This book reconsiders audiovisual culture through a focus on human perception, with recourse to ideas derived from recent neuroscience. It proceeds from the assumption that rather than simply working on a straightforward cognitive level audiovisual culture also functions more fundamentally on a physiological level, directly exploiting precise aspects of human perception. Vision and hearing are unified in a merged signal in the brain through being processed in the same areas. This is illustrated by the startling 'McGurk Effect', whereby the perception of spoken sound is changed by its accompanying image, and counterpart effects which demonstrate that what we see is affected by different sounds accompanying sounds. This blending of sound and images into a whole has become a universal aspect of culture, not only evident in films and television but also in video games and short Internet clips. Indeed, this aesthetic formation has become the dominant of this period. The McGurk Universe attends to how audiovisual culture engages with and mediates between physiological and psychological levels.

This volume provides a detailed record of the life and career of Noel Coward. The book begins with a short biography and a chronology that highlights the most important events in Coward's career. Detailed entries for Coward's many performances follow, with entries grouped in chapters on drama, film, radio, and television, as well as a discography. Entries include a list of cast members, a synopsis of the plot of the production, excerpts from reviews, and critical comments. The book also lists Coward's awards and honors, and it concludes with a detailed, annotated bibliography.

OPEN UP or SHUT UP is an essential handbook for life's most important conversations. Using tips and tools developed over a lifetime of observing people Barbara Deutsch has created a light hearted walk through real life situations, conversations and interactions, tackling the very serious topic of communication with humor, compassion, and straight talk. Whether you are at the top of your game, struggling to be discovered or somewhere in between, in OPEN UP or SHUT UP Barbara Deutsch will help you stop listening to the distractions around you, undo the mess that you've gotten yourself into and remind you how amazing you are. With this book, Barbara will help you get what you want and never sell yourself out. She will introduce you to yourself and show you that you don't have to carry the past around like a ball and chain. She will help you peel away the veils of everyone else's opinions so you can discover your own potential and be thrilled. She will help you be an influence rather than be influenced. Along the way she will share her tried and true methods as well as some of her own personal war stories - some because they illustrate a point and some because they're just good stories. After reading this book, you can throw away the self-help books (except this one ) and start planning your own life adventure. That's what this book is really about.

Containing over two decades of research, Near Dublin tells the story of the visits to Irish shores in the early 1950s of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Drawing on newspaper interviews, personal recollections and archive material, it follows their every move as they became a bit Irish for a small time. Find out what Oliver Hardy thought of the selection of Whiskey on offer and what he made of the price of eating out in the capital. Discover if Stan Laurel was able to get to go on a fishing trip to Poulaphouca Lake and if he managed to outsmart the doctors in Belfast. With rare photographs and anecdotes, this is the real story of what they thought of Ireland and what Ireland thought of them.

This is the first volume of essays published on the television series Troy: Fall of a City (BBC One and Netflix, 2018). Covering a wide range of engaging topics, such as gender, race and politics, international scholars in the fields of classics, history and film studies discuss how the story of Troy has been recreated on screen to suit the expectations of modern audiences. The series is commended for the thought-provoking way it handles important issues arising from the Trojan War narrative that continue to impact our society today. With discussions centered on epic narrative, cast and character, as well as tragic resonances, the contributors tackle gender roles by exploring the innovative ways in which mythological female figures such as Helen, Aphrodite and the Amazons are depicted in the series. An examination is also made into the concept of the hero and how the series challenges conventional representations of masculinity. We encounter a significant investigation of race focusing on the controversial casting of Achilles, Patroclus, Zeus and other series characters with Black actors. Several essays deal with the moral and ethical complexities surrounding warfare, power and politics. The significance of costume and production design are also explored throughout the volume.

The media star has become a powerful, almost unparalleled, cultural sign, even as the star system has undergone radical transformation since the era of the Hollywood studio system. Today's film industry continues to market and promote its products through actors in ways that seek to capture the often elusive quality that a star can embody. Using contemporary stars such as Robert De Niro, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dennis Hopper, this anthology of essays applies a variety of theoretical tools in its attempt to understand how we interpret stars, and how we can begin to understand their cultural significance.

Likewise, the study explores how the star system has become an increasingly complex phenomenon within society at large, extending its impact beyond the cinema into music, sports, and fashion. Many of the essays collected here consider this shift and examine how personae including the director (Sam Peckinpah), the royalty (Princess Diana) and even the digital star (Lara Croft) have captured the cultural imagination and have come to attain qualities as star-like as those of the silver screen.

Dioramas and panoramas, freaks and magicians, waxworks and menageries, obscure relics and stuffed animals--a dazzling assortment of curiosities attracted the gaze of the nineteenth-century spectator at the dime museum. This distinctly American phenomenon was unprecedented in both the diversity of its amusements and in its democratic appeal, with audiences traversing the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and class. Andrea Stulman Dennett's Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America recaptures this ephemeral and scarcely documented institution of American culture from the margins of history.

Weird and Wonderful chronicles the evolution of the dime museum from its eighteenth-century inception as a "cabinet of curiosities" to its death at the hands of new amusement technologies in the early twentieth century. From big theaters which accommodated audiences of three thousand to meager converted storefronts exhibiting petrified wood and living anomalies, this study vividly reanimates the array of museums, exhibits, and performances that make up this entertainment institution. Tracing the scattered legacy of the dime museum from vaudeville theater to Ripley's museum to the talk show spectacles of today, Dennett makes a significant contribution to the history of American popular entertainment.

Daphne and Ralph are young classics professors who have just made a discovery that's sure to turn them into academic superstars. But something goes disastrously wrong, and Daphne cries out in a panic, "Save me, gods of ancient Greece!"...and the gods actually appear! The Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of screwball deities encounters the carnal complexity of college coeds, campus capers, and conspicuous consumption.

Dave Lamb's collection of poetry and song lyrics, i'll be alright, contains love songs, fun songs, and poems of beauty and the heart filled with descriptions of life experiences to which everyone can relate. His songs have inspired listeners with passionate rhythm and heartfelt lyrics painting portraits of love, despair, anger, laughter, and solitude. Seasons of Life In the spring of life with all its bloom So much ahead, no wall of doom And in the spring you're blossoming You bring new buds of hope you think The summer time with all its splendor Life is filled with excitement and grandeur And in the summer you progress Do what you like improve your quest The fall of life comes far too fast The ride downhill runs like a dash And in the fall when leaves change color There's one gray hair after another The blustery winter wind blows cold Time will pass you by till old And in the winter feel the ice Time passes by with such a price

When people attend classical music concerts today, they sit and listen in silence, offering no audible reactions to what they're hearing. We think of that as normal-but, as Darryl Cressman shows in this book, it's the product of a long history of interrelationships between music, social norms, and technology. Using the example of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw in the nineteenth century, Cressman shows how its design was in part intended to help discipline and educate concert audiences to listen attentively - and analysis of its creation and use offers rich insights into sound studies, media history, science and technology studies, classical music, and much more.

Blackstone focuses on the career of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody during the years in which he organized, promoted, and starred in his celebrated Wild West show. Basing her research on primary sources such as photographs, programs, route books, and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings kept by Cody and other participants in the show, Blackstone provides a vivid history of the famed extravaganza. Included in her discussion are the logistics of touring a huge show, the performers and their origins, semiotic analysis of each performance event, and the treatment of Indians and other minorities. Blackstone also deals with the iconography of the show and the way in which it instilled in the public consciousness a mythic image of the American West that has survived to the present day. Blackstone's conclusions help to put Buffalo Bill's Wild West into proper historical and cultural context. The volume includes numerous photographs, most of which have never been published before, and a bibliography containing original listings of primary source information.

Monologues by Gregory L. Hudson is a compilation of thirty-two monologues from some of his most profound stage plays, films and television pilots. The literary works that these monologues were chosen from are socially relevant, provocative and reflects the good and bad aspects of society. Each monologue is different from the next and provides a unique challenge to actors of all levels. The characters are as varied as the colors in a rainbow and can be exceptionally witty like the homeless but optimistic character Lee Willie in Vagabond Love; or outrageously funny and likeable character Bojack in No Harm, No Foul; to the down right mean female correction officer Hurt character who doesn't feel that women garner respect in Bronx House; or the respected and deceptive racist bank manager Mr. Wallis whose main objective is to maintain the status quo of segregation in the deep south in A Piece Of My Dream. Other fun characters includes, the slick, smooth talking pastor in A Piece of My Dream (the Movie); the grimy lawyer Mr. Crooks in The Plaintiff; the lovable homeless character Abigail in Vagabond Love; the wacky, over the top judge who fancys himself as the sheriff, mayor, judge and everything else in No Harm, No Foul, to the zany, flaming gay choreographer in the T.V. pilot Buck Wild and more. The monologues are different, rich in unique dialogue and range from one to five minutes in length.

This book is full of comedy and crazy fictional characters. This book will make you laugh out loud. This Pryor like comedy book is a must have for your Coffee Table.

As far as we know, only human beings have a sense of humour - although chimps might laugh when tickled, and dogs respond similarly in play, Seth McFarlane's fan-base is comprised exclusively of humans. Whilst animals and robots might feature as prominent characters in our favourite comic movies, shows and stand-up routines, we have no reason to suspect that their real-life brethren get the joke. Drawing on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Shaun May attempts to address this issue - suggesting that there is something distinctive about human beings which grounds our ability to make and comprehend jokes. Guiding the reader through a range of examples, including the films of Charlie Chaplin, the stand-up of Francesca Martinez, the TV show Family Guy and Samuel Beckett's Endgame, he demonstrates that in order to get the joke you have to 'be there'.

A delightfully creepy collection of 25 plays of horror and the supernatural, Theatre Macabre provides a bevy of produceable one-acts sure to put a shiver down the spines of your most discriminating audiences. This anthology of plays is Christopher Cook's best and most frightening dramas suitable for professional, community, college and experimental theatre companies. It is perfect for the late-night play-going crowds.

Cook's plays abound with tales of vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies, extraterrestrials, psychopaths, and even killer bees. Some of the plays in this book have been fully produced, some have received staged readings, a few are brand new and all of them are fast-paced, intriguing little gems written in the tradition of the classic Twilight Zone and Hitchcock TV series, respectively.

If you're looking for something to produce at Halloween, a one-act play festival, or an unusual addition to a season of full-length offerings, Theatre Macabre will prove an invaluable resource to add to your library of play collections. While not all the plays included are necessarily appropriate for school-aged actors to read or perform, there are a handful of scripts in the publication written specifically with middle and high school students in mind.

Theatre Macabre is a treasure trove of material for directors, producers, actors, teachers, and university professors alike. It is sure to become one of Christopher Cook's lasting legacies to the theatre world as well as the growing cult of horror enthusiasts worldwide

Order your copy of Theatre Macabre today and begin looking forward to putting on your own evening of chilling terrors and nightmarish thrillers