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Just Kids From the Bronx: Telling It the Way It Was, An Oral History
by Arlene Alda"A down-to-earth, inspiring book about the American promise fulfilled." —President Bill Clinton "Fascinating . . . . Made me wish I had been born in the Bronx." —Barbara WaltersA touching and provocative collection of memories that evoke the history of one of America's most influential boroughs—the Bronx—through some of its many success storiesThe vivid oral histories in Arlene Alda's Just Kids from the Bronx reveal what it was like to grow up in the place that bred the influencers in just about every field of endeavor today. The Bronx is where Michael Kay, the New York Yankees' play-by-play broadcaster, first experienced baseball, where J. Crew's CEO Millard (Mickey) Drexler found his ambition, where Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dava Sobel fell in love with science early on and where music-making inspired hip hop's Grandmaster Melle Mel to change the world of music forever.The parks, the pick-up games, the tough and tender mothers, the politics, the gangs, the food—for people who grew up in the Bronx, childhood recollections are fresh. Arlene Alda's own Bronx memories were a jumping-off point from which to reminisce with a nun, a police officer, an urban planner, and with Al Pacino, Mary Higgins Clark, Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Maira Kalman, Bobby Bonilla, and many other leading artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs—experiences spanning six decades of Bronx living. Alda then arranged these pieces of the past, from looking for violets along the banks of the Bronx River to the wake-up calls from teachers who recognized potential, into one great collective story, a film-like portrait of the Bronx from the early twentieth century until today.
Gary Cooper (Great Stars)
by David Thomson"Cooper was heroic, of course, in his own mind as much as in his scripts. He was manly, tall, ruggedly handsome. He was a man for a fight." On screen Gary Cooper was the ultimate all-American hero: lean, laconic, and masculine, a lone sheriff battling his enemies in High Noon, or a tough individualist in The Fountainhead. Off-screen he bedded a host of leading ladies and carefully honed his image, making hundreds of movies and winning two Oscars in the process. The acclaimed film writer David Thomson explores the career and the contradictions of "Coop," the star who lived the dream in the golden age of Hollywood.
Writing Home
by Alan BennettBringing together the hilarious, revealing, and lucidly intelligent writing of one of England's best known literary figures, Writing Home includes the journalism, book and theater reviews, and diaries of Alan Bennett, as well as "The Lady in the Van," his unforgettable account of Miss Shepherd, a London eccentric who lived in a van in Bennett's garden for more than twenty years. This revised and updated edition includes new material from the author, including more recent diaries and his introduction to his Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Madness of King George. A chronicle of one of the most important literary careers of the twentieth century, Writing Home is a classic history of a life in letters.
Monk: The Official Episode Guide
by Terry J. Erdmann Paula M. BlockThis is the official episode guide to the USA Network hit television series Monk, starring two-time Emmy Award winner Tony Shalhoub.Monk is one of the most popular series currently on television. Fans have come to enjoy the antics and erstwhile efforts of obsessive-compulsive Adrian Monk, who was once a rising star with the San Francisco Police Department until the tragic murder of his wife pushed him to the brink of a breakdown. This authorized guide covers the first four extraordinary seasons and is complete with a foreword from the show's creator, Andy Breckman, as well as an afterword from the show's star.Authors Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block were granted exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes secrets, and total access to the scripts and sets to bring a comprehensive look at one of today's most brilliant defective detectives.This is the ultimate book for fans of Monk!
Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz
by John Kander Fred EbbThe autobiography, in dialogue, of the composer and lyricist of Chicago and Cabaret as well as a wise and witty memoir of forty years of American musicals.Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb are the longest-running composer-lyricist team in Broadway history, having first joined forces in 1962. The creators of such groundbreaking musicals as Chicago, Cabaret, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, Kander and Ebb have helped to push American musical theater in a more daring direction, both musically and dramatically. Their impact on individual performers has been great as well, starting with the handpicked star of their first musical: an untested nineteen-year-old named Liza Minnelli (who writes of this experience in her introduction).Colored Lights covers the major shows of Kander and Ebb's partnership, from Flora, The Red Menace (starring a then-unknown Liza) to The Visit, due to open on Broadway in 2004. The pages and musicals in between reveal what has made theirs such a long-lived musical partnership--and one so valued by the artists they have worked with. In recounting the genesis and controversies of Cabaret, reflecting on the superstar mentality of such artist as Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, and recalling their work with Bob Fosse on Chicago (as well as their views on the blockbuster 2002 film), John Kander and Fred Ebb provide a history not only of their own lives but also of the American musical theater of the late twentieth century.
A Sense of Shifting: Queer Artists Reshaping Dance
by Coco RomackEnter the groundbreaking world of queer dance in this gorgeous collection of stories and photographs.Two women hold each other tight as they dance the two-step. A fierce-eyed man in a long red dress performs flamenco. A dancer improvises in a blooming garden, blending diverse influences into a style all their own. This book showcases twelve individual artists and dance companies who are reclaiming traditional genres and building inclusive dance communities. Whether professionals or amateurs, ballerinas or experimental performers, pole dancers or line dancers, these artists embody the queer experience in unique ways. Photographer Yael Malka invites us into an intimate, visceral experience of rehearsals and performances, and writer Coco Romack offers wide-ranging reflections on the creative process drawn from in-depth interviews with the dancers. This beautiful book documents the rise of a new generation of artists and will inspire dance lovers, LGBTQIA+ creators, and anyone who delights in the power of the human body in motion.INSPIRING STORIES: The stories in this book represent a distinctive slice of the LGBTQIA+ experience. For dancers, whose art form is inseparable from their bodies, gender expression entwines with creative expression in challenging and liberating ways. The artists featured here generously explore their journeys in the interviews, while the photographs show the joy to be found in the queer dance community.BEAUTIFUL PRIDE GIFT: This collection is the perfect gift for anyone interested in the intersections of art, identity, and activism. With a deluxe art-book treatment and stunning photographs, the book can be proudly displayed on your coffee table or presented to the creative activist in your life.INCLUSIVE AND INTERSECTIONAL: This collection highlights a truly diverse array of experiences. The stories delve into the experiences of dancing in a wheelchair, navigating the intersections of gender and race, engaging with cultural inheritance on one's own terms, and even striving to make non-activist art when simply existing as a queer person can be a political action. The various dance styles and body types featured emphasize this book's welcoming, inclusive tone. Whether you love to dance or watch from the audience, identify as LGBTQIA+ or as an ally, this book is for you.Perfect for:Dancers and dance enthusiastsPeople interested in contemporary dance styles and dance companiesFans of portrait and performance photographyLGBTQIA+ artists, activists, and alliesReaders seeking inspiring art and storiesFans of portrait anthologies and storytelling projects like Humans of New YorkFans of LGBTQIA+ photobooks like Loving: a Photographic History of Men In Love 1850s–1950s, We Are Everywhere, and Queer Love In Color
True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t: 500 Wild Facts from the Zaniest Corners of the World
by Shane CarleyGet ready to be bamboozled by nature&’s most bizarre, hilarious, and utterly astonishing secrets that will make you say, "Bull$#*t!"Say hello to the astonishing natural world with this mind-boggling collection of downright unbelievable facts that will have you doing double-takes at every turn. This captivating compendium is your ticket to exploring the wackiest secrets Mother Nature has up her sleeve. From the outrageous mating rituals of exotic creatures to the perplexing phenomena of Earth's wildest landscapes, True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t: Nature covers a vast array of topics that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about our planet. Each fact has been researched and verified, ensuring that even the most skeptical readers will be left in awe. Perfect for trivia buffs, nature enthusiasts, and anyone who loves a good laugh, this engaging and entertaining book is an incredible addition to your library.Inside you&’ll find facts like:The world&’s largest living organism is a mushroom that covers over 2,200 acres in Oregon.A single mature oak tree can drop up to 200,000 leaves in the fall.As a defense mechanism, some sea cucumbers expel their internal organs along with a toxic substance to deter predators. They can regenerate the lost organs within a few weeks.The tongue of a blue whale can weigh as much as an elephant.Vultures have stomach acid so strong that it can dissolve metal and kill harmful bacteria found in their carrion meals.Buckle up and prepare for a wild ride through the most fascinating, outlandish, and utterly mind-blowing corners of the natural world. You'll never look at nature the same way again!
Cursed Crochet: Create Unhinged Versions of Your Favorite Cartoons, Characters, and Animals with Amigurumi Patterns Crafted by ChatGPT
by Ulysses PressA Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.
The Ethnographic Optic: Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, and the Turn Inward in 1960s French Cinema (New Directions in National Cinemas)
by Laure AstourianThe Ethnographic Optic traces the surprising role of ethnography in French cinema in the 1960s and examines its place in several New Wave fictions and cinéma vérité documentaries during the final years of the French colonial empire. Focusing on prominent French filmmakers Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais, author Laure Astourian elucidates their striking pivot from centering their work on distant lands to scrutinizing their own French urban culture. As awareness of the ramifications of the shrinking empire grew within metropolitan France, these filmmakers turned inward what their similarly white, urban, bourgeois predecessors had long turned outward toward the colonies: the ethnographic gaze.Featuring some of the most canonical and best-loved films of the French tradition, such as Moi, un Noir, La jetée, and Muriel, this is an essential book for readers interested in national identity and cinema.
The Canon in Contemporary Theatre: Plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Brecht in Contemporary Directors’ Theatre (ISSN)
by Lars Harald MaagerøThis book explores the relationship between contemporary theatre, particularly contemporary theatre directors, and the dramatic canon of plays.Through focusing on productions of plays by three canonical playwrights (Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Brecht) by eight contemporary European directors (Michael Buffong, Joe Hill-Gibbins, and Emma Rice from the UK, Christopher Rüping from Germany, Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson from Iceland, and Kjeriski Hom, Alexander Mørk-Eidem, and Sigrid Strøm Reibo from Norway) the book investigates why and how the theatre continues to engage with canonical plays. In particular, the book questions the political and cultural implications of theatrical reproductions of the literary canon. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s theories of agonism and ‘critical art,’ the book investigates whether theatrical reproduction of the canon always reconstitutes the hegemonic values and ideologies of the canon, or whether theatrical interventions in the canon can challenge such values and ideologies, and thereby also challenge the dominant ideologies and hegemonies of contemporary culture and society.This study will be of great interest to academics and students in drama and theatre, particularly those who work with theatre in the twenty-first century, directors’ theatre, and the political impact of theatre.
Digital Compositing for Film and Video: Production Workflows and Techniques
by Steve WrightWritten by senior compositor, technical director, and master trainer Steve Wright, this book condenses years of production experience into an easy-to-read and highly informative guide suitable for both working and aspiring visual effects artists. This updated edition of Digital Compositing for Film and Video addresses the problems and difficult choices that professional compositors face daily with an elegant blend of theory, practical production techniques, and workflows. It is written to be software-agnostic, so it applies to any brand of software. It features many step-by-step workflows, powerful new keying techniques, and updates on the latest tech in the visual effects industry with all-new content on artificial intelligence (AI) for visual effects (VFX), Universal Scene Description (USD), Virtual Production, and Cryptomattes. A companion website offers images from the examples discussed in the book allowing readers to experiment with the material first-hand. This edition also adds Nuke workflows to the companion website for the first time.
The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy
by Adam Nimoy"Adam Nimoy has written about the challenges growing up with his famous father and about their estrangement later in life. The fact that Leonard and Adam found a way to rebuild their relationship should resonate with anyone who struggles with difficult family dynamics."—George Takei"Engaging and immensely relatable, while at the same time offering deeply profound insights into Adam Nimoy's personal relationships, particularly with his famous father." —Eugene Roddenberry Jr., CEO Roddenberry Entertainment While the tabloids and fan publications portrayed the Nimoys as a "close family," to his son Adam, Leonard Nimoy was a total stranger. The actor was as inscrutable as the iconic half-Vulcan science officer he portrayed on Star Trek, even to those close to him. Now, his son's poignant memoir explores their complicated relationship and how it informed his views on marriage, parenting, and later, sobriety. Despite their differences, both men ventured down parallel paths: marriages leading to divorce, battling addiction, and finding recovery. Most notably, both men struggled to take the ninth step in their AA journey: to make amends with each other.Discover how the son of Spock learned to navigate this tumultuous relationship—from Shabbat dinners to basement AA meetings—and how he was finally able to reconcile with his father—and with himself.
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: (But I'm Going to Anyway)
by Chelsea Devantez"It&’s f*cking great!!! Raw, intimate, hilarious, actually inspiring.&” –Jon Stewart*A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM GOODREADS, PUREWOW, SHREADS, BOOKRIOT, AND MORE*A dynamic memoir-in-essays by comedian, screenwriter, and podcaster Chelsea Devantez, detailing her tumultuous upbringing and uproarious career path into Hollywood.There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn&’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: some are embarrassing (like when she tried to break her three year spell of celibacy using a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the &“hell hill&” at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as &“pregnant.&” Woopsies!).Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn&’t be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret was publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings and the precipitating domestic violence she survived. Yet through it all, it&’s the women in Chelsea&’s life who kept her going – from the lowest points of her childhood when she and her mom had only $100 left to their name, all the way to her career highs as the Emmy-nominated Head Writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart and sensational podcaster deemed &“the celebrity memoir whisperer&” by her fans. In I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a &“strong female lead.&” Reading it will feel kinda like that moment at a party when your friend beckons you close, sloshes her martini around, and covertly whispers, &“I really shouldn&’t say this, but…&”
Red Bird Danced
by Dawn QuigleyWith lyrical verse and powerful emotion, Dawn Quigley (Ojibwe) tells the story of urban Native kids who find strength in connection with those who came before and in the hope that lets them take flight. Ariel and Tomah have lived in the city’s intertribal housing complex all their lives. But for both of them, this Dagwaagin (Autumn) season is different than any before.From his bench outside the front door of his building, Tomah watches his community move around him. He is better at making people laugh than he is at schoolwork, but often it feels like his neighbor Ariel is the only one who really sees him, even in her sadness. Ariel has always danced ballet because of her Auntie Bineshiinh and loves the way dance makes her feet hover above the ground like a bird. But ever since Auntie went missing, Ariel’s dancing doesn’t feel like flying.As the seasons change and the cold of winter gives way to spring’s promise, Ariel and Tomah begin to change too as they learn to share the rhythms and stories they carry within themselves.This first middle grade novel by Dawn Quigley is a tour de force. She is known for her American Indian Youth Literature Award–winning Jo Jo Makoons chapter book series and young adult novel Apple in the Middle. Give Red Bird Danced to readers who love Jasmine Warga and Christine Day!
Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch
by Alexandra JacobsOne of The New Yorker's favorite nonfiction book of 2019 | A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceNamed one of Vogue's "17 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Fall""Compulsively readable . . . ravenously consuming . . . manna from heaven . . . If ever someone knew how to put a genuinely irresistible book together, it's Jacobs in Still Here." —Jeff Simon, The Buffalo NewsStill Here is the first full telling of Elaine Stritch’s life. Rollicking but intimate, it tracks one of Broadway’s great personalities from her upbringing in Detroit during the Great Depression to her fateful move to New York City, where she studied alongside Marlon Brando, Bea Arthur, and Harry Belafonte. We accompany Elaine through her jagged rise to fame, to Hollywood and London, and across her later years, when she enjoyed a stunning renaissance, punctuated by a turn on the popular television show 30 Rock. We explore the influential—and often fraught—collaborations she developed with Noël Coward, Tennessee Williams, and above all Stephen Sondheim, as well as her courageous yet flawed attempts to control a serious drinking problem. And we see the entertainer triumphing over personal turmoil with the development of her Tony Award–winning one-woman show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which established her as an emblem of spiky independence and Manhattan life for an entirely new generation of admirers.In Still Here, Alexandra Jacobs conveys the full force of Stritch’s sardonic wit and brassy charm while acknowledging her many dark complexities. Following years of meticulous research and interviews, this is a portrait of a powerful, vulnerable, honest, and humorous figure who continues to reverberate in the public consciousness.
Becomings: Pregnancy, Phenomenology, and Postmodern Dance (ISSN)
by Johanna KirkThis book explores postmodern choreographic engagements of pregnant bodies in the US over the last 70 years.Johanna Kirk discusses how choreographers negotiate identification with the look of their pregnant bodies to maintain a sense of integrity as artists and to control representations of their gender and physical abilities while pregnant. Across chapters, the artists discussed include Anna Halprin, Trisha Brown, Twyla Tharp, Sandy Jamrog, Jane Comfort, Jody Oberfelder, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Miguel Gutiérrez, Yanira Castro, Noémie LaFrance, and Meg Foley. By presenting their bodies in performance, these artists demonstrate how their experiences surrounding pregnancy intersect not only with their artform and its history but also with their personal experiences of race, gender, and sexual identification. In these pages, Johanna Kirk argues that choreography offers them tools that are alternative to medicine (or other forms of social representation) for understanding what/how pregnant bodies do and feel and what they can mean for individuals and their communities. The works within these chapters invite readers to see dancing bodies and pregnant bodies in new ways and for their potential to manifest new possibilities.This study will be of great interest to students and scholars exploring dance, theatre and performance, race, and gender.
Entrances and Exits
by Michael RichardsThe man who brought the kavorka to the Seinfeld show through one of the most remarkable and beloved television characters ever invented, Kramer, shares the extraordinary life of a comedy genius—the way he came into himself as an artist, the ups and downs as a human being, the road he has traveled in search of understanding.&“The hair, so essential, symbolizes the irrational that was and is and always will be the underlying feature not only of Kramer but of comedy itself. This seemingly senseless spirit has been coursing through me since childhood. I&’ve been under its almighty influence since the day I came into this world. I felt it all within myself, especially the physical comedy, the body movements, so freakish and undignified, where I bumped into things, knocked stuff down, messed up situations, and often ended up on my ass. &“This book is a hymn to the irrational, the senseless spirit that breaks the whole into pieces, a reflection on the seemingly absurd difficulties that intrude upon us all. It&’s Harpo Marx turning us about, shaking up my plans, throwing me for a loop. Upset and turmoil is with us all the time. It&’s at the basis of comedy. It&’s the pratfall we all take. It&’s the unavoidable mistake we didn&’t expect. It&’s everywhere I go. It&’s in the way that I am, both light and dark, good and not-so-good. It&’s my life.&” —Michael Richards, from Entrances and Exits
Desert Song
by Laekan Zea KempA family joins the music of the Texas desert night in this tale of tradition and memory from Pura Belpré Honor author Laekan Zea Kemp.It starts with a soft tapping,Uncle Eduardo drumming hishands against his dusty jeans.As the blush of sunset gives way to night in the desert, coyotes, cicadas, and barn owls emerge, each calling out to the moon. Watching from their porch, the family joins the song. One by one, each relative offers their drums, flute, maracas, strings, and voices. They sing with the insects, birds, snakes and toads; and they sing with their ancestors, an audience glittering in the stars overhead. With each strum of passed-down instruments, memories renew, and those gone are alive and near again.Desert Song hums and chimes with all the music a front porch and the desert beyond can hold. Pura Belpré Honor author Laekan Zea Kemp&’s masterfully stirring text dances through Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez&’s enchanting and dynamic artwork. Readers will be left with the soothing sense that when creativity flourishes, the past is never out of reach, and the bonds that matter never break.Simultaneously published in Spanish as Canción del desierto.
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Anatomy of a Classic
by Ginny Weissman Coyne Steven SandersIn the history of television, there are very few shows that can truly be called "classics." The Dick Van Dyke Show is one of those few--and for the first time, authors Weissman and Sanders have succeed in capturing the unique flavor of this very appealing, warm comedy that went straight to the heart of the American public. An affectionate and nostalgic portrait of a show more than twenty years old that is still in reruns, The Dick Van Dyke Show tells the inside story of the situational comedy whose phenomenal success was a surprise even to its creators.Tracing its evolution from the pilot, Head of the Family starring Carl Reiner, through the ordeal of finding the right actor to play the clumsy but talented TV writer Rob Petrie, gathering the supporting cast that included Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, whose presence added a sharp-edged humor to the series, to the discovery of the largely unknown Mary Tyler Moore to play the Capri pants-clad Laura Petrie, The Dick Van Dyke Show plots the day-to-day course of getting and keeping the show on the air. Written with the complete cooperation of every member of the cast, this book takes us through the weekly process of consistently fine writing, rehearsing, improvising, and polishing the show in which the entire company participated. From start to finish, the cast was a tight group whose personal warmth, vitality, and camaraderie created a unique chemistry that shone through every episode.Containing over 100 photos, synopses of all 158 episodes and the complete script of one of them, lists of all the awards garnered by the show and its cast during its five-year run, and an update on where everyone is today, The Dick Van Dyke Show is a loving and carefully researched tribute to one of the most beloved comedy series of all time.
Canción del desierto
by Laekan Zea KempUna familia disfruta de la música nocturna del desierto tejano en esta historia de tradición y recuerdo de Laekan Zea Kemp, ganadora de una Mención de Honor Pura Belpré.Todo empieza con un suave golpeteo,cuando el tío Eduardo tamborilea con las manossobre sus polvorientos pantalones. Cuando el rubor del atardecer da paso a la noche en el desierto, emergen coyotes, cigarras y lechuzas, cada uno de ellos llamando a la luna. Observando desde su porche, la familia participa en la canción. Uno por uno, cada familiar ofrece sus tambores, flauta, maracas, cuerdas y voces. Cantan con los insectos, pájaros, serpientes y sapos; y cantan con sus antepasados, una audiencia que brilla entre las estrellas. Con cada rasgueo de instrumentos heredados, los recuerdos se renuevan y los familiares que han fallecido están vivos y cercanos de nuevo. Canción del desierto tararea y suena con toda la música que un porche y el desierto más allá de él pueden contener. El conmovedor texto de Laekan Zea Kemp, ganadora de una Mención de Honor Pura Belpré, baila a través de las encantadoras ilustraciones de Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernández. Los lectores se quedarán con la reconfortante sensación de que cuando la creatividad florece, el pasado nunca está fuera de su alcance y los vínculos importantes nunca se rompen.
Best Story Wins: Storytelling for Business Success (Economist Books)
by Mark EdwardsAn inspiring, practical, and timely new guide on how to harness the power of storytelling in our communications at work. Whether you're standing up in front of a crowd at a conference or chatting with a colleague in an elevator, storytelling is the most effective way to get your point across. It works in ninety-second Superbowl television spots, it works in ten-second social media formats, and it works in that email you have to fire off in five seconds flat. Why? The short answer is that people don't make decisions based on logic. They make decisions based on emotions. To persuade, influence, and inspire, you need to make an emotional connection. And storytelling is the best way of doing that. Journalist-turned-business coach Mark Edwards has developed his own methodology for telling compelling stories at work. Best Story Wins shows how storytelling will make better communicators of us all.
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years
by Edward Gross Mark A. AltmanThis is the true story behind the making of a television legend. There have been many books written about Star Trek, but never with the unprecedented access, insight and candor of authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Having covered the franchise for over three decades, they’ve assembled the ultimate guide to a television classic. The Fifty-Year Mission: Volume Two is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek, told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words—sharing the inside scoop they’ve never told before—unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek and chronicling the trials, tribulations—and tribbles—that have remained deeply buried secrets... until now. The Fifty-Year Mission: Volume Two includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast, who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its spin-offs: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, as well J.J. Abrams’ reimagined film series.
Considering Doris Day: A Biography
by Tom SantopietroThe biggest female box office attraction in Hollywood history, Doris Day remains unequalled as the only entertainer who has ever triumphed in movies, radio, recordings, and a multi-year weekly television series. America's favorite girl next door may have projected a wholesome image that led Oscar Levant to quip "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin," but in Considering Doris Day Tom Santopietro reveals Day's underappreciated and effortless acting and singing range that ran the gamut from musicals to comedy to drama and made Day nothing short of a worldwide icon. Covering the early Warner Brothers years through Day's triumphs working with artists as varied as Alfred Hitchcock and Bob Fosse, Santopietro's smart and funny book deconstructs the myth of Day as America's perennial virgin, and reveals why her work continues to resonate today, both onscreen as pioneering independent career woman role model, and off, as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor. Praised by James Cagney as "my idea of a great actor" and by James Garner as "the Fred Astaire of comedy," Doris Day became not just America's favorite girl, but the number one film star in the world. Yet after two weekly television series, including a triumphant five year run on CBS, she turned her back on show business forever. Examining why Day's worldwide success in movies overshadowed the brilliant series of concept recordings she made for Columbia Records in the '50s and '60s, Tom Santopietro uncovers the unexpected facets of Day's surprisingly sexy acting and singing style that led no less an observer than John Updike to state "She just glowed for me." Placing Day's work within the social context of America in the second half of the twentieth century, Considering Doris Day is the first book that grants Doris Day her rightful place as a singular American artist.
Which Way to Mecca, Jack?: From Brooklyn To Beirut: The Adventures Of An American Sheik
by William Peter BlattyBefore William Peter Blatty was the New York Times bestselling author of The Exorcist, he penned a series of comic articles for The Saturday Evening Post about his experiences in the Middle East. Which Way to Mecca, Jack?: From Brooklyn to Beirut: The Adventures of an American Sheik is his hilarious, semi-autobiographical story, based on the Post articles, originally inspired by his two-year stint in Lebanon working for the United States Information Agency.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley
by Charles L. Ponce de LeonElvis Presley was celebrity's perfect storm. His sole but substantial contribution was talent, a fact Charles L. Ponce de Leon is careful to demonstrate throughout his wonderfully contextual Fortunate Son. Even as the moments of lucidity necessary to exercise that talent grew rarer and rarer, Elvis proved his musical gifts right up to the end of his life. Beyond that, however, he was fortune's child. Fortunate Son succinctly traces out the larger shifts that repeatedly redefined the cultural landscape during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, using Elvis's life to present a brief history of American popular culture during these tumultuous decades.