Embellished with incredibly sophisticated gold, silver, and silk patterning, the refined ceremonial textiles of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra are often so complicated that even a highly skilled weaver can complete only a few centimeters in a full day at her loom. Motif patterns woven into these exquisite cloths reflect the Minangkabau adat - the indigenous ideology that prescribes roles for all activities and speech. In this lavishly illustrated volume, 13 contributing authors--9 of them Minangkabau--consider ceremonial dress, motifs, fibers, patterning techniques, traditional architecture, ceremonies, jewelry, music, dance, literature, and historiography.
Why do the righteous suffer? This is an age long dilemma. The human soul agitates over it. Man's wisdom endeavors to solve it. But God alone has the right answer. In the book of Job, God reveals the hidden purpose behind the suffering of the righteous. For suffering is unto sonship. Through suffering we grow into such a living knowledge of God that delivers us from self and fills us with Christ. Let all who suffer find comfort and strength in reading The Splendor Of His Ways.
When Psyche, because of her beauty and so many suitors, declares she hates Love and Beauty, her father closes the Temple of Aphrodite. Aphrodite sends Eros to punish them, but Eros falls in love with Psyche. His loyalty to Aphrodite causes him to punish Psyche by marrying her to a monster (himself in disguise). Psyche admits her attraction to the monster, and needs to prove her love to Eros. 2nd of the Myth trilogy by Roberta Gellis; originally published by Pinnacle
Features the court of Britain's longest-reigning monarch Royalty and the Victorian era, with coverage of the people, pageantry, and power of Queen Victoria's court. Beginning with the Queen's 1897 Diamond Jubilee, this book describes her long reign. It paints a portrait of a unique ruler at the height of empire.
A comprehensive anthology of Chinese poetry from the 12th century B.C. to the present. "This magnificent collection has the effect of a complete library rather than of an anthology of poetry.... A lyric quality comes through into our own language... Every page is alive with striking and wonderful things, immediately accessible." -- Publishers Weekly "Sunflower Splendor is the largest and, on the whole, best anthology of translated Chinese poems to have appeared in a Western language." -- The New York Times Book Review "This remarkably fine anthology should remain standard for a long time." -- Library Journal ..". excellent translations by divers hands. Open to any page and listen to the still, sad music... " -- Washington Post Bookworld
Anke Gleber examines one of the most intriguing and characteristic figures of European urban modernity: the observing city stroller, or flaneur. In an age transformed by industrialism, the flaneur drifted through city streets, inspired and repelled by the surrounding scenes of splendor and squalor. Gleber examines this often elusive figure in the particular contexts of Weimar Germany and the intellectual sphere of Walter Benjamin, with whom the concept of flanerie is often associated. She sketches the European influences that produced the German flaneur and establishes the figure as a pervasive presence in Weimar culture, as well as a profound influence on modern perceptions of public space. The book begins by exploring the theory of literary flanerie and the technological changes--street lighting, public transportation, and the emergence of film--that gave a new status to the activities of seeing and walking in the modern city. Gleber then assesses the place of flanerie in works by Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and other representatives of Weimar literature, arts, and theory. She draws particular attention to the works of Franz Hessel, a Berlin flaneur who argued that flanerie is a "reading" of the city that perceives passersby, streets, and fleeting impressions as the transitory signs of modernity. Gleber also examines connections between flanerie and Weimar film, and discusses female flanerie as a means of asserting female subjectivity in the public realm. The book is a deeply original and searching reassessment of the complex intersections among modernity, vision, and public space.
Design authority Wendy Moonan takes the reader on a tour of some of New York City's finest residential rooms--past and present. The selection of interiors is about the "wow" factor--New York residential spaces that elicit gasps of pleasure and surprise when first seen. Some are very grand, others sparingly modern or eclectic. All are exceptional and, Moonan promises, unforgettable. Groundbreaking rooms include Brooke Astor's elegant library by Albert Hadley; Gloria Vanderbilt's sublime patchwork bedroom; Donald Judd's dramatically spare art-filled loft; Adolfo's opulent and magnificently red entrance hall; a Peter Marino-designed penthouse with sweeping midtown views; and Jamie Drake's stunning dining room for the mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion. Other illustrious interior designers and architects represented in the book include Mario Buatta, Robert Couturier, Albert Hadley, Denning & Fourcade, Mark Hampton, Philip Johnson, Charlotte Moss, Thomas O'Brien, Paul Rudolph, Bunny Williams, and Steven Gambrel. New York is the epicenter of interior-design innovations. Residents embrace myriad styles--from pure period historicism to bracing modernity. Moonan investigates the city's best residential spaces and presents them here, a book for the libraries of design lovers and professionals in the field.
In a Willian S. Phillips painting--a tight formation of F-4 Phantoms screaming over Crater Lake, Oregon; the Blue Angels soaring near the California coast; a violent confrontation between a German Bf-109 and a RAF Spitfire above Sussex's Beachy Head; a line of Bell Hueys passing through a monsoon-soaked valley in Vietnam--a viewer can almost feel the pressure on his body from the groundblurring speed of the plane, his mouth go dry in the desert air, or the chill on his neck when it's so cold it hurts to breathe. Phillips is also a superb landscape and "skyscape" painter who places his subjects in geographic and historical context. A wealth of aviation and military history by Ann and Charlie Cooper accompanies the paintings, as do Phillips's own archival photographs.
