Author: Lutz Koepnick File Type: pdf If size counts for anything, Michael Bay towers over his contemporaries. His summer-defining event films involve extraordinary production costs and churn enormous box office returns. His ability to mastermind breathtaking spectacles of action, mayhem, and special effects continually push the movie industry as much as the medium of film toward new frontiers. Lutz Koepnick engages the bigness of works like Armageddon and the Transformers movies to explore essential questions of contemporary filmmaking and culture. Combining close analysis and theoretical reflection, Koepnick shows how Bays films, knowingly or not, address profound issues about what it means to live in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries. According to Koepnicks astute readings, no one eager to understand the state of cinema today can ignore Bays work. Bays cinema of world-making and transnational reach not only exemplifies interlocking processes of cultural and economic globalization. It urges us to contemplate the future of moving images, of memory, matter, community, and experience, amid a time of rampant political populism and ever-accelerating technological change. An eye-opening look at one of Hollywoods most polarizing directors, Michael Bay illuminates what energizes the films of this cinematic and cultural force.**ReviewCompelling. The brilliance of this new book lies in the way that it grasps Bays cinema not as the diametrical opposite, but rather as the dialectical counterpart, of slow cinema. Exemplary in the way that it takes full measure of its subject without naive enthusiasm, but also without critical condescension.--Steven Shaviro, author of Post Cinematic Affect This book is for everyone who loved the film classes they took in college, then watched Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and thought I give up. Lutz Koepnicks study of Michael Bay is a clear-eyed assessment of the oeuvre of Hollywoods hyperkinetic trash-virtuoso, but it is also a joyful demonstration of what film criticism and film theory can accomplish when they dont capitulate before the new cinema of confetti-cuts and incessant franchise service. The thinking persons guide to Bayhem.--Adrian Daub, coauthor of The James Bond Songs Pop Anthems of Late CapitalismAbout the Author Lutz Koepnick is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of German, Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University, where he also chairs the Department of German, Russian, and East European Studies and directs the joint PhD program in Comparative Media Analysis and Practice. His books include On Slowness Toward an Aesthetic of the Contemporary and The Dark Mirror German Cinema between Hitler and Hollywood .

Author: Claire Preston File Type: pdf How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour and gather honey all the day from every opening flower! This famed Isaac Watts verse reveals the enduring fascination that bees have held for humans bees have long been admired for their remarkable socialization and architectural skills, and since the earliest times they have carried profound symbolic meanings. Claire Prestons Bee offers a comprehensive survey of the natural and cultural history of the bee and explores the impressive body of literature that has grown out of mans search for honey. Bee traces the bees role in art, politics, and social thought, drawing on scientific studies, literature, and historical texts. The volume examines the evolution of the bees cultural image from a symbol of virtue and civility to the dangerous swarms of killer bees in Hollywood horror flicks. From ancient political analogies to Renaissance debates about monarchy to studies of bee behavior that portend ominous conclusions for our own socialization and use of technology, Bee analyzes the complex connections between the bee and human culture. Written with energy and enthusiasm, Bee offers an original and fascinating meditation on this tiny workaholic.

Author: Laurence Bergreen File Type: mobi As the first European to travel extensively throughout Asia, Marco Polo was the earliest bridge between East and West. His famous journeys took him across the boundaries of the known world, along the dangerous Silk Road, and into the court of Kublai Kahn, where he won the trust of the most feared and reviled leader of his day. Polo introduced the cultural riches of China to Europe, spawning centuries of Western fascination with Asia.In this lively blend of history, biography, and travelogue, acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen separates myth from history, creating the most authoritative account yet of Polos remarkable adventures. Exceptionally narrated and written with a discerning eye for detail, Marco Polo is as riveting as the life it describes.

Author: Graham Haydon File Type: pdf What are values? Where do our values come from? How do our values make a difference in education? For educational leaders to achieve distinction in their practice, it is vital to establish clear personal values rather than reacting to the implicit values of others. This engaging book guides readersin consideringthe values they bring to their task and the values they intend to promote. Values for Educational Leadership promotes critical thought and constructive analysis about underlying values that involve ullAims and moral purpose in education llIndividual qualities in educational leadership llVision in education llSchool ethos and culture llSchools as an educational communitieslulInviting reflection using valuable case studies and work-through activities, this resource is ideal for anyone working toward professional qualifications such as NPQH and is invaluable for educators aspiring to excellence in educational leadership. **