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Montgomery Clift: A Biography (Limelight Ser.)
by Patricia Bosworth&“The definitive work on the gifted, haunted actor&” (Los Angeles Times) and &“the best film star biography in years&” (Newsweek). From the moment he leapt to stardom with the films Red River and A Place in the Sun, Montgomery Clift was acclaimed by critics and loved by fans. Elegant, moody, and strikingly handsome, he became one of the most definitive actors of the 1950s, the first of Hollywood&’s &“loner heroes,&” a group that includes Marlon Brando and James Dean. In this affecting biography, Patricia Bosworth explores the complex inner life and desires of the renowned actor. She traces a poignant trajectory: Clift&’s childhood was dominated by a controlling, class-obsessed mother who never left him alone. He developed passionate friendships with Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor in spite of his closeted homosexuality. Then his face was destroyed after a traumatic car crash outside Taylor&’s house. He continued to make films, but the loss of his beauty and subsequent addictions finally brought the curtain down on his career. Stunning and heartrending, Montgomery Clift is a remarkable tribute to one of Hollywood&’s most gifted—and tormented—actors.
Month And A Day: A Detention Diary
by William Boyd Ken Saro-WiwaThe moving last memoir of the outspoken critic of the Nigerian regime and international oil companies he held responsible for the destruction of his homeland-who lost his life in the campaign for the basic rights fo the Ogoni people of Nigeria.
Monticello (Cornerstones of Freedom)
by Norman RichardsA biography of the farmer, architect, statesman, President, inventor, and educator whose inventiveness was exemplified by Monticello.
Monty Python Speaks!
by David MorganWhen the innovative comedy group Monty Python embarked on their unique partnership, combining intelligence with silliness in a stream-of-consciousness display of nonsense, satire, sex and violence, they made a mark on popular culture which is still being felt today. Now, on their 30th anniversary, the five surviving Pythons -- along with some chief co-conspirators including the BBC's Barry Took and Ian MacNaughton, the late Graham Chapman's companion David Sherlock, and the legendary Douglas Adams -- remember what it was like to build a comedic collaboration for the ages. Monty Python was a state of mind -- a way of looking at the world as a place where walking like a contortionist is not only considered normal but is rewarded with government funding, where people speak in anagrams or operate a cheese-less cheeseshop, where highwaymen redistribute wealth in floral currencies and knights hop around on imaginary steeds. Here, in their own words -- and with rare backstage photographs never before published -- is a look into that rare collective mind: the story of the Python's meeting, their collaboration, their clashes, their struggles to maintain artistic control over their work, and their efforts to expand themselves creatively -- from television to films, books, recordings and stage shows. Here are the artists who made their personal mark on humor, engendered amazing passion from their fans worldwide, and built a lasting monument to spam (the luncheon meat, not the e-mail). In short, it's . . .
Monty Python Speaks: The Complete Oral History
by David MorganWith a Foreword by John Oliver, host of Last Week TonightIn celebration of the 50th anniversary of its BBC debut, a revised and updated edition of the complete oral history of Monty Python—an insightful, in-depth portrait of the brilliant and hysterically funny show that transformed modern comedy.Broadcast by the BBC between 1969 and 1974, Monty Python’s Flying Circus introduced something completely different: a new brand of surrealistic, stream-of-consciousness comedy that pushed the traditional boundaries of format, style, and content. Blending brilliant satire with slapstick silliness, The Pythons—Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin—spoke to a generation eager to break free of the conventional. Making their way across the Atlantic and the world, the Pythons’ zany approach to comedy would have a monumental influence on modern popular culture, paving the way for farcical entertainment from Saturday Night Live to The Simpsons to Austin Powers.In Monty Python Speaks, David Morgan has collected interviews with Monty Python’s founding members, actors, producers, and other collaborators to produce a no-holds-barred look at the Pythons’ legendary sketches and films, including Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Spamalot), and The Meaning of Life. Featuring four new chapters that focus on the group’s oeuvre since the first edition’s publication twenty years ago, as well as a new foreword and updated resources, Monty Python Speaks offers a fascinating peek behind the scenes of the Pythons’ creative process—including the friendships and feuds—that catapulted a comedy revolution.
Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian, a Memoir
by Kim Howard Johnson"One of the finest and most accurate records of the making of the film that I have ever read. I just wished I could remember what actually went on then."--Terry Jones"If anyone can remember more about making the Life of Brian than me, it's Kim ‘Howard' Johnson. He came, he saw, he got into costume. While the rest of us were fighting to upstage each other, Howard had a notebook hidden in his toga."--Michael Palin"Since I've forgotten everything, it will be great to read what was actually going on in Tunisia. Just as long as I'm the most quoted, the most vital to the shooting, and the most interesting. You don't have to mention my stunning good looks if you don't want to."--Terry Gilliam"Of all the books that I am planning to read in my dotage, there is none I am more looking forward to than Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday. . . . Not only does ‘Howard' Johnson know more about Python than anyone outside of the IRS, he was in Tunisia for most of the filming of Life of Brian, and is the only person who captured every thoughtless remark, heated exchange, embarrassing detail, petty insult, and spiteful act of indifference."--John Cleese"Kim ‘Howard' Johnson was invented by Graham Chapman during an idle moment on the set of The Life of Brian. ‘Let's invent a person,' he said. ‘An American fan from the Midwest,' chimed in Michael Palin, ‘who keeps a daily diary of Python filming. And then doesn't publish it for years and years.' How we laughed, and each day we'd make up stuff this ‘person' would write about us."--Eric Idle In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus---Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic, Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, Biggus Dickus's double, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends. He also kept a detailed journal of what he saw and heard, on set and off, throughout those six weeks. The result is a unique eyewitness account that reveals the Pythons at work and at play in a way that nothing else written about them could do. Now, for the first time ever, the inside story of the making of the film is revealed through the fly-on-the-castle-wall perspective. Even the most diehard fans will get a fresh take on the comedy greats through some never-before-revealed nuggets of Python brilliance: what John Cleese offered to exchange for suntan lotion; Terry Jones directing in drag; Michael Palin's secret to playing revolutionaries and peasants; Graham Chapman gets naked; Terry Gilliam gets filthy; Eric Idle haggles; the secret of the Thespo-Squat; Mrs. Pilate; talk of George Harrison; the cake-flinging that jeopardized the production; badminton, impromptu cricket, and erotic frescoes; and the first-ever presentation of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Here, uncensored, are the legendary Pythons in their prime. It was a period of comedy history that will never be duplicated, and Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday captures the wit, the genius, and the sheer silliness of the six men that comprised Python.
Monty and Rommel: Parallel Lives
by Peter Caddick-Adams&“An accessible, well-honed study of two fascinating characters&” who famously fought each other in numerous battles during WWII, from Egypt to D-Day (Kirkus). Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel faced one another in a series of extraordinary battles that established each man as one of the greatest generals in history. Born four years apart, their lives were remarkably similar. Each came from provincial roots, nearly died in WWI, yet emerged from that great conflict with glowing records. Through their many duels, including their legendary conflicts in North Africa and later at the Normandy D-Day invasion, Peter Caddick-Adams tracks and compares their military talents and personalities. Monty and Rommel explores how each general was raised to power by their war leaders, Churchill and Hitler, and how the innovative military strategy and thought of both permeate down to today's armies.
Monty and the Canadian Army
by John A. EnglishGeneral Bernard Law Montgomery, affectionately known as "Monty," exerted an influence on the Canadian Army more lasting than that of any other Second World War commander. In 1942 he assumed responsibility for the exercise and training of Canadian formations in England, and by the end of the war Canada’s field army was second to none in the practical exercise of combined arms. In Monty and the Canadian Army, John A. English analyses the way Montgomery’s operational influence continued to permeate the Canadian Army. For years, the Canadian Army remained a highly professional force largely because it was commanded at almost every lower level by "Monty men" steeped in the Montgomery method. The era of the Canadian Army headed by such men ceased with the integration and unification of Canada’s armed forces in 1964. The embrace of Montgomery by Canadian soldiers stands in marked contrast to largely negative perceptions held by Americans. Monty and the Canadian Army aims to correct such perceptions, which are mostly superficial and more often than not wrong, and addresses the anomaly of how this gifted general, one of the greatest field commanders of the Second World War, managed to win over other North American troops.
Monty's Highlanders: 51st Highland Division in the Second World War
by Patrick DelaforceThe 51st Highland Division was the most famous infantry division that fought with the British Army in WW2. It was the only infantry division in the armies of the British Empire that accompanied Monty from during Alamein to BerlinAfter the 1940 disaster at St Valry when many were killed or captured, the re-formed 51st were a superlative division, brilliantly inspired and led. The Highway Decorators (after their famous HD cypher) fought with consummate success through North Africa and Tunisia and from Normandy into the heart of Germany. Blooded at Alamein where they suffered over 2000 casualties they pursued the Afrika Korps via Tripoli and Tunis fighting fierce battles along the way. They lost 1,500 men helping to liberate Sicily. Back to the UK for the second front, the Highlanders battled their way through Normandy bocage, the break-out to the Seine, triumphal re-occupation of St Valry, and were the first troops to cross the Rhine, fighting on to Bremen and Bremerhaven. In the eleven months fighting in NW Europe in 1944 and 1945 the Highlanders suffered more than 9000 casualties.
Monty's Manor: Colin Montgomerie and the Ryder Cup
by Iain Carter'I am the Ryder Cup, I suppose' Colin MontgomerieFor twenty years Colin Montgomerie has been Europe's go-to guy in the Ryder Cup. He has been the catalyst, the leader, the closer. The man they call on to take down America's big guns, the man they turn to when a win is desperately needed to steady the nerves. Now in the twilight of his career he has one last role to play: In 2010 he is Captain of Team Europe in their quest to regain their trophy. Montgomerie's record in golf's showpiece tournament is unparalleled. Since 1991 he has performed in eight Ryder Cups, winning five of them and has never, ever been beaten in a singles match. He is the most talked about European golfer of his generation but, agonisingly he has never managed to win one of golf's major championships.Monty's Manor gets right inside Colin Montgomerie's history with the Ryder Cup from his debut in 1991 right up to and including the drama and excitement of this years contest in Wales. Iain Carter has had unprecedented access to key players on both sides of the pond, caddies, coaches, friends, foes, rivals and reporters. Through their eyes we look back on two decades of successes and near misses. It is through them that we get to see the real 'Monty'.
Monty's Turn: A story of sparkling ambition
by Monty PanesarIt's hard to believe MONTY PANESAR only arrived on the international cricketing scene in March 2006. His electric performances against India and in the Ashes series saw him catapulted to hero status in a matter of months, and widely rated as England's best spin bowler for 30 years. In MONTY'S TURN, Panesar takes a look at his extraordinary rise to stardom. Taught spin bowling by a friend of his father, Hitu Naik, his first experience of league cricket was with the Luton Town and Indians CC. His raw talent and utter dedication to his craft as a bowler soon saw him signed to Northamptonshire before he had completed his degree at Loughborough. Since his call-up to the England senior squad, Panesar's life has been a whirlwind of headlines and hero worship. The national outcry that met his exclusion from the first two Ashes Tests placed the weight of a despondent England's expectations on his comparatively inexperienced shoulders, but Panesar responded to the pressure with a scorching performance. Famously the first Sikh to represent a nation other than India in Test cricket, Monty credits his religion for his discipline in the nets - and it is this dedication along with his scintillating talent and unique celebration style that have made him a national treasure. He has declared his ambition to be the best, and it would seem that now it truly is time for MONTY'S TURN.
Monty: His Part in My Victory (Spike Milligan War Memoirs)
by Spike MilliganVOLUME THREE OF SPIKE MILLIGAN'S LEGENDARY MEMOIRS IS A HILARIOUS, SUBVERSIVE FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF WW2'The most irreverent, hilarious book about the war that I have ever read' Sunday Express 'Brilliant verbal pyrotechnics, throwaway lines and marvelous anecdotes' Daily Mail ______________ 'It's all over, Von Arnheim has surrendered and he's very angry.' 'This could mean war . . .' The third volume of Spike Milligan's laugh-a-line account of life as a gunner in World War Two resumes on the eve of victory in North Africa. Now Britain's looniest war hero must combat some of the direst threats a soldier has ever faced - boredom ('Christ, I just thought of Catford'), moving camp ('It's a sort of Brighton with camels'), moving camp again ('We're already somewhere else'), a visit to Carthage ('It's terrible, it's like Catford') and a perilous encounter with the gloriously endowed Mademoiselle Villion ('"Help! massage," I said weakly').Against the odds, they survive and are sent at last to Italy to be killed...______________ 'That absolutely glorious way of looking at things differently. A great man' Stephen Fry 'The Godfather of Alternative Comedy' Eddie Izzard 'Manifestly a genius, a comic surrealist genius and had no equal' Terry Wogan 'A totally original comedy writer' Michael Palin 'Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense' Guardian
Monty: The Autobiography
by Colin MontgomerieThe autobiography of Colin Montgomerie, the triumphant Ryder Cup captain and one of Britain's most successful golfers.Colin Montgomerie is a golfing legend. Ranked Europe's No. 1 for an unparalleled seven years in a row, he is equally renowned as a player of great passion. The son of a keen Scottish golfing family, Colin was already showing his prodigious talent as a young boy. After completing his education in America, where he benefited from a golf scholarship, Colin turned professional in 1987, beginning a truly remarkable career.Even with more than 40 international tournament victories and eight European Order of Merit titles to his name, Monty is perhaps best known for his amazing contributions to the European Ryder Cup team, eight times as a player, winning five times and undefeated in singles, and most recently as a victorious European Ryder Cup captain, amid unforgettable scenes at Celtic Manor in October 2010.Montgomerie's autobiography is the story of both a fantastic talent and a complex personality, and of a golfer who remains determined to add to his already impressive achievements. It is a book about one of the greatest golfing characters in the world trying to achieve a personal and professional balance. And it is about a true hero of the Ryder Cup.
Monty: The Autobiography
by Colin MontgomerieThe autobiography of Colin Montgomerie, the triumphant Ryder Cup captain and one of Britain's most successful golfers. Colin Montgomerie is a golfing legend. Ranked Europe's No. 1 for an unparalleled seven years in a row, he is equally renowned as a player of great passion. The son of a keen Scottish golfing family, Colin was already showing his prodigious talent as a young boy. After completing his education in America, where he benefited from a golf scholarship, Colin turned professional in 1987, beginning a truly remarkable career. Even with more than 40 international tournament victories and eight European Order of Merit titles to his name, Monty is perhaps best known for his amazing contributions to the European Ryder Cup team, eight times as a player, winning five times and undefeated in singles, and most recently as a victorious European Ryder Cup captain, amid unforgettable scenes at Celtic Manor in October 2010. Montgomerie's autobiography is the story of both a fantastic talent and a complex personality, and of a golfer who remains determined to add to his already impressive achievements. It is a book about one of the greatest golfing characters in the world trying to achieve a personal and professional balance. And it is about a true hero of the Ryder Cup.
Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane (Music Culture)
by Franya J. BerkmanLong-awaited biography of an African American avant-garde composer Alice Coltrane was a composer, improviser, guru, and widow of John Coltrane. Over the course of her musical life, she synthesized a wide range of musical genres including gospel, rhythm-and-blues, bebop, free jazz, Indian devotional song, and Western art music. Her childhood experiences playing for African-American congregations in Detroit, the ecstatic and avant-garde improvisations she performed on the bandstand with her husband John Coltrane, and her religious pilgrimages to India reveal themselves on more than twenty albums of original music for the Impulse and Warner Brothers labels. In the late 1970s Alice Coltrane became a swami, directing an alternative spiritual community in Southern California. Exploring her transformation from Alice McLeod, Detroit church pianist and bebopper, to guru Swami Turiya Sangitananda, Monument Eternal illuminates her music and, in turn, reveals the exceptional fluidity of American religious practices in the second half of the twentieth century. Most of all, this book celebrates the hybrid music of an exceptional, boundary-crossing African-American artist.
Monument Maker: Daniel Chester French And The Lincoln Memorial
by Linda Booth SweeneyWhen Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, fifteen-year-old Dan French had no way to know that one day his tribute to the great president would transform a plot of Washington, DC marshland into America’s gathering place. He did not even know that a sculptor was something to be. He only knew that he liked making things with his hands. This is the story of how a farmboy became America’s foremost sculptor. After failing at academics, Dan was working the family farm when he idly carved a turnip into a frog and discovered what he was meant to do. Sweeney’s swift prose and Fields’s evocative illustrations capture the single-minded determination with which Dan taught himself to sculpt and launched his career with the famous Minuteman Statue in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. This is also the story of the Lincoln Memorial, French’s culminating masterpiece. Thanks to this lovingly created tribute to the towering leader of Dan’s youth, Abraham Lincoln lives on as the man of marble, his craggy face and careworn gaze reminding millions of seekers what America can be. Dan’s statue is no lifeless figure, but a powerful, vital touchstone of a nation’s ideals. Now Dan French has his tribute too, in this exquisite biography that brings history to life for young readers.
Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French
by Harold HolzerThe artist who created the statue for the Lincoln Memorial, John Harvard in Harvard Yard, and The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts, Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) is America's best-known sculptor of public monuments. Monument Man is the first comprehensive biography of this fascinating figure and his illustrious career. <p><p> Full of rich detail and beautiful archival photographs, Monument Man is a nuanced study of a preeminent artist whose evolution ran parallel to, and deeply influenced, the development of American sculpture, iconography, and historical memory. <p> Monument Man was specially commissioned by Chesterwood / National Trust for Historic Preservation. The release will coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Chesterwood, his country home and studio, as a public site and with a major renovation of the Lincoln Memorial. The book includes a comprehensive geographical guide to French's public work.
Monumental Dreams: The Life and Sculpture of Ann Norton
by Caroline SeebohmIn 1929, the Museum of Modern Art opened its doors, showing the astonishing paintings of Picasso, Matisse, and other avant garde artists. Young American artists quickly responded by experimenting with impressionism, cubism, and abstraction.In Monumental Dreams, author Caroline Seebohm tells the riveting story of how Ann Norton (1905–1982)—a child of the South who had eschewed her Alabama roots to become a sculptor in New York City—joined this new guard. She studied with John Hovannes and Jose de Creeft and was studio assistant to Alexander Archipenko. Her work was well received, and by age 35, she had already participated in group shows at MOMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art.Despite her burgeoning career, Norton found New York a difficult place to live. In search of paying work, she moved to Florida, where she became a teacher at the Norton Gallery and School of Art, founded by retired Acme Steel president Ralph Hubbard Norton. The two built a relationship based on love as well as common aesthetic values, and after his death, she built her finest and lasting work. Today, her monolithic sculptures—in the spirit of Stonehenge, Henry Moore, and Buddhist temple art—can be admired in the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.
Moody Still Lives: Word Pictures of D.L. Moody
by Arthur Percy FittThis book by Moody&’s son-in-law and former secretary is not, strictly speaking, a life story of the great evangelist. It is rather a loving estimate of his work and Spirit-filled life by one who was closely associated with him during his most fruitful years. The author endeavors to explain how &“starting from nothing, Mr. Moody became the most influential spiritual figure America has yet produced.&” He portrays Moody the man . . . in his daily contact with family and friends, as well as in his public appearances. Says Mr. Fitt, in commenting on the failure of Mr. Moody&’s popularity to exalt the man, &“He so magnified the grace and power of God that he attracted no attention to himself.&”You will get an unforgettable picture of Moody in action. The book reveals something of the secret of Moody&’s power, in order that, as the author expresses it, &“a multitude of other lives may be quickened.&”
Moody Still Lives: Word Pictures of D.L. Moody
by Arthur Percy FittThis book by Moody&’s son-in-law and former secretary is not, strictly speaking, a life story of the great evangelist. It is rather a loving estimate of his work and Spirit-filled life by one who was closely associated with him during his most fruitful years. The author endeavors to explain how &“starting from nothing, Mr. Moody became the most influential spiritual figure America has yet produced.&” He portrays Moody the man . . . in his daily contact with family and friends, as well as in his public appearances. Says Mr. Fitt, in commenting on the failure of Mr. Moody&’s popularity to exalt the man, &“He so magnified the grace and power of God that he attracted no attention to himself.&”You will get an unforgettable picture of Moody in action. The book reveals something of the secret of Moody&’s power, in order that, as the author expresses it, &“a multitude of other lives may be quickened.&”
Mookie
by Mookie WilsonThey said it was the #147;Curse of the Bambino. ” They said #147;the bad guys won. ” Now one of baseball’s all-time good guys, New York Mets legend Mookie Wilson, tells his side of the story#151;from the ground ball through Bill Buckner’s legs that capped the miraculous 1986 World Series Game Six rally against the Boston Red Sox to the rise and fall of a team that boasted such outsize personalities as Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Lenny Dykstra, and Davey Johnson. Growing up in rural South Carolina in the 1960s, Mookie took to heart the lessons of his father, a diligent sharecropper who believed in the abiding power of faith#151;and taught his son the game that would change his life. When Mookie landed in Shea Stadium in 1980, the Mets were a perennial cellar-dweller overshadowed by the crosstown Yankees. But inspired by Mookie’s legendary hustle, they would soon become the toast of New York. And even when their off-field antics#151;made famous by a contingency of the team called #147;the Scum Bunch”#151;eclipsed their on-field successes, Mookie stayed above the fray. In 1986, the Mets were a juggernaut, winning 108 games during the regular season and edging the Houston Astros for the National League pennant following a grueling 16-inning Game Six classic. In the World Series against Boston, in an epic at-bat that led to the Buckner error, Mookie would ignite a fire under the Mets, helping to force a Game Seven. New York would win to become World Champions. In an era when role models in sports were hard to come by, some tarnished by their own hubris and greed, Mookie Wilson remained the exception: a man of humility and honor when it mattered the most. WITH A FOREWARD BY KEITH HERNANDEZ
Moon River and Me
by Andy WilliamsDuring a career spanning eight decades, Andy Williams has sold over 100 million albums, hosted a hugely successful TV show andworked with a roll-call of showbusiness legends. Here he tells his story.
Moon in Full: A Modern-Day Coming-of-Age Story
by Marpheen ChannMoon in Full, a contemporary coming-of-age story, shines light on one young man’s search for truth and compassion in a complicated era as it unwinds the deep-seated challenges we all face finding our authentic voice and true identities. Author Marpheen Chann’s heart-warming journey weaves through housing projects and foster homes; into houses of worship and across college campuses; and playing out in working-class Maine where he struggles to find his place. Adopted into in a majority white community, Chann must reconcile his fears and secret longings as a young gay man with the devoutly religious beliefs of his new family. Chann, a second-generation Asian American, recounts what he has learned, what he has lost, and what he has found during his evolution from a hungry refugee’s son to religious youth to advocate for acceptance and equality.
Moondog
by Philip Glass Robert Scotto<P>The basis of a full-length documentary."Moondog is one of America's great originals."-Alan Rich, New York Magazine <P>Here is a revised edition of a book that celebrates one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century: a blind and homeless man who became the most famous eccentric in New York and who, with enormous diligence, rose to prominence both in major label pop music recordings in addition to symphonic concerts of his compositions. <P>This edition of Moondog will soon be seen a as a feature documentary titled The Viking of 6th Avenue directed by Holly Elson and produced by Hard Working Movies.Born Louis Thomas Hardin in 1916, Moondog first made an impression in the late 1940s when he became a mascot of The New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. His unique, melodic compositions were released on the Prestige jazz label. In the late 1960s the Viking-garbed Moondog was a pop music sensation on Columbia Records. <P>Moondog's compositional style influenced his former roommate Philip Glass, whose preface appears in the book. Moondog's work transcends labels and redefines the distinction between popular and high culture. <P>A wide-ranging compilation of Moondog recordings, which includes four Madrigals played by Philip Glass, Steven Reich, Jon Gibson, and Moondog himself, are offered as free downloads for every purchaser of this biography.
Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth
by Andrew SmithThe Apollo Moon landings have been called the last optimistic act of the twentieth century. Twelve astronauts made this greatest of all journeys, and all were indelibly marked by it. In "Moondust", journalist Andrew Smith reveals the stories of the nine still living men caught between the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Earth's collective dreaming: Here, we relive the flashbulbs, the first shocking glimpse of Earth from space, the sense of euphoria and awe. This was the first global media event, after all, and the astronauts were its superstars. They had been schooled by NASA for every eventuality in deep space but were completely unprepared for fame. On their return, they struggled to balance notoriety with a spaceman's frugal paycheck. These perfect specimens of mind and body were, ultimately, only human beings thrust into an impossibly intense spotlight. Possibilities bloomed, and marriages crumbled under the strain. And it wasn't just the astronauts who'd changed; the world was changing, too. As the Apollo program wound down, the wild and happy experimentation's of the sixties gave way to the cynicism and self-doubt of the seventies, and the Moon-walkers faced what was, in some ways, their greatest challenge: how to find meaning in life when the biggest adventure you could possibly have was a memory. Some traded on past glories; others tried to move on. Some found God; some sought oblivion; some reinvented themselves and discovered a measure of happiness in a completely unexpected place. Andrew Smith sees them through the eyes of the boy who flung down his bike on a summer evening to hear Neil Armstrong utter his fateful words -- and through the eyes of a grown man balancing myth against reality and finding the truth infinitely richer and more moving.