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Vegans. Skateboarders. Trekkies. The Cult of the Individual is alive and well and expressing itself all over America--and this book proves it. With this enlightening (and sometimes frightening) field guide, you'll delve into the customs, mores, and motivations behind every type of fan, geek, and superfreak, including: Swingers Hackers Dungeon Masters Happening Artists Cryptozoologists Utopians Bohemians Shriners Oenophiles Deadheads From music to food, sports to fashion, there are people who take their "hobbies" to an extreme the rest of us can only imagine. With this book, you'll get a bird's-eye view of these hobbies gone wild--from sea to shining sea!
As soon as US media and politicians became aware of AIDS in the early 1980s, fingers were pointed not only at the gay community but also at other countries and migrant communities, particularly Haitians, as responsible for spreading the virus. Evangelical leaders, public health officials, and the Reagan administration quickly capitalized on widespread fear of the new disease to call for quarantines, immigration bans, and deportations, scapegoating and blaming HIV-positive migrants—even as the rest of the world regarded the US as the primary exporter of the virus. In The Borders of AIDS, Karma Chávez demonstrates how such calls proliferated and how failure to impose a quarantine for HIV-positive citizens morphed into the successful enactment of a complete ban on the regularization of HIV-positive migrants—which lasted more than twenty years. News reports, congressional records, and AIDS activist archives reveal how queer groups and migrant communities built fragile coalitions to fight against the alienation of themselves and others, asserting their capacity for resistance and resiliency. Building on existing histories of HIV/AIDS, public health, citizenship, and immigration, Chávez establishes how politicians and public health officials treated different communities with HIV/AIDS and highlights the work these communities did to resist alienation.
The popularization and cult-like following of electronic music has provoked new relations between men and machines, art and technology, and modern shamans and disc jockeys. New technologies and multimedia tools have awakened neo-ritual practices through the emergence of Psychedelic Trance parties, evoking tribal experiences inspired by a new shamanism, mediated by high-tech guide elements. Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture investigates the expansive scope of Electronic Music Dance Culture (EMDC), the rise of Psychedelic Trance culture, and their relationship with new digital platforms. Drawing from perspectives in sociology, anthropology, psychology, aesthetics and the arts, religious studies, information technologies, multimedia communication, shamanism, and ritualism, this book analyzes the impact of new technologies on individual and collective behaviors in cyberspace. This innovative reference source is ideal for use by academicians, researchers, upper-level students, practitioners, and theorists. Focusing on a variety of topics relating to sub-cultures, human behavior, and popular culture, this title features timely research on alternative culture, electronic music festivals, ethnography, music and religion, psychedelic drugs, Psytrance, rave culture, and trance parties.
The Routledge Companion to Literature of the U.S. South provides a collection of vibrant and multidisciplinary essays by scholars from a wide range of backgrounds working in the field of U.S. southern literary studies. With topics ranging from American studies, African American studies, transatlantic or global studies, multiethnic studies, immigration studies, and gender studies, this volume presents a multi-faceted conversation around a wide variety of subjects in U.S. southern literary studies. The Companion will offer a comprehensive overview of the southern literary studies field, including a chronological history from the U.S. colonial era to the present day and theoretical touchstones, while also introducing new methods of reconceiving region and the U.S. South as inherently interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional. The volume will therefore be an invaluable tool for instructors, scholars, students, and members of the general public who are interested in exploring the field further but will also suggest new methods of engaging with regional studies, American studies, American literary studies, and cultural studies.
Starting in 1996, U.S. television saw an influx of superhuman female characters who could materialize objects like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, defeat evil like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and have premonitions like Charmed's Phoebe. The extraordinary abilities of these women showed resistance to traditional gender roles, although these characters experienced infringements on their abilities in ways superpowered men did not. Supernaturally powerful women and girls have remained on television, including the heavenly connected Grace (of Saving Grace), telepathic Sookie (of True Blood), and magical Cassie (of The Secret Circle). These more recent characters also face numerous constraints on their powers. As a result, superpowers become a narrative technique to diminish these characters, a technique that began with television's first superpowered woman, Samantha (of Bewitched). They all illustrate a paradox of women's power: are these characters ever truly powerful, much less superpowerful, if they cannot use their abilities fully? The superwoman has endured as a metaphor for women trying to "have it all"; therefore, the travails of these television examples parallel those of their off-screen counterparts.
The Singapore Perspectives series is a yearly publication that provides critical analysis of emerging trends and issues Singapore faces in terms of social, economic and political development. It is a quick and essential reference for understanding the broad policy discussions that animate thought leaders, policy-makers and the public in the country during the immediate period or that are likely to do so in the short and medium term.This edition focuses on how Singapore will cope with the social impact of, first, the development of a dual economy and, second, the adoption of new communications technologies. There is a section on the political implications of an aggressive new policy to promote immigration as Singapore's response to the global competition for talent, and, finally, the future of regionalism and ASEAN.Co-published by the think-tank, the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, this is a useful publication for those with an interest in understanding the governance challenges facing a small, highly globalised economy and nation-state, or those who want a quick feel of the pulse of Singapore.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a complete guide to over 50 years of superheroes on screen! This expanded and updated edition of the 2004 award-winning encyclopedia covers important developments in the popular genre; adds new shows such as Heroes and Zoom; includes the latest films featuring icons like Superman, Spiderman and Batman; and covers even more types of superheroes. Each entry includes a detailed history, cast and credits, episode and film descriptions, critical commentaries, and data on arch-villains, gadgets, comic-book origins and super powers, while placing each production into its historical context. Appendices list common superhero conventions and cliches; incarnations; memorable ad lines; and the best, worst, and most influential productions from 1951 to 2008.
This is a detailed examination of 58 science fiction television series produced between 1990 and 2004, from the popular The X-Files to the many worlds of Star Trek (The Next Generation onward), as well as Andromeda, Babylon 5, Firefly, Quantum Leap, Stargate Atlantis and SG-I, among others. A chapter on each series includes essential production information; a history of the series; critical commentary; and amusing, often provocative interviews with overall more than 150 of the creators, actors, writers and directors. The book also offers updates on each series' regular cast members, along with several photographs and a bibliography. Fully indexed.
The concept album is one of popular music's most celebrated-and misunderstood-achievements. This book examines the untold history of the rock concept album, from The Beatles to Beyoncé. The roots of the concept album are nearly as old as the long-playing record itself, as recording artists began using the format to transcend a mere collection of songs into a listening experience that takes the listener on a journey through its unifying mood, theme, narrative, or underlying idea. Along the way, artists as varied as the Moody Blues, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Parliament, Donna Summer, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, The Notorious B.I.G., Green Day, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar created albums that form an extended conversation of art and music. Limits were pushed as the format grew over the subsequent eras. Seminal albums like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Who's Tommy, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, stand alongside modern classics like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, Kendrick Lamar's good kid, "m.A.A.d city," and Beyoncé's Lemonade. Mixing iconic albums with some newer and lesser-known works makes for a book that ventures into the many sides of a history that has yet to be told-until now.