Is avant-garde rock music a contradiction in terms? Avant-garde trends emerged through the cultural and political upheavals of the 1960's, and acquired a new focus in the later Beatles, drawing upon many sourcees outside of rock, from John Cage to Cecil Taylor. In this fresh and challenging look at avant rock, Bill Martin outlines the entire phenomenon, from Yoko Ono, King Crimson, and Velvet Underground through the dynamic of progressive rock and punk in the 1970's and the watershed work of Brian Eno, to contemporary figures who continue to push the boundaries of rock: Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Merzbow, Bjork, Jim O'Rourke and many others.

The feminine spirit soars as medieval Europe's most exceptional woman recalls her astonishing odyssey, in 'Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine.' Betrayals and loyalties; triumphs and trials; stormy marriages to two warring kings, France's Louis VII and England's Henry II: 'They left me worn, these men, but they didn't level me ' In her eighty-first year, Eleanor recalls her wars, crusades, intrigues, troubadours and ruthless diplomacy while confessing her loves, hopes for her children and their fates. Eleanor spent 67 years fighting, arguing, pleading, loving, hating and counseling four kings, two of them her husbands, two of them her sons. She explains the Grace she enjoyed as the femme fatale of her day-'This old carcass once embodied the feminine ideal'-and the role that her Court of Ladies played in freeing women's minds in a world dominated by the twin male hierarchies of Church and state.