From the bestselling author of the award-winning How Shostakovich Changed My Mind comes a new book about the cathartic power of music. For critic and composer Stephen Johnson, there have been moments when music has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these have been hard to accept but once accepted they have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living. Through an exploration of seven pieces – by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Sebastian ...

From the bestselling author of How Shostakovich Changed My Mind comes a new book about the cathartic power of music.For critic and composer Stephen Johnson, there have been moments when music has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these have been hard to accept, but once accepted they have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living. Through an exploration of seven pieces — by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Seb...

The Eighth Symphony was going to be different from anything Mahler had ever done before. The intensely personal dramas of his earlier symphonies were a thing of the past - or rather, they were now to be seen as preludes to this new, culminating symphonic statement: he was quite sure it was the greatest thing he had ever written. The first seven symphonies were all, in their very different ways, acts of private confession, the unburdening of a hypersensitive soul, struggling to make sense o...

Music broadcaster and composer Stephen Johnson explores how Shostakovich's music took shape under Stalin's reign of terror, and how it gave form to the hopes of an oppressed people. Johnson writes of the healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness and tells of how Shostakovich's music lent him unexpected strength in his struggle with bipolar disorder.

Two Melbourne TV journalists are on a well-earned holiday, travelling New Zealand in a motorhome. Will they survive a monster storm and a killer on the loose?Kim Prescott survived a killer's bullet in Melbourne but can't shake the PTSD. For Jo Trescowthick the trip is a chance to confront family demons. The third in the Melbourne Spotlight series finds Kim and Jo on a road trip from Auckland on the north island to the tourist mecca of Queenstown in the deep south; Rotorua mud pools...

If you want to start your journey to social media marketing success, then keep reading..If you are having troubles understanding social media and growing your brand's presence like the PROs do, don't fret! This ultimate guide to social media marketing will help you do all these and more.In this guide, we're going to explain how you can gain exposure through earned media, advertising and many powerful strategies that will Make your business ...

A curated selection of chilling ghost stories from world literature,_x000D_ introduced and edited by broadcaster Stephen Johnson. What these _x000D_tales of the supernatural have in common is the theme of taking a_x000D_ 'wrong turning' in which the protagonists are made to face their _x000D_darkest fears. In the spirit of a fireside storyteller, each tale has an _x000D_afterword by Stephen Johnson, to suggest what the story might _x000D_really be telling us. With contributions from Tove J...

The past was meant to stay buried. But someone is digging it up - one body at a time.Six years ago, the Melbourne Spotlight current affairs team covered a shocking crime spree - a series of brutal, seemingly random attacks. As the body count rose, the police and journalists worked tirelessly to unmask the perpetrator.When the killer was finally stopped, everyone assumed the violence was over.They were wrong.Now, an arson attack - with a chilling message - and a ...

Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born black nationalist and originator of the "Back to Africa" movement during the 1900s, was a passionate and formidable orator and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Garvey went on to become an inspiration for many future civil rights activists.Marcus Garvey: A Biography by Stephen Johnson provides an in-depth look into the incredible life of this truly remarkable man, his vision for pan-Africanism, and his unrelentin...

What happens on tour stays on tour was the mantra for the southern hemisphere backpackers who swarmed Europe in the 1980s. Foreign countries had to be explored and devoured in every way possible.Waikato-born Judy Williams worked hard for her big OE: London, Paris, Rome, Gallipoli; and her adventures were dutifully recorded in her diary.A diary that also recorded how the obsessive Tugga Tancred and his Kiwi mates turned Judy's trip of a lifetime into a nightmare of sly sexua...

A dark, winding road beckons. And it leads straight to terror…A businessman discovers he has a ghostly twin whose presence may be far more ominous than he had thought... Mischievous children learn that supernatural forces are nothing to toy with, after a Halloween prank goes wrong. And holiday festivities set the backdrop to a terrified teen's worst fears, when his grandmother's corpse comes looking for revenge…Hit the road for a journey into fear ...

TIPS FOR HOW NOT TO END UP IN A HORROR STORYDON’TListen to the SpidersDrive in the rainBuy the dollDOSell the PuppetTake the Dr.’s AdviceLeave the Box ShutIn this thrilling horror anthology by No Bad Books Press, the characters of the following authors didn’t take this advice:Kevin David AndersonDiane ArrelleShaun AveryChris Bann...