The playground of the rich and the beautiful, downtown New York's nightlife spectacles and power of self-invention incubated pop icons from Andy Warhol to Lady Gaga. NYU sociologist Victor P. Corona sought a new education, where night classes held in galleries, nightclubs, bars, apartments, stoops, and all-night diners taught him about love, loss, and the living possibilities of identity. Transforming himself from dowdy professor to glitzy clubgoer, Victor immerses himself among downtown's dazzling tribes of artists and performers hungry for fame. Night Class: A Downtown Memoir investigates the glamour of New York nightlife. In interviews and outings with clubland revelers and influencers, including Party Monster and convicted killer Michael Alig, Night Class exposes downtown's perilous trappings of drugs, ambition, and power. From closeted, undocumented Mexican boy to Ivy League graduate to nightlife writer, Corona shares in Night Class the thrill and tragedy of downtown and how dramatically identities can change.

The playground of the rich and the beautiful, downtown New York's nightlife spectacles and power of self-invention incubated pop icons from Andy Warhol to Lady Gaga. NYU sociologist Victor P. Corona sought a new education, where night classes held in galleries, nightclubs, bars, apartments, stoops, and all-night diners taught him about love, loss, and the living possibilities of identity. Transforming himself from dowdy professor to glitzy clubgoer, Victor immerses himself among downtown's dazzling tribes of artists and performers hungry for fame. Night Class: A Downtown Memoir investigates the glamour of New York nightlife. In interviews and outings with clubland revelers and influencers, including Party Monster and convicted killer Michael Alig, Night Class exposes downtown's perilous trappings of drugs, ambition, and power. From closeted, undocumented Mexican boy to Ivy League graduate to nightlife writer, Corona shares in Night Class the thrill and tragedy of downtown and how dramatically identities can change.

"Resentfully the women pulled on hats and gloves. Always after class they wanted to talk, to sit and drink tea, to let the session reach a natural end. This abrupt turfing out thrust them back to a reality they had escaped for a moment. Tanya watched the dark figures in ones and twos disperse along the street. Behind her the door shut with a bang. Semeon turned the lock. That sound, the sound of the bolt shooting home, clutched at her heart. There were two cold places, the physical cold and the cold of her relationship. The ground was rock at 40 below; lakes and streams still and solid; icicles daggering from eaves. A tree could explode like a pistol shot as it’s freezing sap burst out its body. Birds could literally fall out of the sky, their heart muscle finally stiff and cold. In the forest green things had retreated inwards, underground, sleeping, waiting. Like the forest she had retreated deep into herself, trying to keep some of her spirit alive."

In this Night Before book, kids get ready for that all-important moment of the school year: class picture day! It's the night before class picture day, and kids all down the block are getting ready. Everyone wants to look perfect for the photo. They fix their hair, practice smiles, and choose outfits. At school the next day, they try to stay picture-perfect. Will everything look perfect for the big moment when they say, “Cheese?”

Eleven-year-old Dan, whose artist parents have kept him moving around all his life, fears he will lose the friends he has made at his new school, until the class sleepover coincides with a bad winter storm.

The transformation to a neo-colonial world has only begun, but it promises to be as drastic, as disorienting a change as was the original european colonial conquest of the human race. Capitalism is again ripping apart & restructuring the world, and nothing will be the same. Not race, not nation, not gender, and certainly not whatever culture you used to have. Now you have outcast groups as diverse as the Aryan Nation and the Queer Nation and the Hip Hop Nation publicly rejecting the right of the u.s. government to rule them. All the building blocks of human culture-race, gender, nation, and especially class-are being transformed under great pressure to embody the spirit of this neo-colonial age. The definitive analysis of postmodern capitalism, the decline of u.s. hegemony, and the need and possibilities for a revolutionary movement of the oppressed to overthrow it all. -bell hooks: Night-Vision was so compelling to me because it has a spirit of militancy which reformist feminism tries to kill because militant feminism is seen as a threat to the liberal bourgeois feminism that just wants to be equal with men. It has that raw, unmediated truth-telling which I think we are going to need in order to deal with the fascism that's upon us- -- bell hooks

Wyatt Palmer was a middle-school hero, but that doesn't count for anything in high school. When a ferret goes missing in this hilarious follow-up to The Worst Class Trip Ever, Wyatt and his friend Matt find themselves as unwanted guests at what turns into the Worst Party Ever! Last year, Wyatt foiled a plot against the president of the United States and became the hero of middle school. But now he and his friends are in Coral Cove High School—home of the Fighting Conch—and Wyatt is a hero no longer; he's just another undersized freshman, hoping to fit in, or at least not be unpopular. Things start to go wrong when Matt Diaz, who is Wyatt's best friend but also unfortunately an idiot, decides to bring his pet ferret, Frank, to school. Through an unfortunate series of events Frank ends up in the hands of the Bevin brothers, who are the most popular boys at Coral Cove High, but are also, as Matt soon discovers, the nastiest. When Wyatt and Matt try to get Frank back, they concoct a plan to attend a party for the cool clique at the Bevin's waterfront mansion and stumble onto the Bevin family's dark and deadly secret. That's when Wyatt learns that some things are worse than being unpopular in high school. MUCH worse.

See the full beauty of our night sky revealed as never before in over 200 photographs from around the world. Bringing together the images of over 40 photographers across 25 countries, be astounded by the lights of the night sky in some of the darkest places on earth; discover the beauty of galaxies, planets, and stars; view great celestial events; and see some of the world’s most important landmarks against the backdrop of an incredible nightscape. Babak Tafreshi, founder of the international organization The World at Night, has curated the images in this collection—many of them previously unseen—to reveal the true splendor of the sky at night. A specialist guide to night-sky photography will help you capture your own gorgeous images of the heavens. Commentary on the science, astronomy, and photography accompany stunning images organized by theme: Symbols of all nations and religions embraced by one sky of endless beauties UNESCO World Heritage Sites at night The Universe revealed through constellations, sky motions, atmospheric phenomenon, Aurora, and other wonders Images highlighting the beauty of dark skies away from light-polluted urban areas Celestial events, from great comets to spectacular eclipses Astro-tourism destinations, like ancient astronomical monuments and modern observatories

"Famed director M. Night Shyamalan tells how his passion for education reform led him to the five indispensable keys to educational success in America's high-performing schools in impoverished neighborhoods"--