Step into the realm of tranquility with "Sleepify: The Ultimate Sleep Aide," an immersive audiobook meticulously designed to usher you into a restorative night's sleep. Each narrative in this enchanting collection is crafted to gently soothe the mind, calm the senses, and guide you into a state of deep relaxation. From the whispering melodies of mystical forests to the rhythmic lullabies of ocean waves, every story invites you on a journey of serenity and tranquility. As you listen, you'll find yourself transported to ethereal landscapes where the burdens of the day dissolve, and peace envelops you like a warm, comforting embrace. Whether seeking solace from the clamor of daily life or struggling to quiet the incessant chatter of the mind, "Sleepify" offers a sanctuary of calm where you can find solace and renewal. But "Sleepify" is more than just a collection of bedtime tales—it's a powerful tool for relaxation and self-care. Each story is carefully curated to induce a state of deep relaxation, allowing you to release tension, unwind, and let go of the worries that weigh heavily on your mind. With its gentle rhythms and soothing melodies, "Sleepify" provides the perfect backdrop for drifting off into a peaceful slumber, leaving you refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to embrace the new day. For those grappling with tinnitus, "Sleepify" offers a gentle respite from the persistent ringing in the ears. By offering a calming distraction and fostering a serene sleep environment, "Sleepify" can alleviate the discomfort and frustration associated with tinnitus, providing much-needed relief and restoring a sense of calm. So, if you're ready to embark on a journey of relaxation and renewal, join us on "Sleepify: The Ultimate Sleep Aide" and experience the transformative power of a good night's sleep. Just hit play and let yourself drift away into a world of tranquility, where peace, serenity, and sweet dreams await.

An innovative investigation of the inner workings of Spotify that traces the transformation of audio files into streamed experience. Spotify provides a streaming service that has been welcomed as disrupting the world of music. Yet such disruption always comes at a price. Spotify Teardown contests the tired claim that digital culture thrives on disruption. Borrowing the notion of “teardown” from reverse-engineering processes, in this book a team of five researchers have playfully disassembled Spotify's product and the way it is commonly understood. Spotify has been hailed as the solution to illicit downloading, but it began as a partly illicit enterprise that grew out of the Swedish file-sharing community. Spotify was originally praised as an innovative digital platform but increasingly resembles a media company in need of regulation, raising questions about the ways in which such cultural content as songs, books, and films are now typically made available online. Spotify Teardown combines interviews, participant observations, and other analyses of Spotify's “front end” with experimental, covert investigations of its “back end.” The authors engaged in a series of interventions, which include establishing a record label for research purposes, intercepting network traffic with packet sniffers, and web-scraping corporate materials. The authors' innovative digital methods earned them a stern letter from Spotify accusing them of violating its terms of use; the company later threatened their research funding. Thus, the book itself became an intervention into the ethics and legal frameworks of corporate behavior.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

William Sharp (1855-1905) conducted one of the most audacious literary deceptions of his or any time. Sharp was a Scottish poet, novelist, biographer and editor who in 1893 began to write critically and commercially successful books under the name Fiona Macleod. This was far more than just a pseudonym: he corresponded as Macleod, enlisting his sister to provide the handwriting and address, and for more than a decade "Fiona Macleod" duped not only the general public but such literary luminaries as William Butler Yeats and, in America, E. C. Stedman. Sharp wrote "I feel another self within me now more than ever; it is as if I were possessed by a spirit who must speak out". This three-volume collection brings together Sharp’s own correspondence – a fascinating trove in its own right, by a Victorian man of letters who was on intimate terms with writers including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walter Pater, and George Meredith – and the Fiona Macleod letters, which bring to life Sharp’s intriguing "second self". With an introduction and detailed notes by William F. Halloran, this richly rewarding collection offers a wonderful insight into the literary landscape of the time, while also investigating a strange and underappreciated phenomenon of late-nineteenth-century English literature. It is essential for scholars of the period, and it is an illuminating read for anyone interested in authorship and identity.

This is the ultimate anthology of theatrical anecdotes, edited by lifelong theatre-lover Gyles Brandreth in the Oxford tradition, and covering every kind of theatrical story and experience from the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the age of Stoppard and Mamet, from Richard Burbage to Richard Briers, from Nell Gwynn to Daniel Day-Lewis, from Sarah Bernhardt to Judi Dench. Players, playwrights, prompters, producers—they all feature. The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes provides a comprehensive, revealing, and hugely entertaining portrait of the world of theatre across four hundred years. Many of the anecdotes are humorous: all have something pertinent and illuminating to say about an aspect of theatrical life—whether it is the art of playwriting, the craft of covering up missed cues, the drama of the First Night, the nightmare of touring, or the secret ingredients of star quality. Edmund Kean, Henry Irving, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ellen Terry, Edith Evans, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren—the great 'names' are all here, of course, but there are tales of the unexpected, too—and the unknown. This is a book—presented in five acts, with a suitably anecdotal and personal prologue from Gyles Brandreth—where, once in a while, the understudy takes centre-stage and Gyles Brandreth treats triumph and disaster just the same, including stories from the tattiest touring companies as well as from Broadway, the West End and theatres, large and small, in Australia, India, and across Europe.

Cachets / numbered handstamps of Greece / cancellation types / Nummernstempel.

The simple practice of mindfulness, which can be explained in a few words as "directing our awareness in the present moment", can help us maintain a clear mind and sharp attention, and it is discussed, explained, and analyzed from many different perspectives, uncovering most of the facets of conscious living, in our today's society. This book is all about mindful living, where two different practices are recurrently present, as a means to sustain our conscious approach: mindfulness and meditation. I am presenting simple techniques that will sustain a conscious approach to life, where your perception will always be clear and rooted in the present moment, and your life will always have a stress-free, relaxed, and aware point of view. Even if you already know about mindfulness or that you are looking to find a resource to explain it more in-depth for you, this book manages to touch most of the aspects that are related to our mind, to our relationship that we have with this world, to the direct experience that we can have when we befriend and transcend our Ego, and mostly, to our personal relationship with the dynamic and ever-changing present moment. I hope that everyone that reads my book will get to witness, in time, their pristine, clear, and natural state of mind, getting to gradually see the gaps of thought, through the practice of mindfulness and meditation, and finally, witnessing the unwavering mind of no-thought, which will illuminate and radically change their perception on life.

“A thoughtful, entertaining history of obsessed music collectors and their quest for rare early 78 rpm records” (Los Angeles Times), Do Not Sell at Any Price is a fascinating, complex story of preservation, loss, obsession, and art. Before MP3s, CDs, and cassette tapes, even before LPs or 45s, the world listened to music on fragile, 10-inch shellac discs that spun at 78 revolutions per minute. While vinyl has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, rare and noteworthy 78rpm records are exponentially harder to come by. The most sought-after sides now command tens of thousands of dollars, when they’re found at all. Do Not Sell at Any Price is the untold story of a fixated coterie of record collectors working to ensure those songs aren’t lost forever. Music critic and author Amanda Petrusich considers the particular world of the 78—from its heyday to its near extinction—and examines how a cabal of competitive, quirky individuals have been frantically lining their shelves with some of the rarest records in the world. Besides the mania of collecting, Petrusich also explores the history of the lost backwoods blues artists from the 1920s and 30s whose work has barely survived and introduces the oddball fraternity of men—including Joe Bussard, Chris King, John Tefteller, and others—who are helping to save and digitize the blues, country, jazz, and gospel records that ultimately gave seed to the rock, pop, and hip-hop we hear today. From Thomas Edison to Jack White, Do Not Sell at Any Price is an untold, intriguing story of the evolution of the recording formats that have changed the ways we listen to (and create) music. “Whether you’re already a 78 aficionado, a casual record collector, a crate-digger, or just someone…who enjoys listening to music, you’re going to love this book” (Slate).