Written by longtime fan and author of the popular Damned website, Barry Hutchinson, celebrates the band's first 20 years - often referred to as the chaos years.
From rank outsiders to pop stardom a decade later, The Damned blazed an anarchic trail through punk rock to achieve massive chart success. A beacon for the Sex Pistols and The Clash to follow, they flung down the musical gauntlet in 1976 with Britain’s first punk single ‘New Rose’. Smashing It Up: A Decade of Chaos with The Damned is their definitive biography, drawing on new, in-depth research and interviews with associates and band members – including founders Brian James, Chris Millar (Rat Scabies), Raymond Burns (Captain Sensible) and David Lett (David Vanian). Conflict was rife: managers and labels came and went; bridges were burnt; opportunities squandered; and Kieron Tyler reveals how – and why – the wayward, wild and wilful Damned are the punk band that survived, and why they truly led the British Punk movement and outshone their contemporaries.
Doctor Zhivago / До́ктор Жива́го - An Epic Novel This is a epic tale about the effects of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family. The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, and takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and World War II. Dr. Yury Zhivago, Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks. The poems he writes constitute some of the most beautiful writing featured in the novel - which I can confirm, having read the book some 20 years ago: ) The story of 'Doctor Zhivago' is about a complex psychological and detailed panorama of people; their feelings, relationships and companionship spanning several decades. In fact, the two main protagonists in the story - Lara and Yuri Zhivago - are quite unpolitical, and very gentle souls, who would not hurt a fly. In a time where Russian society is marked by great political turmoil, war and oppression, Lara and Yuri Zhivago stand out in this story; both having a great gift for healing people. Zhivago is a skilled physician and Lara a skilled nurse (a great Angel of Healing) - which Russia needed desperately during those times, due to the tremendous suffering. So the two of them make a great team; both of them being contributing greatly to healing Mother Russia: ) Indeed, Russia still needs a lot of healing today. In my opinion, the most tragic failing of today's Russia is that even though Russia is a highly intellectualized society, Russia has regressed into the dark cave of a military dictatorship - where academics, lawyers and opposition leaders are persecuted. This must change - so that the People of Russia can restore Peace and Friendship with their Brothers and Sisters in Ukraine; and also for the sake of future generations in Russia - so that academics, lawyers and opposition leaders can speak their mind, and be allowed to participate in shaping Russia's future. We encourage the People of Russia to implement a peaceful governmental change by forming a new Russian Government - so that Peace and Human Rights can be restored. Love and Light / Президент Российской Федерации / POTUS / UNITED NATIONS / EU / AU / Mark: ) PS: I also would be quite happy to drink a Водка together with my dear friend Vladimir Putin, once he has resigned: )
A very up-to-the-minute novel with the taboo-busting confidence of modern horror's finest, delivered with the blissful pace of a techno-thriller... SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD. When she woke up in the hospital, she could barely remember getting on the flight, let alone the terrorist bomb of which she was the only survivor. But she can hear the voices in her head, for they are the spirits of the dead passengers. They cannot rest until they have delivered their terrifying message: the terrorists know she survived. And they're coming for her! Fle Under: Horror [ Explosions | The FBI Lie | Voices Of The Dead | The Anti-Christ ]
You don't have to be perfect to do God's work. Look no further than the twelve disciples, whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Join bestselling author John MacArthur in Twelve Ordinary Men as he draws principles from Christ's careful, hands-on training of the original disciples for today's modern disciple, you! Jesus chose ordinary men--fishermen, tax collectors, political zealots--and turned their weakness into strength, producing greatness from people who were otherwise unremarkable. The twelve disciples weren't the stained-glass saints we imagine. On the contrary, they were truly human, all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith, and bitter failure. Simply put, they were flawed people, just like us. But under Jesus' teaching and touch, they became a force that forever changed the world. MacArthur takes you into the inner circle of the disciples--their selection, their training, their personalities, and their incredible impact. As MacArthur took a closer look at the lives of the twelve disciples, he found himself asking difficult questions along the way, including: Why did Jesus pick each of the twelve disciples? How did Jesus teach them everything he could in just eighteen short months? Can the lessons that Jesus taught the disciples can still influence our faith today? In Twelve Ordinary Men, you'll learn that disciples are living proof that God's strength is made perfect in weakness. As you get to know the men who walked with Jesus, you'll see that if he can accomplish his purposes through them, he can do the same through you.
It is not a changing culture, reduced resources, or a rescinding Christian memory that creates the greatest challenges for the church in the West. It is the lack of a clear commitment to the intentional, authentic, and contextual expressions of missional disciple-making, which will shape current and future generations of followers of Jesus to express the values of the Kingdom today. This book offers stimulating historical, biblical, and theological reflections on discipleship and considers some of the possibilities and opportunities afforded to us by our post-Christian context. Missional discipleship allows the missio Dei to shape us in our engagement our practices and sustain us in the lifelong journey of becoming and developing disciples that follow Jesus today.
Think adolescence is hell? You have no idea... Welcome to Dante's Inferno, by way of The Breakfast Club, from the mind of American fiction's most brilliant troublemaker. "Death, like life, is what you make out of it." So says Madison, the whip-tongued 11-year-old narrator of Damned, Chuck Palahniuk's subversive homage to the young adult genre. Madison is abandoned at her Swiss boarding school over Christmas while her parents are off touting their new film projects and adopting more orphans. Over the holidays she dies of a marijuana overdose--and the next thing she knows, she's in Hell. This is the afterlife as only Chuck Palahniuk could imagine it: a twisted inferno inspired by both the most extreme and mundane of human evils, where The English Patient plays on repeat and roaming demons devour sinners limb by limb. However, underneath Madison's sad teenager affect there is still a child struggling to accept not only the events of her dysfunctional life, but also the truth about her death. For Madison, though, a more immediate source of comfort lies in the motley crew of young sinners she meets during her first days in Hell. With the help of Archer, Babette, Leonard, and Patterson, she learns to navigate Hell--and discovers that she'd rather be mortal and deluded and stupid with those she loves than perfect and alone.