The Blindfold Test

The Blindfold Test PDF Author: Barry Schechter
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 161219883X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
A raucous comedy about a paranoid loser who maybe wasn't paranoid enough... In the sixties, Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an antiwar rally. He wasn't all that interested--he just listened to a few speeches, and went home...and nothing was ever the same. In this wildly comic novel, Parker's brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Women never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck, and is the unwilling victim of just plain bizarre occurances: once, he comes home to find that the final page in every one of his books has been removed. Then Parker discovers that he's been the target of a government plot--like the FBI's real-life COINTELPRO--and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won't give up. This outrageously imaginative debut is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's explosive, out-of-nowhere farce A Confederacy of Dunces. Part thriller, part national tragedy, and all hysterical comedy, it is devilishly entertaining even as it forces Parker and readers to uncover the truth not only about their country, but about themselves.

The Blindfold Test

The Blindfold Test PDF Author: Barry Schechter
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
In the 1960s, Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an anti-war rally. He wasn't all that interested - just listened to a few speeches and went home, but nothing was ever the same again. In this wildly comic novel, Parker's brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Women never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck and is the unwitting victim of plain bizarre occurrences. Then Parker discovers that he's been the target of a government plot and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won't give up.

The Blindfold Test

The Blindfold Test PDF Author: Barry Schechter
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 161219883X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
A raucous comedy about a paranoid loser who maybe wasn't paranoid enough... In the sixties, Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an antiwar rally. He wasn't all that interested--he just listened to a few speeches, and went home...and nothing was ever the same. In this wildly comic novel, Parker's brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Women never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck, and is the unwilling victim of just plain bizarre occurances: once, he comes home to find that the final page in every one of his books has been removed. Then Parker discovers that he's been the target of a government plot--like the FBI's real-life COINTELPRO--and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won't give up. This outrageously imaginative debut is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's explosive, out-of-nowhere farce A Confederacy of Dunces. Part thriller, part national tragedy, and all hysterical comedy, it is devilishly entertaining even as it forces Parker and readers to uncover the truth not only about their country, but about themselves.

Mingus Speaks

Mingus Speaks PDF Author: Charles Mingus
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520275233
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
In-depth interviews, conducted several years before Mingus died, capture the composer's spirit and voice, revealing how he saw himself as composer and performer, how he viewed his peers and predecessors, how he created his extraordinary music, and how he looked at race. Augmented with interviews and commentary by ten close associates--including Mingus's wife Sue, Teo Macero, George Wein, and Sy Johnson.

Blindfold

Blindfold PDF Author: Theo Padnos
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982120843
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
An award-winning journalist’s extraordinary account of being kidnapped and tortured in Syria by al Qaeda for two years—a revelatory memoir about war, human nature, and endurance that’s “the best of the genre, profound, poetic, and sorrowful” (The Atlantic). In 2012, American journalist Theo Padnos, fluent in Arabic, Russian, German, and French, traveled to a Turkish border town to write and report on the Syrian civil war. One afternoon in October, while walking through an olive grove, he met three young Syrians—who turned out to be al Qaeda operatives—and they captured him and kept him prisoner for nearly two years. On his first day, in the first of many prisons, Padnos was given a blindfold—a grime-stained scrap of fabric—that was his only possession throughout his horrific ordeal. Now, Padnos recounts his time in captivity in Syria, where he was frequently tortured at the hands of the al Qaeda affiliate, Jebhat al Nusra. We learn not only about Padnos’s harrowing experience, but we also get a firsthand account of life in a Syrian village, the nature of Islamic prisons, how captors interrogate someone suspected of being CIA, the ways that Islamic fighters shift identities and drift back and forth through the veil of Western civilization, and much more. No other journalist has lived among terrorists for as long as Theo has—and survived. As a resident of thirteen separate prisons in every part of rebel-occupied Syria, Theo witnessed a society adrift amid a steady stream of bombings, executions, torture, prayer, fasting, and exhibitions, all staged by the terrorists. Living within this tide of violence changed not only his personal identity but also profoundly altered his understanding of how to live. Offering fascinating, unprecedented insight into the state of Syria today, Blindfold is “a triumph of the human spirit” (The New York Times Book Review)—combining the emotional power of a captive’s memoir with a journalist’s account of a culture and a nation in conflict that is as urgent and important as ever.

Blindfold Endgame Visualization

Blindfold Endgame Visualization PDF Author: Martin Bonde Justesen
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Blindfold chess training exercises with a focus on endgame positions This book will train and test your visualization skills through 50 well-selected positions. The ability to play chess blindfolded has always amazed the public and club players alike. You might have seen Beth Harmon play blindfold chess on the ceiling in the Netflix hit 'The Queen's Gambit'. Even though Beth seems to have acquired the skill out of the blue it takes practice to master it in reality. This book will give you 50 well-selected endgame studies, positions, and mate problems, that you can practice on. They are presented in the following manner, with first the composer/game, then the result, and the position of the pieces. Try to see if you can solve the following position: D. Khismatullin vs. A. Volokitin, 2008 White draws W: Kc2, a2 B: Ke3, c3, b4 Why This Book? I have always been impressed by strong chess players' abilities to visualize the board without seeing it, firing off variations in the post mortem, or walking away from the board during a game while thinking about the position. As an adult trying to learn the game and improve I really want to be able to improve my ability to visualize. However, I soon discovered that there wasn't much training material available. To change this I have gone through hundreds of endgame studies, game positions, and mate problems to select the best positions for blindfold solving. You might ask yourself why should I spend time trying to visualize a position and calculate when I have the board to look at during the game. Boris Gelfand said it pretty clearly in an interview on the Perpetual Podcast: "to save energy". By straining your brain muscles now, you will be able to outlast your next opponent. This book contains 50 blindfold endgame positions. This might not sound like a lot, but most people buy chess books and never finish them resulting in a feeling of failure. Even adults with jobs and kids, like myself, can finish this book and get a sense of achievement. This will hopefully motivate you to keep going, and I plan to publish a second volume in 2021 with more positions. I hope that the book will challenge you to stretch and strain your mind in the effort to solve these positions. Don't be scared of failing as long as you put in the effort. You can also see it as a meditative exercise disconnecting from the outside world. Set aside a minimum amount of time you want to spend on each position. I will suggest 15 minutes. If you haven't solved it by then, take a look at the diagram of the position in the back, before you try to solve it blindfolded again. If you feel stuck try to write down your variations on a paper. Finally, if all else fails try to solve it by looking at the diagrams in the book. What do the experts say? "Ericsson notes that for a novice, somewhere around an hour a day of intense concentration seems to be a limit, while for experts this number can expand to as many as four hours-but rarely more."― Cal Newport, Deep Work "We played blindfold chess wherever we were-dancing, hiking, on buses and trains; wherever two of us happened to be, we would begin a blindfold game. All over Antwerp, people shook their heads at this babbling crew. A year later I was playing 16 games blindfold, which represented a new Belgian record. In 1924, while in the Belgian army, I played 20 at Naur, a sort of pay-off for having nothing to do but peel potatoes for two hours a day." ― George Koltanowski "Playing blindfold, like it or not, you have to make your body work at full power, otherwise, you risk losing your" orientation at the board" ― Vladimir Kramnik This book is not a beginner's book but aimed for intermediate and expert players who want a challenge! Solution: 1.a3 bxa3 2.Kxc3 a2 3.Kb2 a1=Q 4.Kxa1 1/2-1/2

To Allay All Prejudices

To Allay All Prejudices PDF Author: Lucas Aaron Henry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jazz
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description


Book of Jazz

Book of Jazz PDF Author: Leonard Feather
Publisher: Horizon Press
ISBN: 9780818012020
Category : Jazz
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Discusses the role of each instrument in the development of jazz and profiles major performers as well as describing the origins and development of this truly American art form. Bibliogs

The Blindfold's Eyes

The Blindfold's Eyes PDF Author: Dianna Ortiz
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608331792
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
This searing memoir of an American nun who was abducted and tortured in Guatemala--and continues to search for healing and justice--shows that the human spirit is a force stronger than violence and fear.

Quarterly Review of Distance Education

Quarterly Review of Distance Education PDF Author: Michael Simonson
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 164113545X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
The Quarterly Review of Distance Education is a rigorously refereed journal publishing articles, research briefs, reviews, and editorials dealing with the theories, research, and practices of distance education. The Quarterly Review publishes articles that utilize various methodologies that permit generalizable results which help guide the practice of the field of distance education in the public and private sectors. The Quarterly Review publishes full-length manuscripts as well as research briefs, editorials, reviews of programs and scholarly works, and columns. The Quarterly Review defines distance education as institutionally-based formal education in which the learning group is separated and interactive technologies are used to unite the learning group.

Ode to a Tenor Titan

Ode to a Tenor Titan PDF Author: Bill Milkowski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493053787
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
After John Coltrane, there was no more revered and profoundly influential saxophonist on the planet than Michael Brecker. For those coming of age in the 1970s, during that transitional decade when the boundaries between rock and jazz had begun to blur, Brecker stood as a transcendent figure. He was their Trane. Ode to a Tenor Titan follows Michael's story from growing up in Philadelphia, finding his tenor sax voice during his brief stint at Indiana University, making his move to New York City in 1969 and taking the Big Apple by storm through the sheer power of his monstrous chops on the instrument. A commanding voice in jazz for four decades, Brecker possessed peerless technique (a byproduct of his remarkable work ethic and relentless woodshedding) and an uncanny ability to fit into every musical situation he encountered, whether it was as a ubiquitous studio musician (more than nine hundred sessions) for such pop stars as Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Todd Rundgren, Chaka Khan, and Steely Dan; playing with seminal fusion bands like Dreams, Billy Cobham, and the Brecker Brothers; or collaborating with the likes of Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock. But his biggest triumphs came as a bandleader during the last twenty years of his career, when he produced some of the most challenging, inspired, and visionary modern jazz recordings of his time. A preternaturally gifted player whose facility seemed almost superhuman, he was also modest to a fault and universally beloved by fellow musicians. After coming through a dark decade of heroin addiction, he turned his life around and became a beacon for countless others to lead clean and sober lives. At the peak of his powers, he was struck down by a rare preleukemic blood disease that sidelined him for two and a half years. He got off a sick bed to make a heroic comeback with his swan song, Pilgrimage, which Pat Metheny called "one of the great codas in modern music history" and which earned him a posthumous Grammy Award in 2007. Michael Brecker was a player of tremendous heart and conviction as well a person of rare humility and kindness, and his story is one for the ages.