Poor But Sexy Culture Clashes In Europe East And West

Download or read book Poor but Sexy written by Agata Pyzik and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2014-03-28 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 24 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe is as divided as ever. The passengers of the low-budget airlines go east for stag parties, and they go West for work; but the East stays East, and West stays West. Caricatures abound - the Polish plumber in the tabloids, the New Cold War in the broadsheets and the endless search for 'the new Berlin' for hipsters. Against the stereotypes, Agata Pyzik peers behind the curtain to take a look at the secret histories of Eastern Europe (and its tortured relations with the 'West'). Neoliberalism and mass migration, post-punk and the Bowiephile obsession with the Eastern Bloc, Orientalism and 'self-colonization', the emancipatory potentials of Socialist Realism, the possibility of a non-Western idea of modernity and futurism, and the place of Eastern Europe in any current revival of 'the idea of communism' – all are much more complex and surprising than they appear. Poor But Sexy refuses both a dewy-eyed Ostalgia for the 'good old days' and the equally desperate desire to become a 'normal part of Europe', reclaiming instead the idea an Other Europe. , ,

Download or read book Landscapes of Communism written by Owen Hatherley and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When communism took power in Eastern Europe it remade cities in its own image, transforming everyday life and creating sweeping boulevards and vast, epic housing estates in an emphatic declaration of a noncapitalist idea. The regimes that built them are now dead and long gone, but from Warsaw to Berlin, Moscow to postrevolutionary Kiev, the buildings remain, often populated by people whose lives were scattered by the collapse of communism. Landscapes of Communism is a journey of historical discovery, plunging us into the lost world of socialist architecture. Owen Hatherley, a brilliant, witty, young urban critic shows how power was wielded in these societies by tracing the sharp, sudden zigzags of official communist architectural style: the superstitious despotic rococo of high Stalinism, with its jingoistic memorials, palaces, and secret policemen’s castles; East Germany’s obsession with prefabricated concrete panels; and the metro systems of Moscow and Prague, a spectacular vindication of public space that went further than any avant-garde ever dared. Throughout his journeys across the former Soviet empire, Hatherley asks what, if anything, can be reclaimed from the ruins of Communism—what residue can inform our contemporary ideas of urban life?

Download or read book Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literature and Culture written by Vedrana Veličković and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eastern Europeans in Contemporary Literature and Culture: Imagining New Europe provides a comprehensive study of the way in which contemporary writers, filmmakers, and the media have represented the recent phenomenon of Eastern European migration to the UK and Western Europe following the enlargement of the EU in the 21st century, the social and political changes after the fall of communism, and the Brexit vote. Exploring the recurring figures of Eastern Europeans as a new reservoir of cheap labour, the author engages with a wide range of both mainstream and neglected authors, films, and programmes, including Rose Tremain, John Lanchester, Marina Lewycka, Polly Courtney, Dubravka Ugrešić, Kapka Kassabova, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Mike Phillips, It’s a Free World, Gypo, Britain’s Hardest Workers, The Poles are Coming, and Czech Dream. Analyzing the treatment of Eastern Europeans as builders, fruit pickers, nannies, and victims of sex trafficking, and ways of resisting the stereotypes, this is an important intervention into debates about Europe, migration, and postcommunist transition to capitalism, as represented in multiple contemporary cultural texts.

Download or read book No Logo written by Naomi Klein and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-01-15 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands." Billy Bragg from the bookjacket.

Download or read book Depeche Mode written by Dennis Burmeister and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Captivating images of band members on stage, with fans, and in official photos, and detailed images of album covers, disc labels, cassette boxes, and all sorts of memorabilia frame approachable descriptions of specific events and the surrounding history. A complete tour schedule including all of the earliest dates and the dates of 18 official tours is included, as is a bibliography of over 60 album reviews in a wide variety of magazines. All-in-all, this is a visually stunning and worthwhile read. It is both entrancing and heartfelt while at the same time informational, genuine and candid, and the reverence felt for the band by the author is contagious." --Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal "Depeche Mode fans know that Monument is a song on its seminal 1982 album A Broken Frame. It's a fitting title for this encyclopedic yet intimate photo book that covers the band's career, with a special section devoted to fan culture." --Los Angeles Times, Holiday Gift Guide "Featuring more than one thousand objects from Burmeister's archive, Monument is a detailed chronology of the band who--after 100 million album sales--still show no sign of stopping." --Dazed "A bonanza for the serious Depeche Mode lover." --The Current (Minnesota Public Radio) "The massive coffee table book is graphically appealing and well designed, as befits a tribute to a group who were almost as visual at their inception as they were musical." --Shepherd Express "Even if you think you know everything there is to know about Depeche Mode...there is surely something new to learn here." --Philadelphia Gay News "Essential...Monument is everything it aspires to be, an impressive achievement and a fine gift for the Depeche Mode fan in your life." --PopMatters "This book-long love letter from some of the Depeche Mode's diehard fans...This is a meticulous, obsessive compilation of the band's oeuvre and is a must for any DM fan." --Style Zeitgeist, 2017 Gift Guide Depeche Mode: Monument illustrates the amazing synth-pop success story that began in 1981 and is still going strong after 100 million album sales. This book contains information on all of the band's releases from 1981 to 2017, over a thousand images, including never-before-seen photos, concert posters, and album artwork, a special look at fan culture, interviews with stage managers, friends, producers, tour companions, radio hosts, and fans and much more. Along with an unprecedented collection of artifacts presented together for the first time, this coffee table book offers extensive information, background facts, and anecdotes that will cater to both newcomers and die-hard Depeche Mode fans alike." --Delaware County Daily Times, Holiday Gift Guide Depeche Mode: Monument illustrates the amazing success story that began in 1981 and is still going strong after 100 million album sales. This book contains: information on all of the band's releases from 1981 to 2017; over a thousand images, including never-before-seen photos, concert posters, and album artwork; a special look at fan culture; interviews with stage managers, friends, producers, tour companions, radio hosts, and fans; and so much more. The affection that Depeche Mode command year after year from their ever-growing fan base is incredible. No other band possesses such a vital, self-organized fan culture. Along with an unprecedented collection of artifacts presented together for the first time, this volume offers extensive information, background facts, and anecdotes that will cater to both newcomers and die-hard Depeche Mode fans alike.

Download or read book Zeitgeist Nostalgia written by Alessandro Gandini and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-27 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'From Trump's backward-looking promise to "make America great again" to the hipster's fondness for a pre-industrial age of craft, nostalgia saturates our world. Gandini's book is a remarkable and insightful guide to this phenomenon, laying out the deep roots of its origins and setting out the contours of its limits.' Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work We live an age of nostalgia, incarnated by populist fantasies of “taking back control” and making nations “great again". In the long aftermath of the 2007-08 economic crisis, nostalgia has been established as the cultural zeitgeist of Western society. Populist fantasies of nostalgia represent a cry for help against the demise of the societal model of the postwar era, based on stable employment and mass consumption. The promise of an impossible return to the 'good life' of the 20th century, Gandini contends, particularly appeals to the older generations, who are incapable of making sense of the evolution of Western societies after decades of globalization and neoliberal policies. The younger generations, in the meantime, are instead trying to build a new 'good life' based on another form of return, this time to old practices of craft production and consumption.

Download or read book Against the Web written by Michael Brooks and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-24 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A brilliant critique of the Right with very sharp insight on some of the shortcomings of the Left, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to understand how dishonest actors spread their propaganda." Ana Kasparian, Host and Executive Producer of The Young Turks Michael Brooks takes on the new "Intellectual Dark Web." As the host of The Michael Brooks Show and co-host of the Majority Report, Brooks was a progressive fighter whose work brought people together from around the world. In this, his first book, he lets his understanding of the digital media environment direct his analysis of the "conservative rebels" who had taken YouTube by storm in 2018. Brooks provides a theoretically rigorous but accessible critique of the most prominent "renegades" including Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Brett Weinstein while also examining the social, political and media environment that such rebels thrive in.