Equal parts memoir and cultural history, from acclaimed comic stylist and professional hobbyist Henry Alford comes a hilarious journey through the world of dance that will inform, entertain and leave readers tapping their toes.When Henry Alford wrote about his experience with a Zumba class for The New York Times, little did he realize that it was the start of something much bigger. Dance would grow and take on many roles for Henry: exercise, confidence builder, an excuse to travel, a source of ongoing wonder and-when he dances with Alzheimer's patients-even a kind of community service. Tackling a wide range of forms (including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, tap, contact improvisation, Zumba, swing), this grand tour takes us through the works and careers of luminaries ranging from Bob Fosse to George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp to Arthur Murray. Rich in insight and humor, Alford mines both personal experience and fascinating cultural history to offer a witty and ultimately moving portrait of how dance can express all things human.
August - The eighth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar and the full palette of nature is on glorious display. Our poets, Wordsworth, Swinburne, Alford, Riley and Hardy describe and reveal their thoughts on the month and notable dates within it. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe. August - An Introduction; Hymn For The First Of August By John Pierpoint; Stanzas For The First Of August By James Monroe Whitfield; Sonnet XLII To GWC August 1st 1846 By Christopher Pearse Cranch; To Ms Jane Forster, On Her Birthday, August 4th 1724 By Henry Baker; August 1865 By Carolyn Clive; August 1914 By Isaac Rosenberg; Composed Near Calais, August 7th 1802 By William Wordsworth; Grant At Rest August 8th 1885 By James Whitcomb Riley; August Moonrise By Sara Teasdale; Calais August 1802 By William Wordsworth; I H B Died August 11th 1898 By William Winter; Summer Is Ended By Christina Rossetti; Tis The last Rose Of Summer By Thomas Moore; At Sundown By Daniel Sheehan; The Summer Rain By Henry David Thoreau; From Piccadilly In August By John Freeman; A Summer Evening Churchyard By Percy Bsysshe Shelley; Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland August 1803 By William Wordsworth; August 19th 1830 By Henry Alford; August By James Whitcomb Riley; An August Evening, 1865 By Carolyn Clive; August the 22nd 1830 By Henry Alford; The Winds Tidings In August 1870 By Augusta Davies Webster; Sonnet LIII, August By Christopher Pearse Cranch; Moonlight Summer Moonlight By Emily Jane Bronte; Lines Written In August By Thomas Babbington Macaulay; August By Algernon Charles Swinburne.
October - The tenth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar and the land prepares to give up more it its colourful coverings.
On this and other themes our poets including Wordsworth, Rossetti, Arnold, Bryant and Alford have much to say. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe. The tracks are; October - An Introduction; Song Of The Democratic Review Of It's Birthday, October 1st 1857 By William Ross Wallace; An Ode, Written October 1819 Before The Spaniards Had Recovered Their Liberty By Shelley; Anticipation, October 1803 By William Wordsworth; Embarcation (Southampton Docks, October 1899) By Thomas Hardy; Give Me October's Meditative Haze By Alfred Austin; Hymn For The Celebration At The Laying Of The Cornerstone Of Harvard Memorial Hall, Cambridge, October 6th 1870 By Oliver Wendell Holmes; An October Garden By Christina Georgina Rossetti; North Wind In October By Robert Seymour Bridges; October By George Arnold; On The Tenth Of October By Phillip Henry Savage; October By John Jay Chapman; Through October Fields by James Edwin Campbell; October On The Sheep Range By Arthur Chapman; The National Prayer, October 1840 By Henry Alford; October By John Payne; October By Paul Laurence Dunbar; On The Road To Waterloo, 17th October (En Vigilante, 2 Hours) By Dante Gabriel Rossetti; October By William Cullen Bryant; An October Sunset By Archibald Lampman; October 1915 By Dora Sigerson Shorter; October 21st 1905 By George Meredith; October Musings 1866 By Janet Hamilton; Lines Written October 23rd 1836, A Few Hours After The Birth Of My First Child By Henry Alford; Written At Lovere, October 1736 By Mary Wortley Montagu; On St Crispins Day, October 25th, 1763 By James Wilson Claudero; Octobers Bright Blue Weather By Helen Hunt Jackson; Last Week In October By Thomas Hardy; An October Evening By William Wilfred Campbell; from October - On Nearing Halloween By James Graham.
Henry Alford, The Poetry. Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of the Victorian Poet Henry Alford. Alford was born in London in 1810. Something of a prodigy he had published several Latin odes and a history of the Jews by the time he was 10. Graduating from Cambridge his life was to follow in the family footsteps of being a clergyman and he held the post of Vicar at Wymeswold in Leicestershire, for the next 18 years. Shortly after this he became the Dean of Canterbury. Much of his career highlights are based on his theology and such works as his startling 4 volume edition of the New Testament in Greek. But in this volume we concentrate on his poems. A fine example of a Victorian poet who managed to write several volumes of his own verse, his work is undeniably religious in tone but it has that quality of wonderment of expressing something beyond and apart from themselves. Many of the poems are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Portable Poetry. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. Among our readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe. Index Of Poems; Written January 1st 1832; Written During An Aurora Borealis January 7th 1831; Sonnet 59; Sonnet XLIII. The Malvern Hills, March 12th 1835; April 1844; Sonnet LVII - Summit Of Skiddaw, July 7th 1838; August 19th 1830; August the 22nd 1830; Sonnet XXL, Sacred To The Memory Of Edward Spedding Who Died September 3rd 1832; The National Prayer, October 1840; November 1847; Lines Written October 23rd 1836, A Few Hours After The Birth Of My First Child; February 3rd 1830; February 10th 1840; A Day Dream; A Doubt; A Truant Hour; Anticipation; Be Just And Fear Not; Faith; Life's Answer; Life's Question; Midnight Thoughts; Peace; Rydal Mount; Sonnet LVIII. Descent Of The Same; Sonnet LXIV. Written At Ghent; Sonnet LXXX. My Ancestors; Sonnet LXXXVII. We Want But Little: In The Morning Tide; Sonnet LXXXVIII. The Inward Pleasure Of Our Human Soul; Sonnet XCVIII. There Is One Baptism; Sonnet XCIX. Day By Day We Magnify Thee; Sonnet XLV. When I Behold Thee, Only Living One; Sonnet XLVI. Each Morn The Same Sun Rises On Our Day; Sonnet XLVIII. Sleep, Gentle Love! And Let The Soothing Dew; Sonnet XXII. The Dying Bed; Sonnet XXIV. The Same Sonnet XXV. The Funeral; Sonnet XXVIII. O When Shall This Frail Tenement Of Day; Sonnet XXX. On Seeing Our Family Vault; Sonnet XXXV. Twere Better Far From Noon To Eventide; Sonnet XXXVI. The Gipsy Girl; Sonnet XXXVIII. Epiphany; Sonnet VII. Truth Loveth Not To Lavish Upon All; The Ancient Man; The Bride; The Land's End; The Little Mourner; The Passion Of St. Agnes; The Salzburg Chimes; To A Beautiful Female Portrait; To A Drop Of Dew; To A Moonbeam By Our Fireside; Two Fragments; You And I
"We all know bad manners when we see them," NPR and Vanity Fair contributor Henry Alford observes at the beginning of his new book. But what, he asks, do good manners look like in our day and age? When someone answers their cell phone in the middle of dining with you, or runs you off the sidewalk with their doublewide stroller, or you enter a post-apocalyptic public restroom, the long-revered wisdom of Emily Post can seem downright prehistoric. Troubled by the absence of good manners in his day-to-day life-by the people who clip their toenails on the subway or give three-letter replies to one's laboriously crafted missives-Alford embarks on a journey to find out how things might look if people were on their best behavior a tad more often. He travels to Japan (the "Fort Knox Reserve" of good manners) to observe its culture of collective politesse. He interviews etiquette experts both likely (Judith Martin, Tim Gunn) and unlikely (a former prisoner, an army sergeant). He plays a game called Touch the Waiter. And he volunteers himself as a tour guide to foreigners visiting New York City in order to do ground-level reconnaissance on cultural manners divides. Along the way (in typical Alford style) he also finds time to teach Miss Manners how to steal a cab; designates the World's Most Annoying Bride; and tosses his own hat into the ring, volunteering as an online etiquette coach. Ultimately, by tackling the etiquette questions specific to our age-such as Why shouldn't you ask a cab driver where's he's from?, Why is posting baby pictures on Facebook a fraught activity? and What's the problem with "No problem"?-Alford finds a wry and warm way into a subject that has sometimes been seen as pedantic or elitist. And in this way, he looks past the standard "dos" and "don'ts" of good form to present an illuminating, seriously entertaining book about grace and civility, and how we can simply treat each other better.
