Thousand-Mile Song


Book Description

In Thousand Mile Song, musician and philosopher David Rothenberg uses the enigma of whale sounds to explore whether we can truly understand nonhuman minds. Interviewing scholars around the world as they attempt to decipher underwater music, Rothenberg tells the story of scientists and artists confronting an unknown as vast as the ocean. Along the way, he plays his clarinet live with whales in their native habitats, from Russia to Hawaii, making interspecies music that appears on the included CD. Richly detailed and deeply entertaining, Thousand Mile Song is an imaginative look at the most intriguing creatures of the ocean.




Journey of a Thousand Miles


Book Description

Journey of a Thousand Miles tells the remarkable story of a boy who sacrificed almost everything – family, financial security, childhood and his reputation in China’s insular classical music world – to fulfil his promise as a classical pianist. Lang Lang was born in Shenyang in north-eastern China just after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He began piano lessons at three years old and by age ten had been awarded a place at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In order to continue his studies he moved thousands of miles from home, living with his exacting father in a cramped, shared apartment, while his mother stayed at home to earn the money to pay his fees. At fifteen he moved to the United States to take up a scholarship at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia; by nineteen he was selling out Carnegie Hall. His tutor and mentor Daniel Barenboim was perhaps the first to describe him as ‘extraordinarily talented’; today his assessment is shared by millions. Now in adulthood, Lang Lang tours relentlessly, delighting sell-out audiences with his trademark flamboyance and showmanship. Journey of a Thousand Miles is a tale of heartbreak, drama and ultimately triumph. His inspiring story demonstrates the courage and self-sacrifice required to achieve artistic greatness.




Dwight Yoakam


Book Description

“[A] compulsively readable biography . . . Essential for fans of Yoakam and lovers of good music writing.” ―Library Journal From his formative years playing pure hardcore honky-tonk for mid-’80s Los Angeles punk rockers through his subsequent surge to the top of the country charts, Dwight Yoakam has enjoyed a singular career. An electrifying live performer, superb writer, and virtuosic vocalist, he’s successfully bridged two musical worlds that usually have little use for each other: commercial country and its alternative/Americana/roots-rocking counterpart. Defying the label “too country for rock, too rock for country,” Yoakam has triumphed while many of his peers have had to settle for cult acceptance. Four decades into his career, he’s sold more than twenty-five million records and continues to tour regularly. Now award-winning music journalist Don McLeese offers the first musical biography of this acclaimed artist. Tracing the seemingly disparate influences in Yoakam’s music, McLeese shows how he’s combined rock and roll, rockabilly, country, blues, and gospel into a seamless whole. In particular, McLeese explores the essential issue of “authenticity” and how it applies to Yoakam, as well as to country music and popular culture in general. Drawing on wide-ranging interviews with Yoakam and his management, while also benefiting from the perspectives of others closely associated with his success (including producer-guitarist Pete Anderson, partner throughout Yoakam’s most popular and creative decades), Dwight Yoakam pays tribute to the musician who has established himself as a visionary beyond time, an artist who could title an album Tomorrow’s Sounds Today and deliver it.




Tho' It Were Ten Thousand Miles


Book Description

Seamus ORoukes obsession with a girl he discovers on You Tube turns into love when Fiona MacKenzie turns up on his Midwestern campus. While the sixty-?ve-year-old Irishmans pursuit of this twenty-year-old folk singer is against all reason, rhyme does play its role. Seamus is adept at wielding poetry, as well as music, art, gourmet meals and ? ne wine, in his campaign for the heart of his green-eyed auburn-haired beauty. Fiona is haunted by the earlier death of her Scottish father and by the resulting loneliness, which she tries to hide beneath her usually self-con?dent exterior. She tries to keep from being overwhelmed by Seamus larger-than-life personality. Gradually, however, her skeptical common sense gives way before the onslaught of this unreconstructed Irish Romantic. During their brief months together, this age-crossed pair discovers that romance is a tightrope strung between incomprehension and farce. As told through a his/her dual narrative, these two head-strong and highly articulate individuals continuously collide, often comically, as they struggle to comprehend the nature of their love. In spite of moments of often bawdy comedy, questions of love, age, loss and death thread their way through the story. As Fiona observes, What strange ways love has of going about her business.




A Thousand Miles to Freedom


Book Description

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated. By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun was in danger of the same. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot. Now, Eunsun is sharing her remarkable story to give voice to the tens of millions of North Koreans still suffering in silence. Told with grace and courage, her memoir is a riveting exposé of North Korea's totalitarian regime and, ultimately, a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.




Bug Music


Book Description

Analyzes the role of insects in teaching humans about music, tracing research into exotic insect markets and research labs while explaining how insect sound and movement patterns inspired traditions in rhythm, synchronization, and dance.







A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains


Book Description

Handscroll; Blue and green ink on silk; 542cm(width)*22cm(height) This painting depicts rolling hills and vast rivers and lakes. The mountains and rocks in the painting are first drawn with the technique of "ink chapping," followed by the application of bright blue and green colors, shading the tops of the peaks with blue and green, showing off layers of green mountains. Water patterns are drawn in the water with fast strokes, providing a contrast to the "boneless" coloring. The painting employs a multi-perspective composition, making full use of distance. Level distances are interspersed, creating an attractive picture with ups and downs.




John Muir's Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated)


Book Description

This carefully crafted ebook: "John Muir's Incredible Travel Memoirs: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, Travels in Alaska, Steep Trails… (Illustrated)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. During his numerous travels across the North America John Muir left behind a several travel books and travel reports. In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida, which he recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find. Upon coming to California Muir immediately left for a visit to Yosemite, a place he had only read about. His hiking journeys through the mountains, valleys,forests andglaciersof Sierra are vividly described in books My First Summer in the Sierra and The Mountains of California. Muir also made four trips to Alaska and he documented these experiences in books Travels in Alaska and The Cruise of the Corwin. Steep Trails is collection of Muir's papers written during his journeysover a period of twenty-nine years collected by William Frederic Badè. Table of Contents: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf My First Summer in the Sierra The Mountains of California Travels in Alaska The Cruise of the Corwin Steep Trails John Muir (1838-1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountainsof California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization.




One Year on a Bike


Book Description

"Martijn Doolaard traded in the convenience of a car and the distractions of daily life for a cross-continental cycling journey: a biped adventure from Amsterdam to Singapore. Leaving behind repetitive routines, One Year on a Bike indulges in slow travel, the subtlety of a gradually changing landscape, and the lessons learned through travelling. Venturing through Eastern European fields of yellow rapeseed to the intimate hosting culture in Iran, One Year on a Bike is a vivid chronicle of what can happen when the norm is pointedly replaced by exceptional self-discoveries and beautiful sceneries. Doolaard shares the gear and knowledge that made his trip possible." -- Provided by publisher.