Venice West

Venice West
Author: John Arthur Maynard
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 1991
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780813519654

In this fascinating book, John Arthur Maynard tells the story of the poets and promoters who invented the Beat Generation and who, in many cases, destroyed themselves in the process. In this look at the least remembered (but in its time, most publicized) beat enclave, Maynard focuses on two of Venice's most newsworthy residentsÐÐLawrence Lipton and Stuart Z. Perkoff. Lipton began as a writer of popular detective stories and screenplays, but was determined to be recognized as a poet and social critic. He eventually published The Holy Barbarians, which helped to create the enduring public image of the beatnik. Stuart Perkoff was a more gifted poet; with fascination and horror, we follow his failed attempts to support his family, his heroin addiction, his first wive's courage and mental fragility, his sexual entanglements, his imprisonment, and the development of his own writing. Other characters who move in and out of the story are Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as lesser-known poets, artists, hangers-on, and the many women who were rarely treated as full members of the community.

Holy Barbarians

Holy Barbarians
Author: Lawrence Lipton
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2015-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786256207

Mr. Lipton’s book is the first complete and unbiased survey of the beat generation and its role in our society. Here are the intimate facts about these people and their attitudes toward sex, dope, jazz, art, religion, parents, landlords, employers, politicians, draft boards, the law and, most important, toward the “square”. The author presents a picture of their way of life, their individual backgrounds, the language they have appropriated, in terms made clear for the first time to those of us who have been confused and puzzled about them. He also provides a balanced discussion of their literature, art and music, of what they produce and fail to produce in the arts they practice.—Print Ed.

The Place of Music

The Place of Music
Author: Andrew Leyshon
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1998-03-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781572303140

Music is omnipresent in human society, but its language can no longer be regarded as transcendent or universal. Like other art forms, music is produced and consumed within complex economic, cultural, and political frameworks in different places and at different historical moments. Taking an explicitly spatial approach, this unique interdisciplinary text explores the role played by music in the formation and articulation of geographical imaginations--local, regional, national, and global. Contributors show how music's facility to be recorded, stored, and broadcast; to be performed and received in private and public; and to rouse intense emotional responses for individuals and groups make it a key force in the definition of a place. Covering rich and varied terrain--from Victorian England, to 1960s Los Angeles, to the offices of Sony and Time-Warner and the landscapes of the American Depression--the volume addresses such topics as the evolution of musical genres, the globalization of music production and marketing, alternative and hybridized music scenes as sites of localized resistance, the nature of soundscapes, and issues of migration and national identity.

Hold-Outs

Hold-Outs
Author: Bill Mohr
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2011-11-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1609380738

This book examines the evolution of contemporary American poetry in Los Angeles, California.

Inventing the World

Inventing the World
Author: Meredith Small
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1643135392

An epic cultural journey that reveals how Venetian ingenuity and inventions—from sunglasses and forks to bonds and currency—shaped modernity. How did a small, isolated city—with a population that never exceeded 100,000, even in its heyday—come to transform western civilization? Acclaimed anthropologist Meredith Small, the author of the groundbreaking Our Babies, Ourselves examines the the unique Venetian social structure that was key to their explosion of creativity and invention that ranged from the material to social. Whether it was boats or money, medicine or face cream, opera, semicolons, tiramisu or child-labor laws, these all originated in Venice and have shaped contemporary notions of institutions and conventions ever since. The foundation of how we now think about community, health care, money, consumerism, and globalization all sprung forth from the Laguna Veneta. But Venice is far from a historic relic or a life-sized museum. It is a living city that still embraces its innovative roots. As climate change effects sea-level rises, Venice is on the front lines of preserving its legacy and cultural history to inspire a new generation of innovators.

The Beats

The Beats
Author: Nancy Grace
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2021-03-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1949979962

'[This] survey of the many little magazines carrying the Beat message is impressive in its coverage, drawing attention to the importance of their paratextual content in providing valuable socio-political context. [...] The collection contains a range of insightful close readings, astute contextualizing, and inventive lateral pedagogical thinking, charting the transformation of the Beat scene from its free-wheeling, self-help, heady revolutionary 1960’s days to its contemporary position as an increasingly respectable component of the curriculum. [...] The Beats: A Teaching Companion is successful on a number of levels; it is a noteworthy contribution to the ever expanding field of Beat studies and, more broadly, cultural studies; and it is a collection that at its best gives hope that in referring to its ideas the inspired teacher may still be able to enlarge the lives of their students.' John Shapcott, Keele University

The Pathways to Sobriety Workbook

The Pathways to Sobriety Workbook
Author: William Fleeman
Publisher: Hunter House
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2004
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 089793427X

Author William Fleeman believes chemically dependent people use drugs to transform painful feelings like anxiety, fear, and depression into pleasurable feelings like confidence, courage, and elation. This book helps readers unlearn this destructive pattern through a cognitive/behavioral approach. Chapters cover self-assessment, steps of recovery, what to avoid, methods and skills, anger and forgiveness, relapse prevention, and more. Includes 18 self-help lessons, which can be completed in 18 to 20 weeks or less.

Art and the City

Art and the City
Author: Sarah Schrank
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0812204107

"Art and the City" explores the contentious relationship between civic politics and visual culture in Los Angeles. Struggles between civic leaders and modernist artists to define civic identity and control public space highlight the significance of the arts as a site of political contest in the twentieth century.

Meet Me in Venice

Meet Me in Venice
Author: Suzanne Ma
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-02-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1442239379

When Ye Pei dreamed of Venice as a girl, she imagined a magical floating city of canals and gondola rides. And she imagined her mother, successful in her new life and eager to embrace the daughter she had never forgotten. But when Ye Pei arrives in Italy, she learns her mother works on a farm far from the city. Her only connection, a mean-spirited Chinese auntie, puts Ye Pei to work in a small-town café. Rather than giving up and returning to China, a determined Ye Pei takes on a grueling schedule, resolving to save enough money to provide her family with a better future. A groundbreaking work of journalism, Meet Me in Venice provides a personal, intimate account of Chinese individuals in the very act ofmigration. Suzanne Ma spent years in China and Europe to understand why Chinese people choose to immigrate to nations where they endure hardship, suspicion, manual labor and separation from their loved ones. Today all eyes are on China and its explosive economic growth. With the rise of the Chinese middle class, Chinese communities around the world are growing in size and prosperity, a development many westerners find unsettling and even threatening. Following Ye Pei’s undaunted path, this inspiring book is an engrossing read for those eager to understand contemporary China and the enormous impact of Chinese emigrants around the world.

Poetry Los Angeles

Poetry Los Angeles
Author: Laurence Goldstein
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2014-03-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0472052241

A look at the poetry of one of America’s most populous and fascinating cities, with poems spanning from 1942 to 2012