THE QUEST: Cross-Cultural Connections at Home and Abroad In this global economy and multicultural, multilingual world, bridges are built and crossed. The advice in this book will help you cross them with ease. The principles of self-awareness, nonjudgment, acceptance of others, and seeing the whole picture will bring you success in your cross-cultural business relations.

Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster enclaves while the cassette’s likeness pops up on T-shirts, coffee mugs, belt buckles, and cell phone cases. In Unspooled, Rob Drew traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital. Drawing on sources ranging from obscure music zines to transcripts of Congressional hearings, Drew examines a moment in the early 1980s when music industry representatives argued that the cassette encouraged piracy. At the same time, 1980s indie rock culture used the cassette as a symbol to define itself as an outsider community. Indie’s love affair with the cassette culminated in the mixtape, which advanced indie’s image as a gift economy. By telling the cassette’s long and winding history, Drew demonstrates that sharing cassettes became an acceptable and meaningful mode of communication that initiated rituals of independent music recording, re-recording, and gifting.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human and artistic experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful. In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.

This Is Your Roadmap to Success! The Indie Author Guide takes you through every stage of the self-publishing process. With e-books, print on demand and the power of Web 2.0, you have the ability to publish your own high quality books and go indie—just as filmmakers and musicians have done. Get detailed instructions, complemented by screenshots, so you can get the most of cutting edge publishing options. April L. Hamilton, founder of Publetariat, an online news hub and community for indie authors, gives you insight to the latest technology and step-by-step advice for making the most of your self-publishing options. Inside you'll find everything you need to know to: • organize your files • create your brand • explore your self-publishing options • format your book for POD • edit and revise you work • design your own book cover • publish through a POD print service provider • publish in e-book formats • build an author platform • promote your work • transition from indie to mainstream publishing Plus, you'll get worksheets to help you plan and organize your book, your business, and your writing life, as well as an HTML primer so you can build your own website—even if you're not tech savvy. The Indie Author Guide gives you the skills and confidence you need to take full advantage of today's unique publishing opportunities and grow your readership yourself.

An incredibly wide-ranging critical account of popular music. The book is an essential resource for all staff and students in the field′ - John Storey, Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland Organized in accessible sections and covering the main themes of research and teaching it examines: • The key approaches to understanding popular music • The main settings of exchange and consumption • The role of technology in the production of popular music • The main genres of popular music • The key debates of the present day Barbazon writes with verve and penetration. Her approach starts with how most people actually consume music today and transfers this onto the plain of study. The book enables teachers and students to shuffle from one topic to the other whilst providing an unparalleled access the core concepts and issues. As such, it is the perfect study guide for undergraduates located in this exciting and expanding field. Tara Brabazon is Professor of Communication at University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

An entertaining, interactive guidebook, this volume is designed to provide young adults with a simple model they can use to create a solid vision for their future, and ideally map out a life of their dreams. (Careers/Job Opportunities)

Forty year old Indie Taylor had long ago given up wondering why she was different. On her wedding day, a little over ten years before, Indie decided to focus her restless energy on creating the image of the perfect wife to her husband, Will, and later, mother to her beloved and eagerly awaited twins. However, things were surfacing that she could no longer ignore. First, was the simple fact that she’d seemed to stop aging. This, coupled with her well-hidden secret from childhood, that she never actually slept, was testing Indie’s ability to live the lie. But she was trying. And then he found her. The man who’d searched for her for a lifetime, to tell her of her incredible ancestry, and the serious nature of the job she was born to perform; the protection of Humanity. But Jackson Allen had another mission. He had come to claim what belonged to him; and what he claimed . . . was Indie!