Industrial advancement has not changed the basic fragility of human life, and the commercialization and consumer orientation of the mass media has actually helped legends travel faster and farther. Legends are communicated not only orally, face to face, but also in the press, on radio and television, on countless Web sites, and by e-mail, perpetuating new waves of the "culture of fear.""--BOOK JACKET.
Details the lives and careers of the best professional wrestling figures of the last one hundred fifty years, including Bruno Sammartino, The Undertaker, and John Cena.
Barry Jones? Dictionary of World Biography weaves historical facts with perspective on the subjects and the influence they had on theirs and on modern times. Gain a unique insight into the life and times of important identities, cultural icons and controversial characters.
Comic books and superhero stories mirror essential societal values and beliefs. We can be Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Black Panther or Rocket Raccoon through our everyday choices. We can't fly, fix hyper drives or hear human heartbeats a mile away, but we can think about what Matt Murdock would do in a conflict, how Superman would respond to natural disasters and how Captain America would handle humanitarian crises. This book analyzes the impact of dozens of comics by examining the noble personalities, traits and actions of the main characters. Chapters detail how superheroes, comic books and other pop culture phenomena offer more than pure entertainment, and how we can better model ourselves after our favorite heroes. Through our good deeds, quick thinking and positive choices, we can become more like superheroes than we ever imagined.
In less than 40 years teratology has grown from a little known discipline concerned with studies on the effects of a few physical and chemical stresses on developing fish, amphibians, and birds, to a discipline embracing a vast accumulation of literature on experimental studies in many animal forms and the results of intensive scrutiny of human development under varied conditions, as well. Emphasis has shifted from preoccupation with descrip tions of anatomical defects to concern about subtle and interacting causative factors, to searches for the early reactions to these at the cellular and subcellu lar levels, and to identification of abnormality in the chemical, the functional, and the ultrastructural realms. These changes in orientation have quite naturally made necessary the recruitment of concepts, methods, and expertise from other disciplines. Hence the foundations of teratology, which once were largely morphological, have extended into genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, reproductive physiology, epidemiology, and several aspects of veteri nary and clinical medicine. It is not surprising that a student or new investigator approaching the field of teratology may feel some dismay when confronted with the confusing array of cross-disciplinary concepts and principles it encompasses today. One of the aims of this work is to introduce what the editors believe is a logical thread of continuity into a field that may be regarded by some as a welter of disordered information.
(Theatre World). Highlights of this new Theatre World , now in its 59th year, include the 8-Tony winning Hairspray with award winners Harvey Firestein and Marissa Jaret Winokur; the Tony-winning Best Play Take Me Out ; hot director David Leveaux's reimagining of Nine: The Musical , featuring the sensational Antonio Banderas and Jane Krakowski; the star-studded revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night with Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard; and the groundbreaking Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam . Notable Off-Broadway and touring productions include the anti-death penalty play The Exonerated ; Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five ; Dinner at Eight with the late John Ritter; Talking Heads with Lynn Redgrave, Christine Ebersole and Kathleen Chalfant; and the highly regarded Stephen Adly Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st St. Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway seasons, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, is a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacements, producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, and song titles. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, a longest-runs listing, an expanded theatrical awards section, and much more. Now featuring 16 pages of color photos! Over 600 photos in all. "Nothing brings back a theatrical season better, or holds on to it more lovingly, than John Willis' Theatre World an addiction for theatre buffs." Playbill "If you're looking for an elaborate visual record of a theatrical season, you'll want to opt for Theatre World ... It's a keeper." Back Stage
In its third edition, this massive reference work lists the final resting places of more than 14,000 people from a wide range of fields, including politics, the military, the arts, crime, sports and popular culture. Many entries are new to this edition. Each listing provides birth and death dates, a brief summary of the subject's claim to fame and their burial site location or as much as is known. Grave location within a cemetery is provided in many cases, as well as places of cremation and sites where ashes were scattered. Source information is provided.