For five short years in the 1980s, a four-piece Manchester band released a collection of records that had undeniably profound effects on the landscape of popular music and beyond. Today, public and critical appreciation of The Smiths is at its height, yet the most important British band after The Beatles have rarely been subject to sustained academic scrutiny. Why pamper life's complexities?: Essays on The Smiths seeks to remedy this by bringing together diverse research disciplines to place the band in a series of enlightening social, cultural and political contexts as never before. Topics covered by the essays range from class, sexuality, Catholicism, Thatcherism, regional and national identities, to cinema, musical poetics, suicide and fandom. Lyrics, interviews, the city of Manchester, cultural iconography and the cult of Morrissey are all considered anew. The essays breach the standard confines of music history, rock biography and pop culture studies to give a sustained critical analysis of the band that is timely and illuminating. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of sociology, literature, geography, cultural and media studies. It is also intended for a wider audience of those interested in the enduring appeal of one of the most complex and controversial bands. Accessible and original, these essays will help to contextualise the lasting cultural legacy of The Smiths. -- .

The grand narratives of European music history are informed by the dichotomy of placements and displacements. Yet musicology has thus far largely ignored the phenomenon of displacement and underestimated its significance for musical landscapes and music history. Music and Displacement: Diasporas, Mobilities, and Dislocations in Europe and Beyond constitutes a pioneering volume that aims to fill this gap as it explores the interactions between music and displacement in theoretical and practical terms. Contributions by distinguished international scholars address the theme through a wide range of case studies, incorporating art, popular, folk, and jazz music and interacting with areas, such as gender and post-colonial studies, critical theory, migration, and diaspora. The book is structured in three stages silence, acculturation, and theory that move from silence to sound and from displacement to placement. The range of subject matter within these sections is deliberately hybrid and mirrors the eclectic nature of displacement itself, with case studies exploring Nazi Anti-Semitism in musical displacement; musical life in the Jewish community of Palestine; Mahler, Jewishness, and Jazz; the Irish Diaspora in England; and German Exile studies, among others. Featuring articles from such scholars as Ruth F. Davis, Sean Campbell, Jim Samson, Sydney Hutchinson, and Europea series co-editor Philip V. Bohlman, the volume exerts an appeal reaching beyond music and musicology to embrace all areas in the humanities concerned with notions of displacement, migration, and diaspora."

For five short years in the 1980s, a four-piece Manchester band released a collection of records that had undeniably profound effects on the landscape of popular music and beyond. Today, public and critical appreciation of The Smiths is at its height, yet the most important British band after The Beatles have rarely been subject to sustained academic scrutiny. Why pamper life's complexities?: Essays on The Smiths seeks to remedy this by bringing together diverse research disciplines to place the band in a series of enlightening social, cultural and political contexts as never before. Topics covered by the essays range from class, sexuality, Catholicism, Thatcherism, regional and national identities, to cinema, musical poetics, suicide and fandom. Lyrics, interviews, the city of Manchester, cultural iconography and the cult of Morrissey are all considered anew. The essays breach the standard confines of music history, rock biography and pop culture studies to give a sustained critical analysis of the band that is timely and illuminating. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of sociology, literature, geography, cultural and media studies. It is also intended for a wider audience of those interested in the enduring appeal of one of the most complex and controversial bands. Accessible and original, these essays will help to contextualise the lasting cultural legacy of The Smiths. -- .

The bleakest winter on record and a gruesome discovery bring DCI David Morton to the Hackney Marshes in search of a clue, any clue, as to the identity of a dead child found near the Old River Lea. Meanwhile, closer to home, Morton's long suffering wife Sarah comes to the conclusion that her man has been doing more than work during his late nights at the office. As he closes in on the mystery of the boy's identity his life begins to crumble and a terrible wrong is done to someone he loves. With all of London watching, Morton's impeccable ethics will be tested to their limit as he is forced to choose between doing what is right and what is legal. Cleaver Square is a stand-alone Police Procedural featuring DCI David Morton.

In response to the near collapse of US securitization markets in 2008, the Federal Reserve created the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, which offered non-recourse loans to finance investors' purchases of certain highly rated asset-backed securities. We study the effects of this program and find that it lowered interest rate spreads for some categories of asset-backed securities but had little impact on the pricing of individual securities. These findings suggest that the program improved conditions in securitization markets but did not subsidize individual securities. We also find that the risk of loss to the US government was small.

Imagine an email describing the ultimate gay cruise on a brand new ship called The Paradise-built especially for the gay community. This ship has it all: shopping, Broadway shows, fabulous restaurants and clubs, swimming pools and casinos. And the maiden voyage is just about to depart from glamorous Singapore for the South China Sea, Bali and Australia. It's a dream trip that would be hard to resist. Who responds to these emails? What kind of people will be on this ship? From California to Florida, from Oregon to New York, from Arizona to Texas, Gangplank follows five "couples" from across the country who have some very interesting reasons for buying a ticket on The Paradise. Daisy and Oliver are mother and son. As national president of GASP (Gay Allies Siblings and Parents) she is determined to improve her gay son's love life She doesn't know his love life has already improved without her help Ed and Cliff have been together for 45 years. But Ed is keeping a secret. Is an anniversary cruise part of it or a way out of it? Mollianne and Van are a Texas debutante and her gay first husband. Sometimes ex-wives make the best girlfriends and Van in called upon to prove his friendship. When Mollianne experiences some hard life lessons, Van puts his own budding romance on hold for her. Dennis and Chad, two "theater people" in a May/September romance, are headed for a high seas honeymoon if an old love from the past doesn't sink the ship. It would be high drama if they weren't so much in love. And finally, Mitch and Ronnie were college roommates and have been best friends ever since. There friendship is healthier than their love lives. A cruise will help them mend their broken hearts and other body parts and prove that friendship might be the best kind of love after all. There's plotting and scheming, a few white lies and some shabby grey ones, too. There is high romance and low comedy, Tom Ford sweaters and Botox, a vintage Mustang and Neiman-Marcus. Five very different stories about love. And what brings them all together? The promise of a fantastic voyage where they can break and heal, cry and laugh, forget and remember that ends with a poignant good-bye to one of them. And it all happens before they even get on board the ship Remember that this isn't a story about a cruise. We've already got The Love Boat for that. This is a story about how to get to the Gangplank

The definition of home is different for everyone. For some, it's a place, for others another person or a work of art or an old comfy sofa. Connoly Bradshaw IV moved 1800 miles from all he knew of home to avoid coming out to his family and friends. And Portland, Oregon had welcomed him. He has a job he loves, good friends and he has met his soulmate, Travis Craig. They are even thinking of buying a home together but, in order to move forward, he must face his family and the lies of omission. The miles are closing in on him and the inevitable Texas showdown hangs over his head. Then he receives word of his grandfather's death and he must return to East Texas for the funeral. Putting his own life aside out of respect for his grandfather and namesake, he decides to keep his secret a little while longer when he returns to Madison, Texas and the family he loves and fears. But on the day of the funeral, his aunt gives him a package left for him by his grandfather. Inside is a journal kept fifty years earlier when the elder Bradshaw was a young man. The journal, the final gift of love, will change Con's life forever, and the lives of everyone around him will be affected. HOME is the story of two Connoly Bradshaws: one, a contemporary story of love and coming out and acceptance. The other is a fifty year old tale of romance, love and loss in the summer of 1959. The youngest Bradshaw is about to be caught up in his grandfather's life in a way he never expected and comes to understand that generations may differ in many ways but some things never change and one of those is love.

In a gay twist on Brief Encounter, Charlie Morgan and Ben McSwain meet on a train and are instantly drawn to each other. Charlie is a gay writer and atheist. Ben is an evangelical Christian, widowed with two children, who has never even thought about a relationship with another man. While it appears that these two have nothing in common, they find that they are "soulmates." It's a surprising and joyous discovery for Charlie and a confusing one for Ben as they try to bridge their vastly different lives. Ben has a full life with his work as a nurse, his family and his devotion to his church. His love for Charlie and a personal tragedy will test all of those commitments and make him question everything in his life. Charlie's work takes him to Texas to write a Broadway-bound show in collaboration with his old college roommate, Lee, and sexy, young country and western star, Luke Beecham. It looks like a smash hit until a secret from Lee's past shatters everyone's chances for happiness and brings Charlie to the loneliest place in his life.

Second-generation Irish musicians have played a vital role in the history of popular music in England. This book explores the role of Irish ethnicity in the lives and work of these musicians, focusing on three high-profile projects: Kevin Rowland and Dexys Midnight Runners, Shane MacGowan and The Pogues, and Morrissey/Marr and The Smiths. The book locates these musicians in a hyphenated 'Irish-Englishness' marked by 'in-between-ness' and explores the different ways that they engaged with this in-betweenness through their creative work and their engagements with audiences, the media and the music industry. The book draws on extensive archival research of print and audio-visual media as well as original interviews with the key figures, including Shane MacGowan, Johnny Marr, Kevin Rowland and Cait O'Riordan. Combining its assiduous research with fresh critical insights, the book offers new analyses of the musicians, as well as previously undocumented accounts of their lives and work. The book highlights the diversity and complexity of second-generation Irish identities and experience and details the diverse ways in which this generation has shaped popular music in England. Accessible and original, 'Irish Blood, English Heart' will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of popular music, media/cultural studies, and ethnic/migration studies. It will also appeal to a wider audience of those interested in the musicians with whom it deals.