Bing

Here is the quintessential Bing Crosby tribute from the pen of author and music historian, Richard Grudens, documenting the story of Crosby's colourful life, family, radio and television shows, and films; the amazing success story of a career that pioneered popular music spanning generations and inspiring many followers: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, Eddie Fisher, Pat Boone, Elvis Presley and Billy Eckstine, all of whom acknowledge their debt right between the covers of this book. An inspirational introduction by his lovely wife, Kathryn Grant Crosby, is followed by endearing, anecdotal accounts of those ubiquitous 'Road' films with Bob Hope, and detailed personal testimonials from show business icons in their own words. A 'must read' for Crosby fans, collectors, admirers, music lovers, and everyone who cherishes the music and anecdotes of the players involved in the Golden Age of Popular Music.

A book without words, recounting a day in the life of an office worker, told completely in the symbols, icons, and logos of modern life. Twenty years ago I made Book from the Sky, a book of illegible Chinese characters that no one could read. Now I have created Book from the Ground, a book that anyone can read. —Xu Bing Following his classic work Book from the Sky, the Chinese artist Xu Bing presents a new graphic novel—one composed entirely of symbols and icons that are universally understood. Xu Bing spent seven years gathering materials, experimenting, revising, and arranging thousands of pictograms to construct the narrative of Book from the Ground. The result is a readable story without words, an account of twenty-four hours in the life of “Mr. Black,” a typical urban white-collar worker. Our protagonist's day begins with wake-up calls from a nearby bird and his bedside alarm clock; it continues through tooth-brushing, coffee-making, TV-watching, and cat-feeding. He commutes to his job on the subway, works in his office, ponders various fast-food options for lunch, waits in line for the bathroom, daydreams, sends flowers, socializes after work, goes home, kills a mosquito, goes to bed, sleeps, and gets up the next morning to do it all over again. His day is recounted with meticulous and intimate detail, and reads like a postmodern, post-textual riff on James Joyce's account of Bloom's peregrinations in Ulysses. But Xu Bing's narrative, using an exclusively visual language, could be published anywhere, without translation or explication; anyone with experience in contemporary life—anyone who has internalized the icons and logos of modernity, from smiley faces to transit maps to menus—can understand it.

From Bing Crosby's early days in college minstrel shows and vaudeville, to his first hit recordings, from his 11 year triumph as star of America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood, Gary Giddins provides a detailed study of the rise of this American star.

- Monograph focusing on Xu Bing's most ambitious works of art: Book from the Sky and Book from the Ground- Presents the artist's method and motivation in his own words- An accessible yet academic insight into this innovative internationally renowned Chinese artist "The written word is the most basic element of human culture. To touch the written word is to touch the essence of culture." - Xu Bing Book from the Sky certainly seemed to have fallen from the heavens: the text of this installation piece was written in a new language that resembled traditional Chinese. No matter who scours Xu Bing's book for 'meaning', they will only discover a semblance of it: mutated characters that resist interpretation. Carving out approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making (in his own words) "something that said nothing".Book from the Sky's lengthy production process is also detailed in this monograph. Carving approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing (in his own words) spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making "something that said nothing." After creating a book no one could read, it only made sense for Xu Bing to develop his next project: a book that transcended barriers of language: Book from the Ground. Composed entirely of pictographs, Book from the Ground is a groundbreaking study into the concept of universal communication.Whether his goal is total comprehension or confusion, Xu Bing's masterful exploration of language challenges the way we think about the written word.

This volume offers a path-breaking reassessment of Xu Bing’s oeuvre by analyzing the diverse cultural environments in which his work has developed since the Book from the Sky. It contains three lecture transcripts and eight art historical essays; these explore themes such as Xu’s animal works, audience participation, new ink, prints, realism, socialist spectacle, and word play. A critical question addressed in this volume is what carries art to a global level beyond regional histories and cultural symbols. Absorbing critical essays on contemporary Chinese aesthetics addressing the social context and philosophical concerns that underlie Xu Bing’s key works. The authors analyze Xu’s art, shedding light on the tangled history of socialism and neoliberalism in the Post-Mao period. --Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose, Senior Professor, Institute of East Asian Art, Universität Heidelberg

Microsoft has introduced the Graph (SPTAG) and Space Partition Tree algorithm visible to everyone as an open-source GitHub project, applied in its own Bing search engine. The algorithm allows the use of deep learning models and vector search to produce search-based results. It involves SPTAG understanding. The latest surge in advertisements and marketing promotions for Microsoft's new search engine viz., Bing, raises concerns about whether the formulas of the new engine allocate page rank to optimistic websites. It appears to be a skeptic approach if Bing will live up to expectations and become a genuine contender to Google. However, it is worth investigating how the search engines assess Bing in keeping with Google's popularity. Bing doesn't operate the same as Google, where the message of the anchor wouldn't be enough of a problem. Google counts the connection more than it counts the anchor text. Bing works in exactly the opposite way. It counts the text of the anchor more than just the link.

The second in an exciting new relaunch of Ted Dewan's Bing books - resized and beautifully produced for the next generation of toddlers - paving the way for Bing's TV debut in 2014.

This interactive book featuring 10 sounds is perfect for fans of the hit CBeebies series, Bing.