Did you ever wonder what it was like to be a surfer in the 1960s? Would you like to experience a magical ride through a decade when surfing grew from an idyllic past-time to a world-wide phenomenon? Experience what it was like to ride the waves of California and Hawaii at a time when surfing reinvented itself on an almost daily basis. Take a journey through time with Paraffin Chronicles and find out how movies, magazines, competition and innovation changed forever the ancient rite of surfing. Paraffin Chronicles is a first-hand account of one the most exciting and dynamic decades in surfing history. Told by noted surfer "Herbie" Torrens, the story chronicles the dramatic changes in surfing and surfing culture between 1960 and 1970. Growing up in Newport Beach, California, Torrens shares his experience of battling through the ranks of surfdom, from scrawny wanna-be gremmie to the cover of Surfer Magazine. Along the way we meet many of the legends of the day, and experience the dawning of an age. From the introduction of wetsuits to the pure expression of short-board surfing, Paraffin Chronicles gives us a water-level glimpse of a surfer's journey through life. You can contact the author at [email protected]
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • The first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature gives us a tour de force, combining "elements of a murder mystery, a searing political satire and an Alice in Wonderland-like modern allegory of power and deceit" (Los Angeles Times). In an imaginary Nigeria, a cunning entrepreneur is selling body parts stolen from Dr. Menka's hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Dr. Menka shares the grisly news with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer, and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne. The life of every party, Duyole is about to assume a prestigious post at the United Nations in New York, but it now seems that someone is determined that he not make it there. And neither Dr. Menka nor Duyole knows why, or how close the enemy is, or how powerful. Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is at once a literary hoot, a crafty whodunit, and a scathing indictment of political and social corruption. It is a stirring call to arms against the abuse of power from one of our fiercest political activists, who also happens to be a global literary giant.
Thailand’s capital, Krungtep, known as Bangkok to Westerners and “the City of Angels” to Thais, has been home to smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During the 1970s, it became a modern Casablanca to a new generation of treasure seekers: from surfers looking to finance their endless summers to wide-eyed hippie true believers and lethal marauders leftover from the Vietnam War. Moving a shipment of Thai sticks from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers meant navigating one of the most complex smuggling channels in the history of the drug trade. Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry, the only record of its existence rooted in the fading memories of its elusive participants. Conducting hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents, the authors recount the buy, the delivery, the voyage home, and the product offload. They capture the eccentric personalities who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a GI cottage industry into one of the world’s most lucrative commodities, unraveling a rare history from the smugglers’ perspective.
Dance of the Blue Chameleon is set in the northern regions of San Diego County and southern regions of Riverside County, California, in the mid-1980s. It’s a time before cell phones and the Internet when communications were manual, if not practical. It transpires in a region that would change dramatically in the years to come. The story revolves around a group of friends and acquaintances drawn together by an event that takes on new shapes and dimensions as it unfolds. From a simple traffic accident to a political scandal, its characters evolve with the moments and with the times. There’s sex, drugs, murder, and mayhem along the way. It’s a story of everyday characters in an ever-changing world. It’s a dance with the blue chameleon of fate.
Providing a much-needed perspective on exclusion and discrimination, this book offers a distinct spatial approach to the topic of hate studies. Of interest to academics and students of human geography, criminology, sociology and beyond, the book highlights enduring, diverse and uneven experiences of hate in contemporary society. The collection explores the intersecting experiences of those targeted on the basis of assumed and historically marginalized identities. It illustrates the role of specific spaces and places in shaping hate, why space matters for how hate is encountered and the importance of space in challenging cultures of hate. This analysis of who is able to use or abuse space offers a novel insight into discourses of hate and lived experiences of victimization.