What Am I Doing Here When Everything I Want Is Somewhere Else

Radio industry anecdotes punctuate advice on how to get to what you want in life.

What Am I Doing Here? is a startling masterwork by one of the forgotten innovators of American comics. In 1945, after more than a decade as a commercial illustrator—drawing advertisements and cartoons for Life, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, and many other publications—Abner Dean invented a genre all his own: One might call it the Existential Gag Cartoon. He used the elegant draftsmanship and single-panel format of the standard cartoons of the day, but turned them to a deeper, stranger purpose. With an inimitable mixture of wit, earnestness, and enigmatic surrealism, Dean uses this most ephemeral of forms to explore the deepest mysteries of human existence. What Am I Doing Here?, Dean’s second book and perhaps his best, depicts a world at once alien and familiar, in which everyone is naked but acts like they’re clothed—a world of club-wielding commuters and byzantine inventions, secret fears and perverse satisfactions. Through it all strolls (or crawls, or floats, or stumbles) Dean’s unclad Everyman, searching for love, happiness, and the answers to life’s biggest questions. This NYRC edition is a jacketed hardcover with extra-thick paper, and features brand-new, restored scans of the original artwork throughout.

In this text, Bruce Chatwin writes of his father, of his friend Howard Hodgkin, and of his talks with Andre Malraux and Nadezhda Mandelstram. He also follows unholy grails on his travels, such as the rumour of a "wolf-boy" in India, or the idea of looking for a Yeti.

* Laina Dawes is not always the only black woman at metal shows and she's not always the only headbanger among her black female friends. In this book, she questions herself, her hardcore heroes and dozens of black punk, metal and hard-rock fans to answer a knee-jerk question she's heard a hundred times 'What are you doing here?'.

New essays on theological, political, and contemporary themes, by the Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson’s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display. What Are We Doing Here? is a call for Americans to continue the tradition of those great thinkers and to remake American political and cultural life as “deeply impressed by obligation [and as] a great theater of heroic generosity, which, despite all, is sometimes palpable still.”

This book is unusual in a number of ways. It is supposedly a text book, but it will probably never be used as one in any major educational school system. The book was also intended as a guide for determining one's reality, which effects moral behavior. Yet, no hard and fast rules are ever mentioned but one. What this book does do is to question everything that we accept in this physical reality as tangible and says that it is first intangible. Can the average person accept that responsibility?

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Have you ever wondered what church is all about? Ever found yourself in a service wondering what on earth is going on? And what the point of it all is? Whether you're completely new to church or have been coming to church for a while, this little book is here to help you! With a down-to-earth style and subtle humour, What Am I Doing Here? takes you through an Anglican Holy Communion service, demystifying what happens - and why. Subjects covered include: What are you doing here?: The need to meet your maker Worship: The need to celebrate and count our blessings Confession: The need for accounting procedures and a clean slate Sermons: The need for wise words and challenging questions The Creed: The need for a basic belief system Prayer: The need to engage with the wider world and ask for help The Peace: The need to live in right relationship with others Holy Communion: The need for strength, comfort and delight Being sent out and the after-church chat: The need to share the journey

Few people are lucky enough to experience close-up those mutually attracting worlds of politics and entertainment. Donald Webster is one of those. From his earliest memories he set his sights on Washington, D.C., where he imagined the fate of the world was decided. Over the years he realized his youthful dream --working in the Congress, the Treasury and the White House. But his political career failed to provide a sense of creative satisfaction, and when his first wife died, he cut loose from Washington and headed to a California beach and later to New York to study painting and photography. A long and winding trail finally led him to writing as his preferred means of creative self expression. His transformation from the world of politics to that of the arts took a decisive leap forward after he fell in love with actress Diana Douglas. Now married and living in Los Angeles, they have an ongoing creative partnership and a wide circle of vital artistic friends. The author's personal transformation in his work, his thinking and his innermost nature is substantially complete. This is the story of what happened along the way.

This is Roger Lewis at his best: more cantankerous and curmudgeonly wit and musings about the pointlessness of life. Dark, witty and hilarious, Roger Lewis has a real way with words.