In May 1906, the Atlantic Monthly commented that Americans live not merely in an age of things, but under the tyranny of them, and that in our relentless effort to sell, purchase, and accumulate things, we do not possess them as much as they possess us. For Bill Brown, the tale of that possession is something stranger than the history of a culture of consumption. It is the story of Americans using things to think about themselves. Brown's captivating new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at the turn of the century. This was an era when the invention, production, distribution, and consumption of things suddenly came to define a national culture. Brown shows how crucial novels of the time made things not a solution to problems, but problems in their own right. Writers such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Henry James ask why and how we use objects to make meaning, to make or remake ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections, to sublimate our fears, and to shape our wildest dreams. Offering a remarkably new way to think about materialism, A Sense of Things will be essential reading for anyone interested in American literature and culture.

Have you ever wanted to make your own movies, documentaries, music videos, or vlogs? In this easy-to-read and magnificently illustrated volume, you will learn why movies move; how film and video cameras work; how to light and expose your shots to get the best results; how to create eye-pleasing compositions; and how to record crystal clear sounds. It's a do-it-yourself guidebook for film and video makers of all ages and experience levels.Whether you've got a phone and a YouTube account, an old Super-8 handheld camera, or a fancy, state of the art motion picture studio, you still need a good idea and a good knowledge of the basics. Bill Brown, aka "Professor Know-It-All," with his cast of helpful animal assistants, give you all the technical knowledge you need so that you can stop worrying about your gear and your settings and let your ideas come to life.

Describing all of Colombia's birds, Steven Hilty and William Brown bring together information on one of the world's largest avifaunas-nearly 1,700 species. Over half of all the species of birds in South America are included, thus making the book useful in regions adjacent to Colombia, as well as in the country itself. The primary purpose of the work is to enable observers to identify the birds of the region, but it also provides detailed species accounts and will serve as an important handbook and reference volume. Fifty-six lavish color plates, thirteen halftone plates, and ninety-nine line drawings in the text illustrate over 85% of the species, including most of the resident birds. Notes on the facing-page of each place, and range maps of 1,475 species, facilitate identification. Written with the field observer in mind, the text gives special attention to comparisons of similar species, transcriptions of voices, and comments on behavior, status, and habitat. It also provides ranges, breeding data, and references. Notes outline taxonomic problems and briefly describe species that eventually may be found in Colombia. Introductory chapters and photographs highlight Colombia's geography, climate, and vegetation, and discuss migration and conservation questions, and the history of Colombian ornithology. Appendices contain a large bibliography, a section on birding locations, and coverage of two of Colombia's far-flung island territories, Isla San Andrés and Providencia. Maps depicting vegetation zones, political boundaries, national parks, and the most text localities are included.

A chronological and critical history of Lou Reed's music from 1964 to 2011.

Within the ephemera of the everyday--old photographs, circus posters, iron toys--lies a challenge to America's dominant cultural memory. What this memory has left behind, Bill Brown recovers in the "material unconscious" of Stephen Crane's work, the textual residues of daily sensations that add up to a new history of the American 1890s. As revealed in Crane's disavowing appropriation of an emerging mass culture--from football games and freak shows to roller coasters and early cinema--the decade reappears as an underexposed moment in the genealogy of modernism and modernity. Brown's story begins on the Jersey Shore, in Asbury Park, where Crane became a writer in the shadow of his father, a grimly serious Methodist minister who vilified the popular amusements his son adored. The coastal resorts became the stage for debates about technology, about the body's visibility, about a black service class and the new mass access to leisure. From this snapshot of a recreational scene that would continue to inspire Crane's sensational modernism, Brown takes us to New York's Bowery. There, in the visual culture established by dime museums, minstrel shows, and the Kodak craze, he exhibits Crane dramatically obscuring the typology of race. Along the way, Brown demonstrates how attitudes toward play transformed the image of war, the idea of childhood and nationhood, and the concept of culture itself. And by developing a new conceptual apparatus (with such notions as "recreational time," "abstract leisure," and the "amusement/knowledge system"), he provides the groundwork for a new politics of pleasure. A crucial theorization of how cultural studies can and should proceed, The Material Unconscious insists that in the very conjuncture of canonical literature and mass culture, we can best understand how proliferating and competing economies of play disrupt the so-called "logic" and "work" of culture.

This book chronicles the story of my life. From the two foster homes in which I lived to the family I would one day call my own. It is written with complete understanding that faith and belief in God cannot be ignored. I am living proof of this fact. Through my written work He guides every stroke of my pen. Through these words I give him the Glory and the Praise. I therefore thank Him for the ability to deliver this message of hope through me to all of you. It is my wish that you understand he lives in each and every one of us. Let us not forget that nothing given to us by mankind or bestowed upon us by mankind can ever begin to equal or eclipse that which God has blessed us with. Let us not forget that at one point in time none of us even existed. In life we are on a limited journey, and one day we will cease to exist. Mortal death is not the end, but the transition to the beginning of the rest of our spiritual lives. Stop for a moment and excise all external factors in your life and just be still and calm. Let the peace you feel regenerate your spirit. In other words, be still and know that God is God through whom all things are possible, if you truly believe

While a parent guide on a field trip for my daughter’s fifth grade class I had a few moments to chat and daydream with Tiffany, my daughter and two of her friends, J.J. and Kelley. The idea for a story came from that time of imagination. They spoke of the possible mystery in the old ghost town which was the seed to the story combining both current and historical Calico. The need for a little Si-Fi was to connect the two moments across time. The dedication for this book belongs to those three, who gave me a most memorable day at Calico Ghost Town and the following thirteen years of putting it all together.

Survival Tips for Living the Adventurous Life contains true-life accounts of an individual growing up through adventure after adventure, shortly after birth to retirement age. Whether from an airplane crash, a different aircraft almost losing an engine, and being upside down in various automobiles, the author lived through each adventure, learning more and more from his experiences. All provided here! The tips are the culmination of a lifetime of adventures and how the author got through it all. From the "never agains" to the "yes, sign me up agains," you see the what, where, how, and why an individual makes the choices we all face. While none of the adventures are recommended, each one contains a life lesson, perhaps a life lesson all can learn from. Example by example, starting from being a baby through forty-plus years of marriage, you get to almost live each adventure with the author. Whether hanging from the seat belt upside down in an overturned vehicle to surviving a small airplane crash at night in the Tahoe area, all the areas that impacted the author's life and how he made it through are detailed in a thrillingly fun read! Circumstances that make you laugh out loud and some that may remind you of your childhood and adolescent times! The author winds you through life lessons learned from over sixty-five years of adventures. Whether willingly jumped into or dragged into by his peers, each adventure is documented, good or bad. Enjoy the read!

The collected works of William Z. Spiegelman, who was a prominent Jewish journalist and editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York City in the 1910s and 1920s, and an important Zionist official at the Jewish national Fund in the 1930s and 1940s. Includes illustrations, an index and a complete bibliography.