prosaic

Aghast Agape
$9.99
Prosaics can easily be compared to Interpol. And it's very true that they both delve into the same gloomy post-punkish arena, both owing much to The Smiths, Joy Division, Bauhaus, & etc. etc. I bought this album after seeing the band play live at an artshow. They're pretty good live, and the music surprisingly sounds deeper live. It may just be bad production but the gloominess they seem to be trying to attain just doesn't quite work with the crunch of their guitars or the lead singer. It's just not delicate enough to capture the atmosphere that they seem so desperately to work after. Teeth is an exceptional track, but their songwriting seems a little to jumpy and poppy. Admittedly Interpol, whom seem to draw upon the same inspirations, have crafted great gothish indie rock songs, but at the expense of critics dismissing their music altogether for so obviously using formulaic structures and well known sounds. Prosaics don't fall into that trap as often as Interpol has, and here I must commend them. But Interpol has grown to be able to use their inspirations in ways that totally freshen what could otherwise sound stale and boring, Prosaics just haven't grown to a point where their songwriting is strong enough to carry the gloominess without blatantly copying another band. But they're extremely promising. The album itself is a lovely black glossy of a Bill Henson photograph. Although this is a pretty good sampler, there are about two really good songs and the rest fall slightly into the filler category, I'm certain that Prosaics will blossom and find more confidence in their writing. I'm very excited to hear a full album by them.

TYPHUS, EGGS, and SOLDIERS! In this World War, our soldiers confront an ancient foe even more deadly than the enemy's panzer divisions. That foe killed between two and three million people in World War I. It is Typhus fever - a disease transmitted by the bite of the body louse, and often confused with typhoid fever because of the similarity of names. Today our troops are immunized against typhus. They are among the first troops so safeguarded in the history of the world. Such mass protection is a striking and dramatic medical triumph, yet it hinges upon a most prosaic thing - a hen's egg. For in the preparation of the new vacine against typhus fever, hen's eggs play a stellar role. In closely guarded and isolated rooms, there are great trays of these eggs. Each is fertile. Each is allowed to incubate for a time. Then, a tiny hole is carefully drilled in one end of each egg. Live typhus fever viris is injected through this opening. The live virus multiplies many times over. When the virus has grown sufficiently in the egg embryo, it is "harvested" and killed. Yes, killed with chemicals, for it is the dead typhus fever virus that forms the basis of the vacine which is used to protect our armed forces against typhus fever. ..... 1943 Parke, Davis & Company Ad, A5095.
$10.99
This Item is an original Magazine ad, taken from a vintage magazine of the year indicated. The ad is suitable for framing and displaying in your home or office. The scan of this item was taken through plastic film, however it is an accurate representation of the item. The nominal size is 10.5 inches by 14 inches.

Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics
$31.95
You can find a very detailed analysis on Bakhtin's work. Very complete work and an amazing reference for anyone interested in Bakhtin's literature analysis and theories. There is also a very useful glossary at the end of the book that allows you to find different terms and their applications in several contexts.

Boojums All the Way through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age
$36.99
I suppose the title of this book steers a lot of junior physics people away from it. The author's name should steer these people back. This is the Mermin that Feynman complemented on his popular exposition on Bell's inequality. In fact that is the reason why I read this thing. After Wheeler's Quantum Measurement's book and Berstein's Quantum Profile's book I had to see what all the hoopla was about. Sure enough Mermin is the king of popular exposition and I've been through a lot of popular exposition on Bell's inequality...from Pagels to Penrose. This book is loaded with other expositories too on relativity and mathematics and general physics stuff. A good cheap read that will get you deeper into physics on a non-specialist level.