In Chocolate Surrealism, Njoroge M. Njoroge highlights connections among the production, performance, and reception of popular music at critical historical junctures in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author sifts different origins and styles to place socio-musical movements into a larger historical framework. Calypso reigned during the turbulent interwar period and the ensuing crises of capitalism. The Cuban rumba/son complex enlivened the postwar era of American empire. Jazz exploded in the Bandung period and the rise of decolonization. And, lastly, Nuyorican Salsa coincided with the period of the civil rights movement and the beginnings of black/brown power. Njoroge illuminates musics of the circum-Caribbean as culturally and conceptually integrated within the larger history of the region. He pays close attention to the fractures, fragmentations, and historical particularities that both unite and divide the region’s sounds. At the same time, he engages with a larger discussion of the Atlantic world. Njoroge examines the deep interrelations between music, movement, memory, and history in the African diaspora. He finds the music both a theoretical anchor and a mode of expression and representation of black identities and political cultures. Music and performance offer ways for the author to re-theorize the intersections of race, nationalism and musical practice, and geopolitical connections. Further music allows Njoroge a reassessment of the development of the modern world system in the context of local, popular responses to the global age. The book analyzes different styles, times, and politics to render a brief history of Black Atlantic sound.
Examining the surrealist novels of several contemporary writers including Edwidge Danticat, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, Junot Díaz, Helen Oyeyemi, and Colson Whitehead, AfroSurrealism, the first book-length exploration of AfroSurreal fiction, argues that we have entered a new and exciting era of the black novel, one that is more invested than ever before in the cross sections of science, technology, history, folklore, and myth. Building on traditional surrealist scholarship and black studies criticism, the author contends that as technology has become ubiquitous, the ways in which writers write has changed; writers are producing more surrealist texts to represent the psychological challenges that have arisen during an era of rapid social and technological transitions. For black writers, this has meant not only a return to Surrealism, but also a complete restructuring in the way that both past and present are conceived, as technology, rather than being a means for demeaning and brutalizing a black labor force, has become an empowering means of sharing information. Presenting analyses of contemporary AfroSurreal fiction, this volume examines the ways in which contemporary writers grapple with the psychology underlying this futuristic technology, presenting a cautiously optimistic view of the future, together with a hope for better understanding of the past. As such, it will appeal to scholars of cultural, media and literary studies with interests in the contemporary novel, Surrealism, and black fiction.
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
A History of the Surrealist Novel offers a rich, long, and elastic historiography of the surrealist novel, taking into consideration an abundance of texts previously left out of critical accounts. Its twenty thematically organized chapters examine surrealist prose texts written in French, English, Spanish, German, Greek, and Japanese, from the emergence of the surrealist movement in the 1920s and 1930s, through the post-war and postmodern periods, and up to the contemporary moment. This approach extends received narratives regarding surrealism's geographical locations and considers its transnational movement and modes of circulation. Moreover, it challenges critical biases that have defined surrealism in predominantly masculine terms, and which tie the movement to the interwar or early post-war years. This book will appeal both to scholars and students of surrealism and its legacies, modernist literature, and the history of the novel.
The Food Network's( Bob Blumer is called the "Surreal Gourmet" for good reason: He's an artist when it comes to creating dishes as fun and delicious to look at as they are to eat. This book includes recipes for 50 little masterpieces as well as tips for whimsical presentation, shortcuts, techniques, and more.
In Made in NuYoRico, Marisol Negrón tells the cultural history of salsa, tracing the music’s Nuyorican meanings over a fifty-year period that begins with the establishment of Fania Records in 1964 and how it capitalized on salsa’s Nuyorican imaginary to cultivate a global audience. Drawing on interviews with fans, legendary musicians, and music industry figures as well as analyses of songs, albums, films, and archival documents, Negrón shows how Nuyorican cultural and social histories became embedded in and impacted salsa music's flows during its foundational period in the mid-1960s and its boom in the 1970s. Salsa’s Nuyorican aesthetics challenged mainstream notions of Americanness and Puerto Ricanness and produced an alternative public sphere through which New York’s poor and working-class Puerto Ricans could contest racialization and colonial power. By outlining salsa’s complicated musical, cultural, commercial, racial, gendered, legal, and political entanglements, Negrón demonstrates its centrality to Nuyorican identity and subjectivity.
A profound understanding of the surrealists’ connections with alchemists and secret societies and the hermetic aspirations revealed in their works • Explains how surrealist paintings and poems employed mythology, gnostic principles, tarot, voodoo, alchemy, and other hermetic sciences to seek out unexplored regions of the mind and recover lost “psychic” and magical powers • Provides many examples of esoteric influence in surrealism, such as how Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon was originally titled The Bath of the Philosophers Not merely an artistic or literary movement as many believe, the surrealists rejected the labels of artist and author bestowed upon them by outsiders, accepting instead the titles of magician, alchemist, or--in the case of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo--witch. Their paintings, poems, and other works were created to seek out unexplored regions of the mind and recover lost “psychic” and magical powers. They used creative expression as the vehicle to attain what André Breton called the “supreme point,” the point at which all opposites cease to be perceived as contradictions. This supreme point is found at the heart of all esoteric doctrines, including the Great Work of alchemy, and enables communication with higher states of being. Drawing on an extensive range of writings by the surrealists and those in their circle of influence, Patrick Lepetit shows how the surrealists employed mythology, gnostic principles, tarot, voodoo, and alchemy not simply as reference points but as significant elements of their ongoing investigations into the fundamental nature of consciousness. He provides many specific examples of esoteric influence among the surrealists, such as how Picasso’s famous Demoiselles d’Avignon was originally titled The Bath of the Philosophers, how painter Victor Brauner drew from his father’s spiritualist vocation as well as the Kabbalah and tarot, and how doctor and surrealist author Pierre Mabille was a Freemason focused on finding initiatory paths where “it is possible to feel a new system connecting man with the universe.” Lepetit casts new light on the connection between key figures of the movement and the circle of adepts gathered around Fulcanelli. He also explores the relationship between surrealists and Freemasonry, Martinists, and the Elect Cohen as well as the Grail mythos and the Arthurian brotherhood.
Chocolate has been one of mankind's obsessions for centuries. The history of cacao and chocolate-making leads from Mexico to Spain and then France, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium, while its consumption is universal. This collection examines chocolate's history as well as its use in literature, art, music, and folklore, as a subject for psychology and childrearing, and as an important product for business. In addition, recipes for novel and tasty uses of chocolate are provided. While chocolate may be seen as food of the gods, it is consumed around the world by all ages and classes. This is an intriguing book for scholars in many fields and for those interested in the history of food and their favorite sweet.
A wild, hilarious account of one man's absurd quest for enlightenment, inner peace and a really good pair of trousers. These twenty-three interconnected short stories dissect the chaos of modern life with a unique brand of off-the-wall humour. Anthony Zen pokes fun at the idea that our bosses can be pigs, our parents can be embarrassing and absent-minded, time is relative, justice is blind, and the foundations of our relationships might not always pass the inspection of a team of geologists. In Anthony's world, the mundane becomes fantastic. EVERYTHING is a target for satire. Are these illustrated stories just a good laugh - some silly fun - or do they deep dive into the minutia and machinations that manipulate our daily existence? YOU decide! Here's how readers describe "The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen" ... "Very funny." "A fun read." "Fantastic read!" "I haven't laughed so much reading a book in quite a while." "My roommate came into the kitchen and asked what I was laughing at [while I was reading it]." "The book was truly a joy to read." Need some fun? Craving a good laugh? Brain needs a stretch? ESCAPE! Dive into the world of Anthony Zen! Reviews "Reminded me of 'Rhinoceros' - Ionesco. A commentary on the absurdity of the human condition made tolerable only by self-delusion. Shows struggle of individual (Anthony) to maintain his integrity and identity alone in a world where others have succumbed to 'beauty' of brute force, natural energy and/or mindlessness." -- Colette Stevenson "Your stories reminded me of a cross between Lewis Carroll and Richard Brautigan" -- Larry Logan SATIRE - THE JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY SATIRE "North American authors, with the exception of a few (Kurt Vonnegut Jr., et al.), have very little sense of the absurd, something you've been cultivating, I think." -- C.F. Kennedy DRIFT/NECESSARY PRESS "We like the character and the writing." -- The Editors BLOOD AND APHORISMS "I enjoyed reading all four of your submissions [including the Anthony Zen stories 'Anthony Has Some Fun' and 'Another Day at Work']. You obviously have a well-developed sense of humor." -- Lisa B. Neuberger AMAZING STORIES "I [found] your Anthony Zen stories funny. In fact, I really enjoyed them. You obviously have a flair for nonsense, and a knack for turning cliches on their heads. The ability to find comic potential in the everyday mundanities of life is pretty rare, and the stuff that good comic writers are made of. I think it's obvious you have this same type of funny bone." -- Tim Bowling FLASH MAGAZINE "When the book begins with poor Anthony being harassed by his ringing cat, being late for work, and rushing out the door forgetting to put on pants, you know you're in for a treat. Anthony is a likable character with a good sense of humor. His friends, Harry and Chubby, had me laughing out loud when they were prank-calling Anthony. When Anthony explains that he enjoyed prank-calling the kids in the neighborhood, telling them that "he saw Bear Gryls climbing up onto their roof and disappearing down their chimney," I had a good chuckle. That was a creative and a well-thought out scenario that you wouldn't think of when he first mentioned prank calls. All 23 short stories have the same theme, mainly the "how-to" deal with a work/life balance, dealing with family, and maintaining the kid spirit that exists in all of us while living an adult life. The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen is a great book if you are looking for a quick read." -- Danielle Watkins THE BOOK SMUGGLER'S DEN "The author is a gifted writer. The author's writing prowess is immaculate. Incorporated a lot of themes and literary devices. Light-hearted and fun to read. It was hilariously genius. The writing style and humor are perfect. The hilarious jokes are executed very well." -- Eunice Geres
