The Swing Book


Book Description

Ten years ago a revival of swing took place, originating in San Francisco, snowballing into today's international resurgence. This book presents the complete history of swing music and dancing, then and now.




Boys Keep Swinging


Book Description

In this “exhilarating yet poignant account of one boy taking flight” (Shelf Awareness, starred review), one of rock music's most entrancing figures transforms the vividness of his musical world into an unforgettable literary account of overcoming the odds and finding his true voice. Long before hitting the stage as the lead singer of the iconic glam rock band Scissor Sisters, Jake Shears was Jason Sellards, a teenage boy living a fraught life, resulting in a difficult time in high school as his classmates bullied him and few teachers showed sympathy. It wasn’t until years later, while living and studying in New York City, that Jason would find his voice as an artist and, with a group of friends and musicians who were also thirsting for stardom and freedom, form the band Scissor Sisters. First performing in the smoky gay nightclubs of New York, then finding massive success in the United Kingdom, Scissor Sisters would become revered by the LGBTQ community, sell out venues worldwide, and win multiple accolades with hits like “Take Your Mama” and “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” as well as their cult-favorite cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” “Brutally honest” (Elton John), candid, and courageous, Shears’s writing sings with the same powerful, spirited presence that he brings to his live performances. Boys Keep Swinging is “a wild, sexy, emotional ride through underground New York at the millennium. From the fringes to the top, it's a tale that speaks to the outsider in all of us” (Andy Cohen).




Come Out Swinging


Book Description

A nuanced insider's account of everyday life in the last remaining institution of New York's golden age of boxing Gleason's Gym is the last remaining institution of New York's Golden Age of boxing. Jake LaMotta, Muhammad Ali, Hector Camacho, Mike Tyson—the alumni of Gleason's are a roster of boxing greats. Founded in the Bronx in 1937, Gleason's moved in the mid-1980s to what has since become one of New York's wealthiest residential areas—Brooklyn's DUMBO. Gleason's has also transformed, opening its doors to new members, particularly women and white-collar men. Come Out Swinging is Lucia Trimbur's nuanced insider's account of a place that was once the domain of poor and working-class men of color but is now shared by rich and poor, male and female, black and white, and young and old. Come Out Swinging chronicles the everyday world of the gym. Its diverse members train, fight, talk, and socialize together. We meet amateurs for whom boxing is a full-time, unpaid job. We get to know the trainers who act as their father figures and mentors. We are introduced to women who empower themselves physically and mentally. And we encounter the male urban professionals who pay handsomely to learn to box, and to access a form of masculinity missing from their office-bound lives. Ultimately, Come Out Swinging reveals how Gleason's meets the needs of a variety of people who, despite their differences, are connected through discipline and sport.




Swing


Book Description

PERFECTIONIST MOM TAKES DOING IT ALL TO THE NEXT LEVEL AS THE WORLD'S WORST ATTEMPTED SWINGER Pre-order today to get the audiobook for free. Send order screenshot to [email protected].




Swinging in America


Book Description

Drawing on an extensive survey of real people and over 40 years of research, this revealing volume proposes that a nonmonogamous lifestyle may be healthier for marriages than a monogamous one. Based on an exhaustive survey into the lives of real people, Swinging in America: Love, Sex, and Marriage in the 21st Century concludes that nonmonogamous relationships such as swinging and polyamory offer a new blueprint for combining sex and love—one that may prove more in line with the way people actually live their lives in our society. Swinging in America begins with what we know about swingers and the swinging lifestyle, based on personal narratives and over 40 years of sociological research comparing swinging and non-swinging couples on factors such as personal happiness, marital satisfaction, psychological stability, and personal values. The second half of the book explores the historical rise and contemporary decline of monocentrism—the sexually monogamous marriage as the organizing principle underlying our culture—and the implications of this decline for new nonmonogamous relationships and marriages.




Swinging in Place


Book Description

An appreciation of the significance of the porch in everyday life in the US South. It reveals that the porch is a stage for many social dramas, and it uses literature, folklore, oral histories and photographs to show how southerners have used the porch to negotiate public and private boundaries.




How to Feel a Real Golf Swing


Book Description

After teaching hundreds of thousands of golfers in the Golf Digest Instructional Schools they helped to organize, Bob Toski and Davis Love, Jr. perfected a revolutionary way of bringing instinct back to the golf swing. In easy-to follow drills and exercises, How To Feel a Real Golf Swing shows golfers of all abilities how to isolate the different parts of the swing. Each step is designed so that the golfer internalizes the feeling of each part of the swing and can finally put it all together for better results. How To Feel a Real Golf Swing is the perfect way for golfers to learn on their own time and at their own pace to develop a solid and dependable golf swing: the basis of any good golf game.




Swing Shorts: Stories & Wonders


Book Description

Music & Dance ~ Life & Love ~ Body & Soul The oldest stories ever told When an enthusiastic and talented mom auditions for a dance troupe, she finds unexpected discrimination and inequality at every step. All-girl colored band clarinetist, Korla, knows the police sirens are coming for her. Can she escape the Jim Crow Sheriff in time to play the USO show before he and the young deputy figure out what else the girls are hiding? After the perfect date in jazzy WWII San Francisco, an American boy searches for his Japanese girlfriend after the government orders all Japanese-Americans to an internment camp. Perceptions are skewed by hot swing rhythms in Night Club Feet. A vintage girl pines for a married dancer while a newbie guy lusts after her, each encumbered by ego and self-image. In 1943, too many men had enlisted or been drafted, leaving empty spots in the big band orchestras. Can seventeen-year-old ingénue, Moira, pass the audition, keep her too friendly bandleader at bay, and snatch one of the coveted positions in the all-girl band. A young couple becomes sidetracked by the musicians who play hot jazz alongside the petting zoo of piglets, ducks, and lambs on the family jaunt to the feed store. Will the bereaved young woman find the perfect place her mother told her about without being diverted by a mysterious handsome man and the swing music emerging from the hotel cantina where she stopped for the night? Those are just a few Swing Shorts that explore the transformative, transcendent, and often poignant bond we share with music and dance. Find your connection.




Stone


Book Description