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Beautiful Fighting Girl

by J. Keith Vincent Dawn Lawson Sait Tamaki Hiroki Azuma

From Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the worlds of Japanese anime and manga teem with prepubescent girls toting deadly weapons. Sometimes overtly sexual, always intensely cute, the beautiful fighting girl has been both hailed as a feminist icon and condemned as a symptom of the objectification of young women in Japanese society. In Beautiful Fighting Girl, Saitō Tamaki offers a far more sophisticated and convincing interpretation of this alluring and capable figure. For Saitō, the beautiful fighting girl is a complex sexual fantasy that paradoxically lends reality to the fictional spaces she inhabits. As an object of desire for male otaku (obsessive fans of anime and manga), she saturates these worlds with meaning even as her fictional status demands her ceaseless proliferation and reproduction. Rejecting simplistic moralizing, Saitō understands the otaku's ability to eroticize and even fall in love with the beautiful fighting girl not as a sign of immaturity or maladaptation but as a result of a heightened sensitivity to the multiple layers of mediation and fictional context that constitute life in our hypermediated world--a logical outcome of the media they consume. Featuring extensive interviews with Japanese and American otaku, a comprehensive genealogy of the beautiful fighting girl, and an analysis of the American outsider artist Henry Darger, whose baroque imagination Saitō sees as an important antecedent of otaku culture, Beautiful Fighting Girl was hugely influential when first published in Japan, and it remains a key text in the study of manga, anime, and otaku culture. Now available in English for the first time, this book will spark new debates about the role played by desire in the production and consumption of popular culture.

A Beautiful Game: The World's Greatest Players and How Soccer Changed Their Lives

by Tom Watt

Foreword by Arsene Wenger, Introduction by David BeckhamSoccer writer and bestselling author of My Side, Tom Watt, talked to the world's top soccer players about growing up and falling in love with the game: Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Gilberto Silva; England's David James and Scotland's Craig Gordon; Italy's Fabio Cannavaro, Spain's Iker Casillas, and France's Franck Ribéry; South Africa's Benni McCarthy and Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu; USA's Landon Donovan and Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura; and the world's most famous player, David Beckham.A Beautiful Game tells their stories, in the players' own words—stories of boys who would grow up to be heroes for a new generation of young players and fans. They look back to their childhoods: to their family homes, to their schoolrooms, to the friends they grew up with, and to the places where they first played the game that has made them stars. Combining stunning photographs with the world's greatest players sharing their personal stories of how soccer transformed their lives, this inspiring book is an intoxicating celebration of the "beautiful game."

The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion

by Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu

Since the 1990s, young Asian Americans including Doo-Ri Chung, Derek Lam, Thakoon Panichgul, Alexander Wang, and Jason Wu have emerged as leading fashion designers. They have won prestigious awards, been chosen to head major clothing labels, and had their designs featured in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and other fashion magazines. At the same time that these designers were rising to prominence, the fashion world was embracing Asian chic. During the 1990s, "Asian" shapes, fabrics, iconography, and colors filled couture runways and mass-market clothing racks. In The Beautiful Generation, Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu explores the role of Asian American designers in New York's fashion industry, paying particular attention to how they relate to the garment workers who produce their goods and to Asianness as a fashionable commodity. She draws on conversations with design students, fashion curators, and fashion publicists; interviews with nearly thirty Asian American designers who have their own labels; and time spent with those designers in their shops and studios, on their factory visits, and at their fashion shows. The Beautiful Generation links the rise of Asian American designers to historical patterns of immigration, racial formation, and globalized labor, and to familial and family-like connections between designers and garment workers.

Beautiful Landscape Quilts: Simple Steps to Successful Fabric Collage—50+ Tips for Professional Results

by Joyce R. Becker

Anyone can quilt stunning scenery—from brand new art quilters to veteran artists looking to learn new tricks and techniques! Explore methods for transferring photographs to fabric, utilizing panels, free-motion quilting, and binding or framing your wall quilts like a pro. The book includes a gallery of landscape quilts and 50 tips for success from Joyce Becker and other featured designers—from avoiding pitfalls to professional secrets. How-to photos and complete instructions will guide you along the way, along with a half-dozen projects to get you started.

Beautiful LEGO

by Mike Doyle

Mix hundreds of thousands of LEGO bricks with dozens of artists, and what do you get? Beautiful LEGO, a compendium of LEGO artwork that showcases a stunning array of pieces ranging from incredibly lifelike replicas of everyday objects and famous monuments to imaginative renderings of spaceships, mansions, and mythical creatures.You’ll also meet the minds behind the art. Interviews with the artists take you inside the creative process that turns simple, plastic bricks into remarkable LEGO masterpieces.

Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark

by Mike Doyle

Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark showcases dark LEGO master­pieces from artists around the world. From realistic sculptures of creepy crawlers to impressionist works of shadowy nightmares, this collection will leave you marveling at every turn. But dark has its lighter side, too—with sculptures of dark chocolate as well as plenty of black humor on display.Gothic fantasies and sci-fi horrors come to life in scenes created entirely with the simple LEGO brick. Step into a world of pure imagination in Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark.

Beautiful LEGO 3: Wild!

by Mike Doyle

Scenes from nature spring to life in Mike Doyle's latest curated collection of LEGO art, Beautiful LEGO: Wild! From botanical marvels to adorable critters—such as a sea otter family made from 3,500 LEGO pieces—every page is sure to delight the artist and naturalist in all of us.Interviews with LEGO masters from around the world give you a glimpse into the inspiration behind these incredible works of art. Discover amazing landscapes, insects, mythical creatures, and more, all within the enchanting pages of Beautiful LEGO: Wild!

Beautiful Light: Religious Meaning in Film

by Roy M. Anker

Though "religious" films usually don't get much respect in Hollywood, religion still regularly finds its way into the movies. In Beautiful Light Roy Anker seeks out the often unnoticed connections between film and religion and shows how even films that aren't overtly religious or Christian in their content can be filled with deep religious insights and spiritual meaning. Closely examining nine critically acclaimed films, including Magnolia, The Apostle, American Gigolo, and M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake, Anker analyzes the ways in which these movies explore what it means to be human—and what it means, as human beings, to wrestle with a sometimes unwieldy divine presence. Addressing questions of doubt and belief, despair and elation, hatred and love, Anker's work sheds "beautiful light" on some of Hollywood's most profound and memorable films.

Beautiful Light: Religious Meaning in Film

by Roy M. Anker

Though "religious" films usually don't get much respect in Hollywood, religion still regularly finds its way into the movies. In Beautiful Light Roy Anker seeks out the often unnoticed connections between film and religion and shows how even films that aren't overtly religious or Christian in their content can be filled with deep religious insights and spiritual meaning. Closely examining nine critically acclaimed films, including Magnolia, The Apostle, American Gigolo, and M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake, Anker analyzes the ways in which these movies explore what it means to be human—and what it means, as human beings, to wrestle with a sometimes unwieldy divine presence. Addressing questions of doubt and belief, despair and elation, hatred and love, Anker's work sheds "beautiful light" on some of Hollywood's most profound and memorable films.

Beautiful Light: An Insider’s Guide to LED Lighting in Homes and Gardens

by Randall Whitehead Clifton Stanley Lemon

Beautiful Light by internationally acclaimed lighting designer Randall Whitehead and lighting industry expert and educator Clifton Stanley Lemon is a combination of idea book, design resource, and product guide. It explores the transition in residential lighting from incandescent light sources to LEDs, and how to apply LED lighting with great success. It begins with the fundamental characteristics of light, including color temperature, color rendering, and spectral power distribution, and how LEDs differ from older light sources. Combining innovative graphics with the enduring design principles of good lighting, the book explains how to design with light layers, light people, and balance daylight and electric light. Every room of the house, as well as exterior and garden spaces, is addressed in 33 case studies of residential lighting with LEDs, with a wide variety of lighting projects in different styles. Showcasing over 200 color photographs of dramatic interiors beautifully lit with LEDs, and clear, concise descriptions of design strategies and product specifications, Beautiful Light helps both professionals and non-professionals successfully navigate the new era of LEDs in residential lighting.

A Beautiful Mess Happy Handmade Home

by Elsie Larson Emma Chapman

Step inside the world of Elsie and Emma, the sisters behind the décor blog A Beautiful Mess. With tiny budgets and a crafty, can-do attitude, they overhauled each room in their first homes with DIY projects using family photos, vibrant fabrics, flea-market finds, and affordable furniture. Now, you can learn how to paint, craft, and decorate your way to a happy, bright space with distinct personality. In the same upbeat spirit and modern style found on their blog, you'll find fresh, all-new projects including: * An inspired geometric-pattern coffee table made of balsa wood * A hand-lettered statement wall featuring your favorite quote * A quick and easy electrical tape update for your refrigerator * A set of beautifully designed serving dishes And more! Packed with bonus styling tips from hanging the perfect gallery wall to making mismatched furniture work, Happy Handmade Home is design inspiration for personalizing your own space.

A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book: 95 Inspiring Ideas for Photographing Your Friends, Your World, and Yourself

by Elsie Larson Emma Chapman

Ready to show your photos some love? Whether it's of your sister's smile, your morning coffee, or your new puppy, photos are a way to connect on Facebook and Instagram, keep a visual diary of our lives, and create momentos for future generations. Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman, creators of the mega-popular DIY style blog A Beautiful Mess, are in love with photographing everyday life. Here, they share that love with 95 all-new tips and photo challenges that will inspire you to style and snap better photos and then transform them into simple yet stunning projects and gifts. You'll learn how to: * Take the most flattering self-portraits * Be your own stylist to turn dull, cluttered photos into pretty lifestyle photography * Capture adorable couple portraits * Turn everyday moments, hobbies, and rituals into amazing photos * Show off your favorite photos by turning them into handmade jewelry, home décor, and gifts Packed with Elsie and Emma's happy spirit and unique style, A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book will inspire you to capture your days, your friends, and your dreams in beautiful photos!

Beautiful Minecraft

by James Delaney

With a bit of imagination and a heavy dose of artistic talent, Minecraft blocks can be used to build almost anything. But as you’ll see, some artists are taking Minecraft building to a whole new level.Beautiful Minecraft is a compendium of stunning artwork built in Minecraft. Using millions of blocks and spending hundreds of hours, these artists have created floating steampunk cities, alien worlds, detailed classical sculptures, fantastical landscapes, architectural marvels, and more.The results are simply beautiful.

Beautiful Monsters: Imagining the Classic in Musical Media (California Studies in 20th-Century Music #10)

by Michael Long

Beautiful Monsters explores the ways in which "classical" music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture—in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. Beginning in the 1960s, Michael Long's entertaining and illuminating book surveys a complex cultural field and draws connections between "classical music" (as the phrase is understood in the United States) and selected "monster hits" of popular music. Addressing such wide-ranging subjects as surf music, Yiddish theater, Hollywood film scores, Freddie Mercury, Alfred Hitchcock, psychedelia, rap, disco, and video games, Long proposes a holistic musicology in which disparate musical elements might be brought together in dynamic and humane conversation. Beautiful Monsters brilliantly considers the ways in which critical commonplaces like nostalgia, sentiment, triviality, and excess might be applied with greater nuance to musical media and media reception. It takes into account twentieth-century media's capacity to suggest visual and acoustical depth and the redemptive possibilities that lie beyond the surface elements of filmic narrative or musical style, showing us what a truly global view of late twentieth-century music in its manifold cultural and social contexts might be like.

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston (University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses Series)

by University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses

Contributions by Megan Abbott, Michael Almereyda, Kris Belden-Adams, Maude Schuyler Clay, William Dunlap, W. Ralph Eubanks, William Ferris, Marti A. Funke, Lisa Howorth, Amanda Malloy, Richard McCabe, Emily Ballew Neff, Robert Saarnio, and Anne Wilkes TuckerThe Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston is an examination of the life and work of the artist widely considered to be the father of color photography. William Eggleston was born in 1939 and grew up in the Mississippi Delta town of Sumner. His innovative 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York helped establish color photography as an artistic medium and has inspired photographers and artists around the world.Edited by Ann J. Abadie, the catalog contains fifty-five Eggleston photographs, thirty-six that were featured in The Beautiful Mysterious exhibition at the University of Mississippi Museum from September 2016 to February 2017. Eggleston’s longtime friend William Ferris, a celebrated folklorist, donated all the photographs to the Museum. The photographs range from 1962 into the 1980s, representing each of Eggleston’s projects during that time. Some of the photographs are inscribed with Eggleston’s rare handwritten notes about location, people, dates, and projects. Eight of Eggleston’s early dye transfers are in the collection. Many of these works had not been on public display before this exhibition, including black-and-white images that are unique-copy single prints.This is a penetrating examination of the influence of the Mississippi Delta and the American South on Eggleston’s work and of Eggleston’s influence on photography and other creative fields.

The Beautiful Necessity: Essays on Architecture

by Joan Shelley Rubin Claude Bragdon A Joan Saab

A noted American architect of the early twentieth century discusses universal principles behind the harmonious forms and proportions of ancient and modern buildings. Seven essays by Claude Bragdon offer a master class in the architectural union of art, beauty, and science. His observations and analyses encompass a tremendous variety of buildings, from Gothic cathedrals to Giotto's Campanile to the Taj Mahal, and his examples extend far beyond architecture to the natural symmetry found in the feathers of a peacock's tail, snowflakes, plants, and the human face."Art in all its manifestations is an expression of the cosmic life," notes the author, "and its symbols constitute a language by means of which this life is published and represented. Art is at all times subject to the 'Beautiful Necessity' of proclaiming the 'world order'." Bragdon's theories are illuminated by his graceful black-and-white line drawings, which portray the essentials of line and proportion as expressed in many well-known buildings and paintings.

The Beautiful Ones

by Prince

The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. He was a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of “Uptown” to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of “Paisley Park.” But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, one of the greatest pop stars of any era. <P><P> The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. <P><P>The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain—the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey. <P><P>The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images. This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world. <P><P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>

Beautiful Portrait Painting in Oils: Keys to Mastering Diverse Skin Tones and More

by Chris Saper

How to paint oil portraits like the Old Masters Mona Lisa. Girl with a Pearl Earring. Madame X. The infinite variety and beauty of humankind--like the mysteries behind sparkling eyes, a sly smile or an averted gaze--has captivated artists since the beginning of time. This expanded edition of Chris Saper's best-selling guide, Classic Portrait Painting in Oils, reveals keys for mastering how to paint beautiful portraits in oil to create soulful works of art. Through easy-to-follow lessons and expert oil painting tips and techniques, you'll find secrets for working from life, using reference photos and more to create rich, realistic portraits imbued with timeless character.14 step-by-step demonstrations teach how to paint 7 diverse subjects of varying skin tones from life and from photographic referenceAdditional exercises reveal expert oil painting techniques for defining facial details, like eyes, mouths, wrinkles, facial hair and eyeglassesProfessional tips for working from life, including ideal session times, posing, seeing and mixing color and even how to work with childrenThe basics of using natural, artificial, creative and "Rembrandt" lighting to light your subject and convey a moodExpanded key concepts of "perfect practice," the importance of regularly painting subjects in real time and an insistence on excellent photographic reference material, including a checklist for how to take--and self-edit--your own quality photosNew material on how to approach and execute paid commissions, including step-by-step demonstrations for painting both corporate and family subjectsThrough Saper's universal techniques, painters of all skill levels will learn to render more realistic portraits of every subject they paint, with predictable and joyful results.

Beautiful Terrible Ruins

by Dora Apel

Once the manufacturing powerhouse of the nation, Detroit has become emblematic of failing cities everywhere--the paradigmatic city of ruins--and the epicenter of an explosive growth in images of urban decay. In Beautiful Terrible Ruins, art historian Dora Apel explores a wide array of these images, ranging from photography, advertising, and television, to documentaries, video games, and zombie and disaster films. Apel shows how Detroit has become pivotal to an expanding network of ruin imagery, imagery ultimately driven by a pervasive and growing cultural pessimism, a loss of faith in progress, and a deepening fear that worse times are coming. The images of Detroit's decay speak to the overarching anxieties of our era: increasing poverty, declining wages and social services, inadequate health care, unemployment, homelessness, and ecological disaster--in short, the failure of capitalism. Apel reveals how, through the aesthetic distancing of representation, the haunted beauty and fascination of ruin imagery, embodied by Detroit's abandoned downtown skyscrapers, empty urban spaces, decaying factories, and derelict neighborhoods help us to cope with our fears. But Apel warns that these images, while pleasurable, have little explanatory power, lulling us into seeing Detroit's deterioration as either inevitable or the city's own fault, and absolving the real agents of decline--corporate disinvestment and globalization. Beautiful Terrible Ruins helps us understand the ways that the pleasure and the horror of urban decay hold us in thrall.

Beautiful TV: The Art and Argument of Ally McBeal

by Greg M. Smith

During its five-year run from 1997 to 2002, the popular TV show Ally McBeal engaged viewers in debates over what it means to be a woman or a man in the modern workplace; how romance factors into the therapeutic understanding of relationships; what value eccentricity has and how much oddity society should tolerate; and what utility fantasy has in the pragmatic world. In addition to these social concerns, however, Ally McBeal stood out for being well-constructed, narratively complex, and stylistically rich--in short, beautiful TV. Starting from the premise that much of television today is "drop-dead gorgeous" and that TV should be studied for its formal qualities as well as its social impact, Greg M. Smith analyzes Ally McBeal in terms of its aesthetic principles and narrative construction. He explores how Ally's innovative use of music, special effects, fantasy sequences, voiceovers, and flashbacks structures a distinctive fictional universe, while it also opens up new possibilities for televisual expression. Smith also discusses the complex narrative strategies that Ally's creator David E. Kelley used to develop a long-running storyline and shows how these serial narrative practices can help us understand a wide range of prime-time TV serials. By taking seriously the art and argument of Ally McBeal, Beautiful TV conclusively demonstrates that aesthetic and narrative analysis is an indispensable key for unlocking the richness of contemporary television.

Beautiful Users: Designing for People

by Ellen Lupton

In the mid-twentieth century, Henry Dreyfuss--widely considered the father of industrial design--pioneered a user-centered approach to design that focuses on studying people's behaviors and attitudes as a key first step in developing successful products. In the intervening years, user-centered design has expanded to undertake the needs of differently abled users and global populations as well as the design of complex systems and services. Beautiful Users explores the changing relationship between designers and users and considers a range of design methodologies and practices, from user research to hacking, open source, and the maker culture.

Beautiful Visualization

by Noah Iliinsky Julie Steele

Visualization is the graphic presentation of data -- portrayals meant to reveal complex information at a glance. Think of the familiar map of the New York City subway system, or a diagram of the human brain. Successful visualizations are beautiful not only for their aesthetic design, but also for elegant layers of detail that efficiently generate insight and new understanding. This book examines the methods of two dozen visualization experts who approach their projects from a variety of perspectives -- as artists, designers, commentators, scientists, analysts, statisticians, and more. Together they demonstrate how visualization can help us make sense of the world. Explore the importance of storytelling with a simple visualization exercise Learn how color conveys information that our brains recognize before we're fully aware of it Discover how the books we buy and the people we associate with reveal clues to our deeper selves Recognize a method to the madness of air travel with a visualization of civilian air traffic Find out how researchers investigate unknown phenomena, from initial sketches to published papers Contributors include: Nick Bilton, Michael E. Driscoll, Jonathan Feinberg, Danyel Fisher, Jessica Hagy, Gregor Hochmuth, Todd Holloway, Noah Iliinsky, Eddie Jabbour, Valdean Klump, Aaron Koblin, Robert Kosara, Valdis Krebs, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin et al., Andrew Odewahn, Adam Perer, Anders Persson, Maximilian Schich, Matthias Shapiro, Julie Steele, Moritz Stefaner, Jer Thorp, Fernanda Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, and Michael Young.

The Beautiful Wedding

by Tracy Dorr

In this guidebook, acclaimed and award-winning wedding photojournalist Tracy Dorr shows professional and aspiring photographers how to investigate and chronicle every important nuance of the wedding day. From artfully documenting the emotionally-charged preparations and the soulful and serious ceremony to the buoyant bliss of the reception, readers are given an in-depth look at what it takes to capture the meaningful moments of the day to create images that tell the unique story of the bride and groom's day. Readers are given complete instruction on how to hone interpersonal skills to ensure that subjects will feel at ease, work through crowds and tune out distractions, position oneself to capture the key shots, and develop an eye for identifying those folks outside of the wedding party who mean the most to bride and groom. Additional chapters focus on the business side of professional photography, breaking down topics such as customer service, sales, and postproduction, to ensure a healthy and successful career.

The Beautiful Wedding

by Tracy Dorr

Acclaimed wedding photographer Tracy Dorr shows you how to capture the moments of genuine emotion and spontaneous interaction that make a wedding beautiful. Through careful observation of the events, relationships, and scenes, you'll learn how to be in the right place at the right time. Or, if the right moment doesn't present itself organically, how to set the stage for authentic interactions. You'll learn to shoot fast and shoot smart in challenging lighting conditions and ever-changing scenes for beautiful images that go beyond the expected. Finally, Dorr shows you how to present these images in client-pleasing products--and to transition your wedding-shooting skills into other subject areas for better overall photography of all your clients.eer.

Beautiful Wooden Projects for Outdoor Living

by John Marckworth

Create Your Own Outdoor Living SpaceBuild your own Garden of Eden and have the sanctuary you've always wanted! Be the master of your own domain and retreat from the pressures of the world.Make a peaceful walkway that leads you to an archway permitting entrance into your own personal private place.Build a small storage shed to protect your gardening tools and keep them within easy reach.Make a small fence that's a snap to layout and assemble.Create an outdoor cooking area that is second to none for convenience and comfort.You'll be taught by a master carpenter and learn how easy it is to create your very own wonderful outdoor world.

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Showing 5,751 through 5,775 of 55,101 results