This collection re-imagines the study of English and media in a way that decentralises the text (e.g. romantic poetry or film noir) or media formats/platforms (e.g. broadcast media/new media). Instead, the authors work across boundaries in meaningful thematic contexts that reflect the ways in which people engage with reading, watching, making, and listening in their textual lives. In so doing, this project recasts both subjects as combined in a more reflexive, critical space for the study of our everyday social and cultural interactions. Across the chapters, the authors present applicable learning and teaching strategies that weave together art works, films, social practices, creativity, 'viral' media, theater, TV, social media, videogames, and literature. The culmination of this range of strategies is a reclaimed 'blue skies' approach to progressive textual education, free from constraining shackles of outdated ideas about textual categories and value that have hitherto alienated generations of students and both English and media from themselves.

Featuring charming illustrations, quality paper, and perforated pages, this adult coloring book has thirty-eight full-page images of Pasadena. Users can add their own artistic details to everything from the iconic city hall and the famous Rose Parade and Rose Bowl to such beloved local landmarks as Vroman's Bookstore, the Del Mar jacarandas, Huntington Library, Old Town, Arlington Garden, the Norton Simon, a bungalow court, Caltech, and the city's best food. As appealing to residents as it is to Rose Parade visitors (the perfect activity while camped out for the parade!), Color Pasadena will inspire Pasadena lovers of all ages.

Pensacola is a city of firsts, from the first documented European settlement in North America to the first Naval Aviation training station. From its earliest incarnation as a town of unpaved streets, through the devastating fire of 1880 to the modern city it would become, this Florida city thrives on challenges. Historic Photos of Pensacola captures the history of Pensacola from the Civil War through the 1960s in nearly 200 black-and-white archival photographs. Author Jacquelyn Tracy Wilson, a fifth-generation Pensacola native, captures the spirit of Pensacola—from the commonplace to the quintessential—in a century-long journey through this beautiful town. 

The growth in popularity and complexity of video games has spurred new interest in how games are developed and in the research and technology behind them. David Heineman brings together some of the most iconic, influential, and interesting voices from across the gaming industry and asks them to weigh in on the past, present, and future of video games. Among them are legendary game designers Nolan Bushnell (Pong) and Eugene Jarvis (Defender), who talk about their history of innovations from the earliest days of the video game industry through to the present; contemporary trailblazers Kellee Santiago (Journey) and Casey Hudson (Mass Effect), who discuss contemporary relationships between those who create games and those who play them; and scholars Ian Bogost (How to Do Things With Videogames) and Edward Castronova (Exodus to the Virtual World), who discuss how to research and write about games in ways that engage a range of audiences. These experts and others offer fascinating perspectives on video games, game studies, gaming culture, and the game industry more broadly.

Discover the creativity that lies hidden within you—and express it! "Painting—because it is such a flexible and adaptable form of art—gives us unparalleled freedom to express what we are feeling. Through colors, forms, lines, even fabrics, we can tap into our deepest emotions and thoughts; we can access our very source. Given this opportunity, we unburden our spirits and are freed to express ourselves." —from the Introduction What can you learn about yourself through painting? How can a piece of artwork reflect your own personality, beliefs and values? How can touching brush to canvas help you portray something about yourself that is otherwise inexpressible? Delve into these questions and more in this imaginative, creative resource. Professional artist and beloved teacher Linda Novick leads you on an exploration of the divine connection you can experience through art. Each chapter includes a simple yoga-inspired breathing and stretching exercise to focus your mind and refresh your body, along with an original art project that helps you explore a theme essential to both your creativity and your spirituality. Whether you're a painting novice or an accomplished artist, no matter your faith and background, this engaging book has a place for you. Experience the joy of unbridled creativity!

Robin Nelson's State of play up-dates and develops the arguments of his influential TV Drama In Transition (1997). It is equally distinctive in setting analusis of the aesethetics and compositional principles of texts within a broad conceptual framework (technologies, institutions, economics, cultural trends). Tracing "the great value shift from conduit to content" (Todreas, 1999), Nelson is relatively optimistic about the future quality of TV Drama in a global market-place. But, characteristically taking up questions of worth where others have avoided them, Nelson recognizes that certain types of "quality" are privileged for viewers able to pay, possibly at the expense of viewer preference worldwide for "local" resonances in television. The mix of arts and cultural studies methodologies makes for an unusual and insightful approach. -- .

Within the English-speaking world, no work of the German High Middle Ages is better known than the Nibelungenlied, which has stirred the imagination of artists and readers far beyond its land of origin. Its international influence extends from literature to music, art, film, politics and propaganda, psychology, archeology, and military history. Now for the first time all references to the vast Nibelungen tradition have been catalogued in this comprehensive encyclopedia containing nearly 1000 entries by several dozen international contributors, including the most distinguished scholars in the field. Readers will find illuminating passages on a variety of topics, including literary and extra-literary references, characters and place names, significant motifs and concepts, historical background, and cultural reception through the centuries. This monumental work is an invaluable guide to a fascinating, age-old tradition.

Unlike the benevolent orphan found in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid or the sentimentalized figure of Little Orphan Annie, the orphan in postwar Eastern European cinema takes on a more politically fraught role, embodying the tensions of individuals struggling to recover from war and grappling with an unknown future under Soviet rule. By exploring films produced in postwar Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland, Parvulescu traces the way in which cinema envisioned and debated the condition of the post-World War II subject and the "new man" of Soviet-style communism. In these films, the orphan becomes a cinematic trope that interrogates socialist visions of ideological institutionalization and re-education and stands as a silent critic of the system's shortcomings or as a resilient spirit who has resisted capture by the political apparatus of the new state.

Scenes of New York City celebrates the promised gift of 130 works from the Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection to the New-York Historical Society. The Hirschfeld promised gift is at once a collection of individual works by talented artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, a series of vivid "snapshots" of the iconic city, and a tapestry weaving a narrative of Gotham's vibrant history. These fascinating celebrations of New York City-paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, and sculpture whose strength lies in the 20th century-include 113 works by 82 American and European artists not currently represented in the collection. They expand the Museum's holdings in the modern era and help to diversify them, adding numerous works by pivotal artists including Isabel Bishop, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, George Grosz, Keith Haring, Franz Kline, WIllem de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol among many others. The catalogue features an introductory essay covering the sweeping history of New York City, an interview with the collector Elie Hirschfeld, 110 scholarly entries about the 130 works, and comparative material that illuminates the history of the City and the artistic contributions in the works of art

This collection of interviews features American, British and Australian writers, directors and actors recounting their notable work in the action genre and the fun of blowing things up. Action movies and television series from 1950s to the mid-1980s are covered, with the main focus on the 1960s and 1970s--the era of Bullitt, Mannix and The Professionals. Twenty-five interviewees discuss their career highlights, including writers Richard Harris (The Saint) and Leigh Chapman (The Octagon), directors Stewart Raffill (High Risk), Michael Preese (T.J. Hooker) and Robert M. Lewis (Kung-Fu), and actors Tony Russel (Peter Gunn) and Peter Mark Richman (Combat!).

Zombies, vampires and ghosts feature prominently in nearly all forms of entertainment in the 21st century, including popular fiction, film, comics, television and computer games. But these creatures have been vital to the entertainment industry since the best-seller books of a century and half ago. Monsters don't just invade popular culture, they help sell popular culture. This collection of new essays covers 150 years of enduringly popular Gothic monsters who have shocked and horrified audiences in literature, film and comics. The contributors unearth forgotten monsters and reconsider familiar ones, examining the audience taboos and fears they embody.

Since the earliest days of the movie industry, Hollywood has mythologized itself through stories of stardom. A female protagonist escapes the confines of rural America in search of freedom in a western dream factory; an ambitious, conceited movie idol falls from grace and discovers what it means to embody true stardom; or a fading star confronts Hollywood’s obsession with youth by embarking on a determined mission to reclaim her lost fame. In its various forms, the stardom film is crucial to understanding how Hollywood has shaped its own identity, as well as its claim on America’s collective imagination. In the first book to focus exclusively on these modern fairy tales, Karen McNally traces the history of this genre from silent cinema to contemporary film and television to show its significance to both Hollywood and broader American culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, she provides close readings of a wide range of films, from Souls for Sale (1923) to A Star is Born (1937 and 1954) and Judy (2019), moving between fictional narratives, biopics, and those that occupy a space in between. McNally considers the genre’s core set of tropes, its construction of stardom around idealized white femininity, and its reflections on the blurred boundaries between myth, image, and reality. The Stardom Film offers an original understanding of one of Hollywood’s most enduring genres and why the allure of fame continues to fascinate us.

In this comprehensive study of Nollywood stardom around the world, Noah A. Tsika explores how the industry's top on-screen talents have helped Nollywood to expand beyond West Africa and into the diaspora to become one of the globe's most prolific and diverse media producers. Carrying VHS tapes and DVDs onto airplanes and publicizing new methods of film distribution, the stars are active agents in the global circulation of Nollywood film. From Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde's cameo role on VH1's popular series Hit the Floor to Oge Okoye's startling impersonation of Lady Gaga, this book follows Nollywood stars from Lagos to London, Ouagadougou, Cannes, Paris, Porto-Novo, Sekondi-Takoradi, Dakar, Accra, Atlanta, Houston, New York, and Los Angeles. Tsika tracks their efforts to integrate into various entertainment cultures, but never to the point of effacing their African roots.

Jewish humor, with its rational skepticism and cutting social criticism, permeates American popular culture. Scholars of humor-from Sigmund Freud to Woody Allen-have studied the essence of the Jewish joke, at once a defense mechanism against a hostile world and a means of cultural affirmation. Where did this wit originate? Why do Jewish humorists work at the margins of so many diverse cultures? What accounts for the longevity of the Jewish joke? Do oppressed people, as African American author Ralph Ellison suggested, slip their yoke when they change the joke? Citing examples from prominent humorists and stand-up comics, this book examines the phenomenon of Jewish humor from its biblical origins to its prevalence in the modern diaspora, revealing a mother lode of wit in language, literature, folklore, music and history.

Why did it seem strange when Battlestar Galactica ended its narrative on a religious note instead of providing a scientific explanation? And what does this have to do with gender? This book explores the connection between the triumph of religion and the dominance of femininity in Battlestar Galactica and its prequel series Caprica. Both series breached science fiction's convention of representing the ""irrationality"" of femininity and religion. Analyzing the connections (and disconnections) between women and men, and theology and technology, the author argues that the ""Battlestarverse"" depicts women as zones of contact between the seemingly contradictory spheres of science and religion by simultaneously employing and breaking gender stereotypes.

In January 1966, Alan Napier became a household name on ABC's hit series Batman (1966-1968) as Alfred Pennyworth, loyal butler to the show's title character. This ""overnight success"" came after 16 years of stage work (and the occasional film) in his native England. He followed his signature role with another 26 years of film and television work (and the occasional play) in the United States. In the early 1970s, Napier wrote an autobiography, detailing his childhood as a ""poor relation"" of Birmingham's famous political family the Chamberlains (Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was a cousin), and his collaborations over the years with the likes of John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock. Almost 30 years after Napier's death, James Bigwood, who first met the actor in 1975 when interviewing him for a ""Films in Review"" profile, discovered the unpublished manuscript. This is Napier's story in his own words, annotated and updated, with dozens of rare photographs.

Contemporary African art has grown out of the diverse histories and cultural heritage of the African continent and its diaspora. It is not characterized by any particular style, technique or theme, but by a bricolage-like attitude towards art-making, incorporating and building upon the structures from which older, precolonial and colonial genres were made. In this revised and updated edition of Contemporary African Art, Sidney Littlefield Kasfir examines the major themes, developments and accomplishments in African art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Organized thematically, the book includes new chapters on the history of African photography and the growth of the global art market, alongside significant discussions of patronage and mediation, artistic training and national and diaspora identities.

John Fowles wrote five compelling stories later made into motion pictures. This book examines for the first time the film and video adaptations of these stories, as well as Fowles's role in adapting his literary genius to visual media. Besides his authorship of the screenplay for The Magus (1968), Fowles was an uncredited contributor to The Collector (1965) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1971), and to the British television adaptations The Ebony Tower and The Enigma. His unpublished short story The Last Chapter was adapted as a theatrical short film satirizing the James Bond novels. Few are aware that the 1997 thriller The Game was a brilliant adaptation of The Magus, or that Fowles himself acted out scenes from that novel for a Greek television documentary. This book gives deserved recognition to John Fowles as a contributor to cinema, a medium he both loved and distrusted, where his stories acquired vivid alternative lives.

...PANTS ON FIRE amply illustrates not only that many of Al Franken's claims are false but that Franken employs the very tactics he accuses the right of using.

Isabelle Cornaro, based in Paris and Geneva, holds degrees in art history and visual arts. She has a strong interest in experimental cinema and devotes herself to the narrative, symbolic, and economic origins of things. In her work she assumes an anthropologist-type manner to investigate people's seemingly fixated attachment to emotionally charged, even fetishised objects, creating large stage installations and short movies. This book is part of the new On Words series that presents conversations with contemporary women artists. Through them, readers come to understand the sources from which they draw inspiration, the themes in their work, and their view of the world. Edited by Julie Enckell, Federica Martini, and Sarah Burkhalter and bringing together a wide range of viewpoints, the On Words series adds a new narrative to polyphonic art history as told by those who actively shape it. Text in English and French.

25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap takes readers behind the scenes of TV's legendary Dallas. It includes interviews with over 45 Dallas stars, including Larry Hagman, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, photographs from Southfork and Steve Kanaly's personal collection, trivia and more!

25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap takes readers behind the scenes of TV's legendary Dallas. It includes interviews with over 45 Dallas stars, including Larry Hagman, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, photographs from Southfork and Steve Kanaly's personal collection, trivia and more!

The twenty-four essays in this collection represent the best contributions to the Sixth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. All the essays are comparative or interdisciplinary in nature. Their foci range from the psychological aspects of art and literature, to the political implications of fiction and drama, the philosophic and linguistic dimensions of poetry, and the use of landscape in science fiction and fantasy illustration. The contributors also explore the connections between the fantastic and subjects such as religion, myth, the grotesque, the occult, Gothicism, feminism, and even perceptions of reality.