The world according to David Ives is a very add place, and his plays constitute a virtual stress test of the English language -- and of the audience's capacity for disorientation and delight. Ives's characters plunge into black holes called "Philadelphias," where the simplest desires are hilariously thwarted. Chimps named Milton, Swift, and Kafka are locked in a room and made to re-create Hamlet. And a con man peddles courses in a dubious language in which "hello" translates as "velcro" an...

As a young Jewish man in 17th century Amsterdam, Baruch de Spinoza excelled as a theological student; but as he encountered free-thinking Protestants, atheists, and radicals in this relatively tolerant city, he began to question his religion and the nature of God. As a result, he was branded a heretic and faced excommunication.Includes an interview with Steven Nadler, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scan...

A series of short comedic works from playwright David Ives, with subjects ranging from the Lindbergh baby to chimps typing literary classics. The title work is a more serious, nostalgic look at two generations of apartment dwellers who meet in a time warp.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Samantha Bennett, Jane Brucker, Ian Gomez, Arye Gross, Richard Kind, Dinah Manoff, Nia Vardalos and Tom Virtue.Directed by Ron West. Recorded before a live audience in ...

A collection of four works from the American playwright known as "wizardly . . . magical and funny . . . a master of language" ( The New York Times).This collection brings together four full-length plays from the same dazzling pen that produced the one-act comic masterpieces of All in the Timing.Polish Joke is about a young Polish-American's trip through ethnic stereotypes. Nine-year-old Midwesterner Jan Bogdan Sadlowski, nickname...

A series of short comic vignettes from playwright David Ives, In the title work, two houseflies try to make the most out of their brief time on earth.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Shannon Cochran, Evan Gore, Arye Gross and Victoria Principal.Directed by Ron West. Recorded before a live audience in March, 1998.

When Louisiana became a part of the United States the great wilderness to the westward of the Mississippi was the home of many native tribes, or groups of tribes, retaining their primitive manners and customs, little influenced by contact with Europeans. Their villages were scattered along the water courses or skirted the prairies, over which roamed vast herds of buffalo, these serving to attract the Indians and to supply many of their wants—food, raiment, and covering for their shelters.

This definitive biography of Anne Boleyn establishes her as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.Anne Boleyn is the most notorious of England’s queens, but more famous for her death as an adulterer than for her life. Henry’s second wife and mother of Elizabeth I, Anne, was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Yet what do we know of the achievements and the legacy of her short reign?In The Life and Death of Anne ...

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.This month's cover art is by Galen Dara, illustrating the original fantasy short "Godmeat," by Martin Cahill. We also have an original fantasy short story from Kodiak Ju...

A collection of 14 crime and mystery stories—plus 4 bonus tales—by the New York Times bestselling "master of mystery" ( Cleveland Plain Dealer ).In The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights, Faye Kellerman returns to her fan-favorite characters, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, in three never-before-published stories—including "The Garden of Eden," in which Peter and...

In this true story of adventure, author Jack Nisbet re-creates the life and times of David Thompson—fur trader, explorer, surveyor, and mapmaker. From 1784 to 1812, Thompson explored western North America, and his field journals provide the earliest written accounts of the natural history and indigenous cultures of the what is now British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Thompson was the first person to chart the entire route of the Columbia river, and his wildern...

**Quite possibly the GREATEST science-fiction collection of ALL TIME—past, present, and FUTURE! • "Nearly 1,200 pages of stories by the genre’s luminaries, like H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Ursula K. Le Guin, as well as lesser-known authors." —**The New York Times Book ReviewWhat if life was never-ending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the Pope was a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-h...

Posey is really nervous about starting first grade. Instead of getting walked to her classroom, her mom has to drop her off at the Kiss-and-Go Lane. Then she'll have to walk into school and face the Monster of the Blue Hall all by herself. Worst of all, she has to do it without the one thing that always makes her feel brave and special: the tutu that turns her into the Pink Princess. But when Posey inspires her new teacher to throw a first-day parade in which all the kids are invited to we...