Pedal Culture

Pedal Culture is a themed exploration of guitar effects pedals as cultural artifacts, derived from a 2017 design exhibition at San Francisco State University curated by the author. An anthropological quest, understanding how effects stompboxes allow for quasi-supernatural power transference from on high to guitarists is just one of the many themes Ronald Light explores. Exhibits showcase symbolic associations in the branding of sonic effects with cultural touchstones from popular arts and culture: material manifestations of noir literature, retro-futuristic cinema, and Japanese anime; graphic metaphors for female pudenda; explicit reference to murder and mayhem; and all too obvious associations to guacamole and chips. The curatorial tone of Pedal Culture employs an irreverent sensibility expressed in a whimsical and ironic attitude toward its subject. In the expansive (and expensive) world of guitar gear, this richly photographed volume fuses form, content, and aesthetics. This is Pedal Culture!

The catalog of the 2017 exhibition "PedalCulture: The Guitar Effects Pedal as Cultural Artifact" illustrates the cultural significance and visual design semiotics of contemporary guitar effects pedals. The text shows the pedals' application as objects of power transference from on high and explores their symbolic associations with select objects, ideas, and texts from popular arts and culture.

A deluxe photographic celebration of the unsung hero of guitar music—the effects pedal—featuring interviews with 100 musicians including Peter Frampton, Joe Perry, Jack White, and Courtney Barnett. Ever since the Sixties, fuzz boxes, wah-wahs, phase shifters, and a vast range of guitar effects pedals have shaped the sound of music as we know it. Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World’s Greatest Guitarists is a photographic showcase of the actual effects pedals owned and used by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Frank Zappa, Alex Lifeson, Andy Summers, Eric Johnson, Adrian Belew, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Ed O’Brien, J Mascis, Lita Ford, Joe Perry, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid, Kaki King, Nels Cline and 82 other iconic and celebrated guitarists. These exquisitely textured fine-art photographs are matched with fresh, insightful commentary and colorfulroad stories from the artists themselves, who describe how these fascinating and often devilish devices shaped their sounds and songs.

In 2020 Melbourne School of Theology celebrates its one hundredth anniversary. Proclaiming the Gospel, Engaging the World is a collection of essays that showcases the rich history of the Melbourne Bible Institute, the Bible College of Victoria, and the Melbourne School of Theology—three names but a single proud tradition of serving Christ. This volume contains papers by present and past members of the MBI/BCV/MST family. The papers are organized around four themes: historical review, theological/spiritual approaches, biblical perspectives, and cultural perspectives. This volume contributes towards remembering the past while also looking forward to the future, getting a clearer sense of how we participate in God’s mission in Australia and the world.

This book examines the surging national interest in bike-friendly public policies and argues that this growth is likely to escalate. Currents in U.S. culture that have supported the dominance of the car are edging toward exhaustion. At the same time, other factors including congestion, contentious and unreliable energy resources, rising pollution, and global warming support the expansion of the bike's use. A surprising array of political organizations, visionary politicians, and colorful individuals powers this movement.

Yearsley explores the cultural significance of making music with hands and feet, a mode of performance unique to the organ.

Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Temperley is the first book to focus upon aspects of performance in the broader context of nineteenth-century British musical culture. In four Parts, 'Musical Cultures', 'Societies', 'National Music' and 'Methods', this volume assesses the role music performance plays in articulating significant trends and currents of the cultural life of the period and includes articles on performance and individual instruments; orchestral and choral ensembles; church and synagogue music; music societies; cantatas; vocal albums; the middle-class salon, conducting; church music; and piano pedagogy. An introduction explores Temperley's vast contribution to musicology, highlighting his seminal importance in creating the field of nineteenth-century British music studies, and a bibliography provides an up-to-date list of his publications, including books and monographs, book chapters, journal articles, editions, reviews, critical editions, arrangements and compositions. Fittingly devoted to a significant element in Temperley's research, this book provides scholars of all nineteenth-century musical topics the opportunity to explore the richness of Britain's musical history.

An inspirational travel book describing stunning bicycle journeys around the world. In a bold attempt to combat inevitable dotage, Roy Sinclair set off to discover the world (more correctly, selected parts of it) by pedal power. In doing so, frequently accompanied by his Japanese partner, he experienced people of different cultures and languages in a way that might otherwise have been impossible. Inspired by a former New Zealand prime minister, he set off to ride the length of Japan (the first New Zealander to do so) in an effort to have a World Peace Bell gifted to his country. A meeting with a Wanaka winemaker, whose great grandfather held an early record for the Lands End to John o'Groats journey on a penny farthing, had Roy and his partner setting off to pedal the length of Britain. And on the whim of a pub yarn, he pedalled off to a famous monastery in the French Chartreuse mountains to discover the source of a centuries-old liver-punishing liqueur. Sometimes opinionated and more often unashamedly biased, his world discovered by pedal power is one we all will want to journey through. His compelling stories of overseas bicycle rides are woven amongst those of the country he loves most - New Zealand. Includes 20 maps of the routes travelled.