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All Families Are Psychotic
''All Families Are Psychotic'' is the seventh novel by Douglas Coupland, published in 2001. The novel is the fictional story of the dysfunctional Drummond family and their adventures on a trip to see their daughter's space shuttle launch. Plot The novel is the tale of the Drummond family from Vancouver gathering together to watch Sarah Drummond's space shuttle blast off at the Kennedy Space Center. The Drummonds are a group of misfits with a wide array of personal foibles and intricacies. The novel's plot is the tale of events that reunite the Drummond family after many years of estrangement. Several plot points of the book include geriatric HIV, armed robbery, death in Walt Disney World, pharmaceutical drug lords, black market baby sales, Daytona Beach, and suicide attempts. Early in the book the men of the family travel to nearby Walt Disney World where they receive a package destined for the Bahamas containing a letter written by Prince William stolen from Princess Diana's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and ''McJob''. He has published thirteen novels, two collections of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and a number of dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. He is a columnist for the ''Financial Times'' and a frequent contributor to ''The New York Times'', '' e-flux journal'', ''DIS Magazine'', and ''Vice''. His art exhibits include ''Everywhere Is Anywhere Is Anything Is Everything'' which was exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, (now the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto) and ''Bit Rot'' at Rotterdam's Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and the Villa Stuck. Coupland is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the Order of Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexually Transmitted Disease
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex. STIs often do not initially cause symptoms, which results in a risk of passing the infection on to others. Symptoms and signs of STIs may include vaginal discharge, penile discharge, ulcers on or around the genitals, and pelvic pain. Some STIs can cause infertility. Bacterial STIs include chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Viral STIs include genital herpes, HIV/AIDS, and genital warts. Parasitic STIs include trichomoniasis. STI diagnostic tests are usually easily available in the developed world, but they are often unavailable in the developing world. Some vaccinations may also decrease the risk of certain infections including hepatitis B and some types of HPV. Safe sex practices, such as use of condoms, having a smaller n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2001 Canadian Novels
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0. The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noam Murro
Noam Murro ( he, נועם מורו; born ) is an Israeli film director and film producer. He is best known for directing the films ''Smart People'', '' 300: Rise of an Empire'', and the BBC miniseries ''Watership Down''. Early and personal life Murro was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel, to a family of Jewish background. In the early 1990s, after completing his studies in design and architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Murro left Israel for New York. Although he never received a formal education in film, Murro decided his dream was to become a filmmaker. "As a boy I worked for Lia van Leer at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. I got my film education there, watching films. I worked as an usher, I replaced reels, I cleaned the theater, whatever needed doing, and I got to see two movies a day. I did this for two years, without pay, just so I could see movies." He resides in Los Angeles with his wife and children. Career After studying architecture and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Poirier
Mark Jude Poirier is an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona, the fifth child in a family of eleven children. He lives in New York City with his partner, Edward Cahill. Career He wrote the novels ''Modern Ranch Living'' and ''Goats (novel), Goats'' as well as the short story collections ''Unsung Heroes of American Industry'' and ''Naked Pueblo''. He served as the editor of the book ''The Worst Years of Your Life: Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us'', including short pieces by George Saunders, Jennifer Egan, A. M. Homes and Nathan Englander. In 2015, Scribner published ''Intro to Alien Invasion'', a satirical graphic novel he co-wrote with Owen King. At one time, Poirier was named "the young American writer to watch" by the Times Literary Supplement. He has been the recipient of a Maytag Fellowship and a James Michener Fellowship. He is currently working as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DreamWorks Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and formerly DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film company and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994 as a live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (together, SKG), of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each. In December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006 (this version is now named DW Studios). In 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and made a deal to produce films with India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, re-creating DreamWorks Pictures as an independent entity. The following year, DreamWorks entered into a di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Sultan
Larry Sultan (July 13, 1946 – December 13, 2009) was an American photographer from the San Fernando Valley in California. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1978 to 1988 and at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco 1989 to 2009. Sultan's books include ''Evidence'' (1977) with Mike Mandel, ''Pictures From Home'' (1992) and ''The Valley'' (2004). A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, his work is exhibited in museums in the United States. Life and work Sultan was born on July 13, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family.Avishay ArtsyLarry Sultan: Finding beauty photographing the mundane ''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles'', December 5, 2014 He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles, California, where his parents moved when he was an infant. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor's degree in political science, and received a master's degree in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microserfs
''Microserfs'', published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of ''Wired'' magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length. Set in the early 1990s, it captures the state of the technology industry before Windows 95, and anticipates the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The novel is presented in the form of diary entries maintained on a PowerBook by the narrator, Daniel. Because of this, as well as its formatting and usage of emoticons, this novel is similar to what emerged a decade later as the blog format. Coupland revisited many of the ideas in ''Microserfs'' in his 2006 novel ''JPod'', which has been labeled "''Microserfs'' for the Google generation". Plot The plot of the novel has two distinct movements: the events at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and the move to Silicon Valley and the "Oop!" project. The novel begins in Redmond as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shining Path
The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (, abbr. PCP-SL) to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru. When it first launched its "people's war" in 1980, the Shining Path's goal was to overthrow the government through guerrilla warfare and replace it with a New Democracy. The Shining Path believed that by establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing a cultural revolution, and eventually sparking a world revolution, they could arrive at Communist society, full communism. Their representatives stated that the then-existing Socialist state, socialist countries were Marxist revisionism, revisionist, and the Shining Path was the Vanguardism, vanguard of the world communist movement. The Shining Path's ideology a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thalidomide
Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is a medication used to treat a number of cancers (including multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and a number of skin conditions including complications of leprosy. While it has been used in a number of HIV-associated conditions, such use is associated with increased levels of the virus. It is taken by mouth. Common side effects include sleepiness, rash, and dizziness. Severe side effects include tumor lysis syndrome, blood clots, and peripheral neuropathy. Use in pregnancy may harm the fetus, including resulting in malformation of the limbs. In males who are taking the medication, contraception is essential if a partner could become pregnant. It is an immunomodulatory medication and works by a number of mechanisms, including stimulating T cells and decreasing TNF-α production. Thalidomide was first marketed in 1957 in West Germany, where it was available over the counter. When first r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trophy Wife
A trophy wife is a wife who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband. The term is often used in a derogatory or disparaging way, implying that the wife in question has little personal merit besides her physical attractiveness, requires substantial expense for maintaining her appearance, is often unintelligent or unsophisticated, does very little of substance beyond remaining attractive, and is in some ways synonymous with the term gold digger. A trophy wife is typically relatively young and attractive, and may be a second, third or later wife of an older, wealthier man. A trophy husband is the male equivalent. History In his ''Theory of the Leisure Class'' (1899), Thorstein Veblen suggested that "The original reason for the seizure and appropriation of women seems to have been their usefulness as trophies." The term's more recent etymological origins are disputed. One claim is that "trophy wife" originally appeared in a 1950 issue of ''The Economist'' newspaper, referrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual may not notice any symptoms, or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. Typically, this is followed by a prolonged incubation period with no symptoms. If the infection progresses, it interferes more with the immune system, increasing the risk of developing common infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors which are rare in people who have normal immune function. These late symptoms of infection are referred to as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss. HIV is spread primarily by unprotected sex (including anal and vaginal sex), contaminated blood transfusions, hypodermic needles, and from mother to child duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
