“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

The companion volume to the ten-part PBS TV series by the teamresponsible for"The Civil War" and "Baseball." Continuing in thetradition of their critically acclaimed works, Geoffrey C. Ward andKen Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessentialAmerican music--jazz. Born in the black community ofturn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning bymusicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Americans at theirbest. Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and women whomade the music: Louis Armstrong, the fatherless waif whoseunrivaled genius helped turn jazz into a soloist's art andinfluenced every singer, every instrumentalist who came after him;Duke Ellington, the pampered son of middle-class parents who turneda whole orchestra into his personal instrument, wrote nearly twothousand pieces for it, and captured more of American life than anyother composer. Bix Beiderbecke, the doomed cornet prodigy whoshowed white musicians that they too could make an importantcontribution to the

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

One of Victorian Englands most charismatic characters, DanteGabriel Rossetti painted and wrote with equal passion. He wassimilarly passionate in his personal life: his etherealartist-wife, his earthy blond mistress, and the ravishing JaneMorris are al

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.

本书首次向中国的读者展示中国观众对“土地‘的各种感受和反应，其中包括有留言、图片、文章等形式。 “从某种意义来说，《土地》是一项全球性项目，她是由地球上某一特定地区年龄各异的当地人民制造出来的。她由土制成、以火生成，其情感来自触摸，其思想来自观赏。”安东尼·葛姆雷的“土地”被认为是现代雕塑的经典作品。安东尼·葛姆雷是一位国际瞩目的艺术大师，自1989年，葛姆雷一直从事着一项与世界各国不同社区接触的长期项目———《土地》。为制造不同版本的《土地》雕塑，他游历了从巴西雨林到北欧等不同国家。 2003年1月，他与300多位不同年龄层次，来自广州东北部花都地区的市民一起，用了5天的时间，制造了近20万个小泥人，组成了大型雕塑巡展“土地”．

What's the secret to writing a hit song? It's as simple as1-2-3-4-5-6 Innovative, practical, and inspiring, "Six Steps toSongwriting Success" presents a surefire step-by-step approach tomastering the elements consistently found in hit songs. AuthorJason Blume, a songwriter with the rare distinction of having hadsongs on the Country, Pop, and RandB charts simultaneously, haspacked this book with such key aids as the three-step lyric writingtechnique used by the pros; lyric, melody, and demo checklists; andtools for self-evaluation-plus many other exercises that work.Blume's warm, humorous style features motivational anecdotes andentertaining stories of how hit songs came to be written andrecorded. Get "Six Steps to Songwriting Success," and get on thecharts

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.

From its ancient status as the jewel of an empire to itsmodern incarnation as a troubled, yet culturally vibrant Europeancapital, Rome has compelled the imagination of artists for over twothousand years. Now, in "The History of Rome in Painting", that

A basic primer for anyone without musical training who wishesto learn to read musical scores when singing or taking up aninstrument, this accessible and complete book covers classical,popular, jazz, and folk music. Well-known pieces are accompanied bya muscial dictionary, a note directory, and a guide to musicalsigns.

Desde queen 1890 en Estados Unidos se utilizara el terminorascacielos para designar al edificio de oficinas en altura, esteha suscitado diversidad de reflexiones --entre el entornoarquitectonico y la opi-nion pOblica- acerca de sus limites ydisefio. El ras-cacielos es un producto genuinamenteestadouniden-se, fruto del siglo xx, cuya presencia y evoluci6n essin6nimo de progreso tecnologico, la sociedad de consumo y lapolftica liberal. Este volumen propone una revision de los rascacielos queinauguran el nuevo milenio, con la seleccion de edificios de laultima decada del siglo xx y principios del xxi de algunos de losarquitectos mas relevantes de la actualidad. Asf, se muestranedificios que forman parte del debate arquitect6nico actual y quemuestran como sus autores afrontan la arquitectura en relacion conla sociedad y la ciudad.

Whether Gould's subject is Boulez, Stokowski, Streisand, orhis own highly individual thoughts on performance and creation ofmusic, the reader will be caught up in his intensity, intelligence,passion and devotion.

In 1931, Diego Rivera was the subject of The Museum of ModernArt s second monographic exhibition, which set new attendancerecords in its five-week run. The Museum brought Rivera to New Yorksix weeks before the show s opening and gave him on-site studiospace. There he produced five "portable murals" --large blocks offrescoed plaster, slaked lime and wood that feature bold imagesdrawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolutionand class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Riveraadded three more murals, now taking on New York subjects throughmonumental images of the urban working class and the city duringthe Great Depression. Published in conjunction with an exhibitionthat brings together key works made for Rivera s 1931 show, thiscatalogue casts the artist as a highly cosmopolitan figure whotraveled between Russia, Mexico and the United States and examinesthe intersection of artmaking and radical politics in the 1930s.Illustrated with reproductions of each panel as well as r

Few artists have created as much controversy or survived itwith greater fame than Edouard Manet. In his day, the avant-gardewas not only a challenge to the traditions of art, but it was alsoa gunshot fired at society as a whole. With his painting Olympia(1869), Manet was to become, to quote Degas, as famous asGaribaldi. Yet how the urbane and diffident son of a bourgeoisfamily became the father of both Realism and Impressionism is acomplex and fascinating story that has too often been reduced totextbook clichés. As Manet has become recognized as a touchstonefor historical change but also for interpretations of how thatchange came about, his individual story has become all the morerelevant to the study of art history. Moreover, far from being anartists to shrink behind his work, one of Manets mostcharacteristic practices was to leave an indelible trace of his ownpersonal identity within his paintings, as illustrated throughoutthe volume by eminent scholar James H. Rubin. This lavishlyillustrated volume

An illustrated, inside look at the rock group Nirvana offers acandid look the band's members, chronicling their rapid rise in themusic world and revealing the true story of the drug-abuse rumorssurrounding them.