Jesus, matadors, panthers, bandits, Indians, movie stars, waifs, and, of course, Elvis are recognized icons of the oft-despised, uber-kitsch art form of black velvet painting. In Black Velvet Art author Eric A. Eliason and photographer Scott Squire present a comprehensive overview of this covertly-loved and overtly-reviled tradition.In cooperation with a network of artists, collectors, importers, and gallery owners in Tijuana, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Calgary, this book d...

Nicknamed the “Island of Lace,” the Caribbean island of Saba is the smallest special municipality in the Netherlands. Folklorist Eric A. Eliason, at the behest of the president of the Saba Lace Ladies’ Foundation and Saba’s director of tourism, traveled to the island with the intent to document the history and patterns of Saba lace. Born out of his research, The Island of Lace tells the story of lacework’s central role in Saba’s culture, economy, and history. Accompanied by over t...

Warrior Ways is one of the first book-length explorations of military folklife, and focuses on the lore produced by modern American warriors, illuminating the ways in which members of the armed services creatively express the complex experience of military life. In short, lively essays, contributors to the volume, all of whom have close personal or professional relationships to the military, examine battlefield talismans, personal narrative (storytelling), “Jody calls” (marching and runnin...

Contributions by Sandra Bartlett Atwood, Nathan E. Bender, London Brickley, Eric A. Eliason, Noah D. Eliason, Tim Frandy, Robert Glenn Howard, Jay Mechling, Annamarie O'Brien Morel, Raymond Summerville, Tok Thompson, and Megan L. ZahayGuns are a ubiquitous part of life in the United States. Arguably more pervasive than physical guns is “gunlore,” which refers to the many folklore genres related to firearms. Gunlore: Firearms, Folkways, and Communities is the first book to ...

An important part of discipleship is knowing what questions to ask—and which ones have not yet been adequately answered. From the beginning to recent times, prophets have reminded the Saints that the Restoration is ongoing, not an event. Our purpose in assembling this collection of essays is simple: we wish to celebrate the miracle of continuing revelation, and the promise of more to come, that God will “yet reveal many great and important things.” This means that the essays selected for i...

Stories of encounters with the Three Nephites, immortal saint-like figures, dominate the folklore of the Latter-day Saint tradition. The authors of this volume use hundreds of legends collected by the renowned folklorist William A. Wilson from across a lifetime of research, study, and interviews to focus on the different themes exhibited by the Three Nephites and show that LDS culture, beliefs, and values are embodied by and through the Three Nephites. Each chapter focuses on a different t...

Guns are a ubiquitous part of life in the United States. Arguably more pervasive than physical guns is "gunlore," which refers to the many folklore genres related to firearms. Gunlore: Firearms, Folkways, and Communities is the first book to engage with the many narratives, rituals, folk-speech, customs, art, and handicraft encompassed by gunlore.Like most expressive cultures, gunlore emerges from specific communities. Groups with a shared interest around firearms may form...

This is a book about math and physics and how biology and psychology come directly from them. In physics we will cover Newtonian Mechanics, Gravitational Waves, Special Relativity, Electromagnetism, Orbitals, Quantum Mechanics, Multiverses, the Calabi-Yau manifold as a template for the brain and we will also cover Topology. They will be straightforward and simple as well as mathematically rigorous. Imagination will help get rid of mysticism and there are Layman's sections throughout the bo...

This Edition has 50% more content than the original and lots of it is way more interesting. The vast majority of it is still a list of symptoms. It has others' testimonies as well. It should help people realize what they have and how to help it. It weaves together what was going on in my brain better and really gets you wondering what happened. You see that delusions precede hallucinations and why it keeps going. It puts flesh on what clinical litmus tests use to see more detail. I have ha...

About the Game This game is all about consciousness and the philosophies of science. The game displaying consciousness can give pleasure, as can the player becoming conscious of what they are doing in the game. Since the main objectives in video games are always to be conscious, and the most scientific video game would be about the fundamental pieces of our universe (including people but also matter and idealized cells), we will play as though any of them have or need to get some form of c...

The first verse of the Bible is probably the most read document in history and there are amazing things that can be done with it in Hebrew, geometrically and numerically (Gematria). I actually came up with 159 patterns, from the first verse to the whole Torah, but mostly about the first verse or first word. 10 might be coincidence, but 159 is hard to come by. They are in 52 categories. Joseph Smith said the Torah originally began with its second letter R. Half of the patterns work with the...

I have had a great many severe schizophrenic experiences over 20 years. It's interesting because I'm smart which goes along with it, I remember them well when you are supposed to remember them, and it's like having more than two brains because you've got your consciousness, your made up one, and the union of the two. Some symptoms to wet your appetite: hallucinations some huge some long, delusions, thought broadcasting, dictation of what I was doing, own lexicon, people reading my mind, pr...