“Smitty is a creative talent who brings a very unique interpretation, that is both informative and anecdotal. He had spent most of his life studying and working with the graphic / visual arts. Although he still loves the visual arts.......he finally realized.....later in life......... what he had actually known all along...... that everything comes back to a song. It is not unusual for anyone to conjure up vivid memories whenever a certain song is mentioned, or played. However, Smitty does it in a way that puts the reader into the actual environment.....very magical. Most folks would probably not have experienced some of the events and circumstances that he mentions within this book, but I think that everyone can relate to them. Another factor that sets this book apart from other music retrospectives are the constant reminders of those unheralded performers, writers, producers who seldom would get top billing, but who made outstanding creations just the same. One of his strongest talents is being able to link a specific historic event with a song, which, of course, comes from a very deep memory. This, along with the sometimes humorous observations contained throughout, make for very enjoyable and informative reading. Could actually be considered as a general reference book for the music and events of the “baby-boomer” generation. The best thing is, not only is this book a story about a specific era, but it is his story.

'Bursts with gloriously geeky detail.' The Telegraph Have you ever made someone you love a mix-tape? Forty years ago, a group of scientists, artists and writers gathered in a house in Ithaca, New York to work on the most important compilation ever conceived. It wasn't from one person to another, it was from Earth to the Cosmos. In 1977 NASA sent Voyager 1 and 2 on a Grand Tour of the outer planets. During the design phase of the Voyager mission, it was realised that this pair of plucky probes would eventually leave our solar system to drift forever in the unimaginable void of interstellar space. With this gloomy-sounding outcome in mind, NASA decided to do something optimistic. They commissioned astronomer Carl Sagan to create a message to be fixed to the side of Voyager 1 and 2 – a plaque, a calling card, a handshake to any passing alien that might one day chance upon them. The result was the Voyager Golden Record, a genre-hopping multi-media metal LP. A 90-minute playlist of music from across the globe, a sound essay of life on Earth, spoken greetings in multiple languages and more than 100 photographs and diagrams, all painstakingly chosen by Sagan and his team to create an aliens' guide to Earthlings. The record included music by J.S. Bach and Chuck Berry, a message of peace from US president Jimmy Carter, facts, figures and dimensions, all encased in a golden box. The Vinyl Frontier tells the story of NASA's interstellar mix-tape, from first phone call to final launch, when Voyager 1 and 2 left our planet bearing their hopeful message from the Summer of '77 to a distant future.

Frontier Figures is a tour-de-force exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, Beth E. Levy addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation as well as changing relationships to the natural world to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. Levy draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. Frontier Figures is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.

The gold rush was Herman Francis Reinhart's life for almost twenty years. From the summer of 1851 when, as a boy in his late teens, he traveled the Oregon trail to California, until a January day in 1869 when he climbed aboard an eastbound train at Evanston, Wyoming, he was a part of every gold discovery that stirred the West. Reinhart dipped his pan in the streams of northern California and western Oregon—in Humbug Creek, Indian Creek, Rogue River, and Sucker Creek. He made the arduous and dangerous overland journey through Indian-occupied western Washington and British Columbia to find the Fraser River gold even more elusive than that farther south. With his teams and wagons he traversed all of the inland mine areas from Walla Walla to Fort Benton, from Boise Basin to South Pass City. Reinhart's German common sense soon turned him from actual mining to other sources of income, but whatever his labor was, the mines were always the focal point of his activities. When he operated a bakery and saloon it was a business whose customers were miners, whose transactions were more likely to involve gold dust than legal tender, and whose gambling tables saw the exchange of mining fortunes. When he operated a whipsaw mill the timbers cut there were used by miners for sluices and cradles. For a while Reinhart farmed, but planting and harvesting suffered from interruption by frequent expeditions to the mines. And when he prospered as a teamster it was to and from the mining towns that he hauled passengers, supplies, and equipment. The men who, like Herman Francis Reinhart, hopefully followed the golden frontier were not an articulate group, and the written records of their lives are few and fragmentary. But Reinhart, in his later years, recorded his experiences in five long, narrow, hardback ledgers. Many years after he died his daughter gave the ledgers to a friend in Chanute, Kansas—Nora Cunningham—who read the narrative, became fascinated by it, and typed it for publication. Reinhart's account, written in a grammar and language all his own, is not a record of the historian's West, but of the West of the individual miner. The pages are filled with the details of day-to-day life of the miners—the subjects that interested them, the problems that plagued them, their fun and feuding, their frustrations and hopes. Edited by an authority of the history of the West, it is a book that will offer exciting reading to casual readers and scholars alike.

"Golden Harmony: Quantum Numbers" delves into the intricate world of quantum mechanics, exploring the concept of quantum numbers with a focus on their profound significance and application in understanding the behavior of subatomic particles. Through accessible explanations and engaging examples, the book navigates readers through the fascinating realm of quantum physics, shedding light on the fundamental principles that govern the quantum world and highlighting the beauty and harmony inherent in its mathematical framework.

"Golden Number: Quantum Concepts" is an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating world of quantum physics, designed for absolute beginners without a mathematical background. Through clear explanations and relatable examples, this book explores the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, including wave-particle duality, quantum superposition, and entanglement. What sets this book apart is its unique focus on the golden ratio, a captivating mathematical constant that finds surprising connections to quantum phenomena. Readers will embark on an enlightening journey to unravel the mysteries of the quantum world while discovering the beauty of the golden ratio intertwined with quantum concepts. Whether you're a curious novice or a seeker of knowledge, this book promises to make the complexities of quantum physics accessible and engaging for all.

The Epics of Gilgamesh, Homer, Vergil, Shahnameh, are sources of our knowledge of religious beliefs. This epic is a welcome introduction to the spiritual world of the Albanians as they fought the crusades. The "Songs of the Frontier Warrior is the first English-language translation ever made of Albanian epic verse. As the product of a little-known culture and a difficult, rarely studied language, the Albanian epic has tended to remain in the shadow of the Serbo-Croatian, or more properly, Bosnian epic, with which it has undeniable affinities. This translation may thus be regarded as an initial attempt to rectify the imbalance and to give scholars and the reading public in general an opportunity to delve into the exotic world of the northern Albanian tribes. The present bilingual edition offers a broad selection of the best known songs. Also included are an introduction, a glossaries of terms and sources, and a selective bibliography.