While Banjo opens with a clutch of fine lyrics elegies & set-pieces at the heart of Samantha Wynne-Rhydderchs new book is a remarkable tale of darkness & light music & silence. Celebrating the centenary of Captain Scotts arrival at the South Pole in 1912 Banjo gives us new psychological insight into the lives of the early Antarctic pioneers as well as an extraordinary account of the role played by music in surviving the long Antarctic winters. Banjo is Wynne-Rhydderchs most accomplished collection to date & further evidence of a writer of great imaginative versatility. Everything is close to the nerve everything under cool emotional pressure. The cuts blossom into freshness & colour. & delight the delight borne out of precision of sound & an exquisite command of register George Szirtes Lines full of beauty sometimes gorgeous sometimes stark.. .implicating us in the essential human situations life death & survival she explores Philip Gross ...

A complete guide to the world of the five-string banjo written for both beginners & more experienced players. Packed with over 120 how-to photos & 130 musical examples. 94 track CD included
- hear & play along with every exercise & song. The only book to offer instruction in clawhammer bluegrass melodic single-string minstrel & classic styles. From Earl Scruggs' driving bluegrass picking to the genre-busting jazz fusion of Bela Fleck & the multi-million selling movie soundtrack O Brother Where Are Thou? the five-string banjo can be heard just about everywhere in American music these days. Banjo For Dummies is the most complete guide to the five-string banjo ever written. It covers everything you need to get into the banjo: including how to choose tune & care for your instrument developing a good playing posture fretting your first chords & getting comfortable with the left & right hand picking patterns used for clawhammer & bluegrass playing techniques. You'll then add the left hand spicing up your playing with slides hammer-ons pull-offs & chokes for an authentic five-string banjo sound. From there you'll move on the play 19th century minstrel style early 20th century classic style as well as try your hand at more advanced examples of bluegrass style. An in-depth chapter on bluegrass music explores Scruggs licks & techniques as well as melodic & single-string styles with song examples. Also included is a banjo buyer's guide a section on music theory as applied to bluegrass & old-time music an accessories guide (advice on cases picks straps metronomes computer aids & much more) information on how to find a good teacher banjo camp or festival chord charts bios of twelve influential players practice tips & much much more! Banjo For Dummies is accessible & fun to read & it's easy to locate just what you're interested in playing. Included are 20 songs including several new compositions written by the author just for this book including Reno Rag (single-string style) Winston's Jig" (Irish three-finger) & " Everyday Breakdown" (Scruggs style). All musical examples are played slowly on the accompanying CD many with guitar & mandolin accompaniment. Bill Evans is one of the world's most celebrated banjo players & teachers. He has taught thousands of people to play the five-string banjo in private lessons & group workshops literally all over the world. In addition to leading the Bill Evans String Summit Bill has performed with Dry Branch Fire Squad David Grisman Peter Rowan Tony Trischka & many others & he hosts his own acclaimed banjo camp the Nash Camp Fall Banjo Retreat in the Nashville area. As an American music historian he has taught at San Francisco State University the University Virginia & Duke University. He has written a popular instructional column for Banjo Newsletter magazine for the last fifteen years & hosts three popular instructional DVDs for Acu Tab Publications. To learn more about Bill visit his homepage at www.nativeandfine.com. Note: CD-ROM/DVD & other supplementary materials are not included as part of e Book file."
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The global financial system is in crisis bankers are in disrepute & Britain is on the brink of a double-dip recession. Now one man fed up with never-ending tales of greed & corruption sets out to prove that there is a different way of doing things
- by opening his own bank to help inject much-needed life into local businesses. Dave Fishwick is a self-made straight-talking man from Burnley who hates the banks. Published to tie in with a Channel 4" series of the same name this is the story of his attempt to set up a simple no-nonsense bank that actually cares about its customers. Dave plans to put hundreds of thousands of pounds of his own money into the enterprise; he will offer his customers a far better rate of interest than they get on the high street; he will lend to struggling local businesses that the banks don't want to know about; & he aims to bring the Bank of Dave into profit within 180 days. If he succeeds he'll give whatever he makes to charity. If he fails he'll make a terrible loss & ruin his hard-earned reputation as a successful businessman. Can one man really take on the banking giants & make a real difference to local businesses & his community? Dave Fishwick certainly hopes so."
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Tim Ekaterins merchant bank like all banks invests only in sure things. Now he is about to involve it in a 5 million stallion. Top breeders reckon its the safest bet in racing but racing is riddled with dubious dealmakers
- people to whom no bet is safe until its paid in blood.
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Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial cultural social & political life of Edwardian London. Head of the syndicate which financed the construction of the deep 'tube lines' & ' King of the Underground' he was also a connoisseur & active patron of the arts who rescued the ' Proms' from collapse enhanced the nation's musical & artistic life at his own expense & directed the funding of Captain Scott's Antarctic expeditions. Speyer & his wife the concert violinist Leonora Speyer lived in fabulously magnificent style. Early in the early summer of 1914 they stood at the peak of their success & celebrity in London society. Within weeks on the outbreak of war they became pariahs objects of suspicion & aversion. Despite having been a naturalised British citizen for over 20 years & an ubiquitous public benefactor Speyer found himself ostracised by society & mercilessly harried by the Northcliffe press. Under the Aliens Act of 1918 Speyer was summoned in 1921 before a judicial enquiry which found him guilty of disloyalty & disaffection & of communicating & trading with the enemy. He was stripped of his citizenship & membership of the Privy Council. Pilloried by The Times as a traitor Speyer vehemently denied the charges but he never returned to England thereafter & never forgot his ordeal. ...

What is wrong with today's banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim however that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending & economic growth. The Bankers' New Clothes" examines this claim & the narratives used by bankers politicians & regulators to rationalize the lack of reform exposing them as invalid. Admati & Hellwig argue we can have a safer & healthier banking system without sacrificing any of the benefits of the system & at essentially no cost to society. They show that banks are as fragile as they are not because they must be but because they want to be
- & they get away with it. Whereas this situation benefits bankers it distorts the economy & exposes the public to unnecessary risks. Weak regulation & ineffective enforcement allowed the buildup of risks that ushered in the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Much can be done to create a better system & prevent crises. Yet the lessons from the crisis have not been learned. Admati & Hellwig seek to engage the broader public in the debate by cutting through the jargon of banking clearing the fog of confusion & presenting the issues in simple & accessible terms. " The Bankers' New Clothes" calls for ambitious reform & outlines specific & highly beneficial steps that can be taken immediately."
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On the south bank of the Thames & demarcated by Blackfriars & Tower Bridges lies the district known as Bankside the Borough & Southwark. Its origin was in a Roman settlement nestling around the southern end of London Bridge until the eighteenth century the only bridge across the Thames in London. Being separated only by the Thames from the City of London & outside the Citys jurisdiction it developed as a place for bawdy & disreputable entertainment & leisure
- including the Globe Theatre made famous by performing William Shakespeares plays. It was an area also sought out for its stews which were some of Londons most notorious brothels where every taste could be catered for. Borough High Street contained proportionately more inns & taverns than anywhere else in Britain
- & some were immortalised by Chaucer & Dickens. The George alone survives to give some idea of what these ancient hostelries were like. From a time when London was a collection of discrete districts & villages here is the long history of Bankside the metropoliss disreputable & licentious yet vibrant cosmopolitan underbelly.

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For someone who shuns the limelight so completely that he conceals his name never shows his face & gives interviews only by email Banksy is remarkably famous. From his beginnings as a Bristol graffiti artist his artwork is now sold at auction for six-figure sums & hangs on celebrities walls. The appearance of a new Banksy is national news his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was Oscar-nominated & people queue for hours to see his latest exhibition. Now more National Treasure than edgy outsider who is Banksy & how did he become what he is today? In the first attempt to tell the full story of Banksys life & career Will Ellsworth-Jones pieces together a picture of his world & unpicks its contradictions. Whether art or vandalism anti-establishment or sell-out Banksy & his work have become a cultural phenomenon & the question Who is Banksy? is as much about his career as it is the man behind the wall. Britains unlikeliest national treasure Independent A fascinating portrait that elicits admiration for a man who despite his increasingly unconvincing efforts to retain some shred of his vandal status has had an undeniable impact on art The Times ...

For someone who shuns the limelight so completely that he conceals his name never shows his face & gives interviews only by email Banksy is remarkably famous. From his beginnings as a Bristol graffiti artist his artwork is now sold at auction for six-figure sums & hangs on celebrities' walls. The appearance of a new Banksy is national news his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was Oscar-nominated & people queue for hours to see his latest exhibition. Now more National Treasure than edgy outsider who is Banksy & how did he become what he is today? In the first attempt to tell the full story of Banksy's life & career Will Ellsworth-Jones pieces together a picture of his world & unpicks its contradictions. Whether art or vandalism anti-establishment or sell-out Banksy & his work have become a cultural phenomenon & the question ' Who is Banksy?' is as much about his career as it is 'the man behind the wall'. ' Britain's unlikeliest national treasure' Independent 'A fascinating portrait that elicits admiration for a man who despite his increasingly unconvincing efforts to retain some shred of his vandal status has had an undeniable impact on art' The Times ...

The single best collection of photographs of Banksys street work. Period. You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat concentrates on this singular artists iconic imagery spanning the late 90s up until the end of 2011. The locations are from around the world (predominantly the UK US & Europe) & many images have never been seen before. When Banksy started out painting the political landscape was bleak. Fortunately now its ten times worse. As Banksys cheerfully aggressive political work becomes ever more relevant this comprehensive tome sets about presenting his art in the context of the era he was responding to. ...