Journey into the arcane world of Doctor Jacob Tordoff. A selection of new and updated bizarre magick performances from the repertoire and creative mind of Roger Curzon. As an exclusively designed dust cover bound hardback, it features a foreword by Jim Critchlow, plus some supporting contributions from Roni Shachnaey, Steve Drury, Kotah, Andrew Normansell and Ashton Carter.

I'm really looking forward to robbing this bank! Mischief's smash-and-grab hit The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is a fast, fabulous comedy caper and the funniest show in the West End! Summer 1958. Minneapolis City Bank has been entrusted with a priceless diamond. An escaped convict is dead set on pocketing the gem with the help of his screwball sidekick, trickster girlfriend... and the maintenance man. With mistaken identities, love triangles and hidden agendas, even the most reputable can't be trusted. In a town where everyone's a crook, who will end up bagging the jewel? Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the creators of the Olivier Award-winning Best New Comedy The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery opened at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in April 2016. 'The best new comedy to open straight into the West End in decades' Time Out 'Thrilling and daringly inventive' The Guardian

Since its establishment in 1949, the People's Republic of China has upheld a nationwide ban on pornography, imposing harsh punishments on those caught purchasing, producing, or distributing materials deemed a violation of public morality. A provocative contribution to Chinese media studies by a well-known international media researcher, "People's Pornography" offers a wide-ranging overview of the political controversies surrounding the ban, as well as a fascinating glimpse into the many distinct media subcultures that have gained widespread popularity on the Chinese Internet as a result. Rounding out this exploration of the many new tendencies in digital citizenship, pornography, and activist media cultures in the greater China region are thought-provoking interviews with individuals involved.A timely contribution to the existing literature on sexuality, Chinese media, and Internet culture, "People's Pornography "provides a unique angle on the robust voices involved in the debate over about pornography's globalization.

Total Darkness is a revealing look into the dark mentalism and s ance mind of Mark Edward. A 233 page hardback book with an exclusively designed dust-jacket by artist Vincent Mattina. Featuring a foreword by Tony 'Doc' Shiels, 15 in-depth fully photo illustrated s ance pieces concluding with six more effects in the first published release of The Keith Moon S ance.

This book is an anthology of research co-edited by Dr. Chia-rong Wu (University of Canterbury) and Professor Ming-ju Fan (National Chengchi University). This collection of original essays integrates and expands research on Taiwan literature because it includes both established and young writers. It not only engages with the evolving trends of literary Taiwan, but also promotes the translocal consciousness and cultural diversity of the island state and beyond. Focusing on the new directions and trends of Taiwan literature, this edited book fits into Taiwan studies, Sinophone studies, and Asian studies.

"Dance Studies: The Basics is a concise introduction to the study of dance ranging from the practical aspects such as technique and to more theoretical considerations such as aesthetic appreciation and the place of dance in different cultures. Including examples from dance forms such as ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary and urban, this book answers questions such as: Exactly how do we define 'dance'? What kinds of people dance and what kind of training is necessary? How are dances made? What do we know about dance history? Featuring a glossary, chronology of dance history and list of useful websites, this book is the ideal starting point for anyone interested in the study of dance"--

In A Singing Approach to Horn Playing, author and renowned teacher-musician Natalie Douglass Grana develops the fundamental sense of pitch that is essential to play the horn. The book begins with simple songs to sing on solfege, buzz on the mouthpiece, and play on the horn, followed by inner hearing, transposition, and polyphonic exercises. Readers learn to fluidly hear the notes on the page before playing them, through sequential exercises with songs, improvisation, stick notation, and duets. Training continues with progressively challenging melodies, including canons as well as vocal etudes (solfeggi) like those of Giuseppe Concone. Finally, hornists apply their musicianship skills to standard etude, solo, and orchestral horn repertoire. Horn parts are provided with important lines from the orchestra or accompaniment, transposed to also be sung and played on the horn. Accompanying rhythmic and harmonic exercises enable performers to learn to hear the parts together as they play. Through a wide-ranging synthesis of theory, practical advice, and exercises, Douglass Grana puts forth a crucial guide for a new generation of horn players and burgeoning musicians seeking to improve and perfect their sense of pitch.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

There are few grand narratives that loom over Asian Americans more than the model minority. While many Asian Americanist scholars and activists aim to disprove the model minority as myth, author Takeo Rivera instead rethinks the model minority as cultural politics. Rather than disproving the model minority, Rivera instead argues that Asian Americans have formulated their racial and gendered subjectivities in relation to what Rivera terms model minority masochism. Examining hegemonic masculine Asian American cultural performance across multiple media, from literature and theater to videogames and activist archives, Rivera details two complementary forms of contemporary racial masochism: a self-subjugating masochism which embraces the model minority, and its opposite, a self-flagellating masochism that punishes oneself for having been associated with the model minority at all.

Performances in hospices and on beaches; cross-cultural myth making in Wales, New Zealand and the US; communal poetry among mental health system survivors: this book, now in paperback, presents a senior practitioner/critic's exploration of arts-based research processes sustained over more than a decade - a subtle engagement with disability culture.

Built to resemble an old New England barn, the Boothbay Playhouse operated from 1937 to 1974, under two separate managements, as a professional summer theatre. In the old-resident-company tradition, a different play was presented each week from June to September- and at prices that seem unbelievable today. But even then the challenge of filling seats was a perennial uphill battle that led to ongoing financial crunches for both managements until surmounting losses forced its closure. This is the story of that landmark theatre's trials, triumphs and tribulations, told by someone who was there for five of those 37 years. Illustrated with 60 photos, the volume also features casts and credits for all Playhouse productions

This book stages a dialogue between international researchers from the broad fields of complexity science and narrative studies. It presents an edited collection of chapters on aspects of how narrative theory from the humanities may be exploited to understand, explain, describe, and communicate aspects of complex systems, such as their emergent properties, feedbacks, and downwards causation; and how ideas from complexity science can inform narrative theory, and help explain, understand, and construct new, more complex models of narrative as a cognitive faculty and as a pervasive cultural form in new and old media. The book is suitable for academics, practitioners, and professionals, and postgraduates in complex systems, narrative theory, literary and film studies, new media and game studies, and science communication.

Selected chapters from this book are published open access and free to read or download from Oxford Scholarship Online, https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/. Since Digital Dominance was published in 2018, a global consensus has emerged that technology platforms should be regulated. Governments from the United States to Australia have sought to reduce the power of these platforms and curtail the dominance of a few, yet regulatory responses remain fragmented, with some focused solely on competition while others seek to address issues around harm, privacy, and freedom of expression. Regulating Big Tech condenses the vibrant tech policy debate into a toolkit for the policy maker, legal expert, and academic seeking to address one of the key issues facing democracies today: platform dominance and its impact on society. Contributors explore elements of the toolkit through comprehensive coverage of existing and future policy on data, antitrust, competition, freedom of expression, jurisdiction, fake news, elections, liability, and accountability, while also identifying potential policy impacts on global communication, user rights, public welfare, and economic activity. With original chapters from leading academics and policy experts, Regulating Big Tech sets out a policy framework that can address interlocking challenges of contemporary tech regulation and offer actionable solutions for our technological future.

Uniquely covering literary, visual and performative expressions of culture, this volume aims to correlate the conjunctions of nation building, gender and representation in late 19th and early 20th century China and Japan. Focusing on gender formation, the chapters explore the changing constructs of masculinities and femininities in China and Japan from the early modern up to the 1930s. Chapters focus on the dynamism that links the remodeling of traditional arts and media to the political and cultural power relations between China, Japan, and the Western world. A true tribute to multidisciplinary studies.

Gain the essential skills of a professional grip to become the jack and master of all trades on any movie or television show set. This new edition has been fully updated and revised and will enable aspiring and professional grips to discover vital insider tips ranging from how to operate cutting-edge rigging and lighting equipment to performing difficult camera mounts on aircraft, boats, trains, and cars. Seasoned Hollywood grip Michael G. Uva teaches you to install, set up, maintain, and ensure the safety of all equipment on a set, such as C-stands, cameras, and any specialty gear needed for a shoot. Expanded content on navigating the set, including set etiquette and how to succeed as a technical crew member will jumpstart your career and make you a valuable asset on any film or television crew. This 7th edition has been updated to include the latest technology; further explanations of equipment and how to use it for those new to the role; a new chapter on working as a grip on Virtual Sets. Other features include technical expertise on maintaining the latest and greatest filmmaking equipment; a self-test section containing over one hundred questions and answers; a comprehensive appendix containing a robust glossary of insider and equipment terms; and guidelines on what a grip has to be physically able to perform in their day-to-day duties. Ideal for the aspiring or working grip to use on the role, as well as aspiring students looking to break into the industry.

This open access book explores the use of visual methods in migration studies through a combination of theoretical analyses and empirical studies. The first section looks at how various visual methods, including photography, film, and mental maps, may be used to analyse the spatial presence of migrants. The second section addresses the processual building of narratives around migration, thereby using formats such as film and visual essay, and reflecting upon the ways they become carriers and mediators of both story and theory within the subject of migration. Section three focuses on vulnerable communities and discusses how visual methods can empower these communities, thereby also focusing on the theoretical and ethical implications of migration. The fourth section addresses the issue of migrant representation in visual discourses. Based on these contributions, a concluding methodological chapter systematizes the use of visual methods in migration studies across disciplines, with regard to their empirical, theoretical, and ethical implications. Multidisciplinary in character, this book is an interesting read for students and migration scholars who engage with visual methodologies, as well as practitioners, journalists, filmmakers, photographers, curators of exhibitions who address the topic of migration visually.

Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok explores how hip hop culture - principally music and dance - is used to construct and perform identity and maintain a growing urban youth subculture. This community finds its home on Dubsmash, a social media app that lets users record short dance challenge videos before cross-sharing them on different social media apps such as Instagram and Snapchat. Author Trevor Boffone interrogates the roles that Dubsmash, social media, and hip hop music and dance play in youth identity formation in the United States. These so-called Dubsmashers privilege their cultural and individual identities through the use of performance strategies that reinforce notions of community and social media interconnectedness in the digital age. These young people create a sense of identity and community that informs and is informed by hip hop culture. As such, the book argues that Dubsmash serves as a fundamental space to fashion contemporary youth identity. To do this, the book re-appropriates the term "Renegade" to explain the nuanced ways that Dubsmashers take up visual and sonic space on social media apps to self-fashion identity, form supportive digital communities, and exert agency to take up space that is often denied to them in other facets of their lives.

1920s Cairo: singers were pressing hit records, dramatic troupes were springing up and cabarets were packed - a counterculture was on the rise. In bars, hash-dens and music halls, people of all backgrounds came together as a passionate group of artists captivated Egyptian society. Of these performers, Cairo's biggest stars were female, and they asserted themselves on the stage like never before. Two of the most famous troupes were run by women; Badia Masabni's dancehall became the hottest nightspot in town; pioneer of Egyptian cinema Aziza Amir made her stage debut; and legendary singer Oum Kalthoum first rose to fame. It is these women, who knew both the opportunities and prejudices that this world offered, who best reveal this cosmopolitan and raucous city's secrets. Midnight in Cairo tells the thrilling story of Egypt's interwar nightlife and entertainment industry through the lives of its pioneering women. Introducing an eccentric cast of characters, it brings to life a world of revolutionary ideas and provocative art - one which laid the foundations of Arab popular culture today. It is a story of modern Cairo as we have never heard it before.

Philip Hayward is a mathematics teacher who is 'Mr Nice Guy'. He tries to be generous and giving, but he harbours a guilty secret, he wants his brother, Patrick, dead. Ten years previously they had bought a flat together but when Patrick lost his job through shady deals, a year later, they were forced sell. As the elder brother, Patrick was the principal name on the mortgage and he held the account. When they sold, the capital payment for the flat was paid into his bank, and he disappeared to America with all the money. The mortgage company came after Phil for the whole debt, leaving him with a huge sum of money to pay off and nowhere to live. He had even contemplated fratricide; the bitterness at his unfair treatment had become greater as time passed and as his poverty weighed more heavily on him. When a serendipitous meeting reveals his brother's whereabouts, he stumbles into his brother's new house to discover a body. With help, he can find his brother's killer but will he be in time?

This impressive new book from Sue-Ellen Case looks at how science has been performed throughout history, tracing a line from nineteenth century alchemy to the twenty-first century virtual avatar. In this bold and wide-ranging book that is written using a crossbreed of styles, we encounter a glance of Edison in his laboratory, enter the soundscape of John Cage and raid tombs with Lara Croft. Case looks at the intersection of science and performance, the academic treatment of classical plays and internet-like bytes on contemporary issues and experiments where the array of performances include: electronic music Sun Ra, the jazz musician the recursive play of tape from Samuel Beckett to Pauline Oliveros Performing Science and the Virtual reviews how well these performances borrow from spiritualist notions of transcendence, as well as the social codes of race, gender and economic exchange. This book will appeal to academics and graduates studying theatre and performance studies, cultural studies and philosophy.

"The Humor of Humor" is much more than a pleasurable experience to read. By turns hilarious and illuminating, it is a revolutionary contribution, for beneath its endless fun and wit lays a new approach to comedy. The author compresses the vast panorama of the subject into a few basic building blocks of humor. As one turns these pages, the art, science, and history of popular comedy take shape before the readers' eyes in an entirely new way. This edition is graced by a new introduction by Arthur Asa Berger, the dean of humor studies. The reader will be fascinated by Esar's achievement. He invites laughing at these stories and quips, many of them classics that have delighted mankind for thousands of years. Esar tells us how wisecracks, riddles, jokes, and other types of comedy arise, develop, and disappear. He shows how the chain, the round, the reversible, and other techniques persist in ever-changing guise for centuries and why they are still as fresh today as the latest gag. These and other facts about wit and humor are interspersed with bright anecdotes. The reader will be delighted by the infinite varieties and practices of humor. Esar's familiarity with international comedy gives substance to his claim that Europe is ahead of us in promoting the study of popular humor despite our preeminence in jocular variety and originality. America publishes more humorous books, supports more jokesmiths, and has a larger audience for comedy than any other country in the world. Yet, unlike other lands, we have no public library of comic literature, no national society of humorists, and no professor of humor in any university. Evan Esar (1899-1995) was an American humorist, whose writings ranged from comic folklore to satiric literature, and combined both popular and scholarly appeal. He edited joke books and humorous dictionaries and pioneered in humor tests, statistical methods, and comparative joke lore. Among his many writings are Esar's "Comic Dictionary", "The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations", and "20,000 Quips and Quotes".

The city and the cinema have become inextricably intertwined over the last century, with the identities of places becoming bound up in their cinematic portrayals. We have seen the landmarks of New York, London and Tokyo turn into iconic symbols of wealth, power, status, style and culture, and for the majority of people the images and sounds of movies form the only experience they will ever have of distant cities. Cinematic Urbanism presents an urban history of modernity and postmodernity through the lens of cinema. AlSayyad traces the dissolution of the boundary between real and reel through time and space via a series of films that represent different modernities. They include: Cinema Paradiso It's a Wonderful Life Metropolis Brazil Blade Runner Annie Hall Taxi Driver Do the Right Thing My Beautiful Laundrette The Truman Show. Alsayyad argues that our understanding of the city cannot be viewed independently of cinematic experience. Films do not only capture the depiction of a society; they influence the way we construct images of the world and, as a result, how we operate within it. We are beginning to blur the distinction between what is real in the everyday, and how we imagine the everyday. Cinematic Urbanism explores this dynamic, bringing together insights from urban and film studies to illuminate current architectural debate. .