The Demolition Block Party


Book Description

The Demolition Block Party is about four ex-junkies and alcoholicsGrant, Lefty, Bob, and Suewho are existing through their dire social circumstances, having been made to survive and live on benefits and handouts in the most desperate of situations whilst in a somewhat vain and eager attempt to try to prove and justify their reasons for living upon a council estate with no real prospects of a certain future. Then they find themselves in the vain hope of reaching a redemptive point of deliverance through their testimonials as assessed by Mr. Selby, along with their dealings with the local council and social services, only for them to struggle in maintaining their well-being and to reach a positive conclusion or outcome by simply expressing themselves through the trials of their haphazard reality and lifestyle and for their point of view to be realized with some kind of recognition and reconciliation back to humanity. Also, the council property that they all inhabit and dwell within this derelict community is under threat from being demolished, which is challenging for their unique friendship and experiences together as they come to understand and realize that if they do not change by themselves, then circumstances beyond their control may force change upon them. As Lefty, Bob, and Sue all look up to Grant as being the main source of leadership amongst their peer group, it is left to Grant to figure a way out of this mess and to somehow find the meaning of providence.




Mad Mike


Book Description

This penetrating biography tells the story of his life including his exploits in Norway and the early Commandos. It also uncovers new evidence revealing that his court martial was unjust.




Downtown Minneapolis


Book Description

Downtown Minneapolis evolved from a collection of modest frame buildings on the banks of the Mississippi River to the high-rise center of a modern American metropolis. With a burgeoning milling industry powering the local economy, the early frame structures soon gave way to substantial brick and masonry buildings, lining the streets of a bustling 19th-century commercial district. Downtown continued to prosper during the early years of the 20th century, aided by advances in transportation and communications. The heart of the city held its own during the Great Depression and World War II, but the postwar era brought new challenges as a suburban boom threatened the city's economic foundation. Enterprising local leaders responded with innovative developments to meet these challenges, and a reinvigorated downtown took on a new role as the site of a dynamic new residential community, now home to nearly 40,000 city residents.




PSEUDO


Book Description

In the middle of the night a taxi driver noticed a rumbling noise under his car during an empty ride. Whilst traveling down Fördestrasse, the taxi had caught a body on the road and dragged it along for almost twenty metres. The man on the street was already dead by that time. It was likely that another vehicle had run him over at the place where hitchhikers used to stand. For years, undesirable hitchhikers had been intimidated here with gestures and steering manoevers. Was it the brainless fascist skinheads again, who already before went on a manhunt in their car on the bicycle path towards the Olympic Centre? A 15-year-old pseudo-punk joins the Kiel punk scene and experiences a blatant and wired time, which culminated in the Hanover Chaos Days 1983. It is puzzling why he suddenly joined the new skinhead scene around the wicked ex-punks Gonnrad and the Konz brothers. What got him into it? When the teenager later realises that the first skins are taking on right-wing radical tendencies, he tries to break away from the scene, but that doesn't turn out to be that easy. Finally he pulls the ripcord after another incident, even if he would have liked to remain a skinhead – England-style and working-class just like in the beginning. He manages to get out after a brutal fight with Stidi, one of the chief skins. The price is high. His face is smashed and his reputation ruined. Many punks are resentful and can't forgive him for the excursion into the strange world of skinheads. Even for the skins it is not over and done with yet. There is massive trouble on both sides. It was the madness of the 80s, a time full of self-destructive punks, scolding old Nazis, marauding skinheads and streetclubs, aspiring young Nazis and overtaxed policemen at the Chaos Days. After a crime against a rocker, a disoriented skinhead ended up at a New Year's Eve party of ordinary people: I remember there was a lot of light in the flat. The bright light and the white wallpaper hurt in my eyes. In my booze state I scribbled something on the white wallpaper in the hallway: Oi! Oi! Oi!, the battle cry of the skinheads. But I was afraid that this could be brought back to us, and I painted a T before: Toi! Toi! Toi!




Chicago's Block Clubs


Book Description

What do you do if your alley is strewn with garbage after the sanitation truck comes through? Or if you’re tired of the rowdy teenagers next door keeping you up all night? Is there a vacant lot on your block accumulating weeds, needles, and litter? For a century, Chicagoans have joined block clubs to address problems like these that make daily life in the city a nuisance. When neighbors work together in block clubs, playgrounds get built, local crime is monitored, streets are cleaned up, and every summer is marked by the festivities of day-long block parties. In Chicago’s Block Clubs, Amanda I. Seligman uncovers the history of the block club in Chicago—from its origins in the Urban League in the early 1900s through to the Chicago Police Department’s twenty-first-century community policing program. Recognizing that many neighborhood problems are too big for one resident to handle—but too small for the city to keep up with—city residents have for more than a century created clubs to establish and maintain their neighborhood’s particular social dynamics, quality of life, and appearance. Omnipresent yet evanescent, block clubs are sometimes the major outlets for community organizing in the city—especially in neighborhoods otherwise lacking in political strength and clout. Drawing on the stories of hundreds of these groups from across the city, Seligman vividly illustrates what neighbors can—and cannot—accomplish when they work together.




Ten Commando


Book Description

It is indeed remarkable, since the archives of the Second World War must have been pillaged, ransacked, burrowed into, and turned over almost as thoroughly as Monte Cassino itself, that no book has been written about one of the strangest units created during that or any other conflict. The unit was called Ten Commando - and the shroud of secrecy that enveloped it at the time has scarcely been un-wrapped by the passge of the years. Ten Commando was composed entirely of men who came from Germany and from Nazi-occupied countries such as Holland, Poland, and France. Secrecy was vital, for if an Axis agent infiltrated into Ten Commando he could do untold harm. If a member of Ten Commando were capture and his unit identified, the rules of the Geneva Convention were unlikely to worry the captors. This overwhelming need for absolute secrecy was so well instilled in the men of Ten Commando that, until now, little was known about their daring exploits behind enemy lines, including coordination of resistance fighters and sabotage. The result of Ian Dear’s painstaking research is a remarkable book indeed and a worthy tribute to an incredibly brave group of cladestine soldiers who belong near the top of the WWII Roll of Honor.




Black on the Block


Book Description

In Black on the Block, Mary Pattillo—a Newsweek Woman of the 21st Century—uses the historic rise, alarming fall, and equally dramatic renewal of Chicago’s North Kenwood–Oakland neighborhood to explore the politics of race and class in contemporary urban America. There was a time when North Kenwood–Oakland was plagued by gangs, drugs, violence, and the font of poverty from which they sprang. But in the late 1980s, activists rose up to tackle the social problems that had plagued the area for decades. Black on the Block tells the remarkable story of how these residents laid the groundwork for a revitalized and self-consciously black neighborhood that continues to flourish today. But theirs is not a tale of easy consensus and political unity, and here Pattillo teases out the divergent class interests that have come to define black communities like North Kenwood–Oakland. She explores the often heated battles between haves and have-nots, home owners and apartment dwellers, and newcomers and old-timers as they clash over the social implications of gentrification. Along the way, Pattillo highlights the conflicted but crucial role that middle-class blacks play in transforming such districts as they negotiate between established centers of white economic and political power and the needs of their less fortunate black neighbors. “A century from now, when today's sociologists and journalists are dust and their books are too, those who want to understand what the hell happened to Chicago will be finding the answer in this one.”—Chicago Reader “To see how diversity creates strange and sometimes awkward bedfellows . . . turn to Mary Pattillo's Black on the Block.”—Boston Globe




Victoria Crosses on the Western Front, 31st July 1917–6th November 1917, Second Edition


Book Description

In the past, while visiting the First World War battlefields, the author often wondered where the various Victoria Cross actions took place. He resolved to find out. In 1988, in the midst of his army career, research for this book commenced and over the years numerous sources have been consulted. Victoria Crosses on the Western Front 1917 to Third Ypres is designed for the battlefield visitor as much as the armchair reader. A thorough account of each VC action is set within the wider strategic and tactical context. Detailed sketch maps show the area today, together with the battle-lines and movements of the combatants. It will allow visitors to stand upon the spot, or very close to, where each VC was won. Photographs of the battle sites richly illustrate the accounts. There is also a comprehensive biography for each recipient, covering every aspect of their lives warts and all parents and siblings, education, civilian employment, military career, wife and children, death and burial/commemoration. A host of other information, much of it published for the first time, reveals some fascinating characters, with numerous links to many famous people and events.







Pulling Down the Sky


Book Description

Pulling Down the Sky is a journey on roller blades. The Amazing Zephyr takes you on an extreme tour of San Francisco. It is weird romance. A voyage of the spirit. Zephyr’s remarkable trajectory is conjured with a poet’s eye. The wheels trigger his mind. He ventures beyond the compliance training of the herd. He is focused on a new horizon. Now he can see and think and feel for himself.