Download or read book Hack written by Dmitry Samarov and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cabdrivers and their yellow taxis are as much a part of the cityscape as the high-rise buildings and the subway. We hail them without thought after a wearying day at the office or an exuberant night on the town. And, undoubtedly, taxi drivers have stories to tell—of farcical local politics, of colorful passengers, of changing neighborhoods and clandestine shortcuts. No one knows a city’s streets—and thus its heart—better than its cabdrivers. And from behind the wheel of his taxi, Dmitry Samarov has seen more of Chicago than most Chicagoans will hope to experience in a lifetime. An artist and painter trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Samarov began driving a cab in 1993 to make ends meet, and he’s been working as a taxi driver ever since. In Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab, he recounts tales that will delight, surprise, and sometimes shock the most seasoned urbanite. We follow Samarov through the rhythms of a typical week, as he waits hours at the garage to pick up a shift, ferries comically drunken passengers between bars, delivers prostitutes to their johns, and inadvertently observes drug deals. There are long waits with other cabbies at O’Hare, vivid portraits of street corners and their regular denizens, amorous Cubs fans celebrating after a game at Wrigley Field, and customers who are pleasantly surprised that Samarov is white—and tell him so. Throughout, Samarov’s own drawings—of his fares, of the taxi garage, and of a variety of Chicago street scenes—accompany his stories. In the grand tradition of Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Mike Royko, and Studs Terkel, Dmitry Samarov has rendered an entertaining, poignant, and unforgettable vision of Chicago and its people.
Download or read book Today in the Taxi written by Sean Singer and published by Tupelo Press. This book was released on 2022-12-28 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the passenger seat of Sean Singer’s taxicab, we witness New York’s streets livid and languid with story and contemplation that give us awareness and aliveness with each trip across the asphalt and pavement. Laced within each fare is an illumination of humanity’s intimate music, of the poet’s inner journey—a signaling at each crossroad of our frailty and effervescence. This is a guidebook toward a soundscape of higher meaning, with the gridded Manhattan streets as a scoring field. Jump in the back and dig the silence between the notes that count the most in each unique moment this poet brings to the page. “Sean Singer’s radiant and challenging body of work involves, much like Whitman’s, nothing less than the ongoing interrogation of what a poem is. In this way his books are startlingly alive... I love in this work the sense that I am the grateful recipient of Singer’s jazzy curation as I move from page to page. Today in the Taxi is threaded through with quotes from Kafka, facts about jazz musicians, musings from various thinkers, from a Cathar fragment to Martin Buber to Arthur Eddington to an anonymous comedian. The taxi is at once a real taxi and the microcosm of a world—at times the speaker seems almost like Charon ferrying his passengers, as the nameless from all walks and stages of life step in and out his taxi. I am reminded of Calvino’s Invisible Cities, of Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn... Today in the Taxi is intricate, plain, suggestive, deeply respectful of the reader, and utterly absorbing. Like Honey and Smoke before it, which was one of the best poetry books of the last decade, this is work of the highest order.” —Laurie Sheck
Download or read book Taxi written by Joseph Rodriguez and published by powerHouse Books. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York City in the late '70s was a collection of villages with its downtown scene, midtown workers, and uptown elegance. It was also a city that was more integrated than ever before or ever would be again. All of the city's humanity met in its streets with layered soundtracks of salsa, rock, disco, reggae, and soon hip-hop booming for all to groove to. But, NYC was also a place of chaos and mayhem. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with rampant crime it was the city's drug users, dealers, and pimps and prostitutes who ruled the streets of Manhattan. The grittiness of the city was a beacon and a promise to many outsiders, those who didn't quite fit into any mold, and a vibrant LGBTQ community became the nexus of an underworld of sex workers who liked to party. For a NYC cabbie such as Joseph Rodriguez, the hot spots to pick up fares were clubs like the Hellfire, Mineshaft, The Anvil, The Vault, and Show World. Losing his first camera and lens in a classic '70s New York stabbing and mugging, Rodriguez's wounds healed and he armed himself with a new camera to document what he saw on the job: hookers getting off their shifts, transvestites and S&M partiers doin' it in the back seat or somehow pulling off an unlikely costume change from bondage gear to emerge from the cab clean-cut in an oxford and khakis ready to face unwitting family and friends. A humanist at heart, his photographs speak of the dignity of the city's working class from all the boroughs and those struggling to get by. The Economic Hardship Reporting Project provided funding to support Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977–1987.
Download or read book The Knowledge written by Robert Lordan and published by Quercus Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Train your brain with the secrets behind the world's toughest feat of memory: the London Knowledge The Knowledge is a unique book: a guide to getting more out of your brain and your city. A fully illustrated, lovingly detailed look at London's best kept secrets, it will also take you down the pathways of your mind and teach you how to keep your memory sharp. Written by a licensed London cab driver and tour guide, The Knowledge is the first ever book to take readers inside the legendarily difficult - and fast-vanishing - set of skills that all licensed cab drivers must have: a perfect, thoroughly tested knowledge of every street, alley, turning and landmark of London. The black cab is an iconic symbol of London, but to drive it, prospective cabbies must take what is often considered the world's hardest exam, involving learning every street, turning and waypoint along 320 different routes across London, along with every landmark within 1/4 of a mile of the start and end of each route: altogether 25,000 streets and 2,000 places of interest. Learning the Knowledge takes years, and dozens of appearances at gruelling oral exams, but those who pass become part of a unique partnership, with no parallel anywhere in the world. Scientific studies have consistently shown that London cabbies who have passed the Knowledge have enlarged brains and near-superhuman memory capacities. The Knowledge is the first book to take readers inside the extraordinary mind of the cabbie, with 50 real Knowledge routes across London, beautifully mapped and illustrated to show the streets and landmarks, with notes on their hidden histories and popular associations, and sections allowing the reader to test their memory on these routes, accompanied with an introduction discussing the history and science of the Knowledge and guides to memory-training techniques used by cabbies and memory champions around the world.
Download or read book Call Me A Cab written by Donald E. Westlake and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final unpublished novel by MWA Grandmaster – a wild, romantic road trip across America by taxi cab – demonstrates why this beloved author is so fondly remembered and so dearly missed. “A book by this guy is cause for happiness.” Stephen King DONALD E. WESTLAKE GOES OFF THE BEATEN PATH In 1977, one of the world’s finest crime novelists turned his pen to suspense of a very different sort – and the results have never been published, until now. Fans of mystery fiction have often pondered whether it would be possible to write a suspense novel without any crime at all, and in CALL ME A CAB the masterful Donald E. Westlake answered the question in his inimitable style. You won’t find any crime in these pages – but what you will find is a wonderful suspense story, about a New York City taxi driver hired to drive a beautiful woman all the way across America, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, where the biggest decision of her life is waiting to be made. From Pennsylvania to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada on the way to California, the characters’ odyssey takes them through uncharted territory – on the map and in their lives. It’s Westlake at his witty, thought-provoking best, and it proves that a page-turner doesn’t need to have a bomb set to go off at the end of it in order to keep sparks flying every step of the way.
Download or read book Hack written by Melissa Plaut and published by Villard Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her late 20s, Plaut decided to honor a long-held secret ambition by becoming a New York City taxi driver. With wit and insight, she recreates the crazy parade of humanity that passes through her cab and shows how this grueling work provides her with a greater sense of self.
Download or read book The Shanghai Free Taxi written by Frank Langfitt and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As any traveler knows, some of the best and most honest conversations take place during car rides. So, when a long-time NPR correspondent wanted to learn more about the real China, he started driving a cab--and discovered a country amid seismic political and economic change. China--America's most important competitor--is at a turning point. With economic growth slowing, Chinese people face inequality and uncertainty as their leaders tighten control at home and project power abroad. In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service--offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation--to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer," a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life. Blending unforgettable characters, evocative travel writing, and insightful political analysis, The Shanghai Free Taxi is a sharply observed and surprising book that will help readers make sense of the world's other superpower at this extraordinary moment.
Download or read book The Caretaker written by A. X. Ahmad and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is the caretaker hiding in the shadows of the Martha's Vineyard mansions he tends? Back in India, Ranjit Singh commanded an elite army squad. But that was years ago, before his Army career ended in dishonor, shattering his reputation. Driven from his homeland, he is now a caretaker on the exclusive resort island of Martha's Vineyard, looking after the vacation homes of the rich and powerful. One harsh winter, faced with no other choice, he secretly moves his family into the house of one of his clients, an African-American Senator. Here, his wife and daughter are happy, and he feels safe for the first time in ages. But Ranjit's idyll is shattered when mysterious men break into the house. Pursued and hunted, Ranjit is forced to enter the Senator's shadowy world, and his only ally is Anna, the Senator's beautiful wife, who has secrets of her own. Together, they uncover a trail of deception that leads from the calm shores of the Vineyard to countries half a world away. And when his investigation stirs up long forgotten events, the caretaker must finally face the one careless decision that ruined his life- and forced him to leave India. A gripping tale of hidden histories, political intrigue and dangerous attractions, A. X. Ahmad's The Caretaker introduces a new hero for our times: an immigrant caught between two worlds and a man caught between two loves.
Download or read book Artists Performers and Black Masculinity in the Haitian Diaspora written by Jana Evans Braziel and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jana Evans Braziel examines how Haitian diaspora writers, performance artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo nègs, or "big men." She focuses on six artists and their work: writer Dany Laferrière, director Raoul Peck, rap artist Wyclef Jean, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, drag queen performer and poet Assotto Saint, and queer drag king performer Dréd (a.k.a. Mildréd Gerestant). For Braziel, these individuals confront the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist "domestic" imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, women, gays, and queers. This is a groundbreaking study at the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, nationality, and diaspora.
Download or read book I M Not a Crazy Cabbie written by Chuck Okofor and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day, in every city in the world, people climb into cabs, but how much thought do they really give to the driver? How much do they know about their story, their lives, and their abilities? In his native Nigeria, Chuck Okofor earned a masters degree and taught English literature and English as a second language. In the early 1990s, his family immigrated to the United States with their four young children. His wife worked as a nurse, and Chuck cared for their children during the day. Out of necessity, Chuck took what he thought would be a temporary job as a cab driver, but he grew to love it. In, his memoir, this veteran Chicago driver invites you inside the front seat of the cab. For seventeen years, Chuck was one of almost twenty thousand men and women who took on the challenge of navigating the Windy Citys crazy roads and often-crazier drivers. Now, he gives readers an insiders view into the life of a Chicago cabbie. Youll learn about the complicated relationship shared by cabbies, cops, and the courts; the challenges of driving a cab in daunting Chicago traffic; and what good drivers like Chuck think of cab-service thieves. Youll be amazed at some of the encounters hes had with passengers, including women of easy virtue. Chuck also shares valuable tips into staying safe in traffic, reducing stress behind the wheel, and the real hazards of Chicago roads.
Download or read book Artist s Proof written by Gordon Cotler and published by Minotaur Books. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ex-cop Sid Shale took early retirement from the NYPD and now relishes the peace and quiet of home--a beach-front bungalow in a small Long Island village where the latest "crime spree" is a rash of bicycle thefts. Sid now has two responsibilities: to follow his dream of being a full-time artist and, with the help of his agent/ex-wife, to sell enough of his paintings to pay his daughter's college tuition bills. Then a sixteen-year-old girl is murdered a few houses down the shore from Sid. In just a few short hours everyone, from the inexperienced village cops to the girl's mother, knows that she'd once modeled for Sid--in the nude. Whether he likes it or not, he's back in the crime-solving business, this time to save his own skin. With a superb story, an eminently likable sleuth, and the hard-to-put-down prose that has continually characterized Gordon Cotler's work, Artist's Proof is another exceptional read from an exceptional writer. "Sturdy prose, pointed observation, subtle wit, and a fine sense of place." - Library Journal
Download or read book Space Taxi Archie Takes Flight written by Wendy Mass and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archie Morningstar learns a big family secret and helps save the universe. All before breakfast! It's not every day a regular kid like Archie gets to wake up at midnight. But today is Take Your Kid to Work Day, and Archie is finally allowed to ride along in his dad's taxi cab. He has been waiting eight years, eight months, and eight days for this moment to arrive. But he's about to discover his dad is no ordinary cab driver...In fact, he drives an intergalactic space taxi! All night long, he shuttles aliens from one corner of the universe to another. And being a space taxi copilot is no easy task: Archie must steer them into wormholes, keep them from crashing into planets, deal with a very unusual cat...and save the universe from an evil mastermind! Space Taxi marks the debut of a brand new chapter book series from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Mass and teacher Michael Brawer, filled with humor, adventure, and plenty of science to impress your friends and teachers!
Download or read book King Lear of the Taxi written by Davidson Garrett and published by King Lear of the Taxi. This book was released on 2006 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: King Lear of the Taxi is a philosophical journey through poetry and prose of a struggling actor who must earn a grueling living as a taxi driver-while striving to attain artistic success. Davidson Garrett's self-portrait is a glimpse at an ever-changing New York City-where the inflation rate multiplies by the week-and aspiring artists are threatened by an urban society that values real estate over the long-term health of the arts.
Download or read book The Art Craft of the Short Story written by Rick DeMarinis and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Art & Craft of the Short Story explores every key element of short fiction, including story structure and form; creative and believable characters; how to begin and where to end; and the generation of ideas; as well as technical aspects such as point of view; plot; description and imagery; and theme. Examples from the work of a wide variety are used. The author includes five of his own stories to demonstrate these topics.
Download or read book Taxi written by Graham Russell Gao Hodges and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether or not you've ever hailed a cab on Broadway, Taxi! provides a fascinating perspective on New York's most colorful emissaries.
Download or read book Cab Driver In New York Adventures of a Chalaco in the City of Skyscrapers written by José Manuel Herrera Tamines and published by Ibukku LLC. This book was released on 2023-11-17 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has the sweet essence created throughout my 38 years of living in New York. I hope you enjoy my stories and recollections of a life filled with adventures. They may appear incredible or astonishing to you, but they are true.
Download or read book MCMLXXV written by Joe Casey and published by Image Comics. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Pamela Evans. Much more than a typical Manhattan cab driver, she also happens to be a badass monster fighter who wields an enchanted tire iron. Yeah, that's right. Welcome to the year of her greatest adventure. MCMLXXV is modern mythology for a new generation, from JOE CASEY (NEW LIEUTENANTS OF METAL, JESUSFREAK) and IAN MacEWAN (PROPHET: EARTH WAR, SEX). Collects MCMLXXV #1-3
