in his report on the bleak job picture for inner-city youth.

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  New museum aims to get visitors...

  PBS NewsHour

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  The new $500 million Museum of the Bible is filled with thousands of texts and artifacts, immersive exhibitions of bible stories, even an amusement park-like area for children. According to those behind the new private institution, the focus is not on proselytizing or presenting religious doctrine, but to raise public awareness of the centrality of bible in history and culture. Jeffrey Brown takes a look.

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  The Adventures of Jonathan...

  Emma Jean Kelly

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  A history of the New Zealand Film Archive and its founding director. 
   
  Jonathan Dennis (1953–2002), was the creative and talented founding director of the New Zealand Film Archive. As a Pakeha (non-Maori/indigenous New Zealander) with a strong sense of social justice, Dennis became a conduit for tension and debate over the preservation and presentation of indigenous and non-indigenous film archival materials from the time the Archive opened in 1981. His work resulted in a film archive and curatorship practice which differed significantly from that of the North American and European archives he originally sought to emulate. He supported a philosophical shift in archival practice by engaging indigenous peoples in developing creative and innovative exhibitions from the 1980s until his death, recognizing that much of the expertise required to work with archival materials rested with the communities outside archival walls. This book presents new interviews gathered by the author, as well as an examination of existing interviews, films and broadcasts about and with Jonathan Dennis, to consider the narrative of a life and work in relation to film archiving.

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  The Life and Letters of Emma...

  Hugh Tours

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  “Reads like a romantic novel, could have been written by someone of the caliber of Jean Plaidy . . . Absolutely fascinating and full of revelations.” —Books Monthly 
   
  Born in 1765 in Neston, Cheshire, Amy Lyon took the stagecoach to London, beginning her remarkable journey to international fame. Soon to be known as “Emma,” she worked for various actresses at Drury Lane Theatre before becoming a dancer, a model and, later, a hostess. Her beauty brought her to the attention of Charles Grenville, the second son of the Earl of Warwick, who took her as his mistress, and she became the model for the painter George Romney. These paintings thrust Emma into the social spotlight and she soon became London’s top celebrity. 
   
  When Grenville needed to find a rich wife, Emma was passed onto Sir William Hamilton, British Envoy to Naples. The couple fell in love and were married in September 1791. When in Naples, Lady Hamilton, as she now was, became a close friend of Queen Maria Carolina, sister of Marie Antoinette. It was also in Naples that she met Admiral Nelson—and the great love affair began. 
   
  Much has been written about this later period of her life, but with Hugh Tours making full use of the letters Emma wrote as well as those she received throughout her life, the fascinating story of her early years is also revealed. This is history as moving as a great tragic novel; most moving of all, being the return, after Trafalgar, of Emma’s last letter to Nelson, unopened.

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  That to Study Philosophy is to...

  Michel de Montaigne, Charles Cotton

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  We all die, sooner or later. We all know it, and we wonder when, where, and how it may happen. and yet we go to extraordinary lengths to put the thought of it out of our minds. We hesitate to bring it up in conversations. Montaigne, who … essay, addressed this issue head on in “To Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die.” It is perhaps his best-known essay, a kind of summation of his philosophy, and considered his most stoic. There are three main themes: first, do not forget that we all die, including you; second, there’s no reason to be afraid or to worry; third, be ready when the time comes, as it inevitably will.  Keeping death in mind, he argues, diminishes the shock when it happens to others and alleviates the suffering by putting things in perspective. Acceptance and understanding should, in turn, help us remember that death is a part of the natural order, and that it happens only once, after which there is nothing to worry about simply because there is nothing after the end of it all.  These all help us to be prepared and to appreciate the present even more, releasing us from the enslavement of fear and anxiety. Carpe diem!The essay contains numerous quotes in Latin from the ancients that reinforce his ideas. These are followed by an English translation and citation of the source in the original.

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