Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving


Book Description

Elfish and four others squat in a crumbling three-story house in the run-down Brixton section of London. Years of such housing complement her hand-to-mouth lifestyle of hangovers, metal music, and failed ambitions; but when ex-boyfriend and ex-band mate Mo forms a new band with the old group's name, Queen Mab, Elfish feels compelled to reclaim the name for her own, as yet nonexistent, band to play her own music. Struggling for visibility and success in the local club scene, she turns to stage diving that is, forcing herself through onlookers, achieving the stage while the musicians are still performing, and drunkenly leaping into the audience, thereby entering the transcendental state of the dedicated stage diver. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and the life that results, in which chronic depression and bad outcomes are assumed, may leave few unmoved. Fair warning, though: filth, bodily fluids, and vomit mix freely with sex and substance abuse in Millar's 1994 opus, here receiving U.S. publication these many years later.







Punk Rock: So What?


Book Description

It's now over twenty years since punk pogo-ed its way into our consciousness. Punk Rock So What?brings together a new generation of academics, writers and journalists to provide the first comprehensive assessment of punk and its place in popular music history, culture and myth. The contributors, who include Suzanne Moore, Lucy OBrien, Andy Medhurst, Mark Sinker and Paul Cobley, challenge standard views of punk prevalent since the 1970s. They: * re-situate punk in its historical context, analysing the possible origins of punk in the New York art scene and Manchester clubs as well as in Malcolm McClarens brain * question whether punk deserves its reputation as an anti-fascist, anti-sexist movement which opened up opportunities for women musicians and fans alike. * trace punks long-lasting influence on comics, literature, art and cinema as well as music and fashion, from films such as Sid and Nancy and The Great Rock n Roll Swindle to work by contemporary artists such as Gavin Turk and Sarah Lucas. * discuss the role played by such key figures as Johnny Rotten, Richard Hell, Malcolm McClaren, Mark E. Smith and Viv Albertine. Punk Rock Revisited kicks over the statues of many established beliefs about the meaning of punk, concluding that, if anything, punk was more culturally significant than anybody has yet suggested, but perhaps for different reasons.




Ruby and the Stone Age Diet


Book Description

Though the narrator's life is peppered with myth, demons, werewolves, god and goddesses, the only thing stronger and more sustaining is his friendship with Ruby. "From now on," Ruby says to her friend, the narrator, "We’re going on the Stone Age diet. It means we only eat the sort of healthy things our ancestors would have eaten. Raw grains and fruits and stuff like that. That’s what our bodies are made for." An admirable plan, but Ruby never eats, and the narrator’s attention span doesn’t lend itself to routine. He’s too busy pining for his ex-girlfriend Cis, who broke up with him and left him with self-pity and a plant: an Aphrodite Cactus that, when it flowers, is supposed to seal the love of the giver to the receiver, according to Ruby. Ruby, who never wears any shoes (even in the dead of winter). Though lovelorn and lonely, the narrator’s life is rich with myth, demons, werewolves, gods and goddesses; everything is imbued with a spirit. There’s Helena, goddess of electric guitar players; Ascanazl, an ancient and powerful Inca spirit who looks after lonely people; Shumash the sun god; the war and sexuality goddess Astarte; the muse Clio. In fact the only thing stronger and more sustaining than the narrator’s fantasy life is his friendship with Ruby—the kind of friendship a body is made for.




The Bibliography of Regional Fiction in Britain and Ireland, 1800–2000


Book Description

Pioneering and interdisciplinary in nature, this bibliography constitutes a comprehensive list of regional fiction for every county of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England over the past two centuries. In addition, other regions of a usually topographical or urban nature have been used, such as Birmingham and the Black Country; London; The Fens; the Brecklands; the Highlands; the Hebrides; or the Welsh border. Each entry lists the author, title, and date of first publication. The geographical coverage is encompassing and complete, from the Channel Islands to the Shetlands. An original introduction discusses such matters as definition, bibliographical method, popular readerships, trends in output, and the scholarly literature on regional fiction.




The Guardian Index


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Short Story Index


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Idle Worship (Text Only Edition)


Book Description

In Idle Worship a hand-picked crop of stars, who should know better (and sometimes do), examine the absurd and auto-erotic world of fan fever – and ponder whether pop promises a path to enlightenment or an endless pageant of tasteless clothing, recycled attitudes and vicious haircuts.




The Good Fairies of New York


Book Description

This book enables teachers to develop a complete range of basic investigations for science with students aged 5 to 11 years.




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