There he stumbled into the elaborate world of Mingering Mikea soul superstar of the 1960s and '70s who released an astonishing 50 albums and at least as many singles in just 10 years. But Hadar had never heard of him, and he realized why on closer inspection: every album in the crates was made of cardboard. Each package was intricately crafted, complete with gatefold interiors, extensive liner notes, and grooves drawn onto the "vinyl." Some albums were even covered in shrinkwrap, as if purchased at actual record stores. The crates contained nearly 200 LPs and 45s by Mingering Mike, as well as other artists like Joseph War, the Big "D," and Rambling Ralph, on labels such as Sex Records, Decision, and Ming/War. There were also soundtracks to imaginary films, a benefit album for sickle cell anemia, and a tribute to Bruce Lee. Hadar put his detective skills to work and soon found himself at the door of the elusive man responsible for this alternate universe of funk. Their friendship blossomed and Mike revealed the story of his life and his many albums, hit singles, and movie soundtracks. A solitary boy raised by his brothers, sisters, and cousins, Mike lost himself in a world of his own imaginary superstardom, basing songs and albums on his and his family's experiences. Early teenage songs obsessed with love and heartache soon gave way to social themes surrounding the turbulent era of civil rights protests and political upheavalbrought even closer to home when Mike himself went underground dodging the Vietnam War.In Mingering Mike, Hadar tells the story of a man and his myth: the kid who dreamed of being a star and the fantastical "careers" of the artists he created. All of Mingering Mike's best albums and 45s are presented in full color, finally bringing to the star the adoring audience he always imagined he had.

    But can you make that trendy new lamp jibe with your grandmother's heirloom dresser?The fabulous Beekman Boys answer with a resounding "Yes!" in their new book, Beekman 1802 Style. Through more than 200 stunning photographs from Country Living magazine and never-before-seen images of the Beekman farmhouse, the boys use their city-turned-country-boy charm and style to help with all things home. Their unique home design tips and tricks for mixing high and low, East and West, indoors and outdoors, and traditional with modern will help you create a home that is inviting, warm, and--perhaps most important--fabulous.

    In The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, established Watson-Guptill author and noted instructor/painter Suzanne Brooker presents the fundamentals necessary for mastering landscape oil painting, breaking landscapes down into component parts: sky, terrain, trees, and water. Each featured element builds off the previous, with additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools used by artists. Key methods like observation, rendering, and color mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters of all time. With The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, oil painters looking to break into landscape painting or enhance their work will find all the necessary ingredients for success.

    For example, myrrh is incense made from the resin of a North African bush and was a special gift during biblical times. To the Romans, mistletoe was a symbol of fertility, so today we are encouraged to kiss when it is near. The Yule log was originally used to brighten homes during the dark, cold Scandinavian Christmas season. Packed with all manner of delightful surprises and delicious morsels, A Christmas Miscellany demystifies the origins of familiar festive customs such as caroling and Christmas cards, and entertains with fun, little-known facts. This is the perfect gift or stocking stuffer for the curious-minded during the holiday season.

    How did the Old Masters create their masterpieces? What kind of education allowed these great artists to create such beautiful work, and how can an artist learn these lessons today? Traditional Oil Painting answers those questions and many more. This comprehensive sourcebook explores the most advanced levels of oil painting, with full information on the latest scientific discoveries. Author and distinguished artist Virgil Elliott examines the many elements that let artists take the next step in their work: mental attitude, aesthetic considerations, the importance of drawing, principles of visual reality, materials, techniques, portraiture, photographic images versus visual reality, and color. Traditional Oil Painting helps artists master the secrets of realistic painting to create work that will rival that of the masters.

    Both a practical guide and a great source of inspiration, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes presents the interiors, furniture, and locations you need to know about along with portraits of the people who can make it happen. The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes celebrates the durable and the meaningful through a collection of homes that tell a story. Most architecture and interior books show houses polished to perfection, manicured to the extent that it is hard to imagine anybody acually lives there: they seem to miss the point that homes are meant to be inhabited. They should be able to take the scuffs and knocks and to be part of a community, whether in a Chicago skyscraper or on Australia's sunshine coast. So where are the best places to make a home? What are the villages, coastlines, mountains, towns, and cities that would make you want to settle down? The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes answers those questions with a global photographic survey of a wide variety of homes. Whether the focus is on a remote residence in the Swedish archipelago or a lush abode in Rio de Janeiro, or on the difference between residing in Tokyo and Toronto, this book is the perfect balance between the inspirational and the practical. The book is a survey of everything you need to know to build the residence of your dreams, providing insight into the best neighborhoods, architects, and makers all over the world. From design-store owners to green-roof gardeners, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes introduces you to interesting people with ideas that are built to last. Monocle's signature illustrations punctuate the book's rich and detailed content. Through striking photography, The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes also gives you a glimpse into the lives that unfold in these apartments, villas, and cottages, showing that these homes are alive and that this is precisely what makes them special. This is a book that should be referred to again and again--it is a book about the quality of life.

    In this revolutionary book, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people.Taking into account changing demographics and changing lifestyles, Gehl explains how to develop cities that are lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy.The book is extensively illustrated with over 700 photos and drawings of examples from Gehl’s work around the globe.

    A brief examination of the theory and practice of Renaissance architecture that draws attention to the values underlying this style

    We see a network of walls, columns, cables, pipes and tunnels required to satisfy the basic needs of a city's inhabitants.

    Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers’s unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience.Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative color studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and is one of the most influential resources on color for countless readers.This new paperback edition presents a significantly expanded selection of more than thirty color studies alongside Albers’s original unabridged text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusions of transparency and reversed grounds. Now available in a larger format and with enhanced production values, this expanded edition celebrates the unique authority of Albers’s contribution to color theory and brings the artist’s iconic study to an eager new generation of readers.

    Beginning with the classical origins of Western architecture and coming right up to the new millennium, the book discusses every major milestone in the development of Western architecture in probing detail. Features of the revised edition include expanded chapters on Mesopotamian and Egyptian architecture, made possible by important recent archeological findings; and urban planning sections added throughout the book. The latter will be of special value to the growing numbers of readers who take an active interest in the relationship between a city’s buildings and the community residents who live and work in them.

    A global network of creative, interior design bloggers has emerged, publishing fresh and inspiring content online every day.With diverse backgrounds and lifestyles, these individual bloggers combine to create a thriving online community of trendsetters and style gurus. The digital world brings with it design democracy; with the freedom to publish whatever they want, whenever they want and unhampered by the restrictions of larger corporate websites, these design bloggers offer a beguiling alternative to traditional media and have become an important source of inspiration and information for the homes enthusiast. In her first book, leading interiors journalist and stylist Ellie Tennant meets the characters and creative forces behind leading design blogs, exploring their online realms, their beautiful homes and their clever styling ideas. Thirteen in-depth case studies cover a panorama of cutting edge bloggers’ spaces—from a pared-back monochrome cabin in Scandinavia to a maximalist, color-filled apartment in California—while the final chapter offers advice on setting up your own design blog. The result is a coffee table tome to treasure—a visual feast of inspiring yet achievable interiors—with plenty of ideas to steal for your own home.

    Now Pollan turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property--a place in which he hoped to read, write and daydream, built with his two own unhandy hands.Invoking the titans of architecture, literature and philosophy, from Vitrivius to Thoreau, from the Chinese masters of feng shui to the revolutionary Frank Lloyd Wright, Pollan brilliantly chronicles a realm of blueprints, joints and trusses as he peers into the ephemeral nature of "houseness" itself. From the spark of an idea to the search for a perfect site to the raising of a ridgepole, Pollan revels in the infinitely detailed, complex process of creating a finished structure. At once superbly written, informative and enormously entertaining, A Place of My Own is for anyone who has ever wondered how the walls around us take shape--and how we might shape them ourselves.A Place of My Own recounts his two-and-a-half-year journey of discovery in an absorbing narrative that deftly weaves the day-to-day work of design and building--from siting to blueprint, from the pouring of foundations to finish carpentry--with reflections on everything form the power of place to shape our lives to the question of what constitutes "real work" in a technological society.A book about craft that is itself beautifully crafted, linking the world of the body and material things with the realm of mind, heart, and spirit, A Place of My Own has received extraordinary praise.

    Here the trials and triumphs of the early Muslims as individuals are well-portrayed. Their various paths to Islam - sometimes direct, sometimes long and tortuous, their devotion to the noble Prophet, their endeavours in peace time and their exploits in war - all serve to cast them in a heroic mould. This is the first of two (formerly published as a series of three) books based on original Arabic sources and written in a style that is lively and often gripping. The lives of the Sahabah or Companions of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, is a rich storehouse of knowledge, guidance and inspiration. The men and women whose stories are told here helped to lay the foundations of a new world order, and it is only fitting that they should be more widely known.

    Unpuzzling Your Past, 4th edition focuses on fundamental strategies for success, questions to ask, places for research, and interesting examples of each step along the way. Throughout, readers will find techniques and suggestions for: Taping family documents, oral tradition and memories; Exploring the vast array of U.S. public records, from newspapers and tombstones to censuses and land records; Getting the most from names, dates and handwriting of the past; Developing a first-rate and meaningful family history; Well-organized, well-written and comprehensive, this guide offers readers charts, illustrations, reference sidebars, bibliographies, a glossary, and useful, reproducible forms. Each chapter is capped with a list of Things to Do Now to encourage readers or students to apply what they have learned.