An insightful study of seven great pop musicians who expanded the boundaries of musical creativity in their own different ways during the peaks of their careers in the second half of the 20th Century. The musicians discussed in this work are Yoko Ono, Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Sun Ra, James Brown, and Sigmund Snopek III. The author Bob Mielke teaches American Literature and Culture at Truman State University.

Adventures in Avant-Pop

Arts & Photography

Mielke, Bob

Music

Naciketas Press

This is a collection of Alaska Native folklore and mythology. All the various regions and tribal groups are represented in this collection. The collector is John Smelcer who is a writer, poet, and folklorist and who is himself a member of an Alaska Native tribe. Several of the stories are accompanied by illustrations by Larry Vienneau. This work was originally published in Alaska in 1992. This is the second, revised and expanded edition.

The Raven and the Totem: Alaska Native Myths and Legends

Politics & Social Sciences

Smelcer, John

Social Sciences

Photographer James Crnkovich and his collaborator Robert Del Tredici present a series of stunning images documenting America's (and indeed the rest of the world's) dangerous and senseless love affair with the atomic bomb. Their images and comments seek to awaken us from our apathetic slumbers and to remind us of the danger that surrounds us and that threatens to bring human life, and perhaps all life, to a premature end on this planet. This is a must read for anyone who has become complacent about humankind's troubled history with this hideous power.

James Crnkovich's Atomic America

Del Tredici, Robert

Crnkovich, James

Photography & Video

Since Trungpa Rinpoche's death in 1987, many people have talked about the need for a book of photographs of his life. Now, finally, it's here: a book of 240 black-and-white photographs taken from 1972 to 1982 at Karme-Choling, Vermont, and Boulder, Colorado. Thank you, Bob! Of the many great photographic images of Trungpa Rinpoche, Del Tredici's black-and-whites stand out. Some are iconic shots that we all know and love. Others have rarely been seen. TRUNGPA PHOTOGRAPHS is a fulsome collation of Del Tredici's work, a feast for the eyes, for Trungpa's students, and for the world at large. -- The Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa website.

Trungpa Photographs

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

Since Trungpa Rinpoche's death in 1987, many people have talked about the need for a book of photographs of his life. Now, finally, it's here: a book of 240 black-and-white photographs taken from 1972 to 1982 at Karme-Choling, Vermont, and Boulder, Colorado. Thank you, Bob! Of the many great photographic images of Trungpa Rinpoche, Del Tredici's black-and-whites stand out. Some are iconic shots that we all know and love. Others have rarely been seen. TRUNGPA PHOTOGRAPHS is a fulsome collation of Del Tredici's work, a feast for the eyes, for Trungpa's students, and for the world at large. -- The Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa website.

This is a collection of stories from the Ahtna Indians of Alaska, collected and retold by tribe member John Smelcer.  Numerous illustrations by Larry Vienneau accompany the stories and numerous pictures of the Ahtna Indians and the storytellers are also included.  The book's Foreword is by Gary Snyder.  Each story is introduced by John Smelcer.  A comprehensive bibliography of works on Alaskan mythology and folklore is included at the end. 

Trickster: Myths from the Ahtna Indians of Alaska

Literature & Fiction

Mythology & Folk Tales

When Reconstruction ended in 1877, tens of thousands of African Americans migrated from the Old South to the Midwest. Within a decade, they had established dozens of towns with churches, halls, and musical groups--and dozens of weekly newspapers which recorded both musical performances and attitudes toward a complicated set of musical traditions. 
Black Music in the Black Press begins with Reconstruction and ends with the Great Depression. 
Ethnomusicologist Marc Rice has combed huge collections of newspapers, from which he culled scores of editorial reviews, dozens of advertisements, and hundreds of articles, organizing them in ways which make clear the conflicts and changes. By keeping the focus on the articles themselves, he has brought readers first-hand accounts of the tastes and values black newswriters like William Kelly or music experts like Martha Broadus-Anderson debated and promulgated a century ago. And more, he has given current readers what they need to see, the stars: McCabe &amp; Young, Walker and Williams, Scott Joplin, Sissieretta Jones, Ada Brown, Billy Kersands, W.H. Handy, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, Bill Bojangles, Irene and Vernon Castle, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong--and many many more.
From Witchita to Kansas City to Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit, black editors praised or excoriated minstrel shows, cakewalks, and "coon" songs. Later, they debated the value of "ragtime," blues, and jazz. Black performers won audiences with spectacular minstrel shows, created their own musical comedies and operas, modulated spirituals into sorrow songs, developed orchestras and dance clubs. Newsmen like George Knox of the Indianapolis Freeman, "an ex-slave with progressive ideas," balanced what they recognized as musical genius against the potentially demeaning effect of racist farce. Some saw "refined minstrelsy" in the McCabe &amp; Young Minstrels, for example or praised the "droll humor" of Walker and Williams' Mr. Lode of Koal as "clean, hearty, romping mirth." 
Yet, though black musicians proved their talents in a myriad ways, some reviewers seemed to value them insofar as they conformed to Eurocentric standards, reserving praise for "classically trained" black pianists and condemning popular comics for creating "noise" and "trash."
In eight chapters, organized chronologically and featuring articles from both large and smaller newspapers, Black Music in the Black Press presents these multiple perspectives, tracking the ways in which tastes changed over the half century between 1880 and 1935. As the decades passed, minstrel shows faded. Ragtime, blues, and "jass" blossomed. Venues grew, as well. The first World War brought further changes--including recognition that European audiences responded positively to black music. The Great Depression, and Prohibition further changed the ways in which black music was presented and evaluated. And finally, the impact of new technologies--of radio and studio recording--on black musicians was carefully assessed by writers in the black press. 
Black Music in the Black Press is a treasure trove.

Missouri Folklore Society Journal: Special Issue: Black Music in the Black Press: an Anthology of Essays from the Heartland (Missour Folklore Society Journal)

Rice, Marc

This is a collection of wise sayings and words of wisdom culled from the works of men and women from around the world and from various religious and wisdom traditions. The author, John Smelcer, has added to these timeless gems some of his own hard-earned pearls of wisdom and advice. The objective is to help others come to grips with their own trials and tribulations and find peace and happiness in their lives. The small size of the book allows readers to keep the book handy, in pocket or purse, for quick reference.

A New Day: Meditations to Inspire Compassion, Contemplation, Well-Being & the Spiritual Life

"The old, established community, with its folk code, its superstitions, its prejudices, imaginations, etc., in direct opposition to the new or modern world of reality and progress, can hardly survive. A man from this community sells his body to some fairly modern doctors, and from then on lives in fear and cowardice -- continually weighing his fate after death, including the idea of resurrection, against the moral obligation of his bargain -- and after his death becomes the community hero." --Ruth Ann Musick-summarizing theme of Hell's Holler Hell's Holler was the 1943 University of Iowa doctoral dissertation of Ruth Ann Musick, who became one of the country's premiere folklorists during the mid-twentieth century, founding the West Virginia Folklore Journal and managing that state's Folklore Center. Set in the rural Northeast Missouri area where she grew up, Hell's Holler recounts ordinary and extraordinary events in the lives of George and Mary Moore, their children, parents, and neighbors. It features the folklore, customs, songs, dances, and superstitions of the region, and especially attends to questions about medicine and health prompted by Musick's interest in the nearby College of Osteopathic Medicine. This publication includes dozens of sketches by the author's brother, Archie Musick, who went on to become a well known mid-century artist--a friend and protege of Thomas Hart Benton, and a colleague of Jackson Pollack. The novel is accompanied by two Prefaces and an Afterword. The first preface, by Missouri Folklore Society's Adam Davis, deals mainly with historical contexts, folkloric contents, and the training in folklore collecting which helped Musick create the characters and world of Hell's Holler. The second, by artist Pat Musick--niece of the author and daughter of the artist--foregrounds the extraordinarily talented family which produced Ruth Ann and Archie. Pat Musick relies on a trove of letters and journals, drafts and synopses, to understand the attitudes, anxieties, and exaggerations which inhabit Hell's Holler, and in some cases, the real-life models for characters. The Afterword is by Judy Prozzillo Byers, student, folklorist, friend, and biographer of the author. As director of the West Virginia Folklore Center at the university where Musick taught for thirty years, Byers accents the ways in which the novel reveals its author's values. She reads Hell's Holler as a classic example of how Musick fought for underdogs--in this case, uneducated farmers whose superstitions nourished and grounded them as firmly as their music and church services did.

Missouri Folklore Society Journal Special Issue: Hell's Holler: A Novel Based on the Folklore of the Missouri Chariton Hill Country

Musick, Professor Emeritus Ruth Ann

Literary

Thomas Merton has been called "An American Prophet" and "The Conscience of America." Throughout the tumultuous 1960s, Merton was a vocal advocate for the civil rights and peace movements. Merton was the first major religious figure in America to come out against the Vietnam War. He convinced Martin Luther King, Jr. to add his voice to the cause. In the fall of 1968, Merton left the safety of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky to go on what would be known as his Asian Journey. He could not have known at the time that he would never leave 
Southeast Asia alive.\nOr did he?\nJudiciously researched and revealed by the man who discovered Merton's worldly possessions-removed from the abbey on orders of the abbot after Merton's death and safeguarded by a fellow monk and a nun who had been Merton's friend and acolyte. Half a century since her friend and teacher died, the nun revealed Merton's secret. Here is her incredible story about Merton's daring plan that might have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Enacting Love

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Naciketas Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Naciketas Press

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Naciketas Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Adventures in Avant-Pop

The Raven and the Totem: Alaska Native Myths and Legends

James Crnkovich's Atomic America

Trungpa Photographs

Trungpa Photographs

Trickster: Myths from the Ahtna Indians of Alaska

Missouri Folklore Society Journal: Special Issue: Black Music in the Black Press: an Anthology of Essays from the Heartland (Missour Folklore Society Journal)

A New Day: Meditations to Inspire Compassion, Contemplation, Well-Being & the Spiritual Life

Missouri Folklore Society Journal Special Issue: Hell's Holler: A Novel Based on the Folklore of the Missouri Chariton Hill Country

Enacting Love