Archaeology, Theater, History: How to Avoid Archaeological Disasters, Repatriation and Reburial, and Chinese Theater During the Revolution

Avoiding Archaeological Disasters: A Risk Management Approach (BOOK): by Darby C. Stapp and Julia G. Longenecker with contributions by Roderick Sprague

You think it can’t happen to you, but it can. One day, months into your construction project, your front end load operator runs into bones and wooden slats. Your county coroner says it is not a crime scene, and refers you to the local archaeology department. The archaeologist tells you that it is a very important discovery. Work stops. Archaeological discoveries happen all the time in the course of projects. Most are manageable, some are less so, and some are mismanaged, wasting time and money. If you are not prepared, the consequences can be disastrous. This book is for project engineers, project managers, construction managers, the staff of affected government agencies, and archaeological consultants. In its pages you receive enough information, enough archaeological perspective, to intelligently work with the various parties involved in your project and avoid an archaeological disaster.

Reburying the Past: The Effects of Repatriation and Reburial on Scientific Inquiry (BOOK): by Elizabeth Weiss

In this book, the author puts forth what one can learn from the study of human remains, how human remains have been obtained, the ethical dilemmas surrounding working with human remains, and the legal and political complexities of repatriation and reburial. The author intends to introduce readers to a fascinating realm of science rarely covered in the media, as opposed to the more popular fields of anthropology (e.g. forensics, archaeology, paleoanthropology).

Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform (BOOK): by Ying Ruocheng and Claire Conceison

"A gem, not to be missed by any student of Chinese culture or politics. . . . The passages on prison are among the most detailed and vivid we have in the literature. And throughout the volume there is a refreshing bluntness. . . . Voices Carry has been a major project for Conceison, a labor of love, persistence, and understanding. She has gone to great lengths to offer context in endnotes for readers who may need them. It is hard to think of any US-PRC literary collaboration more complex and valuable than this one, or to think of a personal cultural bridge between the PRC and the West as active and influential as Ying . . . it is quite clear Ying had his faults, but I found the book totally engaging." --Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

"A must-read for anyone interested in the performing arts. Furthermore, [celebrated Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng's] life touched on fascinating aspects of Chinese history and society seldom discussed. What happened to the Manchus after the 1911 revolution? What was it like being a Catholic in those years? How did (and perhaps does) the government collect information on foreigners? How does it treat its political prisoners? How are personnel decisions made? This book is one man's attempt to make sense of cataclysmic events." --China Review International

Films: Casino Royale, James Bond, Daniel Craig

Recently promoted to 00 status, James Bond takes over his first mission in which he faces a mysterious private banker to world terrorism and poker player, Le Chiffre. Along with a beautiful Treasury agent and the MI6 man in Montenegro, Bond takes part in a high stakes poker game set up by Le Chiffre in order to recover a huge sum of his clients' money he lost in a failed plot that the British spy took down. 007 will not only discover the threatening organization behind his enemy, but the worst of all truths: to not trust on anyone.

Films: Drama with Tom Hanks, in depth Documentaries, and Action with Jet Li

The Green Mile (DVD): Tom Hanks, The story about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of black man accused of child murder & rape who has the power of faith healing. [1999]

Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture (DVD): Despite the achievements of the women's movement over the past four decades, misogyny remains a persistent force in American culture. In this important documentary, Thomas Keith, professor of philosophy at California State University-Long Beach, looks specifically at misogyny and sexism in mainstream American media, exploring how negative definitions of femininity and hateful attitudes toward women get constructed and perpetuated at the very heart of our popular culture.

Hero (DVD): Jet Li, A fearless warrior rises up to defy an empire and unite a nation. With supernatural skill, and no fear, the soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that has massacred his people. To achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat. The story of the First Emperor of China, who is on the brink of winning a war-torn land during the dawn of the Qin dynasty over 2,000 years ago. Three opponents are determined to kill the King, but the warrior stands in their way. [2002]

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (DVD): This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Art: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire, Delirious New Orleans, & Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings

Creating the Cult of St. Joseph: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire (BOOK): by Charlene Villasenor Black

Creating the Cult of Saint Joseph is a refreshing and stimulating contribution to the fields of Spanish and Latin American art history and cultural studies. Villaseñor's combination of colonial and gender theories with art-historical analysis is sure to yield interesting results in future studies of religious art in the Spanish Empire. Her bibliography is an impressive collection of archival material, primary religious texts, and wide-ranging secondary sources; it promises to become an indispensable research tool for students of the period.—Marta Bustillo, CAA Reviews

Among this book's strengths are its engaging prose, impressive corpus of visual images, and emphasis on the connection between St. Joseph's cult and societal and religious ideals in the early modern Hispanic world. . . . This book offers fresh insight into the dissemination and popularity of the cult of St. Joseph in early modern Spain and colonial Mexico.—Joseph F. Chorpenning, Sixteenth Century Journal

In detail and with an abundance of sources, both graphic and literary, this book follows the major stages of growth in Josephine piety. . . . This book shows the need to study religious art not only on its own aesthetic terms but also as a key participant in and articulator of great (often too great) social, cultural, and religious themes in a given time and place.—Reverend Alvaro Silva, Religion and the Arts

Delirious New Orleans: Manifesto for an Extraordinary American City (BOOK): by Stephen Verderber

"Delirious New Orleans makes the argument that this collection of vernacular architecture serves as cultural touchstones, and that its presence is a necessary component to this great American city. " Kevin Alter, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin "As well as providing a superb record of New Orleans's endangered urban fabric, Delirious New Orleans is also a meditation on "placemaking", something he feels modern architects and town planners have ignored...Verderber's evocative, even loving, descriptions of these structures and artefacts and his striking images create a memorable celebration of the built environment of New Orleans and reflect a deep understanding of place. He hopes his study is not a eulogy but a blueprint for a soon-to-be-reborn city...Whether it continues to fulfil this role in the future will depend on whether the authorities listen to the communities they are supposed to represent and to "preservation warriors" such as Verderber; and whether placemaking triumphs over placelessness."—P.D. Smith, Times Literary Supplement

Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300-1550 (BOOK): by Lisa Monnas

Covering a period that witnessed the flowering of the Renaissance and the major expansion of the Italian silk industry, this volume examines the Italian silk fabrics depicted in paintings from Italy, England and the Netherlands over the course of 250 years. Lisa Monnas offers a masterly evaluation of these paintings as source material for classifying surviving textiles, giving particular attention to the identification of historic textile types and their weave structure.

Monnas examines a wide range of subjects, including silk as a marker of social status, the material possessions of artists and their ownership of textiles as props, the involvement of painters in silk design, and the repetition and transfer of patterns. She considers the evidence of paintings not only for the veracity with which the silks are depicted but also for their value as a historic source concerning the use of fabrics.