Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines
Author: Mark Ribowsky
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2016-06-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1613733798

In 1970 a scraggly, antiheroic young man from North Carolina by way of Massachusetts began presenting a comforting new sound, a kind never heard before. Within a year, when young ears sought a new sound, there was "Fire and Rain" and "You've Got a Friend," and a new Southern California-fed branch of pop music. Taylor was its reluctant leader. Remarkably, Taylor has survived: his 2015 release, Before This World, edged out Taylor Swift and went to #1 on the charts. Today he is in better physical and probably mental condition than during the whirlwind when he influenced music so heavily, the decade when magazines and newspapers printed feverish stories about his gawky hunkiness, his love affair with Joni Mitchell, his glittery marriage to Carly Simon, his endlessly carried-out heroin habit, and sometimes even his music. Despite it all, Taylor has become the nearest thing to rock royalty in America. Based on fresh interviews with musicians, producers, record company people, and music journalists, as well as previously published interviews, reviews, and profiles, Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines is the definitive biography of an elusive superstar.

Hearts of Darkness

Hearts of Darkness
Author: Dave Thompson
Publisher: Backbeat Books
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 145847139X

(Book). Hearts of Darkness is the story of a generation's coming of age through the experiences of its three most atypical pop stars. James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Cat Stevens could never have been considered your typical late-sixties songwriters self-absorbed and self-composed, all three eschewed the traditional means of delivering their songs, instead turning its process inward. The result was a body of work that stands among the most profoundly personal art ever to translate into an international language, and a sequence of songs from "Sweet Baby James" and "Carolina in My Mind," to "Jamaica Say You Will" and "These Days," to "Peace Train" and "Wild World" that remain archetypes not only of what the critics called the singer-songwriter movement, but of the human condition itself. Author Dave Thompson, himself a legend among rock biographers, takes on his subjects with his usual brio and candor, leaving no stone unturned in his quest to shine a light on the dark side of this profoundly earnest era in popular music. Penetrating, pointed, and laced with vivid insight and detail, Hearts of Darkness is the story of rock when it no longer felt the need to roll.

Unconventional Vehicles

Unconventional Vehicles
Author: Michael Hearst
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2021-05-18
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1452173060

Think you know vehicles? Think again! Unconventional Vehicles is a nonfiction collection of 45 of the strangest, most unconventional vehicles that have ever existed. Vehicles include an underwater battery-powered scooter, a carriage pulled by ostriches, a hot air balloon shaped like the Cathedral of Saint Gall, and five different jet packs. • Filled with history, science, technology, engineering, and interesting bits of trivia, all in one kid-appealing package • Part of the Uncommon Compendiums series • Vehicles range from submersibles to dirigibles. Unconventional Vehicles explores very strange modes of transportation for vehicle fans, rocket inventors, budding space-and-aeronautics experts, and anyone who's ever thought, "Why can't I ride a motorized suitcase through the airport?" Brimming with fascinating facts and diagrams presented with wit and humor, this book is sure to enthrall vehicle enthusiasts of every age. • Ideal for children ages 8 to 12 years old, especially those interested in vehicles and engineering • Author Michael Hearst brings his signature verve and humor to this fascinating read. • Young readers will devour all the substantive and silly content in this book, proving definitively that nonfiction is anything but dry. • A great pick for teachers, parents, grandparents, and caregivers • You'll love this book if you love books like Cars, Trains, Ships, and Planes: A Visual Encyclopedia of Every Vehicle by DK; Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections by Stephen Biesty; and Cool Cars by Quentin Willson.

Violet the Pilot

Violet the Pilot
Author: Steve Breen
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0425288196

Violet is a science-loving girl inventor with a flair for the air! Fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Rosie Revere, Engineer will love this classic underdog story by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen. By the time she's two years old, Violet Van Winkle can engineer nearly any appliance in the house. And by eight she's building elaborate flying machines from scratch—mind-boggling contraptions such as the Tubbubbler, the Bicycopter, and the Wing-a-ma-jig. The kids at school tease her, but they have no idea what she's capable of. Maybe she could earn their respect by winning the blue ribbon in the upcoming Air Show. Or maybe something even better will happen—something involving her best-ever invention, a Boy Scout troop in peril, and even the mayor himself! "An engaging story of a spunky girl who follows her dreams . . . Violet is a terrific role model."--School Library Journal

Fire and Rain Sheet Music

Fire and Rain Sheet Music
Author: James Taylor
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 10
Release: 1987-07-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1495042308

(Piano Vocal). This sheet music features an arrangement for piano and voice with guitar chord frames, with the melody presented in the right hand of the piano part, as well as in the vocal line.

Fire & Rain

Fire & Rain
Author: Ian Halperin
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company Limited
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2001
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781840184341

Many musicians sing about heartache, despair and confusion, but few have experienced those feelings more intensely than James Taylor, who rose from a privileged childhood as the son of an affluent medical school dean to become a modern-day troubadour and pop superstar. When he was seventeen years old, Taylor's personal demons led him to a Massachusetts mental institution where he confronted them the only way he knew how - by writing his first songs. Thirty years later, Taylor's songs are among the most popular in the annals of music, but the demons are still with him. This book chronicles Taylor's turbulent rise to fame - from his ten month stay in the exlusive private psychiatric institution where he finished high school and through his early years as a songwriter mentored by Paul McCartney, to his current status as a pop folk icon. Throughout his life Taylor has battled with drink and drug addiction and suffered frequent bouts of mental illness. Unlike many of his contemporaries who facing similar struggles, Taylor confronted and overcame his problems, emerging as an inspirational figure. FIRE AND RAIN traces his remarkable road to recovery, including his troubled marriage to pop star Carly Simon and the premature death of his brother due to alcoholism.

Fire and Rain

Fire and Rain
Author: David Browne
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2012-07-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 030682213X

Set against a backdrop of world-changing historical and political events, Fire and Rain tells the extraordinary story of one pivotal year in the lives and music of four legendary artists, and reveals how these artists and their songs both shaped and reflected their times. Drawing on interviews, rare recordings, and newly discovered documents, acclaimed journalist David Browne “allows us to see—and to hear—the elusive moment when the '60s became the '70s in a completely fresh way” (Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution).

Airman

Airman
Author: Eoin Colfer
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2009-11-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1423132084

Conor Broekhart was born to fly. It is the 1890s, and Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella. But the boy's idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a deadly conspiracy against the king.

The Incredible Freedom Machines

The Incredible Freedom Machines
Author: Kirli Saunders
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN: 9781760275235

She was small when she heard about them ... the incredible freedom machines. A poetic and visual feast from multi-award-winning creators Kirli Saunders and Matt Ottley.

The Heaven Virus

The Heaven Virus
Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2007-04-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1430329696

The New York Times writes, "Pickover contemplates realms beyond our known reality." From one of the most original voices in imaginative nonfiction comes a stunning novel of speculation on the afterlife, immortality, and the existence of the human soul. "The Heaven Virus" is inspired by virtual universes making headlines today and offers readers a glimpse of ultimate spiritual technologies for the 22nd century and a mystic encounter in an age of electronic gods. "The Heaven Virus" blends humor, psychedelia, and hope in a meditation on the outer limits of our culture, evolutionary destiny, and inner space. This novel will draw readers who have wondered about their own passage from this existence into the world to come. Cliff Pickover is the author of forty books on science, mathematics, art, religion. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His website, Pickover.com, has received several million visits.