Latin heat meets Versace and Puffy. February, 2000. The Grammy Awards. In the evening's highpoint, Latin beauty Jennifer Lopez wears an eye-popping Versace dress that looks like a pasted-on scarf. It barely conceals her body. The audience is visibly dumbfounded. Her co-presenter, the usually witty David Duchovny, is star-struck and he stutters his lines. A chiquita legend is born.
Jennifer Lopez spotlights the career and personal life of a celebrity riding the wave of our love affair for all things Latin. Lopez first blazed into the spotlight when she starred in the film Selena. The role helped catapult Lopez into a bona fide Hollywood star. Since then, she has starred in several films - including the popular hit Anaconda and the modern noir flick Blood and Wine. She recently took the music world by storm with the release of her first cd, the best-selling On the 6.
Success for Lopez has come at a personal price. The media magnet's every move and romance are reported in breathless detail. This is partly because drama seems to follow Lopez wherever she goes. Her short-lived marriage ended in divorce, a casualty of the pressures of stardom. The book delves into her high-profile relationships with Sony music chief Tommy Mattola and rap impresario Sean A. Puffy Combs.
This biography offers up-to-the-minute details about the case. It also details Lopez's early years. Born and raised in the Bronx to a middle-class Catholic family, Jennifer Lopez always had her sights set on stardom. She got her first break as a dancing "Fly Girl" on the innovative series In Living Color, but even then it seemed a long shot for an actress of Latin descent to ever be a leading lady. Lopez never doubted herself, only to prove the sceptics wrong. "If I could describe myself in a few words," she says "strong would be one of them. I know what I want, and I'm willing to go after it."
A hilarious and moving account of one family's frantic countdown to Christmas Eve. Follow in the author's footsteps as he wrestles with giant Christmas trees, scrambles to get to his children's concerts, is swallowed up by the mobs in the mall, sings his choirs first tentative attempt at Handel's Messiah and enters into a desperate nationwide search for goats for his church's Christmas pageant. Christmas is a time of joy and memories, memories that are both sweet and tinged with sadness. In this book we share both the happiness and the grief that can accompany this season. Our Twelve Days of Christmas is a book that will resonate with every family, as it shares a story that is both unique and universal, a story of family and the genuine meaning of this holiday.
This collection of essays by leading scholars explores the present, dynamic state of metaphysical religion in America. It includes chapters that: put survey data on this growing group in context; clarify definitional issues in the study of spirituality in general and metaphysical spirituality in particular; and assess the networks, conferences, rituals, festivals, retreat centers and periodicals recently developed by metaphysicals. The contributors discuss characteristic practices of mental healing and meditation, and show the reach of metaphysical ideas into public spaces and popular media cultures. One particular chapter also addresses the growing controversy over the legitimacy of metaphysical individuals and movements that appropriate elements of Native American and Asian religious beliefs and practices to enrich or sustain their own practice. This rich collection appeals to students, researchers, professionals and the layperson interested in knowing more about the historyand more importantly the direction that American metaphysical religion is taking.
This book examines a variety of issues related to wellbeing education and cross-cultural education, curriculum and pedagogy, education policy and systems, teacher education and professional development of educators, educational administration, management and leadership, and inclusive education. Stimulated, in part, by the launch of positive psychology, wellbeing education has grown worldwide. Various theories of wellbeing have been adopted in education, coining the term 'wellbeing education', defined in this book as how school leaders and teachers plan to implement evidence-informed wellbeing interventions to promote wellbeing and academic goals. This book investigates a series of questions related to wellbeing education, and how evidence-informed wellbeing approaches are integrated into learning, teaching, and education.
