Includes eight full-length, award-winning plays: * Streamers by David Rabe * Marco Polo Sings a Solo by John Guare * Wings by Arthur Kopit * Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You by ChristopherDurang * Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley * The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney * Painting Churches by Tina Howe * Ma Rainey's Black Bottom byAugust Wilson Edited and with an introduction by Brooks McNamara.

Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and movingchronicle of his fifty-second year--a year already filled withlong, fast workdays and too little spare time--as he answers atlast a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano. The twelvemonthly chapters span from January--when after decades of growingaffection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges inand buys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmaspresent for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickeringcandlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts theirfavorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he'sbeen struggling with in secret to get to this very moment. Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adamsinterweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano.And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms andboogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with--and insightsfrom--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher("I was a bit embarrassed," he wr

A tribute to the Pacific Northwest's grunge genre draws on theobservations of individuals at the forefront of the movement fromSoundgarden and the Melvins to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, citing theinfluences of such factors as the rise of Seattle's Sub Pop recordlabel and the death of Kurt Cobain.

The moral of this book is that behind every great engineeringsuccess is a trail of often ignored (but frequently spectacular)engineering failures. Petroski covers many of the best knownexamples of well-intentioned but ultimately failed design in action-- the galloping Tacoma Narrows Bridge (which you've probably seentossing cars willy-nilly in the famous black-and-white footage),the collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel walkways -- andmany lesser known but equally informative examples. The line ofreasoning Petroski develops in this book were later formalized intohis quasi-Darwinian model of technological evolution in TheEvolution of Useful Things , but this book is arguably the moreilluminating -- and defintely the more enjoyable -- of these twotitles. Highly recommended.

The most spectacular building raised in Hanover in the last fewyears, the new headquarters of the Norddeutsche Landesbank standsas a landmark high-rise, gleaming with transparence, courageousconstruction, and an innovative energy concept--a pioneer amongGerman office complexes. Designed by the internationally renownedStuttgart-based firm of Behnisch, Behnisch Partner, thestructure provides an attractive workplace for the bank's 1,500employees, while simultaneously infusing the city space with newimpulses, a pleasant public inner courtyard, and an attractiveannex housing shops and restaurants. This publication presents thecomplex in all its aspects, from the initial design competition tothe building phase to completion.

Although developments in camera technology mean that qualityimages are now well within the grasp of the keen amateur, themarket place is competitive. How does an aspiring photographerimprove and promote his or her photography in order to earn extraincome, or to make the leap to professional status? This newsubject-focused series explains everything the amateur needs toknow, from planning a shoot to effective marketing of the images toclients. In the first title, Landscape Photography, renownedlandscape photographer Mark Lucock offers the keen amateur aninsight into the daily life and decision-making of the workinglandscape photographer, sharing professional insights and tradesecrets of producing successful commercial and fine artphotography. Equipment and technique are only part of the equation:Lucock's approach is also a spiritual one - his passion about theenvironment gives his approach a highly compelling, personal edge.Lucock equips readers with all the necessary information, andplenty of inspiration, to

Now in paperback, the fascinating, quirky, highly acclaimedbook about that indispensable object, the pencil. Petroski tracesits origins back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually andcharmingly about its development, and shows what the pencil canteach us about engineering and technology today.

Preserved by Arabic mathematicians and canonized by Christianscholars, Aristotle’s works have shaped Western thought, science,and religion for nearly two thousand years. Richard McKeon’s TheBasic Works of Aristotle –constituted out of the definitiveOxford translation and in print as a Random House hardcover forsixty years–has long been considered the best available one-volumeAristotle. Appearing in paperback at long last, this editionincludes selections from the Organon, On the Heavens, The ShortPhysical Treatises, Rhetoric, among others, and On the Soul, OnGeneration and Corruption, Physics, Metaphysics, NicomacheanEthics, Politics, and Poetics in their entirety.

“My mother prophesied years ago that my voice would take meplaces. She was certain that there was a reason I was able to sing.I am still discovering what that reason is, what it is that Godwants to happen.” –CLAY AIKEN, from Learning to Sing When he was a kid singing in his church choir, Clay Aiken neverdreamed of becoming a pop music star. His ambition was to be ateacher, maybe even a high school principal. But Clay’s mother wasright, and the music that was Clay’s joy in life was destined tolead him to unexpected triumphs. In Learning to Sing, Clay details what his astonishing successhas meant to him. He writes from the heart about his life beforeand since his instant stardom on American Idol, how he has changed,and how he struggles to adapt to life in the public eye. He speakscandidly about his lonely childhood: the father who abandoned him,the school bullies who tormented him, the mother who taught him tobe strong, and the friends and teachers who–more than they everkne

"A cat book with class, this sumptuously produced, highlyliterate collection of felinity as represented in art, literature,and photography is sure to elicit purrs, " raved Publishers Weeklywhen this BOMC Selection was published in 1982. Long out of print,this cat-lovers dream book is now reissued in paperback. 70full-color reproductions. --Ce texte fait référence à uneédition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

What do you getwhen you cross a snail with the Indianapolis 500? If you’reDreamWorks, then the result is Turbo, an uplifting—andgear-shifting—story about the ultimate underdog, delivered with thedigital mastery, storytelling skill, and spellbinding imagery we’vecome to expect from the studio behind the Shrek and Madagascar.

The world of the fashionista is brought to vivid life with 101introductory lessons on such topics as how a designer anticipatescultural trends and "sees" the fashion consumer, the workings ofthe fashion calendar, the ways a designer collection is conceived,the manufacture of fabric, fashion illustration, and more. Illustrated in the distinctly unique packaged style of thebestselling101 THINGS I LEARNED IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, this newbook on fashion design will be a perfect book for any fashionschool wannabe, a recent graduate, or even a seasonedprofessional.

Paul Nicklen, a resident of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,has lived nearly all his life in the far north. Trained as abiologist, he is an experienced wilderness guide, as well as aninternationally acclaimed photographer. Huge Brody is an associateof the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University. Heis the author of several books, including Maps and Dreams, Indianson Skid Row, and Inishkillane: Change and Decline in the West ofIreland. He lives in London.

In this compulsively readable, fascinating, and provocativeguide to classical music, Norman Lebrecht, one of the world's mostwidely read cultural commentators tells the story of the rise ofthe classical recording industry from Caruso's first notes to theheyday of Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Callas, and von Karajan. Lebrechtcompellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached itsend point-but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. Itis, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form,analyzing the cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini,Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is thestory of how stars were made and broken by the record business; howa war criminal conspired with a concentration-camp victim to createa record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars,public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musicalbackdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrineto classical recording: the author's critical selectio

When it was originally published in 1970, "How to Draw What YouSee" zoomed to the top of Watson-Guptill's best-seller list--and ithas remained there ever since. "I believe that you must be able todraw things as you see them--realistically," wrote Rudy de Reyna inhis introduction. Today, generations of artists have learned todraw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, usingde Reyna's methods. "How to Draw What You See" shows artists how torecognize the basic shape of an object--cube, cylinder, cone, orsphere--and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how muchdetail it contains.

These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues—which grewout of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks—are an exchange betweentwo of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: DanielBarenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, andEdward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentatoron the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said aPalestinian-American; they are also close friends. As they range across music, literature, and society, they openup many fields of inquiry: the importance of a sense of place;music as a defiance of silence; the legacies of artists from Mozartand Beethoven to Dickens and Adorno; Wagner’s anti-Semitism; andthe need for “artistic solutions” to the predicament of the MiddleEast—something they both witnessed when they brought young Arab andIsraeli musicians together. Erudite, intimate, thoughtful andspontaneous, Parallels and Paradoxes is a virtuosiccollaboration.

The most readable and comprehensive guide to enjoying overfive hundred years of classical music -- from Gregorian chants,Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to JohannesBrahms, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and beyond. The Vintage Guideto Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musicalhistory and an insider's key to the personalities, epochs, andgenres of the Western classical tradition. Among its features: --chronologically arranged essays on nearly 100 composers, fromGuillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) to Aaron Copland (1900-1990),that combine biography with detailed analyses of the major workswhile assessing their role in the social, cultural, and politicalclimate of their times;-- informative sidebars that clarify broadertopics such as melody, polyphony, atonality, and the impact of theearly-music movement;-- a glossary of musical terms, from acappella to woodwinds;-- a step-by-step guide to building a greatclassical music library. Written with wit and a clarity that bothmusi

This book is a study of the figures and landscapes thatSargent painted from 1900 (after he was well established as one ofthe foremost portraitists of the age) through 1914 (and the arrivalof the Second World War).

Interior designers will enjoy this beautifully illustratedvolume of 39 interiors located in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.Both private and commercial buildings are featured, includingrestaurants, resorts, and homes, in new and renovated locations.Many of the designs combine Asian materials and styles with Westerntraditions. Distributed by T