Magic and conjuring inhabit the boundaries and the borderlands of performance. The conjuror s act of demonstrating the apparently impossible, the uncanny, the marvellous, or the grotesque challenges the spectator's sense of reality. It brings him or her up against their own assumptions about how the world works; at its most extreme, it asks the spectator to re-evaluate his or her sense of the limits of the human. Performing Dark Arts is an exploration of the paradox of the conjuror, the actor who pretends to be a magician. It aims to illuminate the history of conjuring by examining it in the context of performance studies, and to throw light on aspects of performance studies by testing them against the art of conjuring. The book examines not only the performances of individual magicians from Dedi to David Blaine, but also the broader cultural contexts in which their performances were received, and the meanings which they have attracted.

Magic and conjuring inhabit the boundaries and the borderlands of performance. The conjuror’s act of demonstrating the apparently impossible, the uncanny, the marvellous, or the grotesque challenges the spectator’s sense of reality. It brings him or her up against their own assumptions about how the world works; at its most extreme, it asks the spectator to re-evaluate his or her sense of the limits of the human. Performing Dark Arts is an exploration of the paradox of the conjuror, the actor who pretends to be a magician. It aims to illuminate the history of conjuring by examining it in the context of performance studies, and to throw light on aspects of performance studies by testing them against the art of conjuring. The book examines not only the performances of individual magicians from Dedi to David Blaine, but also the broader cultural contexts in which their performances were received, and the meanings which they have attracted.

I'm Ayla Night, a regular girl with some seriously bad luck. When I receive a summons to the elite Dark Arts Academy, I know it has to be a mistake. I'm a human. A nobody. And yet... I have no soul. How the f-- did that happen? Once class starts, I manage to piss off all the major Clans just by breathing. The Pyros, the Necromancers, the Shades, and the Alchemists all want me dead. Because I'm a lost pupil of the Cursed Clan and it seems my luck is just about to turn. This is a reverse harem paranormal romance with steam, a snarky grimoire, and a badass FMC that will blow your mind.

Explore the mysterious and sinister Dark Arts with this collectible tiny art book featuring facts and art from the Harry Potter films. Go behind-the-scenes of the beloved Harry Potter films and learn all about the Dark Arts of the Wizarding World. From basic curses and jinxes to Dark creatures like the Basilisk to the Dark Lord himself, this fascinating little book is filled with fun facts and unique insights on the darker side of the Harry Potter films, illustrated by concept art and unit photography from the set! One of a new line of collectible pocket-size art books on the Harry Potter films, this book on the Dark Arts features exciting artwork and behind-the-scenes facts in a fun, readable miniature size. Fans can choose their favorites or collect them all!

Football Dark Arts provides detailed knowledge about crafty, deceitful and outrageous gamesmanship that is unnecessary but sometimes helps teams win matches. From the perspective of an experienced referee, this book outlines 80 football tricks, traps and tips used by less sporting players. These 'dark arts' help give ultracompetitive managers and street-smart players an unfair competitive edge that prevents their opponents from performing at their optimal level. Masters of the dark arts know how to bend the rules, to deceive, to con and ultimately to negatively affect their opponents. This book highlights the ugly, unpleasant and unsporting aspects of the Beautiful Game so that you won't be deceived by them. Whether you are a player, coach, match official, fan, commentator, journalist or club director, this book is your defence against the dark arts!

As the publishing sensation of the last half-century, Harry Potter dominates early education in politics. Children, tweens, teens, and adults love it; and most students come to college knowing at least some of it. This dark fantasy analyzes politics in strikingly practical and institutional ways. Like ancient Sophists, modern Machiavellians, and postmodern Nietzscheans, the Potter books treat politics as dark arts and our defenses against them. The Potter saga overflows with drama, humor, and insight into ours as dark times of terrible troubles. These reach from racism, sexism, and specism to fascism, terrorism, autocracy, and worse. Harry and his friends respond with detailed, entertaining takes on many ideologies, movements, and styles of current politics.Defenses Against the Dark Arts argues that Potter performances of magic show us how and why to leap into political action. This includes the high politics of governments and elections, and especially the everyday politics of families, schools, businesses, media, and popular cultures. It explores Potter versions of idealism, realism, feminism, and environmentalism. It clarifies Potter accounts of bureaucracy, nationalism, and patronage. And it analyzes Potter resistance through existentialism and anarchism. The emphasis is on learning to face and defend against dark arts in dark times.

In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures, edited by Wm. Michael Dunne, Jr., and Carey-Ann D. Burnham, surveys the entire field of blood culture technology, providing valuable information about every phase of the process, from drawing samples to culture methods to processing positive cultures. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is organized around several major topics. History of blood culture methods. Details the timeline of blood culture methods from manual through automated and describes the technological development of the leading automated blood culture systems (Bactec, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK). Manual and automated blood culture methods. Critiques manual and automated methods for setting up blood cultures for adult and pediatric patients. Detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens. Describes currently available CE marked and FDA-cleared commercial tests using both phenotypic and genotypic markers, including their strengths and limitations. The workflow of culturing blood. Includes best practices from specimen collection to culture system verification, processing positive cultures for microbe identification and antibiotic susceptibility determination, along with the epidemiology of positive blood cultures and the value of postmortem blood cultures. Microorganisms in the blood. Examines the concept of a blood microbiome in healthy and diseased individuals. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is a resource that clinicians, laboratorians, lab directors, and hospital administrators will find engaging and extremely useful. If you are looking for online access to the latest clinical microbiology content, please visit www.wiley.com/learn/clinmicronow.