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  The Fate of Progress in British Romanticism (eBook, PDF)

  What did Romantic writers mean when they wrote about "progress" and "perfection"? This book shows how Romantic writers inventively responded to familiar ideas about political progress which they inherited from the eighteenth century. Whereas earlier writers such as Voltaire and John Millar likened improvements in political institutions to the progress of the sciences or refinement of manners, the novelists, poets, and political theorists examined in this book reimagined politically progressive thinking in multiple genres. While embracing a commitment to optimistic improvement-increasing freedom, equality, and protection from injury-they also cultivated increasingly visible and volatile energies of religious and political dissent. Earlier narratives of progress tended not only to edit and fictionalize history but also to agglomerate different modes of knowledge and practice in their quest to describe and prescribe uniform cultural improvement. But romantic writers seize on internal division and take it less as an occasion for anxiety, exclusion, or erasure, and more as an impetus to rethink the groundwork of progress itself. Political entities, from Percy Shelley's plans for political reform to Charlotte Smith's motley associations of strangers in The Banished Man, are progressive because they advance some version of collective utility or common good. But they simultaneously stake a claim to progress only insofar as they paradoxically solicit contending vantage points on the criteria for the very public benefit which they passionately pursue. The "majestic edifices" of Wordsworth's imagined university in The Prelude embrace members who are "republican or pious," not to mention the recalcitrant "enthusiast" who is the poet himself.

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  Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It

  New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice An unsettling journey into the disaster-bound American food system, and an exploration of possible solutions, from leading food politics commentator and former farmer Tom Philpott. More than a decade after Michael Pollan's game-changing The Omnivore's Dilemma transformed the conversation about what we eat, a combination of global diet trends and corporate interests have put American agriculture into a state of "quiet emergency," from dangerous drought in California--which grows more than 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables we eat--to catastrophic topsoil loss in the "breadbasket" heartland of the United States. Whether or not we take heed, these urgent crises of industrial agriculture will define our future. In Perilous Bounty, veteran journalist and former farmer Tom Philpott explores and exposes the small handful of seed and pesticide corporations, investment funds, and magnates who benefit from the trends that imperil us, with on-the-ground dispatches featuring the scientists documenting the damage and the farmers and activists who are valiantly and inventively pushing back. Resource scarcity looms on the horizon, but rather than pointing us toward an inevitable doomsday, Philpott shows how the entire wayward ship of American agriculture could be routed away from its path to disaster. He profiles the farmers and communities in the nation's two key growing regions developing resilient, soil-building, water-smart farming practices, and readying for the climate shocks that are already upon us; and he explains how we can help move these methods from the margins to the mainstream.

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  Men & Chicken

  Men & Chicken is a darkly hilarious slapstick comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, ingeniously cast against type) about a pair of socially-challenged siblings who discover they are adopted half-brothers in their late father's videotaped will. Their journey in search of their true father takes them to the small, insular Danish island of Ork, where they stumble upon three additional half-brothers-each also sporting hereditary harelips and lunatic tendencies-living in a dilapidated mansion overrun by barn animals. Initially unwelcome by their newfound kin, the two visitors stubbornly wear them down until they're reluctantly invited to stay. As the misfit bunch get to know each other, they unwittingly uncover a deep family secret that ultimately binds them together. Directed by acclaimed, Oscar®-winning director Anders Thomas Jensen and co-starring David Dencik (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), the inventively bizarre Men & Chicken has been described as an outlandish hybrid of The Three Stooges and The Island of Dr. Moreau.

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  Bill Cunningham New York

  We all get dressed for Bill, says Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. The Bill in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity sorties for the Times Style section in his columns on the Street and Evening Hours. Documenting uptown fixtures (Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller who all appear in the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone in between, Cunningham's enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.

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  All Those Things That Appear

  Totally new ways of approaching music, gripping emotional content inventively transitioning between moods, genres and cultures - from the tranquil delicacy of strings to infectious funk to the depths of spacey fragility to swooning lyrical themes, and blues, like a delicious, desperately painful slow motion taffy-pull of palpable sorrow you can feel welling up in your gut. Phew! It's almost like his guitar's notes are making love to the listener, you can feel the waves of sensations going through your whole body, just pining for the next note to come. And as soon as you are drifting into an alpha state he startles you to attention with complex, hard funking middle eastern percussion, over burbly trance electronica - elegantly and seamlessly integrating complex time signatures as if nothing was more natural. Multiple genres insanely tied together in unique ways that come out sounding as if there was nothing more perfectly natural in the world - and all impeccably executed., multiple simple ideas, tied together in inventive and brilliantly complex and unexpected ways. It's like Kinsella just stepped on earth and is taking what is available with no preconceived thoughts of how music SHOULD be. All as created by Kinsella as he presents his musical ideas as filtered through his life of chronic pain due to musculoskeletal problems. It's not too often that you hear someone completely reinvent music and in such a prolific manner (Kinsella has been managing to put out 3 completely new releases a year for the past couple years). Composition, performance, engineering, production, programming and artwork by Pat Kinsella. On this disk, Pat Kinsella played: electric, archtop, acoustic, and lap steel guitars, resonator, fretless bass, fretted bass, guitar synthesizer, synthesizers, samplers, doutar, erhu, pipa, darbuka, cornet, clarinet, cigar tubes, CPAP tubing, cow hooves. The title The Flame That Burns Twice as Bright is from the line "The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.' by Laozi' in the Tao Te Ching A Good Ole Boy is dedicated to Gerry Freeman, a Good Ole Boy from Detroit. ...Ready for Bed? - Saturday Night 11:31pm is dedicated to my wife Lynne for all the time I spend away from her working on this. Let's Banish Him (When The Pin Is Pulled, Mr. Grenade Is No Longer Our Friend) is dedicated to Rat Bastard.

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  20th Century Duos

  About '20th Century Duos'... 'Bart Feller's inventively programmed CD, '20th-Century Duos,' is an homage to musical friendship. His bright tone, polished technique, and impeccable musicianship are well matched by seven superb colleagues in performances of warmth, wit and virtuosity.' Michael Parloff Principal Flute, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Faculty, Manhattan School of Music 'This is a wonderful disc! Anyone who hears Bart Feller's liquid, organic playing will realize immediately that he is a complete master of the flute. It is inspiring to hear him play.' Ransom Wilson Flute professor, Yale University Artist-member, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 'Even before the entire set was finished I knew that I was listening to two outstanding professionals. It's great to hear such vibrant and expressive flute playing and Rena Feller's clarinet work is equally impressive. I can't imagine my Duos played better!' Robert Muczynski, composer Bart Feller is Principal Flute of the New York City Opera and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Bargemusic and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Feller has appeared as concerto soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Jupiter Symphony. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where his teachers included Julius Baker and John Krell, he has also worked extensively with Keith Underwood. Among the summer festivals he has participated in are the Marlboro Music Festival, OK Mozart International Festival, Colorado College Chamber Music Festival, Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Mr. Feller is Professor of Flute at Rutgers University/Mason Gross School of the Arts, and teaches in the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School. Artist Biographies ~ '20th Century Duos' Harpist Victoria Drake has been a concerto soloist with numerous orchestras and appears often as a solo recitalist and chamber musician. She performs with many orchestras in the New York area, including the American Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Virtuosi. She has participated at the Aspen, Bard, Cabrillo, Fontainebleau and Vermont Mozart festivals and L'Association des Rencontres Culturelles d'Orbec in France. She performed and recorded Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti and Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp on period instruments with the Old Fairfield Academy. Ms. Drake has three solo recordings on the Well-Tempered Productions label: Harping on Bach, Scarlatti's Harp and Spanish Gold. Clarinetist Rena Feller is second clarinet with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She has taught at Rhodes College, Memphis and maintains an active private teaching studio. From 1991 to 1999 she was principal clarinetist with the Berkshire Opera. As a solo recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Feller has premiered and recorded numerous contemporary compositions, including works by Don Freund and Stanley Friedman. A graduate of Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Ms. Feller holds a master's degree from The Juilliard School. Mezzo-Soprano Theodora Hanslowe performs regularly in leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, where she most recently appeared in the new production of Handel's Rodelinda. She is best known for her Rossini interpretations, which she has performed for San Francisco Opera, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Washington Opera, Los Angeles Music Center, Opera de Monte Carlo, Staatsoper Dresden and the Met, among others. She has been a soloist with the symphony orchestras of Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Dallas and St. Louis, and appears frequently in chamber music festivals here and abroad. The New York Times recently acclaimed her "gorgeous singing with superb control" and the Stuttgarter Zeitung called her voice "a sound from another, more beautiful world." Bassoonist Kim Laskowski is associate principal bassoon with the New York Philharmonic. Before joining the Philharmonic, Ms. Laskowski was second bassoon with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and principal bassoon with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She has performed with many New York City ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Luke's, American Symphony Orchestra and Eos Orchestra. She received a master's degree from The Juilliard School, studied at the Conservatoire National Superieure de Paris on a Fulbright grant, and participated in the Tanglewood and Spoleto festivals. She can be heard on numerous television, radio and film scores, and holds two platinum records for CDs recorded with the rock group 10,000 Maniacs. She has performed and recorded several CDs with the noted chamber music ensemble Music Amici. Pianist Linda Mark is a staff accompanist at The Juilliard School. An active soloist, chamber musician and music coach throughout the United States and Europe, she has concertized with such leading flutists as Jeanne Baxtresser and her mentor Julius Baker, and has appeared at the Casals Festival, the Chateau de Fountainbleu and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Mark teaches collaborative performing classes for prominent music conferences, including the National Flute Association Convention. She won first prize in the Baldwin Piano Competition and has received two grand prizes in the International Recording Competition. Recently, she was invited by the Richard Tucker Foundation to perform for Luciano Pavarotti. She recorded solo piano works for the soundtrack of the film, Letter Without Words, and is the staff accompanist at The Julliard School. Flutist Kathleen Nester is second flute and piccolo with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She also serves as acting assistant principal of the NJSO and is a member of the Stamford Symphony Orchestra, and plays with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and other New York area ensembles. Ms. Nester has been a featured concerto soloist with the New Jersey Symphony, Solisti New York and Bargemusic. She has had a long association with the new music ensemble Musicians' Accord. Ms. Nester attended the Manhattan School of Music and is on the faculty of New York University. She has recorded with a variety of artists, including Kathleen Battle, Claire Bloom, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Aaron Jay Kernis. Percussionist She-e Wu is assistant professor of music at Rutgers University. Ms. Wu has appeared as a solo artist at percussion festivals and conventions around the world. She has performed recitals and offered master classes at universities, colleges and conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Wu's compositions K-PAX and Blue Identity were commissioned by the percussion ensemble of the Paris Conservatory-CNR and the Taipei International Percussion Convention, and have been performed in Japan, France, Taiwan and the United States. Her recording of the Eric Ewazen marimba concerto has been released on Resonator Records. Her solo marimba CD was released in the fall of 2005.

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