Once upon a simpler time, hand-painted and hand-crafted signs brought color and vibrancy to Australian towns and cities -- advertising everything from dining rooms, milk bars, and CWA halls to Peter's ice cream, oatmeal, stout, Chinese restaurants, and Shelley's famous drinks. Now faded and slowly disappearing, they tell the story of life over two centuries, recording a distinctly Australian vernacular language. A keen photographer of the everyday, Brady Michaels has recorded an impressive array of signs from across Australia -- from the earliest ads for household goods and services, to more recent but now defunct video lending libraries and internet cafés. These beautifully composed and nostalgic images are accompanied by brief commentary by Dale Campisi, who ponders the significance of these fading and disappearing signs -- artful, kitsch, and at times hilarious -- lovingly preserved through Brady's lens.
Winner of the 2022 Nib Literary Awards. Chosen as a 2021 ‘Book of the Year’ in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Book Review. The celebrated, Walkley Award-winning author on how global warming is changing not only our climate but our culture. Beautifully observed, brilliantly argued and deeply felt, these essays show that our emotions, our art, our relationships with the generations around us – all the delicate networks that make us who we are – have already been transformed. In Signs and Wonders, Falconer explores how it feels to live as a reader, a writer, a lover of nature and a mother of small children in an era of profound ecological change. Building on Falconer’s two acclaimed essays, ‘Signs and Wonders’ and the Walkley Award-winning ‘The Opposite of Glamour’, Signs and Wonders is a pioneering examination of how we are changing our culture, language and imaginations along with our climate. Is a mammoth emerging from the permafrost beautiful or terrifying? How is our imagination affected when something that used to be ordinary – like a car windscreen smeared with insects – becomes unimaginable? What can the disappearance of the paragraph from much contemporary writing tell us about what’s happening in the modern mind? Scientists write about a 'great acceleration' in human impact on the natural world. Signs and Wonders shows that we are also in a period of profound cultural acceleration, which is just as dynamic, strange, extreme and, sometimes, beautiful. Ranging from an ‘unnatural’ history of coal to the effect of a large fur seal turning up in the park below her apartment, this book is a searching and poetic examination of the ways we are thinking about how, and why, to live now. ‘Only the finest of writers can hope to convey the mercurial nature of the times we are living though: the sense of slippage; of terror and beauty. Falconer is such a writer. Signs and Wonders is an essential collection.’ Sophie Cunningham, author of City of Trees ‘Delia Falconer is one of the best writers working today, and in Signs and Wonders she demonstrates everything that makes her writing so necessary. Brave, beautiful, and breathtaking in its elegance and intelligence, it is, quite simply, a marvel.’ James Bradley ‘Scintillating. Delia Falconer is at the peak of her powers as a critic, and as an observer of the natural world. Signs and Wonders looks outward from Sydney, and from literature, to trace the contours of our environmental moment.’ Rebecca Giggs, author of Fathoms ‘Exquisite … From reflections on feeding birds, analyses of literary trends, to Falconer’s Covid and fire diaries, the essays are complex, ambitious, rewarding … Delia Falconer’s mesmerising Signs and Wonders helps us to process the disorienting complexity of living in this time of great beauty and loss.’ Jonica Newby, Australian Book Review
Changing the world--or at least your corner of it--is easier than you think. With so much suffering in our communities and in the world, it can feel impossible to make an impact. "What good can I possibly do?" we ask. Amy Wolff, a busy mom and small business owner, often felt this way--and didn't feel qualified to connect and uplift others. But one day, after hearing about several suicides and suicide attempts in her community, she printed 20 yard signs with hopeful messages and anonymously placed them throughout her city. This small action sparked a global movement of encouragement, hope, and love, which spread to 50 states and 27 countries in just 18 months. Signs of Hope is an intimate collection of stories from Amy's personal life, as well as people impacted by the movement, about the power of hope and love in the midst of suffering. This book discusses: The drain of compassion fatigue Why we should show up imperfectly to help others How to claim hope for ourselves Practical ideas of how to respond to suffering Strategies of how to love people who are "different" Resilience when love-spreading efforts backfire How to raise a compassionate generation The science of hope Signs of Hope is your catalyst for doing something today . . . because there's no perfect time to help others. The time is now.
When the road signs take a vacation, chaos and hilarity ensue--and they quickly learn how important they are. School is ending for the summer, and the stick figures on the school crossing sign are jealous of all the vacation plans they hear the students making. The stick figures work hard--maybe they deserve a vacation, too! So they abandon their signpost and set off on an adventure, inviting along all the other underappreciated road signs they meet on the way. It's all fun and games for a while, especially when they stumble upon a fantastic amusement park. But the people they've left behind are feeling their absence, and soon there are traffic tangles and lost pedestrians everywhere. The signs are more important than they realized, and now it's time for them to save the day!
In this inspiring guide to achieving happiness and wellness in life, work, and relationships, a “go-to life coach for those in the know” (InStyle) reveals how to use astrology as a roadmap to success. For thousands of years, people have looked to the night sky for guidance. Yet these days it’s so easy to lose touch with the universe and the important direction it can provide. In The Signs, astrologer and life coach Carolyne Faulkner reveals how the ancient wisdom of the stars can empower you to get the most out of life. Faulkner’s method is not about nebulous predictions or fate. It’s about discovering the qualities, good and bad, associated with your natal chart—the position of the planets at the time of your birth—and using that knowledge to inform your decisions and relationships. Easy to use and designed as both an introduction for the cosmically curious and a deep dive for experienced spiritual seekers, this guide shows you how to interpret your chart, find balance, and reconnect with yourself. Consult The Signs to learn what to do when: • You’re an inflexible Taurus, resistant to change. (Create things. Even a home-cooked meal will heal you in wondrous ways.) • You live with an argumentative Aries. (Never fight fire with fire. Wait till your partner calms down to discuss your feelings.) • You have Capricorn influence. (Shed the need to conform. Structure is important, but it needs to be flexible enough to change as we grow.)
Unlock the lost and hidden meanings of the world's ancient and modern signs and symbols with the latest in the hugely popular series of 'Element Encyclopedias'. This is the biggest A-Z reference book on symbolic objects you'll ever find.
Unlock the lost and hidden meanings of the world's ancient and modern signs and symbols. This is the most comprehensive reference book on symbolic objects that you'll ever find.
In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping said there was an ‘ocean of goodwill’ between our country and his. Since then, that ocean has shown dramatic signs of freezing over. Australia is in the grip of a China panic. How did we get here, and what’s the way out? In this brilliant book, David Brophy takes apart Australia’s China debate – its strange alliances and diplomatic failures. Justified criticism of China has too often given way to paranoia and exaggeration. While the xenophobic right hovers in the wings, some of the loudest voices decrying Chinese subversion come, unexpectedly, from the left. They call for new security laws, increased scrutiny of Chinese Australians and, if necessary, military force – a prescription for a sharp rightward turn in Australian politics. In China Panic, Brophy offers a progressive alternative. Instead of punitive moves and chest-beating that will only make Australia more like China, we need solutions and strategies that strengthen Australian democracy. ‘The most stimulating book I've read on the most important question facing Australian foreign and strategic policy. Brophy is not just answering questions others have asked, he's asking new questions.’—Allan Gyngell, author of Fear of Abandonment ‘Anyone who wants to know how and why Australia’s China narrative has descended to such a dismal point needs to read China Panic.’—Wanning Sun, professor of media and communications, UTS ‘David Brophy dissects the clichés and prejudices . . . China Panic is essential reading.’’—Linda Jaivin, author of The Shortest History of China
