In the past twenty years the Adirondacks have inspired a resident population of writers who have gained regional and national prominence using the Adirondack region as their primary setting and subject matter—or at least as a significant point of departure. Rooted in Rock is the first collection of its kind in more than twenty years, since Paul Jamieson's Adirondack Reader. What makes the volume unique, though, is the number of contributors who not only make the Adirondacks their subject, but who make their homes in these mountains. The works in this volume include contemporary essays, literary nonfiction, poetry, short fiction, and excerpted fiction and are a mix of new and previously published writings by forty-three authors, established as well as emerging, including Bill McKibben, Sue Halpern, Russell Banks, Alex Schoumatoff, Chase Twichell, Curt Stager, Amy Godine, and Jim Gould, to name a few.
You were born to make an impact in this world and you know it. You feel it deep down in your bones. Apathy is your nemesis and your hunger to change the world keeps you up at night. But no matter how deep this hunger growls, we can only make a meaningful impact if we are rooted in Jesus. And here’s the thing: God is not interested in developing your vision first. He is interested in developing you. In Rooted, Banning Liebscher takes us to the life of David to show how God expands our root system in the hidden places before leading us to where we all desire to go, the visible world. It was in a field of prayerful devotion, a season of serving, and a cave of community that God prepared David for his crown, the same way God prepares us. Take a look at your own life. Are you embracing God’s process, the sometimes painstaking and maddening process? When we can release ourselves to God we will find that we can thrive while He develops us, rather than succumb to discouragement. Whatever your age or season of life, it takes immense courage to slow down enough to let God grow a root system in your life so that you can bear fruit that remains. You are where you are because God has planted you there. Discover what it looks like to embrace His process so you can do what He has called you to, change the world.
Elements move through Earth's critical zone along interconnected pathways that are strongly influenced by fluctuations in water and energy. The biogeochemical cycling of elements is inextricably linked to changes in climate and ecological disturbances, both natural and man-made. Biogeochemical Cycles: Ecological Drivers and Environmental Impact examines the influences and effects of biogeochemical elemental cycles in different ecosystems in the critical zone. Volume highlights include: Impact of global change on the biogeochemical functioning of diverse ecosystems Biological drivers of soil, rock, and mineral weathering Natural elemental sources for improving sustainability of ecosystems Links between natural ecosystems and managed agricultural systems Non-carbon elemental cycles affected by climate change Subsystems particularly vulnerable to global change The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Book Review: http://www.elementsmagazine.org/archives/e16_6/e16_6_dep_bookreview.pdf
Explores the visionary, mystical, and ecstatic traditions that influenced the music of the 1960s • Examines the visionary, spiritual, and mystical influences on the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Incredible String Band, the Left Banke, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, and others • Shows how the British Invasion acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream • Explains how 1960s rock and roll music transformed consciousness on both the individual and collective levels The 1960s were a time of huge transformation, sustained and amplified by the music of that era: Rock and Roll. During the 19th and 20th centuries visionary and esoteric spiritual traditions influenced first literature, then film. In the 1960s they entered the realm of popular music, catalyzing the ecstatic experiences that empowered a generation. Exploring how 1960s rock and roll music became a school of visionary art, Christopher Hill shows how music raised consciousness on both the individual and collective levels to bring about a transformation of the planet. The author traces how rock and roll rose from the sacred music of the African Diaspora, harnessing its ecstatic power for evoking spiritual experiences through music. He shows how the British Invasion, beginning with the Beatles in the early 1960s, acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream. He explains how 60s rock and roll made a direct appeal to the imaginations of young people, giving them a larger set of reference points around which to understand life. Exploring the sources 1960s musicians drew upon to evoke the initiatory experience, he reveals the influence of European folk traditions, medieval Troubadours, and a lost American history of ecstatic politics and shows how a revival of the ancient use of psychedelic substances was the strongest agent of change, causing the ecstatic, mythic, and sacred to enter the consciousness of a generation. The author examines the mythic narratives that underscored the work of the Grateful Dead, the French symbolist poets who inspired Bob Dylan, the hallucinatory England of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, the tale of the Rolling Stones and the Lord of Misrule, Van Morrison’s astral journeys, and the dark mysticism of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Evoking the visionary and apocalyptic atmosphere in which the music of the 1960s was received, the author helps each of us to better understand this transformative era and its mystical roots.
Jerry Meislik is a well-known bonsai lecturer, demonstrator, teacher and writer. He has written articles for many of the major bonsai publications including Bonsai Journal of the American Bonsai Society and Bonsai Clubs International magazine. Jerry maintains a very active bonsai web site at www.bonsaihunk.us. There are more than 70 articles written by Jerry in various online forums and groups. The author is an acknowledged expert on the genus Ficus as it is applied to the growing of bonsai. He previous book on Figs, Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai was printed in both hard and soft cover editions. This prior book was used as the start and backbone of this new book The World of Ficus Bonsai. This new book is written for the everyday bonsai grower who wishes help in growing, styling and making the best fig bonsai possible from a tree or two and also contains information about figs suitable for the advanced bonsai grower and artist. The book is highly enhanced from the first book as it now contains over 40 Ficus species references that will greatly help the bonsai enthusiast to identify and to grow these specimens. Also included are photos of many Ficus species to aid in identifying the often confusing world of Ficus. There is also a list of Ficus that likely will prove difficult to grow as bonsai. Jerry has held many offices in the bonsai world. He has been president and vice-president of the Big Sky Bonsai Society; chairman of the publications committee of the American Bonsai Society; a member of the board of the National Bonsai Foundation; and is an honorary member of the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society of Michigan. Jerry has had two of his masterpiece bonsai accepted into the Matthaei Botanical Gardens Bonsai collection of the University of Michigan and into the Denver Botanic Garden Bonsai collection. He has traveled abroad to Canada, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Chile, Myanmar, Argentina and other countries to give demonstrations as well as to study their bonsai culture and of course to view and to learn from their bonsai trees.
By the time Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, the idea of a black man playing lead guitar in a rock band seemed exotic. Yet a mere ten years earlier, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had stood among the most influential rock and roll performers. Why did rock and roll become “white”? Just around Midnight reveals the interplay of popular music and racial thought that was responsible for this shift within the music industry and in the minds of fans. Rooted in rhythm-and-blues pioneered by black musicians, 1950s rock and roll was racially inclusive and attracted listeners and performers across the color line. In the 1960s, however, rock and roll gave way to rock: a new musical ideal regarded as more serious, more artistic—and the province of white musicians. Decoding the racial discourses that have distorted standard histories of rock music, Jack Hamilton underscores how ideas of “authenticity” have blinded us to rock’s inextricably interracial artistic enterprise. According to the standard storyline, the authentic white musician was guided by an individual creative vision, whereas black musicians were deemed authentic only when they stayed true to black tradition. Serious rock became white because only white musicians could be original without being accused of betraying their race. Juxtaposing Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and many others, Hamilton challenges the racial categories that oversimplified the sixties revolution and provides a deeper appreciation of the twists and turns that kept the music alive.
After Chester lands, in the Times Square subway station, he makes himself comfortable in a nearby newsstand. There, he has the good fortune to make three new friends: Mario, a little boy whose parents run the falling newsstand, Tucker, a fast-talking Broadway mouse, and Tucker's sidekick, Harry the Cat. The escapades of these four friends in bustling New York City makes for lively listening and humorous entertainment. And somehow, they manage to bring a taste of success to the nearly bankrupt newsstand. Join Chester Cricket and his friends in this classic children's book by George Selden, with illustrations by Garth Williams. The Cricket in Times Square is a 1961 Newbery Honor Book.
Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on the basis of age. In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world and olders should just step aside for the new generation. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and offers a rousing call to action. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride! “Wow. This book totally rocks. It arrived on a day when I was in deep confusion and sadness about my age. Everything about it, from my invisibility to my neck. Within four or five wise, passionate pages, I had found insight, illumination, and inspiration. I never use the word empower, but this book has empowered me.” —Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author
Tracing the magical roots of "hoodoo" back to West Africa, the author provides a history of this nature-based healing tradition and offers practical advice on how to apply hoodoo magic to everyday life.
From Grammy-winning musical icon and legendary bassist Victor L. Wooten comes an inspiring parable of music, life, and the difference between playing all the right notes…and feeling them. The Music Lesson is the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great. Then, from nowhere it seemed, a teacher arrived. Part musical genius, part philosopher, part eccentric wise man, the teacher would guide the young musician on a spiritual journey, and teach him that the gifts we get from music mirror those from life, and every movement, phrase, and chord has its own meaning...All you have to do is find the song inside. “The best book on music (and its connection to the mystic laws of life) that I've ever read. I learned so much on every level.”—Multiple Grammy Award–winning saxophonist Michael Brecker
